December 13, 2019

Morrison is perfecting the seal on his own personal Canberra bubble. (SMH 11.12.2019)

If you think Scott Morrison’s been busy doing not very much since the election in May, you are much mistaken. In truth he’s been very busy doing stuff of not much interest to you. But sometimes it pays to take an interest in things that don’t seem of interest.

October 12, 2018

DENISE FISHER. New Caledonia’s independence referendum

On 4 November, indigenous and some other longstanding New Caledonian residents will vote on the question “Do you want New Caledonia to accede to full sovereignty and become _independent?_” The referendum process will re-shape the role of France in the South Pacific at a time of geostrategic change, and yet is passing relatively unmarked in our media and our region.

August 2, 2018

ANDREW FARRAN. Brexit – August holiday time for urgent reflections to avoid disaster

In that other hemisphere August is a time for holidays and reflection. For some it may be more a matter for reflection as they contemplate the virtual stalemate surrounding the UK’s quest to be rid of the EU. The fact is that having so inextricably integrated itself with the EU over so many decades extrication has become a nightmare. Crashing out rather than a phased withdrawal is now a more likely prospect.

March 18, 2019

ALISON BROINOWSKI Beware the Ides of March in Christchurch

It is better when a terrorist is not shot dead but arrested. So we eventually learn what is his - usually male – motivation, and governments and the courts are then able to respond rationally. But Brenton Tarrant made his motivation quite clear, documenting his crime in Christchurch with a 74-page manifesto, as well as filming his running online commentary. Few would care if police had shot him, taking to 50 the total who died on the Ides, Friday 15 March.

November 27, 2018

ANDREW GREENE. Australian Defence Force's Iraq war secrets revealed in newly declassified report (ABC News)

A secret Army study has detailed the widespread logistical problems faced by Australian forces in Iraq 15 years ago. ‘The Howard government had decided early in 2002 to begin planning the Iraq War, a year before John Howard announced Australia’s involvement….But it could not admit this to the public or even the ADF

February 20, 2018

MICHAEL PEMBROKE. North Korea: Why negotiations can't wait for denuclearisation

Few people know the true story of the Korean War; few understand the reasons for North Korean bitterness toward the United States; most are unaware of the extent to which Washington shares responsibility for the creation and perpetuation of the mutual hostility that has persisted for almost 70 years.

October 7, 2019

MIKE SCRAFTON. The real basis of Morrison's foreign policy

The Prime Minister’s speech ‘ In our interest’ to the Lowry Institute is curious, befuddled, and a little disturbing. As is normal with such presentations, it was peppered with political bromides and Morrison did not drill deeply into the details. The tips of much bigger and weightier conceptual massifs were detectable through the fog of self-laudatory political statements. The PM faces difficult a difficult task balancing Australia’s interest in pleasing both China and the US, his efforts to straddle these stools resulted in him employing specious values to cover raw self-interest.

November 10, 2018

QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Mass media power plays and the death of Fairfax

The competition regulator ACCC has now green-lighted the death of Fairfax Media Ltd., the governance entity what has been a foundational influence on public interest journalism in Australia since 1831.

December 19, 2015

Jon Stanford. Paris Agreement on Climate Change: Implications for Australia

Despite a generally positive reception to the Paris accord on climate change, the ideologues on both sides of the debate regard it as a failure. For the sceptics, the agreement that developing countries (which played a negligible role in causing the problem) can continue to increase emissions is so inequitable that it undermines the whole deal. For the more extreme green groups, given their view that renewables are ready to take over from fossil fuels now, the ambition is not nearly high enough and much more should have been done.

November 1, 2016

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Trickle down.

The economic theory known as supply side is better known as trickle down, because it goes something like this.

You give large sums of money to those who already have it, because they know the best way to handle it – they will invest it rather than simply trouser the loot.

As a result, the benefits trickle down to the rest of the community in the form of more jobs, better productivity and higher wages and conditions. And there may even be a few drops left for those at the very bottom: everyone benefits.

February 12, 2018

Warriors of the right stumble into minefield

The latest incarnation of the identity politics so despised by the elites of the right (but vigorously embraced when it suits them) is the non sequitur that what people have done previously (even generations ago) can be used as an excuse for their current transgressions.

May 8, 2020

NEVILLE ROACH. Temporary Highly Skilled Migration – a lifeline that needs managing, not axing or cutting

The issue of temporary skilled migration is again controversial, most recently following Kristina Keneally’s questioning of the size of all forms of migration. It shouldn’t be so. Properly managed, it remains an essential and extremely beneficial program.

October 28, 2019

PETER MILLER. How big alcohol is trying to fool the Australian public about alcohol guidelines

Over recent weeks, the alcohol industry has been drumming up media discussion about Australia’s guidelines on alcohol consumption, which are under review by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), with new draft guidelines expected to be released for public comment in November.

October 25, 2018

TONY KEVIN. What Aust Govt should do about the Khashoggi murder and other great Saudi crimes of state.

I believe Khashoggi was coldly and brutally murdered in a symbolic and deliberate medieval deterrent state punishment in a Saudi consulate on foreign soil. Australia should declare the Saudi Arabian Ambassador here persona non grata, and should withdraw our Ambassador in Saudi Arabia.

January 9, 2020

JOCELYN PIXLEY. Are the Liberals “born to rule”?

Australia’s tragedy has brought a scandal about hard issues: Morrison separated politics from government too publicly.

December 12, 2017

JOAN STAPLES: Incredulous disbelief at Gary Johns to head charities regulator.

The appointment of Gary Johns last week as director of the regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), has created incredulous disbelief and concern amongst NGO leaders. For decades, Johns has been proactive in criticising the public advocacy of NGOs and even their very existence.

May 9, 2018

ALISON BROINOWSKI. Banks wake up to their responsibilities: will governments be next?

Australians are watching transfixed as the Financial Services Royal Commission gives a running report on a reactive, insular, complacent, greedy culture which has broken its own rules and failed its customers for years. With the people’s verdict looming at the next election, Ministers who last year resisted holding the Royal Commission now proclaim a ‘wakeup call for every director, particularly those who are the custodians of the savings and shareholdings of Australians’ (Scott Morrison, SMH 2 February 2018: 1). The salaries and bonuses their top executives receive put politicians’ remuneration in the shade. The billions Australia spends on defence and on war, huge sums as they are, don’t compare with the combined turnover of Australia’s biggest financial institutions.

May 9, 2019

PATRICK WOOD. Federal election 2019: Could these 15 ideas restore faith in politics? (ABC News)

Should Australia have fixed parliamentary terms? Or real-time disclosure of political donations? How about a “citizen jury” that can decide on issues of national importance?

November 18, 2019

REBECCA THOMAS. Disability scheme housing should be more responsive to need

Despite Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) payments having been rolled out initially in 2016, with good intentions, the level of suitable disability accommodation in Australia is still woefully low. The approval process for individuals to get SDA into their NDIS plans has been slow, inconsistent and not transparent. Even the eligibility criteria are unclear.

June 4, 2019

DENNISS ARGALL. Thinking through the choppy issues in trade and strategic threat.

The public discussion of trade war and security issues is too simplistic. Trump’s bilateral adventures in liking and bullying will mean discussion of structural changes in regional affairs to which Australia will not be party. Trump is not a passing phenomenon. We cannot say as some are saying “our alliance is with the US, not Trump”.

February 26, 2019

IAN McAULEY. Banks and the housing bubble

Providing housing finance has always been a major part of banks’ business. But how did we allow them to make housing into speculators’ playthings?

December 31, 2018

MACK WILLIAMS. Trump: Beginning of end or end of beginning?

Following the major Republican defeat in the US mid-term elections, President Trump has accelerated preparations for his 2020 re-election replacing “Make America Great Again” with “Keep America Great” as the theme. This will put more pressure on achieving his initial campaign rhetoric to clear the decks. But the series of problems he encountered in the past few weeks are complicating his plans. This is the scene in which the shock announcements on Syria and Afghanistan need to be viewed.

January 30, 2018

MICHAEL KEATING. Who Will Pay for Trump’s Wars?

This article supports Hugh White’s conclusion that the US is unlikely to succeed in fighting China for primacy in Asia. The US has been living beyond its means for a long time, and has depended on foreign finance, and especially Chinese finance, to sustain its living standards. Challenging China would require sacrifices from the American public that they are ill-prepared to make. Accordingly, it is very risky for Australia to continue to base its foreign and defence policies on the presumption that the US can be counted on to maintain its position in Asia without substantial change. What country seeks to go to war with its banker?

June 7, 2019

GEORGE BROWNING. Democratise Energy: Reform Taxation: Save the Planet.

Stuck in a traffic jam every day on the way to work do you imagine this is the way it is always going to be – only a little worse? If your livelihood is agriculture, like your father and his father before him, you face challenges they did not have to face. Weather patterns are changing, droughts are more frequent and intense and the rains, when they come, are more torrential. Do you imagine this is now your lot and that as your children prepare to inherit the property, their experience will be the Murray Darling Basin 2018/19 on steroids? If you live in one of the mega cities of the world do you imagine that wearing a face mask to mitigate air pollution will be the norm if you dare to venture outside?

February 4, 2019

MUNGO MACCALLUM. The Basin plan has become a Basin scam

If you take half the water out of a river, it will affect the river.

August 18, 2020

The (failing) aged care system we have in 2020 operates exactly as it was designed to - Part 2

The starting point for a fit-for-purpose, 21st-century aged care system is public recognition that we can no longer continue to simply subcontract out our public duty of care for frail and vulnerable people. Older Australians deserve so much better.

April 1, 2020

ROSS GITTINS supports Pearls and Irritations.

I read the daily Pearls and Irritations email without fail and usually find various pieces I want to read.

November 5, 2019

JOCELYN PIXLEY. Politicians and Central Banks

Central banks are rarely discussed until booms turn to busts. Like many others, politicians turn on central bankers in ignorant blame, particularly when central bank (CB) messages are unattractive. The LNP detests the Reserve Bank of Australia’s urging that it fosters higher wages and engages in long-term investment. But what can CBs actually do?

October 7, 2019

PM Morrison tilts at UN windmill

During Scott Morrison’s recent trip to the US, did the PM absorb some of Donald Trump’s intellectual genius by a mysterious process of osmosis? How else are we to explain his incoherent, befuddled _speech at the Lowy Institute on Thursday evening_ where he puffed up his own importance by running down the United Nations?

April 9, 2016

David Stephens. Invading our smugness: thoughts on a diversity toolkit

Wednesday, 30 March, must have been a slow news day at the Daily Telegraph. It is difficult to find any other reasonable explanation for the fuss the Telegraph made about the ‘diversity toolkit’ it discovered on the website of the University of New South Wales. What followed, however, spoke volumes about how careless some in the mainstream media have become about evidence and, more importantly, how easy it is for ‘hot button’ issues to provoke massively disproportionate reactions.

July 24, 2019

CHAULA RININTA ANINDYA. Should Indonesia accept Islamic State returnees? (East Asia Forum)

Indonesian former members of the so-called Islamic State (IS) stuck in Syria are now under the media spotlight. Many of them live in poor conditions, are struggling to make ends meet, expressing remorse for joining IS and pleading for the Indonesian government to repatriate them. The issue of how to handle them is now stirring debate on social media.

November 26, 2019

QUENTIN DEMPSTER. The Frankenstein effect - why whistleblowers are needed now, more than ever

If we’re not properly informed .. we can create monsters. This is called the Frankenstein effect. Whether you’re a taxpayer, a citizen, a consumer or a shareholder expecting to live in a free and fair society with peace and prosperity, you certainly need whistleblowers and the journalists prepared to seek out and publish their revelations.

October 12, 2018

KATE MALTBY. What to Expect When a Woman Accuses a Man in Power.

Last week, the world gazed on as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified against a man backed by the strongest political forces in America. I couldn’t watch.

October 30, 2019

MICHAEL KEATING. The Official View on the Economic Outlook.

The last twelve months has seen GDP per capita fall in Australia, but the Government and its key advisers still expect the economy to recover to trend rates of growth in the current financial year. Nevertheless, the Reserve Bank is still calling for more fiscal stimulus, while on the other hand the new Secretary of the Treasury has raised the possibility that wage growth (and by implication economic growth) may not return to past trend rates of increase because of structural changes in the economy.

May 6, 2019

MIKE KELLY. Spirituality and religion

“Spirituality is important to me but I don’t like organised religion.” The social, psychological and historical forces that underlie this juxtaposition cannot be traced here; but it is still possible to suggest that it fails to notice (or at least to give due weight to) several important facts. A sick body has to be healed,not abandoned.

November 10, 2018

ISABELLE LANE. ‘Misleading and disingenuous’: Treasurer’s negative gearing claims slammed.

Experts have rubbished Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s claims that a proposed rollback of negative gearing will decimate the property market and send rents soaring.

This article was published by The New Daily on the 8th of November 2018.

November 26, 2019

Israelization of more than water in NSW

On November 21, the Zionist Federation of Australia awarded the Jerusalem Prize to the Prime Minister for his friendship and support of Israel. Scott Morrison used the occasion to praise the Israeli government and repeat his attacks on the deliberations of the United Nations.

Israel is expert in stealing water from the Palestinians.

November 19, 2019

KATE LAPPIN and MICHELLE HIGELIN. Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership spells danger for 1.1 billion women.

Australia is about to sign on to a new mega-trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). But what does this mean for the rights of 1.1 billion women and girls who live in the 15 countries involved in the deal?

March 5, 2019

MIKE SCRAFTON. ASPI’s Agenda for change 2019

To pinch an epigram from former Air Force colleagues in Defence, ASPI’s ‘ _Agenda for change 2019: Strategic choices for the next government_’ is a target rich environment. The contributors set out a smorgasbord of advice on strategic policy issues for the next government to chew on; some of which is commonplace, some keen insights, some very soundly based, and some more controversial and contestable.

July 22, 2016

JOHN McCARTHY. Foreign Policy. Australia, the United States and Asia. (Repost from Policy Series)

In a conversation in October last year with two British foreign correspondents and a former Japanese Prime Ministerial foreign policy adviser, the subject turned to the United States. All three interlocutors argued that in recent years Australia had superseded both Japan and the United Kingdom as the United States’ closest ally.

This view should not have come as a surprise.

November 27, 2018

PAUL COLLINS. The On-going Threat of Fundamentalism

Religious fundamentalism is having an increasing influence on democratic societies, most obviously in the US, but also here in Australia. The so-called ‘religious freedom’ debate has re-ignited the culture wars that originate in fundamentalist demands to maintain a kind of ‘purity’ of doctrine. Previously in Australia church and state had worked out a modus vivendi_, a way of operating in which each respected the other’s sphere. A fundamentalist approach to religious freedom endangers that and it is having a truly baleful influence in our society._

November 12, 2018

SAMANTHA MAIDEN. ‘You’ll find yourself in tears’: PM empathises with young asylum seekers on Nauru (The New Daily)

Border protection hardliner Scott Morrison has told a Lifeline fundraiser that he cried “on his knees” over the plight of young asylum seekers held on Nauru.

(Yet Scott Morrison has the power to end the suffering of the children on Nauru ,but does not do so.!!.John Menadue)

May 21, 2016

BOB KINNAIRD. Like earlier Free Trade Agreements, the new FTA with Singapore continues to waive labour market testing which has been designed to protect Australian workers and students.

Prime Minister Turnbull announced the Australia-Singapore ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’ (CSP) on 6 May last, just a few days before he called the 2 July election.

Cynics will suspect the timing and also see the Singapore announcement as something of a consolation prize. The much bigger FTA fish for the Turnbull government was the elusive agreement with India. This was originally promised by the end of 2015 but Special Trade Envoy Mr Robb this week said only that a deal is now possible around mid-2016.

July 29, 2020

AUSMIN, ANZUS and the need for contemporary relevance

On Sunday afternoon, the Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Defence departed Canberra aboard a RAAF A-330 on their pilgrimage to Washington DC for the annual Australia-US Ministerial (AUSMIN) talks.

July 20, 2018

MARTIN WOLF. How we lost America to greed and envy (The Financial Times 18 July 2018))

The US president is hostile to the core values the country used to stand for.

October 25, 2018

GARY SANDS. Vatican–China relations are warming up, but at what cost?

The Vatican is drawing closer to China. With the signing in September 2018 of a provisional agreement on the long-contested appointment of bishops in China, many are questioning what this development means for Catholicism in China and for the Vatican’s ties with Taiwan.

This article was published by East Asia Forum on the 23rd of October 2018.

October 16, 2019

MARK BUCKLEY. Some Home Truths

There are some things which are true, and some which are not. There are many things which are debatable, or contentious, or even undecided. But the true things will always be true. Our media habitually believes that stupid, nonsensical, or just plain wrong opinions deserve to be treated with the same weight as those things which are true.

June 29, 2018

JONATHAN FREEDLAND. Inspired by Trump, the world could be heading back to the 1930s.

The US president tears children from parents, and in Europe his imitators dehumanise migrants. We know where such hatred leads.

May 7, 2018

SPENCER ZIFCAK. Need an urgent medical transfer from Nauru? Forget it.

The former Commissioner of the Australian Border Force (ABF), Roman Quaedvlieg, made a remarkable admission last week. It occurred in an exchange on Twitter with a former senior medical officer who had worked with refugees on Nauru. In a tweet, Quaedvlieg admitted that during his tenure the ABF had deliberately obstructed and thwarted the transfer of refugee detainees from Nauru to Australia for acute medical treatment.

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