June 30, 2021

Australian Government silent on CSL, Red Cross contaminated blood scandal; UK government accepts 'moral responsibility'

The Government still refuses to apologise and offer financial support to the up to 20,000 victims of the contaminated blood scandal as recommended 17 years ago by a Senate Committee. Labor has acknowledged the “historic injustice” but says it can’t do anything. Is it because CSL, the darling of Australia’s business community, lies at the heart of the scandal?

June 22, 2021

Old Canberra a model of cheap land and government housing

Canberra was once in a position to show how ordinary working Australians could get into the housing market at a fair price. That fair price, in today’s terms, was about a third of current prices.

September 9, 2024

Drafting the first laws to govern AI

In 1942, the renowned science fiction writer, Isaac Asimov, wrote a number of short stories in which he implied the existence of a set of rules which were to be followed by the robots which were a subject of many of his stories. These became the ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ introduced in his short story ‘Runaround’ and presented as being from a fictional “Handbook of Robotics, 56th edition, 2058 AD."

August 27, 2024

Authors who write with insight and experience

I read the daily Pearls and Irritations email without fail.

May 17, 2024

The Kremlin needs a new PR agent

Moscow would have us believe it is fighting a life and death struggle in the muddy trenches of Donbas. But what do we get to see on the inauguration of its president? Glittering gold chambers and goose-stepping soldiers.

April 14, 2024

The urgent call to halt the Migration Amendment Bill 2024

In a critical forum addressing the Migration Legislation (Removal and other Measures) Bill 2024, Kalyani Inpakumar, representing the Tamil Refugee Council, shed light on the troubling direction of the Albanese Labor Government’s migration and refugee policies. The implications of this bill are stark and unsettling.

September 3, 2023

David Bradbury, lifetime war abolisher, wins award for Anti-AUKUS efforts

_The cracks in Labor ranks over AUKUS won’t be going away despite Albanese staring down dissenters at Labor’s national conference. A pitched battle over the choice of submarine base is guaranteed — and now we discover that Albanese has suffered the mother of all brainsnaps: Australia has agreed to set up a weapons-grade nuclear waste dump. At the heart of the resistance to this militarism has been David Bradbury’s documentary film The Road to War

May 25, 2023

SA’s populist punishment law to chill climate dissent

A new Bill to silence climate protest has provoked a broad chorus of alarm in South Australia. Despite opposition, it seems likely the Bill will pass and South Australia will join the ranks of governments determined to suppress opposition to the fossil fuel industry.

April 22, 2023

What to look for in a Migration Strategy

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil will shortly (possibly on 27 April) release a new migration strategy. This follows a review of the migration system led by former Secretary of PM&C Martin Parkinson and a review of visa integrity by former Police Commissioner Christine Nixon.

August 28, 2022

The Chinese economy: fact, fiction, faith and flexibility

The Chinese economy has long been a source of contention, with predictions of its “imminent collapse” pitted against portrayals of its strength and resilience.

August 10, 2022

Who is provoking whom in the South China Sea?

The frequency and intensity of dangerous incidents between US and China militaries are increasing in the South China Sea and second-in-line to the US Presidency Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan doesn’t help ease the situation. But the U.S needs to pause and examine just who is provoking who and its contributions to the tension there.

April 9, 2022

AUKUS in the hypersonic missile wonderland

As this idiotic, servile venture proceeds, Australian territory, sites and facilities will become every more attractive for assault in the fulness of time.

September 8, 2021

A premature victory over Covid could be ruinous

With Commonwealth-state politics at play over the vaccine rollout, Scott Morrison will likely face state premiers entering the federal election campaign, pitching their popularity against his record.

August 2, 2021

The climate emergency – a need for radical honesty – laced with courage and compassion: Part 1

_We have all been abandoned by our “leaders”, a pathetic coterie of self-focused, ignorant and immature individuals who lack courage, compassion and the capacity to recognize an impending catastrophe, with likely societal collapse and massive loss of life (already beginning). There is no possibility of technological salvation.

July 14, 2021

Australia's strategic conundrum-Is America declining?

Jon Stanford and Hans Ohff criticise the ADF for “[P]lanning for the last war rather than the next”. Yet, their plan returns to a simplistic defence of Australia scenario from the 1980s. Nevertheless, their recent piece in ASPI’s Strategist blog ( republished in P&I) provides an entrée to the related conundrums facing Australia’s strategic policy; the decline of US power and the circumstances under which Australia might come under direct threat.

October 23, 2020

COVID 19 and Victoria: responsibility in Australian politics - Part 2

_The COVID epidemic has laid bare many of the stresses that have been building up in Australian society, polity and economy over the past four decades.

April 25, 2020

Anzac and the Great Deception in Australasian History

This year, Anzac Day marches have been suspended for the first time in almost a century. Because of the coronavirus the Australian War Memorial (AWM) will broadcast a socially distanced Dawn ‘Service’. The New Zealand National Memorials will represent their Dawn and Citizens’ ‘Services’ on media and on-line. At State Memorials in Australia, Governors will privately lay wreaths around the national myth. In both nations, the streets will be eerily emptied; the borders closed.

January 7, 2019

BRIAN COYNE. A response to Paul Collins' "The real crisis of Australian Catholicism".

Paul Collins’ recent commentary, “The Real Crisis of Australian Catholicism”, raises some contradictory challenges for the future of the Catholic Church in Australia.

May 1, 2024

The UK’s Thames Water and Macquarie Group rip off

The UK’s Thames Water – infamous for pumping raw sewage into waterways – parent company has now defaulted on its debt.

April 20, 2024

Terrorism is what I say it is

_‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less’. ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things’.  ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all’. - Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass.

August 26, 2023

Ken Henry on our intergenerational obligations - Weekly Roundup

At our present rate we won’t make our 2030 emissions reduction target; Opinion polls are still weak for the Coalition; and Ken Henry on our intergenerational obligations. Read on for the Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy.

July 9, 2023

Propaganda: The Western media’s “Taiwanese” airspace narrative

When it comes to propaganda the Chinese could learn a thing or two from the Western media.

July 4, 2023

Why Australia should never become involved in a Taiwan war

Australia should do all it can to foster a long-term, peaceful resolution of the acute, multi-decade dispute spanning the Taiwan Strait. But Chey and Keating are unmistakeably correct on this issue: Australia should never become involved in any war over Taiwan.

May 5, 2023

Attorney-Generals criminalising 13 year olds is a national disgrace

The lethargy in lifting the age of criminal responsibility in Australia from 10 to 14 is scandalous given the numbers of vulnerable children caught up in the brutality of the criminal justice system daily.

August 29, 2022

CPAC Australia and Murdoch

One of the most unsavoury events on the Trumpist right is CPAC. This is an organisation that stages Conservative Political Action Conferences in America, as well as internationally. CPAC Australia has been operating since 2019 and the 2022 event is due to take place in Sydney this October.

July 24, 2022

Modi and the polarisation of India

Modi must reverse the sectarian polarisation, rein in the hate-spewing Hindutva mobs and practice as well as preach inclusion.

July 14, 2022

A ground breaking week in the Australian Catholic Church

Last week was ground-breaking for the Australian Catholic Church. Its Plenary Council was a major and critical event for reform within the Church, and it concluded with some positive action after four long years.

April 3, 2022

Ukraine and the Americanised future of Western Europe

The proximate cause of the war in Ukraine, Wolfgang Streeck argues in a recent article, is Russia’s murderous assault on a neighbouring country with which it once shared a common state.

June 30, 2021

After the pandemic war, no political point in refighting the battles

Anthony Albanese has become too fond of saying that Scott Morrison had two big jobs this year – to roll out the vaccine, and to fix quarantine, and that he’s failed with both. The next election will not be a report card on how the coalition managed the pandemic, but about the future.

May 14, 2021

Australia and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - can policy overcome politics?

A new public opinion survey finding that Australians hold surprisingly balanced views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict offers scope for the government to ditch its short-sighted, partisan approach. But will it?

March 2, 2021

We can and must reverse the dramatic decline of trust in Parliament

Nearly half of all legislation is now delegated legislation, i.e. made by ministerial orders, and some of it cannot be disallowed by Parliament. Such an extraordinary accumulation of power in the hands of the federal government is dangerous for democracy. A recent Senate committee report proposes strengthening the parliamentary committee system to increase accountability.

February 4, 2020

MICHAEL KEATING. Scott Morrison’s Policy Agenda

As is frequently observed, Scott Morrison’s Government has a remarkably thin policy agenda. This article explores why this lack of ambition – indeed resistance to change – makes perfect sense from Morrison’s point of view.

May 2, 2024

We'll reward you for genocide

Israel: Hey Joe, just letting you know Hamas has retaliated to our decades long Occupation and repression and have broken through the prison gates and attacked Israelis. Go figure.

July 29, 2023

Democracy in ASEAN at low ebb – Asian Media Report

In Asian media this week: Assaults on democracy in Cambodia, Thailand. Plus: Thaksin sets date for his return; Opportunity for BRICS to seize, or squander; ‘End of regime’- blunt message to North Korea; ‘Swimming in circles’ on South China Sea.

June 5, 2023

Managerialist and consultancy deceits: PWC and others

Sudden political excitement about the unethical, almost certainly illegal conduct of a large, too big to disappear, accountancy company, deflects attention from the primary site of a cancerous managerialist disease. That site was infected with the idea that individuals labelled managers, usually but not always accountants, could be trusted to decide how government departments, universities, hospitals and other public institutions, could be more cost effective.

September 20, 2022

Queen Elizabeth II: The palace is winning the propaganda war

Queen Elizabeth II is dead and ‘the Palace’ is working assiduously to shore up her legacy and the institution of Monarchy. Polls show they are winning the hearts and minds in a propaganda war, with the mass media complicit in its hyperbolic, adulatory, blanket coverage. Debates about the Monarchy are cancelled, demonstrators in the UK moved on by police, politicians universally agreeing it is not the time to question what the Monarchy represents. ‘Tomorrow is another day’ as Scarlett O’Hara famously said. Meanwhile the Queen’s persona is emerging as heroic and mythical.

July 3, 2022

Global agendas 2022 - NATO and RIMPAC

War – its preparation, rehearsal, prosecution, and remediation – is increasingly the concern of 21st century states and peoples. Attention in 2022 focussed on the savage fighting in the Black Sea and Ukraine, but preparations, plans and rehearsals on a hitherto unprecedented scale for conflict were underway around the world, notably in the form of US-led and organised exercises in the Baltic, the East and South China Seas, the Mediterranean and the Pacific. For the most part, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is in command, though in the case of the Pacific the primary role is played by the US Navy (i.e. the Pentagon).

June 9, 2022

Mann and Lindsey: It's great Albanese visited Indonesia, but Australia needs to do a lot more to reset relations. Here are 5 ways to start

A new Australian prime minister flying to Indonesia to “reset” relations is now so routine it would probably raise hackles in Jakarta if it didn’t happen.

June 5, 2022

Do you really want nuclear weapons in your super?

Do you really want nuclear weapons in your super? It is high time Super Funds classify nuclear weapons as “controversial weapons” and divest, now they have joined chemical weapons and biological weapons as illegal under international law.

May 23, 2022

Peter Fry - NZ style voting for Australia?

Many Australians see New Zealand’s MMP voting system as a complex German-based foreign contraption which has little to offer us. Pete Fry argues that for its users it is a simple responsive transparent process which could help to improve our trust in politics by making our Parliament more representative of the majority of Australians.

July 7, 2021

Alex Lo-How ‘Five Eyes’ allies eat Australia’s lunch over China trade

The US and Canada have been more than happy to substitute supplies from Down Under to China with their own while denouncing Beijing’s ‘economic coercion’

June 23, 2021

Housing politics dominated by the interests of the already-housed

The housing market is not effectively closed to most young women and men by accident. House prices keep growing not so much by excess demand but because of the rewards we give investor buyers, the advantages in place for those already in the market and the tax and other advantages of owning a house, whether for one’s own family or as an investment. First home buyers will always be at the back of the queue while others have such advantages and they don’t.

June 13, 2021

Sunday environmental round up.

Ecosocialist advice for the G7’s leaders and encouragement to read a recent P&I article on carbon accounting. The price of solar panels is rising slightly and our sylvan friends are emitting ‘treethane’. Finally, a plea to dog owners.

May 18, 2021

The second year of the pandemic is even more deadly. Australians in India are being abandoned.

If we clever humans can put a rover on Mars we can deliver AZ vaccine to the Australian High Commission in Delhi!

February 18, 2021

Preferential lobbying: a scourge on our democracy (Part 4 of 4)

Preferential lobbying is endemic to “modern” politics. There are no easy fixes, but democracy will continue to wither unless the root causes are tackled. We need to start with amending constitutions. Although this is not easy, innovative constitution building is happening around the world.

February 12, 2021

Tamed Estate: IR reforms 'dangerous', 'extreme' but let's go with Christian Porter's description - 'modest'

When tabling the omnibus Industrial Relations bill in early December, Christian Porter described the changes as “modest”. The mainstream media duly followed suit and in no time at all had even dropped the quotation marks.

November 18, 2020

China’s marginal RCEP gains will not offset trade war impact on economy, studies show

Studies show the benefits of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will not outweigh the negative impact of the long-running US trade war on China’s economy. However, analysts agree the trade pact, which covers 30 per cent of the global economy, is far more strategically significant than in direct economic impact.

October 9, 2020

Science integrity revisited

In our partisan and damaged society scientific integrity is important and a part of the public discourse. For example, prominent scientists have critiqued the use of Chief Scientist Alan Finkel to support extracting more gas for Australian energy.

February 10, 2020

CHAS SAVAGE. The summer of our discontents

The only outcome that matters is the extent to which humanity manages to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. Any talk about meeting or not meeting targets that is not grounded on this outcome is trickery and sleight of hand.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal