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Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal
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Letters
November 14, 2020

Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

October 31, 2020

Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

March 30, 2019

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

December 19, 2020

Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

November 16, 2019

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

October 26, 2019

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

February 6, 2021

Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

November 21, 2020

Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

May 2, 2018

JERRY ROBERTS. Cause and effect.

Royal Commissions are often diverted into by-ways that are interesting and entertaining but have little relevance to the terms of reference and do nothing to solve the problem that required the inquiry to be established in the first place. 

July 11, 2017

ALICE FABBRI, LISA BERO AND RAY MOYNIHAN. Vested interests -Who’s paying for lunch? Here’s exactly how drug companies wine and dine our doctors

Now you can find out who’s wining and dining our doctors, nurses and pharmacists with publicly available data of drug company funded events.

January 30, 2021

Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

November 19, 2020

Crown Sydney casino opening delayed

Crown Resorts’ board sat on its hands and so the NSW regulator has intervened and ordered the new Sydney casino’s opening to be delayed.

January 24, 2020

FRANCESCA BEDDIE. Australia Day: the occasion for collective mourning.

In early January, the leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese, suggested the first sitting day of Federal Parliament for 2020 be devoted to marking the unprecedented bushfire crisis. That got me thinking about Australia Day.

November 30, 2019

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

November 5, 2020

Growth of Pearls and Irritations

The past six months have been very encouraging for Pearls and Irritations.

March 2, 2021

Fundamental failure: Aged care a public good or competitive market? RC fails to address role of private providers

The Royal Commission’s first report elegantly articulated the problems that needed to be fixed. The final report fails to set out a coherent package of practical solutions this same RC identified in ‘ Neglect’. Significant increases in funding are required. But they need to have big strings attached. Amazingly, the Royal Commission failed to address this issue.

March 23, 2019

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

March 9, 2019

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

February 13, 2021

Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

February 1, 2020

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

March 1, 2021

Morrison's government: the most amoral in 50 years

It is extraordinary that a Liberal Party leadership manages to be outside the bubble when anything might go wrong. Concepts of right and wrong have no place in what it does, and even what it says it does. Its only concern is the exercise of power, to satisfy its current whimsies and to excuse and cover up mistakes, blunders and policy errors.

December 8, 2020

Playing to the local gallery on crimes in Afghanistan

It’s hard to escape the feeling that most of the heat and light generated by Scott Morrison’s fury at a cartoon by a middle-level Chinese tiger cub was designed for Australian, rather than Chinese, consumption. Regardless, it could be a dangerous strategy. 

November 1, 2020

Sunday environmental round up, 1 November 2020

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing presents a major threat to security and fish stocks. Seagrasses and snow leopards suffering from environmental destruction. Aussie coal companies turning to the Canadian Rockies. Insights into what might be influencing American votes on Tuesday.

October 19, 2019

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

October 29, 2020

Does anyone really believe we are going to avert a climate catastrophe?

An energy transition is underway but it is too slow to avert a climate catastrophe and it ignores many other environmental and social challenges that need tackling now. Capitalism has got us into this mess but doesn’t have the tools to get us out of it. Perhaps ecosocialism and Extinction Rebellion provide some answers.

October 17, 2020

Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

March 16, 2019

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

January 11, 2020

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

We’re back, with links to writings, broadcasts and happenings over the last three weeks.

February 27, 2018

NICHOLAS GRUEN. Now is the time for complacency: Banking and Australian Policy Makers

To quote Bank of England Governor, Melvin King in 2010 “of all the many ways of organising banking, the worst is the one we have today.” The Bank of England continues as a thoughtful critic to this day. As we’ll see below, our own central bank – the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) – not so much. 

The fatal flaw in banking is that, although money is a classic public good, like the air we breathe or the radio spectrum, it’s privately created. Commercial banks like NAB or Westpac create money whenever they advance a loan. This private licence to print money creates four huge problems. 

January 9, 2021

The coup in Washington: Why is anyone surprised by Trump’s fascist politics?

As I write this, pro-Trump protesters have stormed the U.S. Capitol building seeking to impose Trump’s attempted coup on America. Trump’s hand in stoking the coup is apparent on multiple fronts. He’s been disseminating and mainstreaming baseless electoral fraud conspiracies for months – years really.

March 14, 2020

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

February 2, 2021

President Biden must call time on the “exceptionalism” US has long exploited

Last year I described an essay by then candidate Joe Biden “ Why America must lead again” as “less an inspirational treatise … more a collage of ideas”. With so many daunting domestic challenges to confront, it will take time for Biden to put his personal stamp on key foreign policy themes.

January 16, 2021

Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

December 14, 2019

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

November 19, 2019

DIMITRI TRENIN. Russia’s rise won’t end with Syria (New York Times, 3 November 2019)

Get used to it, because Russian influence is coming to a region near you.

For many in the West, Russia’s return to the world stage over the past few years has come as a surprise, and not an especially pleasant one. After the downfall of the Soviet Union, the country was written off as yesterday’s snow, a regional power, a filling station masquerading as a state.

January 18, 2020

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

February 17, 2018

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND ...

Writing in the Canberra Times John Warhurst examines the wealth of the Catholic Church, a topic that has come to prominence in terms of its capacity to provide monetary compensation to victims of sexual abuse.

Phillip Adams interviews Professor Shae McCrystal of the Law Faculty at the University of Sydney, on Australia’s industrial relations system. McCrystal explains developments leading up to present arrangements and problems with the Fair Work Act.  She calls for restoration of aspects of the twentieth century arbitration system to compensate for workers’ loss of bargaining powers.

January 25, 2018

HARRY DEMPSEY. Will Trump snap Japan’s tenuous tightrope?

The unhinged madman foreign policy of US President Donald Trump means Tokyo must walk a tightrope to manage the US–Japan alliance. On security policy, on trade and on North Korea, Japan will increasingly have to develop its own independent regional vision.

February 29, 2020

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

February 8, 2020

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

April 6, 2019

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

March 28, 2020

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

February 20, 2021

Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

December 5, 2020

Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

March 21, 2020

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

August 28, 2020

‘I’m on your right, Bibi’: The man tipped to be Israel’s new envoy in Canberra (Plus 61J Media)

Fresh from the UN, Danny Danon is headed for Australia, according to Israeli media. EETTA PRINCE-GIBSON profiles the diplomat renowned for being Right out there.

July 10, 2017

I told you so: realists need to get real on nuclear policy choices

The DPRK is developing a nuclearised ICBM capability as fast as it possibly can because it fears a US attack and forcible regime change. And the dear leader fears the same fate as Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi.  So the US threatens him even more as the answer to make Kim Jong Un desist from his chosen nuclear path. Go figure. 

August 5, 2020

James Murdoch’s resignation is the result of News Corp’s increasing shift to the right – not just on climate (The Conversation August 2 2020)

James Murdoch is not the most obvious candidate for editorial heroism. His route to  resigning from the News Corp board because of “disagreements over certain editorial content” has been circuitous and colourful.

November 9, 2019

SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

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