September 3, 2022

What is it with pollies, tanks and defence waste?

What is with politicians and tanks and other armoured vehicles?

January 29, 2020

ABUL RIZVI. The Australian again falls for Government spin on the record number of asylum seekers arriving by air.

I_n a front page exclusive on 28 January, Geoff Chambers and Joe Kelly of The Australian uncritically regurgitate the Governments talking points on asylum seekers arriving by plane. Either they are just innocents with no idea how to do the job of a journalist or they see their role as purely to defend the Government._

August 21, 2021

Sunday environmental round up

Take-away messages from the IPCCs climate science report and what it means for Australia. Environmental battlegrounds in the current session of parliament. Legal challenges to ministerial discretion and little-known threatened animals.

May 10, 2021

The data show no hint of racism in the India flight ban, though the backlash might be a game changer!

There is no statistical justification for a claim that the India flight ban had a racist basis. Instead, it is clear the commonwealth government was reacting to a huge spike in infected arrivals, placing the quarantine system under pressure. But the backlash from the India ban might jolt the government into accepting their responsibility for quarantine.

Various commentators have raised concerns here and here and in mainstream media that the ban may have had a racist basis because Australia did not ban flights from the US and the UK when their Covid pandemic problems were at their peak, but did ban flights from India when it reached its peak.

April 8, 2021

PNG: the colony Australia tries to forget

Australias ham-handed history of colonialism, in what today is the independent state of Papua New Guinea, began in 1883 when Queensland pre-emptively annexed the southeastern corner (Papua) of the great island of New Guinea in the name of the British Crown. (The British were not amused).

March 19, 2020

RICHARD HORTON.- Scientists have been sounding the alarm for months. Why did Britain fail to act?(The Guardian 19.3.2020)

On 24 January, Chinese doctors and scientists reported the first description of a new disease caused by a novel coronavirus.

May 26, 2021

Belarus is a follower, not a leader like the US in forced landings and attempted kidnappings.

What Belarus did, while illegal, is not unprecedented. The dangerous tactic was pioneered by the U.S. and E.U. in an attempt to arrest Edward Snowden in 2013. Despite the rhetoric, the US is often in breach of the ‘rule-based international order’ when it suits its own purposes.

August 17, 2022

Ice age conditions after even "limited" nuclear war would starve billions

An important new study published in Nature Food on 15 August by Lili Xia and Alan Robock of Rutgers University together with colleagues around the globe shows just how dangerous even a “limited” nuclear war in one part of the world would be.

April 21, 2021

China's geopolitical reach extends to Iran

After an attack on its main nuclear facility in Natanz on 11 April, quite likely by Israel, President Hasan Rouhani said that Iran will begin enriching uranium to 60 per cent. From a technical point of view, that would put Iran within a short sprint to full-fledged weapon-grade (90 per cent) uranium enrichment.

June 30, 2021

The passing of the present and the decline of America

When it comes to Americas role in the world, however, it becomes difficult to profess even modest optimism. If Biden clings to a calcified and militarized conception of national security as he appears intent on doing he will put his entire presidency at risk. Rather than restoring American primacy, he will accelerate American decline…The American experiment in dictating the course of history has reached a dead end.

February 16, 2020

Moral Disengagement, Honesty, Transparency, Accountability and the Sports Rort

Generally speaking, most people desire to behave ethically and within moral bounds.

April 29, 2022

John Howard calls Independents 'groupies'

Former Prime Minister John Howard has been called out for his appalling and sexist language in describing the teal Independents as groupies. Surely Howard knew the negative connotations of the word groupie commonly used to describe young women who follow around rock groups and celebrities to offer them sex.

April 25, 2022

Labor! Tell the story of us

The story of us: theres a great tale Labor could tell about how it would govern - it just needs to start telling it.

November 7, 2020

Paralysis by analysis: Extravagance clots Michael Pezzullo's security sermon (Canberra Times, Nov 3)

Pezzullo’s 2020 list tries to cover everything, a serious failure. As pointed out by US scholars, if policy makers try to address all imaginable threats, security will paralyse government.

September 12, 2020

Cuban and American healthcare (CounterPunch Sep 3, 2020)

Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate and longer life expectancy than the US while spending less than 10% per person annually on healthcare. Cuban healthcare is much better and very much cheaper than US healthcare.

November 28, 2020

China-Australia relations: ex-Australia foreign minister says Canberra must drop adversarial approach to fix frozen relationship (South China Morning Post Nov 24, 2020)

Only a herculean shift in foreign policy, a change of government or major external event will thaw a frozen relationship between China and Australia that has been damaged by a lack of diplomacy from Canberra that has compounded over the past three years, according to former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr.

May 10, 2021

Veteran suicide: secret men's business

“When I put my hand up [with PTSD], I was basically told to f off. The second time I did it, I was told I was lying. . . . It does stall your career, if not halt it completely, youre less of a personespecially for the guys youre less of a man for owning up to having issues”. A former Australiansoldier.

April 7, 2021

British meddling in Hong Kong's court of appeal

The British Government still maintains significant influence in Hong Kong through the appointing of British subjects within Hong Kong’s highest court, the Court of Final Appeal, and have used this influence for geopolitical advantage.

April 13, 2021

Housing affordability is a problem. Heres why super-for-housing isnt a solution

The idea that young Australians should be able to dip into their super to help buy their first home keeps going round and round. The most recent iteration put forward by the Coalitions Tim Wilson and a clutch of other backbenchers has the catchy sloganHome First, Super Second.

October 17, 2020

There is only one solution to the Amy Coney Barrett debacle. Democrats must expand the courts (Nation Oct 13, 2020)

_The benefits of court expansion are so manifest that Id be willing, as a Democrat, to put additional Republican nominees on the court, too.

January 2, 2021

Paranoid politics is back - again

Paranoid politics always seem to be with us in some form or other. It has ebbed and flowed for centuries but in the past year, it has seemed more like a flood than a flow.

April 12, 2021

Are there lessons for the rest of the world in Australias management of covid-19 and the "corona-recession"?

One could question whether Australia is leading the pack in recovering from the corona-recession.

November 17, 2020

Peter Drysdale and Yongjun Zhang. How Australia and China can begin the great defrost

Australia and China may find it helpful to look to Asian cooperation centred on ASEAN for the circuit-breaker needed to begin repair in their bilateral relationship.

April 13, 2021

Melissa Parke successfully settles defamation case against pro-Israeli commentator

Melissa Parke has successfully settled defamation legal proceedings with pro-Israeli commentator Colin Rubenstein over his claims that Parke had been anti-Semitic in her remarks on Israeli treatment of Palestinians.

April 8, 2021

Media in the Asian Century.

If Defence is going to be Peter Duttons springboard to greater power, he has a like mind in the United States in Mike Pompeo who is hoping to rally the defeated Republicans towards victory in 2024.

January 2, 2019

THE GUARDIAN EDITORIAL Reforming capitalism: from controversy to consensus

The claim that Britains economic model is systemically unjust was recently deemed radical and extreme. Now it is indisputable.

February 24, 2020

Australia turns its back on the rule of law

Australias efforts to block an International Criminal Court investigation into alleged war crimes in Palestine are inexplicable, given the courts brief to investigate abuses from all sources, be they Hamas, Palestinian paramilitary, or Israel.

May 17, 2021

The way, the truth and the life of Reilly

A few weeks after the First Fleet stopped at Port Jackson and disgorged a representative collection of thieves, cheats and vagabonds, the British House of Lords began the impeachment trial of Warren Hastings, the recent Governor-General of India for the East India Company, accused of looting the wealth of India on an epic scale – certainly more than all of the convicts and prisoners of Great Britain were capable of stealing in their lifetimes.

May 16, 2018

DAVID COWARD. The man who did for Mao - a review of a biography of Simon Leys by Philippe Paquet

In 1932, Malcolm Muggeridge, then based in Moscow for the Manchester Guardian, filed reports of what he had found out about Soviet Russia, from the food shortages and forced labour to the deaths of 3 million people following the collectivization of agriculture in the Ukraine. His copy was censored and he was ridiculed by the liberal establishment, which preferred the Webbs rosier view of the New Civilization in the East. Muggeridge concluded that people believe lies not because they are plausible but because they want to believe them.

June 12, 2022

Letter to new Health Minister Mark Butler

Congratulations on your impressive achievement. It is now time for policy implementation. I hope you have a huge agenda. Supporting Medicare is not enough. Our health needs have changed and we know much more about what is needed to meet those needs than we did when Medicare was introduced. We have to embrace the changes and reform Medicare.

February 10, 2021

A 'rules-based order' is ambiguous for good reason

The Rules-Based Order is a diplomatic tool as it can mean many things to many people. A helpful response to anyone using the term is to ask whose rules, which rules, and why are they using it?

January 2, 2021

Cold War-era spy novels have much to tell us about the US, China and the new year (SCMP Dec 29, 2020)

So what about this coming year? Maybe it will be better (oh, yes please). But who knows? Public opinion surveys, which certainly have seen better days, are not so good at prediction: some people prefer to keep their feelings secret. Social science studies can be useful, but narrow.

June 27, 2022

Myanmar: providing life-saving aid through the military government while minimising military interference

_Aid agencies say the Myanmar junta is attacking villages and wiping out communities as collective punishment against those who it cannot identify but who the military claims allegedly support the Peoples Defence Forces.

June 13, 2022

Quad Hypocrisy on the Law of the Sea

The Quads statements regarding upholding the international order are hugely hypocritical when it come to the Law of the Sea.

January 16, 2018

PETER BRENT. Peter Dutton for Prime Minister!

Peter Dutton is a household name. Most Australians would see the inaugural home affairs minister as tough and politically incorrect proudly so tolerating no nonsense from do-gooders and bleeding hearts. He doesnt take a backward step; his often bellicose pronouncements about asylum seekers and migrants delight fans and incense opponents. Dutton has run the government side of the latest News CorpCoalition tag-team outrage campaign the one about Melbournes African crime wave. He is, perhaps, the worthiest of todays crop to assume the mantle of the legendary John Howard.

July 30, 2022

Do Australians pay too much income tax? Six charts on how we rank against the rest of the world

Australians pay too much income tax or so some argue.

August 18, 2024

Tackling the issues swept aside by mainstream media

Pearls and Irritations is one of the few media with an independent voice left in Australia that is willing to focus on issues of substance. May their voice grow stronger!

Donor, August 2024

May 18, 2021

The path to petty tyranny and public poverty

The new style of government, and the growth of spending by unaccountable discretion, owes as much to the pandemic as to the personality and secretiveness of Scott Morrison. We are on a path to petty tyranny and public poverty.

July 19, 2022

The Wong position on ASEAN

What are Southeast Asiansattitudes towards Australia? Distrust, bewilderment, admiration, contempt, indifference pick your prejudice. How about disbelief? The best and latest indicator came with reaction to Foreign Minister Penny Wongs introducing the new Australian government to the people next door in Indonesian.

February 13, 2020

JEFF KILDEA. The Irish Elections of 2020

_Perhaps, after almost 100 years, the time has finally arrived when we can declare the Irish Civil War to be over.

April 17, 2022

Brett Wilkins: The US arms industry, Ukraine and the media

“The people who have the most interest in influencing the direction of the media coverage of the Ukraine War are weapons-makers.”

March 8, 2020

NICK JANS. Post-2020 Disaster community recovery: lessons from Black Saturday

There is an abundance of evidence about what we need to do to prepare ourselves for bushfires but there is very little about the best way to encourage post disaster community recovery.

September 19, 2022

NDIS Justice for over 65s

The Australian government is about to be involved in its biggest, and most morally embarrassing, class action since the Robodebt scandal. Thousands of seriously disabled people excluded from the services provided by NDIS if they were over 65 when the scheme was introduced or who became disabled after they were 65, will be eligible to join the class action. And the damages could be huge.

June 10, 2022

Close encounter of China-Australia military aircraft raises questions

A close encounter between Australian and Chinese military aircraft over the South China Sea has resulted in mutual accusations of provocative and dangerous behaviour and raised many questions. Here is what we know and what we need to know before drawing conclusions.

March 12, 2020

DAVID SOLOMON. Don't panic. The economy is fine.

The economy is in good shape. Got that?

January 19, 2021

How Murdoch, Abeles twisted the arm of the Hawke Government to help Ansett at the expense of Qantas. (Edited and reposted from 1.1.2019))

Rupert Murdoch repeatedly says that he has never asked a prime minister for anything. That is quite brazen. I know, from personal experience, that this claim is just not true.

September 21, 2022

Productivity Commission review ignores repressive structure of Australian school system

The Productivity Commissions interim report on school reform has conjured up some good ideas, but it ignores the regressive structure of Australias school system and how it acts as an anchor on school improvement.

August 7, 2022

Jeffrey Sachs and Neil Harrison: Did US biotechnology help to create COVID-19?

_NEW YORK When US President Joe Biden asked the United States Intelligence Community to determine the origin of COVID-19, its conclusion was remarkably understated but nonetheless shocking.

December 19, 2018

WA public schools lose billions under new Education Agreement.

Public schools will lose about $6.1 billion in funding over ten years from 2018 under the new Bilateral Agreement between the Commonwealth and Western Australian Governments published last week. It means that public schools will be under-funded by about $4.6 billion to 2027. In contrast, a special provision in the Agreement will allow private schools to continue to be over-funded. What a legacy by a Labor Government!

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal