July 25, 2021

Possibilities for the next federal election

Now that the redistributions in Victoria and WA are completed we can begin to assess the possibilities for the next federal election. Imperfect as it is polling offers some interesting insights.

July 20, 2021

Lets re-imagine Anzac Day and phase out ADF and RSLs ownership

More than a million Australians wore military uniform in World War II, and nearly 40,000 died. In the 76 years since, around 110,00 Australians have served in military operations abroad, with fewer than 1000 dying on active service. The greatest proportion of these was in Vietnam more than 50 years ago. There, as in Afghanistan from which we have recently departed, history will judge our intervention as a defeat.

July 15, 2021

The NSW 'lockdown' that isn't while putting business before people.

_A lockdown strategy that does not involve lockdown, a vaccine distribution policy that is dangerously inconsistent and covid testing facilities that cannot meet the demand generated by public health orders, are but some of the problems responsible for the continuing explosion of COVID-19 cases in Sydney

June 23, 2021

The Great Barrier Reef in danger. But is there a China conspiracy afoot?

The Government deliberately fuelled a conspiracy theory that China must have been involved in the UNESCO report. It is alleged that the Prime Minister’s Office backgrounded journalists along these lines for the first 24 hours of the release. The Australian ran a story, China-led ‘ambush’ on health of the Reef. This was a complete fabrication to deflect from the substance of report.

June 8, 2021

We've got you on file: Australia's McCarthyist moment

Some people think that McCarthyism casting doubt, without evidence, on the loyalties of people in public life was dead and buried with the Cold War.

May 23, 2021

Towards peace for Gaza by ending deceit

Following the ceasefire after the latest Gaza carnage, media commentary included claims that life in that besieged, bombarded strip could return to normal. This insulting observation is one more verbal absurdity in cowardly refusals to speak truths about the colonisation of Palestinians and cruelty towards them.

February 15, 2021

Upturn in education? A few more lessons need to be learned

Tanya Pliberseks contribution to Upturn, a better normal after COVID-19, is entitled Lessons Learned: Education in recovery. For school education in particular, the problems and the lessons learned go back many years. Achieving a better normal is not good enough; the pandemic didnt so much create new problems as seriously highlight and worsen old ones.

December 8, 2020

Morrison pitching babies into hot bathwater

Scott Morrison is a naturally cautious, if ruthless, politician who is not prime minister by accident. Almost every significant step in his career has been carefully – mostly successfully – gamed with close political colleagues.

November 1, 2020

Interest rates: why a further cut is not a good idea

Interest rates are already at record lows. Any further cut will not help the economy but will add to the inequality of wealth in this country.

October 22, 2020

When a scholar meets a soldier : Why Ive decided not to speak to the senate inquiry on diaspora communities in Australia (ABC Oct 21, 2020)

What purpose does Senator Abetzs questioning of Chinese Australians serve, other than to make them feel that they will never belong, no matter how long they have lived here or how hard they have tried?

June 13, 2024

Shangri-la Security Dialogue heralds important shift in Australia’s language on China

The 21st Shangri-la Security Dialogue, held in Singapore between 31 May and 2 June, saw the United States’ Secretary of Defence unveil a new way to describe his country’s Asia-Pacific policy, and hold a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart. China was unyielding on its “core interests”. Australian Defence Minister Marles embraced the “global rules-based order” and drew a sharp distinction between Russia and China, which he invited to abide by “the order’s” rules.

April 27, 2023

The DSRs desultory treatment of nuclear submarines

The Albanese governments Defence Strategic Review is marred from the outset by its bald assertion that Chinas military build-up is the largest and most ambitious of any country since the end of the Second World War.

July 19, 2022

Breakthrough(s) in lobbying regulation..at last!

It has taken far too long but finally two state governments are taking very seriously the threat to the public interest posed by the inherent risks of corruption and undue influence associated with lobbying.

September 19, 2021

AUKUS security pact: a story of recklessness and delusion

The AUKUS security pact is another provocative alliance that can only end in blood and tears. And for no good reason other than a nostalgic addiction to imperial power.

August 12, 2021

Why is the Queen still interfering in our history and why is the National Archives allowing this?

_Thousands of pages of the Queens secret letters to governors-general from Lord Casey to Sir William Deane, from1965-2001, will soon be open to the public in the most significant release of royal documents since Sir John Kerrs explosive Palace letters. The Archives decision to release the Queens correspondence with these six governors-general follows directly from the High Courts 6:1decisionin the Palace letters case, which found that such letters are not personal as the Archives had incorrectly claimed, ending the Queens embargo over them. Having lost so emphatically at the High Court, why is the Archives still involving the Queen in redactions from these letters of immeasurable significance to our history?

March 18, 2020

SEAN INNIS. Economic thinking has driven policy making in the past, but will it in the future? Part 1

This article the first in a two-part series discusses the changing dynamics of the Australian policy environment, and how that affects the role of economics in the determination of policies. The second part tomorrow, will discuss the nature of the future challenges to which economic thinking will need to adjust.

September 8, 2024

The NACC’s refusal to consider Robodebt

Before the last election in 2022, the Labor opposition promised to establish an integrity commission that would have a broad jurisdiction and strong investigative powers including the capacity to hold public hearings when it was in the public interest to do so.

July 22, 2024

Translation and violence: thoughts about the Taiwan and the 1972 Joint Communique

The Australia China Joint Communique of December 1972 is the foundational document underpinning bilateral relations ever since. It is not a long document, and at a cursory glance appears quite simple. Recently, however, some commentators have questioned its language and suggested it is ambiguous, particularly concerning our government’s position on the status of Taiwan.

April 29, 2024

Australia is a silent partner in atrocity in Gaza and the West Bank

On 27 February, we wrote to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) expressing concern that Australia had failed to fulfil its obligation under the Genocide Convention (1948) to prevent any action that further risks the survival of the Palestinian people. That failure continues.

September 29, 2023

The Pentagon playing Marles along

Cartoonist Geoff Pryor tees off for the weekend on how we were persuaded to allow Northern Australia to become a US military colony.

September 12, 2023

Going to the mountain for Assange

Later this month Ill travel to Washington, as part of a Parliamentary delegation, to advocate on behalf of Julian Assange. The Parliamentary delegation includes representatives from across the political colour spectrum Forest Green (senior Nationals member Barnaby Joyce), Green (Senators Peter Whish-Wilson and David Shoebridge), Red (Labor backbencher Tony Zappia), Navy Blue (Liberal member Alex Antic) and Teal. This alliance, unlikely as it might appear, reflects the relative unity of Australian opinion about Julian Assange and his fate. While we might not agree with his actions - and we might not like how hes comported himself in the past - 79% of Australians believe its past time for Julian Assange to be freed.

August 28, 2022

The Jobs Summit and our labour shortages

_There is little doubt Australia is facing a huge labour shortage.

April 22, 2022

Weekly roundup Saturday 23 April

Weekly roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy.

September 1, 2021

White Man's Media: Asia's a place you fly over

By ignoring Asia, the Australian media is contributing towards the creation of more insular and parochial but less understanding country.

January 11, 2021

Trump's insurrection has been advertised for months

Spare us, at least, the mock horror. On the morning after the US presidential election of November 4th, The Irish Times ran a headline: At 2.23am, the US president launched an attempted coup. This was merely factual reporting.

November 17, 2020

Where to now for Myanmar?

Two dysfunctional semi-democracies held national elections in the first week of November. The USA and Myanmar.

August 19, 2023

AUKUS tensions surface at Labor's national conference as Albanese's ambitions for the party become clear. An empty vessel

On one side of the discussion there was a disparate collection of people expressing concerns about a profound policy shift which has a multitude of troubling and unanswered questions attached to it.

April 4, 2023

On the passing of Dr Yunupingu AM (1948 - 2023)

Not long after six am on Monday the third of April news began to flow south from Yolngu heartland. The most significant Aboriginal leader of our generation had passed.

September 9, 2022

The Defence Strategic Review: We should regard the Taiwan issue as one for us to 'sit out'

_It is almost impossible to imagine any realistic circumstances, short of general war in the Asia-Pacific, under which China would launch a military attack on Australia.

August 19, 2021

The Failure of the American War Machine

The American War Machine (AWM) is big and brassy. Sound and light, chest-thumping, shock and awe. It is an extension of the American psyche.

August 3, 2021

Commonwealth timidity on the big issues.

_Federal Labor has become as timid about reform – particularly in the big Commonwealth fields such as the economy, or taxation, and tertiary education – as is the conservative government. It doesnt dare say anything on defence and foreign affairs – or social justice – for fear of being wedged.

December 28, 2020

Our aggressive and violent ally. An updated repost. Part 2 of 2

_Declining empires never decline gracefully. And neither will the US empire addicted as it is to a belief in its exceptionalism and its grounding in aggression both at home and abroad. Add to the mix that 70 million people voted for Donald Trump and 70% of Republican supporters believe that the election was stolen by the Democrats. A sick country! Joe Biden will smooth a few rough edges but wont do much more.

November 21, 2020

Boris spends big on defence and climate change

While facing what officials describe as a scary economic outlook with Britains finances in their worst state since World War II, Boris Johnson has announced a surge in public spending of over A$50 billion to combat climate change and modernise its military.

September 13, 2024

When should we expect interest rates to fall?

The Reserve Bank has explicitly warned against any expectation that interest rates will start to fall soon. On the other hand, the Treasurer recently claimed that the Reserve Bank is smashing the economy, implying that interest rates should fall soon. Who is right?

August 17, 2024

AUKUS: The worst defence and foreign policy decision our country has made

Defence Minister Marles’s love for the the US is so dewy-eyed as to defy parody. Foreign Minister Wong is far more beady-eyed, and instinctively wary of over-commitment to America’s view of itself, but has been unwilling to rock the boat.

July 17, 2024

Israel lobby’s attack on Kostakidis threatens everyone’s right to free speech

Mary Kostakidis is one of Australia’s finest journalists, but more than that, she also resolutely stands against oppression and injustice.

April 18, 2024

Why Australia should recognise Palestine

Formal recognition of Palestine by Australia and other allies will not, of itself, resolve the conflict, but it will lead to a political climate that helps to balance the relationship between Israel and Palestine and will push both towards a resumption of face-to-face negotiations. We urge the Australian government to maintain its support for Israel, for Palestine and a negotiated settlement to the conflict through recognition of Palestine.

June 8, 2023

AUKUS, Australia and China

Australias capacity to protect its sovereignty lies not in accession to US interests but in a broad diplomatic and security effort with our Asian neighbours, writes Paul Keating in a letter delivered to Prime Minister Albanese on 24 January, seven weeks before the San Diego AUKUS announcement and obtained by the Guardian Australia under FOI laws.

September 30, 2021

The biggest issue for the 2022 federal election is the Uluru Statement from the Heart

There are many issues in contention between the major parties at the next federal election. The biggest question to be determined by that election is the nature of our response to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

August 30, 2021

White Mans Media: it's the white persons media

_The media thunders forth from its citadel of truth against the infidels. Those chosen to comment on things Chinese are seldom people who have worked in China but hawks who spout the conservative line

August 19, 2021

Too little, too late: Morrison's Afghanistan failures

Too little, too late is one of the Morrison Governments defining characteristics.

January 21, 2021

Joe Bidens Inauguration: We must end this uncivil war

Racism was the core of Trumps politics. The country divided along the lines of the Civil War and of post-reconstruction America. In his inaugural address, Biden acknowledged this reality. His Administration will prioritise tackling the pandemic but success with that and other key policy areas will depend on winding down the uncivil war.

December 13, 2020

"To Catch Crabs on a Hill": Hong Kong in Review 2020

To catch crabs on a hill is a Cantonese expression meaning something almost impossible. Hong Kongs prospects are as bleak as that, but it would be a mistake to write the territory off completely. There is a dynamism in local culture, reflected in its pithy proverbs, that may yet save the day.

October 7, 2020

The US gravest pandemic: the assault on truth.

The future of Democracy in America is at stake in the November election and, underlying this, is the future of its essential foundation truth in public discourse.

March 24, 2020

Trump declares he is convinced we now have a drug to terminate the epidemic

As I write Boris Johnson has just locked down the UK and ordered police officers to enforce the lockdown. Almost simultaneously Donald Trump has declared that there is a great weariness among Americans for this social distancing business and he wants it to end in two weeks.

September 19, 2024

Why voters are deserting traditional parties

The changes to, and challenges confronting, representative government as we know it have been canvassed by a number of journalists, most recently Niki Savva in the Nine Entertainment newspapers. Like others, Savva correctly identifies the “drift” away from major parties and the “repudiation” of politics as we know it.

May 29, 2024

American-Israeli bombs incinerate women and children in Gaza’s ‘safe zone’

In a calculated and vicious attack Israel bombed an area in Rafah, Gaza designated as a “safe zone’ by the Israeli military, incinerating women and children and leaving flimsy plastic tents burning in a horrifying conflagration.

July 26, 2022

The Turnbull and Morrison governments and the breakdown in Australias relations with China

The breakdown in relations between Canberra and Beijing during the years of the Turnbull and Morrison governments illustrates the emptiness of Australias claims to be a middle power in regional and global affairs.

February 18, 2021

Tamed estate: the PM has to ask his wife how to feel empathy yet Labor is on the hook?

Gladys’ cheerleader in chief at the Sydney Morning Heraldfinally comes out swinging - at the NSW Opposition Leader. And editorials from The Australian get oh-so-close to touching on the failures of the federal government in aged care and vaccine rollout.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal