September 2, 2024

How human rights are disappearing before our eyes

The moral distinction between liberal democracies and dictatorships is being flattened by the carnage in Gaza.

May 31, 2024

Dutton’s abysmal record on immigration integrity

Home Affairs Minister James Paterson has recently been extolling Peter Dutton’s record on immigration integrity and dealing with foreign criminals. So let’s just test those claims.

June 9, 2023

Its time for a climate test before approving large projects

As a major exporter of fossil fuels, Australia has a hand in emissions several times larger than those we generate here. To avoid climate catastrophe, all greenhouse emissions must be cut, fast. It is time to introduce a test of the impact on the global climate before big new projects are approved.

June 12, 2022

If I were the Minister for Immigration policy in the next parliament

Why do business lobby groups prefer governments recruit skilled migrants?

May 13, 2022

In Asia Media this week: New leaders and testing times in Seoul, Manilla and Hong Kong and soon, perhaps, in troubled Colombo

In Asia Media this week: South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol took office, in Manilla Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos, son of the late ousted corrupt dictator, won the election in a landslide while in Hong Kong John Lee Ka-chiu, a former chief secretary and security minister, was the only candidate and resignation of the leader in troubled Colombo.

April 25, 2022

What would I do if I were the Minister for Climate Change?

For too long, the nine Australian governments have been pursuing inconsistent agendas on emissions and energy. Usually, the. states and territories have led (in some notable cases under Coalition governments), while the Commonwealth has lagged badly.

June 28, 2021

A sinking DFAT has given policy making over to ASPI

Despite the line being spun by recently retired Secretary, Frances Adamson, AC, DFAT appears to be in the process of being scuttled by ASPI.

June 23, 2021

Financial penalties for avoidable hospitalisations.

The 2020-25 Commonwealth-state hospital funding agreement requires the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority to consider penalties for excessive rates of potentially preventable hospitalisations. The new penalty would sit alongside existing penalties on states with higher-than-expected rates of adverse events in hospitals.

December 2, 2018

GEOFF DAVIES. The myth of the robust deregulated economy.

The economic reforms of the 1980s are supposed to have set Australia up for an unprecedented run of prosperity: 27 years, and counting, without a recession. The economys robustness is supposed to have saved us from the Global Financial Crisis. In fact our economy has been unstable, and its performance has been mediocre verging on anaemic. Any appearance of robust prosperity is due to a huge run-up of debt, some direct intervention, high immigration, overwork, selective blindness and over-active imaginations.

September 25, 2024

International comparisons of monetary policy

Much of the expert commentary on Australia’s monetary policy settings is guided by what is happening in other countries. However, monetary tightening can have a markedly different impact in different countries, and while Australia appears to have been more cautious, so far it seems to have managed well.

June 21, 2024

The aimlessness of the G7 on Ukraine only delays the inevitable

At some point there must come a crisis. The G7 and their allies and partners will either have to cease their support for Ukraine as the toll and costs become too great, or decide that the defeat of Russia is of such importance to them collectively that they engage militarily in the conflict.

July 25, 2023

AUKUS dissent wont prevail at ALP conference

An attempt by a branch of the ACT Labor Party to protest the tripartite AUKUS security pact was blocked over the weekend in what members believe is a consequence of Anthony Albanese wanting to quell dissent on the issue, writes Phillip Coorey in the Australian Financial Review

July 7, 2023

The rules based international order? A pledge to American empire

When states says that they support the rules-based international order, they are pledging their support for American empire. No more, no less.

June 30, 2023

AUKUS and the Titanic mistake

AUKUS submarines will be highly detectable and therefore strategically useless.

June 26, 2023

US Reforms of WTO dispute settlement: the Rules-Based Order takes another hit

One of the more arcane developments in contemporary trade policy is the recently tabled US proposal for reform of the arrangements for managing trade disputes between members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It is a landscape marked by statistics, legal texts, and arguments. However, reflected in the microcosm is a wider universe featuring the inequities, instabilities and unsustainability of global capitalism and the global security risks arising from the resistance and protests of the declining hegemon.

May 16, 2023

NZ and China's Defence Dialogue: no news is bad news

On 10 May New Zealand and Chinese military officials met in Xian, China for their 11th Strategic Defence Dialogue, the first after a Covid gap of three years. The press releases from both sides were brief, anodyne and uninformative.

August 11, 2021

The climate crisis challenge belongs to all of us

Decisions taken by the US government and the rest of the world during the remainder of 2021 will be among the most important of our generation.

January 21, 2021

Stop tinkering at the edges: Australia needs a bold move to proportional representation

The pandemic crisis forced Australia to seek national solutions for a specific health threat. This could be a prelude to seeking other national solutions and ending the oppositionist cultures that have damaged democracy.

January 14, 2021

Why Australia and the West suffer from Sinophrenia. China, the bubble that never pops.

On the economic front, China has consistently confounded the pessimists. As China grows and grows, critics cant decide whether the Asian giant is about to collapse or is set to take us over.

July 26, 2024

Bad banks, culpable coal industry, compliant government all in bed together

A People’s Development Bank would be appropriate to the needs and security of production in rural and regional Australia. The case for action is overwhelming and has been so since the Commonwealth Bank Australia (CBA) was privatised. Crucially the rural sector must lead the charge for Australia to retain our life support systems.

August 31, 2023

Why we need an Earth System Treaty

Humanity created its current dire trajectory. It is now time to change course with a binding global treaty designed to empower individuals, institutions, and policymakers, and through this shared effort, reduce the existential threats to civilisation. The Earth Systems Treaty is potentially a major step forward, a step towards a healthy future for all.Paul R. Ehrlich, Emeritus Professor, Stanford University

July 23, 2023

Australian War Memorial Leave those kids alone

Any activity trying to create an inherent goodness about engaging in warfare is in no way an admirable activity. Creating game-play interactives of real-life devastation of civilians that invite children to compete is reprehensible. Doing so with no realistic acknowledgement of the human cost is utterly, deeply contemptible.

June 7, 2023

Australian peacekeeping: our best kept secret?

Why are Australian political leaders so insecure about our capacity to be independent and create a peacebuilding role for our nation when so many Australian military and police personnel have already demonstrated their capacity for strong leadership as peacekeepers?

July 19, 2021

Biden's Business Advisory: Hong Kong withstands US attempts to harm China

When Joe Biden replaced Donald Trump as the US President on Jan 21, 2021, there were hopes he would abandon his predecessors discredited policy towards Hong Kong, and reestablish good relations with China. However, the pair of them have turned out to be as alike as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, albeit that Biden is less uncouth.

January 20, 2021

Pandemic deaths have numbed our humanity and perception of risk

On one terrible day in December, Covid-19 deaths in the US for the first time exceeded the death toll from the World Trade Centre terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. To make people care we need to personalise the issue.

January 14, 2021

We are Israel's largest human rights group and we are calling this apartheid ( Jan 12, 2021)

The systematic promotion of the supremacy of one group of people over another is deeply immoral and must end.

December 10, 2020

Do the laws of armed conflict apply in guerrilla war?

Australias first special forces, fighting in the jungles of Borneo in WWII, fought in a war where neither side adhered to the international rules of armed conflict.

June 20, 2018

LEE JEON-HO. China adds to nuclear arsenal amid military modernisation drive

China now has 280 warheads, according to think tank, which calls nuclear states renewed focus on deterrence and capacity a very worrying trend

September 12, 2024

Taking one for the team

I’m thinking of calling it a day. Don’t be alarmed. I’m not planning to do so for two or three years, and this definitely isn’t the proverbial “cry for help”. Even at this seemingly late stage of planetary evolution, I don’t have too much to complain about. On the contrary, my biggest recent problem was deciding which Scandinavian country to visit as part of a (non-Australian) taxpayer-funded jaunt to Florence.

August 30, 2024

Beyond US hegemony: creating a visceral fear of China

It is difficult to understand why Senator James Patterson and “dewy eyed” Defence Minister Richard Marles think of China as part of a threat environment. There is a remarkable agreement between these two defence mavens from the opposite sides of politics that has a common source.

August 16, 2024

Urgent reform required to stop the epidemic of murder and abduction of First Nations women and children

Karen Iles, lawyer and founder of the Make Police Investigate Campaign, has called for extensive reform to justice and policing systems across Australia in evidence provided to the Federal Inquiry into Missing and Murdered First Nations Women and Children.

July 19, 2024

Western decline and media bias: The uneven narratives of Gaza and Ukraine

The stark contrast in media coverage of the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine reveals a troubling pattern of bias that shapes public perception and policy in profound ways.

April 25, 2024

‘Impactful projection’, 1915 style: Lest we forget Anzac Cove

Anzac Day. We mark it respectfully. True respect demands that we also not forget the essential question about the first ‘Anzac Day’ – 25 April 1915. Why were Australian soldiers at Anzac Cove in the first place?

September 12, 2022

In her 'devotion to duty' the Queen sacked an Australian PM described by Philip as a 'socialist arsehole'

In the mammoth royal love in we are enduring, we are told about the Queen’s cordial relationship with numerous PMs. But not Gough Whitlam. That would upset our colonial mind set. We try and shut out the__Queens implausible and misleading denial on the Whitlam sacking.

_(The following is a repost from 26 January 2021).

June 29, 2022

Why am I so busy: the paradox of busyness in the modern world with so many pointless jobs

Walk through any work place and ask how people are going, most will respond busy.

June 24, 2022

The Asian Media this Week

_Uncomfortable choices between US and China; support for stronger Japanese military role; Marles moves closer to India; Myanmar military oppression worsens; South Korea joins space race.

May 17, 2022

Competing sovereignties and the voice to Parliament

Policy towards the First Nations has attracted very little attention during the current election campaign. The Labor party has given a commitment to holding a referendum to enshrine the voice to parliament in the constitution as proposed by the Uluru Statement of 2017.

May 6, 2022

Weekly roundup Saturday 7 May

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

January 4, 2021

Are surgeons just a little bit less careful when operating on their birthdays?

Yes, if you think the ops necessary, Doc, of course Ill have it. Just so I know, are there any risks? And how long will I be in hospital? Thanks, see you in theatre. Oh, by the way, you wont be operating on me on your birthday, will you, Doc?

November 22, 2020

A Warrior Culture

The Prime Minister warned us that we would be in for some shocking reading as the report into Australian war crimes in Afghanistan was released. That there were 39 alleged murders, and 19 Australian soldiers involved, is indeed shocking.

October 5, 2020

The transformation of daigou in the post-COVID 19 era

Daigou based parallel trading is a historical phenomenon in the long history of cross-border trade. Its heyday is now history, but it is not dead yet, as the informal, freelance, retail daigou are gradually incorporated into corporate daigou channels in Australia.

August 24, 2024

ABC – Ignorant, fearful or biased journalism?

Having just read journalist John Lyons’ book Balcony Over Jerusalem, I’m acutely aware of the ways in which the pro-Israeli Lobby in Australia exerts its influence on the media here to disparage journalists and their work and to even try to have them removed from their positions, if this lobby deems there is adverse critique of Israel.

July 28, 2024

The failure of the ANU: will a plaque commemorate the slaughter?

It’s once you’re dead or out of the picture, unable to meaningfully contest the narrative, that institutions can appropriate the very struggles of those who once fought against them. This sort of co-option of movements is a consequence of how memory works in society.

June 17, 2024

Big changes to China’s healthcare insurance system expected at 3rd Plenum

The Communist Party of China has said the upcoming Third Plenary Session of its current 20th Central Committee will focus on “deepening comprehensive reform to advance Chinese modernisation.” Based on past practice and some recent public reports, Beijing is drafting its agenda now, but details are hard to come by.

April 26, 2024

Think-tanked

As a China-watching think tank winds up after Morrison-era cuts, a respected analyst reviews government funding for security-related research and education.

April 17, 2024

Why does Australia want to be so suicidal?

Australian leadership is no longer an embarrassment at UNFCCC COPs. Nonetheless, Australia’s participation in the fossil fuel industry, including through new projects, is not putting us on the fastest path to net zero. Will we miss our “brief and rapidly closing window” to secure a liveable future?

September 28, 2023

Assange extradition: something you might expect from a totalitarian regime

Julian Assange may be only weeks away from being extradited to the US where he will face prosecution under the US Espionage Act that could see him imprisoned for 175 years, even though he is an Australian citizen, not a US citizen! With extradition so near, the campaign to save Assange has reached its highest pitch.

September 22, 2023

Trudeau ruins Indias global triumph Asian Media Report

In Asian media this week: Canada, India tensions have sorry history. Plus: BRI shows most countries shun decoupling; Myanmar rebels will never give up; China to dominate green car market; Putin and Kim lead axis of outcasts; China decline the fashionable chatter in Washington.

July 24, 2023

The US Studies Centre: Washingtons mole in plain sight

Espionage, surveillance and monitoring in a society require guile, judiciousness, and care. Secrecy matters. Inserted agents assume roles for years as friends even as they are purloining your secrets. They are the charming thespians of treachery.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal