December 3, 2020

Hook, line and sinker: China threw the cast and Scott Morrison fell for it

As someone who has been associated with the Sydney Morning Herald for more than 50 years as a cadet, reporter, correspondent, leader writer, foreign editor and still occasional contributor, I cant think of a lower level of commentary ever run in the newspaper.

October 17, 2018

Trudeau refuses to let 'politics slip into decision on Huawei (Globe & Mail, 16.10.18)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Ottawa refuses to let politics slip into" the decision to allow Huawei equipment into Canadas next-generation mobile networks even as the U.S. and Australia have barred the Chinese telecom giant on grounds of national security.

The Prime Ministers comments come just days after two U.S. senators took the unusual step of publicly urging the Liberal government to ban Huawei from Canadas 5G networks. Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Senator Mark Warner warned that Canadas telecommunication safeguards are insufficient to address the risks posed by the Shenzhen company. They both sit on the U.S. Senate select committee on intelligence and Mr. Warner is vice-chair.

March 18, 2019

PETER DAY. To Light a Candle or Curse the Dark: The Cardinal Dilemma

Foolishly, indulgently, Christian mercy does not depend on remorse, repentance, or even whether it is deserved. It takes the initiative in willing the good of the other.

December 22, 2019

GILLIAN BOURAS. The light in John Henry Newman's darkness

Whatever our creed, and wherever we are, in whatever circumstances, there are always times during which we need to be comforted and guided.

October 30, 2019

CAMERON LECKIE. Government Myopia and Liquid Fuel (In)security

Without water we humans die within days. Without oil our society, as currently organised, will follow a similar path. Given the obvious importance of liquid fuels to society, a realistic appraisal of future availability is essential. Unfortunately the Department of the Environment and Energys interim Liquid Fuel Security Review provides a myopic and misleading view of the future.

October 14, 2020

The aged care Royal Commissions Covid-19 report is superficial, misleading and unhelpful

The report by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety on the impact of Covid-19 is superficial and adds little to what is already being done to prevent and manage Covid in aged care. The Commissions conclusion regarding Australias performance on COVID-19 in residential aged care is misleading and obscures the truth.

February 21, 2021

Brexit fallout: How London lost its place as the world's financial capital

The Amsterdam stock market, which traded the first-ever equity in the Dutch East India company, has regained its position as the top European stock market after more than three centuries of trailing London.

November 21, 2019

YASMIN KHAN. The Raj at War: A Peoples History of Indias Second World War

Britain didn’t fight the second world war – the British empire did.

Had it not been for the empire, Britain might have lost the second world war, says William Dalrymple. The war certainly lost Britain the empire.

February 17, 2021

Did the Apology make a difference? The consequences of the past still haunt the present

The true horror of the crime committed against Aboriginal Australians remains a difficult subject for many Australians to even contemplate. A major hurdle of reconciliation continues to be that Aboriginal people themselves are being held responsible for ‘closing the gap’ by amending their cultural practices.

October 17, 2018

BERTIL LINTER. Chinas shifting view on the Korean Peninsula (Asian Times, 10.10.18)

As US-China relations deteriorate on various fronts, the last thing Beijing wants is for North Korea to fall into Washington’s sphere of influence

December 27, 2020

A post pandemic world: glimmers of hope amid the bleak reality

With much of the world engulfed by the first, second or third waves of Covid-19 transmission, predicting when or how the post-pandemic future will emerge remains a hazardous occupation. One assumption, though, seems safe enough. When the spread of the virus eventually subsides, we will face a grim social, economic, environmental, and political landscape.

May 20, 2018

SUSAN RYAN. The impact of the 2018 Budget on women. It is most notable for its omissions.

The National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) each year prepares an analysis of the impacts of the federal budget on women. Since the Coalition government abandoned the practice of including a Womens Budget Statement in the official Budget documents, a policy-oriented womens NGO, the NFAW, has prepared this work.This extract gives an overview of the impacts of the budget on older women.

The clearest impact of this budget in relation to older women is this: for women home owners, there are potential benefits. For women who dont own their home, there are few if any measures of potential assistance.

May 20, 2018

DAVID SPRATT. Senate report recognises climate change as existential risk, but fails to draw the obvious conclusions.

Climate change is a current and existential national security risk, according to an Australian Senate report released on Thursday 17 May. It says an existential risk is one that threatens the premature extinction of Earth-originating intelligent life or the permanent and drastic destruction of its potential for desirable future development. These are strong words.

June 25, 2020

A Radical Thought: Implement the Steady-State Economy

The post-Covid recovery period may be a suitable time to consider how to transition to a steady-state economy with almost full employment.

March 6, 2019

ALAN AUSTIN. Coalition doubles all government debt since Federation in just under six years (Michael West).

The Coalition has just doubled all government debt accumulated since Federation. In under six years.Alan Austin reports.

February 4, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Infrastructure, rent-seekers and lobbyists.

As our mining boom has receded, Australia has seen unprecedented sums flow to transport infrastructure projects -mostly in our two biggest cities. But we have a real mess on our hands.

December 2, 2018

RICHARD BUTLER. Ethics Etherised

Based on the facts of his conduct of his office, and there is clearly much more to emerge, the end of Trump should be in sight. But, this is not certain to be achieved. To an unprecedented degree, the President of the US is enmired in illegal conduct and is directing US external relations disastrously. But, of overwhelming importance, is that he has etherised ethics as a core part of US public discourse and political life. The Republican Party and right wing media, including Murdochs Fox, have enabled this.

October 26, 2020

Corruption undermines national security far more than spying

[The Director-general of ASIO,] Mike Burgess said this week, correctly, that the biggest risk of Chinese money and influence subverting the Australian system is at the local government level. Then at state and territory level, then at national level.

February 23, 2021

Helen Coonan saw no evil and heard no evil over nine long years

For more than nine years, Helen Coonan has been a non-executive director of Crown. More than enough time to get wise about this criminal organisation, one would have thought.

April 8, 2018

CAROLYN PETTIGREW. What has gone wrong with the management of NSW National Parks? Part 1 of 2

In 2014 the NSW government hosted the IUCN World Parks Congress. The government touted securing the conference as a victory for their major events calendar. The key outcome of the congress was the Promise of Sydney the Vision was excellent. The commitments, however, from the NSW Government were almost laughable, given the importance of the Congress on the world stage. http://www.worldparkscongress.org/about/promise_of_sydney_commitments.html The shallowness of the commitments said a lot about what had become of NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) which, through the 1990s, had been described by the IUCN as one of the five best conservation agencies in the world.

June 6, 2018

HAROLD JAMES. Madmen in Authority in Italy.

With concerns about Italy’s public debt growing, Italian populists have taken a page from US President Donald Trump’s playbook and threatened to blow up the eurozone if they don’t get their way. The European Union must resist the temptation to engage in a dangerous game of chicken.

March 1, 2021

The abuse culture comes from entitled boys from almost all the most expensive and privileged private schools - the germ of Australias ruling class.

Is anyone surprised that in this environment of contempt for the public, the disadvantaged, and for principles of public stewardship, that disrespect for women rages, and that abuse of women is seen more through the lens of political damage?

June 14, 2018

JOANNE McCARTHY. Australia's bishops still don't get it - things have changed (SMH 13/6/2018)

_Everything changed on December 15, 2017 when the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse presented its final report and recommendations to the Australian public.__Its a shame Australias Catholic bishops missed the memo.

February 27, 2019

GEORGE MONBIOT. Dark money is pushing for a no-deal Brexit. Who is behind it?

Modern governments respond to only two varieties of emergency: those whose solution is bombs and bullets, and those whose solution is bailouts for the banks. But what if they decided to take other threats as seriously?

January 17, 2018

GREG WOOD. The China Australia FTA Meets the All Controlling State- A REPOST from September 25 2017

During Premier Li Keqiangs visit to Australia in March, Australia and China signed a Declaration of Intent to accelerate a review of the provisions governing services trade and investment in the bilateral China Australia free trade agreement (Chafta). So far the declaration hasnt generated frenetic activity: DFAT set a six month deadline for submissions from interested parties. Delay is a positive Beijings decisions of late point to regress in its approach to foreign investment and Australia needs to take careful stock.

October 13, 2020

PR Spin on Our Alleged War Crimes and 'Rogue SAS Squad' in Afghanistan

Senior members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) have been drip feeding us through the media with information about the alleged war crimes committed by the Australian Special Air Service (SAS) and other Special Forces in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.

April 3, 2019

CAMERON LECKIE. Built on a tower of lies.

The world is going, or perhaps has gone, crazy. How else can we explain Trump, BREXIT, the Gilets Jaunes (yellow jackets) in France, new weather records becoming a regular event, or an ever intensifying Cold War between the Russia, China and the United States? Many commentators attempt to provide an explanation for these events and others in isolation. Few link them in an overarching narrative. They can however be linked. That link is a great big teetering tower of lies.

October 28, 2020

The smart money is that in defending Australia we will be on our own. Part 3

The governments recent Defence Strategic Update suggests Australia faces the greatest threat to our independence since 1942. In this final article of three, I consider the need for a Review, both to design a new Australian military strategy and analyse the essential elements of the new force structure that this will require.

November 27, 2019

NATHAN GARDELS. Data as Labor (WorldPost)

Sometimes an analogy to something old yields an insight into something new. That is the case with the idea of data as labor, promoted by Glen Weyl and Matt Prewitt ofRadicalxChange.

October 17, 2018

Divisive: Former RBA governor Bernie Fraser turns on neoliberalism (the New Daily, 17.10.18)

Former Reserve Bank governor Bernie Fraser has called for a radical rethinkto policy-making, saying the way to a fairer, more equal society is with a pragmatic approach.

March 14, 2019

TERRY FEWTRELL. Canberra Catholics lay out church reform agenda.

Inclusive, transparent, accountable, non-clericalist and humble characteristics not usually associated with the Catholic church, but ones the church must adopt. That is the view of a large group of Canberra Catholics in a submission to the churchs Plenary Council being organised in the wake of the sexual abuse crisis.

February 6, 2019

MARJORIE COHN. The US Is Orchestrating a Coup in Venezuela (Truthout).

As Venezuelas second president, Simon Bolivar, noted in the 19th century, the US government continues to plague Latin America with misery in the name of liberty.

March 17, 2016

Eric Hodgens. Pell and the Royal Commission: Spotlight on Ideology.

When Cardinal George Pell enters the witness box at the Royal Commission we see a legal counsel interviewing him to find to what extent he is to blame for a failure in his churchs duty of care. The adversarial setup puts him on the defensive. He admits past reticence to intervene, but says others are mainly to blame. But as he defends himself he is also displaying himself. He is, on his own admission wooden emotionally distant. He is sure of himself but unconvincing to others. What we see is an ideologue in action. How did he get to here?

May 20, 2018

ELAINE PEARSON. Australia's lame response to Anwar Ibrahims detention was a mistake

The region looks to Australia as a functioning democracy. We shouldnt sideline human rights issues for trade and security ties.

October 8, 2020

Lobby Land: the Pharmacy Guilds powerful influence over health policy

The Pharmacy Guild has been called the most powerful lobby group youve never heard of and for three decades has had a stranglehold on funding for community pharmacy in Australia.

January 11, 2021

Empires come and go. Has the decline of the American empire begun?

Recent events have highlighted weaknesses in American society. There is much uncertainty about the future of the struggling empire but a look at other empires in history may shed some light on the matter.

July 9, 2018

ANDREW GLIKSON. Abbotts views on climate change

Since 2015 when the then Prime Minister stated Australia was making a definite commitment to a 26% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and possibly as high as 28% reduction, now Abbott states he did not foresee as prime minister how the aspirational targets we agreed to at Paris would, in different hands, become binding commitments.

January 12, 2021

Supporting a coup is not 'free speech'

There is a lesson for Australia in the sad demise of the Trump Presidency, and that is the speed with which falsehoods can quickly escalate to undermine faith in the political process. The capture by Trump of much of the Republican Party is a warning for all liberal democratic societies about the fragility of our political systems.

October 7, 2020

LobbyLand: An Analysis of Australian Industry Associations' Influence on Climate Policy

_This analysis identified five lobbying organisations that stood out as the ‘most obstructive, negative and influential’ in refusing to address climate change. They were the Minerals Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, NSW Minerals Council, the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Petroleum Producers and Exploration Association.

February 23, 2021

Media bargaining code dire for public interest journalism if small outlets arent protected

In Spain in 2014, when Google shut Google News, small independent publishers were hit far harder than the big players.If Facebook plays a similar role in Australia, then the consequences of Facebooks recent action will be dire for public interest journalism and Australian media diversity.

February 16, 2021

A grubby and corrupting traffic in misery

Commissioner Bergin’s report did not devote a word to the sleazy and improper way James Packer was effectively given Barangaroo by a new Liberal Premier, Barry OFarrell. And not a word about the slew of former Labor and Liberal Party apparatchiks who moved on to make their fortunes prostituting their inside knowledge and their access to politicians.

December 30, 2020

Nurse Practitioners must be recognised by the Medical Benefits Schedule

For the sake of improved nationwide health care delivery, in its eventual response to the MBS Review, we sincerely hope that government is able to demonstrate an enlightened approach to the role of Nurse Practitioners in Australia.

December 3, 2020

Bad relations with China are not in Australia's interests

Our leaders tell us continually that they will stand up to China on behalf of Australias interests. But I cannot see how the deteriorating relations with what is still our largest trading partner serves Australias interests in any way. Moreover, Australians should understand that what looks like standing up to China to us often looks to Chinese like provocation.

October 19, 2020

The ACT Election a loss for Liberals but not really a win for Labor

The ACT election on Saturday was the 15th consecutive Australian election in which the Liberal Party has lost ground. Why has it swung so far to the right, away from its own principles?

February 7, 2019

MICHAEL PASCOE. Australias pussycat superannuation regulators arent doing their jobs.( A repost from August 25 2018)

The list of failures continues to grow, the list of official bodies too weak, too chummy, too lacking fire-in-the-belly to help the millions of Australians unknowingly stuck in under-performing superannuation funds.

May 10, 2018

Turnbull's election budget dumps on climate and renewables

What is widely regarded as the last budget to be delivered by the Turnbull government before the next federal election ceded no ground on climate policy, insisting that its much criticised emissions reduction targets would remain unchanged.

October 26, 2020

Busted higher education policy demands a reset

_The corporatist/managerialist paradigm introduced in the 1990s, with its heavy focus on financial performance metrics, is being rejected by students, staff, business and the broader community.The corporatisation of public higher education, and the substantial wealth it has created, has made the advocates for more money in the current fiscal environment look like greedy rent seekers.

November 5, 2020

Whoever wins, Australia cant rely on its great and powerful ally (AFR, Nov 4)

Geopolitics Donald Trump has done little to counter China, and Joe Biden would do no better. We must face up to a future of fading US power in our region.

October 12, 2020

LobbyLand 'Culture of cosiness: colossal conflicts of interest in Defence spending blitz

In Part 1 of her three-part investigation, Michelle Fahy investigates the corporate influence on government policy and how weapons makers cultivate relationships with politicians and top officials in the public service.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal