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Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal

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Letters
July 6, 2024

RBA thinks unemployment queues are still too short - Weekly Roundup

Economists call for a cut in interest rates, but the RBA thinks the unemployment queues are still too short; the Greens and the ABC help launch a far-right political movement and land a blow on secularism; the case for disenfranchising men. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues.

June 30, 2024

Primates are human: Archbishop Gough

“Why did GOUGH GO OFF like that?” the satirical OZ magazine asked in June 1966 after the Rt Rev. Hugh Rowland Gough had resigned as Anglican Archbishop of Sydney and Primate of Australia. The official statement had mentioned ill health.

May 7, 2023

Treatment and support services for gambling harm

For someone who is experiencing gambling harm, either due to their own gambling or someone else’s gambling, finding a quality service is often difficult.

September 29, 2024

Suppose Australia was more independent and less dumb

Look at how favourably situated Australia is in the world. As the foundations were put in place for the Asian Century, most profoundly by China, Australia was in the right place at the right time and it benefitted inordinately. Looking forward, as the rise of China continues and a range of Asian countries, including India, Indonesia and Vietnam, look set to follow suit, further marvellous opportunities beckon. And our response: Australia is now turning itself into a massively militarised American satellite state. How did we let this happen?

April 22, 2024

Departure of Justice Richard Refshauge: end of an era

It was a particularly technical legal point. The colleague was an experienced trial advocate with a case in which he felt there was a slim plot of fertile ground on which he might be able to appeal. But he just couldn’t quite work out how all the pieces might come together.

September 6, 2023

Channel 7 fostering fascist politics

The Right is obsessed with gender. This deep paranoia comes out of America and international far right movements. It harms straight people and LGBTQIA+ people differently, and we need to fight it before our copycat Right entrenches it here too.

August 29, 2023

A new Aged Care Act cannot fix a broken system

Age 65 is no longer relevant to define older people in a new Aged Care Act. It was introduced by Bismarck in Prussia in the 19th century at a time when life expectancy was less than 50 and few people lived past 65. It was reinforced by the US Social Security Act under Roosevelt in 1935 when life expectancy was 58.

July 19, 2023

What gets some whitefellas angry and anxious

There is nothing that agitates some whitefellas more than an intelligent, articulate and charismatic blackfella.

July 13, 2023

Climate Change: Australias fashion industry needs urgent, transformative action

How many times does Australia need to be told that national actions by all stakeholders across industries or sectors are urgently needed to address climate change challenges and to avoid the destructive impacts of GHG emissions?

June 17, 2023

Cricket and ethics: Always more to do

Cricket has always had a difficult relationship with ethics and integrity. This is notwithstanding two things: the games pride in the saying Its not cricket to describe anything unfair, and the inclusion in the games Laws of a Preamble called The Spirit of Cricket to guide player behaviour.

May 19, 2023

A Labor budget to address workforce shortages in aged care

A 15% pay rise forms the centrepiece of Labors 2023 aged care budget. It is one of three significant aged care reforms that Labor has introduced since coming to office a new funding model, mandated minimum staffing and now a pay rise for aged care workers. Its a great start. But there is much more to be done.

July 30, 2022

Keith Mitchelson: The thievery of British Petroleum started in Australia

_Global oil companies like to be thought of positively. British Petroleum was initiated by a colonial Australian conman, and there is virtually no evidence of any improvement in its business culture since then.

June 26, 2024

Meta and media minnows

It is hard to know whether the bleatings of the major media outlets about losing the Meta $70 million payments under the media bargaining code are pathetic or laughable. Indeed, perhaps both.

June 22, 2024

Nuclear fantasy a “dangerous and expensive farce” - Weekly Roundup

Malcolm Turnbull calls Dutton’s nuclear fantasy a “dangerous and expensive farce”, how the far right won ground in the European elections while the left won ground in Poland, public policy ideas from Pope Francis and Lucy Turnbull. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues.

June 21, 2024

What ye sow ye reap

There’s nothing profound about the Biblical quote; variations are embedded in many religions and cultures.

June 15, 2023

AUKUS Coming to dinner

With billions of dollars on the banquet table, Australia should choose its dinner guests wisely.

September 2, 2024

Indonesia: going for gold

While in Canberra on 20 August, Defence Minister and President-elect Prabowo Subianto made it clear that Indonesia remains avowedly non-aligned. This stance and how Indonesia perceives the world needs to underpin our relationship.

May 8, 2024

Australia: the land of lost revenue

Australia once thought of itself as a country of opportunity and innovation – economically and socially. Like most countries self-beliefs, the thought was not always matched by reality. Indeed, it would arguably be better to see Australia as a land of lost opportunities with many of those losses being biggest and most damaging in recent decades.

May 3, 2024

The media must surely act now to rebuild public confidence

Community trust in journalism is at an all-time low. Even politicians rate higher.

September 16, 2023

The mirage of China's offensive nuclear strategy

In previous articles, I’ve articulated why I adopted a skeptical and analytical mindset from a young age, particularly in the realm of geopolitical claims made by nation-states in the nuclear age. Now, let’s shift our focus to China’s nuclear strategy.

July 4, 2022

Unpacking court packing

When proposals are made to increase the size of the US Supreme Court and appoint new centrist judges, there is an understandable reticence of anybody to pack the courts. I think that the reticents should come straight out and say that they hate court packing.

May 15, 2024

Cartoon commentary

September 8, 2023

Old truths creeping into the light

Recently, while trawling the net, I stumbled upon something startling. As a young man, my great-grandfather had unearthed a hideous crime. Against Aborigines.

July 31, 2022

Peter Brooks and Peter Lewis-Hughes: A possible roadmap for a national pandemic plan

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted weaknesses and disconnections within Australian Health systems which significantly impacted on our ability to reliably detect and respond to this outbreak in a timely, effective and efficient manner.

May 7, 2023

Scotland a shining example in youth justice

As 2022 closed, WAs main juvenile detention centre, Banksia Hill, grabbed national attention when one of its buildings was burned to the ground by rioting inmates, who scaled the fences in a stand-off with the riot squad.

December 5, 2017

MARK BEESON: When worlds collide: The unlikely relationship between Australia and China

The debate about Australias relationship with China is characterized by a degree of mutual incomprehension born of difference. Both sides share some of the blame for the current bilateral tensions.

August 28, 2024

NT election result may point to the end for Labor

Labor has got its comeuppance in the Northern Territory, losing power in a double-digit swing to the Country Liberals. With a first-ever seat for the Greens, it sets a pattern that could carry through all the way to Canberra and the Federal Election due by September next year.

July 20, 2024

CFMEU just one part of a dysfunctional, high-cost industry - Weekly Roundup

Is the CFMEU just one small part of a dysfunctional and high-cost industry, is Australia immune from populist demagogues, can the Reserve Bank read the market signals, can ABC journalists stop talking about “a cost-of-living crisis”? Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues.

July 17, 2024

Protest rights: diffuse, proscribed and discretionary

With no formal constitutional provisions or bill of rights the right to protest in Australia relies upon common law judicial interpretations, is heavily politicised and proscribed by governments in legislation, and relies for administration in a highly discretionary manner by police. _

July 30, 2023

Contrasting trends in military recruitment between the U.S. and China

The US and China are at the forefront of new AI-imbued military technology development, and are the worlds undoubted leading military powers. But, while the US struggles to recruit highly educated personnel to its military; in China, out of over one hundred thousand recruits in 2022, 80% are tertiary educated, with more than half holding bachelors degrees. Will this trend affect the military balance between the US and China as weaponry and battlefield management gets more technology-intensive?

June 25, 2023

The price of irresponsibility: irrational fear

The recklessness of Australian politicians and mainstream media and the damage which that has caused, is abundantly clear in the latest poll, carried out by the Lowy Institute on Australian attitudes to China.

May 24, 2023

The contracting echo chambers of the Transatlantic powers

Speak softly and carry a big stick.

The pithy words spoken by US President Theodore Roosevelt in 1901 has been said to be his ideal policy for the US.But in recent years, the big stick diplomacy has proven to be too simplistic for the world they used to dominate.

May 14, 2023

Nuremberg trials for imperiling mass extinction of species

While leaders fail to protect the people from global warming and nuclear war, they have succeeded splendidly in hiding the truth through the denial of climate change, accounting tricks and claims of reduction in domestic emissions, while in fact opening new coal mines, oil wells and fracked coal seams,exporting hydrocarbons through the entire global atmosphere.

February 16, 2021

What's the point of Labor?

As the Labor Opposition jettisons policies on negative gearing, capital gains taxes, franking credits and climate change policies that dont embrace coal you have to ask whats the point of Labor?

August 22, 2024

A critique of 'a world call to action' on the multiple crises now enfolding humanity

This initiative is important in making a strenuous plea for urgent action on the global “poly crisis”. But it fails to make clear the fundamental cause of the problem, or the way out of it.

May 20, 2024

The budget that forgot health

Every element of Australia’s health system is in trouble. But you’d never know it from looking at this year’s budget.

May 16, 2023

Interest rates and housing: should we panic yet?

_Affordable house pricing has been an issue for as long as most of us can remember. Our grandparents bought their first homes when their annual salaries were just a shade less than the purchase price. By the time the 80s rolled around, the difference was much more stark, it was likely a home could be twice the annual salary but when the 90s hit and interest rates, already at record levels of 12% surged forward to 17.5% it looked like nothing could ever be worse.

August 23, 2024

Dutton, Gaza and why we need an emergency protection framework

Peter Dutton’s politicised dog-whistling about visas for people fleeing the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza ignores the devastation and extreme risk for innocent civilians trapped in a violent conflict.

August 2, 2024

Universities Australia grows a spine

ATEC discussion paper gets a resounding smackdown.

April 13, 2024

Australia's destructive housing inequality - Weekly Roundup

Housing inequality has put Australia on a destructive trajectory, how the Coalition blocks economic reform, Australia’s changing politics played out in Tasmania. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues.

May 12, 2023

The doors to Assanges cell will not open by themselves

Despite a year of grace given to the Prime Minister for quiet diplomacy to work, the release of Julian Assange from political incarceration and extradition looks as remote as ever so it seems its time to get out the loudhailer once more.

July 12, 2024

The importance of a robust media ecosystem in the Pacific

A robust, well-functioning media ecosystem across the Pacific is an essential pillar of democracy and vital to good governance. If Australia is genuine about partnering with the region, it must advocate for the role of public interest media and why citizens should demand and support it.

July 2, 2024

Dutton’s and Littleproud’s huge economic own goal

The Dutton-Littleproud nuclear plan will make us poorer than we need to be and leave us more heavily in debt.

April 20, 2024

Morrison’s gone, but the stench of corruption hangs over the Liberal Party - Weekly Roundup

An industry policy in development, baby steps towards a carbon price, lessons for independent MPs who want to start a party, the virtue of working less. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues.

September 23, 2023

An ugly smudge on an exceptional bike race: When bosses attacked a worker in the Vuelta a Espaa

It will be the workers, with their courage, resolution, and self-sacrifice, who will be chiefly responsible for achieving victory. The petty bourgeoisie will hesitate as long as possible and remain fearful, irresolute and inactive; but when victory is certain it will claim it for itself and will call upon the workers to behave in an orderly fashion, and it will exclude the proletariat from the fruits of victory. _Karl Marx, 1850, Address of the Central Committee to the Communist League

June 28, 2023

Propaganda works: But Australians still do not want war

The latest Lowy Institute Poll reflects a range of complicated and confusing Australian reactions to our place in the world; the threats we face; and what we think we should do about them.

July 9, 2022

Climate emergency actions are needed not just promises

_Labor didn’t so much win the election gaining only 32% of the primary vote - they just didn’t lose it quite as badly as the Coalition, scraping into government because they were not as reprehensible on climate and integrity.

July 8, 2022

The them and us narrative

The scourge that looms large in the present conflicts between the West and Russia/China is the Them and Us narrative that seems to pervade analysis of geopolitics.

July 7, 2022

Ukraine: The demise of the West

The more events proved them to be wrong, the stronger their defences became against admitting this to be the case’ Norman Dixon (On the Psychology of Military Incompetence)

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