May 3, 2022

The preferences conundrum for Independents

St Luke said: Give and you will receive. St Paul, said: Its better to give than to receive.

June 18, 2018

KEN MOAK. US-led naval operation will not change Chinas posture.

At the 2018 Shangri-La Dialogue, the defense ministers of France and the UK announced that their governments will send warships to join those of the US in challenging Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea (Naval Today, April 6). However, they did not specify how many ships the two European powers will commit to the US-led FNOPs (freedom of navigation operations) or whether they will sail within the 19-kilometer exclusive economic zone (EEZ), suggesting that neither country wants to irk China.

April 11, 2022

Negotiation by other means over Ukraine

_With Ukraines resistance beating Russian forces to a standstill around Kyiv and Russia appearing to redeploy towards the eastern Donbas region, negotiations to end this war are crawling towards a resolution.

November 4, 2020

Charlie Hebdo: free speech or provocation?

Terrible events in France a teacher beheaded, stabbings of innocent bystanders, and the shooting of a Greek orthodox priest are recent examples of a clash of cultural identity systems that remain stubbornly alien to each other. It appears that hopes for a cosmopolitan world in which cultures converse amicably and learn from each other are fast fading as angry populists and fundamentalists take centre stage.

February 13, 2020

DAPHNE WHITE.Voters don't vote their self interest,they vote their values.(Berkeleyside 2.1.2017)

What Democrats need to do is articulate their message in terms of metaphors that voters can understand, and stick to their core values, George Lakoff said.

August 1, 2022

Hush loose lips on foot and mouth scare biz

_Legini and Gimah have foot and mouth. Theyve just been vaccinated privately for Rp 100,000 ($10) each. Had an Indonesian government vet wielded the syringe the cost would have been Rp 40,000, but Ibu Bambang fears officials might seize her precious charges and give no compensation.

November 21, 2020

An Australian Muslim view on atrocities committed in Afghanistan

There are widespread calls for investigations into atrocities committed by foreign forces engaged in Afghanistan for almost two decades following Australias public release of a shocking report on Thursday 19 November 2020 alleging unlawful killings of civilians by elite Australian troops in Afghanistan. The US and European countries have been__urged to follow Australias example and hold perpetrators of war crimes accountable._

October 3, 2020

Rights in a time of pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has emphasised the civic split between those who accept that exceptional times demand exceptional measures and those who believe that nothing should trump individual rights. Bioethics should make clear whose argument should dominate, but the customs and beliefs of our pluralist time mean that ethical reasoning lacks authority.

August 22, 2020

We've been electing governments that damage our children's future (SMH August 19, 2020)

One of the most dismal ideas for our youth to entertain is that their lives won’t be as comfortable as their parents’. Everyone in the older generation knows how much their lives have improved over the decades, and how much better off we are thanourparents were.

January 23, 2021

The US Money Tree: The Untold Story of American Aid to Israel

On December 21, the United States Congresspassedthe COVID-19 Relief Package, as part of a larger $2.3 trillion bill meant to cover spending for the rest of the fiscal year. As usual, US representatives allocated a massive sum of money for Israel.

April 14, 2021

The capability of the Australian Public Service

The Centre for Policy Development (CPD) welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Finance and Public Administration References Committee to assist its inquiry into the current capability of the Australian Public Service (APS). Helping to nurture and grow public service capability to support a more effective government has been one of CPDs top priorities since we were founded in 2007. It has also been a hallmark of the careers of our founding Chairperson, John Menadue AO, and current Chairperson, Terry Moran AC, along with many members of CPDs network.

May 24, 2022

Media Watch and the Election 2022

After what has been described as a turbulent campaign, often devoid of vision, ABC’s Media Watch dissected the coverage and behaviour, and whether it swayed the final result.

February 6, 2020

MIKE SCRAFTON. A critique of SEA1000 from the outside

When critiquing governments strategic policy, the things were better in my day syndrome needs to be avoided. That these decisions and the supporting background strategic analysis and assessments are always hidden from wider view by secrecy classifications and need-to-know protocols must be accepted as must the reality that pragmatic consideration will be given to other important matters like alliance and industry policy. Still, how did SEA1000 happen?

December 14, 2020

Higher Education Bill: Disrupting human potential

The “Higher Education Bill” is one of those policies that strike their targets but carry behind a tail of undeclared impact. Here my aim is to define some of its hidden problems and to show why this law is ill-advised and dangerous.

March 12, 2020

COLUM LYNCH and ROBBIE GRAMER.-U.S. and China Turn Coronavirus Into a Geopolitical Football (Foreigh Policy(USA) 11.3.2020)

_Beijing is using the outbreak to boost its reputation for global cooperation while Washington plays the blame-Beijing game.

January 11, 2020

PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 12 January 2020

The dismal failure of the Madrid COP meeting in December starts the round up for 2020, and no one should be surprised by Australias disgraceful performance in Madrid when they see the governments latest greenhouse gas emission projections to 2030. In better news, the highest court in the Netherlands has required the government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25%. Nothing about the fires themselves, just a couple of observations about reactions to them.

December 5, 2020

Political polarisation and public policy

Pragmatism should be the dogma, not capitalism or socialism.

February 20, 2019

MARILYN HATTON. Pray and light a candle for our church in crisis.

For years a small but expanding number of Catholics in Australia have beenappealing for church reform and have struggled to gain attention from our bishops. Our prayers and entreaties for change in the clerical, male-dominated cloisters have fallen on unattentive ears.

April 4, 2022

Supposed lessons of the Ukraine tragedy for the Indo-Pacific

_The tragedy of Ukraine has elicited a plethora of opinion pieces purporting to divine lessons learned for the Indo-Pacific. Some of them make sense. But many others reflect fuzzy, biased and wishful thinking.

May 27, 2022

In Asia Media this week: Chinas official media calls for Australia and China to re-balance, Japan's papers stress peace

In Asia Media this week: China mulls its Australian links; Beijing explains its Pacific Islands courtship; ASEAN people look to China; Bangkok finally holds an election for governor; Bidens new group only at talks stage; Japanese paper stresses peace; rainbow flag stirs up a reaction.

May 3, 2022

Ukraine and the failure to implement the Minsk Agreements

The road to war in Ukraine which the West ignores.

August 18, 2022

What the strengthening Medicare Taskforce: Must do to modernise the primary health care workforce

The first of the five focus areas identified by the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce is to have a reliable training and development pipeline, to build a strong and vibrant primary health care workforce. This is a logical and critical first step, but it is a well-known maxim that form must follow function.

November 21, 2020

Bird's eye view: the markers of government-sanctioned corruption

I joined the Australian Public Service (APS) with a typical expectation of working to serve the public. The brochure looked inviting; people working happily together, and a chance to progress in an organisation that valued such common-sense ideals as working in a supportive, accountable, a-political organisation with high ethical standards. Evidently, I was wrong.

July 27, 2022

Ross Stitt: 2022 - a tipping point for preferential voting?

The rise in support for minor parties and independents may have reached a tipping point that signals trouble ahead for Labor and the Coalition under the federal preferential voting system.

April 19, 2022

Kenny Stancil: Copycat Cruelty - The Australian solution - Britain to send refugees to Rwanda

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s move to deport asylum-seekers to another country thousands of miles away will “only lead to more human suffering, chaos, and at huge expense to the U.K.,” said one refugee advocate

May 25, 2021

Australia Is Supporting the Oppression of Tamils in Sri Lanka

The International Truth and Justice Project hasdocumented many cases of torture committed by Sri Lankan police, often involving sexual violence. This draconian treatment is enshrined in laws such as the 1979 Prevention of Terrorism Act, which allows authorities to arrest suspects without a warrant and permits detention for up to eighteen months without pretrial.

February 12, 2020

GEORGE W. GRUNDY. High Stakes Gambling

It may just be that Scott Morrison is right and nearly everyone else is wrong when it comes to climate change, but our Prime Minister is playing a very high stakes gamble with Australias future by refusing to act in the face of catastrophe

May 16, 2018

MIKE SCRAFTON. Rethinking Strategic Policy

Australia is faces an increasingly novel external environment. For strategic policymakers this means discarding as much old thinking as possible in order to understand the contours of that future. Crucially, the policymaker also must remain cognisant that the sine qua non of strategic policy is the use of lethal armed force in international relations. At one end of that spectrum of violence lurks catastrophic war.

June 11, 2024

How governments hide their activities

Primary school students learn in their early days that accountability is a keystone of democracy. Not far into secondary school that reassuring notion is tempered as schoolies get to appreciate that for governments accountability equals political risk. It’s a pain in ministerial necks and should be kept within bounds sufficient to minimise electoral discomfort.

December 27, 2018

The Best of 2018: The Liberals and the Nationals Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce

Only weak and compromised Liberal Party leadership would put up with the behaviour of Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals who have influence way out of proportion to their numbers and on policy issues, are a blank page or even worse. As Ian McAuley said yesterday Barnaby Joyce is an albatross around Malcolm Turnbulls neck. It is getting worse every day.

January 23, 2019

MICHELLE ALEXANDER. Breaking the silence on Palestine (The New York Times International Edition).

Like Martin Luther King Jr. did, we must speak out about the grave injustices of our time.

June 9, 2022

KEITH MITCHELSON. Satisfying Expectations

Winning a climate election where neither major party presented nor discussed their policy details with electors has generated a blank screen of individual expectations. Can Anthony Albaneses government satisfy their diverse hopes.

May 13, 2022

The not so great debate

_Theres a scene in Fawlty Towers where Basil is so terrified of the anticipated reaction of his partner, Sybil, that he goes into a full-blown meltdown. Mr Fawlty, dont panic, Polly the waitress intones. What else is there to do? Basil screams back. I know how he feels.

May 2, 2022

Keeping the media at arm's length

The Murdoch media is a grievance factory importing foreign concepts of mistrust and outrage that have never previously had a place in Australia’s political lexicon.

March 12, 2020

JOHN FEFFER.- Will COVID-19 Kill Globalisation(Counterpunch 10.3.2020)

_At a dinner party in mid-February, an architect told me that he was having a problem finishing his building projects. It was the carpets.

September 8, 2021

The virus and social cultures: A national plan beyond Doherty

Australia needs a new and realistic national plan for emerging from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

August 29, 2021

The United State's use of Australia in the race to weaponise space

The militarisation and weaponisation of space highlight Australias integration in the US military-industrial-surveillance complex and the continuation of the US war for planetary hegemony against China and Russia.

June 30, 2021

Catholic Plenary Council - an opportunity for Indigenous reconciliation

It is encouraging that the Instrumentum Laboris (Working Document) of the Catholic Plenary Council due to meet in October 2021 affirms, We honour and acknowledge the continuing deep spiritual relationship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to this country and commit ourselves to the ongoing journey of reconciliation.

May 1, 2022

We cannot expect the Minister for Women to lead the changes for gender equality

A federal election in sight always creates feminist optimistic hopes that long-term inequities will be on agendas and addressed. But gender equality policy making in 2022 isnt working.

April 28, 2022

The Solomon Islands security deal - spilled milk

The Australian government’s lack of serious interest in addressing climate change undermines its standing across the region. For many Pacific island states, the risk from climate induced sea-level rise is existential. This creates real opportunities for Beijing which has accused Australia of acting like a “condescending master” of the Pacific island states.

April 24, 2022

The khaki election this ANZAC Day

_The khaki does not primarily represent the defence of Australia. It still represents something close to what Lord Salisbury intended it would be in the first khaki election of 1900: the defence of the empire.

August 16, 2022

Marwan Bishara: Why Israel hates the Palestinians so much

Israels hatred of the Palestinians is shaped and driven by three basic sentiments.

August 15, 2020

Why the West Needs to Stop its Moralising against China (E-International Relations August 10, 2020)

The great German philosopher Leibniz put it well over three centuries ago. Writing in his `Discourse on the Natural Theology of the Chinese he stated, `I did not want to examine to what extent the manner of worship of the Chinese could be condemned or justified I only wanted to investigate their doctrines.

May 16, 2018

DAVID TIMBS. The Catholic Church in Australia. Who has the Moral Authority?

For many of Australias Catholic bishops business as usual meant denial that the culture, structures and processes of the Church were part of the problem. They had cut themselves off from the lived experience of ordinary Catholics and what they wanted their Church to be. If the planned Plenary (national) Council in 2020/2021 is to make any headway towards a new business model, the bishops will need to undertake a very serious campaign of listening, post-haste.

March 12, 2019

PATRICIA & DON EDGAR. The Farce Called Community consultation.

Yarra City Council touts community consultation as part of its resident-friendly credentials. But our recent experience suggests the process is a farce. It demonstrates why public disillusionment with government and a bureaucratic process is at an all time high for transparency is completely lacking.

June 22, 2018

Vietnam: Investigate Police Response to Mass Protests.

Hundreds Detained in Sweeping Crackdown

March 25, 2018

ANDREW FARRAN. The Brexit withdrawal agreement for the transition tabled

The Brexit negotiators have produced a lengthy and complex draft agreement to provide for all procedural aspects of Britains withdrawal over the transitional period. It is concerned to preserve acquired individual rights and to enable the institutions (including judicial and law enforcement institutions) to operate effectively meanwhile. The substantive issue of Britains trade and community relationship with the Union after withdrawal still remains to be settled.

June 22, 2020

John Menadue. Comments on Pearls and Irritations.

January 13, 2019

LAURIE PATTON. The NBNs year of reckoning

2019 is shaping up as the year well be forced to face the fact we are building a National Broadband Network that simply isnt good enough. Its also the year our major telcos will start rolling out their capital-intensive 5G mobile networks, having spent millions of dollars buying up spectrum from the federal government. However, as a nation keen to be a leader in the 21st Centurys digitally-enabled world wed arguably be better off spending money fixing the dud NBN before investing in mobile networks few people in the know reckon will add much to the consumer experience.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal