May 4, 2021

The future of Australian coal: an Australia-China relations perspective

Despite rising tension, both Australia and China are having success looking further afield for buyers and sellers of key resources, but their resilience faces some stumbling blocks.

September 21, 2022

UN report on Xinjiang is depressing in more ways than one

‘May” is such a wonderful word in the English language. It can support perhaps the deadliest of accusations but can simply be justified by “Hey! I said ‘may’, didn’t I?”

September 25, 2022

Xi and Putin vow mutual support, but military backing unlikely, analysts say

Leaders of China and Russia agree to expand cooperation in areas such as trade and agriculture, but no mention of armed forces.

May 28, 2022

Weekly roundup Saturday 28 May

Weekly roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy.

July 19, 2022

Abbott chickens come home to roost

Tony Abbott, as prime minister nearly a decade ago, had more than a few bees under his bonnet. He thought his election had redeemed the nation from an intolerable scourge of a government of criminals. Other opposition leaders have engaged in this sort of hyperbole, but scarcely ever with the zeal and lack of restraint, of Abbott.

June 1, 2022

Bachelet in China: Insights into Human Rights and Xinjiang

UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet’s recent visit to China did not impress an international press that has made the treatment of the mainly Muslim Uighur people of Xinjiang province a major ground for the West’s political attacks on China. Their negative comments have missed the main point of the visit, which has opened a new avenue for valuable dialogue.

June 15, 2022

ROBIN CAVALIER: Age distinctions increasingly influencing political outcomes

Thanks to the Australian Electoral Commission’s age profile for each electorate it is possible to analyse how younger and older voters across the nation appear to have taken different paths.

September 27, 2018

PATRICK MAGUIRE. Why Corbyn is promising a “green jobs revolution” (New Statesman)

The Labour leader’s promise to create 400,000 new skilled jobs is a direct pitch to Brexit Britain – and an implicit criticism of Gordon Brown and New Labour.

September 3, 2022

Oliver Frankel's Monthly digest - Housing is a human right, not a commodity

This is the latest monthly digest of articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material about housing stress/affordability and homelessness.

March 11, 2020

MICHAEL GRACEY. ‘THE GAP’. A rhetorical thought bubble with good intentions

In February 2008 then Prime Minister Rudd stated that “our challenge . . . is to embrace a new partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians”.

July 5, 2020

“Independent” think-tank ASPI behind push for more defence spending rakes in advisory fees

Funded by the Department of Defence, the Australia Strategic Policy Institute collects millions more as it drives the “China threat” narrative. As Marcus Reubenstein reports, while ASPI is the media’s go-to experts for public comment, ASPI is remarkably coy about revealing all its funding sources.

September 30, 2022

Mexico honours Julian Assange

Julian Assange’s family, his father John Shipton and his brother Gabriel Shipton, have returned from Mexico where they were invited to attend the celebrations of Mexico’s Independence Day by the Mexican President, Andreas Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is affectionately known as AMLO from his initials.

July 25, 2022

John Quelch: When will Australia break the habit of sucking its thumb whilst clutching the imperial coat tail?

We need to develop the habit of thinking independently in our own national interests.

January 10, 2019

JAKE JOHNSON. Facebook let corporate partners read users' private messages.

Just hours after civil rights groups called on Facebook’s top executives to step down from the company’s board for allowing “viral propaganda” and “bigoted campaigns” to spread on the platform, demands for CEO Mark Zuckerberg to resign intensified after a bombshell New York Times report late Tuesday detailed a “special arrangement” the social media behemoth had with tech corporations that gave them access to users’ data and private messages without consent.

September 20, 2022

Australia and US–China rivalry

US–China competition is a defining challenge of the present. Much attention has focussed on the behaviour of these two great powers and their impact on global affairs. But as the US–China rivalry persists, an important question is what third parties can do — especially countries like Australia that have huge stakes in maintaining productive relations with both powers.

August 30, 2022

What a difference - Joe Stiglitz the economist and Jim Chalmers the treasurer!

In July an Economics Nobel Prize winner took the time to visit Canberra to meet the new Australian Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. Joseph Stiglitz was visiting Australia as a guest of the Australia Institute.

April 13, 2022

The need for a department of climate change is now self-evident

The time has come for a powerful government Climate Department to allow strong action on legislating, regulating, and coordinating mitigation, adaptation, and transition.

July 5, 2020

Morrison beating the drums of war

Scott Morrison’s most recent statements regarding defence and security are chilling reminders that a war with China is no longer merely a possibility, but that real plans are being made in real time.

April 16, 2021

War footing groupthink; subsidies and socialism; glasshouses and stones

Upside down, inside out and black is white. Journalists fall over themselves to paint Scott Morrison as a courageous leader, the Financial Review lauds the “very affordable” housing market, in defiance of just about every expert in the country, and Tax Office attacks from an employee of Murdoch’s News Australia, whose approach to tax surely needs little explanation.

August 31, 2022

Suffer the little children

The plains are polluted. On a windless day – and they’re common – there’s no need for a sniff-o-meter to count the particles – just stand in a high place and scan the smogscape below.

June 27, 2021

The world will not mourn the decline of US hegemony (February 2018)

The death count resulting from “American Era” U.S. foreign policy runs well into the many millions.

November 1, 2020

Lady Chatterley and Alexander Portnoy: Narrowing the Limits of Censorship in Australia

On the eve of the sixtieth anniversary of the Lady Chatterley’s Lover trial in London it still is not clear why Allen Lane and his fellow Directors at Penguin felt able to print 200,000 copies of the book prior to the trial which they had been clearly warned would result. But they gambled and they won. Patrick Mullins’ study of The Trials of Portnoy published this month by Scribe tells us a large part of how Penguin Books Australia finessed the strategy to beat the ban on Portney’s Complaint fifty years ago.

April 14, 2022

Johnny Mok: Is Hong Kong’s rule of law in decline?

Hong Kong’s global ranking on the rule of law is close to the UK’s and has changed little since 2015

May 9, 2022

Gender anxiety on The Right

The furore within the Liberal Party about Katherine Deves. Fox star Tucker Carlson’s accidentally homoerotic trailer for his new “documentary,” The End of Men. Even, partially, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. All share the hard right’s obsession with strong men and imposing order.

December 27, 2020

The US blatantly ignores international laws and rules in Diego Garcia (Repost 3 July 2020)

China is rightly criticised for building islands for military purposes in the South China Sea while ignoring an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) brought by the Philippines. But what of the US in Diego Garcia?

August 24, 2022

Peace with Justice: Lessons from the Anthropocene and for Ukraine

Imagining the arrival of peace with justice in Ukraine needs two caveats. In any peace negotiations, Ukrainian citizens’ judgements about the future should be a priority.

November 22, 2020

The war reparations of Sidney Nolan and Benjamin Britten - reckless innocence?

Was the Anglo-Australian cultural cringe solely a one way transmission from settler colony to metropole mothership? I have been re-examining the possibility that Australian creatives might have influenced British culture over the past century, especially since the Second World War.

February 4, 2019

JOCELYN PIXLEY. Trying to revive Howard-Costello market slogans.

The Coalition’s strategies for 2019’s election include reiterating Howard-Costello slogans. Australia’s 1996-2007 racist divisiveness is a factor while its economic policies copied decades of attacks (UK and USA) on social justice. But the sainted banks delivered the GFC just as Howard lost his own seat. Rudd-Gillard prevented the worst finance crisis fallout of other rich democracies but could not reverse Howard’s tax cuts for the affluent, largesse to private schools, lards of privatisations, plus a Goods and Services Tax on everyone else, while unions’ ability to gain fair wages was reduced. Can Howard slogans resonate in 2019?

May 1, 2018

Public servant to the First Australians.

Funeral Homily for Barrie Dexter CBE. Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, 26 April 2018. Listen on SoundCloud [commencing at 2:00]

In Australia, there have been many children of the manse who have gone on to be great contributors to Australian society, regardless of their own religious faith or practice. Barrie Dexter was one of them.

November 1, 2020

Martin Wolf. Global role of US at stake (AFR Oct 28, 2020)

If Trump retains the presidency, the world will draw its conclusions on the US’ future role.

October 4, 2020

The Struggle with China is not a Replay of the Cold War: Remarks to the Asia American Forum

Washington has declared war on China. The administration and its allies hope that the war will be “cold,” but have no strategy for keeping it so. I find it noteworthy that the most belligerently anti-Chinese members of the current U.S. Senate are also its youngest.

September 30, 2022

The best journalists are persecuted and despised

The best western journalists are overwhelmingly despised while the worst are acclaimed millionaires. Western civilisation is built on lies, dependent on lies, powered by lies. Don’t seek widespread approval. It’s worthless.

May 4, 2022

Vale: Stephen Darley

Stephen Darley passed away on 15th April, 2022 aged 66. He is of great loss to his family, friends and comrades and the organisations which he served with such commitment.

March 16, 2020

JOHN TAN. How the corporate media is helping Biden and normalising neoliberalism.

The corporate media is sneaking opinion into news reports, masquerading as fact. Not too subtle but a very effective form of propaganda now saturating our lives; changing what we believe to be normal; and playing on our insecurity and fears.

February 5, 2020

PAUL BARRY. The News Corp. denial on Climate Change.(Media Watch 3.1.2020)

Passionate denial that the bushfires should make us act on climate change runs right across the Murdoch media in this country reaching an audience of millions.

March 11, 2020

NOEL TURNBULL. The foundational U.S. myth

All societies survive on myths – whether fraudulent, foundational or both – but one of the most widely of those celebrated among Western world nations (other than Christmas and which encompasses both) is the US Thanksgiving holiday.

February 24, 2020

JONATHAN PAUL MARSHALL: Confusions of Australian Energy Policy

Current Australian Energy Policy is confused in both parties, but seems aimed at supporting coal, while not helping investment in Renewables

September 2, 2022

Ruan Zongze: US must stop sleep walking in the Taiwan Strait

Both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China. Taiwan is part of China’s territory. Although the two sides have been politically against each other for a long time, China’s state sovereignty and territorial integrity has never been split.

March 3, 2020

MARCUS REUBENSTEIN: Please give this face a name

Western reports on COVID-19 have overwhelmingly been produced under a simple banner of ‘China’. It’s a homogeneous label that ignores the human face of Chinese people everywhere.

February 14, 2020

MIKE SCRAFTON. Traps, Trump and Thucydides

The Belfer Center has announced the winner of the public competition run by Harvard academic Graham Allison to ‘craft a grand strategy to meet the China challenge’. Allison’s concept of a Thucydides Trap was the theme of the competition. The lessons of Thucydides are more profound.

January 31, 2020

DAVID STEPHENS. What will be the Nelsonian Legacy at the Australian War Memorial?

When it was announced that Dr Brendan Nelson was finishing up as Director of the Australian War Memorial, _the Chair of the Memorial Council, Kerry Stokes, said_ Dr Nelson’s ‘enduring legacy’ will be the Memorial’s $498 million expansion program. There is a strong argument, however, that a more notable Nelsonian legacy is the Memorial’s eagerness to chase and receive donations from arms manufacturers.

August 26, 2022

Defamation reform

A meeting of Attorneys-General was convened on 12 August in Melbourne and chaired by Commonwealth Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC.

April 8, 2022

Charles Pierson: Biden promised to stop supporting Saudi aggression in Yemen. He lied

_Will Biden betray Yemen once again in return for cheaper gas for suburban moms’ SUVs and victory at the polls in November?

April 22, 2021

Chinese propaganda has come to Indonesia, big time.

Before you book a flight to Aotearoa in the travel bubble, think again. There are other places with knockout scenery, higher mountains, clear lakes and splendid grasslands. The roads are straight and free of cluttering campervans. Better still, the sunny locals are keen to share their exotic cuisine and rich culture of singing, dancing, equestrian skills and falconry.

February 14, 2021

Timeless tale about the evils of corrupt power and its enablers

Hans Christian Anderson’s folktale The Emperor’s New Clothes provides a salutary reminder of how easy it is to stay silent about, and remain complicit in, corruption when the consequences of challenging such behaviour risk personal comforts.

October 21, 2020

A once in a century opportunity missed- A Liveable Income Guarantee

Ignoring for now the failure to promise an increase in Newstart, the general chorus emanating from commentators on the budget has been critical of the omission of serious money for social housing, for an increased childcare subsidy, and for increased rental assistance – all of which would have provided instant and widespread stimulatory bang for the buck.

February 6, 2020

KATE GRIFFITHS,DANIELLE WOOD and TONY CHEN.Big money and the 2019 election (The Conversation 4.1.2020)

_Amid the ongoing bushfire and coronavirus crises – and the political kerfuffle surrounding the Nationals and Greens – you’d be forgiven for missing the annual release of the federal political donations data this week.

February 5, 2018

SUSAN RYAN. Ruddock and the religious freedom review.

In commercial matters religious freedom needs no further protection. There is no case for extending exemptions from existing anti-discrimination measures to the commercial provision of facilities, catering, furniture or entertainment that may play a part in hospitality following a marriage. Such goods and services are not a legal part of the civil marriage contract and should not attract the religious freedom protections that apply to the conduct of the marriage ceremony. The commercial provision of services is legally separate from the Marriage Act and is covered by the 2013 amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act_._

We need a Human Rights Act. Professor Spencer Zifcak drafted a model Act ten years ago.See link below

(This is a shortened version of Susan Ryan’s submission to the Ruddock review)

January 29, 2020

RAY BRICKNELL. Fixing our Democracy - Step one - Community Involvement in Policy Formulation

The Problem. As indicated in an earlier post, there is a fundamental deceit in the concept of governments claiming to have a mandate to introduce particular policies on the basis that the policy was presented as part of a multi-policy election platform, and the party proposing that policy was subsequently elected.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal