May 17, 2020

GEORGE BROWNING. The power of narrative: Nakba, annexation and antisemitism

Friday, 15 May, was Nakba Day, Nakba, (al-Nakbah, literally disaster, catastrophe, or cataclysm), is a commemoration of the events in 1948/1949 which saw approximately half the pre-war Palestinian Arab population driven from their homes.

January 5, 2020

DAVID MORE. The ADHA Is Pulling A Large And Costly Confidence Trick On The Australian Medical Profession.

The Australian Digital Health Agency is expecting the medical profession to make a huge effective financial contribution in time and effort to make a flawed My Health Record System even a very partial success. The profession won’t wear it I believe.

February 24, 2019

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Julie Bishop

So that was the great female hope of the Liberal Party that was. Julie Bishop, the only conservative who ever got to a bulls roar of the Lodge, ( the ambitions of her namesake Bronwyn were nevermore than megalomaniac fantasy) has decided to retire her shoes which most of the media thought was by far her most important attribute – home to Perth.

December 24, 2019

ANDREW AILES. Father Christmas loves everyone

Father Christmas lives many lives, Because hes a master of disguise.

You may have met him on a train, Or seeking shelter from the rain.

October 29, 2019

ALI KAZAK. Hong Kong and Gaza: media dance to different tune

Compare the ABCs and SBSs coverage of the pro-democracy marches in Hong Kong and the Marches of Return in Gaza.

June 28, 2018

Federal Court grants protective costs order to Professor Jenny Hocking in Palace Letters case (Media Release)

Emeritus Professor Jenny Hockinglast week secured an important decision on costsfrom the Federal Court of Australiain hercase against the National Archives of Australia seekingthe release of thePalace lettersabout the dismissal of the Whitlam government.

July 26, 2018

GARETH EVANS. How we should manage Donald Trump's meltdown world (Repost from 22/6/2018)

_The assumptions that have sustained and underpinned Australian security and economic policy for decades are in meltdown. The post-Second World War global order an open, rules-based system underpinned by a robust network of security alliances, and by effective multilateral institutions in which rules could be agreed and norms reinforced is the only one we have known in our modern history. Its maintenance has depended more than anything else on American belief in the liberal norms laid out in the San Francisco peace treaty and the Bretton Woods organisations. As the Trump administration conspicuously abandons those norms, that order is now unravelling with remarkable speed.

February 19, 2018

JOHN WATKINS. An ode to nurses: hospital stay highlights immense compassion and skill

In hospital this week after surgery, I learnt some things I already half knew. That I don’t cope well with pain, that time slows down in the middle of the night, (I swear I saw the hands of the clock in ICU move backwards sometime after 3am) and that nurses are a most precious resource, more valuable to our nation than iron ore and more deserving of recognition and celebration than our Test cricket team. Then I read the Herald’s warnings about a long-term recruitment crisis in nursing and was disturbed by the news that nurses were virtually priced out of certain areas of Sydney due to house prices. We ignore these warnings at our peril.

August 29, 2020

Sunday environmental round up, 30 August 2020

Food may be glorious but the way we produce and consume it can be bad for health and the environment. Unfortunately, we cant even rely on national dietary guidelines to give us good advice. Shareholders want Whitehaven Coal to exit coal. McKinsey produces recommendations for a low-carbon, high growth recovery and electric cars can be part of that. Up to 10,000 koalas died in the bushfires but NSW continues to log their habitat.

August 4, 2020

His country, weak or strong (Inside Story 3 August, 2020)

Xi Jinping is standing in an open military vehicle as it rolls down Beijings Avenue of Heavenly Peace. He greets the thousands of troops lined up on either side: Comrades, thank you for your work! Heads swivelling to keep their gaze on him, the soldiers shout back, And you for your work!

January 9, 2020

MIKE SCRAFTON. The re-election of Donald Trump

The biggest question in geopolitics is; will President Trump be re-elected? This issue will be prominent in the private councils of Heads of Government in Europe, Asia and elsewhere. However, the American presidential election will be determined by domestic issues that swirl around a collection of policy issues as well as identity and values.

November 13, 2019

FRANCESCA BEDDIE. The Golden Country, Australias Changing Identity.

I follow migration matters closely, so Tim Watts survey of the White Australia Policy and subsequent immigration policy was familiar territory. For those who dont, there is much to recommend in the story he tells and his demonstration of the economic benefits of skilled migration. But his analysis has flaws.

October 11, 2018

USHA M RODRIGUES. New research shows how Australias newsrooms are failing minority communities.

Australians from culturally diverse backgrounds often feel frustrated about media coverage of news events and issues that portray them in a negative light. A new study analysing media coverage of issues related to multicultural Australia found that more than a third of stories reflected a negative view of minority communities.

June 30, 2020

Dirty Dyson demolishes his own reputation

It seems impossible that the reputation of Dyson Heydon, retired High Court judge and one-time royal commissioner, will ever recover from the trashing it got last week.

October 12, 2018

PERCY ALLAN. Process, not Policy is where Left/Right can Agree.

The End of Hegemony

The battle between Left and Right is intensifying. Major parties thinks they will win this contest at the ballot box.

November 21, 2019

MATTHEW FISHER. The Politics We Have The Politics We Need.

Neoliberalism has been a catalyst for an abysmal state of politics characterised by political gamesmanship played with issues of fundamental public interest and the rise of populist authoritarianism. The many groups working for a better future in Australia need to come together around some shared principles for political change.

October 29, 2019

TONY SMITH. The use and abuse of victims

Victims and their suffering are politically important to the Australian government. The Coalition creates some victims who genuinely suffer as a result of policy decisions. They persuade other people that they are victims of political correctness for example in order to justify inquiries and legislation for which there is otherwise little need.

July 9, 2020

Lies and distortions about western policies in Asia. The media and the Tiananmen massacre myth - part 2

We are told that on the night of June 3, 1989, there was a massacre of protesting students in Beijings iconic Tiananmen Square. The New York Times story reduced Bob Hawke to tears - troops with machine-guns mowing down hundreds of peacefully protesting students at the centre of the Square.

May 18, 2018

TONY DOHERTY. Review of Hugh Mackay's "Australia Reimagined - Towards a compassionate, less anxious society".

Hugh Mackay has spent almost his entire working life asking Australians about what makes us tick, what are our basic concerns, what gives us hope and meaning, why do we do what we do?His acute observation, honed by the skills of solid social research, has illuminated his readers for at least fifty years. His analysis has been unfailingly optimistic, accessible, crystal-clear and frequently provocative.

His latest book, Australia Reimagined: Towards a more compassionate, less anxious society, is no exception. It extends his study of who we are and who we may become, challenging the better angels within us to build a more tolerant, compassionate and just society.

November 5, 2019

ALEX WODAK. Draft recommendations supporting drug decriminalisation released by the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into Ice

The Commissioner of the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into Ice, Dan Howard QC, will now consider what amounts to a draft report by Council Assisting, Sally Dowling SC. He will submit his officIal report in January, to be then considered by the NSW Government. Council Assisting accepts that relying heavily on attempts to cut drug supplies has not only failed but seems to have made a bad situation even worse. The 104 draft recommendations support increased emphasis on harm reduction, expanded and improved drug treatment achieved with enhanced funding and some form of drug decriminalisation.

June 13, 2020

PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 14 June 2020

What do organisations green promises mean and are they keeping them? Contrasting fortunes for insects: the locust plague in Africa and Asia is set to grow massively but overall insects are in serious decline globally. And they are not alone: species are being lost at an alarming rate globally and Australia is leading the way, although we are starting to do a better job of monitoring our negligence.

November 26, 2019

RICHARD FLANAGAN. Scott Morrison and the big lie about climate change: does he think we're that stupid? (The Guardian, 24 November 2019)

Of all the horrors that might befall the burnt out, the flooded, the cyclone ravaged and the drought stricken Australian this summer, perhaps none could be viewed with more dread than turning from their devastated home to see advancing on them a bubble of media in which enwombed is our prime minister, Scott Morrison, arriving, as ever, too late with a cuddle.

December 27, 2015

Frank Brennan SJ. Free speech and the plebiscite on same sex marriage

Chris Puplick, a former senator and former president of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board, is one of a rising chorus expressing strong objections to the Australian Catholic bishops daring to evangelise and speak publicly about their views on same sex marriage.

Writing in The Australian on 5 December 2015, Puplickasserts: ‘When a person or group of people is described in official publications as being seriously depraved, intrinsically disordered, less than whole and messing with kids, they are entitled to take offence, and to the extent they feel they have been vilified and subjected to hate speech they should of course seek to avail themselves of the protection against such calumnies as have been provided for by the various legislatures around Australia.

August 18, 2020

Barnabys Boondoggle: documents reveal $80m price for Watergate licences was nearly twice valuation (Michael West Media August 17, 2020)

The Coalition paid the tax haven-linked Eastern Australia Agriculture nearly double what independent valuers recommended for water licences. Most of the record $80 million from the sale ended up with a Cayman Islands company established by Energy Minister Angus Taylor. Investigative journalistKerry Brewsterhas this exclusive report.

June 21, 2020

What to do with monuments!

New statues commemorating heroes like Pemulwuy and other great leaders of the indigenous resistance must be accorded pride of place in a reconciled nation.

November 11, 2018

TONG ZHAO. Why China Is Worried About the End of the INF Treaty.

The U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty reflects Washingtons long-standing concern that the treaty constrained its ability to counter Chinas fast-growing missile forces in the Asia Pacific.

This article was published by Carnegie Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy on the 7th of November 2018.

November 9, 2018

ISHAN THAROOR. The party of Trump goes fully far-right (Washington Post, 08.11.18)

In the run-up to Tuesdays midterms, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) faced mounting condemnation over his openly white-supremacist politics. King has a long record of demonizing minorities, fulminating over the decline of white civilization and courting extremists who peddle racist conspiracy theories about the replacement of white Europeans by nonwhite immigrants.

June 23, 2020

Law can't hide hypocrisy, lying and double dealing

Forty years ago, Justice Anthony Mason, later Chief Justice of the High Court, made it clear that mere embarrassment – or the avoidance of being found to be a hypocrite – is not enough to justify the protection of the courts when the government is involved.

September 28, 2018

AARON PATRICK. Did 41 Australian soldiers die in Afghanistan for a failed war? (AFR 27.9.2018)

_Australia’s bloodiest war ended 100 years ago in melancholy victory.Australia’s most recent war may end in a delayed defeat, raising an awful question: what did 41 Australian soldiers die for?

August 24, 2019

PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 25 August 2019

Ocean scientists express the need for urgent action in eight policy areas to restore the health of the worlds oceans, while an article in the BMJ highlights the links between ocean health and human health. Australias current review of air quality standards is timely in light of a report identifying four locations in Australia that rank highly among the worlds sulphur dioxide level hotspots. And heat: January was Australias hottest month on record and July was the worlds hottest month on record.

May 31, 2016

TIM SOUTPHOMMASANE. Bamboo ceiling and race relations.

Many of us have good reason for thinking that the state of our race relations is under challenge. We frequently see stories about people being racially vilified on public transport, and our recent public debates are punctuated by controversies about race.

We know racism is a reality in contemporary Australian society. About 20 per cent of Australians say they have experienced racial or religious discrimination of some kind. About 11 per cent say they have been excluded from social activities or the workplace because of their race. About 5 per cent say theyve been physically assaulted because of their racial background.

August 27, 2020

The perils of privatisation and private greed

_The pandemic has starkly shown us the importance of good government, good public policies and good public institutions. It has also shown us the failure of private institutions, private markets and outsourcing to private providers. If the wholesale arm of Telstra had been kept in public hands we would have had a modern NBN long ago. The behaviour of the privatised Commonwealth Bank has bought shame to us all.

December 7, 2017

PETER BROWNE. Historian of the present.Ken Inglis

When I visited Ken Inglis early last month, a few weeks before he died, I found him engrossed in the days edition of the Sunday Age. It was perhaps eighty years since hed begun reading the papers as a schoolboy in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Preston, and during that time hed become one of Australias most highly (and warmly) regarded historians. But his passion for the press his fascination with the way it recorded the history of the present, as the historian Timothy Garton Ash calls it was undiminished. And not just newspapers on the table beside his bed were copies of the New Yorker, the magazine that helped shape his style and fuel his remarkable curiosity.

January 25, 2016

John Menadue. Australia Day doing well, but could do better.

The following repost is from Australia Day 2014.

I wonder what indigenous people thought when they saw Captain Phillip with his ships come uninvited and sail up Sydney Harbour in January 1788. There does not seem any doubt that despite their concerns they were less hostile than we are to boat people 226 years later.

Succeeding generations came by boat in their millions, including my ancestors who came from agriculturally depressed Cornwall in SS Northumberland to desolate Port Willunga in SA in 1847. Migration has never stopped. It has dramatically changed Australia, mainly for the better. I dont think any country has done it as well. It has brought vibrancy and greater openness If I could be more precise, I think Australia has benefited most from refugees. Whilst the first generation of refugees may often lack skills and education, they more than make up for it in enterprise, courage and risk-taking. That enterprise and high aspirations are often expressed through their children who often outperform others in education. Refugees are by definition risk-takers who will abandon all for a new life. They select themselves much better than a migration officer can ever select them.

September 7, 2020

Aged care should not be 'pre-palliative care' as Scott Morrison suggests

In Question Time, Prime Minister Scott Morrison made an unfortunate but revealing statement about our attitudes to aged care. He said: For those of us who have had to make decisions about putting our own family, our own parents, into aged care, we have known that when we’ve done that we are putting them into pre-palliative care.

July 26, 2019

THE HON BOB CARR. Tribute to Graham Freudenberg.

The speech arrived on the Premiers desk already clipped into the black leather folder. Did my staff realise that coming from the pen of the master and being a speech of welcome to a US President I would be disinclined to change a word? If so, their instincts were right. Two weeks after Bill Clinton in 1996 had been re-elected as President he and Hillary were in Sydney and without effort or fanfare- or even a word with me- Graham Freudenberg served up eight paragraphs that met the occasion of an official welcome speech with grace and historical resonance.

June 3, 2019

GAIA VINCE. The consequences of 4 degree warming. Only radical measures will work (The Guardian)

Experts agree that global heating of 4C by 2100 is a real possibility. The effects of such a rise will be extreme and require a drastic shift in the way we live

February 11, 2018

The curse of political mediocrity; the informed, bold, courageous policies that Australia needs in health are nowhere to be seen (Part 1 of 3).

This fair go mate country of ours is wealthy but in reality ever less egalitarian. Increasing Inequity is palpable and most notable in the problems we have with housing, education and health. Health outcomes for Individuals are increasingly dependent on personal financial wellbeing. Australians are spending about 30 billion dollars a year to supplement the care available from our universal health care system. Many, of course, do not have the resources to to cover out of pocket expenses. Many of these problems have become chronic as political intransigence inhibits the development of bold, informed and even courageous policies. Policy development, such as it is, is often insular, ignoring the successful tactics of other countries in addressing similar problems. The Commonwealth Fund, which compares the worlds health systems for quality, is critical of our efforts to swing our health system around to focus on the prevention of disease. Eleven other OECD countries are currently doing a better job than we are.How can we change this unsatisfactory situation? PART 1 of 3.

July 27, 2020

Do We Need Reaganomics Now?

The Treasurer has suggested that we should look to the supply side of the economy as we climb out of the COVID recession. He has raised increasing workplace flexibility, reducing green tape and bringing forward tax cuts as fruitful strategies. He has suggested we look back to the Reagan and Thatcher legacies for inspiration.

May 8, 2019

STEPHEN M WALT. America Isnt as Powerful as It Thinks It Is (Foreign Policy)

The era of unilateralism is overand Washington is the last to realize it.

June 12, 2018

JACK WATERFORD. Trust Labor on national security? Sure can't. (Canberra Times, 9 June 2018)

The looming five by-elections are giving the government an opportunity to polish and rehearse one of the centrepieces of its re-election strategy for the next election the argument that the alternative government Labor is fundamentally unsound on national security policy, as on borders and boat people and cannot be trusted with the responsibilities of government.

May 11, 2018

Methane, coal seam gas and the demise of the planetary life support system

The extraction and transfer from the earth crust to the atmosphere of every economically available molecule of carbon, including coal, oil, tar sand oil, shale oil, methane gas, coal seam gas and other forms of hydrocarbon, constitutes the most significant shift in composition of the atmosphere since the PETM hyperthermal event about 56 million years ago and the K-T extinction of the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago.

September 9, 2020

The strategic mirror: the Pentagon's China report reveals converging power and strategy

From Australias perspective, the Pentagons 2020 Military and Security Developments Involving the Peoples Republic of China Report is valuable for two reasons. It reinforces the absurdity of Australia planning to participate in high-intensity conflict against China under any circumstances. Additionally, it reveals the symmetry between US and China strategic policy.

November 20, 2019

PERCY ALLAN. Latest Research shows Australia still woeful at Policy Making.

For the second year running, independent research by two philosophically opposed Right and Left think tanks finds that public policy making at federal and state levels is rarely evidence and consultative based. Unlike last year, none of the 20 case studies this year got close to a perfect score of 10. Only four case studies got a sound score of 8 or 8.5. Sadly eight case studies got rated below 5.0.

September 15, 2020

Intelligence is the servant of policy, not its substitute

Jack Waterford has provided a scathing assessment of the role of the intelligence and security agencies in Australias current contretemps with China. How should we evaluate the suggestion that the conduct of our international relations is driven more by intelligence than it is by policy?

November 19, 2017

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Turnbull spooked into wrong strategy

Lets cut to the chase: whatever the optimists in the ALP may imagine, there is almost no chance of Kristina Keneally beating John Alexander in the Bennelong by-election.

December 16, 2019

MICHAEL PASCOE -Angus Taylor spotted fiddling more figures

The Minister for the Environment and Energy, Angus Taylor, seems to have a problem with numbers, whether its the Sydney City Councils travel budget or what year Naomi Wolf was at Oxford.

May 22, 2018

PETER DAY. An Open Letter to Pope Francis

Dear Papa Francesco,

The Australian Catholic Church is in deep crisis and is in urgent need of your pastoral presence and leadership.

Today, the former President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, archbishop Phillip Wilson, was formally charged with covering-up child sexual abuse; while Cardinal George Pell has himself be charged with sexual abuse and will face trial later this year.

May 12, 2020

JOHN WARHURST. Catholic Bishops must embrace transparency and accountability

Senior Catholic bishops must exercise leadership and firmly grasp the fresh opportunities now provided to them for increased transparency and accountability within the church. They must grab the moment.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal