May 29, 2023

Compromise worked in Aceh - why not Papua?

There are parallels between Indonesias Aceh where a__n Ozzie surfer faced a flogging, and Papua where a Kiwi pilot is facing death. Both provinces have fought brutal guerrilla wars for independence. One has been settled through foreign peacekeepers. The other still rages as outsiders fear intervention.

July 7, 2022

Reforming the MOP(S) Act and the conduct of ministerial advisers

While the introduction of the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act back in 1984 did thwart an attempt at the time to allow political appointments into the APS and regularised the employment arrangements for the growing numbers of staff of ministers and MPs, the Act has not been reviewed since.

April 4, 2022

Concetta tips bucket over Morrison, a leader she despises

Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells must resign herself to being dropped from Scott Morrisons Christmas card list for a long time.

July 11, 2021

South Australias impressive renewable energy transition

South Australia underwent a significant renewables transition under successive ALP governments from 2002 until 2018. In 2002 SA generated its electricity locally from brown coal and gas and imported around 30% of its annual needs from Victoria where brown coal production dominated. There was no production from renewables. Jump to 2018, when the ALP lost office after 16 years, and the state was generating 52% of its electricity from renewables with the remainder from natural gas, with 3% of net annual production being exported east.

October 4, 2020

Foreign Minister's Tokyo claims Australia's contribution to disinformation?

Australias Foreign Minister has announced she will travel to Tokyo to meet with other members of the Quad (the US, Japan and India) to jointly counter disinformation campaigns by authoritarian states and to ensure supplies of minerals and technology. Does this mean it is only authoritarian states that are not allowed to engage in disinformation? Surely Donald Trump would not engage in disinformation!

July 6, 2024

Australia supplies Israel with weapons of genocide, breaches law

The Australian Government has at last grudgingly admitted that Australian-based companies are supplying parts and components to Israel for its F-35 Lightning jets which are systematically destroying human life and buildings in Gaza. But it has not yet admitted that the supply of such components contravenes the Arms Trade Treaty of 2014, which Australia has ratified.

September 10, 2023

Americas unique relationship with Australia? Few countries are as gullible

Last week the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet released a brief press release about Mr. Albaneses forthcoming trip to Washington from the 23rd to the 26th of October which will be his first such visit since becoming Prime Minister. The enthusiasm of the members of Albaneses staff seems to have run away with them. They declared that the Australian-United States relationship is unique in scale, scope and significance reflecting more than 100 years of partnership between our nations. They are very large claims but are they true?

September 9, 2023

BAE frigate deal referred to National Anti-Corruption Commission

Referral comes in same week the controversial procurement will face a second parliamentary hearing.

May 11, 2023

The budget and climate change: getting our priorities right

The Governments treatment of climate change in the 2023 Budget is a vast improvement on their conservative predecessors. That said, it continues a pattern of reluctance to face reality on the really big issues which will determine our future as a nation, notably on climate.

April 22, 2023

Gaping contradiction in Australian Foreign Policy

Dear friends, an excellent piece has been published by Professor Hugh White in the Lowy Interpreter that highlights a contradiction in our federal governments foreign policy.

July 27, 2021

John Barilaro is privatising Kosciuszko National Park

John Barilaro’s Snowy Mountains Special Activation Zone Precinct effectively wrests the control of developments in Kosciuszko National Park from the Minister for the Environment into the hands of the Minister for Regional NSW, John Barilaro. The plan is to heavily develop Jindabyne and surrounding areas for tourism, with little thought for the environment.

May 26, 2021

Not the war over Taiwan again!

The lack of high-quality strategic analysis by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has been frequently highlighted in P&I. Nonetheless, ASPIs dangerously inadequate analysis should be regularly confronted.

October 14, 2020

The comeback kid heads to Washington

Champions of Donald Trumps style of politics will warm to Prabowo Subianto. Theyll understand why Washington is forgetting Indonesias Defence Minister was once banned from the US and Australia for alleged human rights abuses, and get onside with another tough.

June 10, 2018

MIKE WALLER. Welcome to the Panopticon: time for an Australian bill of rights?

Panopticon: a circular prison with cells arranged around a central well, from which prisoners could at all times be observed (Jeremy Bentham).

Mr Turnbull has told Neil Mitchell security and police will be given extra power to conduct random checks at airports. Neil: Thats a big step. PM: It is. Neil: Why do we need it? PM: Dangerous times, Neil (Malcolm Turnbull, 3AW)

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding (US Supreme Court judge Louis Brandeis).

August 14, 2024

Zionism, Zionists and Jews

Understanding the complex relationship between Zionism, Zionists and Jews seems to defeat many of Israel’s critics in articles and opinion pieces. This article explores Zion and its connection to land and to Judaism and its more modern day forms.

June 1, 2024

How (not) to advance our conversation about racism in Australia

The question has been asked many times, but it has rarely led to constructive public debates: i_s Australia a racist country?

August 29, 2023

Decoding bloviation: Pat Conroy and the rule of war

Stuart Rees has provided us with a penetrating look at the hyper-masculinity of recent utterances by the government Minister Pat Conroy. As is now de rigueur for most of the MSM (including, sadly, the ABC) these utterances are focussed on justification for AUKUS and naturally, implicit demonisation of China.

July 15, 2023

Is Pope Francis preparing for the next pope and an October revolution in Catholicism?

Its mid-summer in Rome and last week there was a heat wave with a top temperature of 38 Celsius. Hot days in Rome are stifling, with the heat compounded by the over-whelming influx of tourists.

May 14, 2023

The ongoing Palestinian Nakba

Today, May 15th, is the 75th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe). And counting. I say and counting because the theft of our land, the occupation, the siege on Gaza, the disposition of our people, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and replacement of the Palestinian nation, with Jews, often of dual nationality, from around the world, continues more aggressively than ever. So does the building of illegal settlements to house those interlopers. They too are still going on apace with no end in sight.

September 15, 2022

Queenly saturation

Turn on the television. Move to the screen. Switch on the device if you ever left it off. Queen Elizabeth II may have passed, but she is everywhere in very lively fashion, a spectral manifestation that has utterly controlled large chunks of a transfixed global media system.

September 2, 2022

The Murdoch media is in a class of its own with news replaced by propaganda

In declining order of trust: The Age, SMH, Guardian online, News com.au, Sky News, Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph come below the 50% mark with Sky News boasting the highest dont trust rating. Would someone please remind us who owns the four at the bottom of the trust scale?

May 25, 2022

Peter Fry - Marginal voters in a few marginal seats decide our political outcome. NZ does it better.

In this second article on the problems of our voting system I argue that the current election results may give the impression that our democracy is working well. But that ignores the enormous effort needed by community groups and volunteer organisations simply to achieve a parliament which only begins to approximate the needs and wishes of the bulk of the population.

April 19, 2024

NDIS and Aged Care; from rights first to budget first

When she introduced the first NDIS legislation to the House of Representatives in 2012 Prime Minister Julia Gillard said it was to replace “A system that metes out support rationed by arbitrary budget allocations, not real human needs”. It was a radical break with other forms of welfare assistance because it put the human rights of people with disabilities first and foremost – not the budget. It was not subject to asset or income tests. It was effectively unique. It was intended to meet Australia’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

April 5, 2023

The government has a duty to be transparent about all security risks

The overblown rhetoric on imminent war with China has been justified as the need for the Australian people to be fully informed of threats to the nation. But the same rationale has not been applied to the security threat of climate change, a far greater risk the response to which will be far more costly and extensive.

September 28, 2022

To all who care about humanitys and the planets future

Humanity has reached a tipping point. It is time for governments, international institutions and people everywhere to take stock and act with renewed urgency.

September 18, 2022

The Defence Strategic Review as strategic theology

Even though the Defence Strategic Review is not scheduled to be delivered until March next year the circumstances in which it is embedded suggest that it is already a compromised document. If the intelligence and strategic assessments which inform it are not made public and the indications are that this will be the case then what will be on offer is a document infused with revelations which the common citizenry are excluded from knowing their provenance even though it is their security which is being determined by it.

September 9, 2021

News Corp opts for a bet each way on climate change

News Corp’s climate change campaign allows the company to shift its public without being committed to much at all.

June 28, 2021

Whitlam confirmed great man theory

If someone had said at the start of the year I would be going to China, Gough Whitlams aide Graham Freudenberg recalled, I would have said going to the moon would be more likely.

July 23, 2024

Loss of empire, loss of lucidity

As the United States’ imperial system and Western hegemony circles the drain, lucid thought is becoming a rare commodity. But there is hope.

June 20, 2024

How Dutton's HALEU nuclear power could lead to nuclear weapons

If a future Prime Minister Dutton was able to get the fuel for a HALEU power station, would you be absolutely confident that he might not want to also dabble in some nuclear weapons procurement as well?

May 11, 2024

Albanese advised to come clean on AUKUS and China – Asian Media Report

In Asian media this week: Government must persuade public on nuclear subs. Plus: Violence against women an Asian tragedy, too; Beijing, Manila clash over shoal agreement; West hastening loss of supremacy; Modi’s attacks show worry about poll; Hong Kong should promote its common law system.

April 27, 2024

Israel is holding more hostages than Hamas

Hamas is holding 132 hostages: 130 of them were taken captive on October 7 and two were taken hostage before then (one in 2014, the other in 2015).

September 6, 2023

Act, or die: the climate and nuclear juggernaut

“When elephants fight the grass dies” - African proverb.

At 90 seconds to a midnight and a few decades to +4oC will sapiens end up on the beach?

April 2, 2023

Rupert Murdoch has a wicked problem

Rupert Murdoch has a wicked problem. Many of the politicians who bent, or even grovelled, when his News media outlets blew on them are no longer scared. On the other hand News particularly Fox is showing signs that it is scared of its own audiences.

August 7, 2022

The Rajapaksas rotten to the core

_Australian foreign policy and morality sunk to a very low point over its dealings with the Rajapaksa regime and demonisation of Tamil asylum seekers.

June 26, 2022

A new era as Australia joins historic UN nuclear ban meeting

_This week in Vienna, Australia joined a landmark gathering of eighty-three governments to further implement and develop the treaty banning nuclear weapons.

November 15, 2020

China: Corporate Australia pushing back against the US and its local agents

As an increasing number of Australian firms have become more resistant to US coercion, the Labor Party has tentatively become a little less enthusiastic in supporting the governments anti-China push.

November 4, 2020

Senator Eric Abetz: A career of negativity and division

Wouldnt it be nice if Sarah Cooper did a lip-sync covering the career of Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz?

September 19, 2020

The Catholic Church and Modern Science: From Contraception to the Covid Vaccine

In a letter to the Prime Minister on August 20th, co-signed by the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Glenn Davies, and the Greek Orthodox Primate, Archbishop Makarios, Archbishop Fisher suggested that the use of a Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine might cause a crisis of conscience for some recipients because cell lines derived from a 1973 aborted foetus were involved in its production.

October 2, 2024

The challenge of nuclear weapons to the UN Security Council: Adapt or Die

The United Nations is the biggest incubator of global norms to govern the world and the vital core of the rules-based global multilateral order. Four parts of the UN system have complementary roles in efforts to regulate and eliminate nuclear weapons._

September 20, 2024

Driving VW off a cliff: Germany’s lemming strategy and what it means for us

Something absolutely stupefying is happening in Germany: its iconic auto company, VW, the darling of every Chancellor from Adolf Hitler to Olaf Scholz, appears to be in a death spiral. At the end of this story I’ll draw a link to the salutary lesson countries like Australia and New Zealand need to draw from the German experience if we are to survive and thrive in the coming world.

August 1, 2024

Time to message people between the eyes

If we are serious about changing the world, it is time for shock tactics. When facts do not do the job we need to shock people out of their apathy.

May 18, 2024

We “share values” with people committing genocide

Western leaders like to talk about values, shared values, common values. They talk about this a lot. America itself is obsessed with two things: conflict resolution through violence and moral preening. Nowhere is this contradiction more glaringly on display than in the genocide being committed in Gaza. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) says the US and Israel have a partnership based on shared values. I believe them.

April 15, 2024

Even-handed? No. Just inane

I think if I hear again, in some attempt at a supposed even-handedness an interviewer ask a representative of the Palestinian people in this terrible time, ‘do you also oppose the actions of Hamas on 7th October?’ I will puke. That is not a pleasant prospect.

July 31, 2023

Government is failing our most vulnerable children

Australia urgently needs a national plan to effectively address child and youth homelessness.

September 15, 2022

Death of Elizabeth marks return to Little England

The passing of the beloved monarch will herald the inevitable descent of this once-powerful nation from global empire to no more than a fractured island.

April 6, 2022

Herbert Wulf: Double standards

_War criminals must be held accountable. But this rule of law is universal. And it is precisely those who emphasise the rules-based international order that should strictly adhere to these rules themselves.

August 4, 2021

Response to Grace Tame: allegations are not a conviction

Earlier this week the Morrison Government announced that Industry Minister Christian Porter would be Acting Leader of the House, a senior parliamentary role, in the absence of Defence Minister Dutton who is in Covid quarantine. Predictably , the decision to temporarily elevate Mr Porter has led to outrage on social media and a highly critical opinion piece by Australian of the Year Grace Tame in the Nine newspapers.

June 7, 2021

China Panic: Australias alternative to paranoia and pandering by David Brophy

This is a truly excellent account of the panic surrounding Australia-China relations over the last few years, especially since 2017. It is well-researched, analytical, nuanced and very well written in a highly accessible style that is both scholarly and colloquial. One of the books strong features is a whole chapter covering the role China assumes in Australias universities and one each confronting two extremely controversial matters dogging bilateral relations over the last few years, namely Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal