May 16, 2024

Australia abandons Nuremberg principles as post-war international order crumbles to ruin

A legal ruling in Australia this week sentencing military whistleblower David McBride to 5 years imprisonment for disobeying orders to expose war crimes has stood the principles established at the Nuremberg trials on its head.

August 20, 2023

Parliament of Hills: What a parliament full of Julian Hills could achieve

It is probably the kiss of political death to promote and celebrate the work of a Labor Government backbencher. After all promotion in the party might be partly due to competence but factional allegiance is more significant. Having too high a profile is probably not an advantage either. But nevertheless

September 16, 2022

Weekly roundup and how Ida Buttrose reverted to her Women's Weekly role

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

September 11, 2022

The Defence Strategic Review: Is China the real enemy?

China is not Australias enemy. If it is an enemy, and Australia continues to trade with China as it does, it reflects a schizophrenic attitude that we have to sort out first before spending vast amounts of money preparing to fight China. In preparing our Defence Force, there is no room for complacency. Neither is there room for wild imaginings of the type constantly being trotted out by hawks and the mainstream media.

August 6, 2022

Moon of Alabama - How Pelosi's visit hurts Taiwan

When Nancy Pelosi made her‘woke’ flight to Taiwanthe U.S. seemed to hope for a Chinese military reaction to it. It positioned an aircraft carrierandtwo amphibious landing shipsin the region. It also shipped additional fighter planes to Japan and South Korea.

July 5, 2022

Australia Post could save essential banking services in abandoned communities

Bank branch closures have cut off hundreds of communities, especially in regional Australia, from essential financial services. There is now a national fightback to save our communities by establishing a public banking alternative to operate through post offices.

June 4, 2022

ADFs longest conflict has been in the battles of culture onthe political frontline

As the ADF emerges from two decades of war fighting, they are called to fight natural disasters, pandemics and manage aged care.

September 6, 2021

Afghanistan shows white privilege in action on the geopolitical stage

_The rapid collapse of the US-backed government in Afghanistan and the consequent yet predictable torrent of responses from Western media and politicians demonstrated just how entrenched the Western worldview in projecting its right to be the leaders of the world.

September 2, 2021

Cowardly acts by both ISIS-K with its suicide bombers and the US with its drone strikes

ISIS-K uses human suicide bombers to personally assassinate targets and murder civilians. The Americans use mechanical drones piloted from Langley, Virginia to do the same.

July 27, 2021

No evidence the US has Australias back in its dispute with China, despite all the rhetoric

The US has got our back. This talking point is repeated by Australian government ministers with rising fervour, as China continues its campaign of trade punishment against Australia. Think-tank experts and media commentators amplify it further.

January 26, 2021

Some want voter suppression in Australia

_While many of us in Australia are impressed with the state of our nation, especially when we compare it with our rich and powerful ally, the USA, we should not get too smug, with plenty of warning signs of some really bad American ideas about to be imported.

January 14, 2021

Children in Prison: shame, Australia, shame

In February 2012 X Riyan and X Hadi were led into the Perth District Courtroom 7.1 by uniformed security guards.

December 6, 2020

Let them all speak English

Did university administrators know of federal government policies to boost learning about Indonesia before they rushed to slash and burn? Or maybe they knew but are too blinkered to care.

August 8, 2024

A world conspiracy designed to sow doubt for consumers

A worldwide campaign against the reliability of EVs has been exposed on ABC Media Watch (Monday 22 July), which revealed claims made routinely in mainstream media were false. Host Paul Barry noted that similar false stories were reported widely in the US, UK and European media throughout this year, particularly by News Ltd outlets. This campaign was huge, indicative of an enormous purchase of print space across the world, not conventional advertising, but the bought-opinions of specialist journalists, designed to sow doubt for consumers, delivered by a media that routinely claims global warming is a hoax.

August 7, 2024

Rape and genocide: the Israeli war machine we support

The headline above is outrageous and incendiary – it is also unquestionably true. We have a duty to bear witness to what the Palestinians must endure.

May 18, 2024

Some day the Gaza war will end

In the movie Apocalypse Now, Robert Duval’s character, Colonel Bill Kilgore, reflectively observes that, despite the smell of victory, ‘Someday this war’s gonna end’. So too, the war in Gaza is going to end. The only questions are how and when.

September 10, 2023

Nuclear subs challenge trains 10 year old children for war

_Its time for education ministers across the country to show leadership and protect our children from vested interests and pro-war propaganda. _

July 8, 2023

Climate change gets worse daily

Torres Strait Islanders and the people of Vanuatu pursue legal action to force inept governments to stop climate change. The Great Barrier Reef is at severe risk of disappearing as a result of climate change, which is also causing Earth to wobble on its axis.

June 24, 2023

Environment: Natural resources, renewable energy, opportunities and vision will create the African Century

A plan for Africans to take control of Africa and make it prosperous, fair and low carbon. Price of solar panels falling again. Protection for Macquarie Islands wildlife.

April 1, 2023

Netanyahus nakedness: democracy whose democracy?

“Look at the King! Look at the the King! Look at the King, the King, the King!

July 5, 2022

It's time for a Human Rights Act for Australia. We have waited too long

_Our record in protecting our human rights is being seriously eroded in many areas -the right to silence, the right to a fair trial, the presumption of innocence, freedom from cruel and inhuman treatment and freedom from arbitrary detention.

September 13, 2021

Common prosperity should be valued in China and not disparaged by critics

Recent news on China has been replete with items about cracking down on the rich, celebrities, the use of videogames by young people and growing inequality.

January 20, 2021

Putting all our eggs in the vaccination basket is delusional

Governments worldwide have placed their hopes for fighting the pandemic in the roll-out of vaccines. But the jab will not be a panacea for society. Behavioural modifications will still be required.

September 24, 2024

Standards are slipping at the embattled ABC. Here's how it can fix itself

The first time I went into the BBC’s Broadcasting House in London (it was 50 years ago), I was struck by the inscription on the foyer wall that encapsulates the corporation’s royal charter. It stated the BBC’s role was to “inform, educate and entertain”.

April 20, 2024

The National Defence Strategy - a fatal fault line in Australia’s security

Last Wednesday Defence Minister Richard Marles blustered his way through a speech and Q&A at the National Press Club. He presented the National Defence Strategy (NDS) to the nation - a document laden with the jargon of new defence priorities, AUKUS and a plan for our military to ‘project power’.

August 29, 2023

Brink of catastrophe: Japan as Pacific polluter

In 2011, Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, roughly 250 kilometres north of Tokyo, was hit by a magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami. Three reactors stopped immediately but the loss of electricity supply led in the days and months that followed to breakdown of the cooling system and to a series of hydrogen explosions and meltdowns of the cores of Reactors 1 to 3.

June 25, 2023

Prigozhin's Insurrection; U.S. admits defeat in war on Russia, China

Some thoughts on the insurrection attempt in Russia. I wonder who or what lured Yevgeny Prigozhin into staging this farce. In twelve or so hours things are likely to have calmed down. ‘Western’ anal-cysts will spend weeks fantasisingabout their wished for outcome which, of course, was never to happen.

May 4, 2023

The Ukraine war - lessons for Australia and the Asia/Pacific

We often look to history or contemporary events to help explain issues and to seek guidance. Thus Graham Allison went back millennia to explain Americas current drive to war with China in his Thucydides Trap. Recently Gregory Clark joined others in making the natural comparison between Ukraine and Taiwan. Analogies are admittedly fraught with danger - parallels are never exact, the present never fits easily into the past and superficially similar events may be essentially very different but they can be fruitful.

April 22, 2023

President Putin eliminates his critics: the latest sentence - 25 years in prison

For denouncing Russias war in Ukraine, the brave dissident Vladimir Kova-Murza has been found guilty of treason and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. This savage punishment, the longest sentence given to any opponent of Putin, shows the Kremlin waging cruel authoritarianism as their preferred means of government.

September 23, 2022

Crafting a Republic: "Aprs Moi Le Deluge" an Elizabeth II legacy?

King Louis XV of France and Madame de Pompadour are reputed to have warned that across France after their deaths there would be life destroying floods of various kinds. By implication, these distant on-a pedestal characters were predicting that life after them could be far worse than when they reigned, so look back a little and be grateful.

August 31, 2022

How to become a Catholic bishop

The fundamental crisis of Australian Catholicism is one of leadership and bishops are at the heart of this crisis.

August 2, 2022

Koide Hiroaki: The shooting of Mr. Abe

Translated and introduced by Norma Field (Professor Emerita, University of Chicago).

_In the days and months following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Koide Hiroaki, for some 40-years a nuclear engineer at the Kyoto University Reactor Research Institute, became Japans preeminent scientific critic of nuclear power and of Abe government policy. On July 9, the day after former Prime Minister Abes assassination, Koide wrote and posted on the web the following essay, translated here with his permission and the addition of a brief introduction.

June 30, 2022

How much paid help for independent MPs?

Theres a lot wrong with the system that provides MPs and Senators with advisers and other office helpers, not least that it is run by the government and particularly the Prime Minister. That means decisions about staffing for MPs are influenced and largely determined by purely political considerations, and not the actual needs of parliamentarians or the contribution that might be made to improving outcomes for the public.

May 5, 2022

Dancing on the edge of calamity

Our leaders are blindly dancing on the edge of calamity sternly refusing to look at the quagmire opening below them. The blindfold that Morrison has firmly tied around his own eyes, and which Albanese has failed to pull from his, is our obsession with a long term cap on tax at 23.9% of GDP the third lowest in the OECD just after the US and Ireland, and less than half that of Europe and Scandinavia.

September 28, 2021

After the pandemic, virtual healthcare is the future

The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted perceptions of the health system. With virtual healthcare, some acute conditions can be treated at home.

September 20, 2021

Covid on the inside: A Sydney doctor's perspective. I can face tomorrow

Caring for COVID-19 patients in a Sydney hospital through the city’s latest outbreak, a doctor reflects on the impact the pandemic is having on our healthcare system and the people who work in it.

May 24, 2021

I weep for India, and those left behind

I will never again see India in the same light, once a place of excitement, vibrancy and opportunity. Its people are hurting at depths we will never understand. In my heart I may never forgive myself for what Ive done.

January 14, 2021

Simple illustration of how our climate has changed

Climate change sceptics and doubters might be beyond persuasion but the Bureau of Meteorology has a plain bar chart that shows how our climate has changed

December 22, 2020

The mechanics of elections to suit the major parties

The Commonwealth Parliament has a very long-standing practice of requiring its Joint Committee on Electoral Matters to conduct a post-mortem after every federal election not about how it was won or lost (that has already been done in the media and elsewhere) but how the electoral mechanics worked and what changes might be made to make it better for the major political parties in future elections independents dont get a look in on these reviews.

August 23, 2024

Australia – the indentured state

At primary schools in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Australian children were prescribed textbooks with titles such as New Worlds to Conquer, and taught to admire the British Empire as a gift to the world.

May 14, 2024

To his adversaries, Albo is a pushover

The way that the government has permitted the opposition and the Murdoch media (and even the ABC and Fairfax media) to push it around on issues such as climate and immigration policy raises the question: Does modern Labor have any moral bottom at all?

April 18, 2024

Knowledge and understanding deficit: The dire state of China Studies

Disgraceful gaps have emerged in our knowledge and understanding of Asian countries. This capability is essential to successful navigation of the future, as Peter Varghese and Joseph Lo Bianco have noted.

April 7, 2024

Chinese imperialism?

I read Professor Percy Allens interesting article (P&I, 28/03/24) and was astounded by the claim based on a list of invasion he was given that China was historically an imperial nation and thus dangerous.

August 21, 2023

The AUKUS folly: Albanese and the US presidential election

There never was a chance of overturning the AUKUS folly at the Labor conference. As unpalatable as it might be, the only possibility of extracting Australia from Americas war planning now lies in the bizarre milieu of American politics. And its not forlorn.

August 14, 2023

Australian multiculturalism: Our greatest achievement?

In a broad sense Australian multiculturalism describes the cultural and ethnic diversity of Australia. Over a half of Australians were born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas. I contend that Australian multiculturalism is our greatest achievement, but it has always been fraught with tension. The challenge of immigration and multiculturalism has been and remains, do we stay comfortably as we are or do we risk something for a better future for ourselves and others?

July 18, 2023

The real history of the war in Ukraine: A chronology of events and case for diplomacy

The American people urgently need to know the true history of the war in Ukraine and its current prospects. Unfortunately, the mainstream media The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, MSNBC, and CNN have become mere mouthpieces of the government, repeating US President Joe Bidens lies and hiding history from the public.

June 30, 2023

Why the RBA should pause interest rate increases

Inflation is starting to come down. The main reason cited for a further increase in interest rates is the fear of a wage-price spiral. But this is no longer likely. Instead, it is time for a pause in interest rate rises to better assess the future economic outlook.

April 25, 2023

Destroying deterrence

The Albanese government wouldnt be able buy nuclear attack submarines from the US without agreeing to let them keep performing all their core roles in our region.

June 23, 2022

EPBC Act and regional landscape and resilience plans

The new Australian Government is well positioned to pick up the challenges from the Samuel review of the EPBC Act and the IPCCs adverse comments on Australias institutional performance in managing climate risks. A way forward could involve formal recognition of a regional landscape planning approach in partnership with States and Territories.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal