December 23, 2014

John Tulloh. The season of ill will for Bethlehems Christians.

Christians in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, must be wondering about the traditional Christmas message of good will to men (men meaning people).

They face a bleak future. Christians are fleeing in their thousands for a better life in other lands free of an occupation force, endless security checks and territorial disputes. Those who remain have what is one of the highest unemployment rates (18%) in the West Bank. Business has rarely been so bad.

July 30, 2014

Walter Hamilton. One Man's War.

Japan both treasures and abhors its status as the only nation to have suffered a nuclear attack. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are perceived, because of their unique and extraordinary destructiveness, as moral markers: warnings to the world and proofs that Japan paid in full for its part in the war.

The A-bomb attacks are also portrayed in some Japanese narratives as events outside history, in the sense that they cannot be compared to anything else, acts that should never have happened and should not happen again. Rather than being the historical full stop in a sentence that begins with Nanjing or Pearl Harbor or Singapore, the atomic wastelands shame to silence attempts at arguing the logic of cause and effect.

May 15, 2019

TANYA PLIBERSEK. Education in an election year

As we approach the election, Im thinking carefully about how a Shorten Labor Government will be remembered for our reform of education. It feels like every week, I meet someone in their 60s or 70s who reminds me about how Gough Whitlam was responsible for them going to university. Im struck by the way they passionately talk about this even after so many decades. They tell me how the opportunity of a university education transformed not just their life, but the course of their familys life.

September 12, 2014

John Menadue. NATO, Ukraine and Russia.

Nato,Ukraine and Russia…Katrina vanden Heuvel Washington Post 10 September 2014

If the United States and Europe were thinking rationally, the NATO summit in Wales last weekwould have been an opportunity to discuss a lasting resolution to the violent crisis in Ukraine, which has claimed thousands of lives and crippled the country’s economy. Instead, amida fragile cease-fire agreement between Kiev and pro-Russian rebelsin the east, the assembled world leaders used the summit for more belligerent talk and reckless saber-rattling, with their ultimate goal increasingly unclear. The goal seemed more preparing the NATO alliance for a new Cold War with Russia than exploring how to make peace, even as Moscow was helping to bring about the cease-fire agreement.

May 25, 2017

JOHN MENADUE. Our White Mans Media again on display in London (Manchester) terrorist attack.

The following article was posted on 27 March 2017. Substitute ‘Manchester’ for ‘London’ and the story is very similar. John Menadue

I have often commented that a person from Mars reading or listening to our media would conclude that Australia is an island parked off London or New York. We saw that last week in the coverage of the London terrorist attack. We continue to cling to the coat tails of the London and New York media.

June 17, 2015

Nikki Marczak. History repeats for Christian Assyrians

Current Affairs

As ISIL continues its brutal rampage across Iraq and Syria, a recent United Nations report found that ethnic and religious minorities are facing crimes against humanity, and even genocide. For Christian Assyrians, these atrocities evoke terrible memories of the genocide their ancestors endured under the Ottoman Government (the Young Turks), known by the community today as Seyfo, or the sword. Prevention of genocide can only be effective if patterns are identified early, and if the world is willing to intervene when the warning signs become clear. Strong parallels in both ideology and strategy between the Young Turks and ISIL are a significant indicator of potential genocide.

December 2, 2014

Kerry Brown. Australia's vanishing China policy.

One of the side effects of the visit by Chinese president Xi Jinping to Australia, New Zealand and the region in mid November was to raise questions about whether each of these countries has what might be called a strategic vision of their relationship with a country that has quickly become their largest trading ally. Xis suspicion that they dont may lie behind his observation, addressing the Australian parliament on 17 November, that there needs to be more imagination and ambition in the bilateral relationship.

January 24, 2015

John Menadue. Health Workforce Reform.

Conservative commentators and the Business Council of Australia speak endlessly about the need for industrial and workforce reform particularly in the blue-collar area where there has already been very substantial reform and improvement. Changes in the Australian workforce have helped transform the Australian economy in the last 30 years. It was begun under the Hawke/Keating governments and continued under the Howard governments.

But the health sector has scarcely been touched. I guesstimate that there is a potential productivity dividend of at least 40% in health workforce reform over the next decade. That 40% may be on the low side. The Productivity Commission estimated a few years ago that a 10% efficiency improvement in health would deliver an $8 b dividend at that time.

December 11, 2013

Facts on boat arrivals. John Menadue

There have been a number of claims by Scott Morrison that Operation Sovereign Borders has resulted in a significant reduction in boat arrivals. The ALP has asserted that the reduction in boat arrivals follows the trend set by the Rudd Government.

It has been difficult to check Scott Morrisons claims as there has been quite deliberate policy to make it difficult for the public to ascertain what is really happening.

March 8, 2016

John Menadue. The Defence White Paper and the China threat The Thucydides trap - do not allow yourself to be manipulated into war.

Very senior Turnbull ministers talk of the ‘Thucydides trap’, the risk that countries allow themselves to be manipulated into war. Could they be referring to the risk of Japan drawing us, together with the US and China, into war. If ministers were seriously worried about this prospect it didn’t seem to influence the Defence White Paper which clearly aligns Australia with Japan and the US against China. I have reposted below an article from 6 May last year on the risk of the ‘Thucydides trap’. Neither Athens nor Sparta sought war, but war came because of pressure from a third state. John Menadue.

March 30, 2017

MICHAEL D. BREEN. Bullying Documentary on ABC Television March 14 & 21

Bullying is an epidemic. Bullying is a complex social matter. Systemic problems need systemic remedies. There is a wealth of international research available. Good will and enthusiasm are insufficient treatment qualifications; even if the presenter is a national good guy. Is it acceptable to test drive a dubious procedural treatment on T.V.? Would it be acceptable for an unproven surgical procedure?

If the ABC is to ask vulnerable individuals to be interviewed about personal and family sufferings, producers need to be able to justify that the repeated pain is worth it. Otherwise suffering is increased and informed viewers squirm.

August 15, 2017

MARK BEESON. The unconventional wisdom

When it comes to military matters, there is forgive the pun a remarkable uniformity of opinion. Sensible and serious observers agree that not only is the ANZUS alliance the indispensable bedrock of national security, but Australian policymakers would be irresponsible to do anything that might jeopardize its status.

February 19, 2017

TONY KEVIN. Update on Trump impeachment possibilities, and reaction in Moscow

The US liberal media onslaught on Donald Trumps claimed absolute unsuitability for the US presidency continues. In every possibly way, Trump is being dissected forensically and brutally.

April 3, 2015

Greg Smith. Australian Tax Reform 2015

Why are we discussing tax reform again, and what really are the priority issues?

The Federal Government has released a wide-rangingdiscussion paperon the Australian tax system, yet Australia has been reforming its tax system for the past 35 years.

The last major reform in 2000 then called the New Tax System included the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). For several years afterwards, the tax system looked efficient, robust, and fair, and met the Governments wider policy objectives.

January 4, 2016

Crony capitalism, lobbyists and markets.

In the AFR today, John Kehoe writes about the power of lobbyists and crony capitalists who are killing faith in markets. He refers particularly to the US where ‘crony capitalism’ is sapping vitality out of the US economy. He adds that

‘If you analyse the very richest Australians, beyond lucky inheritance, many have built their enormous wealth in industries heavily influenced by government regulation. Media, gaming and real estate development dominate the c.v.s of the upper echelons of the BRW rich list.’

February 27, 2018

GORDON DE BROUWER. Achieving balance in Australias strategic thinking

A lot has been said about the challenge that Australia and other countries in Asia and the Pacific face in balancing their security interests with the United States and economic interests with China. The need to deal systematically with this challenge is sharpening as Beijing and Washington shift their conventional approaches to international relations. China has been more assertive in its foreign policy, especially in the South China Sea and in cyberspace. Meanwhile, there is concern that the United States under President Trump is abandoning its support for a rules-based and market-oriented global order and is championing an order that prioritises protectionism, unilateralism and the pursuit above all else of American interests.

December 30, 2016

From the American Challenge to the Chinese Challenge?

The unfolding Western effort to preach to the Chinese and paint a picture of a shining and benign America and contrasting that with a threatening and malign picture of China is, among other things, a complete distortion of the historical truth.

June 13, 2017

JOHN AUSTEN. Infrastructure misuse and mistakes - the Hume Highway.

The value of infrastructure depends on how well it is used. Australias main infrastructure problem is misuse of what we have; a symptom of an absence of sensible policies, advisory failures and lobbying to build monuments to keep the concrete flowing.

This article, about the Hume Highway, is the first in a series on this issue. Misuse of the Hume, Australias most important highway, has damaged the rail and trucking industries, caused harmful traffic in Sydney and led to sub-optimal locations of industry. The solutions highway charging and removal of unnecessary truck restrictions are well known; the continuing stubborn inaction on these is a sad reflection on Australias infrastructure advisers and decision makers.

February 20, 2017

PAUL BUDDE. Australia needs a proper NBN.

Regrettably it appears that on both counts proper infrastructure plans and the need for affordable services the government and the nbn company, despite spending something like $50 billion, have failed to come up with the right solution for Australia.

January 11, 2016

Mark Gregory. Turnbull's NBN Mess

It has been an inauspicious beginning to 2016 for NBN Co and the year only promises to go from bad to worse as the rest of the world moves ahead with NG-PON2 Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) rollouts and Australians slowly realise that the spin from Turnbull about how his NBN was going to be fast, affordable and here sooner is nothing more than a bad joke.

If youre a critic of the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls Multi-Technology Mix (MTM) National Broadband Network (NBN) then youll have to get in line to be heard as there is going to be a constant stream of criticism about how Turnbulls MTM NBN provides slow connections that are fraught with technical problems, suffers from poor performance, does not have enough capacity and has hobbled Australians with nothing more than basic broadband at significantly higher prices than what is paid in other countries competing for the global digital economy dollar.

April 14, 2015

Andrew Elek. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is miles ahead of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a far more economically efficient option than the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) for integrating Asian economies to each other and to the rest of the world. While the United States is attempting to thwart Chinas AIIB by completing the TPP, it is likely to result in net costs to countries other than the US.

In 2015, very few products face significant transparent barriers such as tariffs when they cross international borders. The most important constraints to the flow of products along modern supply chains are due to weaknesses in transport and communications infrastructure. A 2013 study by the World Economic Forum found that supply chain barriers to international trade are far more significant impediments to trade than tariffs. Reducing supply chain barriers could increase world GDP over six times more than removing all tariffs.

August 15, 2017

RICHARD BUTLER. Has Bishop's time come?

The publication by a leading journalist of an extraordinary puff piece on Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and her leadership skills, is bound to set political hares running. But, where to?

April 18, 2017

RICHARD BUTLER. DPRK: The New Cuban missile crisis?

The DPRK nuclear weapons programme does not constitute a new Cuban missile crisis. Any military attack upon DPRK would be disastrous. A new political negotiation must be constructed. This is not a problem to be solved by the US alone.

September 27, 2018

ANN DAVIES. ABC board members appointed by Fifield despite being rejected by merit-based panel (the Guardian, 28.09.18)

The Coalitions much touted merits-based nominations process for ABC board appointments has been ignored or circumvented in recent years.

September 19, 2024

United Nations General Assembly votes to demand Israel end Palestinian occupation, Australia abstains

The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted in favour of a Palestinian resolution demanding Israel end its “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank within a year.

March 8, 2016

Hugh White, Australias Defence White Paper and the China threat- a hidebound view of Asias future'

Any defence policy is ultimately based on a view of the international system and how it is expected to evolve over coming decades. These are the judgments that most fundamentally influence the nature and scale of armed conflict that a countrys forces must be prepared to fight. Australias new Defence White Paper makes two central judgments about this. First, that the post-Cold War, US-led international order_will_ be maintained; and second, that it must be maintained.

August 10, 2014

David Stephens. The children suffer.

Osbert Sitwells The Next War, published in 1918, depicts some plutocrats deciding what would be an appropriate war memorial. The senior plutocrat puts a suggestion which his colleagues eagerly take up.

What more fitting memorial for the fallen Than that their children Should fall for the same cause?

Rushing eagerly into the street, The kindly old gentlemen cried To the young: Will you sacrifice Through your lethargy What your fathers died to gain? The world must be made safe for the young! And the children Went . . .

May 23, 2017

EMILY FISCHER et al. Playing God: The Immigration Ministers Unrestrained Power .

The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection holds numerous discretionary powers that allow him or her to make substantial and lifelong decisions about the lives of vulnerable people. These powers lack transparency, accountability and are not amenable to review by the courts.

January 15, 2018

ANDREW LEIGH. The false economy of sacking public servants in favour of consultants.

Would you burn $1 of petrol driving to the other side of the city so you could save 50 cents filling up? Would you recommend to a friend that they buy the cheapest printer, knowing it has the most expensive ink cartridges? Do you advise family to save money by not getting the flu vaccine? Of course not. Fortunately, we’re familiar with the idea of a false economy: a saving that turns out to be illusory because it eventually costs you more. Unfortunately, not everyone seems to have cottoned on to what this means for the Australian Public Service. While public service jobs have been decimated, spending on consultants has ballooned. Work that used to be at the core of the public service, like policy development and stakeholder engagement, is increasingly outsourced.

March 19, 2014

Susie Carleton. The ABC is at it again.

Dont we all now know from the upright Hon Scott Morrison that decent members of the Australian Armed Services would never - and did not - cause the burning of the hands of asylum seekers under their control. Nor was there any further ill-treatment of a later batch of unfortunates as claimed in ABC 7.30- Report of March 17. Servicemen told Scott - and he told us.

Australian servicemen, according to Scott, are above such conduct and it is an insult to our nations Armed Services to think otherwise. Of this he is convinced because there are Regulations and a Code of Conduct which rules out the sort of behavior widely claimed by the victims.

May 28, 2013

Does Catholic Health really want to destroy Medicare? A Catholic Health response by CEO Martin Laverty

On May 14, I wrote a blog ‘Does Catholic Health really want to destroy Medicare? Martin Laverty, CEO of Catholic Health, responds as a guest blogger.

Catholic Health Australia (CHA) commissioned the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) in 2010 to provide a contemporary assessment of the link between a persons health and their personal wealth. NATSEM found 65 per cent of Australians in the lowest income group lived with a long-term health problem, compared with just 15 per cent of those in the highest income group.

October 14, 2014

Cavan Hogue. The new Vietnam.

We seem to be rushing forward to the past in the Middle East and it looks increasingly like a rerun of Vietnam which began with a request from the Saigon Government (that we had to ask for), initial popular support for intervention against the Communist bogey, followed by disillusionment and defeat. A domestic political asset became a liability,

All the talk about evil skirts around the fact that however demented ISIL may be they are attracting young idealists to their ranks. Why? They are able to draw on longstanding distrust of Christian Europe and its American offshoots which goes back to the Crusades.This distrust was exacerbated by Western colonialism and the mess Europe made of the region after World War 1. The more ISIL can push the West into involvement, the more they can build on existing distrust of the West. Australia is not a serious player in this region but we have identified ourselves with the Western nations who are seen as the bad guys in the Middle East where there are more factions than we have even heard of. This, plus our grandstanding over Ukraine, tells our Asian neighbours that we do not put our money where our mouth is.

February 6, 2017

JAMES O'NEILL. Just whose news is fake?

The term fake news has gained a certain currency in recent months, perhaps reaching its apogee with the Washington Posts notorious list of alleged fake news sites.

January 31, 2017

ROBERT MANNE. The Muscovian candidate? Donald Trump and Russia.

This article was first published by The Monthly in December 2016.

To uncover the truth about the relations between Trump and Russia, therefore now requires not only painstaking investigation but, even more, political courage from members of the Republican Party in the Senate, the US intelligence services and the American mainstream media. The future of the Trump Presidency now rests in their hands.

March 27, 2014

Mark Isaacs. Deterring boat arrivals!

Over the past decades of asylum seeker policy in Australia we have heard many justifications for a strict deterrence policy. Border protection, save lives at sea, no advantage for queue jumpers, smash the people smugglers’ business model, and, of course, ‘we decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come’.

At the same time, public debate fostered by mainstream media and by Australian politicians continually refers to asylum seekers by terms such as ‘illegals’ and ‘queue jumpers’, terms that we must continually reject as they have no legitimacy in Australian or international law and aren’t representative of the global view of asylum seekers. Those who control the public discourse have created a confused and purposefully misleading national discussion that shadows the truth and promotes anti-asylum seeker sentiment.

March 12, 2017

LUKE FRASER. The 'Big Picture' in infrastructure: even more depressing than the little picture?

As news broke recently that the Sydney Metro project would necessitate the closure of Sydneys Bankstown rail line for a few months each year until well into next decade, the latest State Transport minister urged everyone to look at the bigger picture.

May 1, 2017

Making Housing Affordable Series. DAMIEN WEBB. An institutional scale solution for the social and affordable housing challenge from a super funds perspective

Many well-intentioned solutions have been proposed to address Australias housing affordability problem, yet fail to gain traction because the challenges faced by key stakeholder groups arent being addressed simultaneously. We believe success on a material scale will be more likely when this occurs.

We propose a model that potentially meets the needs of government, capital markets, and community housing providers in a simultaneous fashion, via the intermediation of a nationally owned, centralised property clearing house.

June 5, 2017

Gonski 2.0 is a Fiasco

The Turnbull Governments Gonski 2.0 funding plan is a fiasco. Public schools will remain under-funded and there will be a massive increase in over-funding of private schools. The Education Amendment Bill before the Parliament to implement Gonski 2.0 should be rejected and an alternative Gonski PLUS model that builds on Gonski 1.0 be developed in conjunction with the States.

November 2, 2015

John Menadue. Malcolm Turnbull and the NBN mess

As Minister for Communications Malcolm Turnbull had two major responsibilities. They were the public broadcasters, ABC and SBS, and the NBN.

As I pointed out in an earlier post, the ABC needs rebuilding after the harsh budget cuts and termination of the Australian Network contract while Malcolm Turnbull was the minister.

The plight of the NBN is much more serious. Consider comments by people who have followed this issue very closely.

March 9, 2017

RICHARD BUTLER. Contemplating the Use of Nuclear weapons?

A nuclear arms race between the US and Russia has resumed. The US is increasing the power and effectiveness of its weapons threefold, President Trump has indicated that he is prepared to contemplate using nuclear weapons to achieve some of his stated objectives.

February 27, 2018

JOHN AUSTEN. We need a Metro public inquiry in NSW to sort out the railway mess

A recent opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Heaald effectively called for a stop to criticism of the NSW Governments approach to Sydney railways in particular Metro and for everyone to get onboard the transport revolution. I cant agree.

May 3, 2018

MACK WILLIAMS. Korea : After Panmunjeom

Much has been written about the recent Kim:Moon Summit and its communique. The signs on the interKorean front are encouraging but all still hinges on how the Kim:Trump Summit. It will have to address the absolutely critical issue of denuclearisation what it actually means and how could it be achieved. There is still far to go and the challenge for Trump is to find a way short of Armageddon that will really so diminish the North’s nuclear and ICBM capability that he can claim a victory.

February 9, 2017

CHRISTIAN DOWNIE. The security threat from climate change

The Turnbull Governments decision to continue to back coal is not just bad economics, it also makes no sense from a national security perspective as the worsening impacts of climate change threaten international stability.

August 30, 2015

Arja Keski-Nummi and Josef Szwarc. Syrian/Iraqi Refugees: Time for a Bi-partisan and Community Response

Harrowing images and reports in our daily media give a human face to the grim words of the UN refugee agency: the number of men, women and children forcibly displaced by persecution, war and human rights violations is the largest on record. Nearly 60 million at the end of 2014 and greater since then.

That Australia can and should significantly and as a matter of priority increase its contribution to the alleviation of the plight of so many people in urgent need is accepted by the major political parties and in many sectors of civil society.

April 11, 2018

Morals, slogans and PR hype

Australian politicians and media have been beating their hairy chests accusing and warning China and Russia over their failings. One is reminded of the famous thundering headline in The Launceston Examiner ‘We warn the Tzar of Russia’ . The question is what is the motive in all of this? Do they really hope to influence these countries or is to please the US? Perhaps the more likely explanation is that it is designed to impress Australian voters? Australia has morphed from the post Vietnam distrust of militarism to almost a warrior cult so they may hope their bellicose bombast will resound well domestically. There is also an implied claim to the moral high ground - which is hardly unique to Australia. The rhetoric from China and Russia is not much different but we think we are different. This article looks briefly at some of the claims made.

December 18, 2016

ROBERT MANNE. The Australian's attacks on Gillian Triggs.

The attack launched by the Australian on Gillian Triggs and the Human Rights Commission has been obsessive, petty, relentless, remorseless and ruthless.

April 18, 2017

JOHN MENADUE. 457 visas and our temporary residence system.

In light of government announcement on 457 visas, I have reposted below an article originally posted on 18 November 2016. See also at end, a link to an article by Joanna Howe in The Canberra Times yesterday. John Menadue.

Oversight of the management of work rights of temporary entrants into Australia is broken and needs fixing.

June 25, 2019

IAN McAULEY. Why do we trust our economy to this mob?

The Australian economy is in recession. Rather than heeding sound advice from the Reserve Bank the Coalitions response is to sacrifice responsible economic management for an opportunity to embarrass Labor and to bully the Senate.

October 27, 2014

John Tulloh. Israel High Court upsets Government on asylum seekers

Israelis have been observing the month of repentance (Elul). As far as their government is concerned, it is members of the High Court who should be repenting. They have infuriated the Netanyahu government with an order to shut down a detention centre for asylum-seekers within 90 days and to reduce maximum detention without trial from one year to 60 days.

It is all about what is called the Infiltrators Prevention Bill. This contained stiff measures to curb the influx of African asylum-seekers or, as the government calls them, illegal infiltrators.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal