Politics
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John Menadue. Is there light at the end of the dark tunnel?
In my blog of April 17 I outlined ways in which we might find a way out of the refugee quagmire. It is reposted below. There is speculation that the government may announce an increase in the refugee intake to help the Christians and other minorities suffering dreadful persecution in Iraq and Syria. I hope Continue reading »
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Peter Sivey. Health budget: GP care isn’t the problem, costly specialist care is.
The opening of eight new medical schools in Australia in the past decade has seen a massive increase in the number of new doctors entering the workforce. The number of new junior doctors graduating in Australia doubled between 2004 and 2011. But while fears of an overall shortage of doctors seem assuaged, we don’t have the right mix Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Missing in action when Kerry and Hagel come calling?
I can understand Tony Abbott’s wish to direct attention away from the budget by going off to The Hague and London. But are Australia’s national and policy interests being served by his absence when John Kerry and Chuck Hegel visit us. In my blog of July 31 ‘Overplaying one’s hand’ I quoted Tony Abbott’s comments Continue reading »
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Cavan Hogue. Russia boycott.
Anyone with any knowledge of Russia could have told the Prime Minister that his gratuitous public and personal attacks on Mr Putin and on Russia in general would lead to retaliation. Russia was left with no other option except humiliation and Russians are too proud and too sensitive to accept that. So the Australian Government Continue reading »
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David Stephens. The children suffer.
Osbert Sitwell’s The Next War, published in 1918, depicts some plutocrats deciding what would be an appropriate war memorial. The senior plutocrat puts a suggestion which his colleagues eagerly take up. “What more fitting memorial for the fallen Than that their children Should fall for the same cause?” Rushing eagerly into the street, The kindly Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Diplomatic lessons for Canberra.
In my blog of July 31 ‘Overplaying one’s hand’ I said that there were clear lessons to be learned from the disasters of MH370 and MH17. The lessons are – don’t overplay your hand or overstate your case for domestic political reasons. Today in the SMH, Paul McGeough, see link below, refers to the failure Continue reading »
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Michael Sainsbury. Will China’s crackdown save or sink the Communist Party?
In launching an investigation into former security chief Zhou Yongkang, Chinese President Xi Jinping has entered uncharted and possibly dangerous territory. It not only raises the stakes for Xi’s increasingly iron fisted rule, but also for the Communist Party itself. The case announced last week targets an official who until recently was ranked the third Continue reading »
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Richard Butler. US: What Leadership?
There is continuous debate, within the US, about President Obama’s handling of international affairs. To some, he has responded to their wish to see the US less entangled, everywhere; to others, he’s a feckless weakling and should be impeached. The only thing that seems clear about this debate is that it is agitated, apparently, interminable Continue reading »
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Wiryono Sastrohandoyo. The new Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Joko Widodo is an upright, decent and honourable person. It is the general feeling in Indonesia that his election is a victory for the Indonesian people and the generally peaceful election process. This is a sign of the growing maturity of Indonesia’s young democracy. Jokowi was great during his two terms as mayor of Solo, Continue reading »
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Ben Saul. The Occupation of Palestine.
There is very partisan criticism of Hamas for firing home-made rockets into Israel. But the core problem is not rockets. It is the occupation of Palestine by Israel and the imprisonment of two million Palestinians in a sliver of land called ‘Gaza’. I often think how we should or could respond if our country was Continue reading »
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Michael Kelly SJ. Today’s Totalitarianism’s Powerful Forms.
Australian eyes are focused on the unspeakable brutality and pointlessness of the downing of MH 17. But alongside this event, Australian minds and hearts are assailed daily by barbarism across the Middle East and in different parts of Asia. It’s the paradox of liberalism that pluralistic secular democracies like Australia afford citizens far greater freedoms Continue reading »
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Another Israeli massacre of Palestinians.
One thousand and thirty-five Palestinians in Gaza, mainly innocent civilians, women and children have been massacred and so far the world turns its head away. And the number is increasing by the hour. We don’t want to feel the suffering of the Palestinian people. Alongside this 1,035 dead Palestinians there are 42 Israeli’s who have Continue reading »
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John Menadue–President Jokowi and Australia
The election of Joko Widodo as Indonesia’s seventh president is a victory for burgeoning democracy in our neighbour with 240 million people. It was a victory for civil participation by ordinary people to defeat Prabowo Subianto by a margin of 53% to 47%, by 8 million votes and winning in two thirds of Indonesia’s provinces. Continue reading »
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Tony Smith. Dubious celebrations of war.
On 28 July 1914, the world was thrown into a terrible conflict. On that day, a Serbian nationalist assassinated an Austrian archduke and his wife. Because European states belonged to alliances which were heavily armed and many countries on other continents belonged to their empires, the war spread until it had consumed over a million Continue reading »
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John Menadue–King Coal to be dethroned.
On May 1 last year I posted “A canary in the coal mine”. It focussed on the growing and wide concern about the damage to the climate caused by coal fired electricity generation. It also drew attention to the action of Jonathon Moylan who sent a hoax email concerning Whitehaven Coal to the ANZ Bank Continue reading »
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Richard Rigby. Tiananmen 25 years on.
On the night of June 3-4, units of the Peoples Liberation Army entered Beijing, killing some hundreds of ordinary Beijing citizens as they made their way to their objective, Tiananmen Square, the focal point of massive protests that had begun in late April following the death of former Party Secretary Hu Yaobang. The square was Continue reading »
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John Menadue–A lot of nonsense about productivity.
A lot of nonsense about productivity For years the Business Council of Australia and News Corp have been warning us about our poor productivity record and the need to change our industrial relations laws to bring trade unions to heel. A part of this campaign against unions is now being played out in the Royal Continue reading »
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Michael Keating. An alternative budget strategy – part 3
Part 3. An Alternative Budget Strategy The previous comment in this series showed that there are alternatives to the Government’s particular strategy for restoring a Budget surplus over the next four years. In particular, it was shown that action to protect the revenue could raise around $42 billion in 2017-18. That is about 2¼ per Continue reading »
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Michael Keating. An alternative budget strategy – Part 2
Part 2. An Alternative Budget Strategy In the previous part of this comment, I suggested that the Budget did need to return to surplus over much the same time path as intended by the Government. There is nothing new in that, and as previously noted, Labor also had the same intention when it was in Continue reading »
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John Menadue–Power prices – we ain’t seen nothing yet!
We have seen wild exaggeration about the effects of the carbon tax on prices and the economy. It has all turned out to be quite a fizzer. The price increases we have seen have little to do with the carbon tax and the economy continues to grow steadily. Whyalla has survived. But we have a Continue reading »
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Michael Keating. An alternative budget strategy – Part 1
In May this year I posted five articles by Dr Michael Keating on the economic and social consequences of the recent Hockey budget. Over the next three days I will be posting three follow-up articles by Michael Keating on an alternative budget strategy. Dr Michael Keating was formerly Secretary of the Department of Finance and Continue reading »
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Bugger the planet, ignore our children and trash our reputation.
The repeal of the carbon tax is a political victory for Tony Abbott but it is hard to imagine a worse combination of poor reasoning and bad policy making. It shows little appreciation of economics. It will increase the budget deficit. It shows a mistrust of the market. Tony Abbott’s political legacy will be defined Continue reading »
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An Alternative Budget Strategy by Michael Keating
In this blog in May this year I posted a five-part series by Michael Keating on the government’s May budget and the economic and social consequences. There has been a great deal of discussion and confusion, particularly in the senate, over this budget. This has caused Joe Hockey only a few days ago to warn Continue reading »
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Take your pick on the way News Corp operates.
On oath before the Leveson Enquiry, Rupert Murdoch said “I’ve never asked a prime minister for anything’. (Leveson transcript 25 April 2012) In his book ‘The Whitlam Government 1972-75’, published in 1985, Gough Whitlam says ‘ … in the week after the 1972 election, Menadue, who had become my private secretary at the beginning of Continue reading »
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Chris Mitchell, The Australian and Iraq
As part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Australian, the editor, Chris Mitchell, revealed on Monday 14 July that he was a secret opponent of the invasion of Iraq. This will come as a surprise for many who followed The Australian’s wholehearted support of the Iraq invasion and hectored and criticised those Continue reading »
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Malaysia, Manus, Nauru and offshore processing.
I have not always held the view that asylum seekers who come to Australia could be transferred and processed in another country. I changed my mind on that partly because of the rapid increase in boat arrivals after the Agreement with Malaysia fell over in 2011. The large number of boat arrivals was reducing public Continue reading »
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Creating a Long-Term Framework for Asylum Seeker Policy
Last Friday 11 July 2014, I attended a roundtable at Parliament House, Canberra to discuss possible actions that could be taken to find a way out of the present divisive and harsh treatment of asylum seekers. The media release following that roundtable is reproduced below. The roundtable drew on discussion paper ‘Beyond Operation Sovereign Borders’, Continue reading »
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Warwick Elsche. I hope you know what you’re doing, Tony!
Rum has never been my drink; two wipe-outs in youth. One nip – very nice, two – too many, any more – dangerous – positively confusing. I suppose it was surprising then that I chose it as my companion as, with another million Australians, I settled in to hear the policy speech which would oust Continue reading »
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Woolworths and Pharmacies.
The response of the Australian Pharmacy Guild (APG) to Woolworth’s proposal for free health checks was entirely predictable. It was about protecting the territory of pharmacists. But the APG did have a point. Are the leviathan department stores who sell large amounts of alcohol and tobacco really serious about our health? I don’t think so? Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Free Trade Agreement with Japan – ‘turbo charging’ our trade or mainly hype?
Next Tuesday Prime Minister Abe will visit Australia. I expect the Free Trade Agreement with Japan or its new name the Economic Partnership Agreement with Japan will feature prominently. I repost below what I said on March 29 about the limited value of these bilateral agreements. Only last week, the Productivity Commission expressed similar reservations. Continue reading »
