May 22, 2017

MARK GREGORY. A new broadband levy in another NBN bungle

The Turnbull government is set to introduce a new levy on telecommunications companies that offer 25 Mbps or faster internet connections to contribute towards regional and remote broadband.

May 29, 2017

GEOFF MILLER. The Asia-Pacific: Busy Times, Big Choices

A number of recent, current and in prospect events emphasise the importance of clear thinking in regard to Australias policy stances in the Asia-Pacific. They include the Trump Administrations warming to China (despite pre-election rhetoric) especially in regard to trade, where a major deal has been done very quickly, and cooperation in regard to North Korea; the successful BRI-fest in Beijing, which was attended by a US delegation, and by our own Trade Minister; the US Freedom of Navigation exercise in the South China Sea, the first for a long time and strongly criticised by China; the US request to us to increase our military assistance effort in Afghanistan; and, coming up, the annual meeting of our Foreign and Defence Ministers with their US counterparts; and the annual Shangri-la defence dialogue in Singapore, at which this year our Prime Minister is scheduled to deliver the opening address.

June 14, 2017

ALISON BROINOWSKI. Shameful wars.

During more than a century, our Anglo-allies fought several highly-publicised wars, but also many secret ones, directly or through proxies. If we dont know the details, people in whose countries the wars were fought certainly do, and those who survived have not forgotten them.

March 29, 2017

JAMES O'NEILL. The London Attack: What We Fail to Acknowledge

The idea,… that you can set fire to countries in the Middle East, collapse their societies, and traumatize entire populations sowing carnage on a biblical scale, and not expect any reaction in the form of blowback is utterly insane.

October 7, 2016

FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Being clear eyed and misty eyed about human rights and asylum seekers.

On 5 October 2016, Frank Brennan gave the Fourth Notre Dame Social Justice Lecture.

He said

“It is time to see if we can design a way of getting the asylum seekers off Nauru and Manus Island in such a way that we don’t restart boats. … The suggestion that those camps need to remain filled in order to send a message to people smugglers so that the boats will stay stopped is not only morally unacceptable, it is strategically questionable. … In August, I joined Robert Manne, Time Costello and John Menadue in calling for an end to the limbo imposed on proven refugees on Nauru and Manus Island. I think this can be done while keeping the boats stopped. … Warehousing proven refugees for years on end is not an option.”

May 6, 2015

Joan Staples. The Value of NGOs

Australian civil society is again facing attacks from government and conservative think tanks seeking to silence and weaken community voices. The Labor years of 2007-2013 saw a break from the attempted silencing of the Howard decade, but there is now a new push, that aims to detract from the legitimacy of NGOs and to deny the valuable role their advocacy plays in our democracy. The detail of the new push has been documented recently. It is not a coincidence that at the same time there are new younger voices in an energised environment movement. Many new groups of younger activists are fighting for their future by challenging coal and gas corporations as climate change looms.

April 23, 2013

There's nothing basic about basic nursing care. Guest Blogger: Professor Mary Chiarella

The Minister for Health and Ageing, Mark Butler has announced a new aged-care workforce compact which will result in 350,000 workers receiving supplementary payments of 1% over and above award increases. This amounts to $1/hour more for each worker the lowest paid workers in the health care industry. Why is intimate nursing care, for the purposes of distinguishing it from technical nursing care, identified as not needing qualified nursing staff and relegated to care workers? Furthermore these care workers, the mainstay of our nursing homes and residential aged care facilities, may only have the support of a single registered or enrolled nurse to care for as many as 60+ patients.

January 1, 2016

Victoria Rollison. The WorkChoices Zombie

Lets put aside the irony of a Liberal government, the preacher of the ills of big government, spending $45 million to reach its expensive Royal Commission tentacles into the operation of trade unions. Lets put aside the obvious political nature of such a witch-hunt, designed to reduce the power of unions to negotiate on behalf of workers, a seek and destroy mission with the pincer-movement aim of a) benefiting employers at the big end of town, b) reducing unions capacity to contribute funds to Labor election campaigns and c) to discredit Labor MPs with union backgrounds. For now, putting these contradictions and political trickery aside, which are so wholly obvious to us but strangely not apparently obvious nor interesting to commentators in the mainstream media, lets instead look at the Trade Union Royal Commissions findings in relation to the lives of those people the commission paradoxically claim to represent the interests of; workers.

August 12, 2014

David Zyngier. Senate committee backs Gonski.

Gonskis report on school funding has been backed by a senate committee even though the federal government isnt backing it.

May 22, 2013

Japan: Renaissance? Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton

After two decades mired in largely self-made problems (post-bubble depreciation; political instability; aging population; nuclear meltdown), Japan is suddenly feeling much better about itself. Anyone observing events could not fail to register the shift in the national mood. Are we witnessing a Japanese renaissance, a return to economic expansion? Will economic recovery ease the way for long-debated constitutional and political reforms?

Japanese have a name for it: Abenomics. It hardly matters that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is neither an economist nor the principal driver of the stimulus plan (that role is performed by the new central bank governor, Haruhiko Kuroda), what makes the slogan important is that it trumpets one identifiable hero to a public that has long craved a strong leader, someone with a capacity to exercise power.

October 10, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. Preferential treatment for private patients in public hospitals in NSW.

See below a poster from NSW Health which is being displayed in public hospitals in NSW.

Readers may be interested to comment.

Two things interest me. The first is that the advertisement infers that if you have private health insurance you will get superior service in a public hospital. That surely attacks the principle that in public hospitals patients are to be treated according to their therapeutic needs and not on the basis of income or private insurance. The former CEO of Medibank Pte proposed that PHI members should have priority in Emergency Departments.

April 30, 2018

CHRIS BONNOR. Gonskis second coming

When they update the history of Australian school education the name Gonski, and the names of those he has worked with, deserve to be up there in lights. Hes done it again: an exhaustive investigation into what we need to do to improve school education. Will it all come to pass this time around? What can we expect?

April 23, 2016

Duncan MacLaren. Does Brexit mean a second independence referendum for Scotland?

The algebra goes something like this: EU ref: Brexit - Scotland = indyref2? In other words, if England overwhelmingly votes to leave the European Union while Scotland votes to remain in and the overall result from England, Northern Ireland and Wales, (known since the debate on independence in Scotland as rUK - rest of the UK) is to leave, will this automatically mean a second referendum on Scottish independence? The answer is maybe.

January 6, 2017

JAMES O'NEILL. Lessons from the Iraq War: a reappraisal.

The release of the Chilcott Report into the circumstances under which the United Kingdom (UK) became a party to the invasion and occupation of Iraq in March 2003 has raised fresh questions about the circumstances surrounding Australias involvement in that same war.

February 8, 2016

Ravi. Poems from detention.

My pen and paper

I walk a deep sadness path with my loneliness. This emptiness makes me slow. I fall to my knees and cry out loudly. Tears knock silently at my eyes.

I cant find anyone to share my pain with so I make friends with my pen and paper. I share with them all my pain. They cry with me.

The paper becomes wet with their tears.

Ravi

November 21, 2014

Geoff Hiscock. Cleaning up the coal energy pillar a central task for Modi and Abbott

Narendra Modi and Tony Abbott explicitly defined energy as a central pillar of the India-Australia economic relationship in their joint statement this week.

Thats a good sign, but if they want to make a truly significant contribution to the long-term economic and social benefit of India and Australia, then they need to deliver forcefully and quickly on the commitment they made to work together on clean coal technology.

An emphasis on utility-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in India would be a good place to start. With 1.93 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions last year (5.5 per cent of the global total), India does not yet match Chinas massive 9.52 billion tonnes (27.1 per cent), but it is headed in the same direction and by 2025 could be the worlds biggest coal importer. Much of that coal will come from Australia.

April 2, 2017

TIM COLEBATCH. Old coal, no new gas: how to generate an electricity crisis.

We need to set a timetable to reduce emissions from electricity generation, which now contributes a third of Australias greenhouse gases and, by and large, the third that will be easiest and cheapest to reduce. We need price mechanisms to drive it.

And we need the federal government to step into the gas market and stop domestic supplies being sent overseas. It has the power to put a moratorium on sales to overseas spot markets until the domestic crisis is fixed and to tell Santos and its partners that if they dont produce enough gas to meet their contracts, they can buy more overseas. We cant let Australias energy-intensive manufacturing die because of policy mistakes.

February 12, 2017

ALISON BROINOWSKI. If Australia has switched enemies in Syria, who and why are we fighting?

If Australia has switched enemies in Syria, as our allies apparently have done, the Turnbull Governmentowes us at least an explanation about who and why we are fighting.

July 14, 2020

The Palace Letters have blown apart the claim the Queen had no part in the Whitlam dismissal.

_The letters show that the Queens responses, and at times even advice, particularly in relation to Kerr’s concern for his own position and the possible use of the reserve powers, played a critical role in his planning and in his eventual decision to dismiss the government.

February 28, 2015

Andrew Leigh. The remarkable persistence of power and privilege.

If you want to know who made up Australias elite in the nineteenth century, a useful place to look is the Australian Dictionary of Biography. In its many volumes, youll find business leaders, scientists, media barons and politicians who have featured among the upper echelons of Australian society.

Now, suppose we take the first cohort of significant Australians those who died before 1880 and identify those with unusual surnames like Ebden orMaconochie. People with those names were overrepresented among the elite in the nineteenth century. Are they still at the top of society, or are they mixed through?

March 26, 2014

John Dwyer. Primary healthcare in Australia reaches the crossroads.

When I graduated some 50 years ago more than 50% of my class pursued careers as General Practitioners. In the last available survey of the career intentions of graduating medical students only 13% said they were interested in Primary Care and only 13% of those who would consider a career in rural Australia. Currently more than 45% of the General Practitioners available to rural based Australians are overseas trained doctors most of whom are working there as provider numbers were not available for metropolitan practice. The average age of working General Practitioners is 55 years.

July 14, 2014

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 support for a generous and humane refugee program.

I came to the view that what was important is that asylum seekers are treated with humanity and that the process is fair and efficient. The issue of where that processing occurs, on shore or offshore is a secondary issue.

January 22, 2016

Michael Thorn. Caught Out: How Cricket Australia maintains Aussies high drinking average.

The runs are coming thick and fast in the current Victoria Bitter One Day International Series between Australia and India, bested only by the onslaught of alcohol advertising both on and off the pitch as well as in the commercial breaks in between the on field action.

That barrage of alcohol ads on the telly are the result of an egregious loophole in Australias legislation that allows for alcohol advertising to be broadcast on television before 8:30pm during sporting broadcasts on weekends and public holidays.

May 18, 2022

Low wages are a deliberate design feature

_Wages are depressed by several forces. Workers bargaining power has been reduced by declining union density and changing industrial laws. There is growing pressures on firms to sell products at cheap, non-negotiable prices. And there are tight public sector salary caps.

May 18, 2017

SAUL ESLAKE. Housing affordability and the 2017-18 Budget: a missed opportunity

Housing affordability was to be a key focus of the Government in this years federal budget, according to the nods and winks that traditionally precede the Treasurers budget speech. A journalist who has often been privy to the thinking of those at the highest levels of the Abbott and Turnbull Governments wrote that the budget would represent the most comprehensive intervention by a federal government into the life cycle of home ownership, involving every aspect of the housing market.

May 22, 2017

JIM COOMBS. Public Goods

Before the advent of the free enterprise market economy models dominance of economic thinking, there was a distinction made between private and public goods. The idea was that some things had to be provided for a healthy, well-ordered society: such basics to our notion of civilization as universal water reticulation and sewerage (the most significant public health measure ever), electricity and gas services, public transport, education and telecommunications. These were to be provided generally and largely (as possible) equally to all, and NOT at the direction of market forces, which would discriminate in favour of the rich. For most of the last century these were provided by government monopolies, to guarantee fair and equal access. Seems quite sensible.

January 2, 2017

TIM COSTELLO. Abandoning generosity in Overseas Development Assistance.

Yet we are set to see our aid commitment as a percentage of national income drop to a record low level. Already since 2012 it has slumped from 0.36% of national income to 0.23%. This relegates us to the lower half of OECD countries in terms of generosity despite being near the top for economic capacity. In fact we were roughly three times as generous in the 1960s, even though today we are roughly three times as wealthy.

January 2, 2015

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 theyve 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, its worth highlighting that many have had the invisible slave of the disadvantaged schools working for them.

That is, the high-profile academic success of some schools has occurred as a result of social stratification the increasing gap between students into schools of low socio-educational advantage and schools of high socio-educational advantage as well as differential funding arrangements. Around Australia, some condone these arrangements in the name of school choice while others condemn them in the name of school equity.

November 23, 2016

TIM HARCOURT. Trump, Trade and jobs

Australia needs to remember that embracing open markets can only be done with well developed market institutions and social safety nets.

Whether you love or loathe the President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump can get an economic policy issue media attention, as well as himself. Take the issue of trade and jobs, for example. After being a niche research topic that a few trade and labour economists (like me) were involved in, but few others in the media paid attention to, the Trumpster has thrust trade and jobs into the headlines. It dominated the presidential election campaign especially in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin (which remarkably Hilary Clinton didnt visit) and even at the APEC Summit at Lima. I was gob smacked to hear Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Trade Minister Steve Ciobo talking about trade deals that are good for workers all the time at press conferences in Peru. Although back in 1992, the first President George Bush said he signed the free trade agreement with Canada (the predecessor to NAFTA) because he wanted to create good jobs at good wages. Whether he did achieve this wish in reality it seems, can be tested by the 2016 election outcome, where blue collar voters rebelled against free trade agreements.

July 9, 2018

ANDREW FARRAN. South Pacific Islands responding to security concerns

The Pacific Islands Forum will announce a new Biketawa Plus Declaration at its forthcoming Ministerial summit with fresh directions and priorities for members in the face of external pressures on the region, not least from China and Russia. There will be particular attention to security issues in keeping with good governance and the rule of law. The Forum owes much its character and structure to a former Australian diplomat and late Secretary General whose regional experience provided formative insights for its development in the modern era.

September 9, 2020

ASIO and AFP have questions to answer

ASIO and the AFP have questions to answer in the wake of reported raids on the homes and offices of Chinese journalists and a Labor backbencher.

December 23, 2015

Richard Woolcott. Australia's role is in our region.

There is no doubt that Malcolm Turnbulls visit to Indonesia and his and Lucys contacts with President Jakowi and his wife have very substantially improved the situation between Indonesia and Australia that existed before Malcolms visit.

The most recent and important meeting was between the Indonesian Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Defence with our Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Defence. This meeting of the two plus two, as it is called and the press conference which followed underlined how the situation between Australia and Indonesia has changed and substantially improved. This does not mean however that there are no on-going differences. It was clear from the responses to the questions at the press conference that Indonesia, which is not a claimant state, is very careful not to adopt a negative attitude towards Chinas activities in the South China Sea. Both the Indonesian Foreign Minister and Defence Minister made it plain that all countries in the region shared an important interest in a stable peaceful approach to claims.

August 19, 2014

John Dwyer. The structural reform of Medicare rather than its funding is the real challenge.

Part 1; The model of primary care we need for contemporary Australia.

For months the federal government has been telling us that a mandatory co-payment for a visit to our GP was essential to afford the $19 billion we currently spend on Medicare each year and projected increases. There would be an added benefit in that the payment would send a price signal to remind Australians that such visits can no longer be free. Too many of us are visiting our doctors too often! Additional revenue would be generated by a seven-dollar co-payment for prescriptions, pathology and imaging. Given the above propositions it is confusing to say the least that our government now plans to put every penny raised by these co-payments into a medical research fund that should eventually be the largest such fund in the world. Perhaps Medicare spending is not so unsustainable after all. International evidence tells us that we should be spending more on Medicare funded services to reduce total health expenditure. How would this work?

February 10, 2015

John Menadue. The nonsense about Free Trade Agreements

In his tormented defence of his governments performance, Tony Abbott highlighted some of his so-called achievements. They included the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Japan, ROK and China.

Most of the work in preparation for these agreements had been done by the Rudd and Gillard Governments, but the Abbott Government was so politically driven to get some achievements on the board that it eagerly signed up to these three agreements.

February 9, 2017

Conservatives push carbon tax to address climate crisis.

Conservatives push carbon tax to address climate crisis ByJohn Uptonon 9 February 2017 Climate Central With President Trump and Republicans in Congress moving swiftly to repeal regulations that slow global warming, a group of prominent conservatives on Wednesday touted a different potential solution a carbon tax that pays cash dividends to Americans.

January 11, 2022

Morrison's doubletalk exposed again in Djokovic farce

The public is white hot with anger at Djokovic’s conduct. Even so, allowing him to stay and play tennis remains the best option for the government.

June 8, 2014

Cavan Hogue. The hype of D-Day

The hype about the Normandy Landings on D-Day reflect a deep seated prejudice in the Australian press, public and politicians. Tony Abbot wants to use our minimal contribution to milk the occasion so he can be seen amongst the great and powerful and this is understandable but the claim by Abbott and our media that D-Day was the turning point in the European theatre is nonsense.l The pivotal battles were Kursk and Stalingrad and it was the Russians who took Berlin thus ending the war in Europe - not the Western allies.Most German and allied casualties took place on the Eastern Front and something like two thirds of German forces were committed there.

December 20, 2015

Caroline Coggins. Christmas and weed mats

Weed mats are used to grow a garden. A weed mat lets us relax and focus on what we want to grow. Theres no need to labour over all the weeds that need pulling, make neat rows and certainly not break up the top soil, destroying the nature of the soil.

What we actually want to grow/love/know gets us up each day, like Marys Yes.

December the month of Advent, waiting on the coming of our God, can be overwhelmed by the glitter of the Christmas tree. Yet there is a pulsing of hope that is palpable. Most of us desire to feel connected, be loved, share, to give and receive. But we can be disappointed: too much to do, not enough space, the failure of our expectations to fruit in a meaningful way. Often our deepest need for meaning is left wanting.

February 8, 2017

DENNIS ALTMAN. Bringing Nauru and Manus refugees to Australia is a win-win win. If the PM is bold enough.

Ultimately this argument is about a small number of people who risked their lives in the belief that Australia would provide sanctuary and a better life. In admitting them, Australia could demonstrate basic humanity, close the camps and remove an irritation from its alliance with the United States. Its a win-win for a PM bold enough to challenge the dominant rhetoric of both major parties.

January 22, 2017

STEVE GEORGAKIS. How professional sport handicaps youth sporting culture.

The recent spate of incidents and reports of doping, match-fixing and wall-to-wall TV coverage of betting, alcohol and junk food advertisements has stimulated considerable debate about the impact of commercialised sport on Australian youth.

June 29, 2018

HUGH MACKAY, FRANCES RUSH. Is the Australian solution catching on?

The US president is indifferent to human rights. That was the banner headline on the front page of Frances Le Monde newspaper last week, as if it were news. Donald Trump has amply demonstrated that indifference, and not only in the context of his fantasy wall along the Mexican border. But he is now being joined by the new Italian government and by the growing body of populist and right-wing agitators across Europe.

May 30, 2017

FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Uluru: Take Time to Get This Right

Fifty years on from the successful 1967 referendum, we have all heard the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Aboriginal and Torres Strait representatives have told us that in 1967 we were counted, in 2007 we seek to be heard. Australians of good will acknowledge that sovereignty is a spiritual notion for Indigenous Australians and that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration and separation of children are indicators of the torment of (their) powerlessness. We affirm the aspiration of the Indigenous leaders gathered at Uluru: When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.

April 6, 2015

John Menadue. Alcohol and junk food - winning at the expense of our health.

If you seriously follow almost any major Australian sport as I do, you will be conscious of the saturation alcohol and junk food advertising.

And in the run up to the centenary of Gallipoli there are no holds barred to link heroes and booze… VB now have a new television advertisement filmed at Melbournes Shrine of Remembrance which tells us to bow our heads to the 16 th Battalion,AIF at Gallipoli and raise a glass of VB to their heroism. How tacky can you get!

June 16, 2014

Irene Sutherland. A day on our Camino

In April this year, my husband and I walked the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. For months leading up to the event, we both imagined how a typical day would unfold. For my part, I intended taking a sketchbook and had fantasised that we would pass through many a village and I could wander into the churches and draw the religious objects. Chris enthused how we would set forth at day-break, arrive at our destination around 2pm, locate our accommodation for the night, clean up and attend mass. But as we found out, a number of factors came into play that gave our daily routine an altogether different shape and colour.

June 2, 2019

IAN JOHNSON. Chinas Black Week-end (New York Review of Books, 27 June 2019)

The Last Secret: The Final Documents from the June Fourth Crackdown

edited by Bao Pu

Hong Kong: New Century Press, 362 pp., HK$158.00

When Chinese law professor Xu Zhangrun began publishing articles last year criticizing the governments turn toward a harsher variety of authoritarianism, it seemed inevitable that he would be swiftly silenced. Sure enough, Xu was suspended from his teaching duties at Tsinghua University and placed under investigation. But then, remarkably, dozens of prominent citizens began speaking up. Some signed a petition, others wrote essays and poems in Xus support, and one wrote a song:

April 23, 2017

RAMESH THAKUR. Between tragedy and farce in the Korean peninsula

The worlds options on North Korea can be summarised as bad (strategic patience), worse (growing strategic impatience), and worst (military strikes).

May 22, 2017

Book Launch: "Of Labour and Liberty"

Of Labour and Liberty Book Launch

Event Information

Join us asBishop Vincent Long, Fourth Bishop of Parramatta launchesRace Mathew’s new book,_Of Labour and Liberty_at the Whitlam Institute, in partnership with Monash University Publishing.

_Of Labour and Liberty: Distributism in Victoria 1891-1966_arises from the author’s half a century and more of political and public policy involvement. It’s a response to evidence of a precipitous decline in active citizenship, resulting from a loss of confidence in politics, politicians, parties and parliamentary democracy; the rise of ’lying for hire’ lobbyism; increasing concentration of capital in the hands of a wealthy few; and corporate wrong-doing and criminality. It questions whether political democracy can survive indefinitely in the absence of economic democracy - of labour hiring capital rather than capital labour. It highlights the potential of the social teachings of the Catholic Church and the now largely forgotten Distributist political philosophy and program that originated from them as a means of bringing about a more equal, just and genuinely democratic social order. It describes and evaluates Australian attempts to give effect to Distributism, with special reference to Victoria. It documents as grounds for hope the support and advocacy of Pope Francis, and ownership by some 83,000 workers of the Mondragon co-operatives in Spain.

August 26, 2015

Richard Butler. RAAF to bomb Syria: another Captain's pick?

Within the next ten days, the National Security Committee of Cabinet will discuss the US request to Australia to deploy RAAF assets in bombing IS targets in Syria. Presumably, senior defense, foreign affairs, intelligence and government policy staff will be preparing assessments of such military action for Committee consideration. It would be normal for such assessments to include: the nature, aims and duration of possible military actions, including target selection, their command and control, risk assessment, actions needed in the event of downing of RAAF aircraft, relationship to Australias national security and the impact of such action on its international relationships.

June 4, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Will the forgotten people be heard at last?

The crusaders of the far right have already delivered their sentence: the Uluru statement is to be dead, buried and cremated before it can infect the fairness and decency of the ignorant masses.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal