May 25, 2020

NOEL TURNBULL. Nev is never in doubt

Reflecting on when the Prime Minister rang to ask him head the Government’s COVID-19 Task Force Nev Power said he couldn’t refuse the PM – reacting as any responsible citizen would.

June 10, 2020

Mark Oliphant's no-show at the British atomic and nuclear tests in Australia – the Fuchs factor

Seventy years ago in mid-1950, weeks after Klaus Fuchs had confessed to spying for the Russians throughout the 1940s, writes Sue Rabbitt Roff. Britain gave up hope of being able to test its first atomic bomb in Nevada and turned to Australia.

But Australia’s premier nuclear physicist, Professor Mark Oliphant, was specifically excluded from coming anywhere near the tests – by the Americans. He had been compromised by the fallout from the Fuchs case.

November 8, 2019

DEAN BAKER. Mark Zuckerberg is a Rich Jerk (Counterpunch, 5 November 2019)

Last week, New York Times columnist Timothy Egan had a piece headlined “Why Doesn’t Mark Zuckerberg Get It?” The piece then goes on to document how Facebook has become a medium for spreading lies and nonsense all over the world, that many ill-informed users have come to believe.

December 1, 2019

PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 1 December 2019

How much can we trust the certification system for palm oil? Not much according to two reports over the last 4 years. Air pollution kills 3,000 Australians each year – there’s an opportunity to put pressure on ministers to enact higher national air pollution standards. Bankers are increasingly recognising the need for urgent action to combat climate change but governments are planning to increase the production of fossil fuels over the next decade.

June 22, 2020

A Politics of Deceit: Israel/US Annexation of Palestinian Lands

_In response to Israel’s intention to annex up to 30% of the West Bank, respect for truth by all the parties involved, Israeli, Palestinian, US, European and Australian, has been replaced by calculations about the benefits of deceit.

April 30, 2020

ALLAN KESSING. Unregulated Global Health Experiment by Airlines.

NATO and most western armies switched from macho big-bore rifles to 7.62mm for the strategic reason that a wounded enemy requires far more resources than a dead one.

May 27, 2020

BRIAN TOOHEY. A star-spangled spanner in the works: how US secrecy controls Australian weapons (SMH 25.5.20)

The loss of Australian sovereignty within the American alliance is rarely raised amid the current alarm about whether the US is a reliable ally.

March 4, 2019

ANTHONY PUN. Multiculturalism Part 3 - Contemporary support of multiculturalism.

Former PM Turnbull is a strong advocate of multiculturalism, but his successor PM Morrison appears to waver on his commitment to multiculturalism as shown by the inconsistency of his words on the subject. We prefer a PM with a consistent view, whether it is supportive or not; at least we could learn how to have a meaningful dialogue with him or persuade him to our views. The Multicultural Communities Council of NSW (MCCNSW) has examined the public reports on the subject in the media and determined that a rise in opposition to multiculturalism has increased and can be attributed to the rise of the right. However, statistical facts from the Scanlon Foundation and ABS show that the vast majority of Australians still support multiculturalism. Apparently, in the present political climate, the opposition to multiculturalism do not attract multicultural votes.

August 20, 2020

The Polding House Push and The Catholic Weekly Bugle.

Over the past year in particular, Australian Catholics have become convinced that their bishops, with some exceptions, are playing games with them in the lead up to the national Plenary Council which is now scheduled to start in October 2021. Some believe, not unreasonably, that important stages in the process have been closely micro managed and that the outcomes of the Plenary may have been determined already.

January 16, 2020

PETER RODGERS: Human rights in Xinjiang and Gaza.(A Repost 22.10.2019)

US and Australian responses to China’s maltreatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang and Israel’s blockade of Gaza reveal glaring double standards. But no worse perhaps than those of many Muslim states hungry for China’s largesse.

July 10, 2019

GEETA PANDEY. Indian MP Mahua Moitra's 'rising fascism' speech wins plaudits (BBC News)

A spirited turn at the mic by a first-time female MP in India’s parliament, in which she listed the “signs of early fascism”, has been hailed as the “speech of the year” on social media.

September 9, 2020

Many Australians are in for a difficult time in the months, and possibly years, ahead

A new report released earlier this week summarises the extent and effects of income and wealth inequality before Covid-19 and provides a lens through which to assess the affects of Covid-19 as it continues and governments and businesses respond.

January 17, 2021

The Matthew Fisher Sarcoma Research Fund

My granddaughter Naomi’s husband, Matt Fisher, died of an aggressive sarcoma cancer earlier this month. He was aged 39. The sarcoma was diagnosed in February last year.

A research fund has been established to promote research at the Garvan Institute.

Would you consider making a donation? Click here.

February 22, 2017

JIM COOMBS. Do We choose reason and proportion or “Economic Reform” ?

So long as government vacates the field, the balance between rich and poor lurches further towards the rich. 8 individuals control half of the world’s wealth. Is that Balance or proportionate ?

April 16, 2018

VIC ROWLANDS. Reclaiming democracy

Democracy across the world is under siege and facing its biggest challenge. Despite different interpretations of democracy in terms of process, - voting age, optional or compulsory, the new world is creating fundamental strains which threaten at least its current status, if not viability.

October 25, 2020

Sunday environmental round up, 25 October 2020

The absorption of solar energy by the earth is getting faster and faster. This is having dramatic effects on the dynamics, chemistry and life of the oceans, and bringing ‘Hothouse Earth’ closer. Over half of residents of the USA are now concerned about climate change. Farmers in the Riverina create Bittern-friendly rice fields.

April 8, 2020

RICHARD WHITINGTON. Rudd's GFC response versus Morrison's to Covid-19

Inevitably, comparisons are already being invited: between Kevin Rudd’s 2008-09 response to the Global Financial Crisis and Scott Morrison’s to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic.

January 28, 2020

HENRY BATEMAN. Digging Holes After the Bushfires

Is repeating our short sighted, business as usual thinking to recapture our economy after the bushfire holocaust the smartest way to face climate change?

December 20, 2018

MICHAEL MULLINS. The importance of wage growth

The blemish on this week’s ‘beautiful set of numbers’ announced by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was wage growth. We all need to build wealth to provide a secure future. The way to do that is to receive not only a wage, but a wage that increases exponentially. Like the wageless workers who lived through the Great Depression, many of today’s young people face financial uncertainty.

April 19, 2020

BOB DEBUS supports Pearls and Irritations.

Pearls & Irritations is unique. Its contributors and readers are a growing community of people with an exceptionally wide-ranging and open-minded commitment to effective, progressive and rational public policy.

November 23, 2018

CHRIS BONNOR. The ABC of school funding

Years ago the late Bernie Shepherd and I began wading through a mountain of My School data about schools. We soon discovered that the public funding of private schools was growing so rapidly that they would soon get more money from governments than was going to similar public schools. So we published our early findings which, along with our motives, were met with denials and accusations by the Catholic and Independent school peak groups. Fast forward four years and the ABC News has just produced an up-to-date and more sophisticated analysis for all to see. The situation has worsened; this issue won’t go away.

January 16, 2020

JOHN MENADUE. Our aggressive and violent ally is perpetually at war. An update from 9.8.2019

There is growing concern about Chinese ‘influence’. At the same time we seem unconcerned that we have ceded much of our defence and foreign policy autonomy to the United States. Chinese influence is minor compared with the control that we have ceded to the US and Donald Trump.That US control has led us to one disaster after another.

November 15, 2019

JERRY ROBERTS. The Labor Party, religion, sex and that sort of thing

The second greatest disaster for Labor following the May election loss is the daily earbashing from mainstream media dishing out gratuitous advice to the Party on how to change policies and win the next election. Absolutely the greatest disaster is the possibility that people within the Party will listen to this stream of right-wing drivel. Labor has enough trouble digesting its own internal review.

November 1, 2019

Vale Paul Francis Patrick Whelan

Bob Carr Tribute to Paul Whelan October 31, 2019.

Former New South Wales Premier Bob Carr paid tribute to his Police Minister Paul Whelan for his achievement in implementing the Wood Royal Commission recommendations to reform policing in NSW.

March 29, 2019

DUNCAN GRAHAM The Fear of Trading Dangerously

In early March The West Australian published an opinion piece by Professor Stephen Smith on selling to Indonesia;

September 27, 2020

European disarray pushes Iran, Turkey into China camp (Asia Times Sep 17, 2020)

If Tehran and Ankara were to fall out of Europe’s orbit it would be a strategically costly error for the West.

June 22, 2020

Will the real Scott Morrison please stand up?

_Since what has often called a miracle federal election victory, there has been a strange ongoing discussion about Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Who is he? What does he believe?

January 20, 2020

JOHN KEANE. Australia.out of luck

_Is the Lucky Country running out of luck? Natural disaster or political disaster?

February 6, 2019

ANDREW LINDEN, WARREN STAPLES. Hayne's failure to tackle bank structure. (The Conversation 5.2.2019)

Hayne’s failure to tackle bank structure means that in a decade or so another treasurer will have to call another royal commission. Every 10 to 15 years it’s the same.

Ever since financial deregulation in the 1980s we’ve had a finance industry scandal followed by an inquiry, a quick fix, and a declaration that it shouldn’t happen again.

January 6, 2021

No Plan PM: how government’s lack of an aged care plan cost lives. Typically the PM then blamed others.

While the federal government indulged in semantics, Covid-19 deaths continued to rise in the woefully under-prepared residential aged care sector. 2020 was a horror year for older people living in residential aged care.

December 24, 2019

HÉCTOR ABAD FACIOLINCE. Who Are the Protesters?

Protests around the world are often for contradictory things. The answer to the problem of one group of protesters is poison for another.

July 27, 2020

The war against China is largely facilitated by propaganda.

We are indeed now in the thick of a Third World War. It has been started by US and UK, aided by minor Five Eyes allies Canada and Australia. They have chosen their preferred strategic fighting terrain - information warfare

January 27, 2020

PETER SAINSBURY. Emission reduction or fuel reduction

T_he last month has clearly demonstrated to all thinking Australians that Scotty-from-Marketing may well know how to run a brilliant election campaign that against all predictions saved the Coalition from an absolute drubbing (while basically maintaining the political status quo), but that he has no vision for Australia beyond keeping the masses as docile as possible ._

January 20, 2020

LYNDSAY CONNORS. Words, words, words.

It is one thing for politicians to duck politically sensitive or embarrassing questions, but it is quite another when they opt for providing answers that are devoid of meaning.

December 12, 2017

Gonski 2.0 is the best special deal private schools have ever had

The Prime Minister says that Gonski 2.0 is “fair, it’s needs-based and it’s consistent”. However, confidential data released by the Commonwealth Department of Education under FOI contradicts his claim. It shows a massive increase in over-funding of private schools by 2027 and continuing under-funding of public schools.

January 22, 2020

TONY COADY Bouncer barrages, Bodyline and the Laws of Cricket Revisited

In Pearls and Irritations ( September 2, 2019) I wrote about the way that the long-standing intimidatory bowling of bouncers in international Test cricket is both clearly in conflict with the Laws of cricket in spite of being widely practiced, relished by most commentators, and ignored by umpires.

June 6, 2018

M.K. BHADRAKUMAR. Russia censures Iran, expects Israel to help restore ties with US.

The annual meeting of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum – dubbed as “Russia’s Davos” – on May 25, which traditionally promotes foreign investment in the Russian economy, ended this time around as a major political event signaling a renewed bid by President Vladimir Putin for détente with the West.

April 10, 2020

NOEL TURNBULL. Australians aren't like that are they?

As consumers fight over toilet rolls and marauding bus-loads of city dwellers pillage local country stores of products, the PM says we will get through it all because we are Australians. This is probably a good time to ask the question – what are Australians really like?

January 28, 2020

ANDREW FARRAN. Brexit, the ‘final ‘ stages. Will Europe be the same again?

In the highly complicated and complex negotiations soon to be underway between the UK and the EU, and others, to complete Brexit, it cannot be assumed that truth will displace ‘fact’ or that international trade law will be respected in the process

January 14, 2020

DAILAN PUGH. The Demise of a Koala Population

Last year the North East Forest Alliance found an unusually dense Koala colony, part of a regionally significant population in a forest proposed for logging. As we geared up for a blockade, the Busbys Flat fire changed direction on the night of the 8 October last year and burnt out most of our proposed 7,000 ha Sandy Creek Koala Park. Some 90% of the Koalas were lost from the burnt forests, along with vital source colonies.

January 11, 2021

Trump, the Capitol and the erosion of reputation

Can a country so bitterly divided be an effective global leader. Its system is seen to have failed. It is perceived as at war with itself . … America’s international reputation has tumbled mightily.

June 2, 2020

The New Rite of Baptism?

The Church modernises…

January 16, 2020

ANDREW FARRAN. Iran: The military track Military from Hybrid war to Denouement

What we are likely to witness, this year or later, is the 4th Iraq War - a process of reorienting the Levant around ideologically and sectarian driven forces and the undoing of the British-French (Sykes-Picot) colonial compact of 1916 (already well and truly undermined).

April 14, 2020

ROSS GITTINS.Scott Morrison,Easter and the pandemic(SMH 13.4.2020)

_Since it’s Easter, let me tell you about something that’s long puzzled me: how can an out-and-proud Pentecostalist such as Prime Minister Scott Morrison be leading the most un-Christian government I can remember? Fortunately, however, the virus crisis seems to be bringing out his more caring side.

November 15, 2019

ASSAF SHARON. The Long Paralysis of the Israeli Left (New York Review of Books, 7 November 2019)

The Israeli political system is in a weird stalemate. Two general elections in under six months have so far failed to produce a governing coalition. The sticking point is entirely personal—the fate of Bejamin Netanyahu as he faces multiple criminal indictments. After more than ten years in office, Netanyahu continues to dominate Israeli politics_._

November 23, 2018

ABUL RIZVI. What do the new ABS Population Projections tell us?

The ABS has released its latest population projections, updating those it produced in 2012 ( _see here_). So what has changed and how should we interpret these in terms of current policy?

December 14, 2017

HENRY REYNOLDS. The destruction of Dastyari chills an independent foreign policy

In his recent searching commentary on Australia’s foreign policy Hugh White left us with many challenging observations. Two of them lodged in my mind. In his Quarterly Essay: Without America he argued that Australia is going to have a more independent foreign policy in the new Asia—more independent of Washington that is ‘whether it likes it or not.’ While commenting on the recently released Foreign Policy White Paper he observed that the document failed ‘ the essential ingredient for effective diplomacy when weight of power is not on your side: new ideas.’ It was, he remarked, ’a telling omission.’

June 29, 2020

The inevitability of fundamental change in the world and what China wants

“The coronavirus pandemic will change the world order forever. When the Covid-19 pandemic is over, institutions in many countries will look as if they have failed. It is not a question of whether this judgment is correct from an objective point of view. The reality is that after the coronavirus, the world will never be the same again.” Henry Kissinger 2020.

June 5, 2020

RICHARD R. GAILLARDETZ. May the Global Church Discover "Light from the Southern Cross." Review and analysis of "potentially groundbreaking document" on Church governance

As the entire world struggles with the challenges, tragedies, and constraints imposed by the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Catholic Church finds itself in the midst of an altogether different kind of global pandemic, one of a distinctly spiritual and ecclesial nature, the clerical sexual abuse scandal.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal