September 20, 2020

Sunday environmental round up, 20 September 2020

One in four chance that global warming will exceed 1.5oC at least once in next five years, and floods, water scarcity and food insecurity are set to create more displaced persons. Climate change is one of seven factors increasing the likelihood of another pandemic. Killer cats!

April 5, 2020

PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 5 April 2020

Coronavirus is yet another serious disruption to daily life in Africa, while the Brazilian President prefers clearing the Amazon to managing the epidemic. Two reports from WWF highlight the contributions that nature-based solutions can make to solving global problems but not everyone agrees. Coal no longer ‘cheap’.

January 29, 2018

BOB DEBUS. Restoring integrity in nature conservation Part 1 of 2

The Australian Government’s short and pointless document, published just before Xmas and entitled Strategy For Nature 2018-2030, has been accurately described as a ‘global embarrassment’. It is useful only insofar as it reminds us that Australian government policies for nature conservation have, in the last five years, easily matched the destructive irrationality of polices directed toward climate change.

December 21, 2015

Peter Burdon. Why is the business world suddenly clamouring for a global carbon tax?

Among the various interests at the Paris climate talks, it is arguably the voice of business that has emerged most clearly. Many business leaders are now saying that if the world is intent on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there must be a worldwide price on carbonand a framework for linking the 55 schemes that exist in areas such as China, the European Union, and California.

Momentum has been building since May, when six of Europe’s largest oil and gas companies, including Royal Dutch Shell and BP, issued a letter calling for global carbon pricing system. That month, leaders from 59 international companies also signed a statement calling for carbon pricing to feature in the Paris agreement.

August 19, 2020

The economic outlook and taxation. Part 2

Yesterday Part 1 of this article argued that bringing forward the second and third stages of the Government’s legislated tax cuts would achieve very little economic stimulus and would damage the longer-term fiscal position. Part 2 today considers the future demands for government spending, and therefore how much revenue will be necessary after economic recovery.

August 15, 2018

VIJAY PRASHAD. The knife in Iran’s back: Trump opens door to chaos.

On Tuesday night, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani went on television to talk about the reinstatement of sanctions by the United States against his country. He prepared the country for more privations as a result of the sanctions. Responding to US President Donald Trump’s offer of a meeting, Rouhani said pointedly, “If you stab someone with a knife and then say you want to talk, the first thing you have to do is to remove the knife.”

January 13, 2018

GRAHAM FREUDENBERG. Revising history - A REPOST from June 16 2017

For octogenarians like me, the most astonishing development since the collapse of the Soviet Union is that so much of the West’s hopes for international sanity, civility and peace should now rest with, of all countries, Germany.

October 13, 2017

WE ARE ALSO READING AND LISTENING TO ...

Pearls and Irritations provides the following links for weekend reading:

June 25, 2018

KIM WINGEREI. Political Donations is a Scourge on Democracy

Despite the many rules in place to regulate it, donations remain a scourge on our democracy. The ill conceived ‘Funding and Disclosure’ bill is stalled in the Senate. What we need are simple regulations or maybe even banning political donations altogether.

August 20, 2020

Universities at the crossroads - will town trump gown?

University mergers proposed for SA may be the wrong answer to the wrong question. We have let universities become captured by commercial interests and corporate culture. Now Covid has wrecked their business model. It is time to reclaim them for the public?

December 10, 2018

HELEN DAVIDSON. Gareth Evans and Bob Carr join call for Labor to increase Australia's foreign aid. (The Guardian 7.12.2018)

_Former ministers want party’s national conference to commit to target of 0.7% of gross national income.

January 29, 2016

Cavan Hogue. Our Eurocentric media.

In January 2015, 12 people were killed in a terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris. The Australian media went into overdrive and gave saturation coverage for some days. In January 2016, 32 people were killed and 66 wounded in a terrorist attack in the northern Cameroun town of Bodo. There was no significant coverage of the Reuters report about this in the Australian media. Boko Haram has killed more people in more countries than its brothers in arms al Qaeda have killed in Europe.

November 4, 2019

ROB STEWART. Labor’s Vision Thing: Jobs and the future of work. Really?

Anthony Albanese delivered his first major “Vision Statement” last Tuesday. However, after 6 months wait, the Statement is a disappointing, damp squib of a thing. I hope future Statements are more…um, visionary.

April 26, 2019

TIM WINTON. Our leaders are ignoring global warming to the point of criminal negligence. It's unforgivable (The Guardian)

Humanity survived the cold war because no one pushed the button. On climate change, the button has been pushed again and again.

May 22, 2019

CLIVE KESSLER. A Malay game of thrones (East Asia Forum)

As in earlier constitutional struggles in 1983 and 1993, Malaysia’s federal government under Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is confronting the royal power and claimed prerogatives of the traditional rulers of the federation’s nine sultanate states.

August 5, 2020

The life and times of Robodebt and its victims

On 4 August, my article described the surprising criminal law traps which lie in wait for anyone who is robust towards Centrelink in their defence of Robodebt victims.

August 30, 2020

Thank you for your service

The Morrison Government’s hypocrisy ranges across many areas but one of the most galling is the disparity between the protestations about thanking veterans for their service and how they allocate veteran related budgets.

November 8, 2019

JERRY ROBERTS. Thinking about economics

Whether anybody – anybody at all – understands the workings of the world economy, or even the national economy, is a moot point but there are lots of interesting theories.

June 23, 2020

The Plight of Yezidi Refugees and why my heart bleeds

When the Federal government named the city of Armidale in northern NSW a regional refugee settlement in 2017, it was envisaged that the newly arrived refugees would need a lot of support to settle and integrate into the community, but we did not imagine how giving this support would change us.

November 16, 2016

RICHARD BUTLER. Attack on Mosul : Australian Involvement?

There does not appear to be a plan for the political disposition of Mosul, if and when the Iraqi/US led coalition frees it from ISIS. The political, economic, and confessional interests at stake have attracted all regional powers. Australia’s reasons for taking part, as the 4th largest contributor to the coalition, need clarification.

Almost a month ago, the Iraqi led attack on Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, began. Its aim is to drive ISIS out of that city. In addition to the Iraqi forces, this action is being joined by Peshmerga ( Kurdish ) troops, and Shia militia, supported by Iran.

March 23, 2018

CAVAN HOGUE. Reflections on the ASEAN-Australian Summit.

The ASEAN-Australian summit provided an opportunity for Australia to get close to countries and leaders important to us and to make a public statement to that effect. The media coverage in Australia tended to focus on human rights in Cambodia and Myanmar which was not what ASEAN was here to discuss. However, Prime Minister Najib made an interesting comment about the potential for ISIS to exploit the Rohingya crisis. Discussion on Australia joining ASEAN was mostly about whether ASEAN wanted us but largely ignored whether Australia was in a position to join an organisation that would require it to oppose nuclear weapons and the use of violence against other countries.

March 19, 2019

ALEXANDER HOLDEN and HEIKO SPALLEK. Laying Out the Road Map for an Australian Universal Dental Scheme

Can you imagine an Australia where visiting a dentist was as simple as visiting a GP? The Grattan Institute has released a report: Filling the dental gap: A universal dental scheme for Australia, that does just this. The report begins by highlighting the disparity between a routine health check with a GP and visiting the dentist; those visiting the dentist might expect it to hurt more, but usually in the pocket more than anywhere else.

May 23, 2019

JULIAN CRIBB. On the Need for an Earth Standard Currency.

In an age of existential emergency, when the future of human civilization depends on how successfully we manage to solve the ten global threats which are of our own making and which now confront us all, it is important for humanity to share a common currency for dealing with them, says Julian Cribb.

March 22, 2019

RICHARD BUTLER -Rationality and Fairness in International relations

The reliable and stable conduct of international relations rests on two key assumptions: rationality and fairness. Both are in dangerously short supply today. When a new government is formed in Australia, it should at least make a start on correcting the part we have played in shaping these circumstances

August 7, 2020

My Kafkaesque Trial

After Jim Kable wrote in reply to Henry Reynold’s Pearls and Irritations article, ‘When the War on Terror Turns inward’: “are there any updates” on what has become of Mr Moselmane, I feel compelled to provide a brief response.

March 29, 2019

MICHAEL WEST, JEFFREY KNAPP. Conflicts of Interest”R”Us: KPMG pursues PwC back into insolvency (Michael West).

The Big Four, the relentless architects of global tax avoidance, have returned to the insolvency business, despite selling out of it 15 years ago because of overweening conflicts of interest. When it became known last year that the bosses of PwC, EY, Deloitte and KPMG had been getting together for cosy dinners, and given the billions they make from government consulting, Labor asked the competition regulator to investigate cartel behaviour. Nothing much happening there. The Big Four may have begun as auditors, but they are expanding into everything from advisory and consulting to mopping up lawyers and now liquidators too. Michael West reports, with advice from retired UNSW accounting academic, Jeffrey Knapp.

October 28, 2019

ANDREW FARRAN. Hugh White’s Plan for defending Australia

Hugh White’s ‘How the Defend Australia’ is a masterly and lucid analysis of defence forward planning issues and force structure options that will be of enormous benefit to any thinking Australian with an interest in this area. As well as deserving high praise, it is of course open to some questions and specific criticism.

June 7, 2018

JIM COOMBS. Counting.

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” The mantra of the managerialist “economic rationalists” has led to oversimplification and oversight (in the sense of ‘failing to see’) of what actually matters: the real values involved in the work.

July 28, 2020

The path out of recession: knowns and unknowns

Recovery from the recession will be slow and painful because of uncertainties: the coronavirus is just one of them.

October 22, 2018

ALI KAZAK. Mr Morrison in Jerusalem: serving war or peace?

In his recent press conference Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: he is open to the suggestion of recognition of Israel’s capital in West Jerusalem, “the opportunity” for “a capital for a Palestinian Authority” in East Jerusalem and the Government’s commitment to a two-state solution in the Middle East living side by side remains Australia’s policy. He informed us of his decision to vote against the United Nations resolution on Palestine to chair the G77, his proposal to the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to appoint defence attaches in the Australian and Israeli embassies to further enhance cooperation on defence and of Australia’s review of Iran nuclear deal.

July 6, 2020

It’s time to strip ‘national security’ of its sacred cow status. Part 1

_The Prime Minister has just announced the most hawkish turn in Australia’s defence policy since the end of the Cold War. All in the name of national security, the mantra of governments intent on justifying sprawling, costly and often unaccountable security establishments. _

January 22, 2019

JOHN KERIN. Free Trade (sic), Current ‘Negotiations’ (Part 3)

The world is agog with the constantly changing state of play between the US and China on trade issues and also the possible outcomes of Brexit. Both have the high probability of affecting our economy.

December 10, 2018

KIM WINGEREI. The Particracy Rules!

If this week of political machinations, tactical manouverings and partisan grandstanding hasn’t proved beyond doubt what the real problem with our democracy is, I don’t know what will. We don’t live in a democracy, we live in a particracy.

April 20, 2020

JOHN DWYER. Questions we need answered before we can safely ease COVID-19 restrictions.

COVID decisions at the cross roads; which path will Australia take?

July 31, 2020

Payne sensibly says no to Pompeo's coalition of the willing (AFR 29 July, 2020)

Australia has avoided joining the Trump administration’s new cold war. But big questions about handling the escalating US-China rivalry remain unanswered.

April 29, 2019

ANDREW SALMON. South Korea unveils national strategy for 5G (Asian Times)

South Korea expects to create 600,000 new “quality jobs” by 2026 thanks to fifth-generation, or 5G, mobile technologies, and hopes to leverage its first-mover advantage in the sector globally, a senior government official said on Monday.

November 3, 2017

JOHN AUSTEN. Trouble in NSW infrastructure paradise, Part 2.

This is a second instalment about the onslaught of NSW infrastructure puff pieces.

January 10, 2020

JOHN MENADUE. A Repost: Drug policy reform series

Attached is a collection of articles on drug policy reform, which were published as a series on Pearls and Irritations between 6 and 11 August 2018. This series is designed to draw attention to this important issue, and to the failure of our current policies.

February 20, 2019

PETER BROOKS. Will Labor Really Be Brave On Health Reform - Response To National Press Club Address By Catherine King.

The major challenges that beset our health system are well articulated with the obvious commitment to strengthening Medicare, making it fairer and tackling some of the major funding deficits introduced over the past decade such as the Medicare rebate freeze. The major and anticipated announcement of the establishment of the Australian Health Reform Commission is very welcome – but will it bring real change to the health system. Will preventive care and public health be funded appropriately, will we start to focus on health systems instead of just on hospitals. Lets hope so. The system needs real and probably disruptive reform – lets hope that a Labor Government will really set in place the mechanisms and governance structures for lasting change. All Australians deserve nothing less for a system that is good BUT could be GREAT.

November 14, 2019

MIKE SCRAFTON. Irish Reunification-Child of Brexit

Arriving at agreement on a new Irish Constitution following a post-Brexit Border Poll would expose the cracks in Irish identity. There is little public evidence that any government—in the Republic, Northern Ireland, or the UK—has given serious thought to the steps that would need to follow a double yes vote.

January 21, 2019

STUART REES Saudi Teenager and Australian Due Process

T_he human rights of Saudi Arabian teenager Rahaf Aqunun received fast recognition by Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and subsequent welcome refuge in Canada. By contrast, Australian Ministers insisted that in assessing claims for asylum in Australia, the government would follow its usual adherence to due process._

August 3, 2018

MICHAEL JENSEN. Nigerian farmers are under attack, so why don't we hear about it? (ABC NEWS, 02.08.18)

We’ve heard a lot lately about white South African farmers being killed in farm murders. But another group of African farmers are being killed in far greater numbers and we’ve barely heard a whimper.

February 6, 2019

ADELE FERGUSON. The regulators failed bank customers but they are now being trusted to fix this mess. (SMH 5.2.2019)

After a year of shame and grovelling apologies, the day of reckoning finally arrived.

_For those Australians hoping for structural separation of the banks, an overhaul of the regulators or heads on sticks, royal commissioner Kenneth Hayne’s verdict would have been disappointing.

January 10, 2020

TONY SMITH. Gladys for Prime Minister? Winning friends in a crisis

It has been interesting to watch the various leadership styles on display during the bushfire crisis. In contrast to the Prime Minister’s pathetic attempts to dominate, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has displayed integrity, administrative ability and empathy. Indeed it seems a pity that she is not Prime Minister.

May 10, 2018

RAMESH THAKUR. Trump is Master of the Art of Making America Grate.

Trump’s decision yesterday to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal is a global tragedy likely to unsettle an already volatile Middle East and a world in some disarray.

Trump has pulled out of the deal not because it was flawed, but because it was working as intended and this posed an insurmountable obstacle to potential military strikes on Iran. As a consequence, Trump’s decision will worsen relations with Europe, destabilise the Middle East, complicate negotiations to reverse North Korea’s nuclearisation and damage the global nuclear order.

October 1, 2020

Lobbyland. The gambling lobby and how to buy friends and influence governments

There is no shortage of post-political appointments to engage the talents of former politicians to lobby for the gambling industry.

August 25, 2020

Dear Labor

Has anyone among your parliamentary cohort noticed that neoliberalism is a failure? Has it occurred to anyone that promoting selfishness and making people insecure is a recipe for people to turn on each other and shred the social fabric? Does anyone think it might be time to stop being Liberal-lite? Time to champion the battlers and stop pandering to the fat cats? Time for a Labor party to remember why it was founded?

May 16, 2018

ROBIN DERRICOURT. Inside the belly of the monster (and a Cold War mind).

A 1960s British student leftist did not expect to find himself on a tour inside the Pentagon, or briefed by a US Army Colonel on his role there, tracking US radicals, with a distorted Cold War model of who they were – but, well, it happened.

April 21, 2018

EMMA CARMODY. Lack of transparency in irrigation efficiency programs

An article by Kerry Brewster in the Guardian this week reports on a significant fraud investigation by Queensland’s Major and Organised Crime Squad (Rural) into subsidies granted to a landholder under the Healthy Headwaters Water Use Efficiency Program.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal