October 29, 2020

Susan Ryan. A formidable and compassionate advocate on human rights.

Susan Ryan, the minister for education in the Hawke Government and the pioneer who brought Australia its Sex Discrimination Act, died very recently. This is a remembrance from a friend.

October 10, 2020

Tamed Estate: Budget Week

This week has been dominated by the budget. And that means the traditional pre-budget leaks dutifully reported by the media. These were followed by post-budget revelations that the budget announcement was full of already announced measures.

February 1, 2021

Why does Australia allow the US to choose our enemies?

Trump was right: the US fights forever wars, and only the names of the enemies change. America is never without an enemy, an heir and a spare. Military force remains the default American response to most problems. Australia needs to warn the new US administration that were not interested in illegal, expeditionary wars.

April 17, 2020

MICHAEL KEATING supports Pearls and Irritations.

Pearls & Irritations is the best blog I know to find articles that keep me up to date with the findings of policy-relevant research and expert independent evidence-based assessment and comment on a wide variety of critical policy issues.

November 8, 2020

Facing Conservative Commentators Up to the Truth About Trump

The damage to convention, the rule of law, honesty, integrity and decency that Trump has wreaked and is still wreaking will be harder to repair.

December 17, 2020

Media in the Asian Century: Read all about our media expertise on China!

This week Sharri Markson exposed the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the British MI6 and others for a gormless bunch of gumshoes and naifs.

October 17, 2018

SOPHIE VORRATH. Coalition backing big coal over climate, says Sachs: Unbelievably irresponsible.

US economics professor Jeffrey Sachs has slammed the Australian federal government as unbelievably irresponsible for its inaction on climate change, and suggested that policy progress in the Coalition alongside the current US Trump administration has been held hostage by major fossil fuel interests.

February 15, 2021

Colonial-type genocide in West Papua: living in constant fear

West Papuans are Indigenous people, easily ignored, their natural resources exploited, their homes and cultures destroyed, hundreds tortured, hundreds of thousands killed. Our media reports endlessly about genocide in remote Xinjiang but not about genocide in neighbouring West Papua. Why?

January 10, 2021

Preparing for a 3C warmer future: the ideological shift and institutional response Australia will need.

Three things are obvious. The collective emission reduction efforts of nations will not avoid 3oC global warming by the centurys end. Therefore, national adaptation actions will need prepare for the worse than expected scale and impact from the effects of climate change. As a result, earlier ideological assumptions about governments will have to give way to policies that are interventionist and systemic.

December 20, 2020

Tamed Estate: youth excoriated for their behaviour, not so senior citizens

On the journey of Covid-19 and “enemies of the state”, hotel quarantine, sycophancy, the vaccine, MPs’report cards, and Reds under the … somewhere.

November 16, 2020

Will the toughest Trumpites be willing to bear arms?

Donald Trump seems rather more anxious than his die-hard supporters to replenish his election war-chest for legal expenses rather than that they gather for a last-ditch defence of the guns they will need to defend themselves from the socialism – and perhaps enforced abortion – which Biden seems to threaten.

November 2, 2020

Queenslanders are different

Annastacia Palaszczuk had an extraordinary victory at the Queensland election. While the (very few) polls suggested Labor might cling on to government for an unlikely third consecutive term, she managed not only to win seats but increase Labors primary vote by about 5 per cent for its highest primary vote since 2009.

November 23, 2020

Hong Kong is part of China. Our media fails to grasp this basic point.

Hong Kong was seized by Britain to facilitate its opium trade. After a century of humiliation for China, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 under a complex arrangement. F__oreign countries should keep out of what is a domestic issue for China. CIA, take note.

October 20, 2020

Thailand's political fault lines grow

The Bangkok student demonstrations over the past few weeks represent another of the manifestations of discontent about Thai governance, which, over the past couple of generations, have burst through the fault lines of the Thai polity.

April 2, 2019

H.K. COLEBATCH. Telling stories about elections.

The reports of the NSW elections have been very interesting, but more for what they show about the way we tell stories about elections than for how well they explain the process and its outcome. There seems to be a struggle between two stories a dominant one about a public drama culminating in an act of collective choice, and a subordinate one known about, but little-used about the structures which channel political activity. Which of these is the real story of the elections?

January 31, 2021

Who is Scotty Morrison, master of the dark art of linguistic deception? Part 1

Humpty Dumpty: When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean neither more nor less. Alice: The question is whether you can make words mean so many different things. Humpty Dumpty: The question is which is to be master thats all. Lewis Carroll,Through the Looking Glass.

November 2, 2020

Trump. The mendacious wheeler-dealer

A crunch day for Australia on Tuesday and not just for the Melbourne Cup, vital as that is for the nations well-being. November 4 will determine whether the United States of America regains its sanity or embarks on another quadrennium of demented Trumpery.

October 27, 2020

Aged care and the magic pudding

Australia needs a modern fit for purpose aged care system that is affordable and responsive to the needs of older people and their families. At the same time, it must not impose an inequitable burden on younger people.

May 8, 2019

VACY VLAZNA. The ABC is USA/Israels mouthpiece on Gaza

The ABC yet again, obediently, is cranking out Israeli propaganda on Sunday’s Israeli assault on the besieged Palestinians in Gaza parroting that Israeli is merely protecting its citizens against Hamas ‘militants’- rather than the truth that Hamasresistance is protecting Palestinian families from Israeli belligerence and Israels 12 year illegal siege.

March 31, 2019

MICHAEL LEAHY. Can the institutional Catholic Church be saved? Getting it back on Mission.

The Catholic Church throughout the world is facing its greatest crisis since the Protestant Reformation, and particularly in the Australian Church. Already reeling from the exposure by a Royal Commission of crimes of clerical paedophilia and episcopal cover-ups, it has now been hit with the conviction on five such charges of its most senior leader, Cardinal George Pell. The credibility of the institutional Church, as provider of loving care to the vulnerable such as children, and announcer of Gods word to a world yearning for moral and spiritual leadership in meeting challenges like climate change, violent conflict and unequal distribution of wealth, is approaching zero.

December 31, 2020

Eggbeaters in full flight: extoling the virtues of new Trade Minister Tehan

Tehan to the rescue, a Hastie move into Defence and Chinese whispers.

March 24, 2019

DANIEL P. HORAN. Francis of Assis's model for church reform may help in the abuse crisis

There is a famous story about St. Francis of Assisi that takes place early in his experience of ongoing conversion to live a more committed Christian life. According to those friars who knew St. Francis during his lifetime and documented their stories of him in an early Franciscan text known as The Legend of the Three Companions, one day he was walking by the country church of San Damiano and felt led by the Holy Spirit to enter and pray before the crucifix hanging there. As he was praying, the crucifix “spoke to him in a tender and kind voice: ‘Francis, don’t you see that my house is being destroyed? Go, then, and rebuild it for me.’ “

February 9, 2021

How good is Morrison's Australia? Going backwards and being left behind

After seven years of a Coalition government, household debt is the second highest of 43 countries; we ranked third last out of 35 OECD countries for wage growth and we have the third most unaffordable housing market in the OECD. But the good news is that the combined worth of Australian billionaires is 52.4% higher in December 2020 than it was a year earlier_._

October 25, 2020

Crown chair Helen Coonan conflicted in role of ombudsman chair

Crown profits from the hardship of problem gamblers, the banks refuse to stop credit cards for problem gamblers. Helen Coonan is chair of both Crown and bank ombudsman AFCA (Australian Financial Complaints Authority). It is a conflict that makes her position untenable.

December 8, 2020

A Revolutionary Change in Thailand: Protests Against the Monarchy Signal a Break With the Past (Foreign Affairs Dec 7, 2020)

Since February, protesters have taken to the streets of Thailand to demand reform of the countrys political system. Demonstrations swelled in recent months as activists grew more forthright in criticizing the government and the monarchyan institution traditionally held sacrosanct.

November 30, 2020

Australia against China: a face-off which must be avoided

It may be a statement of the bleeding obvious, but a face-off with the Peoples Republic of China would not be a good idea.

November 12, 2020

Tamed estate: "And on the second day, he said: 'Let it be forgotten,' and it was."

The federal Coalition’s PR team clearly forgot the Streisand effect: the phenomenon whereby attempts to suppress information lead to far greater exposure than the information would have generated intrinsically.

January 19, 2021

Poor Fellow, my country, indeed: Trump's Australian fans.

Most of the democratic world agrees that the scenes in the Capitol were terrifying. But what of Australia’s democracy? A government obsessed with secrecy, faux threats to security, MPs in the grip of the neoliberal sickness, and some who appear in thrall to the failed US President.

October 22, 2020

Dan Oakes, Witness K and Bernard Collaery

_Dear Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, please demonstrate that the decisions whether or not to prosecute, and the decisions to continue the prosecutions of Collaery and K, are not influenced by possible political advantage, disadvantage or embarrassment to the Government. Please apply the Prosecution Policy to the facts in front of you, uninfluenced by what Porter and the Government so obviously want. Do your lawful duty! Drop the prosecutions!

December 1, 2020

The elephant and the mouse

China is much more powerful than Australia and no amount of criticism from us will change this. In a fight with China, we must lose. Calm analysis must replace jingoistic hot air. Why are they really attacking us and what can we do about it now?

January 28, 2021

Coalition's political games dont mix well with existential threat

We could secure a spectacular future for ourselves and help the planet. Instead the federal government dodges the hard decisions; passes the buck. Fortunately, state and territory governments are stepping up to the plate.

February 21, 2021

The new normal: the former ministers racing down the Gold Brick Road (Part 1)

This is a three-part look at the afterlife of former Commonwealth ministers of the Crown. Because of space limitations, the inquiry focuses on the notorious post-politics employment of two defence ministers, Christopher Pyne and Brendan Nelson, and one foreign minister, Julie Bishop.

November 9, 2020

Planet America: A voting system in a world of its own

Many more Americans voted against Donald Trump than voted for him millions more. But nearly as many did not vote at all. And the explanation of why they failed to do so is bad news for what is left of democracy.

November 4, 2020

Difference between state and federal ALP in Queensland.

_After the unexpectedly strong showing by the State ALP, this question has been posed: Why is there such a dramatic difference between federal and state election results?

February 25, 2021

Premier of 'Sydney' launches farewell tour to regain dignity

Gladys Berejiklian is telling voters on the South Coast one thing: Treasurer Dominic Perrottet is regaling the CBD with quite another. They are on two different missions: she wants out; he wants in.

December 10, 2020

Divide and conquer - Google and Facebook show who's the boss!

After a year of reports, submissions and public inquiries - and much posturing on all sides - the Government has finally delivered the draft legislation designed to bring Google and Facebook to heel. But who is holding the leash?

November 20, 2019

ALI ABUNIMAH. EUs top court upholds right to boycott Israeli settlement goods (the Electronic Intifada, 12 November 2019)

EUs top court rules that consumers have a right to know if goods they buy come from Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law.

The European Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday that goods from Israeli colonies on occupied Palestinian land must be labeled as originating from settlements.

November 22, 2020

Robodebt is far from dead, buried and cremated

Those who closely follow the news will believe that the dreaded Robodebt has been slain, dead, buried and cremated, with the Federal Government agreeing at the door of the court on 16 November to settle the Robodebt class action. But its not as simple as that.

February 10, 2019

MARTIN KETTLE. A special place in hell? Donald Tusk didnt go far enough.

Not only were the Brexiters clueless: they didnt give a stuff about Ireland. But this will come back to haunt the Tories

May 11, 2018

PHILLIP BAKER, MARK LAWRENCE. Sweet power: the politics of sugar, sugary drinks and poor nutrition in Australia.

Unhealthy diets and poor nutrition are leading contributors to Australias burden of disease and burgeoning health-care costs. In 1980, just 10% of Australian adults were obese, today that figure is 28% among the highest in the world.

And yet, as shown on Monday nights Four Corners episode which was a stunning expose of food, nutrition and health politics in Australia successive governments have done little to address it.

February 8, 2021

The Morrison government: increasingly an ethical vacuum

Almost weekly, the person behind Anthony Albaneses Twitter feed puts out a short statement, hanging off a recent event, calling for powerful corruption commission. A Labor Party seriously interested in winning government ought to be doing much more.

February 2, 2021

Alan Tudge as Federal Education Minister: what does he mean for our school system?

Given Tudge’s concerns that the Gonski reforms would require Catholic and independent schools to take certain cohorts of students, amounting to an incredible intrusion" , it seems he will sit comfortably with the pantheon of previous Coalition ministers.

December 17, 2020

The Usual Suspects: oil and gas majors star in Australian tax heist (MWM Dec 17, 2020)

Angus Taylors rescue package for the oil industry is a testament to the ability of large corporations to game governments. The latest Tax Office transparency data shows that oil and gas juggernauts are, again, Australias biggest tax cheats, yet are demanding and getting more public subsidies to prop up their oil refineries.Michael Westreports on the good and the bad in multinational tax dodging land.

February 17, 2021

Australia should stop blocking international justice in Israel and Palestine

The International Criminal Court last week handed down a historic ruling confirming that the courts prosecutor has the power to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine.

October 5, 2020

Lobby Land. Influencers or influenced?

Who lobbies the lobbyists? Not the voting public, not the politicians who are part of the reception and creation of knowledge which is the raison dtre of lobbyists, consultants, public relations firms and government relations officers in the large corporations. Only a few journalists like Michael West, the Grattan Institute and journals like P & I.

February 19, 2019

PATRICK JORY. Explaining a Thai royals aborted electoral debut (East Asia Forum).

On 8 February 2019, Thai Raksa Chart (a Thai political party aligned with exiled, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra) made the bombshell announcement that it was nominating King Vajiralongkorns elder sister, Ubolratana, as its candidate for prime minister. Late that same night, the King issued a royal command, almost as explosive, effectively forbidding the nomination.

March 10, 2019

ROBERT MICKENS. Birds of a feather

Due to sex abuse scandals, Francis has ‘decapitated’ one cardinal and if true to his word, two others – and probably more – may also lose their red hats. The credibility of the Roman Catholic Church’s collective leadership (i.e. its bishops) has been all but completely destroyed, thanks to the hierarchy’s general ineptitude in dealing openly, honestly and effectively with priests who have sexually abused minors.

November 15, 2020

High drama in Downing Street - Dominic Cummings sacked

Aficionados of the award-winning Netflix royal drama The Crown can look forward to a treat this weekend as the latest series gets under way, said to be the bitchiest yet. Meanwhile, the Dominic Cummings show has been playing nightly to an even bigger audience.

December 16, 2020

We have already ceded our sovereignty, not to China but to America for no good reason.

Racism, fear and lack of moral courage sees Australia tied to a declining America, suffering, as a result, a lack of self-respect, independence and a viable and progressive relationship with our largest trading partner.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal