June 16, 2021

Israel's Government of change - or is it?

Israel now has the most diverse unity government in its history and its all thanks to one man: Benjamin Netanyahu. Without the visceral contempt for Netanyahu, engendered during his 12-year reign as Prime Minister, the possibility of such an assortment of parties coming together would have been unthinkable.

June 8, 2021

Australian democracy is fading fast

Australian democracy is fading fast, with little care on the part of the Coalition and mainstream media or realisation on the part of Labor.

May 18, 2021

When should government debt be repaid and how?

There is no problem financing government debt. As the debt can only be repaid by running budget surpluses, debt reduction should start in mid-2023 when the Treasury is forecasting that economic recovery will be complete and there will be no spare capacity.

November 15, 2020

Downfall of Hong Kongs Gang of Four

When the Hong Kong government disqualified four members of the Legislative Council, prompting the resignation of all other pro-democracy legislators, the Council was effectively turned into a rubber stamp.

November 8, 2020

No winners in Clive Palmer's border war with WA

Clive Palmer had a spectacular loss in his High Court challenge to Western Australias border restrictions but he has probably helped influence the easing of those restrictions, beginning from the middle of this month.

October 3, 2024

High noon on the Korean Peninsula

As a return visitor to the beautiful, lively and fascinating city of Seoul, I am beginning to learn something about the way South Korean people think about their future and their complex relationships with both neighbours and allies.

October 2, 2024

Alice in the Australian Wonderland as government demonises victims of terrorism

The context to my article below is today’s extreme media, and Dutton’s and the Albanese government’s hysteria regarding the appearance of the Hezbollah flag at this week’s protest against the Gazan genocide and bombing of Beirut in Melbourne.

August 5, 2024

Unis take foreign interference risks seriously

The security risks that Australian universities face through their many and varied international connections need to be taken seriously.

June 6, 2024

Cartoon commentary

June 6, 2024

Digital environment a big omission in federal government’s Early Years Strategy

The Albanese Government released its Early Years Strategy last month. Targeted at families, communities and the ‘Early Years System’ or sector - childcare, early learning centres and support services - the 10-year strategy is aimed at bolstering the healthy development of young children from before they are born until they turn five.

May 1, 2024

Australia’s National Defence Strategy: Where ideology trumps strategy

The ‘National Defence Strategy’ is not a strategy. It is an ideology. An ideology that firmly ties Australia’s future to that of the United States. A horrifying thought.

April 30, 2024

Open letter: a supine government in the face of Israeli genocide

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese leads a government supine in the face of Israeli genocide in Gaza.

April 12, 2024

Japan's abductions myths have kept a nation in poverty for decades

How can it happen that a person who probably no longer exists can keep an entire nation, North Korea, in poverty for more than twenty years, and the rest of us under prolonged nuclear threat? The story is complicated.

September 29, 2023

Why China is not planning to conquer other nations

Besides settling and securing its borders, China has no claims on other nations. Countries with grandiose territorial ambitions make no secret of them. This second article in a three-part series explores why China is not planning to conquer and occupy any other nation.

September 7, 2023

Australia's multicultural framework can no longer be separate from geopolitics

A new multicultural framework needs to recognise that the well-being of Australias multicultural communities is closely related to, and inevitably affected by, geopolitics, and by Australias foreign policy towards migrants countries of origin. It is no longer viable to conceptualise foreign policy and multicultural affairs as two separate entities.

September 30, 2022

Frankel: Australias housing affordability and homelessness crisis

1 in 28 indigenous people homeless, Australian rental market hurtling toward disaster, and $575 million committed to affordable housing in this months report on Australias housing affordability and homelessness crisis.

August 18, 2022

Wayne Hudson: The importance of creating much greater cultural dialogue between China and Australia as soon as possible

The Chinese Ambassador is trying for a reset and it is tragic that his efforts have been misunderstood and perhaps wilfully so.

September 16, 2021

Think tanks have put British democracy at risk. We have the same problem.

It’s arguable that Britain’s path to this point where it is at risk of decaying into a ‘competitive authoritarian’ regime can be traced back to the first of the ‘conservative’ think tanks.

September 12, 2021

ASPI complicit in US and Australia's Afghanistan deceit

T_he Taliban victory in Afghanistan and the ensuing debacle of the Western withdrawal from Kabul was always going to test the conscience of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI)._

August 11, 2021

Climate urgency, Australia's selfishness

In response to the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Treasurer Josh Frydenberg rushed to Sky News to repeat the platitude that technology, not taxes would overcome threats from global warming. Before a Canberra press conference, a smirking Prime Minister claimed Australia would reach targets to limit greenhouse gas emissions because this country always achieves its goals.

July 28, 2021

Our universities are in crisis.They are no longer fit for purpose?

_The urgency of transforming university education, and indeed all forms of education, lies in the need to render them relevant to the deep global crises we now face. These crises are reshaping every society on Earth.

July 20, 2021

Poor leadership, irresponsible media and a clever virus

Despite this being the most scientific of all ages, capable of producing highly effective vaccines a year after the SARS-COV-2 virus was identified ( Russian scientists actually achieved this in six months), poor leadership, ignorance, stubbornness and irresponsible media, (broadcast and social), are making this pandemic much worse than it needs to be.

July 4, 2021

The chaotic incompetence of our roll out of the Covid vaccines? Part 1

Who would have thought that a well educated and scientifically sophisticated nation like ours would find itself dead last among OECD countries when the percentages of citizens fully vaccinated in each country are examined._

June 13, 2021

Regulating Alcohol in the Northern Territory: in whose interest?

_Woolworths commissioned a report into its strategy to establish a major alcohol retail outlet in Darwin that questions standards of governance within both corporate Australia and the Northern Territory.

June 3, 2021

It is not all doom and gloom for Labor votors

The published polling data does not support the prevailing orthodoxy that the ALP is trailing, failing to catch up and headed to inevitable defeat.

June 1, 2021

US or China style governance: which is best for its people?

The US sees China as an enemy, and members of the US Congress compete to see who can appear the most belligerent against China. However, the Chinese have no missionary impulse to take over the world and have no expectations that other societies should become like them.

May 4, 2021

Morrison fails leadership test - again

The Morrison Governments botched and controversial ban on Australians returning from India shows just how error-prone it can be when it makes Covid-19 related decisions without the help of State and Territory leaders.

April 11, 2021

A nauseating colonial cringe by our media for an upper class Steptoe.

_The BBC scrapped all regular programming to cover Prince Phillip’s death. The complaints roared in from viewers, listeners and online followers who complained that it was all too much and they wanted their regular programs back

April 4, 2021

China is so often framed negatively. It compounds our ignorance.

When we speak of China we rarely, if ever, stop to consider how (or what) meaning is generated in the minds of the audience. Yet how we speak of China is no less important than the words that we use. Facts are not enough.

January 5, 2021

Europe and China's year-end breakthrough

_Americas real intention in opposing China has nothing to do with human rights. Particularly under Trumps lawless administration, US policies have been motivated by a hunger for dominance, plain and simple.

September 16, 2024

Conditioning Americans for war with Russia

With new US action against Moscow, Russiagate remains like a vampire, with noone able to drive a wooden stake into its heart and keep it there.

August 28, 2024

As China celebrates Deng Xiaoping’s legacy, the country is again at a crossroads

As China commemorates the 120th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s birth, the Post examines his legacy across generations. In the first of a three-part series, we look at Deng’s continuing resonance with the ruling Communist Party’s leadership.

June 10, 2024

Cartoon commentary

May 9, 2024

Israel is morphing into a pariah state. Time to cut the cord

Washington’s attempts to attack and impair the workings of the ICC on Israel’s behalf merely serve to further isolate a declining America.

April 6, 2024

Environment: Australia publishes its first climate risk assessment

Australia is conducting its first climate risk assessment and developing an adaptation plan. Not only humans experience heat stress, so do other animals and plants. If you must feed wild birds, listen to the experts tips.

September 23, 2023

Environment: Rich countries must do more to advance Africas economic and climate transition

African leaders and communities call for action to tackle the social and economic damage done by climate change. Warmer oceans lead to warmer conditions over land. UNESCO still looking for more government action to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

May 9, 2023

King Charles III of Australia: not my king

After the nauseating display of royal excess and dynastic exceptionalism last week, an Australian republic cannot come soon enough.

August 10, 2022

Australias defence strategic review - facts and fallacies

_In preparation for the Defence Strategic Review the government has not informed Australians of any threat which challenges our security, much less a spectrum of them up to most concerning.

July 28, 2022

Demographic future of China, the USA and India

_Much has been written of the 21st century being the Chinese century in contrast to the 20th century being the American century.

July 10, 2022

Integrity reform is difficult but essential

For governments, few things are harder than implementing or improving almost any arm of a fully functioning and effective integrity regime. Every such development including effective freedom of information, an independent auditor-general, Ombudsman, whistleblower protection, an impartial professional and effective public service, an independent anti-corruption commission - appears to government to involve a surrender of part of its power rather than an acknowledgement that it needs to be open and accountable to the people it represents and from whom its power derives.

May 3, 2022

Priorities for a new health minister

After almost a decade of health policy stagnation, what are the three most important issues for a new health minister to address?

April 27, 2022

Government loses foreign policy edge

The last time a foreign policy/defence issue went really bad for a Liberal Party Government was just over half a century ago but it also concerned China. Needless to say, the Labor Party was accused of being soft on China. A recurring theme: from the early 1960s the Menzies Governments election campaigning always included (and sometimes relied heavily upon) fear of the threat of communism generally and specifically of the threats posed by the Soviet Union as well as Communist China.

April 14, 2022

A sociology of Q&A: what is addressed, what is missed?

_Branded as the occasion when the public asks questions and a panel of experts give answers, ABC televisions Q&A misses an opportunity to inform let alone inspire their audience.

September 21, 2021

An Australian Story of Cruelty: the Biloela family

On Monday, former immigration minister Amanda Vanstone was wringing her hands on ABC TV. Not on behalf of the persecuted Biloela family, though. She was crying crocodile tears to defend a powerful, inflexible government.

September 15, 2021

Five Eyes intelligence failure in Afghanistan, or something worse?

If corruption was central to the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, and US intelligence ignored it, what should become of the Five Eyes alliance?

August 24, 2021

Border Security: China's 'Wall of Steel' with Afghanistan

The Chinese government has deep concerns about security on its western borders following Taliban success in Afghanistan. China and the US share an interest in ensuring that the incoming Taliban government does not foster Islamic extremism and export it to its neighbours. Both countries have significant relationships with Pakistan, which is the major patron of the Taliban. It would be good to see them seize this opportunity to strengthen cooperation, and this might perhaps lead to other avenues to improve relations.

August 17, 2021

The US disaster in Afghanistan and the growing influence of Russia and China

Afghanistans economic and social reconstruction could be swift, provided it is not handicapped by continuing Western interventions.

August 11, 2021

ASPI's proposal to further militarise and securitise the university - Part 1

It is now unambiguously clear that certain influential centres of government advice and government policy hold the university-as-institution in contempt.

August 11, 2021

People-to-people peace initiatives in Palestine must begin with freedom and equality

In 2005, Mohammad Abu Jalhoum left his family in Gaza and underwent multiple life-changing operations in Australia to treat his facial disfigurement. Mohammed’s diet had been restricted his whole life after an Israeli soldier kicked him in the face when he was an infant to silence his crying.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal