Politics
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John Menadue. Capitalism, inequality and taxation.
In his challenging series last week on ‘Is capitalism redeemable’ Ian McAuley drew attention to how growing inequality is the cause not only of serious social concerns, but it is also presenting us with some quite serious economic problems. There is not much doubt that in the US, the growing tax concessions for the wealthy Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Murdoch and Abbott vs ABC.
This is a repost of a blog which I initially posted on December 19 last year. Tony Abbott has a debt to repay to Rupert Murdoch for the extremely biased support he received in the last election. With the help of Senator Cory Bernadi, Tony Abbott is now following the Murdoch Media line in attacking Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Undiplomatic, politically partisan – and wrong!
Julie Bishop has decided to take on the President of the United States over his comments to an audience at the University of Queensland on the state of the Great Barrier Reef. It shows immaturity to jump in so quickly to defend what I think is the indefensible by attacking others without any real basis. Continue reading »
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Is capitalism redeemable? Part 9: Restoring a moral voice
It is easy to allocate blame for our apparent entrapment in bad public policy. Tony Abbott’s truculence, disregard for reason, inflexibility and broken promises all come to mind. As does the blatant partisan stance of the Murdoch media. Those who look for more general causes draw attention to dysfunctional party structures, an adversarial parliamentary system Continue reading »
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Ian McAuley. Is capitalism redeemable? Part 8: Inequality’s downward economic spiral
Let’s start with what looks like a self-evident proposition. “Countries with right-wing or neoliberal governments spend less on social security than countries with more left-inclined governments.” It’s a proposition university lecturers put to students of public economics, and the smarter students usually recognize that there’s a trick in it. Harvard economists Dani Rodrik and Alberto Continue reading »
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Ian McAuley. Is capitalism redeemable? Part 7: Inequality – a shameful waste
“Australia’s program to increase world growth seems to be to cut social security benefits from the poor.” When Geraldine Doogue asked Malcolm Fraser to comment on Abbott’s G20 agenda, that was his summary of the present Government’s economic policy Unfortunately, ministers such as Hockey and Cormann may not understand the sarcasm in his comment, because Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Julie Bishop – substance and style
According to opinion polls, Julie Bishop’s standing has climbed. In Harper’s Bazaar she has been described as the Woman of the Year. It is suggested that she could be a leadership contender… But how much substance and how much achievement has there really been. How has Australia’s foreign policy interests been advanced? Before looking at Continue reading »
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Michael Kelly and Michael Sainsbury on The Pope and the President.
When the Chinese government confirmed Xi Jingpin as the country’s president in March 2013, among the congratulatory letters received in Beijing was one from the newly elected Pope Francis. It was a nice touch from the leader of one “regime” to another, since the two have been at odds for decades over religious freedom. Over Continue reading »
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Renewable energy investment.
A key feature of the President Obama/President Xi communique is their commitment to substantially reduce carbon pollution. There was little mention of an emissions trading scheme or putting a price on carbon. The emphasis was on developing renewable energy as an alternative source of energy to fossil fuels. Emphasis was given to development of solar, Continue reading »
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Is capitalism redeemable? Part 6: Inequality – it ain’t fair
We get a laugh out of the Monty Python sketch of four Yorkshiremen competing with one another to tell stories of the hardship they endured when they were children, 30 years earlier – “you think you had it tough …”. Without going into Pythonesque exaggeration, four older Australians could easily recount similar stories. If they Continue reading »
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Today’s World – Democracy, capitalism and Islam.
Mauricio García Villegas, El Espectador, Colombia, http://www.elespectador.com/opinion/elmundo-actual-columna-526496 The anniversary of two events that have marked out the course of our world has just been commemorated. The first is the taking of the United States embassy in Teheran on 4 November 1979. Iran at the time was governed by the Shah, a monarch who wanted to Continue reading »
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Tony Abbott and the G20
In the media in the past few days we have been overwhelmed by stories and photo opportunities from the G20 in Brisbane. It will take some time to sort out fact from spin. I have set out below some comments and opinions from observers. It provides a useful but only partial account by observers of the Continue reading »
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Steve FitzGerald on Gough Whitlam, Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou
Of the many things I admired and loved about Gough, one of the most delicious, next to our shared liking for food, was that he was the best person I’ve ever been privileged to brief. It wasn’t just that he soaked it up like blotting paper and asked for more and never forgot. It was Continue reading »
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Bruce Duncan. Pope runs moral template over G20.
Pope France outlined a sharp moral template for world leaders at the G20 meeting in Brisbane. In a letter on 6 November to the current chair of the G20, Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the Pope warned that “many lives are at stake”, including from “severe malnutrition”, as he highlighted the values and policy priorities needed Continue reading »
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Ian McAuley. Is capitalism redeemable? Part 5: When finance goes its own way
One of the world’s most useful social institutions is money, but it’s hard to think of it in its social context. To understand the social value of money, think of a world without money, or a country where, through recklessness the currency has been debased, as happened in the hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic in Continue reading »
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John Tulloh. Innocents abroad at the ABC.
INNOCENTS ABROAD AT THE ABC LOOK INWARDS AS AUSTRALIA LOOKS OUTWARDS ‘Now we cross to an ABC correspondent in Beijing for the latest on the Japanese crisis…’ The Guardian the other day carried a report that the ABC planned to emasculate its foreign news presence as part of its budget cuts. While the ABC has Continue reading »
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The G20 economies.
The link to The Conversation below, provides a useful summary of the G20 and its member economies, e.g. The G20 economies represent 65% of the world’s population, 79% of world trade, 84% of the world economy and 77% of world carbon emissions. Australia rates number 3 in GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity. Continue reading »
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Ian McAuley. Is capitalism redeemable? Part 4: Moral conflicts
Luxembourg (more properly the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg) is one of Europe’s smallest sovereign nations, both in population (about the same as Tasmania’s) and area (about one thirtieth of Tasmania’s). Many Australians might have driven right through it, not realizing that in a half hour or so they had crossed a whole nation. If corporate Continue reading »
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Ian McAuley. Is capitalism redeemable? Part 3: Why tax avoidance is bad for business
One article of faith in the corporate sector is that low taxes are good for the economy – not only low corporate taxes but also low taxes in general. Echoing this sentiment, Treasurer Hockey and other spokespeople for the Government repeatedly promise to cut taxes. Even suggestions that the GST should be increased are set Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. The G20 Agenda and Pope Francis
The leaders of the world’s 19 largest economies (together with the EU) are meeting in Brisbane this weekend at the annual G20 meeting. Australia is the host and Prime Minister Tony Abbott is the president this year. The host country gets to put its stamp on the agenda. Last year at St Petersburg, the G20 Continue reading »
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Global Pulse Magazine
You can now subscribe to Global Pulse Magazine. Global Pulse Magazine which you can view at www.globalpulsemagazine.com was launched on September 29 and for the last month has been free to visit. We invite you to subscribe at and receive daily newsletter. Just go to the homepage of www.globalpulsemagazine.com and at the top right hand Continue reading »
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Peter Christoff. US-China climate deal: at last, a real game-changer.
The new US-China climate deal is a game-changer. The United States, the world’s biggest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, has pledged to cut emissions by 26-28% by 2025 relative to 2005 levels, while China, the current biggest emitter, has promised to peak its emissions by no later than 2030. The agreement between the world’s two Continue reading »
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Ian McAuley. Is capitalism redeemable? Part 2: Karl Marx’s and Henry Ford’s shared understanding
Karl Marx was the intellectual father of communism, grandson of a rabbi. Henry Ford was the quintessential American industrialist, anti-union and anti-Semitic. They shared one insight, however. They both knew that capitalism could destroy its own markets. A plentiful supply of workers would keep wages low, to the benefit of industrialists. But those same industrialists Continue reading »
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Ian McAuley. Is capitalism redeemable? Part 1: From markets to market societies
Republican victories in the US midterm elections have given conservatives a psychological boost, just days before the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. (For the record, the 1989 collapse of European communism was a victory for those Germans, Hungarians and others who risked all to stand up against tyranny, but it has Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan. A tribute to the cautious, quirky, humorous, honourable Wayne Goss
Those of us brought up in Queensland owe a lot to Wayne Goss. I first met him when he was instrumental in setting up the Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) in Brisbane in 1974. He was the articled clerk. Roisin Hirschfeld was a young social worker at the ALS. They later married and their two children Continue reading »
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John Coleman. How things changed in 1972.
As a journalist-bureaucrat 42 years ago, for me nothing illustrated more the bewildering speed of Gough Whitlam’s rollercoaster reforms than the removal of the last vestiges of the White Australia policy. I was publications editor for the Australian Information Service in Canberra, then Australia’s apolitical, overseas information agency. Part of my job was to produce Continue reading »
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John Mant. Tribute to Gough Whitlam
It is difficult to make this speech – so much to say about this great man and his times. I observed him from a number of angles: Working with Tom Uren and Gough Whitlam on urban policy proposals before the elections. Assisting my friends Peter Wilenski and James Spigelman in their work on the administrative Continue reading »
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Walter Hamilton. Japan and China: agreeing to disagree
In diplomacy, sometimes a nod is as good as a wink. You can argue later over the question of who nodded first (if at all). The leaders of Japan and China are maneuvering towards their first face-to-face meeting after two years of chilly and occasionally belligerent relations. To enable the meeting to happen officials on Continue reading »
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Graham Freudenberg. Bjelke Petersen was an innocent.
What is the real meaning of the G20 security farce in Brisbane? It is a massive exercise in political intimidation. It is a demonstration of the power of government to prevent or limit the most basic democratic rights of free speech, protest and assembly. Perhaps the worst thing about it is that, in the Continue reading »
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Antony Whitlam. Tribute to Gough Whitlam
The Honourable (Edward) Gough Whitlam, AC QC State Memorial Service The Honourable Antony Whitlam QC Sydney Town Hall 5 November 2014 Auntie Millie Ingram gave a moving Welcome to Country. I also wish to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation on whose land this notable building stands. I pay respect to Gadigal elders – Continue reading »
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