May 20, 2021

Combatting Australia's anti-China rhetoric

Tokyos security apparatus must have followed with amazement that excellent series by Max Suich in the AFR of 16, 17 and 18 May, revealing the anti-China antics of their Australian opposite numbers. Suich mentions how an elected member of Australias parliament was driven out in disgrace for maintaining a relationship with a suspected Chinese government agent.

February 14, 2021

Peter Garrett gives Labor a free pass on climate action

Peter Garretts essay in Upturn: A better normal, edited by Tanya Plibersek, rightly castigates the federal governments continuing support for fossil fuels and its failure to implement effective climate mitigation policies. But he doesnt address Labors reluctance to take the strong action demanded by climate science or identify the policies needed.

December 7, 2020

We have lost our way on immigration and multiculturalism

On this question of the settlement of newcomers into Australia its pretty evident that weve lost the plot.

October 11, 2020

Is the Foreign Interference Law just about China?

Having on the statute books a very serious crime, committed by dozens of people every day but which is only enforced selectively, is a grave breach of the Rule of Law. It gives the government the power to criminalise the actions of a few and not those of the majority.

October 5, 2020

Three important considerations for the budget: jobs, jobs and jobs

The straight talking New South Wales Premier, Neville Wran, set the scene in one terse sentence. Delegates, he rasped, this summit is about three things: jobs, jobs and jobs.

August 5, 2024

How China's ancient “Mandarin” class inspired 19th century reforms in the British bureaucracy and influenced the new China

Throughout history, ideas and innovations have flowed between East and West, with each civilisation learning from the other. One profound exchange was the transmission of Chinese civil service notions to the Western world in the 18th and 19th centuries. This adoption and adaptation of Chinese administrative practices shaped the development of modern governments globally.

June 30, 2024

Environment: eating responsibly - less bottled water and even less meat

Bottled water is not good for the environment or your health. If you eat meat, eating less is good for both. Governments are unreliable protectors of forests and human rights (but you knew that already).

June 18, 2024

Narcissus at war

The manipulation of truth and the acceptance of self-fabricated narratives can have devastating consequences, akin to the fate of Narcissus in Greek mythology, who, entranced by his own reflection, was consumed by self-love to the point of destruction. Similarly, the propagation and strategic use of misinformation as a political tool has serious consequences.

June 6, 2024

Modi’s bubble bursts, but he still gets a third term

After predicting confidently that it would win more than 400 seats in Indian national elections, the results of which have just been declared, Narendra Modi’s BJP and its allies have received something of a shock, with indications being that the alliance would win around 290 seats in all.

May 27, 2024

Australian moral failure on Gaza

For Australia, the urgent challenge is when will we act independently and not be associated with war crimes and genocide.

May 17, 2024

Jewish Council calls for universities to immediately halt actions against anti-war students

The Jewish Council of Australia said today the actions some universities are taking in response to anti-war students are a violation of students’ rights and freedoms. Deakin University and the Australian National University (ANU) have indicated they intend to dismantle the student camps. Students across the country are protesting in support of Palestinian people and against their institutions’ ties with Israel.

April 10, 2024

The wrong planet

July 30, 2023

Political Polarisation in the United States: The series

America is Australia’s 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? In this series, Roger Beale explores the issues underlying the polarisation that has been building in the US political landscape and, as the Presidential election ramps up, is showing deeper cracks that could impact the country’s internal stability. How will this impact the United States’ foreign policy and how will Australia respond?

July 17, 2023

Our carbon colonialism

On his way to Beijing to repair bilateral climate change relations John Kerry announced to the world the US would under no circumstances pay climate change reparations to the developing world. Why such a statement?

June 28, 2023

Has Putin been fatally wounded by the Prigozhin affair?

The world watched amazed as the drama unfolded in Russia at the end of last week, with the head of the Wagner Group, Evgenii Prigozhin, openly attacking the Minister of Defence and the military general staff, and some of his troops advancing on Moscow. Although this mutiny was blunted, many observers have been quick to argue that it has fatally wounded President Vladimir Putin and presages his fall.

June 15, 2023

Australias international strategy

America is no longer the dominant hegemon in our region. In its place Australia can and should play an important role in establishing a true multipolar system of governance. But that will first require Australia to resolve the present contradiction between our foreign and defence policies.

May 28, 2023

The Defence Strategic Review Strategy vacuum

We now have a Defence Strategic Review. But where is the National Risk Assessment, the National Security Strategy, and the Plan? A failure to resource the DSR changes adequately could mean that our deployable military operational capability will in reality be less at the end of this decade than it is today.

April 14, 2023

Australian journalists in China: Send them back!

In August, it will be three years since Australias China-based correspondents were harried out of China. In an extraordinary over-reaction, the ABC, Fairfax, and News Corp closed their offices in Beijing and Shanghai.

April 2, 2023

Despite US pundits, the Taiwanese do not want war

By some strange reasoning NATO, the US and the pundits seem to think the current war between Russia - Ukraine is a precursor to hostilities they expect to see between Taiwan and China.

August 4, 2022

Politicisation in Australia A problem that crosses jurisdictions and parties

_The striking evidence of politicisation of public services in Queensland, NSW and Victoria, after the evidence about the Commonwealth, demonstrates that the problem is pervasive across Australian jurisdictions and is not restricted to one side of politics.

August 8, 2021

Pandemic paranoia - the penal colony strikes back at those pesky Australians who left

Ever since the pandemic started, Australia has restricted the ability of its citizens to travel overseas in ways few other countries outside of North Korea have done. It is now using the biosecurity laws to also deter those who live overseas from coming back.

May 17, 2021

The Aged Care Royal Commission: the government responds with more money but the structural problems remain.

The Royal Commissions first report elegantly articulated the problems that needed to be fixed. The Royal Commissions final report was full of inconsistencies but had something for everybody. The winners and losers have now been revealed in the government response and 2021 budget and surprisingly, they are not who the government would like you to think they are.

January 18, 2021

'I don't hold a hose, mate': for overseas students Morrisons hands-off approach was writ large

From June last year, the Morrison Government increased the number of offshore student visas even though it knew these people had little to no chance of entering Australia while the pandemic rages around the world. Why would it do this?

January 8, 2021

Barriers to the NDIS

The planned introduction of independent assessments for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) will further disadvantage those with complex and not obviously manifest disabilities. For marginalised people with disabilities there are questions.

January 4, 2021

Forget empire and swaggies, we now need an anthem for all of us

Provoked by piss-weak, one-word Scotty and feisty Julian Matilda Cribb, I offer my anthem words that come from a rather different place.

December 1, 2020

From here on our recovery will need more than fiscal policy, itll need redistribution

From the 1980s right through to the global financial crisis, the standard response in Australia and elsewhere to too weak or too strong an economy has beenmonetary policy the manipulation of interest rates by a central bank, in our case the Reserve Bank.

November 23, 2020

'Here was their spirit' - the corruption of the Australian War Memorial

Rather than embodying Charles Beans vision of a solemn temple of reflection honouring service and sacrifice - Here is their spirit- over time, the Australian War Memorial has morphed into a theme park of war souvenirs, half-truths and omissions.

November 16, 2020

Apologising to Shaoquett Moselmane - a touch of courage needed

Courage to say sorry to anyone wrongly offended is an invaluable quality in personal relations and in the cement which builds a dignified civil society, but courage and dignity is still absent in the treatment of NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane.

October 18, 2020

Queensland votes Part 1: Marching to the beat of a different drum

_Queensland elections are always different from other states in that regional issues often take pride of place, and personalities often seem more important than policy differences between the parties.

August 21, 2024

The military Americanisation of Northern Australia

The headline in the Weekend Australian said it all: NT Bases Key to American War Plans. Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, the Chair of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Australian, after a ten day visit to Australia that our geography offered key advantages to the US “as it sought to deter Chinese aggression”. Indeed, the north would become “the central base of operations in the Indo-Pacific to counter the threat.’ Defence Minister Marles added his voice to the crusade explaining that after AUSMIN talks in the US last week that America’s military was now “operating in Australia across land, sea, air, cyber and space”. This all followed the commitment earlier in the year to spend $18 billion in the coming decade on upgrading defence bases across the north.

July 11, 2024

"No ceasefire" in Israel's Gaza genocide, says 'Anti-Semitism' envoy

The appointment of Jillian Segal, immediate past president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s new ‘ Anti-Semitism Envoy’ is a response to the demands of a powerful lobby, designed to conceal Australia’s collusion with the beyond belief cruelties imposed by Israel on the Palestinian people. “There can be no ceasefire until every hostage has been released,” Segal stated in November; joining with the Zionist Federation of Australia to criticise the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, for saying “we all want to take the next steps towards a ceasefire” in Gaza.

April 23, 2024

"Green" industries and Albo's Venn diagram

The PM has announced a series of big-dollar programs to promote energy transition, “green” industries, local manufacturing and “critical” minerals. He is juggling themes that are not always consistent. The government needs to be prudent as it backs projects with taxpayers’ money.

July 5, 2023

The shuffling of the cards; the emergence of a new world order

Over the next two months, two crucial meetings, indicating the massive changes the geo-political order is undergoing, are taking place.

April 21, 2023

AUKUS and Australias national sovereignty

The value of AUKUS depends critically on how far it increases the chances of Australia being dragged into an unnecessary and potentially catastrophic war at the behest of the US.

August 12, 2022

In Asian Media this week...The reckless Pelosi

Plan to stabilise US-China links; Beijings hand strengthened; tighter control over Taiwan; war not imminent.

August 11, 2021

Why we shouldnt race to mandate vaccination

When governments and health experts call for mandatory vaccination we should be wary. While it is potentially the optimal way to get society moving again and particularly to end the frequency and severity of harmful lockdowns, the requirement for every citizen to have their individual rights trumped by the community interest is a drastic measure in a society supposedly committed to liberal values.

July 13, 2021

Its time for Labor to capitalise on Morrisons inadequacies

We are not yet in election mode and can assume that both parties are reserving their campaign strategies and tactics for the end. But at the moment, Morrison and the coalition will have defeated themselves.

December 6, 2020

Iran's Nuclear Ambitions

_The assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is immensely provocative to all Iranians, and may be the tipping point towards a full Iranian nuclear weapons program.

November 1, 2020

Hand Washing or Social Distancing in the Time of Pell

The parish priest, Jorge Bergoglio could afford the luxury of welcoming with open arms an old colleague whom he believed to have been falsely accused of sexual abuse. Even as Pope Francis he could have indulged himself with warm greetings in private. But the public display in photographs and videos of unqualified acceptance - most headlines have called it vindication - has profoundly dismayed thousands of survivors and their families around the world.

June 12, 2024

Li Qiang comes to town: what to expect?

Premier Li Qiang is the second most powerful person in China, after President Xi Jinping. He is expected to visit Australia and New Zealand in the next few days. Meetings in Canberra will present an opportunity for leaders to set the seal of approval on tentative measures already under way for stabilisation of the bilateral relationship, and, hopefully, to find ways of developing that relationship further despite economic and strategic problems for both sides.

August 2, 2023

Pearls packs a big punch, but it needs our support

While we all value Pearls and Irritations (P&I) enormously and come to the site daily to read a sane, considered point of view, and share the articles with friends, family and social contacts, we probably rarely think about how it is all sustained.

May 7, 2023

A Kingly proposal: Letter from Julian Assange to King Charles III

To His Majesty King Charles III,

On the coronation of my liege, I thought it only fitting to extend a heartfelt invitation to you to commemorate this momentous occasion by visiting your very own kingdom within a kingdom: His Majestys Prison Belmarsh.

July 15, 2022

The terrible reputation and performance of intelligence agencies

_At some stage Albanese may need to re-examine Shearers role as head of the Office of National Intelligence.

August 16, 2021

Climate Change: will the financial system survive?

One of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal global response to the escalating climate crisis has been the preparedness of financial market regulators to force their regulated institutions to face up to the implications of climate risk.

September 10, 2024

Media censorship or incompetence by the ABC and others?

Last week the ABC carried a story about the death of many Israelis on 7 October 2023 as a result of firing by Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships.

August 31, 2024

Returning to Australia’s bedrock for security

Richard Marles’ double-speak knows no bounds. His national strategy is entirely contrived to deliver “projection” for America’s ends, without mentioning that Australia is now merely one cog in the unfolding US war machinery across the periphery of Asia. Which is what Paul Keating is saying.

May 29, 2024

Clutching at straws: America will not maintain its economic dominance

Although rarely acknowledged, China is the world’s biggest economy, and it will most probably continue to grow faster than the US, its main competitor.

September 8, 2022

The Defence Strategic Review: The insiders will just tinker around the edges

The Defence Strategic Review will tinker around the edges, but will not push back on negative game changers such as AUKUS and all it represents in casting China as the enemy.

June 17, 2022

Weekly roundup Saturday 18 June

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

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal