February 19, 2018

Trickle down economics and the Emma Alberici article.

The ABC says that their decision to withdraw Emma Alberici’s article was because it represented an opinion for which there is allegedly no evidence. In fact there is plenty of evidence that increasing corporate profits will not lead to any increase in investment or employment and wages if aggregate demand continues to remain weak. Furthermore this evidence has been endorsed by the IMF, the OECD and others. Can the ABC cite anyone or provide evidence to the contrary, other than the ramblings of Scott Morrison and the Business Council?

The following is a repost of Michael Keating’s article of 18 January, Trickle-Down Economics and a Company Tax Cut.

February 13, 2016

The Pope is not the only one who doesn't get it.

This is an extract from Robert Mickens’ ‘Letter from Rome’ of 10 February 2016, published in Global Pulse. In the full article, Mickens refers to the extraordinary success and acceptance of Pope Francis in so many areas. There is however a downside. Mickens coments:

But there is a dense cloud hanging over all the good this prophetic priest and bishop has done for the Church. It is a pall that is casting an ever darkening shadow on his otherwise energizing pontificate.

October 23, 2018

FRANK BRENNAN. Compassion and justice after abuse apology.

Tomorrow in our national parliament, the Prime Minister will offer an apology to the victims of child sexual abuse. Many survivors will be here in Canberra. Some will be here at taxpayer expense having been successful in a ballot to attend. Others will come under their own steam hoping to get into the parliamentary gallery or the great hall. We know that many of these victims were the subject of abuse in our own church.

This article was published by Eureka Street on the 21st of October 2018.

January 15, 2019

MICHAEL McKINLEY. The unsettling reality if Five Eyes is the guardian against Huawei, Part 2: A survey audit concerning prudence, integrity, law and ethics.

In the frequent denunciations of Huawei and ZTE the inference is that these Chinese corporations are existing, or potential espionage agents of the Beijing Government and a threat to all who have been foolish enough to acquire their products. These threats, moreover, are held to be of a type that are politically, legally and ethically enjoined by the Five Eyes community and it is these axiomatic principles which distinguish it from others less scrupulous. To believe this requires a deposition of the type of religious faith which Voltaire saw resulting from the first knaves encounter with the first fool. An examination of three propositions might suffice to indicate that Five Eyes protection involves a preference for an intra-alliance schedule of threats, costs and risk, which are never made explicit over another schedule of an external nature, not the absence of threats.

December 14, 2017

GILES PARKINSON. Turnbull blows trumpet for right wing idiocy on energy

Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has chosen to close the year in much the same way as he started it on climate and energy policy: awaiting yet another review, and parroting the ever more absurd claims of the fossil fuel lobby and the right wing of his Coalition government on energy.

June 2, 2019

DANNY SJURSEN. Key US Allies in the Middle East Are the Real Tyrants (Truthout, 01.06.19)

American foreign policy can be so retro, not to mention absurd. Despite being bogged down in more military interventions than it can reasonably handle, the Trump team recently picked a new fight in Latin America. Thats right! Uncle Sam kicked off a sequel to the Cold War with some of our southern neighbors, while resuscitating the boogeyman of socialism. In the process, National Security Advisor John Bolton treated us all to a new phrase, no less laughable than Bush the youngers 2002 axis of evil (Iran, Iraq, and North Korea). He labeled Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua a troika of tyranny.

July 22, 2020

Who will save Blinky?

It has been 20 years since the last comprehensive reform of our national environment law, why the sudden need to preempt independent review findings with fast-track amendments? Blinky Bill and a lot more is at stake

December 12, 2016

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull blaming everyone but himself.

The constant refrain of economists who get it wrong is that we should never rely on just one set of figures.

July 4, 2019

ROB MAINWARING. Centre-left politics: dead, in crisis, or intransition? (The Conversation, 24 June 2019)

The ALPs defeat at the 2019 federal election was a surprise. Shortens Labor fell short, against both wider commentariat predictions and unrepresentative polls. Yet, if we take a step back, the result is less surprising if we locate Labors defeat in the wider crisis of social democracy.

November 2, 2018

TIMOTHY SNYDER. Donald Trump borrows from the old tricks of fascism (The Guardian, 30.10.18)

The governing principle of the Trump administration is total irresponsibility, a claim of innocence from a position of power, something which happens to be an old fascist trick. As we see in the presidents reactions to American rightwing terrorism, he will always claim victimhood for himself and shift blame to the actual victims. As we see in the motivations of the terrorists themselves, and in the long history of fascism, this maneuver can lead to murder.

April 10, 2016

Lara Moroko & Sarah Duffy. Thrashing the brand: ANZ and CBA could pay a high price for choosing profit over people.

The recent CBA and ANZ scandals show that the big banks fail to understand the long-term pay off from investing in their relationships with people over short-term profit.

ANZ stands accused of unconscionable conduct and manipulating the bank bill swap rate(known as the BBSW) in its favour, short changing its customers and generating illicit profits. In the same vein, it has been reported that employees of CommInsure, CBAs insurance arm, have deliberately, and in some cases illegally, removed medical details or taken action to avoid or delay the payment of claims.

December 17, 2018

TONY SMITH. The unacceptable road toll.

We should not accept that it is inevitable that people will die on our roads. While drivers must behave responsibly, governments need to take actions which might seem radical in a society obsessed with cars.

November 4, 2018

LATIKA BOURKE. Forget Barnaby Joyce's affair - this is why he should not return to the leadership

Although Barnaby Joyce’s name is not mentioned, it is his legacy that informs Philip Moss’ damning report into the Department of Agriculture’s performance as the regulator of the live exports industry.

January 10, 2018

IAN McAULEY. Private health insurers frighten the ALP-A REPOST from June 2 2017

There was a recent flurry of media excitement about a supposed secret hospital funding plan, which turned out to be no more than an option under consideration by a think-tank. But the real (and overlooked) issue in health funding is a high and growing hidden subsidy to private health insurance, where, contrary to traditional political alignments, Labor is proving to be more generous to private insurers than the Coalition.

January 24, 2019

MACK WILLIAMS North Korea : What can another Trump:Kim Summit achieve?

President Trumps announcement of a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in late February at an agreed but as yet unspecified location ( probably Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh) has reactivated interest in the search for a resolution of the Korean crisis. It followed a flurry of activity among key stakeholders over the past few weeks.

July 22, 2016

STEPHEN FITZGERALD. Security in the region. (Repost from Policy Series)

Paul Keating and Gareth Evans used to claim, with justification, that by the mid-1990s Australia had become the odd man in in Asia. This was in significant part because of the headway theyd made in Southeast Asia, with ASEAN countries, in gaining acceptance of Australia as one of them. This was no slogan. Behind it lay a geostrategic idea of Southeast Asian countries as natural partners into the long term future, in a world dominated by competing great powers, and offering the entree to what Keating called finding our security in not from Asia. Keating and President Suhartos Agreement on Maintaining Security was a first stage in that direction, flanked by the initiative for a Ministerial Forum with Indonesia. Evans, encouraged by the response of Southeast Asian colleagues, floated a geopolitical definition of Asia that included Australia as a logical component of what he called the East Asian Hemisphere.

January 20, 2019

JOHN MENADUE. Private Health Insurance is a con job. Is Labor being conned again?

The ALP does not seem to understand its own creation- Medicare- and that the $11 b taxpayer subsidy to PHI is like a Damocles sword that hangs over Medicare. Ian McAuley in Medicare under threat from Labor points out that Labor in its’‘consultation document’ on a proposed reference of PHI to the Productivity Commission suggests not only retaining PHI but strengthening it.

This may only be a stratagem to get the PHI lobby of Labor’s back in the run up to the next election. But Labor’s record on PHI is not at all reassuring. Has there been a deal done with PHI as Kevin Rudd did before the 2007 election?

January 4, 2018

JOHN QUIGGIN. Why 2017 was a good year for climate

On the face of it, there was plenty of bad news for the climate in 2017. Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the 2105 Paris agreement and promised to reverse the decline of the coal industry. The Turnbull government rejected proposals for an efficient transition to a low-carbon energy sector, instead announcing a half-baked National Energy Guarantee designed as a lifeline for coal-fired power. Globally, CO2 emissions appeared to rise by around 2 per cent, after remaining stable for three years in a row.

September 9, 2020

Spies are often the 'second eleven'

_When the full history of Australias slide into McCarthyite hysteria over China is written there should be special mention of the role of our spy organizations - ASIO and ASIS in particular. As someone who has worked over the years in three of the main spy-ridden hot-spots - USSR, China and Japan - I think I have had some experience.

May 8, 2018

JOHN AUSTEN. Trouble in infrastructure paradise NSW revisited.

The mixed reception for the infrastructure works of NSW Premier the Hon. Gladys Berejiklian MP continues. It is mostly bad news punctuated by the odd piece of what the NSW Government considers good news.

December 11, 2018

JOHN WARHURST. Catholics grow restless at bishops lethargy.

Rather than despair at the absence of half of humanity in the clergy and disappearance of their adult children from the church pews, reforming Catholics are seeking to turn their old church around.

November 9, 2018

Australia has one of the most socially segregated schools systems in the world.

A new OECD report shows that Australia has one of the most segregated school systems in the OECD and in the world. It also shows that Australia had the equal largest increase in social segregation in the OECD and the world since 2006. Government education and funding policies are major factors behind the increase in social segregation.

January 3, 2020

NOURIEL ROUBINI.-Trump will make China great again.(Project Syndicate 23.12.2019)

Despite the latest Sino-American “skinny deal” to ease tensions over trade, technology, and other issues, it is now clear that the world’s two largest economies have entered a new era of sustained competition. How the relationship will evolve depends greatly on America’s political leadership which does not bode well.

June 26, 2018

STEPHEN LEEDER Taming the nuclear tiger

Among major threats to human and planetary survival, none comes close to nuclear war.

November 28, 2017

ANDREW GLIKSON. Humanitys stark choice: continue genocidal wars or try to save our planetary home.

CO2 levels reached 403.64 ppm in October 2017, a rise of 2.07 ppm above October 2016. This has triggered amplifying feedbacks from land and oceans. It is becoming clear the only way to avert environmental and nuclear catastrophes is to down-draw atmospheric CO2 using budgets on a scale currently only available to the military.

March 4, 2019

ROBERT MANNE. The myth of the great wave (The Saturday Paper, 2 March 2019)

This article originally appeared in The Saturday Paper."

It is as certain as anything in politics can be that during the next three months, as the federal election looms, the Morrison government will claim time and again that if Australians want to prevent a new wave of asylum seekers on boats they have no choice but to vote for the Coalition.

June 16, 2019

ROBIN SMIT, JAKE WHITEHEAD, NIC SURAWSKI. Australians could have saved over $1 billion in fuel if car emissions standards were introduced 3 years ago (The Conversation)

When it comes to road transport, Australia is at risk of becoming a climate villain as we lag behind international best practice on fuel efficiency.

January 26, 2018

ANDREW GLIKSON. An Orwellian climate: the rise of dangerous ideologies in a heating world.

It is impossible to say anything good about Ingsoc George Orwells brutal and inhumane 1984 dystopia, mimicking Hitlers and Stalins regimes, with only one proviso: Bar blowing atomic bombs in distant wars, no mention is made in the book of a systematic devastation of the planetary environmentsomething modern global civilization is in the process of wilfully committing through large-scale carbon emission and hair-trigger nuclear fleets. The parallel rise of extreme ideologies around the world, denying the existential threat to nature and habitats, is closely relevant.

June 3, 2019

PAUP KARP. Coalition delayed religious freedom reform and 'exploited' fear, Labor senator says. Deborah ONeill points to mischievous misinformation about Labors position on religious issues

Labor senator Deborah ONeill has accused the Coalition of botching religious freedom reform while profiting from faith-based communities fears about Labor. With Coalition MPs calling for greater protection for religious freedom in the 46th parliament, Labor MPs are debating whether to embrace the idea as a means to reconnect with religious voters or reject it as a form of divisive identity politics.

November 26, 2018

MACK WILLIAMS. Australia-US Defence Relationship: Are we in the prudent planning phase already?

The publication by the ABC of a previously highly classified analysis of the ADFs logistic problems in the early phase of Gulf War 11 has shed some critical light on the process by which Australia joined in that war. It underlined the urgent need to review the role of ADF generals and other senior personnel embedded into PACOM in the contingency planning the US military must be preparing for the ramping up of military confrontation against China so vaunted on several occasions recently by Vice President Spence.

October 24, 2018

GABRIELLE CHAN. Anyone but Nats': Rural figures come out against Barnaby Joyce and Nationals. (The Guardian 24.10.2018)

Prominent rural advocates have become increasingly vocal over a potential return of Barnaby Joyce to theNational partyleadership as the prospect of a concerted independent push in rural areas gains momentum after the Wentworth byelection.

January 30, 2019

ANDREW FARRAN. BREXIT: Its all about the Tories

The recent series of procedural votes in the British Parliament did not provide the hoped for route through the impasse for an unruffled Brexit. The hustle and bustle over the next few weeks will be more theatre than substance, deliberately, as Britain moves inexorably out the EU door, facilitated not surprisingly by Prime Minister Mays much maligned Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration. _

November 4, 2018

JOHN DALEY, BRENDAN COATES, TONY CHEN. To make housing more affordable this is what state governments need to do.

This week were exploring the state of nine different policy areas across Australias states, as detailed in Grattan Institutes State Orange Book 2018. Read the other articles in the series here.

This article was published by The Conversation on the 31st of October 2018.

November 25, 2019

Porters selective concern for fairness and justice

If integrity commissions shouldnt ask nasty questions in public, why can, and do, royal commissions?

November 26, 2015

Spencer Zifcak. UN Human Rights Council Weighs in on Australia

On 21st of March 2000, an Australian delegation appeared before the UN Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva. The Hon Philip Ruddock, then Minister for Immigration in the Howard Government, led the delegation. The meeting did not go well.

Confronted by exceptionally well-informed and assertive questioning by the Committees rapporteur, the Minister became condescending and defensive. His justifications for Australian policies, particularly in relation to Australias indigenous peoples, fell apart.

November 2, 2017

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND ...

In 1974 Rex Connor, Minister for Minerals and Energy in the Whitlam Government, had a vision of a national pipeline linking the gas fields in WA to the gas markets in the nations southeast. His attempt to raise funds for that project led to the so-called Loans Affair, which was central in the 1975 dismissal of the Whitlam Government. Come forward 43 years and Fairfax journalist Cole Latimer reports that ACIL Allen, in partnership with engineering firm GHD, has been contracted by the federal government to carry out a pre-feasibility study on a west-east gas pipeline to link the gas markets.

December 10, 2019

Julian Assange, A Court of Star Chamber, Cruelty Beyond Belief

In the 15th century, King Henry VII of England established a Court of Star Chamber. Operated by Privy Counsellors and judges, it developed a reputation for arbitrary power leading to cruel and unusual punishments. There was no due process and no rights of appeal for the accused.

October 23, 2018

QUENTIN DEMPSTER. A short history of the ABC. Part 2.

The Senate will be enquiring into political interference at the ABC. Quentin Dempster provides useful historical background to that inquiry.

May 14, 2020

BOB BOWKER: The Piano Stool: Israel-Palestine and the Arc of History

As an Adjunct Professor, sometimes released and later retired from diplomacy, I would pose to my students two questions.

December 11, 2018

CHRIS BROOKS. Swept Up in Frances Yellow Vest Protests (Truthout).

Ive never been tear gassed before. The smell is similar to fireworks and the effect is explosiveand effective. I immediately wanted to get as far away as I could from the noxious source of burning eyes and throat.

February 28, 2016

Peter Hughes, Arja Keski-Nummi and John Menadue. Part 1: Immigration Policy and Administration.

This article and the two following articles were part of a policy series that was posted in May/June last year and subsequently published in book form ‘Fairness, Opportunity and Security’. This is a repost from 25/5/2015.

Overview

This paper sets out a broad design for Australia’s immigration, refugee and settlement policies for the coming decades.

The issues are covered in three parts:

Immigration Policy and Administration
Refugee Policy
Migrant Settlement and Citizenship Policy

Part 1: Immigration Policy and Administration

October 11, 2018

JERRY ROBERTS Bill Shorten, Chris Bowen, Steve Bannon and the TPP

When Bill Shorten on camera announced that Labor would support the TPP he looked like a schoolboy telling the teacher that the dog ate his homework. Bill knew his excuse was phony. Will the TPP be the issue that finally forces the ALP back to the labour movement or will the Party fudge its way into office as it has done throughout the 30 years of neoliberal ascendancy?

July 26, 2018

RAMESH THAKUR. Is the sun setting on the US imperium? (Repost from 15/5/2018)

China is on the march to a dominant military footprint while American policy lacks strategic intent.

February 7, 2019

KERRY MURPHY. Interdicting refugees not protecting refugees

In the first Four Corners program of 2019 [1], Sophie McNeil reported on the major hurdles placed in the way of Saudi women getting to Australia to make a refugee claim. McNeil interviewed not just Rahaf Mohammed, who was quickly resettled in Canada, but others who are now in Australia seeking asylum. They told of other Saudi women who had been prevented from getting to Australia by either the Saudi Government or Australian Border Force officers.

July 1, 2018

ABUL RIZVI: Pezzullos Dark World View is Paralyzing Australias Immigration System.

In a recent speech to heads of international border agencies, Mike Pezzullo, head of Australias new Home Affairs Department, again highlighted the dark world view that, together with the policies of Peter Dutton, is paralyzing our world class immigration system.

July 10, 2018

JOHN QUIGGIN. Westward, look, the land is bright (Inside Story)

Amid more bad news from Washington come signs that attitudes are hardening against much of what the Trump presidency stands for.

February 19, 2016

Trevor Boucher. Tax principles and negative gearing.

I just wish that current comment about negative gearing would pay some attention to tax principles. Tax principles? Yes, they do exist.

A person who negatively gears a rental property has two objectives in mind: getting a rental return and reaping a capital gain on disposal.

The interest paid out is in pursuit of both objectives but the difficulty of apportioning it to each of those objectives means that the whole of the interest is charged against income, even income from other sources.

November 2, 2018

DUNCAN GRAHAM. Troubled by truth telling in Indonesia

Does the present government really understand Indonesia? Or want to? Ministers get detailed briefings from diplomats in Jakarta squirreling away in our biggest embassy, plus wisdoms from academics close to home.

October 12, 2018

SARAH ANN WHEELER, CLINE NAUGES. Farmers climate denial begins to wane as reality bites.

Australia has been described as the front line of the battle for climate change adaptation, and our farmers are the ones who have to lead the charge. Farmers will have to cope, among other pressures, with longer droughts, more erratic rainfall, higher temperatures, and changes to the timing of seasons.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal