Politics
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EVAN JONES.- Fires. Are they Australia’s Potemkin Moment?
The French economist and social critic Frédéric Lordon recently penned an article on his blog at Le Monde Diplomatique titled “The Potemkin Moment”. Continue reading »
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GEORGE GRUNDY.- The Slow Death of Retail in Perth
Champagne corks were conspicuous by their absence as Amazon recently announced plans to expand their operation in Australia by opening a new warehouse in Perth. Continue reading »
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NOURIEL ROUBINI.-Trump will make China great again.(Project Syndicate 23.12.2019)
Despite the latest Sino-American “skinny deal” to ease tensions over trade, technology, and other issues, it is now clear that the world’s two largest economies have entered a new era of sustained competition. How the relationship will evolve depends greatly on America’s political leadership – which does not bode well. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL KEATING.-Trump’s fantasies and trade realities.
Trump’s trade war with China cannot and has not succeeded. But Trump risks doing major damage to the rules-based global trading system and the future of the world economy. Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. Morrison mis-fires. Leadership or Photo Opportunities!
Since Scott Morrison declared, back in November, that this was not the time to be talking about climate change, people have been talking about nothing else but the fires, and climate change, and Scott Morrison’s attempts to pretend (or pray) them out of existence. But in the past week or so its all gone wrong Continue reading »
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MARK BUCKLEY. Memo to Scott Morrison
In Australia we do not vote for the Prime Minister, we vote for a local member, who is usually a member of a political party. In simple terms, when all the votes are counted the party with the greatest number of members becomes the government, and the assembled members have already decided, or they will Continue reading »
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ANDREW SALMON.-Gruesome find may shed light on Korea’s Tiananmen(ASIA TIMES 21.12.2019)
Gwangju Uprising and its brutal suppression still hugely contentious; discovery of 40 more bodies fuels fire Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Failed leadership. A repost from 17 September 2018
Good leadership is about facing the group up to the hard issues. Without clearly defining why and how we need to change and creating some disequilibrium there will be no worthwhile change. We have have had failed leadership on climate change. Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS Why I didn’t donate to the Rural Fire Service this time around.(SMH 1.1. 2020)
As the cast were taking their bows at the end of a show before Christmas, one of them stepped forward to say that, as we left, we’d be approached by people with buckets collecting for the NSW Rural Fire Service. Normally I’d reach for my wallet – I’d done so a few weeks earlier when Continue reading »
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TOBY HALL.-The surprising truth about Australian hospitals — we don’t need so many(ABC 17.12.2019)
For a long time I’ve argued that a significant barrier to substantial reform in healthcare in Australia is that the main players are too captive to their membership bases or special interests to be willing to leave their corners and engage in meaningful discussion. Continue reading »
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SOURABH GUPTA Deconstructing US–China decoupling(EAF 14.12.2019)
There is too much fraternising with the ‘enemy’ for US–China economic ties and global technology ecosystems to be disentangled into neat geopolitical coalitions. Nevertheless, in the short course of 18 months, US President Donald Trump’s administration has provided ample signals of how selective decoupling of US–China ties could transpire if regularised as policy. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL ARRIA. Brown University committee votes to divest from companies connected to the Israeli occupation (Mondoweiss 6.12.2019)
On Dec 2, Brown University’s Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies (ACCRIP) voted to recommend that the school divest from companies that facilitate Israeli human rights violations. Six ACCRIP members voted in favor of divestment, two voted against it, and one member abstained. Continue reading »
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BRUCE DUNCAN. Mr Morrison, please do not abandon innocent Aussie children in Syria.(Repost from 1.11.2019)
How will the Morrison government respond to the desperate plight of some 65 women and children detained in a camp in Syria? Relatives are pleading with our government to bring their family members safely home, but it appears immobilised by fear of a political reaction. How good is that? Continue reading »
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MUNGO MACCALLUM.-There is no reason to believe that Scott Morrison is becoming a serious Prime Minister
He is only confident when attacking his opponent. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL KEATING. Policy Advice: The Thodey Review of the APS and the Government’s Response
This article discusses the key role that the Australian Public Service (APS) should play in the development of government policy and the recommendations that the Thodey Review of APS makes to restore that role. Unfortunately, the Government is not interested, and has rejected all these recommendations. Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD.-Is Morrison really on the bridge?
Australia can’t much influence Trump, or Hong Kong or Boris. The more reason he should be working on what he can change Continue reading »
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KERRY BROWN.-Everything remains up for stakes in Hong Kong. (EAF 29.12.2019)
This year was a torrid time for the city of Hong Kong and one where the year’s end brought only a little respite.The complacent image of Hong Kong being a place of political passivity conveyed throughout the period under British colonial rule up until 1997 had been dispelled long ago by major protests in 2003 Continue reading »
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MUNGO MACCALLUM.-And so, gritting our teeth and holding our noses, we prepare to face 2020.
And once the new year’s eve fireworks have been cleaned up, it does not look promising. Continue reading »
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ANDREW PODGER.-Trying to make sense of the Thodey Report and Morrison’s Response:(The Conversation 19.12.2019)
The final report of the Independent Review of the APS is much more substantial than its Interim Report. That is hardly a high hurdle, but its 18 page bibliography suggests considerable reflection beyond the (mostly disappointing) submissions and commissioned papers. Continue reading »
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PAUL MALONE.- Doubts continue about the alleged Syrian Chemical Weapons Attack in 2018
Some 20 months after the alleged Syrian government toxic chemical weapons attack on Douma in April 2018 the evidence to back the claims of a gas attack has been blown apart. Continue reading »
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TED TRAINER. What’s wrong with Economics?
The answer is, conventional economic theory and practice are only about this economy, not economics in general … and this economy is a bad economy. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL JANDA.-Ken Henry’s tax review is gathering dust, but its ideas could kick-start Australia’s economy (ABC 23.12.2019)
Ten years ago to this day, Ken Henry handed then-treasurer Wayne Swan a wish list of tax reforms to set Australia up for the 21st century. Continue reading »
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ROBERT FISK.-How Skewed Polling and Media Bias are Warping American Attitudes About the Green New Deal
What are opinion polls and what exactly do their outcomes signify? Continue reading »
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NASSRINE AZIMI. Nakamura Tetsu: humanitarian doctor, farmer, and hero of Afghanistan (Asia Pacific Journal, 16 December 2019)
Afghanistan has lived through so many tragedies throughout its recent modern history that one would be forgiven, to think it inured to still one more tragedy. Yet the nation-wide outpouring of grief and outrage, at the murder of the Japanese physician and development worker Dr. Nakamura Tetsu and five of his colleagues in Nangarhar, in Continue reading »
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CRAIG WHITLOCK.-At War with the Truth(Washington Post 9.12.2019)
A confidential trove of Government documents obtained by the Washington Post reveals that senior US officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18 year campaign, making rosy announcements they knew to be false and hiding the unmistakable evidence that the war had been unwinable. (Behaving like a US colony Continue reading »
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DUNCAN MACLAREN. Scottish Independence: a new start with a fresh vision
I am currently visiting friends and former colleagues from Australian Catholic University in Australia, having cast my postal vote for the SNP before leaving Scotland. Since then, two excellent articles by George Monbiot and John Carlin have been published in Pearls and Irritations on the disastrous General Election result in England which has given Boris Continue reading »
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RICHARD WHITINGTON. Bushfire inaction from the Commonwealth? Federation is the real villain.
Many of the shots laid on Scott Morrison are as justified as they are cheap. But in many respects his hands are tied by what our forebears voted for more than 120 years ago: narrow, not national interests. Continue reading »
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MUNGO MACCALLUM.- Our economy is enjoying global tail winds ,not head winds as Frydenberg tells us.
Scott Morrison is rummaging around in his near-empty presents sack looking for some spare socks and mouldy chocolates, the sleigh is off at the panel beaters in need of drastic repairs, and the reindeer continue to shit on us from a great height. Merry Christmas from ScoMo and his orcish elves. Continue reading »
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JACK WATERFORD.-Even a PM needs time to chill – and think
Time for detailing how conservative policies could improve the nation Continue reading »
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Politics determines ICC investigation of Israeli war crimes
After five years of procrastination, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor has announced an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. From Palestinians’ perspectives that may sound encouraging, but the rules of international law will be no match for politicians’ fascination with violence as the way to Continue reading »
