December 19, 2020

Sunday environmental round up, 20 December 2020

We finish the year with suggestions for getting the COP process back on track, delays to the federal governments plans to get the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act off track, confirmation that Australian coal does produce less CO2, and graphs showing the healthiness and cheapness of solar power. Best wishes for Christmas. Back on January 17th.

June 8, 2020

Robert Hendrickson on Donald Trump's Church fiasco

Robert Hendrickson, Rector, Saint Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church on Donald Trump’s ’lies and childish inanities.'

May 5, 2020

NOEL TURNBULL. Should companies using tax havens get pandemic stimulus funds?

Denmark and France are blocking pandemic financial assistance to any firms registered in tax havens.

April 13, 2020

NOEL TURNBULL.What a difference a change of government makes - to the Murdoch media

It is frequently asserted that if you change the government you change the country. But perhaps the assertion that if you change the government you also change the way the media particularly the Murdoch media reports on a governments policies might be more apposite in Australia.

June 3, 2020

MARION TERRILL AND TONY WOOD. The dos and don'ts of fiscal stimulus

Long lines at Centrelink are a sobering sight. The fear of sustained mass unemployment has led to a renewed push for fiscal stimulus, including for governments to fast-track road and rail projects, re-establish a serious manufacturing sector in this country, invest directly in gas supply projects, and increase subsidies for big renewal energy projects.

July 12, 2020

Reaction to Chinas military exercises hypocritical (Asia Times 7.7.20)

While badmouthing Beijing, its critics often ignore their own destabilizing activities in the South China Sea.

April 20, 2020

DUNCAN GRAHAM. Normal service will be rezoomed forever

Witless vandals defacing the odd Zoom chat room have given repressive states (think Singapore) another excuse to stomp on a development they dread: Technology thats letting a hundred schools of thought contend.

April 8, 2020

TESS HOGUE. Covid 19- Give Hong Kong a pat on the back with gloved hands

The response of Hong Kong to Convid-19 is a prurient tale and its moral is that if the West learn from their story, then together future governments and citizens will be able to avert further national pandemic disasters.

October 23, 2019

KEN HARVEY. The TGA, KPI's and the budget surplus

On 3 February 2018 Health Minister Hunt stated, the TGA will be adequately resourced and staffed to manage complaints from July 1, 2018. Instead, during 2018-19, 74 TGA staff positions were lost to boost the governments Aged Care initiatives in a government zero sum game, presumably to assist the desired budget surplus. Consequently, of 121 high priority complaints, only 26 (21%) met their time to closure KPI (60-90 days).

June 25, 2020

Government fails to value the humanities, ignoring the realities

The Government’s decision to more than double the cost of most humanities degrees is ignorant, cowardly and even malicious. A government that feels a need to constrain critical thinking must give us great cause for concern.

April 21, 2020

Social Distancing and Princess Cruises

Who wants to go cruising anymore?

October 18, 2018

CHRIS GERAGHTY. Faith-based Beliefs or Long-held Prejudices.

The recent conversation as to whether faith-based schools should be permitted by law to discriminate against gay boys and girls, or against teachers who belong to the LGBT cohort, has resulted in a magnificent own-goal scored by so-called liberal conservative politicians and their ecclesiastical lobbyists. Another victory to the forces of evil! Its so embarrassing to see just how out of touch some of our leaders, political and religious, have become.

December 26, 2020

Whose Kangaroo Was It Anyway?

Q. When are a kangaroo and a dingo worth ten million dollars?

A. When they were painted by Britains premier equestrian painter, George Stubbs, from stuffed pelts brought back from Botany Bay by Sir Joseph Banks in 1770.

May 21, 2020

Cowardice as a principle of foreign policy, what on earth are they thinking?

In relation to Israels decades of military occupation of Palestinian lands, a cowardice spreading pandemic has infected Australian politicians and public servants. Recent symptoms are evident in the Australian governments submission to the International Criminal Court (ICC) that an investigation of Israeli war crimes in Palestine should not take place.

April 7, 2020

MARGARET REYNOLDS. Australian Councils Need a Stimulus Too

Australian councils, as the front line in so many areas of public policy, need to be properly funded in order to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

June 3, 2018

LAURIE PATTON. Facts and fiction: More on the auDA situation.

auDA the organisation charged with managing the Internet domain name space on behalf of the federal government is currently undergoing a review of its operations. As we approach a Special General Meeting to be held on 21 July 2018 I decided to throw a few pertinent questions at CEO Cameron Boardman. As Ive previously written, I simply cant see how any further public displays of disunity are helping the situation, but it is also important that we decide the future of the organisation based on facts.

May 9, 2020

PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 10 May 2020

Australians think they have it tough with bushfires, coronavirus and bleaching of the Reef but the people of Pacific and African nations have a multitude of other problems to cope with as well few of which they caused. Are the worlds governments up to the challenge of creating the structural change needed during the post-COVID recovery? CO2 emissions may be down this year but will it last? And will it make any difference to the worlds melting glaciers and ice sheets?

March 6, 2019

RICHARD BARCHAM. National Party bets on feral horses in NSW elections

Kosciuszko National Park has become collateral damage in the New South Wales National Party battle for re-election. The natural values of the park, in Deputy Premier John Barilaros marginal seat of Monaro, face imminent destruction by feral horses.

July 29, 2020

Misunderstood China, from a Chinese-Canadian contrarian

Diplomacy is deadbetween China and the US. When US agents broke down the doors of the Chinese consulate in Houston, all pretences of diplomatic nicety vanished.

May 27, 2020

SPENCER ZIFCAK. The New Asio Powers: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, has introduced new, comprehensive powers for ASIO. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Amendment Bill 2020 repeals ASIOs existing questioning and detention warrant framework and introduces a reformed and extended compulsory questioning scheme. The Bill is not all bad. But there is quite enough in it to cause those with a concern for the protection of civil liberties, sleepless nights.

January 16, 2019

JOHN MENADUE. Our intelligence agencies are out of control -An edited repost

It seems likely that the prosecution by the Commonwealth Government of former spy (Witness K ) and his lawyer Bernard Collaery will be heard in closed court. What a travesty of justice this is. Those who authorised the illegal bugging of the East Timorese Cabinet for the commercial benefit of Woodside Petroleum and those who subsequently covered up their activities have not been pursued.. Some of them have been promoted.

_We need intelligence agencies that are both competent and accountable. We have neither at the moment._We have witnessed the abject failure of bank regulators.Regulatory failure in the intelligence sector is even more in plain sight.

There are particular problems for agencies which operate in secret and with few public checks. In an abuse of power ASIO and its collaborators have been campaigning overtly and covertly to force a change in Government policy towards China.

There is no effective supervision in the public interest of the Hastie/Lewis partnership . Here we have the parliamentary supervisor of ASIO (Hastie) and the head of ASIO(Lewis) on a joint ticket. Old SAS colleagues. It is extra- ordinary and dangerous.

June 8, 2020

Necessary disruption for church culture change to protect children

A secret bishops report has called for the declericalisation of the Catholic Church in Australia. The bishops are keeping the report under wraps until the end of the year to do it justice, while critics are calling it ironic for bishops to withhold a report that urges them to be transparent and inclusive.

June 7, 2018

BIJAY KUMAR MINJ. Modi's four years 'have weakened India's tolerance'.

India Inclusive event hears that attacks against minorities have increased since the BJP came to power

July 23, 2020

The US and Australia: two elections and two fear narratives.

Three months to the US presidential election and Donald Trump is ramping up anti-China speeches. In Australia, the Eden-Monaro by-election has passed, and Scott Morrison hasteneddown his China-threat rhetoric. What could be behind his changed intensity?

April 27, 2020

JOHN TAN. Covid-19, news media: Not enough questions.

Crisis; a virus-threat. These are causes of great concern, but not an excuse for lack of curiosity in the news media.

April 12, 2020

CHRIS BONNOR. This virus might lead to education reform.

Education reform is well overdue. As the need to act with speed has seen governments jettison rusted-on assumptions and ideologies in areas such as employment, health and welfare - can school education be next? After all, there are just as many education problems sitting in the too-hard basket, many of them extremely wicked and ignored by governments for decades.

June 24, 2020

Thats not an Accord now, this is an Accord!

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, on the back of some successful Covid19 crisis leadership, recently proposed that employer groups and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) sit down together to negotiate a new Industrial Relations (IR) framework for the post Covid19 labour market under the guidance of IR Minister Christian Porter.

March 5, 2019

JOHN MENADUE. As PM, Bill Shorten could help offer cheaper cars without any cost to the budget

The Australian Motor Industry Federation and the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries have successfully lobbied the Australian government to continue restrictions on the imports of second-hand vehicles. We are paying a large price for protecting an industry that no longer exists,our auto manufacturing sector

October 18, 2018

GAY ALCORN. 'Australia is in trouble': majority media and lobbying destroy trust in politics, Garnaut says.

Economist Ross Garnaut tells conference the independent centre is being drowned out by business interests,main stream media and lobbyists.

June 21, 2020

Vietnam's remarkable rise deserves more attention from Canberra

Vietnams response to COVID-19 has highlighted its competence as a country. It has unequivocally won the peace. It manages its relations with China with firmness and diplomacy.

June 4, 2020

MARK BEESON. The PRC is getting harder to like, but so is the US

Chinas foreign and domestic policies are getting increasingly difficult to deal with, but so are Americas. A more even-handed approach to both might make life easier for Australian policymakers.

June 27, 2018

STEVE LOHR China extends its lead as the top producer of supercomputers (New York Times 26 June 2018)

U.S. has worlds fastest, but rival surges ahead as the most prolific producer

August 9, 2020

University Failures and Canberra parsimony.

Cynical, short-sighted and gutless everything a proper university should eschew. But perhaps the teachers have been taking lessons from their political masters. If so, both deserve a fail.

September 9, 2020

Freedom and protests in 2020 Australia

Where is the national outcry at the erosion of our freedom to protest?

May 26, 2020

The rise and fall of coronavirus modelling

Will the Great Lockdowns epitaph be The Greatest Mistake in History__?

April 7, 2020

MELISSA PARKE.- Criticism not same as racism (The Herald Sun 26.03.2020)

Lets reserve the term anti-Semitic for those who truly deserve it

January 27, 2019

TIM LINDSEY. Baasyirs bizarre on/off release disrupts Jokowis campaign.

Indonesias announcement that it would release 80-year old Abu Bakar Baasyir, the spiritual leader of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), after serving two-thirds of his 15-year sentence for supporting a terrorist training camp in Aceh, took many by surprise. Australians were shocked that Indonesia showed so little concern for Australian feelings about JIs 2002 bomb attack in Bali that claimed 202 lives, including 88 Australians.

July 2, 2020

If the US treats China like an enemy, then it will become one. REPOST.

It is time for Australia to accept the reality of the rise of China and a resurgence of Russia.

April 28, 2020

A Couple of Dummies

Terrific medical advice.

March 5, 2019

LORENA ALLAM AND NICK EVERSHED. The Killing Times: the massacres of Aboriginal people Australia must confront.

The truth of Australias history has long been hiding in plain sight.The stories of the killing times are the ones we have heard in secret, or told in hushed tones. They are not the stories that appear in our history books yet they refuse to go away.

June 3, 2018

ED PILKINGTON. Trump's 'cruel' measures pushing US inequality to dangerous level, UN warns.

Scorching report on poverty finds systematic attack on welfare program will leave millions deprived of food and healthcare.

January 31, 2019

MARTIN WOLF. China's challenge of one world, two systems. (AFR 31.1.2018)

_The accelerating breakdown in relations between China and the US is the most significant current event. How is this to be managed, given today’s global interdependence?

April 22, 2020

LINDA SIMONS. Now is the time to support the public provider of VET

The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasised the importance of strong public institutions in Australia, both to help deal with critical health and economic challenges, and to make sure all Australian residents are given opportunities to be part of the economic recovery. This is particularly true of public vocational education and training, TAFE.

April 19, 2020

LAURIE PATTON. Three Blind Mice Caught in the Netflix trap

Australias commercial television networks are in trouble. Not simply because of the Coronavirus but because they failed to develop effective strategies to counter the arrival of Netflix and other streaming platforms something anticipated long before it happened.

April 9, 2020

JOHN DWYER.Exploring COVID-19 controversies. Part Two.

How do we safely ease social distancing restrictions and reignite our economy?

May 13, 2020

LOUIS DEVINE. Australia Should Re-imagine Its Alliance With the United States (AIIA 7.5.20)

ANZUS was established in geopolitical circumstances that no longer exist. A changing environment doesnt mean Australia should exit the alliance, but in light of a rising China, it must rethink how ANZUS determines policy.

April 14, 2020

LYNDSAY CONNORS. Learning the value of teachers' work

The shock of dealing with the realities of the coronavirus pandemic has forced our prime minister to realise that schools are fundamental to our democracy and that teachers are on the front line of society and should be valued accordingly.

April 21, 2020

SUE WAREHAM. Cancel RIMPAC and reorder our priorities

_The failure to cancel RIMPAC or the slowness in doing so - whichever turns out to be the case demands a reordering of our priorities to place healthcare before warfare. A call from the Australian government to our troops to #StayAtHome is long overdue.

July 12, 2020

Malcolm Turnbull re-writes history .

_Christopher Pyne debunked Malcolmss fantasy of Scott Morrison playing a double role in the leadership challenge.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal