Public Policy
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Western media bias, Israeli apologetics, and ongoing genocide
I found it shocking that the New York Times published on January 17th no less than three opinion pieces by Jewish authors, unbalanced by a single Palestinian or principled critical voice. Continue reading »
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Who leaked sensitive legal material to a Murdoch columnist?
In the 20th century a series of UK investigations, including the Leveson Inquiry, demonstrated that Murdoch newspapers had engaged in phone hacking, police bribery and resort to dodgy private investigators. Continue reading »
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Public education – a case for all of us to work together
I write in relation to the article published in Pearls and Irritations on 23 January 2024, authored by John Frew. The writer appears to be questioning who should be working with children experiencing educational disadvantage, get funding to do it, and be responsible for their outcomes. He raises the example of The Smith Family, as Continue reading »
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How labelling is concealing common ground on climate, COVID and indigenous issues
You’re either a climate realist or you’re a climate sceptic. You’re either pro COVID vaccines or you’re a vaccine sceptic. You either voted ‘no’ in the recent ‘indigenous voice to parliament’ or ‘yes’. On too many issues, the labels that Australians are using are confrontational. Australians are being led to see just two camps and Continue reading »
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Reviving Australian Citizenship: What the government needs to do
Australian Citizenship should be revived as a positive unifying element in a cohesive multicultural society. The Australia Day citizenship ceremony controversy is just a sideshow. The real issue is the completely unacceptable waiting times for processing Australian citizenship applications. The Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison government trashed the good work of previous Coalition and Labor governments by pursuing regressive Continue reading »
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Tide turning on boat people bastardry
A day I have long prophesied, and for which I have been yearning may be at hand. It’s a pity that the Albanese government does not really deserve a place at any celebrations, and may indeed, try to frustrate them. Continue reading »
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Israel now ranks among the world’s leading jailers of journalists. We don’t know why they’re behind bars
Israel has emerged as one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, according to a newly released census compiled by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Continue reading »
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Some journalists’ lives are worth more than others
In politics, there is often no reward, only penalty, for being right, especially when you go against the messaging of the ruling elites. Continue reading »
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On the tyranny of the short term
What has become very apparent in public policy over the past twenty years is the extent to which the “short-term” is given precedence over the “long-term”. Both major political parties live to win the next election, and the mainstream media joins in rapturously because it treats politics as a binary competition that is most sensationally Continue reading »
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The US and Australia: tethered to Israel’s genocide?
With Netanyahu now declaring Israel will not accept the creation of a Palestinian state the burning question is how the US will react. To complicate matters Netanyahu has also said that the war against Hamas will continue for months enlightening the world to the fact that the slaughter of civilians will continue. To this course Continue reading »
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‘Impartiality the biggest joke in journalism’: News staff rebel over Gaza
The contested concept of ‘impartiality’ lies at the heart of running battles between unionised staff and news organisations in Australia over coverage of Israel’s genocidal onslaught. Continue reading »
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Summer: heat, cicadas and rising fees in private schools
Private school fee rises are as intrinsic to an Australian summer as the screech of cicadas. And instead of relaxing in the holiday heat, I find myself plagued with questions about whether or how to respond to the former. Do these fee rises even matter? Continue reading »
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Me and Colin Rubenstein (AIJAC)
It is hard to see how it is in Australia’s interests to support Israel’s actions in Gaza. Continue reading »
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Zionism and the academy
The University is a place of questioning, investigation, reason and discovery. The University is corruptible and perennially corrupted, yes, but always open to such endeavours. Continue reading »
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Failure after failure: the first chapter in the sad history of the attempts to introduce a broad-based carbon price in Australia
The January release of the Cabinet papers for 2003 reminds us of the failure of the second attempt to introduce an economy wide carbon price in Australia through an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). It marks the ascendancy of the energy and resource sectors in influencing the Coalitions climate change policies. This decision to reject emission Continue reading »
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If immigration must stay in Home Affairs, here’s how to fix the agency
The founding secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, Mike Pezzullo, was dismissed late last year for egregiously breaching the public service code of conduct. The man who lectured public servants they should live by that code, broke it in a manner no previous secretary in living memory had done. Continue reading »
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Australia’s prison system: desperately in need of reform
We should be concerned about conditions for prisoners. Why? The obvious answer is that if the recidivism rate is high then the system is not working. Continue reading »
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Diplomacy, morality and media have failed the people of Gaza
Imagine this headline: “Brits bomb Belfast to obliterate IRA – 24,000 dead, 50,000 injured, all hospitals flattened – children limbless and starving”. Continue reading »
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COVID unmasked an unfair health system. Now we can change it
People in the poorest areas of Australia are dying 2.5 times more often from the disease than those in the richest areas. Continue reading »
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Unpacking the Jevons Paradox: how effectiveness gains in the NDIS lead to increased demand
Australia has just completed major reviews of two of its largest public expenditures – the NDIS and Employment Services. Each program manifests problems predicted by two lesser-known economic theories: the Jevons Paradox in the case of the NDIS and Goodhart’s Law in the case of employment services. Neither were mentioned in either review. Continue reading »
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John Pilger, maverick journalist (1939-2023)
In a speech he made in Sydney in 2011, defending Julian Assange, John Pilger recalled how it was always impressed upon him when he was young that Australia was a brave country: that we stood up to authority, and we stood up for justice. Such national myths were at best half-truths, Pilger said, but in Continue reading »
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Professionalism and compassion in healthcare
We don’t have to take off our compassion, or our ability to show it, when we drape a stethoscope around our neck. The need for doctors to be professional is not synonymous with being emotionless. Continue reading »
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The social contract and The Voice
Now that the dust has begun to settle, we can look at the referendum result with a little more clarity. Those of us who supported the Voice saw with some dismay how the initial widespread support in favour of a yes vote began to wither away. yet we should not be fooled by the headlines Continue reading »
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No country for old men: Why ignore our elder statesmen?
I am currently reading a book by Jeffrey Sachs whose articles often grace these pages. I am struck by the wealth of his experience having advised governments over many years, and his ability to take a long view of world events, in particular the deterioration in the United States position in the world since the Continue reading »
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What needs to change in vocational education
TAFE’s “Competency Based Training” sounds logical but dig a little and its roots are exposed. CBT has its origins in the post WW2 era of the “Scientific Management” of workers and production lines. In this world, products, processes and people are all standardised, the better for a hierarchy of management control. Continue reading »
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John Menadue on Rupert Murdoch, the Last Mogul
We have a major problem with the damage that Rupert Murdoch has done to newspapers in Australia, and any self-respecting government should take steps to correct that as soon as possible. Continue reading »
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The facts behind RNZ’s ‘Russian edits scandal’
The broadcaster’s response to my editing of international news stories amounted to a show trial, reflecting a malaise within mainstream media. Continue reading »
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Corporate media leaves out the very insights that made John Pilger a man not afraid to speak truth to power
John Pilger, the investigative anti-war journalist who spoke up for China and humiliated the western corporate media, has died—and every single report on this in the western media I have seen has carefully omitted this fact. Continue reading »
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Under the facade of journalism
How News Corp used fear, manipulation and division to campaign against the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Continue reading »
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Decolonisation is our safeguard against genocide
To ensure Aboriginal Peoples’ freedom from genocide and ecocide, we need decolonisation. Continue reading »