August 30, 2020

The militarization of Australian history and the myth of shared values

Fifteen years ago when I wrote an op.ed for The Age newspaper about the militarization of Australian historical memory, amidst the frenzy of war commemoration then careering out of control, the sub-editor gave it the title, The Howard history of Australia.

October 17, 2019

HAROLD LEVIEN. Our economic downturn

The Government has failed to respond to Australias continuing economic downturn despite both increasing unemployment last measured at 720,000 and underemployment of 1.14 million.

June 12, 2018

JAMES FERNYHOUGH. Revealed: This is how much ordinary Australians really earn. (The New Daily June 8, 2018)

Acasual glance at the news in recent months may have left youthinking the average Australian earns almost $85,000 a year.

If that soundedinsanely high to you, then your instincts were bang on. An ordinary Australian earns way, way less than that.

But it doesnt appear to have stopped Treasurer Scott Morrison using the figure tosell hisincome tax cuts.

June 13, 2016

PETER WHITEFORD. Where is social welfare in the election campaign.

The federal governments largest single ticket spending item welfare has failed to rate a mention in the election campaign.

It is the $152 billion elephant in the room. It accounts for around 35 per cent of total government spending. And it affects in one way or another most Australian adults lives. But beyond childcare policy, where is the discussion and debate about the Australian social welfare system in the election campaign?

August 16, 2020

The (failing) aged care system we have in 2020 operates exactly as it was designed to - Part 1

Outsourcing the governments duty of care for older Australians has been at the core of structural failings in aged care for the last two decades. Covid-19 is just the latest in a long string of failures.

November 27, 2019

YVONNE PATTERSON. Arrows of Hate: the Religious Discrimination bills

_On 20 November, nine days after Armistice Day, the federal Attorney General laid out a battle plan sanctioning new discriminations against citizens needing hospital care and against older Australians needing aged care. Hospitals and aged care will be included in the Religious Discrimination Bills.

May 3, 2016

Douglas Newton. Lost opportunities for a negotiated peace during the Great War: from 1917 to 1918. Part 2.

During 1917-1918, the Australian divisions in France endured casualties far worse than at Gallipoli. There were huge losses.[1] New evidence shows that four out of five of the AIF who survived were affected by disability of some kind.[2] Yet, for contemporary Australians, it is battle-honours that leap to mind, especially Villers-Bretonneux. This is scarcely surprising, considering the money being spent.

The lesson hammered home in the Anzac centenary is quite simple: war is a bad but necessary thing so it is just as well that Australians are so good at it. This is to keep Australians locked in a kind of protracted adolescence with regard to war.

December 6, 2018

STEPHEN LEEDER. Private-public partnerships the good, the bad and the ugly.

Partnerships between public agencies and private providers demand unusual degrees of vigilance of both parties to ensure that the contract between them explicitly states in great detail their individual expectations and accountabilities. Values will differ. The agreement should, if possible, be tested component by component before going live.

January 23, 2020

JOHN MENADUE. Who is responsible for 'Commonwealth emergency management"?

The role of the Department of Home Affairs is clear

April 22, 2020

MICHAEL KEATING. Economic Policy post Covid-19. Part 1.

This article considers economic strategy post Covid-19. In Part 1, today, it is argued that the principal requirement will be to generate a faster rate of increase in aggregate demand, and that Morrisons proposed business-friendly policy settings will not help. Part 2, tomorrow, will consider how best to increase aggregate demand and what that implies for the budget balance.

February 27, 2019

MIKE SCRAFTON. Facilitating repression, abandoning values.

Admirable as Senator De Natales persistence was in pressing Defence on the issues of military sales to Saudi Arabia, he pursued the wrong issue. Australia is, and will remain, a trivial player in the global arms market and the Yemeni horror is not really pertinent to the sale the Senator was questioning. Clearly Australias reputation could be tarnished indirectly through being associated states perpetrating an unspeakable calamity in Yemen. But they also oppress their own people and this makes the EOS deal an important moral and political issue and not a strategic one.

October 21, 2018

MUNGO MACCALLUM. A fairy story.

It started as theatre of the absurd, but by the end of the week it had become an increasingly improbable fairy story.

November 2, 2017

ANDREW GLIKSON. Hurricanes and megafires abound, but dont mention the words climate change

As extreme hurricanes and extensive wildfires proliferate around the globe, an internet search suggests that, in reporting these events, the words climate change have almost disappeared from much of the mainstream media. Some exceptions include the SMH[1] and the Guardian[2]. Nor have numerous ABC reports of the Houston floods included references to climate change. See for example at the following links[3]

October 28, 2018

Farewell to Nuclear Arms Control? (Asia Global Online, 25 October 2018)

The United States has affirmed strategic competition with both Russia and China as the central organizing principle of its national security policy. The announcement on October 20 by President Donald Trump that the U.S. would withdraw from the 30-year-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty because of alleged Russian violations might be a key plank of that policy.

December 17, 2015

Gabrielle Appleby. What say do our elected representatives have in going to war?

The authorisation of military force is one of the most serious and consequential powers that governments possess. This power should be exercised with appropriate caution and, where circumstances allow, considered deliberation. Governments should be publicly accountable for its exercise.

Across the world, debates have emerged around the extent to which the legislative branch should be involved in and even have the final say on authorisation of military deployment. So what are the debates, and current practice in, three key Western nations grappling with the threat posed by Islamic State (IS) the UK, the US and Australia?

November 1, 2018

AARON PATRICK. Tweet victory: How Libs lost Wentworth. (AFR 1.11.2018)

_Five days before the Wentworth byelection, when Liberal candidate Dave Sharma was starting to claw back support in the seatPrime Minister Scott Morrison was desperate to save, Facebook and Twitter lit up with a warning: if local doctor Kerryn Phelps doesn’t come second, the Liberals win.

December 2, 2019

HAJO DUKEN. No one is above the law

This sounds so obvious and innocent. However, in times of raids on journalists and the national broadcaster, moves to substantially curtail the liberty to protest, the prosecution of Witness K and his lawyer, and many other clashes between the law and our liberties, do we not have every reason to be suspicious and ask what politicians really mean when they lecture us that no one is above the law?

July 31, 2018

JIM COOMBS. Man Up.

The facts cannot be more obvious, so when will us smarties tell the world: The neo-liberal (what the hell does that mean) idea of unrestrained business and minimal government, i.e., no regulation of shonks, see banks, insurance companies, labour hire firms, gambling enterprises, franchise swindlers, Uber et al sucking off at the margin, does not work for the majority of our people, in particular the poor, the weak and the old, while making those shonks rich beyond the wildest dreams of avarice.

December 18, 2019

JOHN TAN. Can we trust politicians? And newspapers?

A few days ago, the ANU released a revealing study showing that trust in government is at its lowest level on record. Only one-in-four Australians said they had confidence in their political leaders and institutions. And 56 per cent said government is run for a few big interests. Just as interesting is the way that some commercial media treated this significant news.

December 12, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Fake news, spin and media complicity on border protection and boat arrivals.

In his desperate political situation, Scott Morrison last week became even more shrill in telling us Bill Shorten is a clear and present threat to Australian security and Ill fight them [the ALP] using whatever tools or tactics I have available to me to ensure that we do not weaken border protection laws.

His tools and tactics are designed to appeal to fear and are based on deception and misrepresentation.

The Coalition sees boat arrivals or the threat of boat arrivals as a means to advance its political interests. It is as sordid as that. As a senior Liberal party official told the American Embassy some time ago, the more boats that come, the better for us.

October 12, 2018

CHENGXIN PAN. Pence on China: reviving a neo-conservative Dream (Lowy Institute, 08.10.18)

Ever wonderedwho is now the culprit for many of the woes of the United States? Then look no further thana major speechdelivered by US Vice President Mike Pence last week.

January 29, 2018

JOHN MENADUE War and militarisation has become our new norm.

War and militarisation has become ever present in so much of our public life.

February 11, 2018

The ABCs selective publication of classified documents: gutless kow-tow or responsible journalism?

The ABC has been blasted by journalist critics over its selective editing of the national security classified and Cabinet-in-secret documents it received from a bushie who discovered them in discarded filing cabinets.

December 14, 2017

KIM WINGEREI. Political Donations Must End!

Political donations are a scourge on democracy. No business, corporation, organisation or individual gives without the expectation or hope of an outcome, and it fundamentally undermines the democratic decision making process. Banning all donations to political candidates, representatives and political parties is the simple solution.

October 1, 2020

Lobbyland. Policy in a crisis: who makes the rules?

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, right? Australians are certainly living through extraordinary times. The Covid-19 crisis has put lives, jobs and businesses at stake, enormous government spending has been required, and the speed of the response mattered at least as much as the design of the policy.

January 1, 2019

RICHARD CHAUVEL. The Cycle of Violence in Papua.

The killing of construction workers in Nduga and the Indonesian security forces subsequent military operations impact quite differently on the politics of the Papua Indonesia conflict. It is contested whether the 16 construction workers were unarmed civilians or members of the security forces but the event on 2 December 2018 marked a departure from the predominantly peaceful, political struggle for independence developed since 2000. In terms of numbers of those killed, it was the largest attack in recent years.

April 2, 2019

WARWICK McKIBBIN. How should technocrats count the true cost of climate?

A bad model with transparent assumptions is better than arbitrary analysis based on wishful thinking, writes Warwick McKibbin.Published in AFR on 26 March 2019

May 6, 2018

SHERENE SMITH. Company boards are stacked with friends of friends so how can we expect change?

Social connections drive board appointments and more than two-thirds of directors in the 200 largest public companies are on the board of multiple companies. So whoever replaces ex-AMP chairwoman Catherine Brenner will likely be drawn from a small pool of people.

March 31, 2019

JOHN KERIN. Wage compression and its wider implications, economic and political.

All macro-economic variables relate to one another. The economic growth rate, monetary and fiscal policy, budgetary policy, business profitability, investment, taxation (and the avoidance and evasion of tax), the wage rate, transfers and trade balance all interact and adapt to many factors, some beyond our control. There are always choices to be made at various times on the basis of evidence and analysis, but ideological and philosophical political choices always need critical analysis. A major problem in Australias economic management is that short term fixes increasingly deny the chance for reform.

January 24, 2018

ALISON BROINOWSKI. Murky wars and missions unaccomplished.

In December 2017, Australia announced the withdrawal of six RAAF Hornets from Syria. But this is not our mission accomplished moment. The US is committed to a longer war in Syria, and its target is Iran.

September 3, 2019

MINXIN PEI - An interview on China and Hong Kong (Project Syndicate 26-8-2019)

Many Chinese are deeply conflicted:they may not like the CPC, but they are proud of their country and resent outside criticisms.

February 19, 2018

MICHAEL MULLINS. Joyces schooling is the real scandal

It is unhelpful to judge Barnaby in the way the prime minister Malcolm Turnbull did on Thursday. Its better to focus on a critique of the culture. His leadership of the Nationals may be no longer tenable, but the best thing our political class can do for the long term is to make laws that foster respect for women.

May 22, 2019

CHARLOTTE PALMER. Is the Australian War Memorial a place of healing?

Dr Brendan Nelson, director of the Australian War Memorial, has defended the expansion of the Memorialas a way to provide a therapeutic milieu for veterans and their families. Critics say the obscenely large amount of $498 million is needed, not for a big expansion, but to address the unmet needs of veterans mental health.

November 1, 2018

LAURIE PATTON. Planning for smart cities Code of Practice released

Enhanced telecommunications connectivity, data insights, digital planning practices and innovation districts will underpin the creation of so-called smart cities. Thats the theme of a Code of Practice released this week as part ofSmart Cities Week Australia. Developed by leading smart cities advocacy group theSmart Cities Counciland theGreen Building Council of Australiathe voluntary code is designed to shorten the transformation cycle and is aimed at both government and industry players.

September 27, 2018

ANDREW GLIKSON. Climate projections.A world on borrowed time.

Current temperature trajectories are on par with or exceed the IPCCs dangerous projections (Figure 1). Acting as the lungs of the biosphere, over tens of millions of years the atmosphere developed an oxygen-rich carbon-low composition, allowing the flourishing of mammals. The anthropogenic release to the atmosphere to date of more than 600 Gigaton of carbon (GtC) is reversing this trend, threatening to return the Earth to conditions which preceded the emergence of modern life forms, including humans.

February 4, 2019

MUNGO MacCALLUM. From catastrophic to merely awful.

Coalition in new year bounce, screamed The Australian ecstatically. Well, not all that much of a bounce the latest Newspoll showed that the governments position had improved from catastrophic to merely awful.

October 28, 2018

WILLIAM BRIGGS. Snow globes on the road to war

I stood the other day in a post office queue. Among a range of souvenirs marking the centenary of the end of WWI, were commemorative snow globes. It suggested all that is perverse in marketing, but then it might be argued that marketing is a perverse science. Australians are increasingly being convinced to buy a product that they neither want or need militarisation and all that goes with it.

August 19, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Creeping privatisation of public land. The new squatters

Not only is a developer wanting to construct a ‘wedding factory’ in the South Head National Part, but private interests have erected big tents on adjacent Camp Cove Beach for a party on Sunday 19 August 2018 (last night). Camp Cove Beach is one of the most beautiful and historic beaches in Australia. It is remarkable that private interests can take over a public beach like this in Australia for a private party.. We just don’t do that! What a hide!

July 23, 2020

The question avoided by Kerr and the Palace What does your Prime Minister say?

In the rush to judgement on the Palace letters one image stands out the early call, made before the letters had even been released - the Queen was NOT informed!. As if the entire cache of Palace letters could be read from just one letter, written by the key protagonist Sir John Kerr, after the event.

October 14, 2019

KELLIE TRANTER Australia's appetite for Hypersonics

While the media were understandably distracted by Secretary Espers comments on deploying intermediate range conventional weapons in the Pacific region in the lead up to the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) in August, documents produced pursuant to Freedom of Information laws reveal our governments longer running enthusiasm to deepen our cooperation with the United States on hypersonics.

June 28, 2018

JAMES O'NEILL. AUSTRALIA AND THE BRI: WHY SO RELUCTANT?

The Sydney Morning Herald has recently published a series of articles (18-23 June 2018) on Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The articles come at a time when relations between China and Australia are getting distinctly cooler.

July 27, 2018

ANDREW LEIGH. Rising to the challenge of inequality. (Repost from 18/6/2018)

Thomas Piketty and his colleagues have used new data to track inequality and sharpen the choices we face.

October 12, 2018

JIM COOMBS: Whats good for General Bullmoose.... The Everest Affair and the Banking Royal Commission show the highly limited (I am attracted by the old term purblind)thinking which is driving the nation.

Prime Minister Morrison, for such, alas, he is, sees the Opera House as a billboard for promoting whoever can pay for it. Thats BUSINESS, isnt it ? Anything that turns a quid is, for them, Business, and thats good enough. Indeed this government seems to think its job is done if it looks after business, and devil take the hindmost. And then sell off government functions so that some entrepreneur (French for middleman) can squeeze a profit out of the citizens. The sale of NSW Land Titles Office ( which one would think was a key function of government : control of land and title) led to gouging up to 1800% of previous state charges. Great for Business, bad for the state and its citizens. The privatisation of the responsibilities of government, such as the operation of prisons is an abrogation of its responsibilities and has dire results, due to lack of adequate supervision. When children are taken into care, subject to court orders, the government should not pass them on to agencies which may or may not do justice in the situation, which is the states responsibility.

July 13, 2018

PAUL MALONE. Justification for Syrian airstrikes evaporates.

The justification for the US, British and French airstrikes on Syria on April 14 has evaporated with the new finding by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that no organophosophorous nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties.

April 9, 2018

CAROLYN PETTIGREW. Tourism and NSW National Parks - looking to the future. Part 2 of 2

The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is facing a future crisis that perhaps is not fully recognised by supporters of nature conservation. Visitation is skyrocketing http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/research/NSWparkspopularity.htm which on the face of it is wonderful. More and more people are beginning, potentially at least, to value our national parks and enjoy the experience of visiting them. On the other hand, successive governments have cut funding to NPWS. Staff numbers and financial resources have dwindled relative to the areas to be managed. The solution on both sides of government seems to be to increase tourism opportunities with the help of commercial interests. https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/john-menadue-the-new-squatters-in-our-national-parks/ That may be a reasonable response, but it shouldnt come without some serious caveats. Do we really want the Starbucks solution as in USA National Parks? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/26/yosemites-secretive-starbucks-cafe-opens-in-park-to-delight-and-dismay

October 15, 2019

China on the move

Australia has to have a relationship with both China and America. Neither are perfect. China has a better idea of where it is going than America. Morrison is going all the way with Trump. That is not the answer.

May 2, 2018

FRANK BRENNAN. Newstart needs a new start,

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be hearing a lot about company and personal income tax cuts. The Turnbull government holds the view that tax relief for companies and middle-income earners is necessary to improve the economic prosperity of Australia, offering a financial hand up to households struggling to pay their bills.

December 6, 2018

ALLAN PATIENCE. Scott Morrison a politician out of his depth?

Can Scott Morrison inspire the nation to reach for a better future for our children and grandchildren? Does he have a vision for the country? Or is he floundering as he tries to ride two tigers simultaneously his right foot on the back of the alt-right tiger with Tony Abbotts rictal grimace spread across its face; his left foot on the back of a tiger of panicking moderates? If the tigers head off in opposite directions, Morrison will fall flat on his face.

August 11, 2020

To mask or not to mask? Is that the question?

_The debate about wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic has fluctuated, but there now seems to be consensus that it is safer for the public to wear masks to avoid or at least reduce community transmission.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal