Politics
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COVID-19 and Poverty
That health and illness are close associates of wealth and poverty is well known. This dictum applies to covid-19 both within and among nations. Continue reading »
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Dromo(Klepto)cracy: The New Security World Order
Our society is opting out of debate through the machinations of a neoconservative credo that purports reason. Under the guise of the spectacle of freedom and democracy, such dogma exploits public disorientation following massive collective shocks to achieve control, by imposing economic shock therapy to affect change. Continue reading »
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Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
What people in other forums are saying about public policy Continue reading »
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Lobbyland. Policy in a crisis: who makes the rules?
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, right? Australians are certainly living through extraordinary times. The Covid-19 crisis has put lives, jobs and businesses at stake, enormous government spending has been required, and the speed of the response mattered at least as much as the design of the policy. Continue reading »
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Lobbyland. The alcohol industry lobbies furiously in the pandemic.
Alcohol industry representatives have been furiously lobbying for concessions to the efforts by governments to restrict the movement of people – the primary tool in fighting the virus. Continue reading »
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US/China trade war blunted by WTO rules
Preventing trade wars is a key function of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rule-based system. But as the United States (U.S.) and China wage the largest trade war in history, the WTO finds itself on the sidelines unable to stop the fight. This is seen by many as further proof that the WTO has become Continue reading »
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We now need a ‘JobCreator’ rather then just ‘JobSaver’
My choice of four spending initiatives for next week’s Budget are: hiring credits; permanently boosting JobSeeker; funding for high quality aged care; and social housing. Continue reading »
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Social Housing: the social need and the economic opportunity
The unfairness of Joe Hockey’s first budget in 2014 presaged the end of his political career. If Josh Frydenberg fails to address the need and opportunity for action on social housing will it start his political decline? Continue reading »
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New Zealand National Party leader Judith Collins manages to smudge PM Ardern’s gloss.
With less than a month to go before the General Election on October 19 the latest polls in New Zealand show the Labour Government well ahead despite many commentators saying Prime Minister Ardern’s performance in the first TV election debate lacked lustre. Continue reading »
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LobbyLand. The scourge of powerful special interests and lobbyists.
A major reason for the loss of trust in governments and parliaments is the way powerful special interests with their lobbyists have come to dominate the public debate and skew decisions in their favour. The fossil fuel sector is the most obvious and recent example. Continue reading »
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Lobbyland. The gambling lobby and how to buy friends and influence governments
There is no shortage of post-political appointments to engage the talents of former politicians to lobby for the gambling industry. Continue reading »
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If crime is falling, why is imprisonment rising?
The Australian prison population has doubled since 2000 and recidivism is at 55%. Yet almost all categories of crime have fallen in the past decade. Why do we spend $3.6 billion a year (and rising) on a system across Australia that is clearly not serving us well or making us safer? There are alternatives available, Continue reading »
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Rafferty has taken charge of the ministerial decision making process.
While confusion over the supervision of quarantined returning travellers by private security firms in Victoria may have arisen from exceptional circumstances, a broader question concerning the unfettered exercise of Ministerial (Executive) power has come to the forefront of governing in this country.At stake, as seen, are due process and the liberty of the individual citizen. Continue reading »
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The bathtub is nearly full: Australia’s extraordinary energy plan
The Coalition government’s energy plan ensures the emissions tap will continue to flow. While economic recovery following the pandemic is an important objective, to ignore the consequences of persisting with fossil fuels is incomprehensible. Continue reading »
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A Bill to enable use of foreign troops or foreign police in Australian “emergencies”
A bill is before federal parliament to enable the ADF, Reserves and foreign military forces and police to be used in Australian emergencies. It gives them immunity from civil or criminal prosecution for actions arising from these emergency duties. Continue reading »
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Australia and VC Awards
Among the many memorial plaques in the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral is a small plaque and bust honouring Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse, VC & Bar, MC (9 November 1884 – 4 August 1917). Continue reading »
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LobbyLand
In Pearls and Irritations, we will be running a series on lobbyists and their threat to our democracy. Continue reading »
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LobbyLand. Fossil Fuel Lobbyists: Modus Operandi, Impact, Solutions
In Australia, denial mounts. The recent “Gas-Led Recovery” and “Technological Roadmap” announcements of the Morrison government confirm the continued influence of the fossil fuel industry and its lobbyists. Continue reading »
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Porter – the political law officer who will not protect the public interest
It is of the essence of the idea of the Law Officer that he is, at least in advising, detached and independent, and that the advice represents a statement of the law rather than of some clever way of getting around it. Continue reading »
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Chinese workers the worry, not spies
Indonesia’s foreign policy seems divorced from reality. It’s called bebas-aktif (free and active) and supposed to mean no siding with world powers. Continue reading »
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Islam in Australia survey results (Australasian Muslim Times Sep 19, 2020)
The results of the Islam in Australia survey are in and they counter many of the stereotypes and misinformation concerning Islam and Muslims in Australia. Continue reading »
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Christian Porter has shown himself unfit to be federal Attorney–General
By his response last week to the Federal Court’s finding that Immigration Minister Alan Tudge engaged in criminal conduct by detaining an asylum-seeker for five days in defiance of an order by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), Christian Porter has shown himself unfit to be federal Attorney–General. Continue reading »
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Angus Taylor’s energy roadmap: national interest second
At least the latest energy plan – the coalition’s 22nd, and counting – is not all about gas. Continue reading »
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Corporate Covid giveaways wide-open for mega-rorting
History would suggest that conservative politicians, of all folk, would be the ones who were cautious about uncontrolled public spending programs. But it sometimes seems that the apparent moral collapse and decline of social responsibility in Australian business has also affected politics. Continue reading »
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Cock-ups, conspiracies or system failures?
What we now call cock-ups, getting things wrong, being in the wrong place and so on, emerged from the despair and fatalism experienced by troops in World War I. As the pandemic reveals, the propensity for the folly of human action, for ‘cock-ups’, persists. Continue reading »
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The scary picture of a failed Australia-China trade relations ?
The mainstream newspapers in Australia do not shed much light about the real situation of the Cold trade war between Australia and China. If we look hard enough, we may find factual reporting about this subject in an English language published off-shore, in Hong Kong. Continue reading »
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Susan Ryan: a forgiving politician
It is difficult to exaggerate the significance of the movements, legislation and offices shaped or led by the late Susan Maree Ryan (Oct 10, 1942 – September 27, 2020). Continue reading »
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What is unforgivable about the Victorian shut down policies is that they are working
The indefatigable freedom fighters crusading to liberate the shut-down in Victoria are quite right. The restrictions are stultifying, draconian, totalitarian. They are intolerable in a democracy, an affront to Australia as we know it. Continue reading »
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The High Court must rule on State border controls before more businesses are bankrupted and family relations traumatised.
No government, whether Commonwealth or State, has primacy over movement across State borders. Primacy lies in the Federal Constitution which states in Section 92 that “trade, commerce, and intercourse among the States … shall be absolutely free”. A distribution of powers does not come into it. Continue reading »
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The Wrong Questions
The real issues of how the failure of the Victorian hotel quarantine program became the SOURCE of the State’s lethal second wave of Covid-19 infections have been lost. Continue reading »
