October 29, 2020

The main game must be to get US, China relations on a better footing

Whoever wins the imminent US Presidential election, US-China relations will continue to be the most important geo-political issue for the world, and for Australia.

November 24, 2020

The Tamed Estate - cover-up of the Queens role in the Dismissal by the National Archives and The Australian

_The release of the Palace letters was pure theatre. Every element was meticulously stage-managed: the set, the props, the narrative. (From the Palace Letters pp 168-172)

December 2, 2020

Corporate power in Australia

_Companies can secure so much economic power they can translate it into the political power, which they use to get laws that further advance their economic power.

January 30, 2019

IAN ROBINSON. The Myth of the Mandate.

If they win the next election, Labor will have a mandate to push through tax changes, claims Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen (The Age 23/01 p. 1).

July 12, 2018

ANDREW FARRAN. BREXIT. Wheres Boris?

It was mid-afternoon on the Monday (9th July) and the assembled Eastern European Foreign Ministers had visited London to hear an address by Foreign Minister Boris. But where was he? Boris had a major distraction from his day job.

January 19, 2021

What should Australia want from a Biden National Security Strategy? Avoiding war in Asia

Australia should hope for a major shift away from President Trumps strategybut not an uncritical return to President Obamas 2015 version. For a start a new NSS should reposition the US as a less crusading nation, one more accepting of difference

December 28, 2020

Dont scare the horses: Morrisons business-friendly reforms change little

While the Prime Minister has acknowledged Australia needs to reconsider its policy framework to restore full employment, the areas identified for reform are poorly chosen, and little of substance is likely to emerge. An alternative will be discussed tomorrow.

December 14, 2020

Prime Minister: Saying you no longer intend to cheat on climate change does not merit applause

The Prime Minister has brushed off his failure to gain a speaking role at the Glasgow global warming summit as inconsequential. But the reality is that the Prime Minister and his government continue to fail us.

November 26, 2020

Australia and China: Getting out of the hole

The Scottish Independent Labour Party leader in the 1930s, Jimmy Maxton, summed up the challenge of political leadership as well as anybody ever has: If you cant ride two bloody horses at once, you shouldnt be in the bloody circus.

July 29, 2019

MASSIMO FAGGIOLI. The rise of 'devout schismatics' in the Catholic Church. {La Croix International, 16.7.2019)

“If Matteo Salvini becomes prime minister, Italy will have a government led by a Catholic who is devout but schismatic.” So said Sergio Romano, a former Italian ambassador to NATO and the ex-Soviet Union, in a recent opinion piece in the Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera.

February 1, 2021

Taiwan: to war or not to war, is that the question?

Are we at risk of stumbling into a war with China over Taiwan - as happened in 1914 over a war with a rising Germany?

December 20, 2020

War Crimes: Where does ultimate responsibility lie? Only a Royal Commission will determine the answer

The Brereton report has major deficiencies around where ultimate responsibility lies for war crimes in Afghanistan. To understand this and to eradicate the cultural and systemic causes of the alleged crimes, we need a Royal Commission.

February 21, 2021

For the Prime Minister, sovereignty is reduced to possessing 70 fighter jets

Prime Minister Scott Morrison appears to be suffering from the neurological condition visual agnosia - the inability to recognise certain objects for what they are. It is a condition popularised the neurologist, Oliver Sacks, is his book on the condition, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales_._

May 6, 2020

JOHN CARLIN. Living with Death - the Coronavirus Paradox

The coronavirus presents us with a paradox: none of us want to catch it, but all of us wish we had recovered from it. It is only a matter of time before those who have had it will be given more freedoms than the rest.

February 15, 2021

Trump writes the rule book for future demagogues

What a cop out. The respectable Republican operatives who have used Trumps populist appeal to maintain their position and privileges are more dangerous than the supporters of Trump who stormed the Capitol.

December 10, 2020

And the third Khaki Shultzie goes to...

Recently the Chief of the Defence Force, General Angus Campbell, won the inaugural Khaki Shulztie. The award is named after Sergeant Shultz (I know nuuuthing!) from the TV show Hogans Heroes. The award recognised General Campbells ignorance about Afghanistan in the face of overwhelming information that was or could have been at his disposal.

July 10, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Bugging a Cabinet room, keeping sweet with News Corp and a pointless Australian Federal Police investigation of a leak

Andrew Wilkie MP has asked the AFP to investigate the improper disclosure of protected information disclosed by News Corp. journalist Niki Savva on the ABC Insiders program on 1 July 2018. She said that Attorney General Christian Porter had been given a very strong recommendation to prosecute Bernard Collaery and Witness K.

How Savva knew this and who told her is the subject of an AFP investigation requested by Andrew Wilkie. On the basis of previous AFP form this will go nowhere.

November 29, 2020

Reputation laundering: weapons companies infiltrating schools to promote education

ALockheed missileblows up a bus full of Yemeni children; in Australia Lockheed Martin gains kudos bysponsoring the National Youth Science Forum. BAE Systems sponsors underprivileged kids in Australia while being complicit in the killing of thousands of needy children in Yemen. All you see in industry marketing pitches is euphemism, with nary a mention of the word weapons.

January 13, 2021

With regulations gutted and tax breaks banked, corporate funders and enablers desert Donald Trump

Corporate America is frantically distancing itself from Donald Trump in the dying days of his presidency after spending four years financing him, enjoying his tax giveaways, his attacks on workers and gutting of regulations to fatten corporate profits. The rank hypocrisy even extended to Scott Morrisons top adviser on Covid-19 economic recovery.

November 18, 2020

LobbyLand: Department of Defence captured by foreign weapons makers Thales, BAE

The culture of cosiness; the revolving door; and undue influence. The relationship between government and military industrial companies is just one strand of the evidence showing the urgent need for a national anti-corruption commission. Undue influence is a noted marker for corruption.

March 16, 2019

PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 17 March 2019

The Reserve Bank of Australia issues its first statement on climate change its highly likely to disrupt the productivity and stability and they now include it with the other factors they consider when managing the economy while schools students across the world strike to draw attention to the failure of current leaders to take adequate action to combat climate change. In Central America, people and governments in Costa Rica and Cuba take climate action more seriously.

February 24, 2021

The JobSeeker rise back to 2007 payment levels

Lowering the overall level of unemployment benefits that job seekers are going to receive in the middle of a recession is likely to cost jobs.

October 8, 2020

Morrison governing from the rear

At the end of all the announcements in the budget of tax cuts and give-aways to the private sector to promote an industry-led recovery, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg had a somewhat unsettling (though it was not intended as such) rallying call: The road to recovery will be hard but there is hope. The Morrison governments message to Australians is that we have your back.

October 4, 2020

The perils of outsourcing (privatisation) on many fronts

In Pearls and Irritations in recent weeks we have posted articles about the serious erosion in the quality of care and services in many fields - disability care, vocational education and training, child care and particularly aged care, where more than 650 older people have died in private, for-profit “homes”. All too often service quality has been sacrificed for profit. Political ideology has become more important than quality services for the public.

July 9, 2017

GILES PARKINSON. How the far Right have hijacked Australia's energy policy

If you ever wondered just how comprehensively the Far Right has hijacked the Coalitions energy policy, its worth reading the speech by NSW energy minister Don Harwin we reported onlast week.

October 19, 2020

Gladys' arrogance paves the way for Federal ICAC

The most remarkable thing about the revelation of Gladys Berejiklians love life was that it was remarkable at all.

October 6, 2020

LobbyLand: Unhealthy Business? Health sector lobbyists

In contrast to the United States, where businesses spend billions lobbying, we have weak civil society oversight of what businesses are up to and independent policy development. Its time for our entrepreneurs to give back to society by funding civil society bodies. We need a Soros and a Gates or two.

January 12, 2020

MICHAEL KEANE A Digital Civilization: China Reimagined

In the Chinese political lexicon being civilized means fitting in with the national plan, accepting the party-states directives and guidance, and obeying laws. This harmonious society model, represents a collective response to uneven social development.

February 3, 2021

You can set your political clock to it: federal election looms

When the Murdoch media launch into its ritualistic Labor leadership tensions routine it can only mean theres an election on the horizon. But with a poll showing states rated ahead of the feds regarding administering the vaccine, it would appear trust is an issue that will continue to bedevil the Coalition.

October 15, 2020

No shortage of options to pay for rights-based care for the elderly with a disability. Part 2

A rights-based system for aged care to support those who are unable to participate fully in society will not be cheap. To bring us into line with the standards adopted by high performing countries with similar living standards will likely require a doubling of expenditure.

December 13, 2020

Cricket Australia continues to feast on unhealthy product advertising

The advertising of alcohol, gambling and junk food, especially in sport and during childrens viewing times, has been contentious. With summer upon us, cricket is again swamped with these ads, exposing millions of kids to them and threatening their health and wellbeing. The release of new drinking guidelines calls into question the future of this kind of advertising.

December 3, 2020

In hunting for Chinese spies we hang on for dear life to Anglo-Saxon allies

Like so many members of the security establishment Director of ASIO Duncan Lewis adopted the time-honoured tactic of implicitly saying to the public trust us because we know things you dont know and which we cant tell you.

January 9, 2021

Storming the Capitol to destroy an election is the least of what happened

The ultimate travesty of Trumpism is not simply its shocking aggression at the Capitol on January 6, but what that action revealed as the depths of division within the US polity and society. Biden and Harris have a formidable job to restore a modicum of reliable order. We need to re-think Australias willingness to accept US directions.

October 14, 2020

Gillard's discrimination against people with a disability aged over 65 must be put right - Part 1

It is a truth universally acknowledged our aged care system is in a tragic mess. It has become a badly regulated, provider-centric system focused more on limiting Commonwealth budget exposure than supporting the dignity and independence of older Australians.

February 4, 2019

GEOFF RABY. How a desert book festival outshone the chill over Davos.

Last week two major events on the calendar of global gatherings kicked off the New Year. They could not have been further apart. Some 20,000 attendees, mainly middle aged and older, made their way up the snow blanketed steep valleys of far eastern Switzerland to the World Economic Forums annual gathering of the global business and political elites. Some 500,000 paid to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) in Indias largely desert Rajasthan State and 80 per cent of the participants were under the age of 30 years.

May 19, 2020

MAX HAYTON. New Zealands budget presses the reset button

Before the Covid-19 pandemic New Zealands unemployment and net Crown debt were low. That has all changed, but in the midst of the crisis the Labour Government sees opportunities.

March 1, 2019

Monthly housing digest Jan/Feb 2019

This is the first of what is intended to be a monthly digest of interesting articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material relevant to housing stress/affordability and homelessness with hypertext links to the source material. While the focus is on Australia, the Digest may occasionally include items of significant interest from overseas jurisdictions. See for example the piece about Microsoft in this Digest.

This edition is re-posted from Thursday 21 February, and in future will appear on the first Saturday of every month.

February 25, 2021

Morrisons media code could be catastrophic for climate and energy news

Morrison’s government could hardly have wished for a better outcome. The core of their supplicant media is to receive millions to continue their cheering from the sidelines, while independent voices such as RenewEconomy risk being squeezed by these secret deals. Yet big media companies and the competition regulator claim this to be some sort of victory for media diversity and the democratic process.

February 4, 2021

Aged care, quarantine: open and shut cases of federal responsibility but Morrison won't step up to the plate

Experts have spent years warning the federal government that pandemics would increase in frequency and severity. Yet the government was asleep at the wheel when Covid hit. Older people paid a heavy price, with Australia having one of the highest rates in the world of deaths in residential aged care as a proportion of total Covid-19 deaths.

November 11, 2020

Australia caught in a time warp

Contemporary Australia has some sorry echoes of a less-liberal past, especially as our relations with China continue to deteriorate

November 21, 2018

ADAM WAKELING. Tokyo Trial: how an Australian judge sentenced a Japanese leader to death (ABC NEWS).

“Accused Hideki Tojo, on the counts of the indictment of which you have been convicted, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East sentences you to death by hanging.”

December 30, 2020

Is the Darwin Dan Murphys Woolworths a Juukan Gorge moment?

As time has passed, opposition to Woolworths plans for a massive alcohol store near three dry Indigenous communities in Darwin has strengthened and become more vociferous. Even with the assistance of a pliant Northern Territory Government, approval of this shocking plan remains in doubt.

November 25, 2020

The Australian Army's inauspicious birth. From the Boer War to the Afghanistan War.

With such intense focus on the armys record in Afghanistan we might look more closely at its history. It had an inauspicious birth on the first of March 1902 in South Africa, three months before the end of the Boer War.

November 8, 2020

Tamed estate: Australian media conservatives applaud Trump's 'victory'

_Two former Australian prime ministers have joined forces to speak out against the power of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, calling for a royal commission. But why do they have so much power anyway, when they get it so spectacularly wrong, so often. Michael Tanner explores the bizarre antics of Murdoch’s pundits during the US election.

January 31, 2021

Australian 'patriots' wrap themselves in the flag of a colony

By choosing to stick with January 26 (1788) as Australia’s National Day, conservatives are celebrating a date that highlights the very worst of British imperialism - a rule of law belonging to a tiny aristocratic oligarchy with a vicious criminal code defending private property through capital punishment and transportation.

October 26, 2020

The government, in due course, acted promptly

In the far-off innocent days before the spin doctors decreed that backbenchers should cease thinking for themselves and instead parrot the talking points devised to avoid saying anything meaningful at all, a few brave souls were prepared to respond to questions more or less spontaneously.

October 27, 2020

No one else in the world has tamed a second wave this large like Daniel Andrews (The Conversation Oct 26, 2020)

If the past few months have been like a long-haul flight, Victorians are now standing in the aisles waiting for the cabin door to open, a little groggy and disoriented but relieved. _They have every right to be. No other place in the world has tamed a second wave this large. Few have even come close.

February 14, 2021

Serving the underserved: nurse practitioners' invaluable roles during Covid

A Nurse Practitioner (NP) is a Registered Nurse with the experience and expertise to diagnose and treat people of all ages with a variety of acute or chronic health conditions. NPs have completed additional university study at Masters degree level and are the most senior clinical nurses in our health care system.

November 2, 2020

Dissident Liberal senators poised to allow Whitlams budget to pass when Sir John Kerr struck

In this extract from her new book, The Palace Letters, Professor Jenny Hocking reveals key entries from dissident Liberal Senator Alan Missens highly confidential diary on the 1975 constitutional crisis. Five Liberal senators had resolved to abstain from a direct vote on the governments supply bills, which would have enabled the bills to pass, just days before the dismissal of the Whitlam government.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal