Public Policy
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Opening with 70% of adults vaccinated, the Doherty report predicts 1.5K deaths in 6 months. We need a revised plan
One consequence of the escalating COVID outbreak in New South Wales has been increased political tension around the “national plan” for COVID reopening. Continue reading »
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Don’t forget the plight of Afghans in Australia
Further to Stuart Rees’ eloquent exposure of the Prime Minister’s cruelty toward those Afghans already in Australia on temporary visas, below is my letter to the Prime Minister arguing for a more humane and pragmatic asylum seeker policy. Pragmatic because times have changed – the boats are no longer coming – and because among those temporary protection Continue reading »
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Redress on Sexual Abuse
Is the Governments response to the Second Anniversary Review of the National Redress Scheme (NRS), a Royal Commission waiting to happen in 10 years? ..The Government’s response has been slow, demonstrating little leadership, accountability or empathy for survivors and their families. Continue reading »
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White Man’s Media: leaving the colonial mindset behind
For well over 100 years, the British colonial viewpoint was conveyed to and absorbed by Chinese living in Hong Kong. Fundamental to securing this outcome was the centrally dominant role of English in colonial life. The English media that mattered told a particular story of Hong Kong that the British and varied expatriates prioritized. This Continue reading »
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Afghan Refugees and the Tampa: will we be cruel again?
Have Australian hearts softened towards Afghan refugees in the twenty years since the Tampa incident? Hopefully, yes.. Continue reading »
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Australia has close to zero chance of achieving net zero emissions by 2050
The newly released report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is emphatic: the effects of climate change we are seeing now are irreversible and will worsen. It underscores the critical importance of the upcoming Glasgow climate conference and the need for all countries to lock in net zero emissions by mid-century in order Continue reading »
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White Man’s Media: two places, Western Europe and the US, control the global public mindset
You and I currently live on a glorious planet with almost eight billion people in about 200 countries and an astonishing range of cultures. Yet only one, consisting of 8% of the world’s population, claims precedence. Why? Continue reading »
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Greenhouse gas emissions: What are they and how are they measured?
The goal of the Paris agreement on climate change is to limit global warming to well below 2°C, and preferably to 1.5oC above pre-industrial temperatures of the 1700s. This requires countries to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible in order to achieve a climate-neutral world by the middle of this century. Unlike 131 other countries, Australia is yet to commit Continue reading »
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White Man’s Media: Legacy media in the US and UK frames and conditions our thinking and actions.
Most political colonies have come to an end. But a colonial mind set continues in the media .That colonial media mind set in turn promotes a ‘colonisation of the mind’. Continue reading »
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Premier Berejiklian, please stop thinking about easing of restrictions after “6 million jabs”
There have been many mistakes in many countries hindering efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic. None has been more counterproductive than the premature easing of public health containment initiatives. Time and time again this has breathed new life into infections by the SARS-Cov-2 virus. This is especially so when dealing with the “Delta” variant. Continue reading »
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How Covid in NSW has revealed the differences and disadvantages of class, race, age and gender.
Gaming the virus in NSW: how fighting the last war will not win the next one.Premier Berejiklian is not listening. Continue reading »
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White Man’s Media or the Western Media Hegemony: a series commencing next week
Fearful of our region, Australia has clung to remote imperial powers, first the UK and now the US. Similarly our derivative main stream media clings to the legacy media of the UK and the US. We have a White Man’s Media in which the hegemony of the UK and particularly the US is entrenched. This Continue reading »
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Sunday environmental round up
Take-away messages from the IPCC’s climate science report and what it means for Australia. Environmental battlegrounds in the current session of parliament. Legal challenges to ministerial discretion and little-known threatened animals. Continue reading »
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Too little, too late: Morrison’s Afghanistan failures
‘Too little, too late’ is one of the Morrison Government’s defining characteristics. Continue reading »
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The end of a ‘just transition’ on coal. There will be disruption.
Last week’s report by the IPCC (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) shows that the prospects of achieving a ‘just transition’ to a green economy have all but disappeared. Continue reading »
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A burger by any other name: The livestock industry’s beef with plant-protein labelling
The increasing popularity of plant-based products has fuelled ongoing debate around how these products should be labelled. In Australia, it attracts visceral reactions from representatives across the meat and dairy industries, as well as from our political leaders. Continue reading »
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A perverse consequence of the Census in the counting of indigenous people.
Public policies can have unintended consequences. So does the Census, the data from which many of these policies are designed. Continue reading »
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Afghanistan is a warning for all US allies
As an ally of the US Australia should be reflecting deeply on America’s third major postwar strategic fiasco. The US military has brought overwhelming military power and technological sophistication to major defeats in Vietnam, Iraq, and now Afghanistan. In each, the allies have been let down or suffered. Continue reading »
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Climate Change: will the financial system survive?
One of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal global response to the escalating climate crisis has been the preparedness of financial market regulators to force their regulated institutions to face up to the implications of climate risk. Continue reading »
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The “Green Hydrogen” myth. It is a delusion
Are you also being swamped with optimistic articles about how essential it is for Australia to be a leader in “green hydrogen”? “Green hydrogen” is being spruiked as essential to our decarbonised economic future and as a strategic decarbonised export opportunity. Continue reading »
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Vaccinating aged care staff: mismanagement by Scott Morrison’s government.
Calling something as poorly designed as Australia’s Covid vaccination system ‘a rollout’ gives wheels a bad name. The failure to manage effectively the identification of priority groups for coronavirus vaccination, and to deliver vaccines to them, has to date been an awful failure of public administration. Continue reading »
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Australia continues to ignore as Assange’s trial intensifies
The relentless pursuit by the United States of Australian publisher Julian Assange continues with a legal argument last week about the scope of an appeal hearing in the UK Court of Appeal in October this year. Continue reading »
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The China push for a cleaner and cooler planet
Not a day passes without our media damning China for some imagined infamy or other. So many stories, so many column inches, and nothing positive to be found. At the same time, our television screens are full of other images; real images of a disaster that is enveloping us all. Continue reading »
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Boasting about budget expenditure numbers does not make for a housing policy
The Federal Minister for Housing and Homelessness, Michael Sukkar, is fond of quoting large numbers when quizzed on what his government is doing to address Australia’s enduring housing crisis. So, we hear for instance that annual Federal spending on housing and homelessness programs has reached over $8b and that his government is exceeding Labor’s spend Continue reading »
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Is Australia’s grand experiment in multiculturalism failing us all?
One of the greatest public policy innovations in Australia’s political history has been the large scale immigration programs commenced in 1947 under the Chifley government. The Menzies government grudgingly inherited the policy on the understanding that all immigrants would be assimilated into the community as “New Australians.” (Meanwhile, Prime Minister Menzies preferred to think of Continue reading »
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Gladys’ infection is spreading everywhere
Intransigence is experienced by many of us daily. It may even dominate our own emotional repertoire. Now, though, as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announces rising Covid infections and accumulating deaths, this unhelpful trait seems increasingly endangering. Continue reading »
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How Washington co-opts Hollywood and the news media
Latest exposé of Pentagon documents show how Washington manipulates an ostensibly free and independent media industry. Continue reading »
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Sunday environmental round up.
Unlike Australia, the USA is actively supporting a just transition for communities hard-hit by the demise of fossil fuels. The science and politics of solar radiation management. An Australian environmental philanthropist’s tips for doing the unexpected, and coastlines as essential infrastructure. Continue reading »
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Technological magic by Morrison and Taylor won’t help in the Australian response to the IPCC report.
The Australian Government seems to think it can solve climate problems through technological magic . It hides a failure of moral leadership. Continue reading »
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Political and media failure on climate in Australia
The technology roadmap sketched by Morrison and Taylor is a con. It is in fact a statement of support for the fossil fuel industry which is heavily subsidised by and a significant donor to the Liberal and National Parties. Continue reading »
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