Politics
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KIM WINGEREI. Wentworth Democracy
Our Prime Minister has declared that the Wentworth election threatens the stability of our country unless a majority vote for the Liberal candidate. It may be the most hotly contested in living memory, and the Wentworth by-election also reveals much about why our democracy is broken and needs fixing! Continue reading »
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MUNGO MACCALLUM. Morrison channels Joh Bjelke-Petersen
We are now more than six weeks into the ScoMo regime, but most of us – and that includes some of our most recent Prime Minister’s close colleagues as well as a tentative opposition – are still trying to figure out just who the man really is trying to be. Continue reading »
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RICHARD ECKERSLY. Getting to the heart of democracy’s decline.
The crisis in democracy is much discussed these days, but almost entirely in political terms that ignore its deeper causes. In this sense, the mainstream news media can be considered ‘enemies of the people’, peddling ‘fake news’. Continue reading »
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A welcome statement on Australian relations with China by Prime Minister Morrison
At a ‘Chinese community luncheon event’ at Hurstville on 4 October 2018, Prime Minister Morrison spelt out clearly the importance of a ‘mutual beneficial relationship’ between Australia and China. This speech received wide coverage in the Chinese media in Australia, but minimal coverage in our mainstream English language media. This was very strange. A group Continue reading »
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MUNGO MACCALLUM. ScoMo , public relations, marketing and billboards
They say that if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And perhaps if the only life experience you have is in PR, everything looks like a billboard. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL KEATING. The Change from Turnbull to Morrison: What Difference has It Made?
Now that Scott Morrison has passed the fifty-day landmark as Prime Minister, this article considers what has changed since the demise of Malcolm Turnbull and what difference Scott Morrison will make in resolving the major policy challenges that Australia is facing. Continue reading »
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PERCY ALLAN. Process, not Policy is where Left/Right can Agree.
The End of Hegemony The battle between Left and Right is intensifying. Major parties thinks they will win this contest at the ballot box. Continue reading »
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JIM COOMBS: “What’s good for General Bullmoose….” The Everest Affair and the Banking Royal Commission show the highly limited (I am attracted by the old term “purblind”)thinking which is driving the nation.
Prime Minister Morrison, for such, alas, he is, sees the Opera House as a billboard for promoting whoever can pay for it. That’s BUSINESS, isn’t it ? Anything that turns a quid is, for them, Business, and that’s good enough. Indeed this government seems to think its job is done if it looks after business, Continue reading »
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WANNING SUN. PM Morrison’s Strange Speech to China and the Chinese: A Selective Charm Offensive?
Last week, on 4 October, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, accompanied by Immigration Minister David Coleman, paid a visit to Hurstville in south Sydney, dropped in on some local Chinese shops, and had lunch with around 80 people—members and leaders of the local Chinese community. The event generated quite a buzz among the Chinese communities but Continue reading »
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ADAM MORTON. In a canter? Climate experts say Australia will not meet emissions targets. (Guardian 11.10.2108)
Guardian Australia spoke to 12 economists and scientists – almost all reject government’s claim to be on track. Leading climate researchers have overwhelmingly rejected the federal government’s claim it is on track to cut greenhouse gas emissions as promised under the 2015 Paris agreement. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Ignore the planet and our grand children at our peril.
The government has thrown in its lot with climate sceptics, the loony right which includes the Murdoch media and the coal miners. We have a government with no policy on climate change at all. The responses by the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Ministers for the Environment and Energy to the latest IPCC report Continue reading »
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MARK BUTLER. There is only one energy future: firmed renewables. (AFR 10.10.2018)
Australia is in the deep throes of the most severe energy crisis in living memory. Power and gas prices have skyrocketed in recent years and are continuing to go up in spite of claims from the Liberal government that they have solved the energy crisis and prices are coming down. Continue reading »
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SCOTT MORRISON. Speech at Chinese-Australian Community Event
This speech by Scott Morrison on 4 October 2018 does not seem to have been run anywhere in the mainstream media. It is the most constructive statement from the government in a long time. Interestingly, the speech was posted on the Australian Embassy website in Beijing six days ago! (John Menadue) Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Outdoor advertising – enclosing the commons
The furore over the projection of horse racing on the Sydney Opera House raises not only the issue of the treatment of Louise Herron at the hand of a radio shock jock and her lack of support from the NSW Government, but also the broader issue of appropriation of public space for commercial purposes. Continue reading »
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SUSAN CHENERY. The Scribe: portrait of Freudenberg, author of the speech that changed Australia (The Guardian 9.10.2018)
Legendary Labor speechwriter Graham Freudenberg was at the centre of power for more than 40 years. A new film sheds light on the man who wrote the script. Continue reading »
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KIM WINGEREI. (Art) encounters of the Jones kind.
When the artist by the name of Banksy had his own artwork shredded, it was his right. It was (and is) his own artwork and he wanted to make a statement about his work being sold at an auction. But when NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian instructed Opera House CEO Louise Herron to allow Jørn Utzon’s Continue reading »
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ANDREW TILLETT. Deputy PM Michael McCormack shelves inquiry into road pricing
A raft of economists have called for a road-user charge, including former Treasury Secretary, Ken Henry, in his tax review, and former Productivity Chair, Peter Harris. [We continue to waste billions of dollars on more and more roads, but refuse to face the political hot potato of road congestion charges. John Menadue] Continue reading »
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MICHAEL SAINSBURY. ScoMo’s Turnaround: Peter Dutton and Stuart Robert ride to the rescue
The Chronicles of a Fleeting Prime Minister And so he sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from The Destruction. Then came the season of The Renewal, and now, The Turnaround is upon the people. With 50 days and 50 nights in office, PM Scott Morrison just smote the record of Arthur Continue reading »
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MAX HASTINGS. Smoke and Mirrors (New York Review of Books, 27 September, 2018)
The United States spends more than $70 billion a year on the gathering and assessment of information about its enemies—and friends. Other nations lavish proportionate amounts, which can only increase now that cyberwarfare and information games have become inextricably entangled with intelligence and counterterrorism. China is estimated to employ some two million people on electronic Continue reading »
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ROGER COHEN. Confirmed: an insidious presidency (the New York Times)
Trump believes that judges should be agents of those who appoint them. That would be the end of the rule of law. Continue reading »
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PAUL BONGIORNO. Political climate uncomfortably hot for Scott Morrison (New Daily 9.10.2018)
The Prime Minister Scott Morrison found himself in a very awkward spot on the day the world’s most authoritative climate science body released its latest report. Continue reading »
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MUNGO MACCALLUM. Morrison actually does something.
Sound the trumpets, fire the cannons, stop the presses – Scott Morrison’s fledgling government has actually managed a result. Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. Why businesses are behaving badly. (SMH 6.10.2018)
While we digest the royal commission’s evidence of shocking misconduct by the banks and insurance companies, there’s another unpalatable truth to swallow: they have no monopoly on bad behaviour. Continue reading »
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ROSS GARNAUT. Where Australia’s at 10 years after climate change review. (AFR 8.10.2018)
Energy costs will be lower if there is more investment in renewables capacity. Continue reading »
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WAYNE MCMILLAN. Insecure work by another name
The NSW Business Chamber and the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO) are leading the charge on behalf of employer business interests. It’s obvious that both their main concerns are to create a new class of insecure workers that can be dismissed at the whim of employers under the guise of better pay. Continue reading »
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CHRISTOPHER BROWNING. The Suffocation of Democracy (New York Review of Books, 25.10.18)
As a historian specializing in the Holocaust, Nazi Germany, and Europe in the era of the world wars, I have been repeatedly asked about the degree to which the current situation in the United States resembles the interwar period and the rise of fascism in Europe. I would note several troubling similarities and one important Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. The failings of our corporate sector- and not just the banks and insurance companies.
Our politicians are rightly receiving a hammering for their failures . We really do need to restore public trust in our political system. I have suggested a national summit after the next election on democratic renewal, different in subject but similar to the economic summit that Bob Hawke called in 1983. But to restore public Continue reading »
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MUNGO MACCALLUM. Government sees no mental disease on Nauru.
Scott Morrison has announced that the productivity Commission is to inquire and report on how mental disease affects the Australian economy. Continue reading »
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PETER RYAN. ‘Big four’ accounting firms should face banking royal commission to prove independence, former ASIC investigator says (ABC News)
A former forensic investigator at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has called for the major accounting firms hired to audit and approve sensitive company reports to be brought before the financial services royal commission to prove their independence. Continue reading »
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TIM COSTELLO. The Alan Jones-Opera House row proves Sydney is in thrall to the gambling industry (the Guardian, 07.10.18)
Is this the tipping point? Will we one day look back and thank Alan Jones for drawing attention to the disgrace that is Sydney’s capture by the gambling industry with his nasty hectoring of Opera House CEO Louise Herron? Continue reading »