March 12, 2019

GENEVIEVE LLOYD. Strong Borders and Bad Butchers

The appraisal of current political rhetoric on asylum seeker and refugee policies can be a challenging exercise. Think, for example, of the ideal of strong borders, which has come to act as a benchmark for the recognition of contemporary realities so obvious that it seems unthinkable to call it into question; and so politically potent that the mere mention of softness on border protection is enough to suggest unfitness to govern. Yet, in this context, it is by no means clear from what exactly our strong borders are supposed to offer protection. Nor is it clear why the slightest change in current policy settings would amount to a weakening of their presumptive strength.

August 27, 2020

No Fair Go for Labor back-bencher in ABC 7.30 interview

_The truth takes second place in the ABC 7.30 interview of Labor backbencher Shaoquett Moselman_e

July 30, 2020

Remembering Margaret Thatcher

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg invoked the name of UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to support his plan to rescue Australias economy in the era of pandemic. My first reaction was furious anger. On reflection, Frydenburg has done us a great service.

May 5, 2019

Zali Steggall takes on Tony Abbott over hospitals-to-tax-haven deal (Michael West)

Tony Abbott has come under pressure from Warringah independent, Zali Steggall, over the Governments decision to approve the sale of the new Northern Beaches Hospital, and 42 other Australian hospitals, to an obscure company in the Cayman Islands.

September 29, 2020

Monthly digest on housing affordability and homelessness Aug/Sept 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

Is Hong Kong a repeat of the CIA-sponsored Iranian coup?

The unmistakable parallels between Hong Kong SAR 2019 protests and the CIA sponsored 1953 Iranian Coup d’tat is yet another ‘(c)overt’ U.S. government interference to influence and disrupt other states that challenge American hegemony.

July 21, 2020

Aristotles citizens and the Constitution

The renowned British economist Martin Wolf, writing in the Financial Times last weekend, has warned that a possible consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic is that Democracy will fail if we dont think as citizens.By citizens he is thinking of a stable middle class without which the state, any true democratic state, risks succumbing to plutocracy.

June 2, 2020

HAL PAWSON. Why COVID Commission must back social housing stimulus

The Prime Ministers COVID Commission is supposed to be advising government on how to facilitate the fastest possible recovery of lives and livelihoods after the pandemic. Yet its main focus appears to be the promotion of a fossil-fuelled medium-term industrial strategy tailored to mining interests. Advocacy for a social housing stimulus investment program would be a far more suitable way for the Commission to fulfil its proper purpose.

April 30, 2020

ALLAN PATIENCE. Dealing with China.

Scott Morrison and Marise Paynes call for an international independent inquiry into the Coronavirus pandemic demonstrates the ham fistedness of the Morrison governments approach to diplomacy.

April 27, 2020

GREG BAILEY. COVID-19 and Tax Havens

Now that three governments in the EU have announced that during the COVID-19 crisis they will give no government funding to companies registered in tax havens, we wait to see if this prohibition is continued after the crisis is over. Will it be extended to countries beyond the EU, especially those in the Anglo-Celtic sphere?

September 2, 2020

Sexual misconduct in our society: Can we do better?

_Collectively our society can do better. Women should not have to rely on voluntary social networks, valuable though they are, to have the confidence to come forward when they encounter unacceptable sexualised conduct.

February 11, 2018

RAY MOYNIHAN. Beware the hype on genomics and precision medicine.

Last weeks landmark report on personalised medicine plays down potential for harm and oversells uncertain benefits.

June 4, 2020

HELENA COBBAN. Another American first: A self-collapsing empire!( Just World News 2.6.2020)

It is impossible to see how the United States can at any point in the next quarter century regain anything like the commanding position in the world system that it occupied from 1991 through late 2019. What we are experiencing is not just a decline but acollapseof Americas global hegemony.

June 8, 2020

No public interest, it seems, in watching public money burn

The political cynic could easily imagine a string of reasons for ignoring calls for a royal commission or other inquiry into the robo-debt debacle.

January 6, 2019

PAUL KRUGMAN. The Trump tax cut: even worse than you've heard. (New York Times 1.1.2019)

The 2017 tax cut has received pretty bad press, and rightly so. Its proponents made big promises about soaring investment and wages, and also assured everyone that it would pay for itself; none of that has happened.

Yet coverage actually hasnt been negative enough. The story you mostly read runs something like this: The tax cut has caused corporations to bring some money home, but theyve used it for stock buybacks rather than to raise wages, and the boost to growth has been modest. That doesnt sound great, but its still better than the reality: No money has, in fact, been brought home, and the tax cut has probably reduced national income. Indeed, at least 90 percent of Americans will end up poorer thanks to that cut.

Let me explain each point in turn.

September 27, 2020

Rich Thinking: Canberra Bubble wage delusions spawn a bizarre plan to flatten taxes (MWM Sep 24, 2020)

Forget the average wage, half of working Australians earn less than $57,000 a year. Rich think they are poor, poor rich. Elizabeth Minterreports on the governments strange plan to flatten taxes so everybody who earns between $45,000 and $200,000 pays the same rate.

August 9, 2020

COVID-19 lays bare the USs deep problems, with some help from Trump

With the COVID-19 pandemic laying waste to the country, and President Trumps chances of re-election fading, the United States is at last beginning to look more deeply into its problems.

June 3, 2020

JOHN ASHTON. The UK with the worlds second worst response to COVID-19.

The UK response to COVID-19 has been marred by bad decisions in the face of an impending crisis, built on a decade of inadequate resources, planning and organisational preparedness to make the UK second only to the USA in terms of deaths from the virus.

June 22, 2020

Living with China: There is a way, but is there a will? Part 2

In Part 1 we saw that the post-1945 Western dominated world order is rapidly giving way to a multicentric world, in which different players, each with its own system of governance and civilisational inheritance, are vying for power and influence. In this part, we examine How Australia can accommodate this shift, as it goes about the demanding task of rethinking its relationship with China.

June 15, 2020

Chinese International Students and National Security

A great many Australians appear to have difficulty accepting that Chinese parents might be concerned about the safety of their children who study in Australia even though the number of attacks on Chinese residents in Australia has increased markedly.

June 1, 2020

ABUL RIZVI. Is population ageing affecting Australias economic performance?

A lower fertility rate and lower NOM for the foreseeable future will mean that Australia will age much more rapidly than forecast in the 2015 Intergenerational Report and in the 2019 Budget.

September 8, 2020

China's universities on the rise

China’s universities are rising in the world university rankings. The United States is still well ahead, but the balance is shifting in China’s favour. The effects of Covid-19 are likely to intensify this shift.

March 13, 2018

JERRY ROBERTS. Populism and Social Democracy.

So-called populist parties in recent European elections have all but wiped out established social democratic parties. The exception was Britain where Labour improved its position under the uncompromising social-democratic leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. Two questions arise at home. What fate awaits our social democratic party, the Australian Labor Party? More importantly, what is populism?

June 23, 2020

Living with China: There is a way, but is there a will? Part 3

To enter into a sustained and productive dialogue with China, Australia needs to do its homework. As indicated In Parts 1 and 2, both government and society have to cultivate a better understanding of contemporary China, its history, culture, economy and politics.

November 10, 2019

LIN CRASE. Australias drought relief package hits the political spot but misses the bigger point (The Conversation 7-11-19)

There are two basic components to the Morrison governments latest A$1 billion package response to the drought affecting large parts eastern Australia. One part involves extra subsidies to farmers and farm-related business. The other involves measures to create or upgrade infrastructure in rural areas.

May 27, 2020

COLIN MACKERRAS. The mess of Australia-China relations

The downward spiral in Australia-China relations must stop. The Australian government must take a lead towards a major and long overdue reset.

June 17, 2020

The white elephant in the room: Australia is ideal for planes, not trains!

How can Australia spend $130 billion that would best benefit the country? A response, but not an answer, is not to spend it on an HSR (high-speed rail) system on the east coast.

April 28, 2020

Time to rethink national security

Following the summer bushfires, the COVID-19 pandemic has smashed even further the livelihoods and the lifestyles of many Australians. The hit to the national economy will be comparable to that of WW2.

March 21, 2019

CLIVE KESSLER. Daleys Asian blunder ... And beyond

_Yes, Michael Daleys Asian blunder was a bad choice of words and more.__But when we have finished fulminating about his racism, consider this._What he is talking about to people in the stressed and stalled lower middle of Australian society touches upon a deep reversal in their, and most Australians, long-ingrained attitudes, assumptions and expectations.

July 9, 2020

Increased military expenditure unjustified; social needs must be paramount.

The governments $279 billion allocation over 10 years to military spending is not justified by fear-mongering and is at the expense of health and other urgent social needs.

January 4, 2018

IAN McAULEY. Reframing public ideas Part 2: The role of government

We tend to think of a left seeking bigger government and the right seeking smaller government. But such a framework can see governments simultaneously neglecting important areas while interfering where they shouldnt.

September 24, 2020

Will citizen assemblies change local government?

With the local elections on the way in Victoria democracy could get a surprising boost. If instead of merely voting in councillors, what if citizens were able to directly set the strategic directions councils must follow?

August 15, 2020

Uighur Poets on Repression and Exile (NYRB August 13, 2020)

_The shocking dimensions of Chinas repression in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region are now beyond dispute.

June 29, 2020

West Bank annexation - Another glorious chapter in the history of Zionism ?

It is an anxious time for an unlikely combination of Benjamin Netanyahu and the publishers of world atlases and gazetteers. Will they have to pulp existing supplies because of his intentions? Or will he fail for a change and save them the trouble - at least, for now?

September 15, 2020

After Covid, well need a rethink to repair Australias housing system and the economy (Sep 11, 2020)

Anew reportfrom the New South Wales Productivity Commission (NSWPC) announces that [higher] housing costs [] impose broader economic costs. That chimes with our ownnewly published research. The implication is that Australias heavily capitalised housing market will weigh down economic recovery from the shocks of the coronavirus pandemic.

September 10, 2020

Managing Perception: what's real and what's not

How much should we, as a nation, stress about how others perceive us and what can we do about it?

June 24, 2020

Get them laughing to get them drinking and 'Keep them drinking' while they're stuck at home.

Whats the first ad you think of when someone says alcohol? Perhaps it is Carlton Draughts This is a big ad, or the Canadian Club Over beer? series. Chances are, its an amusing commercial that comes to mind.

September 10, 2020

Avoiding military conflict and restoring Australia-PRC relations: a pragmatic way forward (Australia-China Institute Sep 4, 2020)

Never have ties between Australia and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) been so estranged in the nearly five decades since Canberra and Beijing established diplomatic relations. As Geoff Raby, a former Australian ambassador to the PRC, remarked at the end of last year, the bilateral relationship is at its lowest ebb.

May 6, 2020

GEOFF EBBS. Coronavirus tracking is about more than privacy vs safety.

_The privacy versus safety debate around coronavirus tracking and tracing technology examines the wrong dilemma. Choosing the right tracking solution is equally important.

May 27, 2020

MICHAEL WEST. The Virgin Brides: fate of airline on a knife-edge as bids lob and cash runs dry (MWM 19.5.20)

The government has tossed $130 billion at business, the corporate largesse is dripping all over the big end of town. Even highly profitable $8 billionproperty developers such as Mirvacare rolling in the free money, yet when it comes to Virgin Australia they are being all punctilious about letting the market sort it out.Michael Westreports on the future of Virgin.

September 24, 2020

Will Trump's rejection of history divide America?

The 1776 Commission proposed by President Trump to counter the New York Times 1619 Project and other narratives about America being pushed by the far left, is not the equivalent of Australias conservative versus liberal history wars. It is about something far more dark.

April 28, 2020

FINTAN O'TOOLE. Donald Trump has destroyed the country he promised to make great again (Irish Times 25.4.2020)

_Usually, when this kind of outlandish idiocy is displaying itself, there is the comforting thought that, if things were really serious, it would all stop. People would sober up. Instead, a large part of the US has hit the bottle even harder.

April 6, 2020

Lives vs lives: Corona without karuna

Coronavirus threatens to overwhelm the health and economies of many developing countries where a billion people subsist in a Hobbesian state of nature and life is nasty, brutish and short.

July 22, 2020

The Australian state propaganda outlets are as unrelenting as their Chinese counterparts

Australian media loves to publish and broadcast stories about Chinese protest rallies. On the 13th of July, Su-Lin Tan, an Australian journalist now working for the South China Morning Post, published a story of Chinese protesters rallying in Adelaide titled Asian-Australians hold protests as community faces rise in racist attacks.

March 19, 2019

TIM WOODRUFF. Out of Pocket Costs: Who is missing out on health care?

One of my patients has epilepsy. She sees a neurologist for that and he charges $200 out of pocket per visit. He has controlled her epilepsy very well. She is on a disability support pension. She believes she will get better care seeing him privately despite the fact that he also works in the public system.

Out of pocket (OOP) costs have been in the news particularly since 4 Corners exposed huge costs impacting significant financial hardship on many sick Australians. As a result of a Ministerial Committee report the Health Minister has proposed tackling the issue with a website of specialist charges and an education campaign for patients. The Committee consisted of ten health care provider representatives and one consumer representative. My suggestion to the Minister that more consumer representatives might be appropriate resulted in an intensely angry response.

January 27, 2019

JOHN FALZON. We need to redefine exclusion (Eureka Street).

Inequality is not an aberration that comes with neoliberalism. It is the foundation of neoliberalism, along with its partners in social crime: patriarchy and colonisation. As Sharan Burrow, the Australian General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), puts it so poignantly: ‘We live in a fragmented world.’ The excluded form the majority across the globe.

July 9, 2020

The Therapeutic Goods Administration must do better.

Almost 2 years after complaints about numerous hangover products were submitted to the TGA they have finally published one outcome. The TGA agreed there was insufficient evidence to support claims related to hangover relief.

July 12, 2020

An uncertain six months for Britain, Covid-19 and Brexit. Part 1

Over the next six months Britain may face greater uncertainty about the cohesion of its social and economic fabric than at any time since the threat of German invasion in late 1940.

July 9, 2020

Coronanomics We need good leadership in turbulent times.

As the world tackles the Coronavirus pandemic, there’s been a lot of talk about leadership and trust, not just between nations but within nations as well.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal