September 4, 2018

GARY P SAMPSON. BREXIT: A Pandoras Box awaits the UK at the WTO

Whether the U.K. crashes out from the E.U. or retains some residual connections with the Customs Union it will need to negotiate ab initio its position as an independent, free-standing member of the WTO. Indeed the U.K. is placing much reliance on the WTO for facilitating its future global trading arrangements. What difficulties will face the U.K. in achieving its post-E.U .trading status?

September 13, 2020

Infrastructure Stimulus: there are smart projects out there, if we care to look

Infrastructure spending is touted as the path to economic recovery, but our leaders can no longer afford to throw billions at programs with little economic merit or policy logic.

September 20, 2020

Freeing the indigenous flag

It is a flag that can be admired and cherished, a beacon for reconciliation and beyond. It is, in the truest sense, an Australian institution.

August 10, 2020

Welfare state - do we even need one?

_Welfare state, a concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of citizens.

July 26, 2020

Ignorance or malice on new security laws for Hong Kong?

The announcement made in May this year that Beijing would enact national security laws for Hong Kong aroused hysteria worldwide. One wonders whether this came from ignorance or malice.

March 24, 2019

LAURA TINGLE. Scott Morrison said all the right things after Christchurch attack, but his history tells another story (ABC News 22.03.19)

_New Zealand artist Ruby Jones shared a simple drawing online last week after the massacre in Christchurch._It depicts a Muslim woman being embraced by another woman in grief . “This is your home and you should have been safe here”, the message says.It is an image that has gone viral online and now adorns buildings all over Christchurch.

Morrison has a history of low shots. He has form in this sort of politics.

December 10, 2018

JACK WATERFORD. Why do crime-busters need ASIO-type powers?

Any political cynic will see excellent reasons for giving the Australian Federal Police a lead role in the crusade against online child pornography, the grooming of children for sexual abuse, and other sexual abuse of children, matters which might ordinarily fall within the province of state police forces.

September 21, 2020

No, Scotty, gas did not choose itself. You chose it.

Morrison claimed that gas chose itself to replace the Liddell power station. No, be honest Scotty, you and your mates chose gas.

August 30, 2020

We should seize the olive branch offered by China.

_Prime Minister Scott Morrison says thatAustralia must speak with one voicewhen engaging with foreign governments and their related entities. All eyes are on Beijing.

June 28, 2020

An open letter to the Prime Minister from ABC friends and supporters

Dear Mr Morrison, I write on behalf of many angry Australians who want to know why your government continues to undermine Australian public broadcasting with ongoing funding cutbacks at the same time as the commercial media sector is favoured.

August 5, 2020

The US hypocrisy on the South China Sea and Diego Garcia

The U.S. has publicly accused China of violating the existing international order, bullying other claimants, and crimes against the environment in the South China Sea. China may well be guiltyat least from the US perspective. But the same and more can be said of U.S. behaviour regarding disputed Diego Garcia in the southern Indian Ocean.

June 14, 2020

There has to be better reason for a beer and a barbecue.

No real Australian would ever knock back the chance of a day off. But having said that. surely it is time for the meaningless ritual of the Queens birthday to be consigned to its use by date.

August 20, 2020

Biden's Foreign Policy: Make America the leader again

In an essay in the prestigious US publication Foreign Affairs, the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, sets out a broad set of his foreign policy objectives should he win the US presidency in November. The title Why America Must Lead Again Rescuing US Foreign Policy after Trump is hauntingly close to that used by President Trump prompting one to wonder if this was deliberate and if so why? Less an inspirational or ground-breaking treatise by Biden himself it is more a collage of ideas born out of an extraordinarily long, yet quiet, consultative process.

August 9, 2020

Foreign Affairs and Trade are strange bedfellows in Australia today.

Paul Barratts recent article, favouring a freestanding Trade Department should be supported. As our nation stumbles through the fog of the Corona virus, it is time to navigate a path toward economic recovery in our relations with China.

March 11, 2019

MARILYN HATTON. Why Im not leaving the Catholic Church despite everything

Im not leaving the Catholic Church, despite the shocking breaking of trust, the horror, the hurt and the un-Christ like behavior and the damage our decision-makers have done to our Church members and our practice of faith. Im staying because I do not want our Church, with all its potential for good in the world to be reduced to a small exclusive celibate male sect. Christs gift of faith will be denied to millions unless we can find a way to radically change the status quo. The Churchs own data reflects its shrinking numbers.

May 3, 2020

QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Catholic Church duplicitous and unaccountable in needs-based school funding says Malcolm Turnbull

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has detailed private conversations with a Catholic Church leader to substantiate claims that the church has been duplicitous and unaccountable in distributing taxpayer money within its school system.

January 29, 2018

PETER BROOKS. Tasmanian Labor takes on the gambling industry

The Tasmanian election on March 3rd will provide a watershed moment in public health not just in Tasmania but for Australia as well.

August 13, 2020

Queensland's election in the shadow of the virus

Queensland faces a full state election on 31 October. Unlike recent state and federal by-elections, this election will be severely effected by the Coronavirus. And as with the virus, just what will happen in 11 weeks time is anybodys guess.

September 28, 2020

Angus Taylor's energy roadmap: national interest second

At least the latest energy plan - the coalitions 22nd, and counting is not all about gas.

July 28, 2020

Josh Frydenberg is dressing up class politics as responsible economics

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the current economic situation requires supply-side reforms like those undertaken by the Thatcher and Reagan governments in the 1980s. The relevant lessons from those years are really rather different, as are the current needs of Australian society.

May 25, 2020

Hong Kong's fate in the balance

_A national security bill for Hong Kong will be put to the National Peoples Congress (NPC) now meeting in Beijing. This aims to end an impasse in Hong Kongs Legislative Council, which has never passed local legislation to enact Article 23 of the Basic Law, Hong Kongs mini constitution, to which the citizens of the Special Administrative Region (SAR) remain adamantly opposed.

July 29, 2020

Hysteria over China.

Despite decades of contact, something in the Australian DNA makes it impossible to think rationally about China.

September 27, 2020

Out-of-pocket medical financial abuse

_Charging unjustifiable and unreasonable fees leading to very high out-of-pocket expenses for specialist medical care is an abuse of power and should be called financial abuse. It should also be deemed a form of professional misconduct.

August 18, 2020

Bad habits must be unlearned before they bring down governments and society

Morrison has never been one for secrecy, refusal to acknowledge error or bad judgment, and willingness to use his prerogatives to avoid being pinned on detail. Perhaps his impulses on the pandemic or reviving the economy are worthy – methinks they devote too much focus on culture wars.

January 26, 2020

RICHARD WHITINGTON AND RICHARD BUTLER. Noam Chomsky's "manufactured consent". What's changed, 30 years on? Part 1 of 4

Thirty years ago, psychologist and philosopher, Noam Chomsky, wrote of manufactured consent, the phenomenon which sees the self-serving interests of the powerful and often opaque - the military/industrial complex and big business - coalesce with those of the supposedly transparent and independent, but equally powerful: the media.

January 7, 2019

ALLAN PATIENCE. Knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing

When Scott Morrison announced that the Sydney Opera House was the biggest bill board in the country he displayed a crass mindset straight from the commercialized anti-culture of the neoliberal era. Plastering a racing industry advertisement across the sails of the Opera House meant nothing more to him other than a great marketing opportunity. It didnt occur to him that it amounted to the vandalising of a culturally sacred place.

September 30, 2020

If crime is falling, why is imprisonment rising?

The Australian prison population has doubled since 2000 and recidivism is at 55%. Yet almost all categories of crime have fallen in the past decade. Why do we spend $3.6 billion a year (and rising) on a system across Australia that is clearly not serving us well or making us safer? There are alternatives available, as the Justice Reform Initiative [JRI] explains.

August 23, 2020

COVID-19's lessons for Australia's post-pandemic governance

The notion that government is the problem not the solution for the political failures of the late twentieth century was the most devious and destructive attack on representative government, ever. Its time to bring government back to centre stage.

March 17, 2019

GREG BAILEY. An oldie at the climate march.

After travelling for an hour from outside of Melbourne, I reached the Treasury Gardens at about 12.05pm to concerted cheering from thousands of young voices. On the train teenage boys and girls from various local high schools in the northeast suburbs of Melbourne were working on signs they had made from pieces of cardboard, and discussing with each other what they should write. At least they were thinking more cogently about climate change and its causes than many of their elders ever have. All twenty-three students from my daughters year 10 class attended with their teachers blessing.

July 16, 2020

Morrison has joined the US led war party against China.

Tony Abbott hailed Chinas President Xi Jinping as a true friend and welcomed Australias trade boom with China. Should he be expelled? When NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane publicly supported China, Scott Morrison and Gladys Berejiklian destroyed his political career.

April 16, 2019

JOSHUA J. McELWEE. In new letter, Benedict blames clergy abuse on sexual revolution, Vatican II theology.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI has published a new letter blaming the continuing Catholic clergy abuse crisis on the sexual revolution, developments in theology following the Second Vatican Council, and modern society’s aversion to speaking about God.

December 10, 2018

ANTHONY PUN. A winter of China panic followed by a spring thawing of Australia-China relations - a view from the Chinese Australian community.

A chronological sequence of the post-winter China panic with the spring thawing of Australia-China relations is presented. Media reports showed a definite attempt to improve Australia-China relations with commitments by PM Morrison, Foreign Minister Marise Payne and former PM Howard. How well can Australia play in the game in making friends with two countries which are currently fighting a trade Cold War and with the US having ambitions to contain China? The Chinese Australian community welcomes the thaw but would like to see the government consult the community on these sensitive international matters as well as taking positive steps to reverse the unintentional effects of China panic on citizens of Chinese descent.

September 21, 2020

Australian values and obligations: a follow up

We often hear politicians spouting about mutual obligation usually in the context of Centrelink benefits or the like. The emphasis seems always to be on what the recipient of benefits must do not on the obligation of Centrelink or the Government.

October 10, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Ignore the planet and our grand children at our peril.

The government has thrown in its lot with climate sceptics, the loony right which includes the Murdoch media and the coal miners_._

We have a government with no policy on climate change at all. The responses by the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Ministers for the Environment and Energy to the latest IPCC report are a disgrace.

September 16, 2020

What can possibly be done with our political and policy malaise.Part 1.

Two new books are available or soon will be; (How to Win an Election by Chris Wallace and What is to be Done? by Barry Jones). Both focus on the state of the nation and the state of the ALP.

August 3, 2020

The Palace Letters, the Dismissal and Australian Politics

_The release of the Palace letters has reopened debate about the most significant political crisis in Australia post World War 2. We have been reminded again of the unresolved trauma and passion unleashed by John Kerrs dismissal of the Whitlam Government.

July 16, 2020

How much responsibility do our governments have?

Most recessions in Australia end up in a debate about government. Did the government start the recession or stop it? Was it the villain or saviour?

June 17, 2020

Securitisation Turning Problems into Threats

One of the more disturbing tendencies of modern governments is to transform policy problems into threats, thereby elevating them into the national security domain as the political rhetoric extends further into hyperbole.

September 16, 2020

War is hell: how the corporate class is coping with Covid's injustices (Crikey Sep 16, 2020)

“This is not wartime,” thundered our business heavyweights this week. That’s probably a relief or they might be asked: “What did you do in the war, Daddy?”

August 27, 2020

ABC News should chase ratings - but differently

It is not logical to have high production values and excellent journalism if nobody is watching. ABC News needs to serve a majority Australian audience.

July 28, 2020

Population 'Bomb' Already exploded

Like many commentators before him, Kevin Bains Prospects for refugees and migrants if the population bomb goes bust (Pearls and Irritations, 23/7/20) assumes that population is a future problem, ignoring the fact that the world is already over-populated.

June 24, 2018

PETER DAY. Beware the Push-Me-Pull-You Syndrome in our Universities.

Thanks to Isaac Newton we know that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

And while Newtons 3rd Law specifically relates to objects and motion; it can equally apply to the spheres of culture and politics.

September 28, 2020

First Nations people, their health, and this coronavirus

_The results of the efforts to suppress the potential damage to Indigenous Australians from the pandemic should be used as an example of how Indigenous people can be more meaningfully involved in their own health programs.

September 9, 2020

Research reveals shocking detail on how Australias environmental scientists are being silenced (The Conversation Sep 9, 2020)

Ecologists and conservation experts in government, industry and universities are routinely constrained in communicating scientific evidence on threatened species, mining, logging and other threats to the environment, our new research has found.

August 13, 2020

The art of grabbing headlines

NSW Police Minister and former CEO of the Australian Hotels Association (NSW), David Elliott, is a master at getting his name in the media. Today he is attempting to use the same formula to support his ambition to become Premier. Why isnt it working?

May 25, 2020

MUNGO MACCALLUM. The miracle of being two-faced and saving both faces

In the end, it was all about saving face. The dodgy compromise resolution to set up an inquiry over the origins of coronavirus left everyone claiming a win.

April 9, 2020

SUSAN CONNELLY. The World is Full of Scapegoats

Compromised politicians, muted religions, a distracted and increasingly partisan media and a malleable crowd combine in another tragedy. Scapegoating it is, but thanks to the Gospel it is not destined for seamless success.

May 21, 2020

WENDY HAYHURST AND BILL RANDOLPH. Australia can, and must, build the post-pandemic recovery with more social housing

The Australian Treasurer has acknowledged that boosting infrastructure spend would be a good way to kickstart our countrys recovery from the current pandemic.

September 3, 2020

Joe Biden's bold climate policies would leave Australia behind (The Guardian Sep 2, 2020)

Australia may be sailing perilously close to being cast by Bidens team with other climate resisters Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal