December 19, 2016

ALISON BROINOWSKI. What side are we on in Syria and Iraq?

The mainstream media are agonising about the Syrian governments nearly completed overthrow of rebels and the devastation of Aleppo. But the fog of war is not a sufficient excuse for their utter confusion about who the enemy is. The Australian Government doesnt seem to know either, nor to have any idea what a successful outcome would be. As the latest example of vacuum that is at the core of our defence and foreign policy, we can expect soon to be involved in retaking Fallujah for the Iraqis against whom US and coalition forces led by Australian General Jim Molan fought over it in 2004.

May 14, 2017

LOUIS COOPER. Trump and Trudeau - Trouble at the border

The political, economic and social connections between Canada and the United States of America are being kicked and stomped on.

February 7, 2015

John Dwyer. Health Policy Reform Commentary - Part 2

In the first part of my commentary on John Menadues Health Policy Reform in his blog, I discussed the barriers frustrating any reform agenda. In this second part I will comment on John Menadues suggestions for overcoming these obstacles to health reform and provide my own thoughts on what a reformed health system might look like.

In his blog he commented that seldom do we stand back and ask the central issue: what do we need and expect from a health system? For some years now I have presented the following answer to that question to professional and community audiences. We need, deserve and can afford a health system that—-

January 23, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Baird and Turnbull.

Apart from his regret at losing the nearest thing to a mate among the premiers, Turnbull must be feeling more than a little conflicted, because the inevitable comparisons that will be made between the two leaders will not be in his favour.

June 27, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. Saving Medicare.

In an earlier article in this blog, I outlined how Medicare is under threat but not for the reasons outlined by Bill Shorten. The threat is the erosion of Medicare from within by the power of vested interests and in this case, private health insurance. This vested interests wants to bend Medicare to its own ends and take us down the disastrous US private health insurance path. That would destroy Medicare.

December 12, 2016

KELLIE TRANTER. FOI documents expose Australia's unlawful invasion of Syria.

‘Make no mistake: we unlawfully invaded a sovereign state.’~ Kellie Tranter

Not one journalist in the country - although I am happy to stand corrected - asked either the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Attorney General or the Defence Minister to explain how the Government of Syria was ‘unwilling or unable’ to prevent attacks.

May 6, 2015

LAUNCHING NEXT MONDAY. 11 May 2015. Policy Series

Fairness, Opportunity and Security A Policy Series to fill the policy vacuum. Edited by Michael Keating and John Menadue.

On May 11 in this blog- Pearls and Irritations- we will begin a series of articles on important policy issues. There will be over forty articles on sixteen policy areas from over thirty contributors. The series will run for four to five weeks.

Each of the policy articles will be about 2000 words. They will be realistic, given our political and financial constraints.

September 27, 2016

FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Another win for 'David' Timor against 'Goliath' Australia

David Timor has once again scored a win against Goliath Australia in the international legal forum. Last time it was in the International Court of Justice which took strong exception to Australia’s raiding of the office of a lawyer involved in the preparation of Timor Leste’s case, though admittedly Australia’s one ad hoc judge did dissent on key points from the other 15 judges!

August 8, 2014

John Menadue. Diplomatic lessons for Canberra.

In my blog of July 31 ‘Overplaying one’s hand’ I said that there were clear lessons to be learned from the disasters of MH370 and MH17. The lessons are - don’t overplay your hand or overstate your case for domestic political reasons.

Today in the SMH, Paul McGeough, see link below, refers to the failure of megaphone diplomacy over the loss of MH17. He says ‘While Abbott and Bishop opted for megaphone diplomacy against the rebels’ sponsors in Moscow, Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, quietly made phone calls to the rebel leadership in Donetsk, in which he achieved essential outcomes - the release of the refrigerated train on which the rebels had stored the 200 or more bodies and the handling over to Malaysian officials of the Boeing 777’s black boxes, which are essential for crash investigators.’

April 10, 2017

MASSIMO FAGGIOLI. Are US Catholics too American to stand up to Trump?

It also reveals a much more complex issue the deep-seated fear of the state within American Catholicism and of the gap between US Catholicism and the global Catholic Churchs view on the state and of political authority.This creates a complicated situation for the Catholic Church in the United States and its role to be one of the voices that questions the trajectories of the nation under Donald Trump.

August 13, 2014

Peter Sivey. Health budget: GP care isn't the problem, costly specialist care is.

The opening of eight new medical schoolsin Australia in the past decade has seen amassive increasein the number of new doctors entering the workforce. The number of new junior doctors graduating in Australia doubled between 2004 and 2011. But while fears of an overall shortage of doctors seem assuaged, we dont have the right mix of doctors.

A recent trend is the increasing specialisation of the medical workforce. In 1999, 45% of Australian doctors were general practitioners (GPs) but this proportionhad fallento 38% by 2009. Similar trends can be observed in the United States and United Kingdom.

September 30, 2015

Ian McAuley. Economic Management, Lobbyists and the Coalition Government.

On Abbotts political departure David Marr wrote in The Guardian Within days of his fall hes looking like a prime minister Australia once had a long time ago.

Most people and organisations who have given him unwavering support ever since his narrow win as Opposition Leader in 2009 were remarkably quick in endorsing Turnbulls judgement that he has not been capable of providing the economic leadership our nation needs.

Of course many independent economists had been saying that and more about Abbotts economic management it was indeed disastrous. But the surprising phenomenon was the sudden turnaround by those who had been loyal right up to the end.

December 18, 2016

Putin interferes in US election. In the past the CIA interfered in Japan.

The following is a New York Times Report of October 9, 1994. In a major covert operation of the cold war, the Central Intelligence Agency spent millions of dollars to support the conservative party that dominated Japan’s politics for a generation.

February 18, 2015

John Menadue. Privatisation a worn-out ideology.

Voters are making it plain that they are not keen on privatisation. Economic research also tells us that the evidence in favour of privatisation is not conclusive.

Conservatives claim that privately owned businesses are better managed than public ones, but I suggest that the main reason for increased productivity of businesses that are sold is not privatisation but the deregulation of the market, offered at the same time or in anticipation of privatisation.

March 28, 2017

PAT POWER. Nuclear disarmament.

I find it incredible that Australia is refusing to be part of the UN negotiations on a new treaty to outlaw nuclear weapons.

March 3, 2025

A five-minute scroll

The Australian media continues its hysteria over the China warships. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledges all support for Ukraine, while Israel’s Netanyahu thanks Donald Trump for his support. Meanwhile, our US alliance has been in crisis for longer than we think.

April 25, 2017

ALISON BROINOWSKI. What Australian Foreign Policy?

Insider, analyst and adviser Allan Gyngell finds that Australian defence and foreign policy are more bipartisan than ever. But even as Australias national security agenda metastesizes, we have more to fear from an unreliable ally and an increasingly lawless world.

February 10, 2017

Local boy makes good!

Michael Kelly SJ, a regular correspondent for Pearls and Irritations, met with Pope Francis on February 9.

In the photo below Pope Francis greets Father Michael Kelly SJ, executive director of ucanews.com on the occasion of receiving the English edition of La Civita Cattolica, at the Vatican February 9 (Photo L’Osservatore Romano)

January 19, 2017

OLIVER FRANKEL. Short-term leases salt in the wounds of unaffordability for long-term renters

An increasing number of Australians are being forced into long-term rental accommodation, unable to afford the prohibitive and ever-increasing cost of home ownership. In the private rental market, heavily debt-laden, individual landlords are the norm. Their short-term investment outlook deprives renters seeking security of tenure of the ability to achieve it. For tenants struggling with affordability, this is salt in their wounds.

May 10, 2017

MICHAEL KEATING. The 2017 Budget - A welcome change in direction. Part 2 of 2

Budget repair was never going to be easy. That is one reason why it has taken so long with quite a few false starts. While some of the individual decisions in this Budget are debateable, overall the quality of the policy changes is good. Probably a greater concern is that some very significant policy issues havent been adequately addressed.

August 21, 2016

RICHARD BROINOWSKI. The Battle of Long Tan turns Fifty

Some excitement was generated in the Australian press around 15 August when it was reported that the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan would be commemorated by Australians at the site of the battle at a rubber plantation in Phuoc Tuy Province. So it was - by a small and subdued group of ex-diggers with no medals, uniforms, ANZAC pomp nor post-ceremonial piss-up, nor even a brass band or bagpipes. Festive crowds of Australian tourists who wanted to go were not allowed. In fact the event may not have gone ahead at all but for some eleventh hour pleading by Prime Minister Turnbull to his opposite number in Hanoi.

July 8, 2016

John Tulloh. The Defence Department prepares for war.

The release of the Chilcot report revives a memory from late 2002 or early 2003. Washington, London and Canberra were abuzz with talk of military action against the Iraqi regime of President Saddam Hussein. President George W. Bush accused him of having weapons of mass destruction and aiding al-Qaeda, the 9/11 terrorists. The war drums were sounding. Alan Moir, of the Sydney Morning Herald, had a cartoon showing Bush in a cowboy hat whooping it up aboard a missile heading for Baghdad. Tony Blair, the British PM, was sitting behind him looking just as enthusiastic. But sitting at the rear was our John Howard looking nervous and uncertain. He was portrayed saying something to the effect of Seriously, we still havent decided.

June 23, 2016

SPENCER ZIFCAK. First Law Officer vs Second Law Officer: George Brandis Undermines Justin Gleeson (Part 1)

It has become a regrettable pattern in the legal world for Attorney-General, George Brandis, to seek to undermine holders of independent legal offices with whom he has disagreed.

One thinks back only a year, to recall his vociferous attack on Gillian Triggs, the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission. This attack followed from the Commissions release of an extensively researched report on the severe ill-treatment of children in Australias offshore refugee detention centres. The findings were damning. Brandis accused Triggs of bias and then had his head of department offer her a senior position in some other less contentious area of government. To her great credit, she refused the offer.

August 24, 2014

Kieran Tapsell. George Pell's logic on child sex abuse is flawed

In his video appearance before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on 21 August 2014, the former Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, insisted that the Catholic Church should be treated like every other organisation in society. It should not be held responsible for the crimes of its priests in the same way as the ownership or leadership of a trucking company is not responsible if one of its drivers picks up a hitchhiker and molests her.

April 10, 2017

And Jesus said unto Paul of Ryan ...

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times on March 16, 2017, writes about a ‘discussion’ between Jesus and Paul Ryan, the Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives. Ryan claims that Catholicism has shaped his political views. Is Nicholas Kristof’s account a parable or a parody. John Menadue.

July 7, 2016

RICHARD BUTLER. The Invasion of Iraq: Will anyone be brought to trial, held to account ?

There was anxiety about why it had taken 7 years for the result of the UKs Iraq Enquiry to be published. Would it prove to be a whitewash of Tony Blair and his decisions?

Within minutes of watching its Chair, Sir John Chilcot, introduce to the public the Enquirys report, yesterday, it was clear that those apprehensions were not be fulfilled.

March 15, 2015

David Stephens. Anzackery in the time of Anzac

Anniversaries sharpen sensations and heighten moods. Christmas brings on good feelings, New Year provokes resolutions, siblings faults are set aside on their birthdays. Centenaries accentuate this quite normal process. The centenary of Anzac has brought on a welter of commemoration, slopping over into celebration, with a good lashing of commercialisation as well. Honest History revived the term Anzackery to apply to what was happening.

The word Anzackery seems to have been coined by the historian Geoffrey Serle in 1967 to describe Anzac Day addresses from his primary school days in the 1930s, when fire-breathing officers from the Great War described how Australia had been born at Gallipoli. Professor Stuart Macintyre used the word to the present author in March 2013 and attributed it to Serle. Some years earlier James Curran had wrongly taken Anzackery to be Serles synonym for Australian nationalism in general.

July 4, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. How about a spill of the Canberra Press Gallery?

After the election the media is telling us how Malcolm Turnbulls authority has been shattered; Turnbull faces big Senate hurdle; numbers dont stack up in the Senate for a joint sitting on union crackdown; Turnbull faces angry back bench; double dissolution throws up wild mix in Senate; Turnbull is now a lame duck of his own making and how Malcolm Turnbull spent eight weeks trying to be boring in the election campaign.

But what a contrast this is to what our mainstream media was telling us in March about what a genius Malcolm Turnbull was in calling a double dissolution to outflank all his opponents. The decision to hold a double dissolution was called a master stroke. Houdini was free! The press gallery almost without exception told us that he had wedged Labor on industrial relations and was exposing a weak leader.

May 14, 2017

Is the sun setting on the US imperium?

China is on the march to a dominant military footprint while American policy lacks strategic intent.

March 30, 2016

John Menadue. State income taxes another political diversion?

Malcolm Turnbulls suggestion of states entering the income tax field may please state rightists in the Liberal party, but it will damage our national aspirations and our national society and economy.

In the repost below, Michael Keating, almost two years ago emphasised the importance of the commonwealth governments domination of income taxes since 1942. This commonwealth government supremacy has been a key factor in building our successful national economy and society. Or as Paul Keating has said, the commonwealths income tax monopoly is the glue that holds us together.

August 30, 2016

PAUL BUDDE. The financial future of NBN?

By late 2016 seven years after the launch of the NBN over two million premises were able to connect to the NBN. So far three-quarters have access to FttH (fibre to the home), the remainder to wireless and satellite networks. The revised rollout of the so-called MTM (multi-technology mix) based on FttN and HFC) only began in earnest in 2016. The NBN company has now fine-tuned its rollout strategy and is set to extend the network by 40,000 premises a week; but from here on FttH will play only a minor role, mainly in greenfield installations.

March 22, 2017

JOHN MENADUE. The terrorism threat here is because our troops are over there.

Compared to other risks, we have little to fear from terrorism. In the last two decades only three people in Australia have died from terrorism. But there is a vividness bias in terrorism because it stands out in our minds. Importantly, a lot of politicians, businesses, stand to gain from exaggerating the terrorist threat. It is also easy news for our failing and lazy media. This is a repost from 14 February 2017.

October 24, 2024

A five-minute scroll

Horror upon unimaginable horror. Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir announce ’the moral solution’ while the scale of devastation for the besieged Palestinian people in northern Gaza—Jabalia, Beit Lahiya—is incomprehensible. Men shackled and blindfolded, taken away by the Israeli army. Women and children murdered in their homes and subjected to psychological terror under the actions of the IDF. We have witnessed and share horrific scenes from North Gaza while our government looks away.

June 15, 2018

RAMESH THAKUR. The KimTrump Summit: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Australian Outlook. 15/6/2018)

Despite praise for Tuesdays unprecedented meeting, there were good reasons why previous US administrations had refused multiple requests from North Korean leaders to meet. The results of the KimTrump summit so far can be divided into the good, the bad and the ugly.

The words historic and unprecedented to describe the meeting between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un are literally true. But there were good reasons why previous US administrations had refused multiple requests from North Korean leaders to meet with the president. Against the historical and strategic backdrop, the results of the KimTrump summit so far can be divided into the good, the bad and the ugly.

May 16, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. Refugees and Asylum seekers-The only unforgivable sin is despair

October 19, 2015

Peter Gibilisco and assisted by Bruce Wearne. A Special Minister for Disability.

Disability support and policy is currently undergoing much needed reform. Such reforms highlight the attenuated life chances of people with disabilities and how these can be mitigated by policies that emphasize the inclusion of people with disabilities into the social life of us all. There is much public money being spent on getting things right, and indeed many lives are at stake.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme is a wide sweeping reform that seems to be trying its utmost to significantly improve the lives of all people with disabilities however severe or profound these may be. There is a constant need for significant government financial support for people with disabilities to promote their health and wellbeing.

July 2, 2015

Bob Kinnaird. China FTA labour mobility fight looms

Current Affairs

The ALP National Conference at end-July will likely have before it an urgency motion demanding changes to the foreign worker provisions in the China FTA as a condition for supporting the agreement, according to The Australian (Change or block unjust trade deals, MPs told, 26 June 2015).

Driving the move is a cross-factional group of eight unions concerned about the impact on Australian workers of FTA provisions mandating easier access to Chinese 457 visa workers, in some cases unrestricted access.

April 27, 2014

John Menadue. AMP excess and dud products.

I have posted several blogs on how powerful insiders bend governments to their will. Just think of the power of the polluter lobby, the mining lobby, the health lobby, the gambling lobby and the hotel lobby.

But the superannuation lobby is probably the most powerful and the most lucrative gravy-train of all. The superannuation industry receives over $32 billion subsidy each year through tax expenditures or what we normally call deductions. In addition there is the tax-free superannuation income for those over 60, like me. In addition to these enormous subsidies to boost the superannuation industry, federal governments require that 9% of employee incomes must be put into superannuation. Not content with these enormous benefits the four banks and the AMP have been lobbying the government and particularly Senator Sinodinis to bury any attempts to outlaw conflicts on interests by financial advisers. Typically this conflict of interest occurs when the financial adviser also supplies the product, as is the case with the four banks and the AMP. But the superannuation industry, and particularly the retail funds, overplayed their hand and the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms under the guise of reducing red tape have been deferred.

April 12, 2017

KEITH JOINER. Negating the Impact of the Future Submarine at Next Election

Australias future submarine project has already been a factor in Australias political pulse, in both the fever of pre-elections and in the now omnipresent prime-ministerial instability between these all-too-frequent elections. South Australias Xenophon factor has become powerful, and appointments like the new Defence Industry Minister from South Australia are probably an attempt to mitigate that factor.

January 30, 2017

JAMES O'NEILL. 'One belt one road' (OBOR) - a new geopolitical paradigm.

The scale of the projects (OBOR) is astonishing. As of July 2016 China had more than 900 contracts in place or under negotiation with a propose investment value of over $900 billion dollars. This was in addition to a separate contract worth over $400 billion signed with Russia for the supply of natural gas.

November 5, 2013

Are current maritime asylum seeker policies working? Guest blogger: Peter Hughes

So what if current maritime asylum seeker policies are working? I mean that question in the narrow sense of reducing irregular maritime arrivals to a trickle.

The arrival figure of some 339 persons for October 2013 announced by the government represents only 16 per cent of October 2012 arrivals.

Although it is only the figure for a single month, this is a significant change. If arrivals were to level out at this rate, it would represent 4068 arrivals per year, compared to some 25,000 arrivals in 2012 13.

April 10, 2017

ALLAN PATIENCE. Is globalization ending?

It is the fashion to declare that globalization is coming to an end. Evidence for this includes: nationalism being on the rise; protectionist policies making a come-back; borders being slammed shut; populist politicians multiplying at rabbit-like rates. Trump and Brexit, it is said, are the isolationist tips of two vast metaphorical icebergs that both represent populist hostility directed towards the idea of a world that would be one.

February 19, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull's attacks.

But the real flaw in Turnbulls strategy is its sheer negativity. The great dominators of parliament Menzies, Whitlam and Keating most notably all had something to say: they were policy powerhouses, intent on changing the nation in their own images. There was plenty of attack, plenty of a invective, but it was all aimed at providing a genuine agenda.

October 23, 2013

The Carbon Tax - Policy and Politics. John Menadue

There are good policy and political reasons why the ALP should oppose the repeal of the carbon tax.

The carbon tax is designed to reduce carbon pollution. That fact is continually ignored by those who talk wildly about the tax rather than what it is designed to do. In any event, the tax is working and is not producing the almost unimaginable destruction that Tony Abbott predicted. Gladstone has not been closed down and Whyalla has not been wiped off the map. The tax had a relatively small impact on prices when it was introduced but it is now accepted as very much part of our everyday life.

March 30, 2016

Michael Keating. Federalism (repost)

The Governments Commission of Audit, which preceded this Budget, recommended that policy and service delivery should as far as practicable be the responsibility of the level of government closest to the people receiving those services, and that each level of government should be sovereign in its own sphere, with minimal duplication between the Commonwealth and the States. The Government for its part has insisted that it does not run schools or hospitals and that the States are ultimately responsible for them and what happens to them.

December 20, 2015

Ranald Macdonald. Meet Mark Scott's heir apparent, a businesswoman with close ties to the Murdochs.

“The announcement of Michelle Guthrie as the new ABC supremo by ABC Board Chairman Jim Spigelman is shrewd and just maybe a winner.

Of course, one cannot judge the performance of a driver until she is actually behind the wheel and showing her stuff.

An “A” for innovation, though, for the Board on its decision - and (perhaps) it is an appointment which will not be slammed by the News Empire (after all, M’s Guthrie worked for the Murdochs for some 13 years).

January 5, 2016

Malcolm Turnbull's NBN.

The evidence continues to build that Malcolm Turnbull’s version of the NBN is failing on almost all grounds.

Analysis by Monash University researcher, Richard Ferrers, shows that the fibre to the premises option would actually deliver better value than the fibre to the node alternative which Malcolm Turnbull has been advocating.

In his latest newsletter, Renai LeMay draws on this research by Richard Ferrers. See link below:

https://delimiter.com.au/2016/01/04/detailed-analysis-of-nbn-cos-finances-shows-fttp-better-value-than-fttn/

February 17, 2014

John Menadue. The squandered mining boom.

We are now paying a heavy price for our failure to manage the mining boom. The consequences are all too clear, particularly in the manufacturing sector. The mining boom drove up our exchange rate and wage costs. A Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) and the Resource Super Profits Tax (RSPT) would have minimised the problems. However, few seriously proposed a SWF. The Coalition and the powerful mining companies did everything possible to destroy the RSPT.

April 4, 2016

John Dwyer. Structural reforms to healthcare - two major reforms.

Does the government understand the structural reforms to health care needed by modern Australia?

Political pre-election posturing at the moment has involved many debating the question that asks Do we have a spending or a revenue problem in Australia? Certainly when it comes to our health system we should first be asking what structural reforms would make that question less important.

While the idea that States could tax their citizens to pay for hospital care vanished in a flash, there is a distressing significance to the idea ever having been floated in the first place. It means that the Coalition still does not understand the components of the structural reforms needed to improve both the health outcomes and cost effectiveness of our health system. Implemented, the proposal would have further entrenched the inefficiencies in a fractured health system.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal