October 17, 2018

JOHN DWYER. The extraordinary determination of China to have the world embrace its traditional medicine. (Part 2 of 3)

Remarkably and unfortunately politics, not clinical effectiveness, is powering the global penetration of Traditional Chinese M__edici__ne into health care systems. The term Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) was dreamt up by Chairman Mao Zedong in a cynical response to the Communist Party’s inability to provide evidence-based health care for the then 500 million Chinese. Mao knew that TCM was largely useless and was derogatory about TCM practitioners but he none-the-less set about its expansion. This saw a reversal of a progressive acceptance of scientific medicine in China which started in the 19th century.

December 2, 2018

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Vacuous marketeer needs an education

Yet again we are assured that the Adani mine is going ahead Adani Lite, theyll only put it in a little way and if it hurts, well, theyll just see how far they can keep shoving.

April 4, 2019

ANTHONY PUN. The battle for the Chinese Australian vote.

Important lessons learned in the last state elections in Victoria and NSW point to the ubiquitous use of social media WeChat in influencing voters in the Chinese Australian community and the realisation that their votes could be pivotal in changing governments. The current battle for the Chinese Australian vote is on!

December 29, 2014

John Menadue. What a remarkable thing to say!

As reported in the SMH of December 22/21 this year, Dyson Haydon, who heads the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, said the following in respect of Julia Gillard. Her intense degree of preparation, her familiarity with the materials, her acuteness [and] her powerful instinct for self-preservation made it difficult to judge her credibility.

What an extraordinary and remarkable things to say by a Commissioner who is a former High Court Judge. Would he have preferred Julia Gillard to be un-prepared and incompetent before the Royal Commission? If he could not find against her credibility he should have left it at that and refrained from gratuitous comments.

December 5, 2017

RICHARD BUTLER. North Korea joins the club

North Korea (DPRK) has made clear that it expects recognition as a nuclear weapon state (NWS). It has now implied, like most existing NWS, that it would follow a policy of no first use. US policy continues to be that DPRK nuclear weapon capability must be eliminated, or the DPRK will be.

November 18, 2019

JACK SHAMASH.The Labour Party's antisemitism problem might lie in a simple clash of identities (The Independent UK, 03 November 2019)

After a show of hands in my north London synagogue, I started to wonder if this rolling row had its roots in how both groups define themselves

Its not easy to make sense of the current furore about antisemitism and the left. But it may be that a fundamental part of the explanation is quite simple.

January 31, 2021

Coalition government's climate change policy too successful for its deniers?

Scott Morrisons rationale for using the market to keep power costs as low as possible should make him a devotee of renewable energy. Meanwhile, the Nationals denialism is so absurd that it is pushing for a coal-fired power plant whose electricity would cost eight times that from a renewable plant.

October 9, 2019

JONAH BEN AVRAHAM. Palestinians Could Have Historic Influence in Israels Next Government (Truthout 5-10-19)

The political climate in Israel following Septembers snap elections is by no means favorable to Palestinians. However, there is reason to be hopeful for gains in Palestinian political power as the prospect of a unity government between the center-right Kahol Lavan party and the further-right Likud party looms large. Palestinian parties are contesting for a historic amount of influence in shaping the next Israeli government, and the challenge for Palestinian political leaders will be to turn this growing relevance in Israeli politics into real power in the fight for Palestinian liberation, rather than a force for the normalization of Israels colonial rule over Palestine.

May 4, 2019

David Pope's view: We shall fight them on what's left of the beaches (Canberra Times 3.5.2019)

In her ‘gotcha’ style of questioning Leigh Sales on ABC challenged Bill Shorten about the cost of his climate change policies. People with any real knowledge of the subject know there is no simple answer. What is clear is that we face an existential threat to our planet.David Pope in the Canberra Times pointed to the nonsense of questioning by Leigh Sales and the Murdoch media on irrelevant detail - all in the name of so called ‘balance’.The main steam media is failing us dismally on climate change.(John Menadue)

October 18, 2020

Jacinda Arden wins in an unprecedented landslide

It is sometimes said that New Zealand is a young country that boxes above its weight. The same might be said for its Prime Minister Jacinda Arden. In the triennial election bout she defeated the woman who seems pleased to be nicknamed Crusher Collins (because as a minister she ordered hoons’ cars to be crushed).

November 29, 2020

The importance of the Brereton report on our alleged war crimes in Afghanistan

On 20 November, the Chief of the Defence Force (CDF) General Angus Campbell finally presented the public with the redacted version of NSW Justice Major General Paul Breretons report into our alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.

July 19, 2015

Robert Manne. Laudato Si' : A political reading.

Robert Manne describes the Papal Encyclical as the first work that has risen to the full challenge of climate change. Robert Manne ads:

There can be little doubt that the Papal Encyclical is the most consequential intervention in the discussion of climate change since Al Gore’s film, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. … Like Al Gore, indeed, like all rational people, Pope Francis accepts the consensual conclusions of the climate scientists. … For Pope Francis the climate crisis is the most extreme expression of a destructive tendency that has become increasingly dominant through the course of industrialisation. … The Encyclical argues that we have become slaves both to what is called the technological paradigm and the theory of market fundamentalism. … In the Encyclical, the analysis of the condition of contemporary culture in turn provides the explanation for the most troubling puzzle of the modern era, our abject failure thus far to rise to the challenge of global warming. … Climate change denialism is the most obvious self-interest of the economically powerful voices of society who, in the words of the Encyclical “mask the problems … and conceal the symptoms”.

February 10, 2019

KEVIN BAIN. Refugees going nowhere - can nothing be done?

In their November 2015 Foreign Affairs article and subsequent book Refuge Transforming a Broken Refugee System (reviewed here), economist Paul Collier and refugee academic Alexander Betts put forward a radical re-think of the refugee support system on the grounds that it is not a good fit for todays world.

July 11, 2020

Australia and the United States: the opposed fantasies at the heart of the alliance relationship

One of the refrains among those defending Australia’s alliance with the United States is that arising out of their pasts, sharing a core set of moral and ethical values, political and economic arrangements, and visions of the desirable world order.

February 1, 2021

A major report excoriated our environment laws. In response the environment minister cherrypicks

Its official: Australias natural environment and iconic places are in deep trouble. They cant withstand current and future threats, including climate change. And the national laws protecting them are flawed and badly outdated.

November 26, 2018

Sino-U.S. clash is a great power competition, not Cold War II (The Japan Times)

CHINA In the Trump administrations most substantial foreign policy speech thus far, delivered at the Hudson Institute on Oct. 4, Vice President Mike Pence accused China of a whole-of-government attack on U.S. interests and vowed the United States will respond with robust countermeasures.

January 1, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Is war in the American DNA? -A REPOST from JULY 2016

In his book Dangerous Allies Malcolm Fraser warned us how we can be drawn into US conflicts that are of no concern to us. We have seen that in following the US into disastrous wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan ,Iraq and Syria. Malcolm Fraser spoke of our dangerous strategic dependence.

We are ‘joined at the hip’ to a country that is addicted to permanent war. In recent decades most of Americas’ wars have been failures for themselves and countless millions of innocent people.

But the failure and torpor continues . Politicians and the military in both the US and Australia try to reassure us that it will be better next time or at least the time after that! As a frightened country we cling child like to a declining,erratic and dangerous protector

What disaster is necessary to force a fundamental rethink by Ministers,the Opposition and all their senior advisers.?

December 16, 2020

A perverse, offensive and oppressive rejection of nurses

_The Medicare Benefits Schedule Review Taskforce further curtails Nurse Practitioner practice - a case of unenlightened self-interest?

April 2, 2019

MARK RAGG. Christchurch: Some of the media examines its role (Croakey).

The awful murder of about 50 people in Christchurch has prompted a flurry of questions around a central theme why? Does the rise of nationalism play a part? Is racism more acceptable now that 20 years ago? What role is played by the dark corners of the web, which hate speech is reinforced and amplified? What is the responsibility of social media giants like Twitter and Facebook? And what is the role of mainstream media, which has an enormous impact on how we see the world and each other.

March 30, 2019

PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 31 March 2019

Gas producers slow down climate action in WA, miners meet ministers in NSW almost weekly, cement producers (allegedly) resist the use of fly ash in concrete production in Australia, and big banks, particularly in the USA, continue to invest trillions in fossil fuel companies. But Bill McKibben and Tim Flannery offer some hope for the environment.

May 11, 2024

South Africa asks ICJ to order halt to Rafah massacre as 110,000 Gazans flee advancing Israeli troops

The move comes as Australia, in a significant break from Israeli and US policy, voted yes in the UN General Assembly to upgrading Palestine’s UN membership status. The resolution passed with 143 countries voting in favour, nine voting against, and 25 abstentions.

October 15, 2019

NICOLA McGARRITY, JESSIE BLACKBOURN. Australia has enacted 82 anti-terror laws since 2001. But tough laws alone cant eliminate terrorism (The Conversation 30-9-19)

This is part of a new series looking at the national security challenges facing Australia, how our leaders are responding to them through legislation and how this is impacting society. Read other stories in the series here.

February 28, 2019

MOTOKO RICH. We Are Koreans: Diaspora in Japan Looks to Trump-Kim Summit With Hope (New York Times).

Every time Jiro Oshima wants to see his siblings, he must travel to North Korea.

May 7, 2019

ANTHONY PUN. Australia at the crossroads of economic survival.

Recent articles in the South China Morning Post and Pearls and Irritations are wake-up calls for Australians in the pilot seat for the next five years driving Australian foreign relations and trade. Some pundits are pessimistic about a quick turn-around for Australia to mend its Australia-China friendship as events have gone past the point of no return, whilst others like me would still have an optimistic outlook for a return to normal foreign and trade relations with China if a sincere and genuine approach to repairing relations were put into place. If nothing is done, our economy may take a dive towards recession.

November 25, 2020

Lieutenant-General Burr, can you stand up. We cant see you!

In Burr’s regiment were many of Justice Breretons bad boys. That so many of them were able to mask their incubating psychopathology reflects badly on the psychological assessment tools Burrs people were administering.

June 10, 2019

BRETT McGURK. American Foreign Policy Adrift (Foreign Affairs)

Pompeo Is Calling for RealismTrump Isnt Delivering

January 9, 2021

Doc Evatt's role in the partition of Palestine. Part 2

Part 1 yesterday discussed Doc Evatt’s white blindfold. Part 2 discusses Evatt’s role in the partition of Palestine, arguing that its well past time for a more nuanced assessment of the great man.

May 14, 2020

C H KWAN. US-China trade warring and decoupling during COVID-19 (EAF 5.5.20)

Phase one of the USChina Economic and Trade Agreement was signed on 15 January 2020 in a step to end the trade war that began in March 2018.

November 22, 2018

TED TRAINER. The case for de-growth will continue to be ignored.

A de-growth movement has emerged, mainly in Europe, in response to the fact that global levels of production and consumption are now grossly unsustainable. A vast literature documenting this has accumulated over almost fifty years. But the official world of politicians, governments, economists and media completely ignore it and devote themselves to growing the economy that is, to accelerating us to our doom.

November 1, 2020

Around the world it is the lack of caution among 19-29 year olds that disproportionally puts infection control at risk

_The Victorian ’lockdown’ was necessary, brutal and successful. But any COVID complacency could be literally fatal. We must ask a lot of our younger Australians who understandably chafe at restrictions placed on their social interactions.

October 25, 2020

A special investigation: Naval, builder of Australian submarines, at centre of numerous global corruption scandals

The arms company at the centre of a deadly criminal saga and numerous global corruption scandals, Naval Group, was selected by the Australian government to build our new fleet of submarines a deal heralded as one of the worlds most lucrative defence contracts. How did this happen?

March 29, 2018

ERIC HODGENS: Common-wealth versus Common-loss.Easter and Australian Politics.

Australia is a commonwealth, where seeking the common good brings prosperity, unlike the fostering of division which leads to decline if not death. An object lesson in the meaning of Easter.

November 28, 2019

ANDREW GLIKSON. Problems with and for achieving the Paris climate accord

Since its inception theParis climate accordhas been in question due, among other factors, to (1) its broad definition, intended to keep mean global temperature rise this century to below +2oC above the pre-industrial level and efforts to limit the temperature increase to below +1.5oC above the pre-industrial level; (2) its non-binding nature, and (3) accounting tricks by vested interests. The goal assumes pre-determined upper limits can be placed on greenhouse gas levels and surface temperatures.

November 17, 2020

George Orwell, are you listening? Truth warping about Afghanistan war crimes

We are being asked to believe that a cosy coterie of retired public servants and academics are going to drive Army change and make things all wonderfully transparent for us. What rubbish. Where do I get my tickets for that show?

October 14, 2019

PAUL DALEY. Captain Cook's legacy is complex, but whether white Australia likes it or not he is emblematic of violence and oppression (The Guardian 3-10-19)

British and Australian regret over Cooks treatment of Indigenous people would go a long way to enhancing understanding of the continents shared history

December 29, 2019

TED TRAINER. Whats wrong with Economics?

The answer is, conventional economic theory and practice are only about this economy, not economics in general and this economy is a bad economy.

October 12, 2020

What must climate and energy policy really achieve?

The Australian Government is dangerously out-of-touch as climate change accelerates and a cascade of tipping points risks unstoppable global warming.

February 18, 2021

Albanese has touched a nerve on IR policy and should be encouraged by the response

The release of the ALPs industrial relations policy is another reminder of the erosion of employment rights and benefits, the degree to which that is attributable to the decline in union membership, and how Labor should approach its relationship with trade unions.

January 1, 2020

SOURABH GUPTA Deconstructing USChina decoupling(EAF 14.12.2019)

There is too much fraternising with the enemy for USChina economic ties and global technology ecosystems to be disentangled into neat geopolitical coalitions. Nevertheless, in the short course of 18 months, US President Donald Trumps administration has provided ample signals of how selective decouplingof USChina ties could transpire if regularised as policy.

November 25, 2019

GIDEON LEVY. No one in Israel knew they were committing a massacre, and they didn't care

The bomber pilot didnt know. His commanders who gave him the orders also didnt know. The defence minister and the commander in chief didnt know. Nor did the commander of the air force. The intelligence officers who aimed at the target didnt know. The army spokesman who lied without a qualm also didnt know.

November 28, 2020

Sunday environmental round up, 29 November 2020

Despite COVID, atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise. Does increasing complexity in societies explain the collapse of civilisations? Western Australia is failing to adequately protect sharks and Australia is taking risks with imported flowers. China has an each-way bet on energy: big on renewables; big on coal.

October 6, 2019

LOUIS COOPER. Trudeau heads for the polls

At eleven oclock on Wednesday, September 11 this year, Canadas Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, arrived at Rideau Hall, the official residence of Canadas Governor-General, Julie Payette, and asked her to dissolve parliament, allowing a federal election to be called for October 21 2019.

February 23, 2021

How ironic that the Department of Home Affairs sees itself as the guardian of Australian values

A parliamentary report urges the government to work on improving the school curriculum to develop in students understanding, empathy, and an openness to diversity. It seems the adults in the room also need to learn some lessons.

November 9, 2020

More drainage for a more polluted Washington swamp

_President-elect Joe Biden has a golden opportunity over the next 10 weeks to reduce the handicap of a bad campaign that cost him a senate majority, and a mandate against Trumpism.

October 12, 2020

Will Australia Seize back the China Crown?

While the outcome of the US elections remains unclear the future direction of US-China relations also remain uncertain. This presents a new opportunity for Canberra to mend some bridges with Beijing if it wishes to do so.

May 21, 2018

HENRY SIEGMAN. The two-State solution: an autopsy

During the latest outbreak of violence in Gaza, Israeli security forces, using high-powered rifles and live ammunition, have killed forty Palestinians (and counting), and wounded more than five thousand. BTselem, a leading Israeli human rights group, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders have all accused Israels government and its minister of defence, Avigdor Lieberman, of targeting reporters and mostly unarmed civilians. Lieberman replied that there are no innocent people in Hamas-run Gaza.

April 2, 2019

GARRY EVERETT. Inertia or Inability?

Inertia or inability? How best to describe the response of the Australian Catholic Bishops to findings of the Royal Commission into the Sexual abuse of Minors? Admittedly the case of Cardinal Pell has dominated the media of recent weeks, but as Paul Collins observed in these columns recently, the response of the Bishops to this case, has been muted, and characterised by expressions of incredulity and lament.The Cardinal Pell case was prosecuted outside the workings of the Royal Commission, and should in no way be regarded as the final chapter of the Churchs response to the Commission. General reform in the Australian Catholic Church has hardly begun.

October 22, 2020

Tamed estate: 'no holes in Gladys' story' ... give or take 152 moments of amnesia

The Premier then went on 2GB to discuss with shock jock Kyle Sandilands her relationship. Not a sentence I thought I would ever write. This one doesnt really require further elaboration.

February 25, 2021

Herd immunity? Not with AstraZeneca in the frame. Part 2

Because the failed immunity rate for the AstraZeneca vaccine is more than seven times that of the Pfizer vaccine, if the Australian rollout takes place as planned, about 5.5 million people (22% of the population) could still be at risk of getting ill, while some of the remaining 20 million could still become infectious but be asymptomatic.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal