April 18, 2021

Do we have an oversupply of degrees?

A recent edition of The Conversation carried an article, by Small, Shaw and McPhail, titled 1 in 4 unemployed Australians has a degree. How did we get to this point.

March 17, 2020

ALLAN PATIENCE. The Leaderless Country

Australia has been leaderless since the federal election last May.

March 1, 2020

JAMES GRUBER. More Rate Cuts Coming

Get set for further interest rate cuts.

February 18, 2020

DAVID MACILWAIN. Australian media and its regulator conceal the true story of chemical weapons attacks in Syria

In writing a formal complaint to the overseer of Australian media ACMA over SBS failure to broadcast news that the OPCWs claims on chemical weapons use in Syria had been exposed as fabricated, I have encountered a Kafkaesque problem only complaints on specific broadcasts can be examined..

February 17, 2020

WANNING SUN. Australias nation-building must start re-imagining Chinese-Australians as part of the national self, not the nations internal Other

_Australia is now home to more than 1.3 million citizens of Chinese heritage. They have been profoundly alienated.

February 3, 2020

TESSA BOYD-CAINE. After the hoses,can we work together?

An example of the kind of collaboration that is possible was formed in response to the enthusiastic but initially uncoordinated pro bono legal response to the Black Saturday fires. Bushfire Legal Help, as it was called at the time, brought together the key players in pro bono legal assistance to coordinate that response, ensuring the help that was on offer was directed to where it was of most use.

April 15, 2021

I'll have what Scott's having, thanks!

It is important that all Australians be vaccinated against Covid-19, but they deserve to be able to choose the vaccine that best suits them. As the federal governments rollout plan implodes, the good news is that it now seems likely that all Australians who want it will be able to have the higher efficacy Pfizer vaccine which the PM received last month.

February 11, 2020

ABUL RIZVI. Morrison impotent on visa arrangements for Indonesians

The Australian of 10 February 2019 reports the Morrison government is considering Mr Jokos proposal for Australia to relax visa restrictions for Indonesian visitors in line with the visa on arrival arrangements for Australians visiting Indonesia.

August 26, 2022

Another unprofessional performance by Four Corners, this time on Xinjiang

Several weeks ago Four Corners gave us a special program about Xinjiang Uyghurs sent to prison-style camps and forced to learn Chinese. I watched it recently as a rebroadcast.

May 9, 2021

The role of strategic ambiguity in Australias China Policy

For half a century, strategic ambiguity about the application of ANZUS to Taiwan served Australia well. Is it time to apply this policy more broadly?

November 14, 2020

How Australia and China can begin the great defrost (AFR Nov 11, 2020)

Multilateral work together on virus relief, trade and regional debt could be a circuit-breaker for a diplomatic chill.

October 27, 2020

Foreign policy and the US election

Foreign policy has rarely been raised as an issue in the state-by-state verbalities ahead of the November 3 election. Nearly all the discussions have focused on domestic economic and social issues, with repeated arguments about the contrasting personalities and frailties of former vice-president Jo Biden and the incumbent at the White House, Donald Trump.

July 20, 2022

A national well-being budget

Every functioning household knows the importance of budgeting. No more so than when hopes, expectations and demands exceed resources available. What is possible at one moment may not be possible at another. A priority at one moment will change in different circumstances. A good budget is one that reflects the values of the household and contributes to its wellbeing. A good budget always has a long view in mind. A nation is a large-scale household. Without values that are well articulated and substantially owned, governmental policy becomes stuck on means money, rather than the value-based aspirations wealth should resource.

May 6, 2021

We must say no to war with China - and understand the propaganda tricks taking us there

China is an authoritarian state, which appears bent on creating a system of steady totalitarian control lasting decades, if not longer. It is bent on consolidating the country that was fractured by colonialism and politics, with the eventual reincorporation of Taiwan and Hong Kong.

November 1, 2020

Finding our place in the new world order - book extract (AFR 30.10.2020)

Central to understanding the emerging world order is to comprehend Chinas strategic intentions and potential. The question of whether China is an expansionary power or not becomes crucial in understanding how the new order will unfold.

March 26, 2020

ALAN TYNDALL. Stem Cell Therapy; Hype or Hope?

What do you think of when you hear the phrase stem cell therapy? Miracle cures for wheel chair bound paraplegics? Building new organs to replace burned out old ones? Eternal beauty and youth? Immortality?

February 6, 2020

HANNAH PIERCE & MADDIE DAY. State and territory governments are taking on alcohol marketing

NSW and Tasmania are lagging behind the other states and territories in restricting outdoor alcohol advertising but no jurisdiction is taking action to restrict alcohol advertising in sports stadiums.

July 27, 2021

Between the lines with Tom Switzer: China, friend or foe?

The western worlds relationships with Beijing are at their worst in more than half a century. How do we account for the rapid deterioration in Australias dealings with China? With Peter Hartcher,described by Tom Switzer as a ‘China scholar’ and David Brophy.

March 4, 2020

LYNDSAY CONNORS. What the blaze(r)s!!!

If you search for St. Kevin on the internet, you will find that the references to this Irish saint are vastly outnumbered by references to the Australian boys school that bears his name and that has been dragging that name through the mud in recent times.

November 5, 2020

The future of work is coming but it might not be what you think (The Mandarin 9 Oct, 2020)

Visions of the future of work, utopian and dystopian dot our popular culture. Thinkers behind these visions have often taken a Fukuyama-like plunge foreshadowing, if not the end of work, at least a radical re-working of the role work plays in our lives.

February 11, 2020

DAVID SHEARMAN and PHIL SHEARMAN; Anguished Scientists and the Collapse of Democracy

In the clouded eyes of government, scientific facts, which have guided our technologically advanced civilisation are now simply an opinion which can be discarded in favour of their own.

May 18, 2021

Dont Blame China For Your Governments COVID-19 Failures

The anti-China narrative is based on falsities, and serves to distract people from the failure of neoliberalism.

July 19, 2021

Youre Gonna Have a Fucking War: Mark Milleys Fight to Stop Trump from Striking Iran

The last time that General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with President Donald Trump was on January 3, 2021.

March 25, 2020

PAUL MALONE.Whos pushing foreign influence in Australia?

In seeking to target foreign interference in Australia, the Federal Government has two countries in its sights, but its not just the Russians and Chinese who play the interference game.

April 13, 2021

Response to Brendan Coates on Retirement Income System

While Brendan Coates makes some valid criticisms of Paul Keatings recent claims about Australias retirement income system, his own claims and assumptions (and those of the Retirement Income Review) are also open to question.

June 11, 2020

Australias COVID-19 response Part 2: The four successes and four failures

Australias response to coronavirus to date has been among the most successful in the world. After an exponential increase that peaked at more than 400 cases a day in late March, daily cases declined to about 20 a month later, with some states recording several successive days or weeks with no new cases. At the same time, rapid growth in infections in almost every other comparable country threatened to overwhelm their health systems.

March 8, 2020

CAMERON LECKIE. The Real China - Russia Threat

The real threat posed by China and Russia to the Western world is not a military one.

January 23, 2021

Meanness versus mindfulness: Trump versus Biden

The contrast in the content and tone of the final days of Trumps Presidency and the early days of Bidens is stark. Trump bungled, blamed, and bullied; Biden already seems competent, considered, and compassionate. Apart from Me-ness, Trumps Presidency was also characterised by Meanness; Biden is already showing a certain Mindfulness.

April 24, 2022

ANZAC's contested legacy

The evidence suggests that the Federal government sees Anzac as an attractive tool to open a new front in the culture wars and one where the Labor party might well be wedged.

November 5, 2020

A new dawn for international relations: Joe Biden and the Asia Pacific

Most of the leaders of the myriad of democracies in the Asia Pacific region slept easily in their beds on Wednesday night as Joe Biden came from behind to win first, the largest number of votes in any American presidential election and, second, what appeared to be a decisive lead in the number of electoral college votes needed to take him to the White House.

October 10, 2020

In Defence of Nomadic "Mere" Hunter-Gatherers

We increasingly hear people say that traditional Aboriginal societies were not mere hunter-gatherers. Unwittingly, this phrase downgrades the mobile foragers who occupied Australia on the eve of colonial occupation of their territory (and for tens of millennia before). The yearning to reclassify foragers as farmers reflects a dated and discredited concept of economic hierarchy.

July 22, 2021

China: A big threat to our future or misunderstood hegemon?

David Brophy and Jocelyn Chey speaking at the Politics in the Pub Forum on relations with China.

December 26, 2020

2020: The year of three-word slogans

If Scott Morrison is to be remembered for more than knifing Malcolm Turnbull, the 2019 election, bushfires, corruption and climate denial, it will be his propensity to relentlessly deploy two or three-word slogans.

March 16, 2020

NOEL TURNBULL. Mercenaries throughout history and film

The recent death of the 102 year old Michael Mad Mike Hoare reminds us of when the last of the mercenaries who fought in the worlds wars were replaced by mega-mercenary companies to which the United States and others have outsourced many military operations.

June 7, 2022

The whole idea of Home Affairs and its constituent parts needs revisiting

A government wanting to get rid of Pezzullo or determined to undo his expensive and not very efficient empire, would not necessarily have to be involved in a public argument about human rights for refugees. Home Affairs has been repeatedly criticised by bodies such as the Australian National Audit Office for waste and mismanagement of contracts, running into the billions, whether over computer purchases, facilities in Nauru and Manus Island.

March 26, 2020

BRUCE THOM.- Challenge and Response: The Current Crisis

Thinking now about our current global health/economic crisis, I see how we need creativity to get us over the proverbial hump and back to that desired state called normality.

September 4, 2022

Beggars in surplus: Australias university gangsters

With the election of a new government in Australia in May, the begging bowls were being readied by administrators in the university sector. Bloated, ungainly, ruthless and uneven in quality, the countrys universities, for the most part, had inadvertently made their case for more public funding harder.

May 9, 2021

Morrison government treatment of Indian Australians

The Morrison Government’s decision to block Australians returning from India is appalling. It is an outrageous dereliction of duty to one’s citizens. No selfrespecting government would ditch its own citizens in the manner in which the Morrison Government has.

April 7, 2021

Not much for Australians to feel 'relaxed and comfortable' about in US policy towards China.

Many of the problems in our relationship with China are of our own making the consequences of our own inept diplomacy and we should seek to resolve them bilaterally.

Attempting to resolve them by snuggling up closer to Uncle Sam and miscellaneous US allies with different agendas and history will only make matters worse.

March 22, 2020

MARCUS REUBENSTEIN: This is NOT an economic crisis!

The global reaction to the consequences of COVID-19 is absolutely warranted BUT its low mortality rate has lulled some in Australia into ignoring the fight against a highly contagious virus.

January 10, 2018

IAN McAULEY. Reframing public ideas Part 4: Economy and environment

Arguments around climate change and other environmental matters tend to assume some tradeoff between “economic” and “environmental” objectives. But the overriding principle is about making the best use of scarce resources.

July 21, 2021

"No one is safe": phone numbers of 14 world leaders on Pegasus List

TheWashington PostonTuesdayrevealedthat three presidents, 10 prime ministers, and a king are among the more than 50,000 individuals whose phone numbers appeared on aleaked listof potential targets of Pegasus, the military-grade spyware licensed by Israeli firm NSO Group, prompting human rights defenders to call for a global crackdown on the surveillance industry’s invasive technologies.

August 13, 2022

Peace needs to be waged!

Thank you, Bob Carr, for reminding us of the difference between a diplomacy of peace and a diplomacy of war (P&I, Aug 6, 2022).

August 1, 2022

Truth, lies, and pandemics

_Are we being lied to about the origins of the pandemic?

March 11, 2020

MARK BUCKLEY. Christmas Island - A huge waste of money

Who is to blame?

When one is looking at the current Government, and its ministers, and rating their general demeanour, competence, and ability to deliver decent, law-abiding administration, choosing the worst performers is tricky.

July 18, 2022

Martin Kwan: Another anti China media furphy on Kiribati's withdrawal from Pacific Islands Forum

Some speculate that Kiribatis exit from the Pacific Islands Forum was a decision influenced by China. However, the more tenable view is that this has nothing to do with China. Offloading the blame on China will unhelpfully distract focus from the inner regional issues.

December 29, 2017

RICHARD BUTLER. Turnbull and Trump: Everything Is Illuminated.- A REPOST

In New York, for the Coral Sea commemoration, Turnbull pledged permanent Australian fealty to the US and expressed agreement to Trumps concept of fake news. Rupert Murdoch presided over the ceremony. Greg Norman was present as a witness. Very illuminating.

May 31, 2022

Major parties scorecard on Palestine

In late March a YouGov poll was conducted on the topic of the Australian publics attitude on the Palestine issue. The poll was commissioned by APAN (Australian Palestine Advocacy Network) and AFOPA (Australian Friends of Palestine Association). The polls results suggested that the Government was out of touch with Australians on the issue. In particular, the Governments approach to the Occupied Palestinian Territories was considered to be simply wrong. Concerns centered around illegal Jewish settlements, apartheid, recognition of Palestine, and human rights.

July 23, 2022

The devil might not have the best tunes

_The ongoing success of Republicans and US right wingers might be characterised as being due to the devil having the best tunes.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal