Politics
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Lagging the field on climate change. John Menadue
Across the world there are clear signs that the tide is turning with acceptance of the reality of climate change, that humans are the cause and that we need to address the problem. But not in Australia. We keep acting like King Canute against the tide. The Abbott Government is proposing to abolish the carbon Continue reading »
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Yes we can – zero carbon emissions within 10 years in Australia. Guest blogger: Ann Long
On Wednesday 6th November Kiama’s Ss Peter and Paul Social Justice Group, together with Transition Towns Kiama, hosted a presentation by Gillian King from Beyond Zero Emissions, which explained a fully costed blue-print for Australia’s transition to 100% renewable energy. Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE), a not-for-profit research and education organisation, together with the University of Continue reading »
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Climate change as portrayed in ten major Australian newspapers. John Menadue
Last week the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney released a report on the above subject. It highlighted, amongst other things the unprofessional performance and influence of News Ltd publications in shaping the public debate in favour of the sceptics of climate change. This is despite the overwhelming consensus by Continue reading »
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A back-flip on the carbon tax. John Menadue
A number of my friends were impressed with the recent public debate between Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese. They told me that they had expressed an interest online to join or rejoin the ALP after many years absence. Without exception they now say that they will not pursue their membership enquiry until the parliamentary wing Continue reading »
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A Click of the Fingers. John Menadue
We badly need someone close to Tony Abbot to click their fingers and break him out of the hypnotic trance that he has been in for a long time. He has been hypnotised into campaigning mode and has yet to be released. Many had hoped that as Prime Minister, Tony Abbott would successfully make the Continue reading »
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Mideast Road to Nowhere. Guest blogger Marcus Einfeld
This blog by Marcus Einfeld is in response to the blog by John Tulloh of 16 October on the above subject. John Tulloh’s 40 year career in international news gathering should have taught him that jumping into Israeli-Palestinian issues with instant judgements and simplistic solutions is unwise and simply assists to continue the conflict. The concept, Continue reading »
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Honest Joe Hockey. John Menadue
At the G20 Summit in Washington a week ago Joe Hockey said ‘People find it refreshing to hear that Aussie honesty’. It is nice to think that other people see us that way but I wonder what Treasurers at the G20 would make of it if they had been listening to what Joe Hockey had Continue reading »
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The Carbon Tax – Policy and Politics. John Menadue
There are good policy and political reasons why the ALP should oppose the repeal of the carbon tax. The carbon tax is designed to reduce carbon pollution. That fact is continually ignored by those who talk wildly about the tax rather than what it is designed to do. In any event, the tax is working Continue reading »
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Japan and the denial over comfort women. Guest blogger: Susan Menadue Chun
In a speech at the United Nations in September 2013, Prime Minister Abe conveyed Japan’s willingness to be involved in U.N security actions. He also emphasized Japan’s commitment to oppose sexual violence against women in war zones. Strangely, he didn’t mention comfort women, also known as sexual slaves, women who were forced to provide sex Continue reading »
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Bushfires and climate change. John Menadue
Last week, the Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, was really trying to tell us that black is white. He attacked Adam Brandt who had said that the bushfires in NSW were part of a pattern of more extreme weather caused by climate change. Brandt added that the government should not embark on dismantling sensible policies to Continue reading »
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The Mideast Road to Nowhere. Guest blogger: John Tulloh
If ever there were a news story which goes nowhere, it must surely come under the heading of ‘Middle East peace talks’ with specific reference to the Israelis and Palestinians. Google the topic and you will find no less than 84,800,000 references at last count. Mediators come and go, the protagonists gather at the Continue reading »
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What’s in it for me? John Menadue
Last year in London Joe Hockey said that we had to break free of our culture of entitlement. He said. “The problem arises…when there is a belief that one person has a right to a good or service that someone else will pay for. It is this sense of entitlement that affects not just individuals Continue reading »
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The apathy and hostility of South Koreans to their Northern cousins. Guest bloggers: Markus Bell and Sarah Chee
In every way, Yu Woo-seong was a model defector. In his early 30s, he was smart, friendly, ambitious and well-liked. Despite the fact that he had been in South Korea for less than six years, Yu managed to work through his university studies while adapting remarkably well to his new environment, finishing his bachelor’s degree Continue reading »
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Even-handed Tony Abbott. John Menadue
In his toxic language over asylum seekers in the last three years, Tony Abbott has been not only derogatory about vulnerable people fleeing persecution, he has also gone out of his way to insult our neighbours in their handling of asylum seekers. He has shown no favouritism. He has insulted them all. Within the last Continue reading »
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A somersault – back to business as usual. Guest blogger: Arja Keski-Nummi
While in opposition Tony Abbot conducted a robust and aggressive policy on boats that effected Indonesia. But now he has done a somersault in order to put the Australian-Indonesian relationship back on a more even footing. As his speech at the official dinner portrays he has gone to the other extreme and engaged in rather Continue reading »
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Israel’s asylum-seeker dilemma. Guest blogger: John Tulloh.
Like Australia, Israel has a major problem of what to do with asylum-seekers. And, like Australia with our proposed Malaysia solution in 2011, Israeli legislation aimed at curbing the influx has been thrown out by the country’s highest court. Those seeking refuge in Israel did not come by boat. They came across the Sinai from Continue reading »
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One-liners won’t work in Jakarta. John Menadue
In his meeting with President Yudohono tomorrow, Tony Abbott will find that his one-liners that have been so successful in Australian politics will not have traction in Jakarta. It will require a lot more subtlety than ‘stop the boats’ and ‘axe the tax’. Our Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop has already been shown how Indonesian society Continue reading »
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Reflections on the Senate Election. Guest blogger: David Combe
David Combe was National Secretary of the ALP, 1973 to 1981 As the composition of the new Senate which will sit from July 1, 2014, becomes clearer, my mind goes back to two earlier Senates which took office 40 and 30 years earlier, and which were elected in double dissolutions of the Parliament. The election Continue reading »
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Is it class warfare or an appeal for fairness? John Menadue
It depends on your point of view. Conservatives and the wealthy often see attacks on their privileged position as class war. Others see it as the pursuit of justice and fairness. Let’s look at some who have recently spoken about class warfare. Andrew Forrest said that the Mining Super Profits Tax was class warfare. Christopher Continue reading »
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Fukushima – the trouble when regulators and operators are too close. Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton
Speaking in support of Tokyo’s bid for the 2020 Olympics, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on 7 September that the situation at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power station was ‘under control’. Recent disclosures, however, about leaks of radioactive water from storage tanks at the site and the contamination of ground water flowing into the Continue reading »
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How the Australian media frames North Korea and impedes constructive relations. Guest blogger: Dr Bronwen Dalton
An analysis of the last three years of coverage of North Korea in the Australian media shows a tendency in Australian coverage to uncritically reproduce certain metaphors that linguistically frame North Korea in ways that imply North Korea is dangerous and provocative; irrational; secretive; impoverished and totalitarian. This frame acts to delegitimize, marginalise and demonise Continue reading »
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Frontier War and asylum seekers. John Menadue
Launch of the 2013-14 Catholic Social Justice Statement by John Menadue 11 September 2013 This statement follows the proud tradition of the Catholic Church in Australia since 1940 of calling Catholics and all Australians to act for social justice. The 65 statements issued over the years cover a great range of social justice issues – poverty, violence, Continue reading »
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Commodifying and dehumanising asylum seekers. Guest blogger Michael Kelly SJ
The rejection by the Indonesian foreign minister of Tony Abbott’s suggested ways of “stopping the boats” is only the latest assertion of how the Coalition’s policy on asylum seekers was never going to work. It might have made political sense at election time, allegedly in marginal seats though the results in western Sydney throw some Continue reading »
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Julie Bishop fails Economics I. Guest blogger Ian McAuley
In justifying the Coalition’s cuts in foreign aid, Julie Bishop said that borrowing from overseas only to hand it back overseas was unsustainable in light of our mounting debt. That statement has glib appeal, but it’s a serious misrepresentation. For a start the Government does not borrow from overseas. Rather, almost all the Commonwealth’s revenue Continue reading »
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What does Labor stand for? Principles to drive policies and programs. John Menadue
Late last year I was approached by a friend who is very politically active about what I thought the ALP could do to renovate its policy platform. I discussed this request with an old friend, Ian McAuley. Together we prepared a paper ‘Principles to drive policies and programs – or – What does Labor stand Continue reading »
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Let’s hope Albo runs and wins. John Menadue
The ALP needs a ballot for its parliamentary leadership even if it takes a month or so to do so. It will be time well spent. It needs to find the right leader and continue the process of democratisation that the ALP badly needs. Those who want to rush to a quick decision on the Continue reading »
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US complicity in chemical weapons. Guest blogger; Richard Broinowski
In recent days, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have made much of their moral repugnance at alleged chemical warfare attacks by the Syrian regime against rebel groups. Their retaliatory missile strikes, if made, would demonstrate that the use of chemical weapons by any force against any foe, is completely unacceptable to the world’s community. It was Continue reading »
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The aftermath of Saturday’s election. Guest Blogger: David Combe
David Combe was ALP National Secretary from 1973 until 1981 Just over a month ago, I received an email from an old friend – an ALP Life Member who belongs to the ‘my party right or wrong’ school of loyalists – asking my thoughts on the likely outcome of the election which Prime Minister Rudd Continue reading »
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Dodging a bullet. Guest blogger: John Young
It was going to be as bad as 1996 (when Labor lost 31 seats), a sombre Stephen Smith gravely warned us at the beginning of the ABC election night coverage. Smith ignored that a few months earlier Labor was facing its worst election defeat, at least as bad as the 2011 NSW State election. How Continue reading »
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Deconstructing the election result. Guest Blogger: Walter Hamilton
1. Labor lost the election before the Coalition won it. 2. There was a narrowing in the state-by-state differences in the two-party preferred voting ratios of Labor and the Coalition, which partly accounts for the bigger swings against the ALP in Victoria, SA and Tasmania. That is, where Labor did well in 2010 to hold Continue reading »
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