August 1, 2024

Writings from the ANU Gaza Solidarity Encampment: The series

On 29 April 2024, students established a Gaza Solidarity Encampment in the centre of the Australian National University (ANU) campus. The students made the following demands:

July 30, 2024

Social cohesion should not be used for political expediency

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland’s warning that the ballot box is ‘not a guide to Middle East policy’ (The Australian, 26 July 2024), coupled with her concerns about social cohesion, highlights federal Labor’s naivete and how out of touch it is with the electorate. Moreover, these views from senior Labor MPs border on dismissiveness of our democratic principles and our parliamentary system of government.

June 1, 2024

A future made in Australia?

Is Australia’s new industrial policy a way forward to a competitive, innovative, and sustainable future in which the benefits of new technologies such as renewable energy and artificial intelligence are widely shared throughout society? Or a reversion to past failed attempts to protect local industry, pick winners at taxpayers’ expense, lag in innovation and productivity while further contributing to growing inequality by enrichment of the rentier elites?

May 9, 2024

Meta versus Australia

The ABC now faces an awful dilemma. If, as now seems certain, it loses the media bargaining code revenue it has been receiving from Facebook, now Meta, it will have to sack many of the 60 journalists and support staff it has recruited since entering into commercial contracts in 2021.

September 18, 2023

Asleep at the wheel of public service reform

The rehabilitation of the federal public service is a slow waltz one step forward, one sideways and a couple backwards. To stretch the metaphors and with apologies to Don Gibsons fine 1961 hit song, while the administrative ship of state is adrift in a sea of heartbreak, its principal stewards seem half asleep at the wheel.

August 29, 2021

Biden's summit for democracy: China-bashing and the economics of human rights

The US President has announced that he will be issuing invitations to world leaders to talk about democracy, authoritarianism, and human rights, at a Summit to be held in early December. The Summit for Democracy, as the US State Department has titled the gathering, is aimed at shoring up fading support for the USA and to up the ante on its anti-China rhetoric. Democracies and what are described as emerging democracies are to be invited, although the guest list will be an arbitrary affair and very much in the hands of the host.

July 7, 2021

When is a secret meeting for lobbying not a secret meeting?

ICAC urges ban on secret meetings with lobbyists.In other words, ICAC practitioners imagine a new system for governingor do they?What is their systems purpose and how might it work out in the long run?Some general features pertain.

August 25, 2024

Environment: using the law to drive (and retard) climate action

Climate activists are increasingly using the courts to challenge development approvals and change the law, but so are action delayers. Access to electricity is increasing worldwide, but fossil fuels still dominate electricity production.

September 3, 2023

Could Trump be banned from the Presidency?

Could Donald Trump be banned from standing as President? Even in the world of Trumpist paranoid delusions and social media posts it seems improbable.

July 29, 2023

Are we on a path to war with China? An interview with David Shoebridge

One of the most extraordinary moments in politics in the last five years has been watching Anthony Albanese, notionally from the left of Labour, adopt, without any internal democracy within the Labor Party, without any public investigation of it, adopt wholeheartedly Scott Morrison’s AUKUS plans It’s perhaps one of the most extraordinary betrayals of the public interest and Labor’s historic anti-nuclear platform that I can recall it’s deeply dangerous, and it is leading us down a pathway to war.

April 24, 2023

Integrity and complex systems: The rum rebellion or the shearers strike?

While were acutely aware that the COVID-19 pandemic has tested the underlying integrity of our current economic and financial models, our infinitely greater concern must be with the inexorable progression of climate change. As physicist Richard Feynman said: For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. The realities of physics cannot be moved by the comforting distractions and self-delusion of realpolitik. Can humanity act with the necessary integrity on climate change?

April 18, 2023

Secrecy is our enemy: whistleblowers must be defended

One of the most hated aspects of the Morrison government was the secrecy. Over and again, we continue to shock to revelations of hidden wrongdoing long after their defeat last May.

April 20, 2021

Anzac and Australasia: war and democracy in our national museums

The paradox of Anzac commemoration in Australia is that an acronym representing a transnational formation Australia and New Zealand known collectively as Australasia in earlier decades has come to stand for a nationalist celebration that effectively renders New Zealand invisible.

November 10, 2020

ASPIs guide to submarines leaves the biggest strategic questions unanswered

_The interested reader would see much of this report as a public relations exercise, talking down to the public, and attempting to divert questions away from the burning one. Is this submarine intended primarily as a contribution by Australia to a possible conflict in the South China Sea? If it is, the Minister and the submarine cheer squad should tell the public. The, by now, sceptical interested reader might conclude that this diversionary effort is in itself an inadvertent admission.

September 23, 2024

A depraved new low for Israel

We are witnessing a depraved, rogue nation which perhaps believes that every act of violence and horror it perpetuates is justified in the name of… what?

September 12, 2024

SBS television and 'distressing material'

It would be unfair to describe SBS television as the Australian media outlet most addicted to violence. It would be unfair unless every other outlet were scanned for their saturation with violence. At first sight however, it would seem extraordinary should any other television channel share the SBS preoccupation.

August 2, 2024

The hanging body of 7-year old Sidra Hassunah

This is what a genocide looks like.

May 31, 2023

No amount of money will fix the current health system

It has been obvious for many years that our health system needs a radical, evidence based, redesign if it is ever to meet the oft spoken goals of equality and cost-e__ff__ectiveness, with a focus on prevention and timely availability of care based on need, not financial wellbeing.

May 14, 2023

Funding the care in Primary Health Care

This has been a very good week for the recipients of primary health care (PHC) in Australia. However, a week where PHC gets a significant funding boost is also a good week for the recipients of secondary, tertiary and quaternary health care in Australia, as it means that the right people get the right care in the right place.

April 12, 2023

High stakes debate on Albanese Governments social and affordable housing plans

The Albanese Governments flagship housing legislation has stalled in the Senate, with the PM alarmingly flagging a risk that the package might be abandoned until the next election.

August 6, 2022

Andrew Bacevich: American Imperium - Untangling truth and fiction in an age of perpetual US wars (Repost from 1/1/2018)

‘Republicans and Democrats disagree today on many issues, but they are united in their resolve that the United States must remain the worlds greatest military power. In its most benign form, the consensus finds expression in extravagant and unremitting displays of affection for those who wear the uniform. Considerably less benign is a pronounced enthusiasm for putting our soldiers to work keeping America safe. This tendency finds the United States more or less permanently engaged in hostilities abroad, even as presidents from both parties take turns reiterating the nations enduring commitment to peace.’

May 19, 2022

It's time for an ICAC

Theres a three-way relationship between Australia, China and Timor-Leste. How will the next government manage it?

September 16, 2021

Obsessing over confrontation with China leads to arid policy grounds

Shaping Australias China policy is complex enough without chasing impractical outcomes. Peter Hartcher and Geoffrey Barker are concerned about the threat from China but pursuing a confrontational strategy has shortcomings.

March 16, 2020

MUNGO MACCALLUM.-Morrison's announceathon.

The bulk of the cash splash goes to business, and is unlikely to trickle down into the pockets of consumers in the foreseeable future.

October 2, 2024

Australia’s school system: losing common ground

Both in Australia and the UK, governments are moving to clean up the damage of the privatisation era. But in Australia’s school sector, far from being over, privatisation is gathering pace.

September 10, 2024

The contested politics of housing reform

While most Australians remain well-housed, few public policy experts would argue that our housing system is today in good shape. Homelessness continues to increase and both rental and mortgage affordability stress are widespread.

July 10, 2024

If you care about future generations, you should support ‘nature positive’

The most pressing problem we face is climate change. It’s even more important than – dare I say it – getting inflation down to 2 per cent by last Friday. But we mustn’t forget that climate change is just the most glaring symptom of the ultimate threat to human existence: our continuing destruction of the natural environment.

June 3, 2024

“Hungary is our Israel”: Tony Abbott and Orbán’s Danube Institute

It was announced in late in 2023 that Tony Abbott was to be a “ visiting fellow” for Viktor Orbán’s Danube Institute, a hub of ultra reactionary thought that gathers anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-feminist, anti-LGBTQIA+ speakers who celebrate the Christian Nationalist project. Or, as Abbott describes it, “a point of light to Conservatives around the world.”

September 4, 2023

Only by claiming our human rights can we prevent more crimes against our children

With the escalation of natural disasters in the last five years due to climate change it is now obvious all too painfully obvious that we have let our kids down, that we have robbed them of a decent future.

August 18, 2023

Labor offers new help for renters and first homebuyers, but PM must aim higher

Along with a new scheme for first home buyer assistance, Federally-led rental reform is now on the PMs agenda. But this weeks National Cabinet and Party Conference housing announcements need to be integrated into a coherent and ambitious long-term strategy.

July 30, 2023

Does it all seem like 1932?

Western economies have immovable stagflation that classical (include monetarist) policies wont budge, the increasingly bearish market seems incapable of getting growth, investment is in retreat, unemployment is rising and people in rich countries are starving. The Great Depression was just like that, and so is the present western capitalist economy.

June 13, 2023

Our greatest blunders

Ten years ago Anthony King and Ivor Crewe published their book The Blunders of Our Governments.

May 7, 2023

If only it was happening in Australia

The French Governments Research Minister, Silvie Retailleau, has announced a plan to shake up the countrys scientific research including investing an extra Euro 26 billion (equivalent to A$42.5 billion.)

April 3, 2023

Public servants contemplating abolition of the people

For a public servant of my acquaintance, the new and emerging problem of public administration is dealing with what she called activists and advocates.

July 15, 2021

The Drum shows continued right-wing bias in its panelist selections

Like many Australians who take an active interest in our countrys politics I have been an avid follower of the ABCs week-day current affairs program The Drum. I find the other news outlets have a right-wing preference in their reporting and so I have relied on the ABC for a balanced interpretation of each days political events.

October 15, 2020

Michael Pascoe: Forget the Daz and Glad Show, this is the real political scandal (The New Daily Oct 15, 2020)

Its the secret sexual relationship that sells the Daz and Glad Show and elevates it from being merely yet another corrupt NSW politician before the ICAC, but it also distracts punters from the much bigger scandal.

April 20, 2023

The present risks to life on earth

The splitting of the atom has changed everything, bar mans way of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophes - Albert Einstein

September 5, 2024

Professor Wang Gungwu: important recent China reflections

Prof Wang Gungwu, who is now 94, is an historian without equal. When someone alerted me that he would be giving an online lecture at HELP University in Kuala Lumpur on 10 August, I lost no time in signing up for a seat at the university’s Damansara auditorium.

September 15, 2023

Playing a losing hand

This week sees the 30th anniversary of the shameful, ill-advised Oslo Accord between Israel and Palestine.

August 14, 2023

Public service reform must be future focussed

Public service reform isback as are the old tropes of merit based appointments,frank and fearless advice, and better preparation and training for APS leaders. These legacy markers of public service excellence need a thorough rethink if tomorrows challenges are to be met.

August 11, 2023

What women need to do to shift the continuing unfair gender biases!

My 82 years of active feminism started when I was refused a drum in the kindergarten because I was a girl. So, I went home a very longterm cross activist. A few years later Simone de Beauvoir explained we were The Second Sex which offered an explanation why we were not in control. So Ive been actively agitating for gender equity ever since, as part of the new second wave.

May 24, 2023

Flood warning: full potential not achieved

The recent announcement by federal ministers Tanya Plibersek (Environment) and Murray Watt (Emergency Management) of substantial investment in upgrading the nations flood warning gauge network is welcome.But gauging is only part of the problem of flood warning: there is another element which is not routinely well recognised in flood management circles.

May 21, 2023

Post budget blues: crucial omissions

Albo, the socialist, has omitted too many social factors in his first full budget, a year after his election.

April 25, 2023

The NSW governments quiet little review of Sydney transport crises

The new NSW Government is riding its luck with quiet little piecemeal reviews of Sydney transport crises.

September 6, 2021

ANZUS at 70: Is a strategic rethink overdue?

After 70 years of living with ANZUS, through one aborted action after another, surely now is the time to give the alliance a deep rethink.

August 19, 2021

A Response to Greg Barns: what makes a story a good story?

Greg Barns has evidently found Pearls and Irritations a suitable venue for exercising his skills as a barrister that is, making a good case for someone (or something). One of these skills is, of course, ignoring the factors that dont support your argument. This doesnt matter in court, where there is another barrister employed to put the opposite argument, but readers of Pearls and Irritations have to work out for themselves what the corrective might be, and what they would conclude about the argument.

August 18, 2021

Lessons from the winds of war?

Peace, if it ever exists, will not be based on the fear of war, but on the love of peace.

It will not be the abstaining from an act, but the coming of a state of mind

Herman Wouk, The Winds of War

October 12, 2020

ACT Election: Tired and complacent versus hidebound and headstrong

The biggest argument in favour of showing the ACT Barr Labor government the door next Saturday is that it has become tired and corrupted by too many years of continuous power.

September 15, 2024

Lock 'em up, or maybe not

Incarceration is widely seen as the ultimate penalty (short of execution), and so, serious, and not-so-serious, offences are measured by the extent of the jail term. The question is, does that achieve the aims of the criminal justice system? Is incarceration a deterrent, and does it reduce the risk of re-offending? The answer provided by all the evidence, is a resounding “NO”. So what is a legislator or judicial officer to do?

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal