December 6, 2019

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

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

March 1, 2019

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

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

November 22, 2019

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

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

February 18, 2019

TIM WOODRUFF. Health Reform From Labor: Does the Policy Match the Vision?

ALP health spokesperson Catherine King addressed the National Press Club this week to expound Labors vision of health care changes if it wins office. Perhaps the highlight of the address was a restatement of Labors vision

of a truly universal health care system in which every Australian has affordable access to the high-quality health care they need whenever they need it.

But will such a vision be wholeheartedly pursued under a Labor Government?

November 27, 2020

Saturdays good reading and listening for the weekend

What people in other forums are saying about public policy

July 28, 2019

PAUL MOSES. Putting Church above Children. The Vatican Fails to Comply with a UN Treaty

One way Pope Francis could move ahead with his aim of curbing clergy sex abuse in the worldwide Catholic Church would be to insist that the Holy See comply with the international human-rights treaty it signed to protect the rights of the child. Since nearly every country in the world (other than the United States) has signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the 1989 treaty sets a clear international standard for Catholic bishops everywhere.

May 21, 2020

DEBORAH GLEESON & DAVID LEGG. Three simple things Australia should do to secure access to treatments, vaccines, tests and devices during the coronavirus crisis (The Conversation 21.4.20)

Patents and related intellectual property rights can present formidable barriers to procuring medicines, vaccines, diagnostic tests and medical devices.

July 11, 2018

TONY SMITH. Hostage to the masculine sense of entitlement.

When a society seems unable to ameliorate its social problems, something is obviously amiss. People in the USA might despair of ever breaking free of the pervasive firearms culture which is implicated in frequent mass shootings. In Australia, we have at least two persistent catastrophes: horrific road tolls and the scourge of domestic violence which leaves a woman dead every week and creates lives of misery for survivors.

January 15, 2020

MIKE SCRAFTON. How good are Royal Commissions?

Morrisons call for a Royal Commission on matters related to the bushfires is puzzling. It is difficult to avoid the suspicion that it was a thought bubble exuding from the advisors of a Prime Minster under great pressure. For the government there would seem to be little upside.

May 11, 2021

Armed Neutrality: an alternative, principled defence policy to safeguard an independent Australia, keep us out of wars and promote peace- Part 2

Armed Neutrality provides an alternative defence policy which would safeguard continental Australia, keep us out of wars and promote peace. It is strategically feasible and cost effective but would require investment in rebuilding our manufacturing base, restructuring the ADF and removing foreign bases from our soil in a series of steps.

February 26, 2019

Morrison puts lipstick on Tony Abbotts pig of a climate policy (Renew Economy).

Prime minister Scott Morrison has finally unveiled his climate policy and it is clearly designed to do two things: Placate the core rump of climate deniers and ideologues within his own party and the conservative media, and try to fool enough others that the Coalition is doing something to address a problem it barely admits exists, or worth doing anything about.

November 14, 2018

PETER STANLEY. PM Hughes said 'I bid you go fight for White Australia in France'- WW1 as the war for White Australia

Peter Stanley reviews Peter Cochranes Best We Forget: The War for White Australia, 1914-18

Australians’ racial anxiety towards Asia in general and Japan in particular in the decade before 1914 made Australians’ political leaders prepared to underwrite an imperial war in the hope of securing British support for the security of White Australia.

June 7, 2020

MICHAEL FURTADO. Why Quentin Dempster, Malcolm Turnbull and John Warhurst are wrong about Catholic School Funding

We are at an historic moment of apocalyptic threat to the survival of the Australian Catholic Church, the Catholic Bishops say. Among the institutions facing their greatest threat are Australias Catholic Schools. Heres whats happening.

May 20, 2019

ROBERT MICKENS. Pope Francis' race against the clock. The 82-year-old pope looks increasingly like a man rushing to complete a mission

The first rays of dawn had barely begun to rise over a cloudy St. Peter’s Square and the Vatican. But at 6:20 a.m. on Sunday, May 5, Pope Francis was already on his way to Rome’s Fiumicino Airport where, 40 minutes later, he would embark on a two-hour flight to the Bulgarian capital of Sophia.

October 20, 2019

LINDA BOTTERILL. A national drought policy should be an easy, bipartisan fix. So why has it taken so long to enact a new one? (The Conversation 10-10-19)

In a country as dry as Australia, surely it is a no-brainer that we have in place a coordinated, national drought response that can be rolled out the same way that the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangementsare triggered when the country experiences cyclones, floods or bushfires.

May 1, 2018

ROSS GITTINS. The boot is on the other foot and big business is on the nose

The misbehaviour by banks and other big financial players revealed by the royal commission is so extensive and so shocking its likely to do lasting damage to the public credibility and political influence of the whole of big business and its lobby groups.

January 24, 2018

LEANNE WELLS. More Government tax incentives for health insurance?

While in the real world consumers struggle to meet private health care costs, health funds are hoping for yet more government help.

May 14, 2020

The Fragrant Harbour and the Northern Capital

_After Covid-19 forced a temporary shutdown of protests in Hong Kong they have now re-emerged. Beijing representatives and their local supporters are proposing new challenges. There is no sign of an olive branch and compromise is not on the agenda of the upcoming National Peoples Congress.

May 13, 2019

BRIAN COYNE. The great fallacy of our neoliberal affluent times

Brian Coyne offers this addendum to what he wrote in response to Richard Cooke’s searing analysis of Rupert Murdoch and his publishing empire. It might be a difficult-to-appreciate observation for many in our world today:

March 16, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. The ASEAN Summit in Sydney this weekend.

The meeting this weekend will highlight for Australia the importance of our relations with regional countries. It will also highlight the importance of our relationship with the US and China, and how that rivalry can best be managed in association with regional countries. As background to this weekend’s Summit meeting, I provide links to five important foreign policy articles that were posted on Pearls and Irritations in May/June 2016.

These articles were part of a series called Fairness, Opportunity and Security edited by Michael Keating and myself. The Foreign Affairs articles were written by former senior officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. This series was later published in book form. The title Fairness, Opportunity and Security was, incidentally, picked up by Malcolm Turnbull as part of a government mantra. But that is a subject for another day!.

November 11, 2019

CSAR RODRGUEZ GARAVITO. The Solution to the Climate Crisis

Homo sapiens suffers from a cognitive defect in that we have evolved to deal with immediate and concrete threats, but not ones that happen to us slowly over time, like climate change. Those with Asperger’s syndrome see the world differently, and it is interesting to think that the rest of us might have to learn something from people disabled and often mocked.

September 28, 2020

The scary picture of a failed Australia-China trade relations ?

The mainstream newspapers in Australia do not shed much light about the real situation of the Cold trade war between Australia and China. If we look hard enough, we may find factual reporting about this subject in an English language published off-shore, in Hong Kong.

July 11, 2018

PAUL KRUGMAN. Big business reaps Trumps whirlwind (New York Times)

The bill for decades of cynical politics is coming due.

December 5, 2017

JOAN STAPLES. Government targets international philanthropy for civil society.

A Bill expected to be introduced by the Government this week, may deliberately create confusion by linking foreign donations to political parties, with foreign donations to civil society organisations. It is expected to propose banning both.

December 1, 2019

SAINT JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN. Advent is upon us.

Why need they observe certain rites and ceremonies? Why need they watch, pray, fast, and meditate? Why is it not enough to be just, honest, sober, benevolent, and otherwise virtuous? Is not this the true and real worship of God? Is not activity in mind and conduct the most acceptable way of approaching Him? How can they please Him by submitting to certain religious forms, and taking part in certain religious acts? Or if they must do so, why may they not choose their own? Why must they come to church for them? Why must they be partakers in what the Church calls Sacraments?

January 14, 2019

JEFFREY SACHS and others.- Fully Filling the Global Fund.

In a world divided by conflict and greed, the Global Funds fight against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria is a matter of enlightened self-interest and a reminder of how much humanity can accomplish when we cooperate to save lives. For public and private donors, that means providing the financing needed to eliminate all three scourges by 2030.

January 8, 2019

ROBERT D KAPLAN. The case for leaving Afghanistan (The New York Times International Edition).

America is spending beyond its means on a mission that might only be helping its strategic rivals.

January 21, 2020

MILES LITTLE. The decency of the commons

Bushfires have devastated this country, yet have allowed us to see the best of human motives and actions. They have also exposed us to disappointments, further loss of trust in governance and a sense of insecurity.

February 26, 2018

LESLEY RUSSELL. Ageless At Altitude

Residents of Colorados most picturesque mountain towns in Summit, Pitkin and Eagle counties live longer than anyone else in the United States. Recent data collections, research and comparisons with the so-called Blue Zones those few places where people live longer and healthier than anywhere else on earth highlight why the Colorado Rocky Mountains offer such great health outcome and what needs to be done for this area to truly become an American Blue Zone for every who lives there.

October 15, 2020

Morrison Government is running scared of a federal integrity body

This week’s trials of Gladys Berejiklian only confirm the Morrison Government’s largely unspoken fears that a federal ICAC would do the government a lot more harm than good.

October 27, 2019

JOHN PONTIFEX. Nationalism, authoritarianism and militant Islamism: across Asia, the faithful are facing a perfect storm

When an elderly Christian woman in a village in Indias Tamil Nadu state was beaten by extremists, her attackers defended their actions by saying that she had defiled the road by walking on it during a Hindu festival. A dozen Christians who tried to rescue her were also injured when the extremists threw stones at them.

November 14, 2018

The Queen's representative in Australia sits next to Putin in France - what nonsense!!

April 20, 2018

GREG HAMILTON. Dying for nothing, a-la-Australienne.

According to the oldest surviving veteran of The Great War, Sgt Ted Smout, dead at 106, our war dead died in vain. In his words, they died for nothing. He must have known something most of us dont know for him to make such a terrible claim. What could he possibly have known?

March 13, 2017

QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Michelle Guthries survival strategy for the ABC

ABC MD Michelle Guthries survival strategy for the national broadcaster is to re-invest brutally extracted payroll savings into new extraordinary content.

While encouraging staff to come up with exciting new creative ideas to use the $20m available immediately and then $50m a year in a content fund she says her flattened management restructure will deliver, apart from 80 new regional reporting and content staff, the new program strategy remains unspecified.

October 4, 2020

Lobbyland. Fixing corruption risks in lobbying

‘A lot of money can depend on the success or failure of a lobbyist’s representations to Government.’ That statement, in a report by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in 1990, was about lobbying by property developers, particularly in local government, but it is true of a great deal of lobbying at national, State and local levels.

June 4, 2020

WILLIAM BRIGGS. Tear gas - only fit for civilians

Television cameras show streets filled with angry men and women. The air is thick with tear gas. There are batons, armoured police, and pepper spray. For some a symbol of resistance. For others fearful scenes of anarchy. For many more a sign that something is terribly wrong.

December 9, 2020

What responsibility does ADF's top brass have for war crimes in Afghanistan?

As much as clothes, language has fashions. This months in-vogue expression is walking back a metaphor for resiling from a position previously taken. And in these changing times, there is a lot of walking back about.

January 8, 2018

MICHAEL KEATING. Inequality, wages and economic growth- A REPOST from July 31,2017

Changes in inequality and in the relationship between wages and productivity help explain the poor economic performance of many advanced economies in this century. Interestingly the Governor of the Reserve Bank indicated that Australia might be facing the same risks of inadequate wage growth, although he felt that Australias monetary policy framework is better placed to deal with this world than some others.

December 13, 2017

BRIAN TOOHEY. So just who is a Chinese agent?

Chinese attempts to influence Australian policy havent stopped Malcolm Turnbulls government making increasingly tough criticisms of the nations largest trading partner. Despite Chinas waning policy influence, the government is introducing onorous espionage and foreign interference legislation to counter the problem. If this stops foreign countries from covertly influencing Australian policy, thats fine. But the legislation could potentially curtail public discussion and free speech, neither of which is assisted by some commentators and unnamed intelligence sources who brand just about anyone with any contact with China as an agent of influence.

February 7, 2019

NOEL TURNBULL. A climate of hope.

Despite Donald Trump, Scott Morrison and others there is a significant change of opinion on climate change around much of the western world particularly in the US of all places for the better.

November 20, 2018

ALEX WODAK. Drug law reform in the 2018 US mid term elections.The 2018 US midterm elections has important lessons for Australia regarding drug law reform. In ballot initiatives and elections for office, voters often supported drug law reform with only one major defeat. Presidential election years generally have many more ballot initiatives on drug policy.

The 2018 US midterm elections has important lessons for Australia regarding drug law reform. In ballot initiatives and elections for office, voters often supported drug law reform with only one major defeat. Presidential election years generally have many more ballot initiatives on drug policy.

March 9, 2019

PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 10 March 2019

Water features strongly this week: while Birdlife Australia is being innovative to protect our water birds, the governments and shooters of Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia are wilfully destroying them in the hundreds of thousands; the citizens of Toledo (think Klinger, not El Greco) approve a Lake Erie Bill of Rights; Melbournes water supply is threatened by logging native forests; and, perhaps drawing a longish bow, financial institutions are abandoning their support for coal (the mining of which requires a lot of water).

May 16, 2020

PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 17 May 2020

In the absence of urgent climate action, rising temperatures over the next 50 years will render much of the globe uninhabitable for humans and trees. But global fossil fuel consumption is still rising and a NSW coal company has repeatedly and grossly underestimated the CO2 emissions when its coal is burnt. A pandemic caused by a coronavirus: what a surprise. NOT! And Madagascars remarkable flora and fauna.

February 18, 2019

TONY SMITH. Last hurrah for New South Wales Coalition Government a festival election?

The Coalition Government in New South Wales faces the fixed four year election in late March. It has been looking desperate for the last couple of years and has come under pressure recently about drug deaths at music festivals. Its decided course of action in this area might well alienate younger voters and prove to be the final nail in the Coalition coffin.

August 14, 2019

PHILIP GIRALDI. Israel Has "The Most Moral Army in the World"? (American Herald Tribune)

The creepy French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy gets it wrong

May 1, 2018

IAN VERRENDER. The banks, the Government and the half-trillion-dollar super grab.

So close, but no cigar.

Just when they appeared on the cusp of victory, the major banks and AMP have had their ambitions to grab control of a lucrative section of the superannuation industry crushed.

July 7, 2020

A dissenting opinion on a key Discernment Paper for the National Plenary Council of the Catholic Church in Australia 2021-2022

It is not so much what the paper says; it is what the paper omits, that has attracted initial criticism.

May 12, 2020

JOHN HOWARD. Challenges for Australian research and innovation post Covid-19

Australia is looking to rebuild its industrial base to achieve greater self-sufficiency in manufacturing. But we are seriously under-investing in creating the engineering and technology knowledge and skills that will be required to achieve this outcome.

June 9, 2020

IAN BOWIE. How many Aboriginal Australians are there?

It is commonly said that there are about 800,000 indigenous Australians. In fact, the number of Aboriginal Australians may be substantially fewer.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal