July 2, 2022

Towards a new hopefulness

My hope is that our lives will declare this meeting open." June Jordan

April 2, 2022

Kathy Kelly: The people of Yemen suffer at the hands of the US, UAE and Saudi Arabia...377,000 dead

_The United Nationsestimated last fall that the Yemen death toll would top 377,000 people by the end of 2021. Compare that to the deaths in Ukraine! Our media shows no interest or concern.

February 26, 2020

ABUL RIZVI. Why the Kiwis are not coming to OZ any more

For much of the last 30 years, New Zealand has been one of Australias top source countries for migrants. But since 2013-14 Australia seems to have lost its attraction to Kiwis.

September 21, 2024

The Forever War: America’s unending conflict with itself. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck

In the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, our need to understand the US feels more immediate than ever.

August 9, 2024

Refugees and asylum seekers are camping 24/7 outside Tony Burke’s office

Refugees and asylum seekers are camping 24/7 in Punchbowl outside Tony Burke’s office from Tuesday August 6, 2024 while they wait for answers.

July 31, 2024

Street charity - Thank Allah it's friday

Following the 7 October Hamas outrage Australia has been suffering an __outburst__ __of race and religious hate. Lawyer Jillian Segal has been made a “special envoy” to counter antisemitism. A similar appointment is expected to confront Islamophobia and challenge the alleged linkage of Muslims with extremism and terror. _

June 29, 2022

DAVID O'HALLORAN : Workforce Australia will repeat the same mistakes as jobactive

Australia’s employment services system is about to have a major shake-up commencing on July 4th. The lamentable ‘jobactive’ (no capital ‘j’) is being replaced by a new program ‘Workforce Australia’. Will Workforce Australia be any better than previous designs?

August 14, 2024

The campaign to persuade: the “Voice” among Chinese Australians

We live in an era of communicative abundance and post-truth politics, where networked digital platforms shape nearly every aspect of our daily lives, from information and communication to economic and social transactions. Digital platforms have transformed truth-claiming and fact-checking into an emotionally driven process, blurring the boundaries between information and misinformation, as well as opinion and news.

April 12, 2024

Aged care funding: On the road to entrenched inequity

UK Health Minister Aneurin Bevan introduced the National Health Service (NHS) pointing out that “Illness is neither an indulgence for which people have to pay, nor an offence for which they should be penalised, but a misfortune the cost of which should be shared by the community.”

September 15, 2024

Cartoon commentary

September 10, 2024

Are the people of Israel really the chosen people?

Last month, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, an Israeli/American couple, Jon Polin and Rachael Goldberg, the parents of Hersh Goldberg Polin, an American/Israeli soldier who was a hostage with Hamas in Gaza, were afforded the respect and the courtesy of the convention when they were chosen to address the assembled members of the Democratic Party.

August 3, 2024

It’s not a “cost-of-living crisis”; it’s a failure to tax the rich - Weekly Roundup

If the well-off paid their fair share of tax no one would be talking about a cost of living crisis; Dutton weeps as his beloved Home Affairs Department, modelled on the Soviet KGB, is dismantled; how the gambling lobby has become Australia’s equivalent to America’s National Rifle Association. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues.

July 19, 2024

How Ronald Reagan started the ruination of the USA

The continuing descent of the United States into polarisation and violence is widely lamented. The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 marks the inflection when the descent began in earnest.

April 19, 2024

Biden, Netanyahu and the golden rule

International politics is frequently conducted in a way that bears little or no resemblance to how it is reported in corporate and state media, nor as it is understood in academic circles.

September 19, 2023

Overthrowing Allende: Australias special role in destroying a democracy

Every September 11, those in the United States mourn the 2001 attacks that reduced the Twin Towers to rubble and holed the Pentagon. Some 3,000 people perished. US President George W. Bush declared in a speech following the attacks that the US had been targeted for being the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world.

August 25, 2023

Home insurance bills are soaring as climate risks grow. The government should step in

TheActuaries Institute of Australiahas just confirmed what many Australian households already know home insurance is increasingly unaffordable.

September 15, 2021

America's wars in revenge for 9/11 caused nearly a million deaths

Countless innocent people died in the 20 years of war the United States launched in the name of its 9/11 dead. Tens of millions of innocent people were displaced.

August 24, 2023

The branding

The alleged branding of the Star of David on the face of a Palestinian man by Israeli police has left many around the world aghast at the barbaric cruelty and violence of such an act. It has been reported in numerous media outlets yet is, so far, glaringly left out of others. This kind of humiliation and violence seems to come from another era in a time when racial violence and the attacking of the underdog whilst authorities turned a blind eye was de rigueur. But it’s 2023.

July 4, 2023

Expensive dental care worsens inequality. Is it time for a Medicare-style Denticare scheme?

Theres growing awareness public dental programs are unable to meet the demand for services. Private dental care is increasingly unaffordable, and millions of Australians go without the treatment they need.

April 14, 2023

Chinese voters in Australian democracy

The last Federal election in 2022 saw a massive swing of voters of Chinese heritage away from the Coalition to Labor and Independents. The pattern was the same in the recent NSW state election and the Aston by-election in Victoria. All these indicate is that a long suffering marginalised victim of Australias geopolitics has finally awakened from their political slumber.

June 22, 2022

Keith Mitchelson. How long, how long the climate blues

Chris Bowen has announced reconfiguration of the energy generation system will not commence until 2025. Can Labor and Australia wait that long?

September 1, 2024

Inventing Father’s Day

Father’s Day is not what it was when first promoted in Australia in 1936 with “Give-dad-a-tie” campaign. Neither are fathers. With one marriage in four ending in separation, step-fathers proliferate, or have their places pass through a succession of “uncles”; sperm-donors, anonymous or not; same-sex households might have two dads, none or take your pick; and more great-grand-dads as male life expectancy exceeds 81 years.

July 27, 2024

Coalition to fast-track nuclear power, North Korean style - Weekly Roundup

Coalition plans to join hands with North Korea and fast-track nuclear power, how Melbourne is stretching to the South Australian border, a bipartisan board of censors to purge dirty books from public libraries. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues.

June 12, 2023

The search for The Palace Letters

The story behind Jenny Hockings epic battle against the Australian Government and HM Queen Elizabeth to access the Palace Letters is being told through a new documentary film.

June 17, 2022

Ecological services are essential for the sustainable future of our planet home

This a plea for understanding of the crucial functioning of ecological services, a complex issue requiring the interrelationship of many disciplines and most importantly a fundamental reform of economic ideology. These services must be central in the promised Independent Environmental Protection Agency.

April 27, 2021

Can you teach people to be more empathetic? Yes and no

Empathy training is trendy in the corporate world. In light of the events in Parliament House in the recent past, empathy training has arrived there too. Rather than demanding that the Liberal National MP Andrew Laming resigns for his alleged misconduct, the Prime Minister has requested that he undertakes empathy training.

July 29, 2024

Donald Trump and God: not a match made in Heaven

One of the more noteworthy features of the recent Republican convention was the reverential reception of Donald Trump. Even before Trump’s brush with death, eighty per cent of evangelical Christians supported him. What does this say about their beliefs and motives?

July 15, 2024

For-profit health insurance not adding up

An unprecedented standoff between health insurer NIB and the St Vincent’s Health Australia has captured headlines for the potential high out-of-pocket costs for thousands of hospital patients.

April 28, 2024

Podcast: Australia’s recognition of the State of Palestine an overdue move in support of peace

Respected journalist Quentin Dempster and former Ambassador to Palestine, Ali Kazak discuss the situation in Palestine and how the Australian governments reticence to recognise the State of Palestine is overdue and would be a positive action in support of peace.

September 2, 2024

The great Australian crawl

Recent P&I contributors have drawn out sharply the consequences of American influence in Australia.

July 18, 2024

Why Australian Muslim voters can no longer be ignored

The upcoming federal election can potentially mark a significant milestone in Australia’s political landscape, reflecting the increasing shift away from the two-major parties and the impact of Muslim voters in key Labor seats.

April 29, 2023

Challenging editors of the New York Times, Washington Post on their censorship of Nordstream and Ukraine

Jose Vega confronts Editors of the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times and Reuters on their censorship of Seymour Hersh, Tucker Carlson, Russiagate and Ukraine.

March 30, 2018

IAN BUCKLEY. Finding Solutions to Humankinds Neoliberal/Mercantile Crises.

In resolving the crises brought on within current neoliberal economies, a widespread recognition of their historical derivation from the mercantile political economy that Adam Smith described and condemned (1776) is crucial for effective understanding of this system, its corrupt roots and its persistence; likewise for its urgently-needed transformation to a just economy that works harmoniously for all.

September 27, 2024

Sustainability scientists challenge the dominant economic system

It is a rare event when scientists directly challenge the theory, political power and cultural embeddedness of conventional economics. And yet such a challenge is needed because neoclassical economics theory and neoliberal economics practice together form one of the principal driving forces of environmental destruction and social injustice.

September 18, 2024

The Russia-Ukraine war and NATO

The persistent debate about NATO’s role in the Ukraine conflict centres on Russia’s longstanding objection to the alliance’s expansion, which Moscow views as a threat. This historical stance is a crucial part of understanding the dynamics of the ongoing conflict, as both sides acknowledge the centrality of Ukraine’s potential NATO membership in influencing the invasion and shaping the geopolitical landscape.

April 22, 2024

As we approach the Federal budget, whatever happened to ‘Measuring What Matters’?

With the federal budget just over three weeks away, researcher Chelsea Hunnisett has some pointed questions for the Albanese Government, including: what happened to plans for a wellbeing economy, and where is your commitment to intergenerational investment for health and wellbeing? Hunnisett is a Laureate PhD Candidate and Government Relations Specialist in the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse at The Australian National University.

June 18, 2022

Paul Collins: Pope Francis keeps them guessing

_For a week or so the Vatican rumour mill has been in overdrive. How sick is Pope Francis? Will he resign? Where next for the papacy?

May 22, 2022

Alan Pears - Election May 2022 A new beginning for climate and energy policy?

Im writing this the day after the 2022 federal election, when it is clear that Australia will not have a Coalition government, but it is not yet clear whether Labor will govern in its own right, or how the composition of the Senate will influence energy and climate policy.

February 9, 2020

MUNGO MACCALLUM. The Culture Wars continue

Turnbulls legacy may not be one he will boast about, but it will certainly be remembered.

September 17, 2024

Seal of approval for the Teals?

Peter Dutton has questioned the effectiveness and value of the Teals. I live in Mayo. This has always been a solid Liberal seat. So why was Rebcca Sharkey successful? Although predating the Teals, she has many features in common with them. She had been active in the local branch of the Liberal Party, but her motivation in challenging her former boss was because they “have not had a MP who has actively represented them for years”. The people in Mayo, in common with many in so-called safe seats, were willing to vote for someone who at least allowed their voices and concerns to be heard. This has been the real achievement of the Teals: they have been able to broaden the political agenda.

August 4, 2024

Trump and Vance's theocratic republic of America

A Trump-Vance administration would likely enthusiastically embrace the Project 2025 agenda. No surer path exists for the fracturing of American society.

May 9, 2024

Labor deploys ‘security’ to protect bad policy from proper scrutiny

Politicians are increasingly using the word to justify bad policy initiatives and fend off criticism of their decisions.

April 25, 2024

ASPI chief takes exception to being singled out by China

The director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a lobby group for big tech and foreign agencies, claims that China’s alleged targeting of the agency “should be of concern to all Australians”.

May 8, 2023

The edifice sports complex, AFL and Tasmania

Historically, Australian sport has been bosom-tied to corrupt administrative and state management. Administrators of the myriad sporting codes are typically conceited in assuming they provide a service for an increasingly obese populace. The sports personalities turn up and play; spectators turn up in their colours, pies and beers; the sporting hierarchs can then claim they are doing society a service. The logical equation that follows from this is revenue raising for the facilities as long as the sporting body is not the one doing it.

September 21, 2021

Beware internet defamation: Australian law's worrying turn

An Australian defamation court case has made it a whole lot more risky for publishers or anyone, for that matter to allow third-party comments on their social media pages.

June 27, 2024

Big media firms trying to get government to cover Facebook money

Australia’s mainstream media groups are trying to pressure the government in order to obtain funding to cover the $70 million that was provided by Facebook in a deal in 2021 and which the social media group has said it will not renew when the deal lapses later this year.

May 29, 2024

No Minister, high immigration will cost us $320 billion

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has chastised Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for proposing temporary cuts to permanent immigration numbers, claiming the 25% cut would cost ‘the budget’ tens of billions of dollars. But the far bigger costs of providing durable assets for immigrants are routinely overlooked, or mis-counted as a plus because they add to the GDP.

May 7, 2024

Wall Street's corporate landlords lack accountability in Australia

Inches upon inches of press releases have heralded how Build to Rent (BTR) is coming to Australia to provide affordable and stable rentals. However, the draft legislation released by Minister Collins contains precious little for public interest outcomes.

April 8, 2021

Group of Eight universities concede to ASIO, restrict vital research engagement with China

China is provoking every country in its region. But that is no reason to cut off all contact, including scientific engagement, especially if we want to avoid war. Brian Toohey investigates another sphere in which academic freedom is being restricted by government.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal