June 13, 2021

A family from Biloela holds a mirror to unconscionable Government behaviour

For the second time in their lives the two adults of the Murugappan family have been forced to be resilient and brave in the face of confrontation by a government intent on causing them harm.

February 20, 2021

Remembering Darwin and ...

On a warm Thursday morning 79 years ago, on 19 February 1942, two forces of Japanese bombers swept over the Arafura Sea to drop bombs on Darwin…When Australians remember the bombing of Darwin which they should as a shocking and potentially portentous event in Australias history, they might also consider the sufferings of the people of Timor, and Australias part in it.

January 25, 2021

What do we really celebrate on Australia Day?

Spare a thought for Australian representatives abroad who face awkward questions about what we celebrate on our National Day. It just goes to highlight the confusion and hypocrisy about pretending it was a noble venture by heroic and benign colonisers.

January 16, 2021

Bidens China Problem: Resisting a New Cold War in Asia

For many political leaders in Washington, its OK for the United States to have a sphere of influence that is global. Its not OK for China to have a sphere of influence that is regional.

December 22, 2020

Morrison, the man with no abiding beliefs, also lacks agenda, map or destination

Assuming that the Morrison government goes more or less to full term – and some senate obstruction should not be enough to persuade a governor-general, even one in a witness support scheme – to grant an early dissolution – Morrison has probably about 15 months of economic recovery, ordinary economic management, and general steering of the ship of state before he must face the electors.

August 25, 2024

Exiting Pax Americana could save our bacon

Ordinary New Zealanders and Australians have little idea about the momentous changes coming our way. For a couple of centuries we have been outposts of a Western empire that is losing its dominance of the region.

August 13, 2024

Australia’s to-do list: stop supporting war, avoid becoming US satrap

Gathering in New York in September 2024, the world’s nations will be challenged to ‘end the scourge of war’, before it’s too late. All of them know that a nuclear cataclysm has never been so close.

July 16, 2024

The Trump assassination attempt: An inevitable result of toxic polarisation?

It is ironic that a past and would be President who has been a strong supporter of 2nd Amendment freedoms to own assault rifles was nearly killed by one.

June 24, 2024

Peter Dutton: climate denialist – peddler of danger

Peter Dutton is a charlatan – an inveterate climate change denialist.

July 25, 2023

Political polarisation in the US - Part 1: How real is the problem?

_America is our great and powerful friend so it matters a great deal how reliable our firmest strategic partner is. Is the US heading for a degree of political dysfunction that could blow back into its steadfastness as a leading player and an Australian ally in a multipolar Indo-Pacific?

June 29, 2023

US-China relations and the decline of US dominance

What is the path to peace for the war in Ukraine? Is America still powerful enough to impose global order? The US has just 4.1% of the world’s population, while the BRICS countries have 41.5%. In this conversation with economist Jeffrey Sachs, we discuss the origins of the conflict in Ukraine and NATO enlargement, US-China relations, and the decline of US dominance.

November 29, 2020

How can we best ensure that retirement incomes are adequate?

The present superannuation contribution (SG) rate of 9.5 percent can finance an adequate retirement income for most middle-income people, provided they fully draw down their savings. Logically, therefore, any action to stop further increases in the SG rate should be contingent on accompanying policies to remove the present impediments to using retirement savings efficiently.

September 25, 2024

Whither Australia’s war against China ?

Those espousing our embrace of America’s war against China start with the assertion that it is China’s aggression and aim for regional hegemony which must be resisted. No doubt China sees that in reverse – America as an overbearing, deeply hostile power perched on the edge of Asia pursuing hegemony at each end of the Eurasian continent. Blustering and freely admitting that it alone is not sufficiently powerful, pressuring “allies” for its ends – ruthlessly demanding more defence expenditure and economic and trade sacrifices. Australia is not alone – ask Japan and the Philippines.

June 20, 2024

Private hospitals seeking more government subsidies

Instead of churning more taxpayer money through Private Health Insurance funds to private hospitals, the Commonwealth Government should establish a Hospital Benefits Fund (HBF), similar to the Medical Benefits Fund (MBF), with benefits going directly to patients for payments to a hospital of their choice.

September 15, 2022

The Defence Strategic Review - We are becoming a proxy or is it a patsy for the US in a possible conflict with China

The Defence Strategic Review must warn Minister Marles about the dangerous path he is committing Australia to. We are becoming a spear carrier for the US.

May 25, 2022

Getting the Australia-China Relationship back on track

While we should not yet abandon hope for a more realistic, nuanced and sophisticated China policy under the Labor government, Prime Minister Albaneses initial statements from Tokyo in response to an overture from PRC Prime Minister Li Keqiang are not encouraging.

April 20, 2022

Which party is the better economic manager? Neither!

_The reality is that neither of the major parties can reasonably claim to be better economic managers than the other.

September 21, 2021

Scott Morrison's giant nuclear election ploy that will put us in the front line against China

Australias decision to join with the United States and the United Kingdom to build Australian long-range nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) has little to do with the defence of Australia.

August 24, 2021

White Man's Media: two places, Western Europe and the US, control the global public mindset

You and I currently live on a glorious planet with almost eight billion people in about 200 countries and an astonishing range of cultures. Yet only one, consisting of 8% of the world’s population, claims precedence. Why?

August 15, 2021

Mischief, Disingenuousness and the Doctrine of Ministerial Discretion by Bridget McKenzie.

Things are seldom what they seem/skim milk masquerades as cream/highlows pass as patent leathers/jackdaws strut in peacocks feathers is an even more appropriate description of whats going on in the Morrison government than it was for HMS Pinafore.

May 20, 2021

Australian Media in the Asian Century.

_This week’s media roundup sees the welcome return of journalist Max Suich. In response s_pluttering snipes from the anti-China hawks nests at ASPI and the ANUs National Security College were weak. There were also several book releases around growing tensions between Australia and China and new information on the ASIS bugging of Timor-Leste in 2004.

June 17, 2023

Dear Secretary Blinken: Some advice from an Australian old China hand

We do not want there to be war over Taiwan. If such were threatened, we could never be involved.

June 11, 2023

Shattered Idol, synchronised drowning

The judgement on Ben Roberts-Smiths defamation case delivered a heavily damning summary of conduct. That would have come as little surprise to many; rumour abounded for a decade or more.

April 3, 2023

Election reflections: The Liberals should ditch the Coalition with the Nationals

There are some important lessons for the Liberal Party to learn from their recent series of election losses. There is no necessary law of political gravity which means that a party which has entered a losing sequence needs or will continue to do so. But if you keep making the same mistakes it is most likely that you will keep getting the same result.

December 17, 2020

The medium-term budget outlook and its policy implications. Part 2

Yesterday Part 1 considered the medium-term outlook for the budget deficit and government debt. Today Part 2 discusses the Parliamentary Budget Office projections of revenue and expenditures, how realistic they are, and why policies will need to change if we are to return to sustained economic growth and fiscal strength.

August 20, 2024

What will our US alliance get us into from November?

A Trump administration, and even a Harris one, will pose new challenges for Australia: sycophancy or independence? Non-alignment or more complicity in US wars?

July 29, 2024

News Corp - How a rogue organisation operates. A repost from 27 October 2017-slightly updated.

Rupert Murdoch demands loyalty from his followers, not competence.

August 18, 2023

Support an Independent Inquiry into AUKUS

Since the Labor government endorsed Scott Morrisons AUKUS Defence Policy, many former Labor leaders, diplomats and academics have questioned whether there has been adequate assessment of the many risks associated with this secret deal that has not been formally assessed for its impact on Australians.

May 28, 2023

How should Australia defend itself in the 21st century? Silencing the drums and dogs of war

The following is a paper by retired Australian Army Major General Michael G Smith AO, first published in The New Daily on May 26, 2023. This paper addresses the most significant issue facing the Australian people since the Second World War, namely our future national security, our independence, our sovereignty, our prosperity and, ultimately, our survival.

September 25, 2022

The Defence Strategic Review: China is not a military threat

_Australias defence policy is based on an assumed China Threat. If this assumption is maintained, it will be used to justify increased defence spending and a closer defence engagement with the United States and other like-minded countries, including Quad and AUKUS partners.

July 25, 2022

A reckless and provocative visit by Pelosi to Taiwan

When the United States has a divided foreign policy on an issue of such grave importance, the world begins a slide onto very thin ice.

December 13, 2020

Every jurisdiction in Australia, except the Commonwealth, is committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050

Over the past several years, the states and territories have been driving policy on climate change in Australia. A concrete example is the commitment from every jurisdiction in Australia, except the Commonwealth, to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. This progress by the states and territories was recently acknowledged by the president of the next UN climate summit.

May 17, 2024

America’s geopolitical position is crumbling

As an increasing number of countries move to recognise Palestine and welcome its U.N. membership, the Israel lobby is being hit by a pincer movement. On the one side, American voters, especially young American voters, are aghast at Israel’s brutality. On the other side, America’s geopolitical position is crumbling.

May 2, 2024

The Australian Government does not want to know

Day 200 on the Gaza strip with still no end in sight to Israel’s genocide, while our country continues to support Israel.

October 29, 2020

Premier kept his side of the bargain but the media didnt want to know

An easing of restrictions in Victoria was predicated on two criteria: a rolling 14-day average of fewer than five cases per day; and fewer than five mystery cases over the preceding two weeks.

September 28, 2024

Marles, with all pretension, flogging a dead seahorse

Richard Marles and his mate, the US defence secretary, are beginning to wilt under the weight of sustained comment in Australia critical of the AUKUS arrangement.

September 27, 2024

Jeffrey Sachs describes US as a menace to world peace

Jeffrey Sachs says the US is the main barrier to peace. In an interview from the UN, he said: “There’s a lot of frustration in this place today which is that the world leaders are here, everyone calls for peace and peace does not occur and diplomacy does not succeed..The Administration doesn’t know how to restrain the war machine.. Zelensky is coming to the US to drag the US into World WarIII”.

September 16, 2024

‘AUKUS-plus and the realities of Australia’s involvement in US nuclear proliferation’

US attack submarines operating from Australia could be armed with US nuclear weapons at the stroke of a presidential decision; and US strategic bombers based in Australia could be nuclear-armed, as in fact USAF nuclear safety regulations permit in crisis already.

August 23, 2024

Australia’s fuzzy nationalism

Australia is not immune to the global trend to nationalism. Politicians here as elsewhere pepper their talk with terms such as “sovereignty”, “national values” and “our way of life”. These are all relative, only defined by reference to other peoples and other nations that are “not like us”. The uniqueness of Australian nationalism is that it is universally assumed to include the values, way of life and strategic outlook of the United States of America. They are not us but like us. This is what I call fuzzy nationalism.

May 31, 2024

Collision course: the National Defence Strategy and the China – Russia Joint Statement

Australia is on a collision course with the major source of our prosperity. The collision is not yet a fait accompli. To avoid the collision will require breaking the shackles of the Rules-Based Order. Australia faces a geopolitical conundrum of major, if not epic, proportions.

April 19, 2024

Supporting independent public interest media

Government media funding supports the failing mainstream media (MSM) and right-wing advocacy groups like the Institute of Public Affairs.

July 26, 2023

Stop dissembling: International Climate Emergency Mobilisation is essential now

Whilst some incremental progress has been made following the 2022 change of Federal government, evidence confirms that both main political parties lack the imagination, courage and leadership to adequately address climate change.

March 29, 2018

NICOLAS SENZE. Rediscovering the role of Mary Magdalene as 'apostle of the apostles'.

Turning Mary Magdalene into a sinner obstructed womens place in the church.

September 29, 2024

Winding back housing tax breaks to fund social housing

Extra revenue from winding back currently available tax breaks should be designated for social housing investment and increased Rent Assistance -a housing policy virtuous circle.

September 23, 2024

Paging a new rogue state- state sponsored terrorism

Exploding pagers and two-way radios. What a brilliant act of ….. state-sponsored terrorism. Or a classic destruction of an adversary’s command and control communications ability.

August 16, 2024

Has Australia turned its back on assisting people fleeing war/conflict?

Australia has a long and proud history of assisting people fleeing war and conflict. The degree and type of assistance we have provided has varied considerably but we have never applied a blanket ban on helping people fleeing war and conflict. Not until Peter Dutton.

July 9, 2023

NATOs provocative lurch eastward and the 'supreme fool' Jens Stoltenberg

President Macron of France is right to warn NATO away from any expansion into Asia, reminding all and sundry of NATOs Atlantic design and focus.

February 7, 2021

Covid-19 vaccine caught in the crossfire of EU, UK spat

Scientists and medical professionals are concerned that, in its attempts to justify the slow rollout of vaccines to the 448 million EU citizens, European Commission officials may have diminished faith in the efficacy of the vaccines globally.

July 11, 2022

War over the rules-base order doesnt make sense

Going to war over the rules-based order seems unremarkable to our leaders. The nature of the rules-based order, and how it would be preserved by conflict, seems to be intuitively perceived by political leaders. Yet, the elevation of the rules-based order to a status so sacrosanct that the destruction of civilisation is justified in its defence demands investigation.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal