Politics
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John Menadue. Is the state being captured by special interests?
In his recent book, ‘The Origin of Political Order and Political Decay’ Francis Fukuyama of ‘End of History’ fame, focuses on how even developed and democratic societies can be captured by powerful vested interests. He suggests that this has happened in the US with the coalition of extremists in big business, the Republican Party and Continue reading »
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The Chinese are coming.
After WWII the financial hegemony of the US and Europe in the IMF and International Bank was established. Later, the Japanese came to dominate the Asian Development Bank. That is now being challenged by China. See article below by William Pesek in ‘Bloomberg View’, subject ‘China steps in as world’s new bank’. John Menadue. http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-12-25/china-steps-in-as-worlds-new-bank Continue reading »
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Mary Chiarella. Co-payments, general practice and workforce reform.
If there’s a problem in primary health care then nurses are (and always have been) the solution. Susan Sontag wrote in 1978 “Illness is the night side of life: a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and the kingdom of the sick”. I was working Continue reading »
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Richard Butler. Russia.
Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop have been playing loosely in our relations with Russia even thought those relations are quite modest, at least as far as the Russians are concerned. Threatening to ‘shirt-front’ President Putin is not a dignified way to behave with a major nuclear power. Our recent behaviour towards Russia underlines that prejudices Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Our love affair with cars.
We are infatuated by the convenience of our cars, particularly at holiday time. There are clearly major economic and social benefits but the costs both economic and social are going to become much more apparent. How can we continue to realise the benefits of car travel, but minimise future costs. There are enormous political problems Continue reading »
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Maggie Callingham. Top schools ‘top’ because someone has to be bottom.
Across Australia Year 12 students are collectively holding their breaths to see what results they’ve achieved and, consequently, what their futures hold. Only hours after their release, many secondary schools proudly display their best results on billboards for passers-by to see. Newspapers select high-achieving students to profile. As schools promote these glowing results, it’s worth Continue reading »
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What a disgrace! Australia at the UN on Palestine.
Concluding our two year term on the Security Council, Australia voted against the proposal in the Council demanding Israel and the occupation of Palestinian territories end within two years. For the resolution to pass, nine votes were needed. Eight countries voted in favour of the resolution, including China, Russia, Luxembourg, France and Jordan. Five countries Continue reading »
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John Menadue. What a remarkable thing to say!
As reported in the SMH of December 22/21 this year, Dyson Haydon, who heads the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, said the following in respect of Julia Gillard. Her ‘intense degree of preparation, her familiarity with the materials, her acuteness [and] her powerful instinct for self-preservation made it difficult to judge her Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Capitalism and the fall of communism
In this blog on 5 November I drew attention to an article by the Economics Editor of the Guardian Larry Elliott. In that article Elliott said “As the Berlin Wall fell, checks on capitalism crumbled.” The principal thesis of that article was that with the end of communism capitalism became more aggressive and less inhibited. Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The accident prone Julie Bishop.
I have written before about Julie Bishop’s mistakes as Foreign Minister despite the media spin that she has successfully generated. Those articles were: ‘Julie Bishop – Substance and Style’ on the 18th November; and ‘Julie Bishop -‘Undiplomatic, politically partisan and wrong’ on 22 November. Just recall her foolish attack on President Obama over the Great Continue reading »
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Michael Keating. The Government’s mid-year budget update. Part 2.
Where to from here? So what is the Government’s strategy to return the Budget to return to surplus as the government has promised over the medium term? The May Budget was almost universally criticised for its unfairness. While restoring fiscal health of the nation may require sacrifices, the evidence clearly showed that in the May Continue reading »
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Hazel Moir and Deborah Gleeson. Evergreening and how big pharma keeps drug prices high.
Efforts by pharmaceutical companies to extend their patents cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year. In some cases they also mean people are subjected to unnecessary clinical trials. Big pharma makes big profits. Their useful new drugs are patented, protecting them from competition and allowing them to charge high prices. When the patent ends, other Continue reading »
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Hazel Moir, How trade agreements are locking in a broken patent system.
Ten years on from the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement, Australia is entering another round of negotiations towards the new and controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership. In this Free Trade Scorecard series, we review Australian trade policy over the years and where we stand today on the brink of a number of significant new trade deals. Australia has Continue reading »
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Michael Keating. The Government’s mid-year Budget Update. Part 1.
What does it say about the government’s fiscal performance? The headline news is that the Budget deficit for the current fiscal year, 2014-15 has blown out by $10.6 bn from $29.8 bn in the Budget to $40.4 bn in the Mid-Year Economic and Financial Outlook (MYEFO) released on Monday. Over the four years to 2017-18 Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The Sydney seige and social misfits. Will we ever learn?
I posted the following blog ‘Will we ever learn?’ on 27 October this year. Amongst other things it highlighted the domestic risks that would result from the Abbott Government’s decision to join the war in Iraq and Syria. Keysar Trad from the Islamic Friendship Association has today described the hostage taker and killer as a Continue reading »
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Helena Britt. General Practice and value for money.
Last year taxpayers spent A$6.3 billion on GP services through Medicare, about 6% of the total government health expenditure. This was a 50% increase (A$2.1 billion) in today’s dollars over the past decade and equates to about A$60 more per person in real terms. Health Minister Peter Dutton says this growth is “unsustainable”. He plans Continue reading »
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Chris Bonnor. The public and private of school achievement.
Once again we are in the middle of the annual HSC result festival – time to celebrate the winners amongst students and schools. Names of the top 100 schools are again paraded, seemingly to confirm a language about schools variously described as elite, high performing or prestigious. Everything else is out of sight. We read Continue reading »
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Cavan Hogue. Petroshenko visit.
President Petroshenko should be received courteously and his visit should be used to seek further trade with Ukraine. There is no reason to avoid cordial relations with Ukraine but our Government is going a lot further than that. Ukraine is a distant European country where we have limited interests. The Prime Minister appears to be Continue reading »
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Quentin Dempster. Submission to the Senate Select Committee.
S U B M I S S I O N Senate Select Committee into the Abbott Government’s Budget Cuts on Friday 12 December 2014 Quentin Dempster – appearing as a private individual VANDALISING THE ABC Following is a list of impacts which I have assembled from available sources. I can add to it as more Continue reading »
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Michael Keating. The politics of the Medicare co-payment
The adjustments that Tony Abbott announced to the Medicare co-payment are presumably intended to remove this particular ‘barnacle’. According to Graham Richardson, that self-styled political expert writing in the Australian, Abbott’s parliamentary colleagues ‘are breathing huge sighs of relief … that the Medicare co-payment has been so restructured that it scarcely exists anymore’. Really? Are Continue reading »
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The Wit of Whitlam – a great read.
ISBN: (Paperback)9780522868081 ISBN: (E-Book)9780522868098 PUBLISHED:03/Dec/2014 IMPRINT:Melbourne University Press SUBJECT:Biography: general The Wit of Whitlam James Carleton Paperback $14.99 E-Book $9.99 See more at: https://www.mup.com.au/items/154221 Self-proclaimed international treasure Gough Whitlam never shied away from a pun, a put-down or a witticism. His wife Margaret was his ‘best appointment’, he called Malcolm Fraser ‘Kerr’s cur’ after the Continue reading »
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Graham Freudenberg. Gough being Gough.
LAUNCH OF JAMES CARLETON’S ‘THE WIT OF WHITLAM’,BELLEVUE HOTEL, PADDINGTON, NSW, 8 DECEMBER 2014 As Henry Kissinger discovered to his chagrin in Beijing in 1971, Gough made a habit of getting there first. The Bellevue is no exception. Most of us here probably associate the Bellevue with its glory days when Suzie Carleton was, as Continue reading »
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Max Corden. Australia needs higher taxes, not spending cuts.
The federal budget balance is expected to deteriorate. The reasons are numerous but, in a lengthy statement, the government sums it up in terms of two key factors. These are: the softer economic outlook; and unresolved issues inherited from the former government. The economy is going through a transition. A decline in resources investment will Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Temporary Protection Visas and the Senate cross-bench.
I wish that the Rudd, Gillard and Abbott Governments had done things very differently on refugee policies. But faced with the impasse at the present time, I welcome the compromise arrangement which the government has negotiated with the senate cross benches – two senators from the Palmer Group, Nick Xenophon, Ricky Muir, Bob Day and Continue reading »
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Tim Colebatch. The Abbott budget is hard to sell.
The Abbott government’s problems began long before the 2014–15 budget, but now the budget is at the heart of them. It has failed to win support from the voters, and failed to win support from the Senate. Why? I think there are two reasons. The first is that its measures, taken together, fail the test Continue reading »
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Australia is worst performing industrial country on climate change.
For the Lima Conference on Climate Change that has just begun, a report by the think-tank Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe examined the 58 emitters of greenhouse gasses in the world, and about 90% of all energy-related emissions. The report named Australia as the worst performing industrial country in the world on climate change. Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Tony Abbott did not stop the boats.
The data just does not support the never-ending claims by Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison that they stopped the boats. The under-resourced and uncritical media accepts the Coalition’s line. I will come to the recent data, but first the evidence is clear that action by the Coalition along with the Greens in the Senate to Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Outsourcing and redundancy at the ABC.
Mark Scott has expressed concern at the pain being felt by staff losing their jobs and careers. He announced that he and his senior team would take a pay freeze for a year. When it was pointed out that there would not be sufficient staff left to fill the program schedule, some senior manager apparently Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Our Environment Minister is not going to Lima
Almost all countries will have their climate change or environment ministers at the UN Climate Change Conference which commences this week in Lima, Peru. This conference is in preparation for the crucial conference on climate change in Paris next year. But our Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, will not be there. Tony Abbott is sending his Continue reading »
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Refugees – some middle ground is opening up.
See below a speech made in the Senate on 4 December by Senator Xenophon. The Senator was one of six cross-bench senators who negotiated with the government for a compromise on the contentious Migration Bill. Senator XENOPHON (South Australia) (12:17): Australia’s migration policies have always had a long and vexed history. They have been, and Continue reading »
