April 14, 2020

JAMES CURRAN. COVID-19 triggers a reset of domestic and international institutions

As governments try to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, they must have a view of the immediate future if they are to act rationally.

June 11, 2020

BRUCE CAMERON. Australia's First Defenders

Surely, the first defenders of Australia who tried to protect their family with spears when confronted by muskets and canon, deserve our admiration and respect.

July 2, 2018

KIM WINGEREI. We need to talk (about) Turkey.

Democracy is under threat. From Vienna to Washington, Caracas to Istanbul, men with scant regard for the institutions that uphold democracy have been elected, threatening civic freedoms not just in their own countries, but setting dangerous precedents for others to follow. Could it happen here?

May 31, 2020

JAMES LAURENCESON. Reality check on finding new export markets: China's demand dwarfs the rest (SMH 28.5.20)

It might be conventional wisdom that Australia needs to diversify its trade and reduce dependence on China. There is, however, no magic button that delivers it. No trade delegation to New Delhi or Jakarta is going to pick up a raft of contracts to enable us to cancel guaranteed sales to China.

December 5, 2018

JOHN ELDER. Coulda been a contender: Why Tony Abbott keeps on punching (The New Daily).

Two significant events happened this weekend: Boxer Anthony Mundine was knocked out in 96 seconds by Jeff Horn, ending a career that was never wholly satisfying for the man or his followers.

Meanwhile, Tony Abbott put his gloves up once more, telling The Australiannewspaper on Saturday that hes ready and able to join the front bench, perhaps even to be prime minister again.

November 21, 2018

KIM WINGEREI. Its Time for Ethical Politics.

As we decry what many say is the most incompetent Government in living memory, it’s important not to fall into the trap of just waiting for it to be replaced, thinking all will be well henceforth. We need to look at how to avoid Australia ever having to experience this kind of dysfunction again. Just electing another party is not enough - like peeing in your pants to keep warm, feels good for a while until it goes cold or smelly or both.

August 26, 2020

The Uluru Statement: An offer of redemption and reconciliation from the original sin that migrants all carry

May 26 2020 was the third anniversary of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. It was also the day the news of George Floyd’s murder broke which explains why the Statement had fewer headlines and opinion pieces in the Australian media than in previous years

August 29, 2020

The confusing and wasteful role of the States in our foreign relations

The role of the States in relations with foreign countries has been raised by Scott Morrison. It has an unfortunate anti-China ring about it but he is correct to assert the primacy of the Commonwealth in foreign relations. In Japan, in the late 1970’s I found state commissioners a pest. They confused Japanese ministers and officials.

May 6, 2020

TOM THOMPSON. Amazon Pirates Australians During COVID19

SEVEN DAYS TO FREE A NATION trumpeted the Weekend Australian on Saturday as Scott Morrison attempts to ramp up Australia-wide usage of the COVIDSafe app. Despite Australia being in its good position without the apps use, Morrison believes this tool will open up the economy getting people back in, taking risks he said.

April 14, 2020

JOHN TAN. Covid, Bonds and Quantitative Easing.

The Covid crisis is also producing winners and institutional bond investors are winning big. Quantitativeeasing added to conventional monetary policy is just what they want. And so is forward guidance.

January 14, 2020

Coal! Coal! Coal! for Australia, as bushfires and denial greet Olympic year (Reneweconomy 13.1.2020)

_So much for the great Australian summer holidays. The apocalyptic vision and impacts of the brutal bushfires that have devastated large swathes of the country, and covered much of the rest in choking smoke, is accompanied by an unwanted record.

January 12, 2020

MELISSA PARKE.-Support for Palestinian rights is not anti-Semitic (The West Australian 8.1.2020)

I had but dipped my toes back into federal politics via a bid for Julie Bishops former seat of Curtin when the campaign was over.

January 4, 2020

GEORGE GRUNDY.- The Leadership Vacuum

On 25thApril 2006 the Beaconsfield gold mine in Tasmania collapsed. One man was killed and two others trapped nearly a kilometre below the ground

May 7, 2020

JEFF KILDEA. Lessons to be learned from the Spanish flu pandemic of 1919 - Part 1

COVID-19 is the worst pandemic Australia has faced since the visit of the Spanish Lady just over a century ago. What lessons can we learn from that earlier experience?

March 29, 2020

KEN HENRY supports Pearls and Irritations.

Pearls & Irritations should be a priority resource for anyone with an interest in public affairs who would prefer to hear the voice of experience.

August 6, 2020

October 1972, October 2020: prospects for the United States... and us.

Decent minded Australians are tending to assure themselves that Trump will be defeated in November; many decent Americans work feverishly for the defeat of Trump. But the defeat of Trump is far from assured.

January 1, 2019

PAUL COLLINS. The Best of 2018: The Real Crisis of Australian Catholicism.

It is patently obvious that Australian Catholicism is in crisis. The usual analysis is that this has been caused by the appalling mishandling and cover-up of child sexual abuse and the subsequent investigations of the Royal Commission. However, this is only a partial explanation. Catholicisms problems have a much longer history and go much deeper. They wont be solved merely by the application of the recommendations of the Commission. A much more radical root and branch reform is needed.

May 20, 2020

ANDREW FARRAN. State border closures and Section 92

It is surprising that there has been little comment on, let alone challenge to, the extent of the States overreach with their Covid-19 border closures in the face of Section 92 of the Australian Constitution. This may be changing

December 5, 2018

PATRICIA EDGAR. Kids Technology and the Future: The Case for Regulation of Australian Childrens content (Part 3).

In the dynamic media environment we have in Australia, broadcasting regulation has become an exceptionally tricky exercise. If regulations are to work, they require creative application and on-going monitoring as commercial players will always seek to outmanoeuvre them, especially when they affect programming decisions. Bureaucracies move slowly. It takes time to define, then to pass legislation and once regulations are in place, too often assumptions are made that the job is done. That may be the case in legislating for seat belts or banning smoking in public spaces, but when the desired outcome is a cultural, educational purpose, where judgments must be made about appropriate program content, it is a very different matter. For culturally-based childrens programming to succeed today, a simpler regulatory approach than quotas and program approval should be taken.

January 20, 2020

NOEL TURNBULL. Morisson has rent seekers salivating.

Australias pre-eminent rent seekers must be salivating at the thought that the PM might evolve its policy on climate change and will be counting up the billions they may reap from his likely emissions reductions schemes.

July 21, 2020

How academics are killing freelancers

Thou woldest han oure labour al for noght.

The hye god, that al this world hath wrough

Seith that the workman worthy is his hyre.

Geoffrey Chaucer: The Summoners Tale.

August 19, 2020

The erosion of The Age is like the erosion of society

Following its new owners excessive devotion to “entertainment news”, The Age has hit on a new recipe: curated stories to feed closed minds.

May 14, 2020

MARK BUCKLEY. IPA is wrecking our democracy

The history of the IPA is curious. Many of the key players in its early years are either still around, or their children are.

July 4, 2018

LYNDON MEGARRITY. The Politics of Northern Development in Australia

Northern Australia is popularly defined as consisting of all Australian land north of the Tropic of Capricorn. The north has long struggled to secure the investment and development which the south-east of Australia has taken for granted, because it is far away from the Sydney-Melbourne-Canberra parliamentary triangle and its key policy-makers and politicians. The norths economic and social development has thus been incremental rather than spectacular. But every now and then, a political saviour will emerge who will insist that their political party truly understands the norths national significance and will transform it if elected to power. But northern development is a dream best viewed in Opposition: once a northern advocate achieves government powers, the political dreams of Northern Australia often lose their allure. The rich history of the politics of northern development is explored in my new book: Northern Dreams: The Politics of Northern Development in Australia (published by Australian Scholarly Publishing).

December 5, 2018

JORGE HEINE. The BRICS, their bank and beyond (India Inc.)

A strategic expert traces the origins of what brought Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa together and what the future holds for these emerging economies of the world.

February 21, 2018

The Liberals and the Nationals Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce

Only weak and compromised Liberal Party leadership would put up with the behaviour of Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals who have influence way out of proportion to their numbers and on policy issues, are a blank page or even worse. As Ian McAuley said yesterday Barnaby Joyce is an albatross around Malcolm Turnbull’s neck. It is getting worse every day.

November 22, 2018

JEREMY SALT. Yes, What About Yemen? (American Herald Tribune, 13.11.18)

After the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, many are asking But what about Yemen? Yes, indeed, what about Yemen, but what about Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and Somalia? What about Egypt in 1956, what about Iran in 1953 and what about Palestine from 1917 to the present day?

December 13, 2017

FRANK BRENNAN. A Catholic reflection on the Royal Commission as the curtain closes on Act One.

On Friday, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which has been part of the Australian political and ecclesial landscape for the last five years, will cease to exist. The commission will present its report to the Governor-General, and the commissioners will return to private life or to their previous public offices. The task of implementation will fall to governments and institutions such as the Catholic Church. The task of public scrutiny will fall to parliaments and the media but without the ongoing forensic activity of a royal commission. The commission has unearthed a continent of human suffering and mountains of institutional obfuscation. The task of change within the Catholic Church will fall mainly to committed Catholics, and not just the clerics.

March 26, 2019

Christchurch, Nobel and the Aussie Comatose Conscience

The Christchurch tragedy has exposed the Canberra virus that haemorrhages hypocrisy, racism, lies, scaremongering and heartlessness infecting the Australian psyche.

February 26, 2019

DUNCAN GRAHAM. Old soldiers dont die they just imagine

_Historians and older Westerners know well what followed the 1933 events in Germany known as the burning of the books. Few Indonesians are aware that the forceful Student Union campaign against literature which didnt promote the German spirit, fomented fascism._They should because its happening in their young democracy and threatening its future.

September 28, 2020

Universities can help Australias economic recovery, but thats all at risk if the job-ready graduates bill passes (The Conversation Sep 24, 2020)

Our universities actively helped with reconstruction after two world wars and supported recoveries in recent recessions.The Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Schemeof 1944 1951 was set up to offer academic training to men and women who had served with the Australian armed services during the second world war.

December 5, 2018

BEVAN RAMSDEN. Caught in the middle of US-China contention, Australia sides with the US in their efforts to contain and keep China out of the Western Pacific.

Australia is currently facing a major change in strategic circumstances and the argument for pursuing a truly independent foreign policy, for the economic benefit and security of the Australian people, has never been so great.

December 5, 2019

JERRY ROBERTS. A matter of behaviour.The CFMMEU and the Banks.

The wheels are falling off the Government as Parliament winds down for Christmas. Both Coalition Government and Labor Opposition should consider a comment made by Pauline Hanson, who has asserted her authority with a sorely needed dose of common sense.

January 3, 2019

GEORGE MONBIOT. Advertising and Academia are controlling our thoughts. Didn't you know?

By abetting the ad industry, universities are leading us into temptation, when they should be enlightening us.

January 1, 2019

RAMESH THAKUR and MICHAEL KIRBY. The 2018 decision merits a rich tribute for its transformative constitutionalism (The Hindu 30.12.2018)

Trapped in a frozen political process amidst heightened public passions, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was out of sync with contemporary values on gender orientation. It is the courts that have been used as the key to unlock social progress. In a historic judgment, inNavtej Singh Johar v. Union of India(2018), the Supreme Court stepped into the public policy void created by the timidity of political parties to strike down Section 377 that had criminalised homosexuality as an unnatural offence.

March 7, 2019

JENNIFER DOGGETT and LESLEY RUSSELL. Tackling Out-of-Pocket Costs

At the end of February the Federal Government released the report, twelve months in the making, from the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Out-of-Pocket Costs and outlined a national strategy to tackle excessive out-of-pocket costs. It is our opinion that the reports recommendations and the Governments response (for a website that provides information about medical specialists costs and for an education campaign to improve the understanding of OOP costs for consumers, GPs and medical specialists) do not go far enough, given the substantial and widespread impact of OOP costs. Our recently published paperoffers a road map for tackling the problems associated with OOP costs through short- and long- term initiatives, backed by evidence and informed by on-going consultation and evaluation.

September 20, 2020

Morrison thinks gas is the new coal, and its just as big a climate threat (RenewEconomy Sep 18, 2020)

Australias government thinks that gas is the new coal, and intends to delay decarbonisation for another decade or more by investing taxpayer funding deeply into another fossil fuel.

March 11, 2019

ANTHONY PUN. Parallels in the US-Japan (1980s) and current US-China trade wars.

The US-Japan trade war of the 1980s has many similarities to the current US-China trade war despite their occurrence 30 years apart. The trigger for the conflicts is the same, i.e. a rival challenging the US hegemony in economic power.

November 21, 2018

CAROLE CADWALLADR. Why Britain Needs Its Own Mueller (The New York Review of Books).

At the end of January 2017, days after Donald Trumps inauguration, I sat in a busy Pret a Manger sandwich bar in central London, a stones throw from the mother of parliaments, and flicked through snapshots of Donald Trump on a mobile phone.

February 6, 2021

Sunday environmental round up. The bells are tolling for coal. Is Fitzgibbon deaf?

Lots about Australia this week: sharks in greater peril from humans than vice versa; bells tolling, albeit still distantly, for coking coal and more loudly for thermal coal; gas industry captures the WA government; evidence that last years bushfires were linked to climate change.

April 30, 2020

Balance the boat

Morrison and Dutton fail to understand the United States and China and what ought to be the nature of our relationship with them. LNP ideology rules. It is out of date and proving harmful.

October 8, 2020

Australian media in the Asian century

Pompeo and circumstance

Our foreign minister, Marise Payne, flew off to Tokyo for a rare meeting of the Quad on Tuesday with counterparts including the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.

December 5, 2018

EAST ASIA FORUM-Preparing for the Next US Recession

One thing was clear from this weekends G20 summit. Asia and the world face many risks, and most of them emanate from the United States of America.

February 20, 2021

We are Socioecological: health carers and advocates

Our Socioecological interdependence requires us to be in effective relationship with each other and our environment. Who we are, on what we depend, and what we can do to maintain a habitable, healthy, and sustainable place for all now matter more than ever.

May 5, 2020

GEOFF DAVIES. The betrayal, corruption and capture of the Liberal Party

The Liberal Party has strayed far from the vision propounded by its founder, Sir Robert Menzies, to the point of being captured by special interests.

December 29, 2019

ROBERT MICKENS. Francis is dragging the Church, kicking and screaming, into the 20th century. The pope's reforms are seen as too modest by some, but too radical by others

“The Church is 200 years behind the times.” (La Chiesa rimasta indietro di 200 anni.)

July 20, 2020

Tax is a dirty word

Tax is such a dirty word. And indeed, the way Australia’s tax system is structured supports our very dirty and unsustainable energy system.

November 19, 2019

SAEB EREKAT. Don't Label Israeli Settlement Products. Ban Them (14-11-19)

There is nothing ethical in trading in products made with stolen natural resources on stolen land. There can be no meaningful peace process that normalizes war crimes and violations of international law.

January 13, 2020

MIKE SCRAFTON. NATO, the Middle East and the policy vacuum

The Iran crisis has inspired three public utterances of relevance to Australias foreign and strategic policy; from, in chronological order, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg, President Trump, and our own inestimable Prime Minister. Collectively, they reveal the real depths of the crisis and a disturbing lack of strategic vision.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal