April 12, 2024

At last, the battle to save the NDIS has begun

Almost unnoticed, the federal government has quietly pushed a Bill into parliament that will transform the NDIS as we know it.

August 27, 2023

Self-determination is a choice: The Voice Referendum and what follows

The truth is that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people successfully governed themselves for over 60,000 years and Australia need only get out of the way so they can continue.

August 4, 2022

Raising Warragamba Dam is not the best flood mitigation strategy, Premier

_Last week, New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said that raising Warragamba Dam was the best strategy for managing the flood problem in the Hawkesbury-Nepean valley. It is not. It is not even a good strategy, or close to one.

August 23, 2024

Digital technology: blessing or curse?

The challenge we face with digital technology is not just managing it; it’s about what it’s doing to us.

June 13, 2024

Population and Pedder: the United Tasmania Group

With what passes for Australia’s population debate in the spotlight again, some history might prove illuminating, especially environmental history.

September 24, 2023

Catholic boarding school experiences: the need for a balanced perspective

Avid readers each day of Pearls and Irritations (of which I am one) hopefully enjoyed Paddy Gourleys review of Martin Flanagans new memoir The Empty Honour Board: A School Memoir. Stimulated by that review I have now read Flanagans remarkably honest and painful memoir. His story is consistent with repeated accounts of sexual abuse and unwarranted physical punishment in Catholic schools across Australia in the 1950s and onwards. Bad news receives more attention than good news. However there are and were many teachers in the Catholic education system (the vast majority probably) whose fine contributions have been accidentally tarnished by the necessary accounts of abuse including the one written by Flanagan.

April 27, 2023

Serious budget repair requires hard superannuation reform

The_Financial Review_s political editor, Phillip Coorey, wrote last week that when it comes to superannuation policy, the Grattan Institute increasingly resembles the financial policy arm of the Greens. I am not exactly sure what that means and I am Grattans lead on super policy but Im pretty sure he didnt mean it as a compliment.

July 29, 2021

Car parks: certainly corrupt and probably illegal

An Audit Office report led to condemnation of processes behind Commonwealth funding of commuter car parks. This is like merely looking at not even touching deckchairs on the Titanic.

June 6, 2021

The politics of reaching net-zero

Rapid technological change is necessary but not sufficient to avoid dangerous climate change. Policies to encourage selective consumption and reduced total consumption are also needed.

February 16, 2021

Forgive them for they know not what they do: stop putting kids in jail

There are more than 600 children aged 10 to 13 in prison in Australia, 65% of whom are of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage. A private members’ bill has been introduced to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14, yet it is opposed by Attorney-General Christian Porter. Surely Australia is ready to stop locking up children?

September 18, 2024

Damned lies and school statistics... again

The Australian Education Union (AEU) has compared public funding going to private schools with amounts going to similar government schools. Its revelations are alarming and should be game-changing. One private school peak group has cried foul, but the union is on the money. So what should happen next?

April 10, 2023

A fizzled campaign to muzzle free speech

Antisemitism, like all forms of racism, is a scourge and Australia has not been immune to it. Traditional antisemitism is not hard to identify or call out whether it is in graffiti, slogans or slurs. However, when it comes to debate over Israel and Palestine, what is or is not antisemitic is a highly political issue.

August 13, 2022

Integrating care for better health

Complexity is part of our contemporary experience and mind-bogglingly complicated health systems make even small changes difficult and broad reform almost impossible.

August 22, 2021

Promoting inclusion instead of hatred in the pandemic.

This week, beginning the 17thof August, it is reported that many people are breaking Covid-19 restriction laws.According to the Deputy Commissioner Rick Nuggent, police issued 42 fines in the last 24 hour (between 17th and 18th of August).These fines included people found at overnight illegal parties in contradiction of Covid restrictions.

June 29, 2021

Can we have confidence in the Therapeutic Goods Administration?

Two recent decisions by the TGA have further reduced the confidence that health professionals and consumers have in the regulation of complementary medicines. The first was allowing complementary medicines as a reward for people vaccinated against COVID-19. The second was approving a TGA assessed (Aust L(A)) application for Caruso’s Prostate EZE Max.

May 20, 2021

Early childhood education, access and equity: lessons from China

As the much-touted childcare funding in the federal budget appears increasingly as an announcement, rather than a commitment, perhaps we should be looking to China to start developing long-term strategies to reform Australias early childhood education and care (ECEC) system.

April 14, 2021

Australian Medical Association's aged care money grab

The Australian Medical Association, a lobby group and peak body for doctors, has offered up a thinly disguised money-grab in the form of expert recommendations in response to the Aged Care Royal Commission.

August 22, 2024

Three years after the Taliban’s return, Afghanistan is a broken country swarming with terrorists again

This week marks the third year since America’s retreat from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s return to power.

July 23, 2024

Uncle Robbie Thorpe progresses Aboriginal genocide case in Victorian Supreme court

Krauatungalung elder Uncle Robbie Thorpe stood at the bar in the Victorian Supreme Court self-represented last Friday to challenge the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria and the state attorney general, regarding the lower court’s registrar having refused to accept a charge sheet he’d tried to submit.

July 19, 2024

UK water industry still about investors and not consumers

One oft-proven way to make money is to pick up a few gems among a pile of discarded mining rubble.

July 18, 2024

Net movement of Australian Citizens reverses in 2023-24

A much under-reported part of net migration is the net movement (short-term and long-term) of Australian citizens. At 37,380, a new record for the positive net movement of Australian citizens, other than in the first year of covid, was set in 2023-24. That makes the Government’s net migration forecast of 395,000 in 2023-24 even more implausible.

July 1, 2024

Dutton goes the full Trump

As was made obvious on the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday (23 June), Peter Dutton has gone full Trump – say anything to own the headlines, positive or negative doesn’t matter, truth and facts don’t matter.

May 29, 2024

The unheard voices: how society silences women

In our country and across the world, the voices of women often go unheard. Whether it is a gasping plea of ‘I can’t breathe’ or a harrowing confession of ‘He raped me,’ the voices of women are frequently dismissed, disbelieved, or outright ignored. This tragic reality stems from a deeply ingrained societal bias that views women as manipulative, deceitful, and cunning. Through this gendered lens, society perpetuates a culture of scepticism and distrust toward women, effectively demonising them and invalidating their experiences.

May 21, 2024

What's wrong with the media?

If you are in Melbourne and travel though the CBD along Collins Street on the 109 tram you pass a nondescript building called Collins House.

April 25, 2024

Will the freedom flotilla sail to Gaza?

The non-violence training to join the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s ships to Gaza has been intense. As hundreds of us from 32 countries gathered in Istanbul, we were briefed about what we might encounter on this voyage. “We have to be ready for every possibility,” our trainers insisted.

August 31, 2023

Game-changer: defence industry revolving door database

Do you have information about revolving door appointments involving Australias weapons industry? Its time to speak up and contribute to a new database set to expose corruption.

June 24, 2023

How were Indigenous warriors who did wear 'the uniform' treated?

While there are some such as Major General Melick - concerned about not depicting warriors in the Frontier Wars, because they didnt wear a uniform, in the Australian War Memorial, it is worth remembering how appalling the treatment of Indigenous veterans who did wear the uniform over the last century or so were treated.

June 11, 2023

Welcoming the New TAFE, a spring-board to fulfilling working lives

A TAFE system built around ideas for running 1950s American car-making factories is pretty much an anachronism in Australia in 2023, particularly when our future depends on innovation and rising productivity. But before New TAFE starts, Old TAFE must have a long, hard look at itself.

June 16, 2021

The G7, NATO and the demonisation of China

The G7 and NATO summits have made it abundantly clear that the global economic and military focus will remain on China. The demonisation of China has taken a serious step forward as Bidens mantra-like statement that America is back begins to sound even more ominous.

November 4, 2020

Open letter to the Prime Minister from more than 70 Australians opposing the $498m redevelopment of the Australian War Memorial

The Australian War Memorial development project will have major heritage impacts on the Memorial, a place that has deep meaning for all Australians. The intervention by the Australian Heritage Council, the governments principal adviser on heritage matters, shows that reconsideration of the project is imperative.

July 14, 2023

Curiouser and curiouser Western Australian Wonderland

It is often said that truth is stranger than fiction and indeed, that is the way I am feeling about the news that the Australian Medical Association (WA Branch), which has a registered training organisation (RTO) that offers a number of short courses and certificate and diploma programs, has recently advertised a Diploma in Nursing.

April 11, 2023

Menzies, Dutton and the Liberal party

There is a huge difference between the problem Robert Menzies faced in creating the Liberal Party from the ruins of the United Australia Party during the second World War, and that facing Peter Dutton as he tries to unify the Liberal Party after its succession of defeats at federal and state levels in the past year or so.

August 5, 2021

A republic and Indigenous recognition

With minimal changes to the Constitution, Australia can become a republic and recognise the truth that our indigenous peoples were the first occupants of this land.

July 22, 2021

Australia's alliance with the United States: passed its use by date

Australia’s alliance with the United States has become an unthinking custom and practice. It has already cost us dearly in both blood and treasure with little to show for it. It is time to look at the alternatives.

July 20, 2021

The Cuban protest and the sixty year illegal US blockade

The US and its allies talk loudly about maintaining a rules based order but in a recent UN General Assembly deliberation there was a vote of 184 to 2 (US and Israel) demanding an end to the illegal 60 year economic boycott of Cuba. The US will ignore the UN vote.The US cherry picks the ‘rules based order’ when it suits it. Australia does the same.

April 18, 2021

Will the Five Eyes stare down Chinas economic coercion? So far their self interest looks to be winning out.

_For at least some products , Australia may not so much be left alone on the playing field as substituted off and only able to watch from the sidelines.

November 29, 2017

TERRY MORAN. Back in the game. Part 2 of 2.

Active and effective government

I want to highlight two messages from the attitudes research that I referred to in Part 1. _First, the health of our democracy cant be divorced from the health of our public institutions and our public sector._Second, getting back in the game means investing in an Australian Public Service (and a Victorian Public Service) that can think for itself, not smothering it with a dominant microeconomic paradigm that no longer works and the community no longer supports.

September 11, 2024

The loss of global influence by the United States is China’s gain

The world doesn’t see an “indispensable nation” in America, only one that is ‘dysfunctional at home and pursuing naked self-interest abroad’

May 15, 2024

Protesters for Palestine targeted by Group of 8 universities

Fuelled by well armed pro Israel groups and by university administrators’ decision to move police and riot squads to break up peaceful encampments, a terrible thuggery has invaded US universities.

August 14, 2023

Australias decision to again use the term occupied Palestinian territories brings it into line with international law

Australias minister for foreign affairs, Penny Wong, hasannouncedAustralia will return to use of the term occupied Palestinian territories.

August 5, 2023

Fragmented and desultory training responsible for public service tragedies

CANBERRA 2 August 2023.– One of Australias longest-serving senior federal bureaucrats Andrew Metcalfe says poor training, insufficient funding and sometimes fragmented and desultory efforts by the public service were responsible some of Australias greatest public administrations tragedies.

July 2, 2023

40,000 infrastructure defects reported in Sydney Trains maintenance backlog

It took a Ministerial review to say what should have been blindingly obvious to each of Sydney Trains, the Transport Asset Holding Entity, Transport for NSW and Treasury: the timetable is defective and there is a maintenance backlog evidenced by a reported 40,000 infrastructure defects.

December 31, 2020

Polarisation decades in the making

Between 70% and 80% of Republican voters believe the recent Presidential election was rigged. While its astonishing funding it is not simply representative of the Trump years but more a reflection of steadily developing attitudes over some decades.

September 3, 2024

Chinese culture helps advance modernisation

China’s traditional culture has contributed greatly to the country’s modernisation. Yet it is not the only factor that has advanced Chinese modernisation. The process of modernisation has been driven by factors such as industrialisation and greater equality brought about by socialism, which have been provided by the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

July 15, 2024

Student visa holders applying for asylum

Since March 2018, over 13,700 student visa holders have applied for asylum. This does not include temporary graduate visa holders who may have applied for asylum. The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) uses the number of asylum applications by student visa holders as a risk indicator which can lead to an increase in offshore student visa refusals (but gives this indicator a relatively low weight).

June 27, 2024

Challenging monetised individuality as the basis of our futures

This is a mildly edited part of my 1995 Boyer Lectures, which we have seriously failed to follow. I offer it now as evidence of our failure to include the social part of our lives in the Gross Domestic Product model of society by assuming monetised individuality and competition as the basis our futures!

June 3, 2023

Slowly changing the trajectory?

At the post-budget Press Club lunch, Treasurer Chalmers made a telling comment about the meaning of social security and, by extension, the role of government.

September 10, 2024

The LGBTQI community is not your convenient plaything

We all know the 2026 Census story, but to step out the key points: there’s a government form in development; it includes questions dealing with sexuality and/or gender identity; there are concerns about subsequent public sensitivities; government says “no” to the questions being asked because there might be bad feelings.

August 20, 2024

UK and Hong Kong riots: similarities and differences

One would’ve had to have been living in a cave not to have been aware of the recent street violence in the United Kingdom. For those of us who lived through the riots here in Hong Kong in 2019 and 2020, there was an extreme feeling of déjà vu as we watched attacks on police, smashed storefronts, looting and general mayhem across the UK. To be fair, the Hong Kong riots did not feature either mounted policemen or police dogs, one is unsure if this was good or bad.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal