Politics
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. Finally, the beginning of the end.
Scott Morrison’s launch was, ironically, the last of the big set pieces. The remaining mad (and largely irrelevant) days will be scrabbling over a few marginal seats in which the vast majority of those who have not already voted will have already made up their minds. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL PASCOE. Hey PM, you’re either lying or ignorant about the RBA’s forecasts. (New Daily, 12.5.2019)
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is either desperately lying or ignorant about the Reserve Bank seriously downgrading Australia’s economic outlook – a downgrade that could easily wipe out the government’s “back in black” surplus claim. Continue reading »
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PETER SAINSBURY. How do the parties’ environmental policies compare?
If climate change is going to influence your vote this Saturday you may want to know how the three main political parties’ environment policies shape up. Here are three scorecards to help you decide who to favour with your vote. Continue reading »
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JAMES O’NEILL. There are “Nutters” and then there are “Nutters”
In interview given to Australia’s ABC network former Prime Minister Paul Keating referred to the Australian intelligence agencies as “nutters”. The comment was in the context of the advice that those intelligence agencies were giving the government on relations with China, Australia’s most important economic partner by a considerable margin. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. An ancient or modern Liberal.
This poster appeared in the Wentworth electorate yesterday. Very pertinent! John Menadue Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. Those who work for Murdoch know exactly what is expected of them.
It was in 1975 that the Murdoch bias finally pushed the dictatorial mogul’s journalists jacked up, and went on strike. Continue reading »
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ROD TIFFEN. These News Corp newspapers are first and foremost propaganda sheets.
It takes rare genius to provoke Scott Morrison and Andrew Bolt to express sympathy for Bill Shorten, but the Daily Telegraph managed it. Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. The China panic and John Fitzgerald.
In a contribution to Pearls and Irritations published on April 16 I took up a point made by Gareth Evans who argued in March that “in Australia a new form of Sinophobia is emerging.” He said this was one of the reasons Chinese-Australians are underrepresented in senior leadership. Continue reading »
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ROGER SCOTT. Queenslanders being different again?
David Solomon and others have correctly identified the coming election as a simple moral choice about the role of government. Queensland voters face the same challenge, but the perspective varies as widely as the character of the state. My wife and I are working in the trenches in the leafy electorate of Ryan. This ought Continue reading »
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J.A. DICK My Religion, Your Religion, Our God
Theological understandings change over time. My own theological understanding of world religions has been greatly influenced by the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions. It was issued on October 28, 1965, shortly after my arrival as a younger man and a theology student in at the University of Continue reading »
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PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 12 May 2019
A new petrochemical and plastics hub is being developed in the USA based on locally mined unconventional gas, while the carbon dioxide produced by Australia’s exports of coal and natural gas greatly exceed our domestic carbon dioxide emissions. In better news, authors of a recent scientific paper have looked at climate change and loss of Continue reading »
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MICHAEL SLEZAK. Climate change a bigger threat to Australia’s interests than terrorism, Lowy Institute poll suggests (ABC 8.5.2019)
Climate change is a “critical threat” to Australia’s interests according to almost two-thirds of Australians — ranked as a more serious concern than international terrorism, North Korea’s nuclear program or cyber attacks from other countries. Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. A hidden agenda
Extract from notes for a victory speech by Prime Minister Morrison to the Coalition party room: I want to make special mention of the contribution to our victory by my Cabinet colleagues. Now Josh, you had a special role. As Treasurer, you had to let the people know that Treasury didn’t like anything that the Continue reading »
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Scott Morrison is not an ‘accidental’ Prime Minister. ‘He was in it right up to his neck’ in the overthrow of Malcolm Turnbull(Peter Hartcher, SMH 26.3.2019)
The first vote of the week, on August 21,was a two man contest between Turnbull and Dutton. Morrison was not in the contest. His numbers men organised for five Morrison supporters to vote for Dutton in the first spill ballot. It was a ruse-those five votes were not aiming to instal Dutton as leader. They Continue reading »
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Killing them softly with sanctions
For three years Washington has been consumed by charges of Russian interference in the last US presidential election. In the latest sign that the Trump administration doesn’t do irony, on Tuesday Vice President Mike Pence threatened Venezuelan judges with unspecified consequences if they refused to back opposition leader Juan Gaidó, while lifting sanctions on a Continue reading »
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TONY KOCH. For 30 years I worked for News Corp papers. Now all I see is shameful bias. (THE GUARDIAN 9.5.2019)
No editor I worked for would publish the rubbish they now produce. About six weeks ago I cancelled my subscription for The Australian newspaper after getting it for more than 30 years. As soon as this election is over, I will do the same with the Courier-Mail. Continue reading »
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QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Why the Libs cannot be trusted with the ABC..
2 March 1996. Journalist: The commitment to maintain (ABC) funding in real terms … does that stand?Senator Alston (on behalf of incoming Prime Minister John Howard): Absolutely. 6 September 2013. Incoming Prime Minister Tony Abbott: .. and no cuts to the ABC and SBS. These reassuring public commitments were soon exposed as lies. Continue reading »
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ELIZABETH SAVAGE. It’s hard to find out who Labor’s dividend imputation policy will hit, but it is possible, and it isn’t the poor. (The Conversation 8.5.2019)
Labor’s proposal to end cash refunds of unused dividend imputation credits is highly targeted. Continue reading »
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WANNING SUN. Another Non-Story on China – An Example of Selective Framing
An ABC news story, ‘Chinese media mocks Australia and Prime Minister in WeChat posts’, fails to mention a few key points, and as a result, is potentially misleading, even confusing. Continue reading »
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JOHN DWYER The “Canterbury Model” in health
Australia’s health care system needs restructuring to see it meet the contemporary and future needs of its citizens. A consensus view has emerged which argues that a long term (perhaps ten year ) plan is required for the full implementation of the desired changes. The status quo is unacceptable as the system is not Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Selling a PM – or just trashing the alternative
With only days to go, it’s clear the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, is running his campaign not just as a Lone Ranger but as a Marketing Man. Despite his striking lack of past success (“Where the bloody hell are you?”) and the core fallacy that we are yet “Back in the Black” (slogan and image Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. News Corp – a rogue organisation (Repost from 21 September 2018)
Rupert Murdoch’s form in abusing power and finding truth hard to handle continues. ‘Turnbull has to go’ is typical behaviour for a man who has done more to damage democracy than any living media person . I worked with Rupert Murdoch for seven years in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I was General Manager Continue reading »
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WILLIAM BRIGGS Julian Assange and the Australian Election – the issue that must not speak its name
Julian Assange was arrested and taken from the Ecuadorean embassy just one day after the Federal election was called. Coincidences, or accidents of chance can, just occasionally, present political opportunities. This particular coincidence offered a chance for the arrest, and the whole saga of his years in the Ecuadorean embassy to figure, if only in Continue reading »
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DON EDGAR. Elections, the arts and regional development
In all the pre-election hubbub about taxes, national deficits, the environment and what else to spend our money on, there is scant attention being paid to the arts – an area which nurtures the soul and takes us beyond everyday practicalities to the realm of vision, creativity and the meaning of life. This is a Continue reading »
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PATRICK WOOD. Federal election 2019: Could these 15 ideas restore faith in politics? (ABC News)
Should Australia have fixed parliamentary terms? Or real-time disclosure of political donations? How about a “citizen jury” that can decide on issues of national importance? Continue reading »
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VACY VLAZNA. The ABC is USA/Israel’s mouthpiece on Gaza
The ABC yet again, obediently, is cranking out Israeli propaganda on Sunday’s Israeli assault on the besieged Palestinians in Gaza parroting that Israeli is merely protecting its citizens against Hamas ‘militants’- rather than the truth that Hamas resistance is protecting Palestinian families from Israeli belligerence and Israel’s 12 year illegal siege. Continue reading »
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MICHELLE PINI. The Morrison Government’s strange bedfellows (Independent Australia)
This week, the Coalition finally admitted what many had already suspected: preference deals with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation (PHON) and Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party (UAP). Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF US MIDEAST POLICY
The US ‘well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom’. Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. ScoMo’s campaign is going back to the future — quite a long way back.
John Howard has been exhumed as the great grey hope and is being paraded among the marginal electorates to enthuse the faithful and woo the undecided – assuming, that is, that they know who he is, or at least was. Continue reading »
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ALAN PEARS. The cost of Labor’s Paris Climate Change Policies
Economic modelling is one of many tools for policy development. It is often taken out of context and misused. The present debate over the cost of Labor’s climate policy provides an example. Lack of context, modelling assumptions and selective use of modelling results risks distorting future climate and energy policy, with serious consequences. Continue reading »