June 16, 2024

A message about Noam Chomsky: an update

No doubt like many other people around the world, we have been surprised and increasingly concerned that Noam Chomsky has not commented publicly on current events for around one year; in particular, on the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.

May 9, 2024

China dropped a flare near an Aussie copter in its EEZ. What's wrong with that?

Patriotism, they say, is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Judged that way, there seem to be a large number of scoundrels around within the Australia media and also the Canberra political elite.

September 16, 2023

Environment: Governments and fossil fuel subsidies, the infatuation grows

Doesnt matter how much harm fossil fuels cause, governments have an Everlasting Love for subsidising them, so no surprise that coal and oil consumption is increasing. The global love affair with electricity started in 1950.

July 28, 2023

A descent into violence? Political polarisation in the US- Part 4

Can the United States avoid a descent into political violence? Of the 52 cases where countries reached the levels of polarisation which now exist in the US, half had their status as democracies downgraded. The US is the only Western democracy to have sustained such intense polarisation over such an extended period. It really is in uncharted territory.

July 17, 2023

Indonesia and Australia: Missed opportunities and unfinished business

A lot of opportunities have been missed to engage more closely with Indonesia over the last few decades, a period when Australian government enthusiasm and funding for engagement with Indonesia declined significantly. Correcting that is getting harder as time goes on and Indonesia grows in economic and political influence.

June 23, 2023

AUKUS: Paul Monk praises elitism, derides Australias vibrant civil society

In an opinion piece published in The Weekend Australian (10 June 2023), Paul Monk offers his response to critics of the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine agreement. A central focus of his critique is this open letter signed by more than 100 academics. As two of the principal co-authors of the letter, we requested a right of reply, but received no response from The Australians Opinion Editor. The following is our rebuttal to Monks criticisms of the letter.

June 11, 2023

Coming to terms with the ‘China Threat’

Is it not a great irony that the Chinese are now more supportive of the post-war Bretton Woods system than the Americans?

June 8, 2023

China has no need for the United States, for now

In ordinary anticipatory history the game is waiting for Trump.

April 24, 2023

Time to accept the truth about the legend of Anzac

The Anzac Cloak smothering any matter of opinion that does not adorn the Anzac Spirit has become pervasive. Too often, this appropriation of one facet of development of a uniquely Australian character - rooted by the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia - has at least one of two perverted purposes: political or commercial.

July 12, 2022

We have the right to expect certain standards, rules and regulations to apply to political staffers

For political staffers to be effective, and therefore justifiably paid for by the public, they need to be governed in a manner that protects them to the same extent as public servants who do their job diligently and honestly. Their role should not be elevated to the point that they become a highly visible part of the political landscape.

September 23, 2021

Cracking open the Plenary Council: Helpers wanted for Mark Coleridge and the Holy Spirit. Part 2

Mark Coleridge will be a pivotal figure in the plenary summit on reforms in the Australian Catholic Church. But will the support of Pope Francis, many lay Catholics and possibly the Holy Spirit be enough to shift the Pell acolytes?

August 24, 2021

Ageism very much alive in society

Of all the negative isms that fester in daily life, ageism is surely amongst the most prevalent, and unacknowledged. Sure, most people are aware that its unacceptable to patronise, put down and denigrate those who are deemed elderly, old or aged, but somehow these discriminatory practices tend to escape our notice.

August 24, 2021

Greenhouse gas emissions: What are they and how are they measured?

The goal of theParis agreementon climate changeis tolimit global warmingto well below 2C, and preferably to1.5oC above pre-industrial temperatures of the 1700s. This requires countries toreduce net greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible in orderto achieve a climate-neutral world by the middle of this century. Unlike 131 other countries, Australia is yet to commit tonet-zeroby 2050.

August 15, 2021

The China push for a cleaner and cooler planet

_Not a day passes without our media damning China for some imagined infamy or other. So many stories, so many column inches, and nothing positive to be found. At the same time, our television screens are full of other images; real images of a disaster that is enveloping us all.

August 10, 2021

Is cleaning up government and media women's work?

Most of those who brought us this Anthropocene age are white, grey, male, and stale. It is now the virocene, the envirocene, and the pyrocene age too, thanks to the younger and even richer men who are taking over from them.

July 27, 2021

Making good use of the AstraZeneca in which we are 'awash'

Thanks to the Delta variant, the Covid-19 pandemic is now a national crisis. If the vaccine roll-out can find both the urgency and the administrative efficiency required, the immediate challenge stemming from an excess supply of AstraZeneca and an acute shortage of Pfizer can be met. While steps are being taken to divert Pfizer from second doses to first, the large numbers who are waiting for the second AstraZeneca can be invited to have their second after less than 12 weeks have elapsed.

July 25, 2021

What are hostilities if not war?

_Rarely is the United States not at war. Trump didnt start any wars, but he didnt end any either. Biden is keeping Americas enemies and adding new ones. Congressional control over how the US goes to war and what its called has again become a pressing issue.

July 18, 2021

On Daniel Andrews being labelled a whinger!

When Daniel Andrews commented on how different the treatment accorded to NSW by the Federal Government was to the treatment Victoria received when it went into lockdown, he was promptly labelled a whinger by various people.This led me to consider the place that the whinger has in Australian culture.

July 7, 2021

Ageing is not a lifestyle choice:

_Frail older people and their family carers are in the hands of evidence free government zealots favouring market solutions to aged care provision and consumer lobbyists.

June 1, 2021

Militarism the winner in Biden's budget

The Biden budget of $6 trillion dollars is being sold as a turn to liberal reform, but the media has largely neglected one significant fact. The budget allows for $1.52 trillion that is discretionary spending. Half of that figure will be devoted to the military. It is a record figure. The US has an economy to restore and a pandemic to fight, but the bottomless pit of military spending just continues to rise.

April 29, 2021

Why is Australia prioritising trade with Israel?

The department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is currently calling for submissions to a feasibility study on strengthening trade and investment with Israel. Later this year DFAT is reported to be undertaking similar studies with Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

April 22, 2021

The Five Eyes does not have our back.

It is risible to see the Australian Foreign Minister setting off to New Zealand to pull the Kiwis into line over their lack of support for attempts by the so-called Five Eyes of Anglo Saxon countries to pressure China.

November 24, 2020

'Our Malady' by Timothy Snyder: Lessons for Australia in health care

While this is a book about American healthcare, it raises issues that are relevant to Australia. Written earlier this year, many issues facing current healthcare - both in hospitals and in the community - are discussed.

May 19, 2024

War is Peace

“War is Peace” was an anchoring concept within the astonishing dystopia portrayed in George Orwell’s “1984”. This extraordinary, ground-breaking novel was a warning to the world, which drew on Orwell’s deep understanding of Stalin’s USSR. But even Orwell, in 1984, did not conceive of a Nobel Peace Prize recommendation pivoting on active preparations for a new war. For that instructive breakthrough, we are, in 2024, in debt to America.

May 8, 2024

Australia and the F-35 supply chain: in lockstep with Lockheed

Australia is one of six western countries that are complicit in the ‘ genocidal erasure’ of the Palestinian people by continuing to supply Israel with arms, according to Dr Ghassan Abu-Sitta, a British-Palestinian surgeon and newly elected rector of Glasgow University.

May 7, 2024

Dutton rising: the power of constant attack

There are some things in our ‘shrinking nation’ that are not shrinking.

April 29, 2024

The great winner picking winner stopping show

In that newspaper of record of extraordinary bias - The Australian – there is much preaching about the sanctity of the market mechanism and the absolute folly of the government’s plan to subsidise investment in new industries. Such sharp economic brains have not, however, cared to admonish nor demand we terminate the massive subsidies given to the fossil fuel industry. Nor have they raised the irony that it is this industry which arguably needs subsidies least. The Australia Institute projects fossil fuel subsidies over the next 3 next years at $57 billion. Currently they are running at $11 billion annually. A small selection of where they are going in Western Australia is as follows:

August 26, 2023

Joint retreat: AUKUS nations back peddling on climate

Leaders of the AUKUS nations, all once pronouncing ambition on addressing the climate crisis and lording the mantle of global leadership, are now each in turn forgoing their international commitments, carving out excuses and worse.

June 4, 2023

The US drive to war with China and the battle of ideas

Somewhere, somehow, China became the number one enemy of the world, or at least to the world that is run by the USA. For many the reason has been the challenge that China poses to US economic hegemony, but might not Americas fear of China be based on ideological causes; a battle of ideas?

May 9, 2023

Theres still time to avoid climate catastrophe

If we fail to reach the goal of reducing emissions by 50 percent by 2030, it wont be for lack of options.

May 3, 2023

Best not to know: how secrecy and ignorance feed AUKUS policy

Reports that Australia pays retired senior US military officials up to $7,500 a day for advice on AUKUS related defence projects, reveals a cultural cringe and taste for secrecy. Such practice is coupled to a common policy technique, of avoiding criticism by maintaining public ignorance.

April 27, 2023

RBA reforms: what difference will they make?

The reforms recommended by the Review of the Reserve Bank have been well received, but it is questionable whether they will ensure that the Banks performance improves and that it can avoid the mistakes of the recent past.

August 2, 2022

Penal assassination: The gradual effort to kill Assange

_They really do want to kill him. Perhaps it is high time that his detractors and sceptics, proven wrong essentially from the outset, admit that the US imperium, along with its client states, is willing to see Julian Assange perish in prison.

September 29, 2021

Rupert Murdoch's snail-like journey on climate change

The situation is so bad that even Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire has read the commercial tea leaves on climate change and rolled over. Not surprisingly Scott Morrison now also shows signs of a belated change of heart.

September 27, 2021

The voices of independents being heard and aiming high

There is a strong feeling of change in many electorates around Australia. The Voices Of movement is gathering steam as more than 30 such groups are looking to field candidates at the next federal election.

September 15, 2021

Changes to federal government film funding could cripple production of historical documentaries

Without government support, some iconic Australian films would never have been made. But less glamorous documentaries are often forgotten. They, perhaps even more than their feature film cousins, need investment to survive.

September 13, 2021

Clive Palmer, border closures and the High Court

Clive Palmer has already lost one High Court case challenging the WA border closure. He is threatening another. That too will fail.

September 5, 2021

Afghanistan, 'anarchy' and confecting a China threat

Readers of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald were recently treated to a lesson in international relations theory.

September 2, 2021

It's time to change the Covid narrative from getting to zero to harm minimisation

Now is the time to adopt a new narrative for living with COVID-19 by replacing getting to zero with minimising the harm.

August 31, 2021

Gladys Berejiklian, deep in farce yesterday, threatening chaos today

Faced with a Covid crisis, the NSW government has failed to lead when its people needed it the most.

August 25, 2021

Afghan Refugees and the Tampa: will we be cruel again?

Have Australian hearts softened towards Afghan refugees in the twenty years since the Tampa incident? Hopefully, yes..

August 16, 2021

The "Green Hydrogen" myth. It is a delusion

Are you also being swamped with optimistic articles about how essential it is for Australia to be a leader in greenhydrogen? Greenhydrogen is being spruiked as essential to our decarbonised economic future and as a strategic decarbonised export opportunity.

August 15, 2021

Boasting about budget expenditure numbers does not make for a housing policy

The Federal Minister for Housing and Homelessness, Michael Sukkar, is fond of quoting large numbers when quizzed on what his government is doing to address Australias enduring housing crisis. So, we hear for instance that annual Federal spending on housing and homelessness programs has reached over $8b and that his government is exceeding Labors spend on social housing and homelessness support.

August 10, 2021

The mystery political staffer running government rorting.

_It is now known that one person in the Prime Minister’s office drew up the spreadsheets for both the sports and car park rorts.

August 1, 2021

Covid-fuelled violence threatens civility and democracy

In common with the thugs who invaded the US Capitol on January 6, the Australian protesters against lockdown measures on July 24 displayed extremism which threatens the civility of democracy and thereby others freedoms.

July 29, 2021

'Freedom' marches and far-right groups in the US and Australia.

Dissatisfaction with governments and authority has been widespread for months. The restriction of rights around Covid is seen by some, not as a community responsibility in the face of a pandemic, but a sinister plan for governments to further control citizens.

June 20, 2021

Corporate Australias social licence to operate: the case of Dan Murphys in Darwin

Woolworths has copped a right shellacking by Sydney-based lawyer Danny Gilberts Independent Panel Review into the proposed Dan Murphys development in Darwin. As did the Northern Territory Government. The damning Review report excoriates both Woolworths and its booze arm Endeavour Drinks for their conduct in relentlessly pursuing development approval for this big-box booze barn against the wishes of the local Indigenous community.

June 17, 2021

Arrest of Kristo Langker represents gross misuse of resources and threat to our freedom of speech

When politicians in Australia rushed to legislate in the wake of 9/11 and the commencement of the so-called war on terror, some of us warned that such legislation and the bureaucracy it created would be abused by police. We warned that the sorts of concepts and powers that anti-terror laws spawned would find their way into other areas of social control.

February 10, 2021

The Reserve Bank needs accountability that only external scrutiny can provide

In the US and other countries, central banks have agreed to greater transparency in return for modifications of Freedom of Information policy. That would be appropriate in Australia, given the failure of our FOI Act to generate meaningful transparency.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal