May 18, 2017

TIM LINDSEY. Conviction Politics: The Jailing of Jakartas Governor Ahok

The conviction for blasphemy last Tuesday of the outgoing governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (known as Ahok) was not a surprise. It followed a common pattern for blasphemy cases in Indonesia.

October 3, 2018

JAMES FERNYHOUGH. Morrisons willingness to tell brazen untruths proves he is just like Donald Trump (the New Daily, 03.09.18)

Australias new prime minister Scott Morrison showed this week he has masteredone of US President Donald Trumps most amazing tricks: the ability to make claims he and every one else knows are complete nonsense and to make them with total impunity.

December 30, 2016

WALTER HAMILTON. Fighting Monsters

Australians, Americans and Japanese have been fighting monstersthe monsters of war remembrancesince 1945. A high-profile visit to Pearl Harbor during the week seemed to suggest another monster was being laid to rest. But while that piece of theatre left much to be desired, especially in its aftermath, another recent attempt, away from the spotlight, gives us reason to hope.

October 19, 2017

WE ARE ALSO READING AND LISTENING TO ...

Pearls and Irritations provides the following links for weekend reading and listening:

May 25, 2017

The UN draft treaty to ban the bomb is an important milestone on the road to nuclear abolition

The recently published draft text of a convention to ban the bomb provides a good basis to complete negotiations of a treaty to prohibit the acquisition, development, production, manufacture, possession, transfer, testing, extra-territorial stationing and use of nuclear weapons as major steps on the road to abolition.

June 5, 2017

JOHN MENADUE. The question Leigh Sales didn't ask Senator John McCain.

In her “exclusive interview” with Senator John McCain on 7.30 Report last week, Leigh Sales was told: “The Russians tried to destroy the foundations of democracy and to change the outcome of the American election … and they have just tried to affect the outcome of the French election.”

April 19, 2017

TIM LINDSEY. Jakarta elections a very bad look for Indonesia

The decisive defeat of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (known as Ahok) in Jakartas litmus-test gubernatorial election is a triumph for hardline Islamist mob agitators. It comes after years of pressure from the Muslim right and may flag a shift in Indonesian politics that will not help Indonesias fraying reputation for religious pluralism and tolerance.

January 30, 2017

JOHN TULLOH. The simplistic naivete of Donald Trump

We certainly live in far more interesting, if not astonishing, news times now that a Manhattan real estate developer occupies the White House. We wake up each day wondering what was the latest personal whim Donald Trump chose to exercise while we slept.

June 9, 2019

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Israel Folau and the problem with fundamentalist religion.

The Israel Folau saga is finally moving to the tribunals first to the Fair Work Commission, and if that does not produce a result, on the Federal Court and perhaps beyond.

February 6, 2014

Kieran Tapsell. The United Nations and the 'Warts-and-all' history.

On 15 October 2013, Francis Sullivan, the CEO of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, the body that speaks on behalf of the Australian Catholic Church at the Royal Commission, wrote an opinion piece for the ABCs Religion and Ethics page. He claimed that the submission the Council had presented to the Royal Commission on the Towards Healing protocol for dealing with clergy sex abuse was the most comprehensive document ever produced by the Church dealing with child sexual abuse and a warts-and-all history, going back many decades.

January 23, 2017

PHILIP CLARKE & PETER SIVEY. Why don't we know how many people die in our hospitals?

Unfortunately no one yet has been able to overcome the federal/state divide in order to combine Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme data held in Canberra with hospital and mortality data from each state. Making this type of data available would facilitate research to improve the quality and safety, as well as the efficiency of our health system. Better health data and statistics should be a priority of politicians across Australia.

January 5, 2015

The Chinese are coming.

After WWII the financial hegemony of the US and Europe in the IMF and International Bank was established. Later, the Japanese came to dominate the Asian Development Bank. That is now being challenged by China. See article below by William Pesek in ‘Bloomberg View’, subject ‘China steps in as world’s new bank’. John Menadue.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-12-25/china-steps-in-as-worlds-new-bank

October 31, 2016

FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Turnbulls Policy Challenge Wrapped in Turnbull Cant

On Sunday morning, Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton held a joint press conference to announce new legislation in relation to the asylum seekers who have been held on Nauru and Manus Island now for over three years.

In this policy area, the perfect is the enemy of the good, and the prospect of a bipartisan approach on means despite agreement on ends has been slight since the Tampa affair in 2001.

January 14, 2018

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Turnbull's scare campaign on negative gearing

Exclusive, scoop, shock, horror! Politicians tell porkies! In an amazing journalistic breakthrough, it can be revealed that sometimes Australias political leaders may not hold strictly to the unvarnished truth. Lengthy and painstaking research shows that there are times when they exaggerate and even mislead the public in a quest for advantage.

October 2, 2016

CHRIS BONNOR. School funding overs and unders

Last week was one to remember: one school funding revelation after another.

It began the previous Friday at the Education Ministers COAG gathering in Adelaide. One big problem, as Bernie Shepherd and I pointed out, was that the gathering wouldnt begin to tackle the hard issues. They walked out at the end of the day, agreeing on the need to walk back in at a later date.

The next event was Q&A last Monday night, a forum where it isnt easy to duck hard issues. To cut a long story short, the well-briefed Tony Jones pressed two issues with Federal Minister. Simon Birmingham acknowledged that some private schools were over-funded and also said he was very open to the idea of a schools resourcing body to oversight funding. It has been this lack of oversight that has substantially created our current impasse.

September 7, 2014

David Isaacs and Ian Kerridge. Asylum seeker's 'brain death' shows failure of care and of democracy.

The news that Hamid Kehazaei, a 24-year-old Iranian asylum seeker detained on Manus Island, has been diagnosed as brain dead following his transfer to the Mater Hospital in Brisbane is a tragedy. That it is a tragedy for this young man and his family is unquestionable The news but the extent of this tragedy may be much more pervasive than we realise.

If the emerging details of his case are correct, Kehazaei developed septicaemia as a complication of cellulitis (skin and soft-tissue infection) arising from a cut in his foot. This, in itself, is disturbing.

June 18, 2014

Joe Hockeys lifters

At a speech on June 11, a few days ago, Joe Hockey said that Australia should be rewarding lifters and not leaners.

Presumably Glencore/Xstrata, Australias largest coal company, would be an ideal example of a heavy lifter, not like those welfare leaners, and particularly the young unemployed.

But not so. Michael West in the SMH on June 14, a few days ago, reported Lo and behold Glencore had booked cash of almost $15 billion from coal mining in Australia in the last three years and had effectively paid zero tax. Yes that is right! Zero tax. Presumably Joe Hockey is proud of such a lifter.

August 26, 2015

Sydney's Holroyd High School and asylum seeker children.

Refugees and their children face many difficulties in settling in Australia. But the evidence shows that after this settling in period, refugees and their children outperform Australian-born people in many areas. We see the results for refugee children in university-entrance exams and in university performance.

One remarkable example is the experience of refugee and asylum seeker children at Sydney’s Holroyd High School. The principal of Holroyd High School, Dorothy Hoddinott, was interviewed recently by Eleanor Hall on the ABC’s The World Today. Read about the remarkable story of Holroyd High School and its students in the link below.

April 2, 2017

DUNCAN MacLAREN. Article 50 triggered: the farce heats up

Are you ready for another dose of Brexititis? This past week, PM May triggered Article 50, meaning negotiations can begin, after due examination by the 27 remaining states, between the exiting UK (or, at least, the parts that survive) and the EU but only as a body. The EU has forbidden the divide and rule of the UK pitting one EU member against another, an insidious act by what Guardian journalist, Antony Beevor, called last year the most hated nation in Europe. The terms of Mrs Mays letter didnt win too many friends either.

March 22, 2016

Travers McLeod, Peter Hughes, Sriprapha Petcharamesree, Steven Wong, Tri Nuke Pudjiastuti. The Bali Process can do a lot more to respond to forced migration in our region.

The Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime will hold a full ministerial meeting in Bali this Wednesday. The meeting will bring together ministers from 45 member countries for the first time in three years.

The global context for the meeting is the current levels of displacement. Sixty million people are displaced the highest level since the second world war. And governments around the world are struggling to respond effectively.

November 28, 2024

A five-minute scroll

Gideon Levy speaks out on the ceasefire in Lebanon while Yusuf Cat Stevens speaks out on the starvation of women and children. Canadian health workers speak out against the complicity of the Canadian government while people in Gaza create their own ambulances. In Canberra, climate disruption in Parliament House as protestors call out the government on coal deals. Overnight, the regime in Pakistan unleashed force against unarmed protestors in Islamabad. Earlier this month resigned State Department official spoke about arms transfers to Israel and we look back at Julian Assange speaking to US 60 minutes about press activism.

September 14, 2017

RANALD MACDONALD. Testing times for the ABC with a 'competitive, neutrality enquiry'.

One of our most trusted institutions is under real threat- and, like Humpty Dumpty, once broken may never be able to be put together again.

May 20, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. Our White Mans Media. It is so derivative and relies heavily on news and entertainment sources in New York and London.

Mark Scott the outgoing Managing Director on the ABC regretted his failure to ensure that the ABC reflected the ethnic diversity of Australia. He should also have added that the ABC has failed to help us equip ourselves for our future in Asia.

It is therefore welcome that the new MD Michelle Guthrie has said she is going to change this. The problem is so obvious with the ABCs main TV Channels across Australia dominated by Anglos. Less than 12% of ABC employees are from non English speaking backgrounds and the story is getting worse each year. I am also not aware that the ABC Board has any members who have worked in Asia, have any interest in Asia, let alone having any Asian ancestry.

June 29, 2018

ANTHONY PUN. The Chinese Australian communitys reaction to the passing of Australias new package of national security laws.

Letter from Dr Anthony Pun, OAM, National President, Chinese Community Council of Australia and Chairman of the Multicultural Communities Council of New South Wales.

May 31, 2017

JAMES O'NEILL. More to the Manchester Attack than the Media Would Have us Believe

The terrorist attack in Manchester where 22 people, including children, were killed and scores were injured, many critically, provoked an understandable sense of outrage into how and why this could happen. The answer to that question unfortunately has been to repeat the half-truths and stereotypes that have followed each of the terrorist attacks in western cities in recent years.

May 1, 2017

Making Housing Affordable Series. SAUL ESLAKE. The causes and effects of the housing affordability crisis, and what can and should be done about it.

Treasurer Scott Morrison is right in saying that there are no single or easy solutions even though he (and others on his side of politics) tend to ignore this advice in emphasising supply-side solutions and decrying any suggestion of policy measures which are intended to dampen demand, especially from investors.

February 28, 2017

IAN VERRENDER. Malcolm Turnbull faces growing discontent from the middle, not just the fringes

Has there ever been a more demoralising time to be Prime Minister? There’s been the expected sniping from the sidelines and the continued calls for the Coalition to shore up its base and prevent leakage to parties like One Nation.

November 11, 2016

Trump and American Decay.

In this article in Foreign Affairs, Francis Fukuyama says:

The decayed American political system can be fixed only by a strong external shock that will knock it off its current equilibrium and make possible real policy reform. Trump’s victory does indeed constitute such a shock but, unfortunately his only answer is the traditional populist-authorian one, trust me, the charismatic leader to take care of your problems. As in the case of the shock to the Italian political system administered by Silvio Berlusconi, the real tragedy will be the waste of an opportunity for actual reform.

February 22, 2016

Frank Brennan SJ. An Unholy Mess: Cardinal Pell, the Royal Commission are Owed Justice, not Vigilantism

Cardinal George Pell still has a lot of questions to answer before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

On medical advice he has decided not to risk the long plane flight home from Rome. This makes things much harder for victims seeking closure.

It makes things harder for others, including members of the Catholic Church and citizens wanting certainty about the appalling offences of the past and clarity about the failures of Church leaders adequately to protect children from repeated abuse by paedophiles.

May 20, 2014

Michael Keating. Part 3. An Alternative and Better Budget Structure

In two previous blogs I have argued that the Governments Budget broadly got the economics right, but it failed the test of fairness and it attacks our traditional values. In that case, however, what would the alternative Budget structure look like?

Fundamentally the Budget should have relied much more on taxation and less on expenditure cutting. As I have already shown it is low revenue that created our fiscal problem and not excessive expenditure. However, increasing taxation will be easier if it can be shown that expenditure has been properly reviewed and screwed down tightly, and so I will first consider the opportunities for expenditure reduction using a different approach to the Governments Budget and its Commission of Audit.

October 27, 2016

RICHARD BUTLER. Putin is different.

A special issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, just published, focuses on the deteriorating US-Russia relationship. It poses the question of whether a new Cold War has started and publishes a range of relevant, articles.

The article by Fiona Hill, Director of the Center for the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution is impressive ( thebulletin.org, volume 72, issue 3). It discusses Vladimir Putins origins, nature, what he has become, the nature of the state he runs, and most importantly how he views the US and other western countries.

Having traced Putins political origins in the St Petersburg government and the KGB, she defines him as the operative as autocrat, asserting that he is without precedent either in Russian history, or at the top of a modern state anywhere in the world.

April 10, 2019

JOSEPH STIGLITZ. GDP is not a good measure of wellbeing it's too materialistic (Project Syndicate)

Just under 10 years ago, the National Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress issued its report, Mismeasuring Our Lives: Why GDP Doesnt Add Up. The title summed it up: GDP is not a good measure of wellbeing. What we measure affects what we do: if we measure the wrong thing, we will do the wrong thing. If we focus only on material wellbeing on, say, the production of goods, rather than on health, education, and the environment we become distorted in the same way that these measures are distorted; we become more materialistic.

December 11, 2013

Taunting Holden to leave. John Menadue

It has been quite remarkable to see Joe Hockey daring and taunting Holden to close. He apparently chose to take advantage of Tony Abbotts absence in South Africa to show off his dry credentials and burnish his leadership aspirations. Having lost the argument over Graincorp, Joe Hockey talked tough on Holden. He dared Holden to either put up or shut up. He then escalated the rhetoric against Holden by shouting in parliament There is a hell of a lot of industries in Australia that would love to get the assistance that the motor vehicle industry is getting.

March 27, 2014

Louise Newman. Detention of children seeking asylum in Australia.

Australia has a unique approach to the problemof asylum seekers arriving by boat in an unauthorised fashion exportation. Under current policy all unauthorised arrivals are processed as rapidly as possible on Christmas Island and then transferred to Nauru or Manus who are supported by Australia to assess refugee claims, house and ultimately resettle those found to be refugees. Or so the story goes. Much recent discussion, particularly since the attacks on asylum seekers on Manus allegedly by those in protective roles, has pointed to the breakdown of this system with increasing numbers remaining on Christmas Island and lack of any processing of claims or moves to resettlement. There is even discussion about the commitment of PNG to the resettlement process and they themselves have recently stated that it will not be possible to resettle in PNG those already there. The politics is complex and with a certain air of separation on the side of the Australian Government which is wedded to the concept of off shore processing as part of a framework of deterrence. The focus on deterrence of any arrivals on the mainland has led to extreme measures such as towing or pushing boats away and setting asylum seekers in the opposite direction in life boats where they become someone elses problem on landing. The consequence or outcome is seen as the sole factor driving policy and little account is taken of the means. It is in this context that vulnerable groups such as children and unaccompanied minors and the mentally ill are caught in a particularly unpleasant political drama.

March 29, 2017

The Australian does it again, and again, and again.

Media Watch on 27 March 2017 described the unprofessional behaviour of the Australian and journalist Graham Lloyd over the reporting of the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef. The Media Watch story follows.

March 17, 2015

Wayne McMillan. Contemplating our Navels and Fiddling while Rome burns

We have become so self-absorbed that we have little time to think about anything else. We live also in an age of info trivia worship that has become a new art form. Australians have become preoccupied with keeping up with the Jones than helping their next door neighbour. The craving to possess the latest info trinket that promises to give you the latest thrill in techno satisfaction is almost insatiable.

June 17, 2018

STEVE RINTOUL AND STEVEN CHOWN. Antarctica has lost 3 trillion tonnes of ice in 25 years. Time is running out for the frozen continent.

Antarctica lost 3 trillion tonnes of ice between 1992 and 2017, according to anew analysis of satellite observations. In vulnerable West Antarctica, the annual rate of ice loss has tripled during that period, reaching 159 billion tonnes a year. Overall, enough ice has been lost from Antarctica over the past quarter-century to raise global seas by 8 millimetres.

May 22, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. Attacks on refugees tell us more about Malcolm Turnbull than Peter Dutton.

Power doesnt always corrupt. Power can cleanse. What I believe is always true of power, is that power always reveals. Robert Caro.

Peter Dutton has form, so his comments about refugees although disgraceful are not that surprising.

The big disappointment has been Malcolm Turnbull who described Peter Dutton as an outstanding immigration minister. Instead of a firm rebuke from our Prime Minister, Dutton got praise and with his winsome way with words Malcolm Turnbull even suggested that Peter Dutton was being demonised.

July 9, 2013

Tony Abbott looks badly shaken. John Menadue

Tony Abbott is obviously shaken by Kevin Rudds return. The coalition had been expecting to win by default and chose quite deliberately to provide as small a target as possible and release few policies. What policies there were were usually reduced to one liners. Tony Abbott left the dead wood in his shadow cabinet. He refused three debates with Kevin Rudd, something which opposition leaders would normally seize with both hands. And he refused to debate the three issues on which he has been staking so much, deficits, boats and the carbon tax. Then there was Kevin Rudds intervention in the NSW ALP branch. Then there was the agreement with President Yudhoyono to host a regional conference on asylum seekers in Indonesia. And to top that off the Indonesian President gave Tony Abbott a backhander about taking unilateral action on turning boats back to Indonesia. Then there was Kevin Rudds proposal to commence democratic renewal in elections for the leader of the parliamentary ALP. Through all this the opinion polls are trending very much in Kevin Rudds favour. Much is promised but can Kevin Rudd follow up and deliver?. Implementation is always the hard part. But it has all clearly unsettled Tony Abbott.

February 20, 2019

Being The Australian means never having to say sorry

For a paper that is quick to moralise about the failings of competitors, critics and ideological opponents, The Australian seems remarkably reluctant to admit to any errors, shortcomings or moral failings of its own.

June 13, 2015

Kieran Tapsell: Mental Reservation at the Child Sexual Abuse Royal Commission

Current Affairs

On 28 May 2015, the convicted serial paedophile and former Catholic priest from Ballarat, Gerald Ridsdale gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse by video link from prison. Ridsdale is 81 years of age, and one might have expected him to have some memory problems. It is surprising, however, that he did not recollect ever living in the same house for a year with one of the few Australians to be made a Cardinal, George Pell.

November 12, 2014

Peter Christoff. US-China climate deal: at last, a real game-changer.

The new US-China climate deal is a game-changer.

The United States, the worlds biggest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, has pledged to cut emissions by 26-28% by 2025 relative to 2005 levels, while China, the current biggest emitter, has promised to peak its emissions by no later than 2030.

The agreement between the worlds two biggest greenhouse gas emitters is part of preparations for the United Nations negotiations in Paris next year, where the rest of the world will attempt to hammer out a meaningful deal to limit emissions.

October 19, 2017

JOHN MENADUE. Rent-seekers and corruption risks in the Australian mining industry and elsewhere.

In this blog Gigi Foster and Paul Frijters said: The vast majority of the richest Australians work in property, mining and banking/finance. … Tellingly, the highest earning workers in these industries do not invent or use advanced production or distribution technology… People in these highly regulated industries are handsomely rewarded when they can negotiate special favours, such as property rezonings, planning law exemptions, mining concessions, labour law exemptions or money creation powers.

April 18, 2017

JULIAN CRIBB. When political fantasy trumps scientific fact

During the 1930s, around ten million Russians and Ukrainians starved to death in a horrific event known as Holodomor. Historians have attributed this disaster in part to the quack theories of Trofim Lysenko, Stalins hand-picked boss of Soviet agricultural science. It was the worlds first big case of politics distorting the objectivity of science, for its own ends.

May 18, 2014

Michael Keating. Part 1 The Budget and what it means for Australia's Future

Each day this week I will be running a series of blogs by Michael Keating on the Budget and its repercussions. The posts will be

Australia’s Fiscal Challenge
The Budget and our Values
A Better Alternate Budget Structure
Taxation
Federalism

I am sure that these five posts will make a substantial contribution to our understanding of the Budget and its implications for Australia. Mike Keating was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Perhaps more relevant to his comments on the Budget is that he was Secretary of the Department of Finance under the Hawke/Keating governments, during which time real outlays were reduced in three successive Budgets. This has never happened before or since. These reductions in real outlays occurred while still introducing many of Labor’s major reforms of social welfare that led to substantial increases in assistance to the poor. Much of the credit for this of course belongs for the Cabinet, particularly to Paul Keating and Peter Walsh. But I know that quite a few of the ideas that were implemented came from the Department of Finance when Mike Keating was Secretary. John Menadue

July 17, 2016

HENRY REYNOLDS. Unnecessary wars in service of other people's empires.

Australia is engaged in a long cavalcade of military commemoration. It has been advancing since the 1990s. Government largesse has speeded it on its way. War is now widely seen as the defining collective experience. The national spirit, the argument runs, emerged in battle far from our shores. A generation of school children have been assured that war was the making of Australia. Given this strident assertion that the history of war is of central importance it might be thought that the whole campaign would deepen our understanding of why Australia has been so often at war and provide answers to those large and important questions—why did we so readily go to war? What was achieved? Was engagement in the long term national interest? Were our wars worth the treasure expended and the lives lost? An even more significant and rarely considered question is would we have been better off if we had avoided war and if so would we have been a different and more fortunate country? We must conclude that our kind of commemoration is crafted to avoid serious consideration of such questions. We concentrate on how our men fought not why they fought. We examine tactics rather than strategy. And when sacrifice and heroism are invoked, scepticism and doubt are eschewed. It can never be suggested that the sacrifice of life served no useful purpose.

November 9, 2014

John Coleman. How things changed in 1972.

As a journalist-bureaucrat 42 years ago, for me nothing illustrated more the bewildering speed of Gough Whitlams rollercoaster reforms than the removal of the last vestiges of the White Australia policy.

I was publications editor for the Australian Information Service in Canberra, then Australias apolitical, overseas information agency. Part of my job was to produce the Australia Handbook which, with a print run of multiple thousands, was sent to our high commissions and embassies around the world for distribution.

January 24, 2019

HENRY REYNOLDS. January 26..... and our Declaration of Dependence.

As we approach another Australia Day, public interest quickens and rhetoric escalates. On both sides of the front line the old trenches are reoccupied and well-known strategies rehearsed. The hostility of indigenous Australians looms large in the thinking of both camps. Opponents of 26 January frequently rest their arguments on the need to respond to those powerfully expressed sentiments. Defenders of the status-quo insist that the will of the majority should take precedence.

April 13, 2018

Pope Francis admits mistakes in Chile

Pope Francis has apologized for underestimating the seriousness of the sexual abuse crisis in Chile, acknowledging that he has made serious mistakes in handling the issue.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal