September 2, 2020

So much potential, so much let go

PM Scott Morrison wants the right to cancel agreements (there are reported to be 130) between foreign governments and authorities outside Canberra if deemed contrary to Australias national interests.The prime target is said to be Victoria jogging down Chinas One Belt, One Road, but beware elbowing state initiatives aside.

August 23, 2020

We have the least worst Minister in charge of Aged Care

Depending on your choice of cliche the aged care portfolio may be seen as a minefield, a poisoned chalice or a suicide mission a high risk activity best avoided.

May 11, 2020

JACK WATERFORD. Asymptomatic Covid cases will give us our next waves

As the Prime Minister and Premiers look to relax COVID-19 restrictions, we still need to be wary of the significant proportion of asymptomatic cases.

July 5, 2020

China is not a threat to Australia

China is neither an enemy nor a threat to Australia. The Morrison government and mainstream media do us all a great disservice when they set it up as such. This anti-China paranoia must stop, now!!

January 15, 2020

JON STANFORD: Second rate leadership Part 2 of 4: Defence

Australia is now a confident, wealthy nation that has the right to expect its leaders to rise above the second rate.

July 23, 2020

Monthly digest on housing affordability and homelessness June/July 2020

The following is the latest instalment of a monthly digest of interesting articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material relevant to housing stress/affordability and homelessness with hypertext links to the relevant source.

September 17, 2020

Does Australia need some 20th-century spying?

There is, or there should be, more to spying than high-tech electronics. As we have seen, it can get agencies into trouble. It can lead up the wrong paths, to dead ends and bear pits. We need to get back to basics, feet on the ground.

September 8, 2020

China-Australia Business Relations. Are we still Lao Pengyou?

Close business friendships, and our common humanity, must always transcend loose political rhetoric.

June 8, 2020

The American Alliance: More incantation than inquiry.

Our chosen national heroes are the young men who died fighting for King and Empire on the coast of the Ottoman Empire in 1915. When will our focus shift to the many thousands of indigenous men and women who died fighting for their kin, their customs and their country all over the continent for well over a hundred years?

September 4, 2018

ROSS GITTINS. Inequality: Nothing to see here is not the true picture (SMH 3.9.2018)

This week the Productivity Commission issued a stocktake of the evidence on inequality in Australia. Its findings will surprise you. But it wasnt as even-handed as it should have been.

December 3, 2018

MACK WILLIAMS. North Korea: second fiddle?

Not surprisingly North Korea was relegated by the US:China tariff war in the recent G20 summit in Buenos Aires but some progress may have been made in preparing for the next phases of US:DPRK and ROK:DPRK dialogues. China also made clear the linkage between its trade disputes with the US and the extent of their cooperation in working on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

September 27, 2020

Downer on Palestine: to the Manor Born

The powerful prey mercilessly on the vulnerable and the mainstream media let them get away with it.

June 30, 2020

University research and teaching - is the nexus broken?

Emphasis in higher education funding overlooks the fundamental nexus between teaching and research. Academics are driven by their training and inclination to pursue research questions.

April 20, 2019

PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 21 April 2019

Although carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise, new modelling demonstrates that it is still technically and economically feasible to keep global warming below 1.5oC, with many advantages for the worlds economy, jobs and public health, but the influence of fossil fuel companies makes it politically unlikely. And yet with just 1oC of warming, life in Africa and Bangladesh is already pretty tough. Indonesias plastic waste is causing problems for northern Australia and there would be mutual advantage from the two countries working together on the problem.

September 23, 2020

Some Good News at Last?

T_h_e recent announcement that the World Economic Forum will be holding a unique twin summit in January 2021 on what is termed The Great Reset is the best news I have read for some time.

September 16, 2020

Morrison, China and Aged Care

It has always been difficult to read Scott Morrisons motives. Many attribute his hard line policies and actions, and his intolerance of dissent, or criticism, to his religion, but that seems too simplistic.

September 14, 2020

What lies behind last weeks sharp increase in Australia-China tensions? ABC's Bill Birtles was NOT "expelled" from China

The latest deterioration in Australia-China relations appears to have been provoked by Australian national security agencies and their supporters, in a strategy aimed at souring Chinese-Australian media relations.

September 15, 2020

The National Insecurity State

When the war on terror was only seven years old, an Australian former Ambassador to Beijing pointed to its risks and costs for Australia. Garry Woodard warned that rather than protecting national security, such an open-ended war could widen our obligations to the US and narrow our options in dealing with China.

July 19, 2020

Hong Kong: No new Belfast solution

Scott Morrisons proposal of a safe haven for Hong Kong people was never going to happen, and perhaps just another attempt to rile Beijing. Britain and the US have much to answer for in the present state of affairs, and Australia should refrain from precipitating actions.

June 7, 2020

The G7 and Trump's protege

Coming from anyone else, an invitation for Australia to participate in the G7 meeting would be seen as a tremendous compliment.

October 1, 2020

US/China trade war blunted by WTO rules

Preventing trade wars is a key function of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rule-based system. But as the United States (U.S.) and China wage the largest trade war in history, the WTO finds itself on the sidelines unable to stop the fight. This is seen by many as further proof that the WTO has become ineffective and toothless.

September 30, 2020

Rafferty has taken charge of the ministerial decision making process.

While confusion over the supervision of quarantined returning travellers by private security firms in Victoria may have arisen from exceptional circumstances, a broader question concerning the unfettered exercise of Ministerial (Executive) power has come to the forefront of governing in this country.At stake, as seen, are due process and the liberty of the individual citizen.

August 6, 2020

Our political processes have failed us on climate change and the environment.

The Covid crisis will be controlled in a few years with new pharmaceuticals, vaccination or gradual human attenuation or immunity. Its lasting impact may well be from its distraction from addressing the crises eating away our life support systems.

July 30, 2020

The elephant in the room - age and inter-generational equity

It is high time for a new inter-generational deal including a shift of decision-making powers as well as policy benefits towards the younger generations.

August 10, 2020

Ardern offers a steady hand and consistency to deal with the Covid crisis and build a better future.

The New Zealand Prime Minister launched the Labour Party election campaign on Saturday August 8 with one piece of new policy in a pitch that focused on maintaining the Covid control and economic recovery plan to support people and businesses and build a better society.

May 10, 2020

JAMES CURRAN. Canberras wolverines threaten our connection (AFR 8.5.20)

Beijing deserves scrutiny for little transparency amid the pandemic, but Australias proposal for an inquiry is badly timed.

June 16, 2020

The battle to shape perceptions of political parties

_Right wingers are better at framing policies than progressive parties.

November 28, 2019

CAMERON LECKIE. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons: Corrupted!

Two whistle-blowers from the worlds chemical weapon watchdog raise serious concerns about the impartiality of the OPCW. The whistle-blowers indicate that the findings of the OPCWs report into the alleged 2018 Douma chemical weapons incident do not align with the evidence/analysis compiled by the investigation team. The Australian Government should seek a formal investigation into these matters at next weeks OPCW Conference to maintain the credibility of this important international institution.

October 12, 2017

JULIAN CRIBB. Our Parliament: an unqualified failure for the future

Australian politicians have next to no qualifications or skills when it comes to deciding the focal issues of our time. No wonder the decision making of recent years has been so poor. Julian Cribb argues that a continued political bias against science, technology and education risks placing Australia among the also-rans of the 21st Century.

November 7, 2020

Sunday environmental round up, 8 November 2020

Wind and solar are getting cheaper and cheaper and financial institutions and countries are increasingly turning away from fossil fuels, but 100% renewable energy is a long way off. Protecting wild places and returning agricultural land to nature can prevent biodiversity loss and help tackle climate change.

March 28, 2019

CHARLES MOREROD The Church under pressure: Reform or counter-reform? Throughout history there has been no change in the Church without at least some external pressure

Bishop Charles Morerod, who is recognized as one the leading intellectuals among the Catholic hierarchy of Europe, recently told La Croix “the Church reforms itself under the influence of seemingly adverse forces.” The 57-year-old Swiss Dominican_, head of the Diocese of Lausanne-Genve-Fribourg since 2011, was referring to the sexual abuse crisis and how it is putting pressure for change on the Catholic Church. Mounting pressure is a key factor to consider in the debates within the Church about the institutional reforms that are needed to address how bishops have failed in handling sex abuse cases. But this pressure on the institutional Church is undeniably different today from that of the past._

April 6, 2025

Was Israel complicit in the 7 October 2023 massacre?

The dreadful atrocities by Hamas on 7 October 2023 horrified the world and triggered the destruction of Gaza, the deaths of more than 50,000 Gazan men, women and children and the wounding of tens of thousands more.

September 6, 2020

McMahon, Abbott and Morrison.

Has Tony Abbott surpassed McMahon as the worst of our worst?

August 25, 2020

What would an independent Australian foreign policy look like?

Only in a small number of countries is the idea of an independent foreign policy considered to be a radical approach to international relations. Australia is one of them.

March 5, 2019

EMANUEL PASTREICH. Fractured governance fractures the Hanoi summit (Korean Times, 3 March 2019)

The sudden cancellation of the joint statement on February 28 at the end of the Trump-Kim Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, was one of the most complex and contradictory historical events in my memory. Of course the adlib briefing by Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo immediately after was not complex at all. It was a banal show for the media that avoided talking about much of anything other than process.

September 17, 2020

Forecast of 2020-21 Migration and Humanitarian Program

Australian governments have always cut the immigration intake in response to a recession. The 2020-21 intake will be no different. While the Government may announce a ceiling that is not much below that for 2019-20, the actual planning level, which may well remain secret, will be well below the ceiling.

August 20, 2020

Bernard Collaery, East Timor and Governmental Duplicity

The extent of the outrage and the reason the government is desperate to keep hidden its unlawful behaviour through the prosecution of Bernard Collaery and Witness K has now had a little further light shone upon it.

December 7, 2017

FRAN BAUM. Beyond the social determinants: a manifesto for wellbeing

Last week the Australian Health Policy Collaboration launched their Health Tracker by socioeconomic status, which is a report card on the health of adult Australians in relation to chronic diseases, risk factors and rates of death, by quintiles of disadvantage.

September 27, 2020

The High Court must rule on State border controls before more businesses are bankrupted and family relations traumatised.

No government, whether Commonwealth or State, has primacy over movement across State borders. Primacy lies in the Federal Constitution which states in Section 92 that trade, commerce, and intercourse among the States … shall be absolutely free. A distribution of powers does not come into it.

April 20, 2020

MUNGO MACCALLUM. The Cost of a Job.

It has only taken a week for the simple beauty of JobKeepers to become a little tarnished.

April 12, 2020

MICHAEL KEATING. Covid-19 and the Economic Outlook

The Governments unprecedented cash splash to shore up the economy will save us from what could have been a much worse recession. This makes it doubly strange that the Government is so uncommunicative about the future economic and fiscal outlook and what it hopes to achieve.

May 11, 2019

MICHAEL SLEZAK. Climate change a bigger threat to Australia's interests than terrorism, Lowy Institute poll suggests (ABC 8.5.2019)

Climate change is a “critical threat” to Australia’s interests according to almost two-thirds of Australians ranked as a more serious concern than international terrorism, North Korea’s nuclear program or cyber attacks from other countries.

October 1, 2020

We now need a 'JobCreator' rather then just 'JobSaver'

_My choice of four spending initiatives for next weeks Budget are: hiring credits; permanently boosting JobSeeker; funding for high quality aged care; and social housing.

September 8, 2020

Ecological Conversion

Are there shy signs of a new era emerging as humanity faces this pandemic? Could we be moving towards a more woke state, leaving behind something of our 2019 zombie selves, heads cowed over smartphones?

June 15, 2020

Monty Python and the quest for herd immunity

Like the Holy Grail, herd immunity often seems to involve miraculous powers, and its advocacy to contain the Covid-19 pandemic has far more to do with faith than evidence.

September 15, 2020

Overcoming Fatalism: Victoria, The Congo and Yemen

Scapegoating Victoria suggests indifference to global issues. A touch of internationalism could replace the hand wringing pity which has been compounded by partisan attacks on Premier Andrews.

August 13, 2020

Are the 'big four' accounting firms above the law?

In 2004, the federal parliament passed the Age Discrimination Act, making age discrimination in employment, education and the provision of goods and services unlawful. But the major accounting firms seem to think it doesn’t apply to them.

September 7, 2020

Tudges Global Talent Task Force Spin or Substance?

Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge on 4 September announced a Global Business and Talent Attraction Taskforce as part of the Governments JobMaker Plan. Sadly it seems Tudges announcement looks increasingly like spin over substance.

April 20, 2020

LIZ GRIFFIN. Why has the Republic of Koreas campaign against coronavirus been so successful?

Korea has won plaudits globally for its response to COVID-19. Despite Korea being one of the first countries hit hard by the pandemic, its swift response is paying dividends as its population have been able to avoid large scale lockdown and high fatality rates. With a high reliance on exports, South Korea has also managed to keep its borders open, limiting the extent of economic devastation.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal