March 9, 2017

Victorias recent housing affordability initiatives

Victorias Labor Government has made clear its determination to do something about housing affordability, recently announcing a suite of reforms many aimed at first home buyers. The changes are for the most part designed to boost supply of homes both for purchase and rental. However, they also attempt to lower the barriers to purchase for those on lower incomes. Although well intentioned, and attracting some support from none other than Scott Morrison, they are not without their critics.

March 23, 2017

PETER WHITEFORD. 'Them' and 'us': the enduring power of welfare myths.

Despite the evidence that deliberate fraud is a tiny fraction of social security spending, it remains a mainstay of much reporting of welfare in the Australian media. The Daily Telegraph is a repeat offender.

May 23, 2017

LAURIE PATTON. The case for mandating governance training for NFP boards

The not-for-profit sector performs a vital role delivering services that meet important social needs. It provides a voice for some of our most disadvantaged groups and individuals. Not-for-profit status also allows organisations of professionals to represent their members under a regulated legal framework. The sector oversees the collection and expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars of other peoples’ money. So it’s critical NFP’s are well run according to the highest levels of good governance.

January 15, 2014

Violence is on the decline. John Menadue

If you watch the tabloid television and the Murdoch press, you would certainly believe that violence is increasing. It seems counter-intuitive to suggest that we are moving away from violence.

Over the holidays I have been reading The Better Angels of our Nature the Decline of Violence in History and its Causes. It focuses particularly on the West. The book was written by Steven Pinker (Penguin 2011). Pinker is an experimental psychologist and cognitive scientist. He is a Harvard College professor

April 30, 2017

Making Housing Affordable Series. TIM WILLIAMS. Housing affordability is not just a supply problem

The housing affordability debate is being wrongly understood as just a supply problem. The real cause of house price inflation is excess liquidity and debt, combined with overly generous tax incentives.

February 2, 2015

John Menadue. Stopping the boats and turn-backs at sea

In the Saturday Paper of January 24 this year, in an article by Mike Seccombe, two refugee advocates were quoted as saying:

Things like offshore processing and TPVs, mandatory detention these sorts of measures dont stop the boats. Its turnbacks that stop the boats. Its when you start dragging people back to Indonesia. Thats what we saw in 2002-03. Thats what weve seen again now.

and

The one thing that stops people is sending them back. If you look back, the way they stopped the outflow from China in 1994, it was by interdiction. The same from Haiti to the US. Deterrent measures dont work. Even Nauru, et cetera, by themselves, are not deterrent enough.

June 18, 2019

PETER STANLEY. Reading the Act: what is the Australian War Memorial for?

Dr Brendan Nelsons pitch for the Australian War Memorials half-a-billion-dollar expansion is that the institution helps to heal traumatised war veterans. But is healing veterans even the Memorials responsibility? To answer that question we need to read the Memorials Act.

October 24, 2017

NAISHAD KAIN-REN. Saudi Arabias Footprints in Southeast Asia

Saudi Arabias increased influence in Muslim-majority countries will have wider ramifications for ASEAN.

October 4, 2016

HUGH MACKAY. A policy that diminishes us all

Occasionally in a nations history, horror over past events triggers a kind of national shame. Germany went through it - is still going through it - in the wake of the Third Reich. South Africa has not yet healed the wounds of apartheid. The US continues to struggle with the evil legacy of white supremacism.

In Australia, we havent had a Holocaust. We havent institutionalised racial discrimination (though weve come close). But there have been periods in our short history that have cast very dark shadows across our national psyche, evoking entirely appropriate feelings of shame.

December 13, 2016

BRIAN TOOHEY. New Series. We can say 'no' to the Americans.

There is nothing wrong with pursuing Australia’s commercial interests and avoiding pointless military gestures demanded by the US.

September 26, 2017

IAN DUNLOP. The Coal and CSG Delusion

Energy policy is the issue to trump them all. We have already lost several Prime Ministers in its cause, and more will likely walk the plank before commonsense prevails. But the last few weeks have set new standards for national stupidity .

October 28, 2016

RICHARD WOOLCOTT. The present threat to global security.

In the second decade of this century we are living in a greatlychanged world, compared with that to which we accustomedourselves, following the defeat of Japan and Germany in WWII in the second half of 1945.

The international “rules based “situation of the late 40s and early mid50s was essentially created by the US with some British and Frenchsupport. It is now completely dated and out for touch with the presentsituation, driven as it is by the rise of China and India,and the rapidgrowth of the domestic economies of Indonesia,Vietnam, Thailand, thePhilippines and Malaysia.

September 25, 2018

JOHN AUSTEN. Sydney's transport mess will now envelop Badgerys Creek Airport

_Instead of turning sods at Badgerys Creek airport, the new Prime Minister should order a public inquiry into Sydney Metro and the mess it will create.__The newly helmeted Prime Minister recently appeared in the media turning first sods at the site of Sydneys second airport - Badgerys Creek._While that seems good news the ability of the public to get to the airport remain even more up in the air.

March 27, 2017

JOHN TULLOH. The NBN - Another Inconvenient Truth

‘The nbn network is Australia’s exciting new landline phone and internet network. It’s designed to give you access to fast, reliable phone and internet services, no matter where you live’. NBN Connect Kit.

May 15, 2019

BRENDAN COATES AND JOHN DALEY. Someone has to lose for first homebuyers to win: This is who it should be. (ABC 14.5.2109)

The one thing that would actually help home buyers the most: letting housing prices fall.

March 31, 2016

Geoff Miller. Japan, 'embedding' and a world not of pure reason.

The Australian of 29 March reported Murray McLean, former Ambassador to Japan, as defending the Japanese submarine bid against criticism that it would amount to a virtual alliance that would ultimately thrust us into conflict with China. He reportedly said that Australia should choose a submarine based on the best technology and the best price, taking the right decision without thinking if some other country is concerned about it or otherwise.

March 20, 2017

RAMESH THAKUR. Indias democracy is strained by illiberalism

India continues to be robustly, even chaotically, democratic. But its freedom is under growing threat.

March 29, 2016

John Menadue. Budget repair and private health insurance.

Readers of this blog will be aware that I have been expressing concern about the serious consequences of the government subsidy costing $11 b. p.a. for the private health insurance industry. This subsidy has serious budget consequences: it is skewed in favour of high income earners; it has not taken pressure off public hospitals; it has underwritten a dramatic increase in private specialist fees; it penalises country people who have very limited access to private hospitals; it weakens Medicare’s ability to control prices; it’s premium increases for over a decade have been at three times the rate of CPI increase and steadily takes us down the disastrous US health path.

August 25, 2016

FRANK BRENNAN. Why Turnbull has no option other than a plebiscite on Same Sex Marriage

In The Australian Paul Kelly writing on the same sex marriage plebiscite said (23/8), Lawyer and priest Frank Brennan, who has always argued the issue should properly be decided by parliament, told this column: Contrary to Justice Kirby I have urged proponents of same-sex marriage to support legislation for a plebiscite because there is no other way that the matter can be resolved during the life of this parliament with Malcolm Turnbull remaining as Prime Minister. Let me explain.

September 18, 2017

JAMES O'NEILL. The South China Sea and the risk of war: a summary.

It is self-evident that the risk of war is not confined to the South China Sea. In fact, the risk of war there is probably less than in other significant flash points around the world.

November 25, 2018

IAN McAULEY. Victorias election: the trend behind the noise

The Victorian election is the latest instalment of a five-year trend that has seen the Liberal Party lose ground in every state and federal election. Whats going on?

December 17, 2024

A five-minute scroll

An independent expert talks about witnessing the extreme violence against Palestinians, a Texan congressman calls out Blinken for US complicity while Israel continues to bomb Syria. Greg Barns calls out Dutton as a danger to Australia.

November 10, 2014

Frank Brennan. A tribute to the cautious, quirky, humorous, honourable Wayne Goss

Those of us brought up in Queensland owe a lot to Wayne Goss. I first met him when he was instrumental in setting up the Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) in Brisbane in 1974. He was the articled clerk. Roisin Hirschfeld was a young social worker at the ALS. They later married and their two children went on to become Rhodes scholars. With Mark Plunkett, I used go in one day a week to the ALS as a volunteer law student. Matt Foley was there in the wings too.(Plunkett went on to sue Joh Bjelke Petersen for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice when the police commissioner was precluded from investigating assaults on student demonstrators. Foley became Attorney General in the Goss government.)

June 6, 2017

JULIAN CRIBB. Green China.

Capitalising on failures of US leadership, China is emerging as a potential great green power of the 21st century.

April 13, 2018

MACK WILLIAMS. Vanuatu : Chinese Cargo Cult ?

Fairfax Medias awakened interest in the South Pacific would have been only too welcome if it had not been sparked by a leak from the all too familiar senior defence sources in Canberra and Washington which so distorted the scene.

April 29, 2013

Is the ALP a political party or a suicide cult? John Menadue

Friends overseas are amazed that with a world class economy such as ours, the Australian Government faces a rout. I try and explain that the governments difficulties are self-inflicted; that it is tone-deaf on many political issues; that the Prime Minister is not being listened to and the public will not accept what she did to Kevin Rudd.

How could Australias longest-established and most reputable political party be behaving like a suicide cult? Where are the wise men and women in the ALP to stop the Party going over the cliff?

November 13, 2016

GEOFF MILLER. Trump, Australia and the South China Sea.

The Trump victory has led to justified concern in Australia, as elsewhere, and few would carp at what seems to have been a successful and cordial talk between him and our Prime Minister. Its a good thing that Trump thought enough of the relationship to include Australia among the countries to receive an early call.

However, we need to be careful in considering our responses, even to a welcome approach. In characterising the conversation, Malcolm Turnbull talked about the enduring nature of the ANZUS Treaty and the Australian-American relationship, which he said transcended whoever was President or Prime Minister in our respective countries. He went on to talk about the defence relationship, how Trump intended a major expansion in US naval strength, and how that would mesh in with our own projected naval expansion (even though our new submarines arent going to be in service for decades). It seems that references to the South China Sea, and protecting freedom of navigation and commerce, may have come into the conversation.

November 28, 2016

LINDA SIMON. NO quorum at COAG! Who cares about VET?

Linda Simon says that the vocational education and training (VET) system in Australia has faced many challenges over a number of years, including cuts to funding, lack of government attention and a system that has enabled students to be rorted by unscrupulous providers. Yet, current events and processes do not give one confidence that this is all about to change.

November 25, 2015

Arja Keski-Nummi Andaman Disaster Regional Cooperation on Refugees

Too often in Australia we go cap in hand to the region when we have an asylum seeker or refugee problem. When our problems pass, we lose interest in regional cooperation. No wonder the region often see us as fair-weather friends.

But our region faces refugee problems alongside ours. As a good neighbour we should help with the common problems we face. It is in our interest to do so as well as in the interest of regional countries.

January 15, 2017

BRUCE ARNOLD. The Hanson Card is unworkable rather than just very nasty

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has reportedly proposed that every Australian be required to carry a national identity card. The rationale? The card will supposedly significantly reduce fraud by non-citizens who are resident in Australia. The proposal may be good politics a timely diversion from Hansons very public tendency to lose candidates but it is unviable.

February 27, 2013

Health care reform remains a prisoner of Federalism. Guest blogger: John Dwyer

The intractable problem that sees a very wealthy country unable to provide cost effective and equitable health care is a political one. We are the only OECD country in which the provision of health care is illogically and inefficiently divided between two levels of Government. The Federal government is charged with funding, but not providing, Primary and Community care. The State governments are both funders and providers of our public hospital system and endless arguments (the blame game) revolve around the adequacy or otherwise of the contribution to hospital care from the Commonwealth. So 22 million people are served by nine departments of health with duplication costing us about $4 billion a year!

September 25, 2019

IAN McAULEY. Reclaiming the ideas of economics: Aspiration

Aspiration used to mean something more noble than greed. We need to claim it back.

January 17, 2017

GETHIN DAVISON & EDGAR LIU. Neighbours' fears about affordable housing are worse than any impacts.

Housing affordability is a hot topic in Australia. Governments are increasingly recognising that more needs to be done to provide a greater range of affordable housing options, especially in the major cities. It is well documented, however, that proposals for affordable housing development often encounter opposition from host community members.

September 8, 2015

Klaus Neumann. Stepping up to the plate.

Angela Merkel said last week ‘There will be no tolerance towards those who question the dignity of others.’

Prime minister Tony Abbott is in favour of increasing the number of Syrian and Iraqi refugees allowed to resettle permanently in Australia. But when he announced on Sunday that Australia would step up to the plate, he didnt have in mind an increase of the overall number of visas for refugees, who currently make up just 3 per cent of migrants accepted into Australia each year. More Syrian refugees would simply mean fewer refugees from other countries, including those in our region. (Under pressure from NSW premier Mike Baird and other influential members of his own party, he is now likely to increase the overall intake.)

April 9, 2013

More punishment for asylum seekers and refugees. John Menadue

The Coalition has announced that in government, it would deny boat arrivals access to an independent review of their claims for refugee status.

It is another way of punishing vulnerable people and winning political points.

There will be no change in appeal rights of asylum seekers who come by air. The punishment will only be for boat arrivals.
82% of initial rejections for refugee status were overturned in 2011/12 by the Refugee Review Tribunal. This has been the pattern for several years. This suggests that there is some fundamental problem with the way primary decisions are made by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
One of the recommendations of the Houston Report was that the Refugee Status Determination system should be reviewed. DIAC says that it is doing this. The figures on overturning of DIAC decisions suggest that this is an urgent problem.
Over 90% of asylum seekers who come by boat are found to be refugees. But only 44% of asylum seekers who come by air are found to be refugees. Thus the Opposition proposes to penalise the group that historically has had much stronger claims to refugee status.

The announcement by the Coalition is consistent with its policy of highlighting only boat people and punishing them wherever possible. It is obviously a policy that is paying political dividends for the Coalition.

August 8, 2018

HELEN TYRRELL. Drug Reform series-Grasping the nettle: Prisons, drug use and the law

Every day people are imprisoned for drug-related crimes in line with tough on drugs policies. Its time to face the futility and unsustainability of this approach to drug use.

September 26, 2017

KIERAN TAPSELL. University report lifts the lid on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church

Researchers from RMIT University in Melbourne have produced a landmark report on the systemic reasons for child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

June 18, 2019

ROSS GITTINS. Controversial reforms stalled until politicians win back our trust. (SMH 17.6.2019)

For those who care more about good policy than party politics, there are unpleasant conclusions to be drawn from the federal election. The obvious one is that it was a case of policy overreach leading to failure.

August 13, 2017

SUSAN RYAN. Tent City, Martin Place.

The Berejiklian government in NSW showed this last week that it could act fast. To deal with the reported discomfort of the Premier, caused for months by a tent city of the homeless situated in Martin Place just opposite the Parliament, a new law was passed, peremptorily. The Sydney Public Reserves (Public Safety) Act empowers NSW police to order people out of Martin Place. There was no dallying. Within a couple of days of this enactment, the embarrassing tent city was dismantled and its occupants cleared away. Is the Premier now free of discomfort?

May 16, 2019

CAVAN HOGUE. President or Prime Minister?

The current political cult of personality obscures the fact that Australian prime ministers are not American presidents. The Prime Minister told voters that they had a clear choice between him and Bill Shorten. No they don’t Scomo! They have a choice between two parties and cabinets that take decisions.

December 5, 2016

GILES PARKINSON. Turnbull leads attack on wind as Coalition readies carbon price backflip.

A rebadged carbon tax!

In its review of its climate change policies, the government will try to dance its way through internal politics, the demands of the fossil fuel lobby and comparisons with Labor’s proposals. Turnbull and Frydenberg appear to have concluded that the best way to appease the far right rump of the Coalition is to abandon direct support for renewables, help open up the Galilee coal resource and push for more coal seam gas.

July 30, 2020

Media in the Asian Century

As it turned out, Marise Payne seemed to be using the John Howard playbook of alliance management in the Washington visit.

January 27, 2019

STUART REES. The Real Villains in the Hakeem Al-Araibi Case

Bahrein soccer player Hakeem Al-Araibi has Australian residency, has lived here for four years but has been held in a Thai prison for sixty days. He was arrested in Bangkok because an Interpol Red Alert warrant indicated that he was wanted by Bahrein authorities, in effect the royal family, for allegedly vandalizing a police station. The charge is spurious.

December 5, 2024

A five-minute scroll

Bob Carr reminds the Israel lobby that Australia has voted in the UN alongside our partners. In Gaza, realities of bombings in displacement camps, the challenges of winter and fleeing attacks. Ben Gvir has banned the call to prayer (not the first time). In London, a “Yes it is genocide” flag is rolled out in Parliament Square. Francesca Albanese speaks to the monstrosity of our time, Jeffrey Sachs speaks to US wars and “Netanyahu’s list” and Peter Garrett sends a climate message to the Australian government, while Putin speaks of respect to sovereignty.

August 22, 2018

LESLEY RUSSELL. The dental divide and the decay of public dental services (ABC News, 21.08.18)

The noisy public debate about patients’ out-of-pocket costs and their consequences reaches a crescendo when it comes to oral health and dental care.

August 5, 2014

Lisa Petheram. Listening to young peoples voices on Refugee and Asylum Seeker Policy

They are playing with our lives…every year I get older …I want to start a family but I cant.

What are young people in Australia thinking about refugee and asylum seeker policy? Two youth roundtables recently held by Australia21 have given some insight into the ways that young Australians think about these issues, and their visions for the future. The youth roundtables were held as part of a broader project Australia21 has been undertaking in collaboration with other groups Asylum Seeker Policy: A fair, just and effective approach. As part of this project, a collection of short essays and a discussion paper on the options have been compiled. Also, on the 11th of July, Australia21 co-hosted an expert roundtable on this topic at Parliament House, with the Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Law (UNSW) and the Centre for Policy Development.

October 25, 2017

ALLAN PATIENCE. Base politics or incredibly clumsy policing?

Police raids on political parties or associated institutions at any time should raise concerns and the hackles - among democratically minded citizens. The recent raids on AWU offices in Sydney and Melbourne, seemingly in search for dirt on Bill Shortens time as head of the Union, should be ringing alarm bells. Are the police acting independently, as our weak Prime Minister claims? Is this an attempt to silence one of the countrys most effective political advocacy groups - to wit, GetUp!? Are the federal police seeking to curry favour with an incumbent government by going after the Leader of the Opposition? Is it all of the above? Or is it simply Canberras latest bureaucratic SNAFU?

February 6, 2017

DENNIS ARGALL. The complexity of saying no to the Americans.

The degree of interoperability with US forces shapes the minds of Australian service personnel from top to bottom as also it shapes procurement planning and justification. …Any review by us of the Alliance relationship would run-up against a deep history. It would require a radical shift in the pattern of power within Australian strategic policy-making bureaucracy and public commentariat.

March 19, 2017

TIM COLEBATCH. Why gas prices went sky-high, and what governments need to do about it

There is anoverwhelming consensusthat the centrepiece should be an emissions intensity scheme, as proposed by the draft Finkel report, by the governments handpicked Climate Change Authority, and by electricity generators and big users alike. This would give the energy industry a clear, bipartisan timetable to reduce emissions, enabling it to plan and invest with confidence.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal