November 12, 2019

ROSS GITTINS. Confessions of a pet shop galah: a lot of reform backfired (SMH 11.11.2019)

_As someone who, back in the day, did his share of being one of Paul Keatings pet shop galahs screeching “more micro reform!” every time they saw a pollie I dont cease to be embarrassed by the many supposed reforms that turned into stuff-ups.

October 23, 2018

MASSIMO FAGGIOLI. The Catholic Churchs Biggest Crisis Since the Reformation.

Why a New Wave of Sexual Abuse Revelations Has Deepened Preexisting Divisions.

March 17, 2019

Asian Australians: Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling (2019 Asialink Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop Lecture, Sydney, 13 March 2019)

The award of this year’s Weary Dunlop Asialink medal to one of our most distinguished Asian-Australians seems to me an opportune moment to revisit the question of whether we as a nation are making the most in terms of both our external relations and our internal national development of the vast store of talent that exists in the multiple Asian-Australian communities that now make up such a large proportion of our overall Australian community: the Chinese-Australians, Indian-Australians, Vietnamese-Australians, Malaysian and Indonesian and Cambodian and Filipino-Australians, Afghan and Sri Lankan-Australians, Korean-Australians and all the rest who have done so much to enrich the life of this nation, intellectually, culturally and socially, over the last few decades.

November 4, 2018

JOHN AUSTEN. A report by Infrastructure Australia on outer urban transport.

A recent report on outer urban public transport by IA provides some interesting information .But much better understanding and analysis is needed before more resources are wasted and communities made worse off .

October 24, 2019

LUKE FRASER. 'Infrastructure stimulus' mostly 'stimulates' the transport agencies and their camp followers.

Under prevailing economic circumstances, our political leaders are in great need of accomplished and resolute infrastructure reform advice - especially in transport, which dominates spending.

The new Federal Treasury Secretarys advice to the Senate this week was refreshing. It argued that further big infrastructure project spending was not the economic magic bullet so many think it is[i].

July 20, 2020

The Queens implausible denial

It beggars belief that the Queen did not know that John Kerr was planning to sack Gough Whitlam. She may not have known the detail of the coup in progress, but she knew the substance. But like Lord Nelson she pretends she did not see anything. Nonsense.

November 16, 2018

FINTAN O'TOOLE. How Brexit Broke Up Britain (New York Review of Books, 13.11.18)

So, at long last, it seems that the negotiations on Brexit between the United Kingdom and the European Union have produced a draft agreement. We do not yet know what it contains but it will be a compromise that falls far short of the high expectations of June 2016 when the British voted to leave. It will tie Britain to the EUs customs union and single market for an indefinite but probably very long time. Instead of making a glorious leap to independence, Britain will become a satellite orbiting the European planet, obliged to follow rules it will have no say in devising.

July 19, 2020

The Queen's plausible denial is risible

The queen did not pull the trigger. But she, her family and her closest advisers were well and truly in the loop during the events of 1975. And since 1975 was all about politics, the neutrality of the crown is irrevocably compromised.

July 6, 2020

Why Australia's strategic situation is far worse than we think (AFR 6.7.20)

For all the dire warnings in last week’s defence review, its chief fault lies in being far too optimistic.

June 18, 2019

ROBERT MICKENS. Vatican document on gender is like lipstick on a pig. The call for dialogue cannot disguise the text's uncompromising ideological views .

Catholic bishops, including those in Vatican offices, are not exactly the most credible authorities on issues pertaining to sexuality these days. Few people would disagree with this, except maybe bishops themselves. And, of course, those who are trying hard to be named bishops. The lack of credibility on sexual morality is not just because of the hierarchs’ disastrous mishandling of the still-unfolding clergy sex abuse pandemic.

February 15, 2018

Battery storage leaves fossil fuels and regulators in state of intertia

The brain cells are working overtime at the headquarters of network owners, grid operators, generators, and regulators. Australias electricity grid is about to make the leap from analogue to digital, and everyone is scrambling to keep up.

October 6, 2019

David Walker's Stranded Nation

Professor David Walkers Stranded Nation: White Australia in an Asian Region is a work of great and very readable erudition, which does something new: places Australian cultural, political and diplomatic history in its regional context at the time of Asian decolonisation.

November 19, 2019

DAVID MORE. The #myHealthRecord Is A Major Failure Following A Long List Of Other Major System Failures From The Federal Government Over The Years.

_I very recently conducted a poll on my blog following the latest over-done propaganda outburst from the Australian Digital Health Authority (ADHA) in their recent Annual Report. Here is what is showed.

December 21, 2019

RICHARD TANTER: Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Threat to the British Nuclear Weapons State

The Scottish National Party election landslide win augurs more than Scottish independence including a profound threat to the viability of Britain as a Nuclear Weapons State.

December 1, 2019

ERNST WILLHEIM. Secret trials in the ACT courts

Canberrans were shocked to read on the front page of the Canberra Times on Saturday 23 November about a mystery prisoner, referred to as Alan Johns, who was prosecuted and jailed for charges unknown to the public or the Alexander Maconochie Centre (the ACT prison).

November 1, 2017

PETER BROOKS AND ALEX WODAK. A response to the open letter from Crown Resorts on gambling.

On Tuesday 31 October a rally to support Women against Gambling, coordinated by the Alliance for Gambling Reform ( pokiesplayyou.org.au), was held outside the Victorian Parliament. This was (amongst others) supported by Fiona Patten MLC to send a message to MPs not to weaken laws on gambling which may occur when Parliament returns next week.

December 18, 2018

IAN McAULEY. Reminder to Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison: Australia is a parliamentary democracy

On the last sitting day of Parliament, the Government took extraordinary measures to block a vote on a bill to ease the medical evacuation of asylum-seekers on Manus Island and Nauru. The Governments terror of losing a vote on the floor of the House reveals a dangerous misunderstanding of the workings of our parliamentary democracy.

August 9, 2020

Australia's dubious record in supporting international law.

As the world descends into power politics, less powerful nations must place their faith, and potentially their security, in the retention and development of a credible international legal system. That credibility turns on the respect and observance given to it by smaller powers.

Australia is one but is it capable of pulling its weight in the ebb and flow of the challenges to the system or will it display a degree of opportunism, as at times in the past, which could undermine it?

December 17, 2018

Favourable currents for ASEANChina relations in the South China Sea (East Asia Forum, 12 December 2018)

Despite increased friction between the United States and China, on balance, positive developments in the South China Sea outweighed negative ones this year.

October 24, 2018

LAURIE PATTON. The NBN sinks deeper into a technological mire.

Oh dear! This week new_NBN CobossSteven RuetoldSenate Estimatesthey are still projecting thatFTTN(the trouble-plagued technology using Telstras ageing copper wires) will be used until 2040. Experts, includingInternet AustraliachairDr Paul Brooks__, sayFTTN will have to be replaced within 5-10 years of completion, preferably before then._

September 22, 2020

Feeding the Chooks: Scott Morrison's marketing triumph over mainstream media complete

Scott Morrison has perfected the art of media manipulation by briefing a select club of Canberra correspondents together, rather than leaking to individual media outlets. Callum Foote and Michael West report on the marketing genius of the Prime Minister and the increasingly meek mainstream media.

July 8, 2020

Lies and distortions about western policies in Asia: The Sino-Indian frontier dispute. Part 1 of 2

Most governments lie and distort, sometimes blatantly. For me, one of the worst examples has been over the hostilities along the Sino-Indian frontier. I give details since I was once personally involved.

May 4, 2020

MUNGO MACCALLUM. The COVID-19 App

I must admit to a moment of apprehension before unloading the COVID-19 app; anything that involves Amazon or Stuart Robert has to be either incompetent or dodgy or both.

December 1, 2019

PAUL MALONE. Rating a defecting spy!

Theres a basic system for intelligence agencies to assess the credibility of someone, such as Wang Liqiang, who purports to be a defecting spy a simple matrix running on one axis from say 1 to 6 and on the other from A to F.

October 22, 2019

DAVID SHEARMAN. Formulating a medical response to a deadly disease of disordered thinking (Croakey 16-10-19)

As much of the rest of the world wakes up to the climate crisis, Australia continues to be a kingpin of global fossil fuel promotion.

September 28, 2020

Why a social housing stimulus is a measure Morrison cannot ignore.

Given our Prime Ministers famously well-honed skill of tapping into the public mood, as well as his claims to an economically hard-headed approach to policymaking, you would surely expect a social housing stimulus plan to be front and centre of his upcoming financial plan.

November 17, 2019

LAURIE PATTON. OK Boomer know thine enemy

In the 20th Century each successive generation fared better than their parents, both socially and financially. The likelihood is that trend will continue this century if we all work together finding solutions to the very serious problems facing the environment and we leverage the benefits accruing from the emerging digitally-enabled global economy. There has always been a generation gap and probably always will be but when it comes to existential matters solidarity forever I say!

June 12, 2019

BEN GRUBB. The CIA's investment fund is stalking Australian tech startups and has opened a local office (Sydney Morning Herald, 11 June 2019)

A technology investment fund bankrolled by America’s foreign spy agency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is stalking Australian companies for future investment opportunities.

November 11, 2019

NOEL TURNBULL. The political limbo rock - how low can you go?

One of the best ways to determine how history will judge a politician is not to tot up what they achieved but to try to evaluate the depths they sometimes sank to as they pursued their careers.

August 26, 2020

The militarisation of Australia

The military in Australia has been played into a key role in the national narrative. Its achievements have been woven into myth. External threat has long been part of the political fabric.

November 9, 2018

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media.

April 18, 2016

Tony Broe. Coordinating Community Aged Care & Hospital Aged Health Care

Getting Australian Health Services right depends on delivering both Aged Care & Health Care effectively for frail high risk older-old people. Reducing inappropriate hospital admissions, shortening length of stay, returning frail people to their homes rather than Residential Care, all depend on accessible, locally based, Community Aged Care assessment support and management systems. For around 30 years a simple, geographically based, Australian system State Geriatric Medicine Teams with Commonwealth Aged Care Assessment Teams (ACATs) provided local access for many frail older people and up-to-date information on the complexities of local Aged Care services. This system is being dismantled but what is replacing it?

August 25, 2020

Archbishops, vaccines and COVID-19

The recent letter of the Sydney-based Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox archbishops on the ethics of the Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine has left many believers and the general community gobsmacked.

January 23, 2019

LESLEY RUSSELL. The recommendations from the MBS Review for reforms in primary care: who will ensure these proposals are properly considered?

Hidden in a pack of draft reports from the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) Review Taskforce that were released by the Morrison Government without fanfare just before Christmas are a series of recommendations that, if effectively funded and implemented, could begin the long and difficult task of reforming Australias primary care system.

September 15, 2020

Les Miserables - Killing the ABC in a time of national emergency

Empty chairs at empty tables … where my friends will sing no more. (Les Miserables - the musical).

The departure of many of the ABC’s most experienced journalists, producers and presenters has immiserated the public broadcaster.

December 21, 2017

MARK METHERELL and JOHN WARHURST. Royal Commission provides almanac for what Catholic bishops should do now.

Our group, Concerned Catholics of Canberra Goulburn, was formed back in April 2017 in response to the tide of evidence of child sex abuse that has swept the church. Our motivating concern was to press for reforms in our church, not only to remove the settings that enabled that abuse but also to shake out the closed, clerical culture.

October 23, 2019

ALISON BROINOWSKI. October and a discontented world

This is the October of our discontent. Suddenly, its manifestations are everywhere. Unless the few in power heed the shouts, slogans, and strikes of the many demanding change, worse may occur.

December 30, 2019

KERRY BROWN.-Everything remains up for stakes in Hong Kong. (EAF 29.12.2019)

This year was a torrid time for the city of Hong Kong and one where the years end brought only a little respite.The complacent image of Hong Kong being a place of political passivity conveyed throughout the period under British colonial rule up until 1997 had been dispelled long ago by major protests in 2003 and then the Occupy Central movement in 2014. Yet, the events of 2019 offered something of an order of magnitude distinctly different from anything that had occurred before.

December 28, 2019

NASSRINE AZIMI. Nakamura Tetsu: humanitarian doctor, farmer, and hero of Afghanistan (Asia Pacific Journal, 16 December 2019)

Afghanistan has lived through so many tragedies throughout its recent modern history that one would be forgiven, to think it inured to still one more tragedy. Yet the nation-wide outpouring of grief and outrage, at the murder of the Japanese physician and development worker Dr. Nakamura Tetsu and five of his colleagues in Nangarhar, in eastern Afghanistan, has been intense and heartbreaking.

Candlelight vigils are still taking place across the cities and valleys of Afghanistan for this slight Japanese with a gentle demeanor. Last Saturday the Afghan president helped carry his flag-draped coffin on its way to Japan amidst an official salute at Kabul Airport. Afghan communities across Japan came together in memorial services, many weeping openly alongside colleagues and ordinary Japanese. In Tokyo, the National Diet observed a moment of silence, and more than a thousand grief-stricken mourners gathered at his funeral in Fukuoka.

July 1, 2018

FRANCESCA BEDDIE. Renewing democracy must include honing public servants on the job.

These days, opinion polls and surveys provide the basis for many a proclamation about the state of the world. According to the 2018 Lowy Institute Poll, only 47% of Australians between 18 and 44 years of age say democracy is preferable to any other kind of government. As someone who still thinks of democracy as the least-bad system of government, that figure alarms me.

October 24, 2019

DUNCAN GRAHAM - Threatening unity by seeking harmony

Maintaining harmony (rukun) is a quality embedded in Javanese culture. This is one explanation for Joko Widodo publicly calling bitter rival Prabowo Subianto his best friend at the Presidential inauguration.

A few days later Widodo offered Subianto the Defence portfolio. Some interpreted this as a reconciliation gesture to heal post-poll divisions. Others, particularly human rights activists and supporters of democracy, see Widodos decision as foolhardy and a threat to national cohesion.

January 14, 2019

MICHAEL McKINLEY. The unsettling reality if Five Eyes is the guardian against Huawei, Part 1: Questions of Honesty and Loyalty.

According to a recentassessmentAustralia is the worlds 11thmost vulnerable country in terms of its exposure to internet security threat. This is the general case. The particular case, articulated by the Five Eyes signals intelligence agencies, is that China is to be feared the most because Huawei, the worlds largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, and ZTE, Chinas second largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, are both attractive suppliers technologically speaking, and a definite national security risk because they cannot conceivably be regarded as independent of the Chinese Government.

October 11, 2018

TONY COADY. The Synod, the Celibacy Rule, the Wider Problem of Radical Change in the Catholic Church

The current meeting of the worlds Synod of Catholic Bishops in Rome to discuss Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment will clearly have an eye to the vast decline in vocations to the priesthood, particularly in the Western world. Its deliberations come shortly after the recent appeal by the Australian National Council of Priests (ANCP) for Pope Francis to call an end to compulsory priestly celibacy.

May 31, 2018

JAMES FALLOWS. America Is Fumbling Its Most Important Relationship.

_The United States has a China problemand pundits and politicians are making it worse._China is an increasing problem for the United States. But the latest reactions and assumptions about China among Americas political-media leadership class hold every prospect of making China-related problems much worse. How can this be? It involves the familiar tension between short-term political shrewdness and longer-term strategic wisdom.

February 25, 2018

PATTY FAWKNER. Calls for change within the Church will be its salvation.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MissouriandThe Posthave something important to say about the what and the how of the Churchs mission.

June 11, 2019

LINDSAY HUGHES. Saudi Arabias Nuclear Plans: The Regional Danger (Future Directions International)

Saudi Arabia remains one of the largest oil producers (it produced 9.8 million barrels of oil a day in April this year) and the largest oil exporter in the world, despite the fact that Venezuela has larger proven oil reserves of around 300 billion barrels. Saudi Arabias oil exports account for around 42 per cent of its overall GDP, 90 per cent of its export earnings and over 85 per cent of its budget revenues, which, in 2017, totalled approximately 691.5 billion Saudi riyals ($266 billion).

November 19, 2019

GEOFF DAVIES. The Independent path to effective democracy, and survival.

A way to break us out of the ossified and toxic parliamentary culture and the fearful stupor of the electorate. A way to restore fluid and functional governance.

October 13, 2019

Relocating the United Nations (Valdai Discussion Club 10-10-19)

The United Nations is the worlds premier and its only universal international organization. It alone houses the divided fragments of humanity. But currently it faces a threat to the foundational principle of inclusivity. Its purpose-built headquarters was located in New York after theRockefeller family announced a donation of $8.5mn (worth $103mn in 2014) and the city contributed land along the East River and spent $23mn ($279mn in 2014 dollars) on constructions and improvements around the permanent site. On 14 December 1946, the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to make New York the host city. The Headquarters Agreement signed in 1947 obligates the US to grant unrestricted access to citizens of all UN member states engaged in official UN duties.

August 6, 2018

ERIC HODGENS. Humanae Vitae A 50 Year Odyssey.

Paul VI had no idea what he was setting loose when he published Humanae Vitae.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal