October 1, 2019

ROBERT REICH. Trump can do more damage than Nixon. His impeachment is imperative (Guardian 28-9-19)

Amid theimpeachment furor, dont lose sight of the renewed importance of protecting the integrity of the 2020 election.

August 31, 2017

TIM WOODRUFF. Basic income guarantee: this is a health issue!

In 1970, conservative republican US President Richard Nixon introduced a health bill into the American Congress. It passed but was defeated in the Senate. He didnt realise it was a health bill, nor did many of his fellow politicians. It was called the Family Assistance Plan, a guaranteed income for families with children, not adequate to bring the income up to the poverty line, but substantially more than was previously on offer.

April 3, 2018

JIM COOMBS: Lets have some real banking competition.

The banks still havent got it. They charge $6 a month for doing nothing, theft or fraud, both crimes. But government and their appointed (neoliberal economics graduates) regulators, do nothing about it. Make the Reserve Bank of Australia the Peoples Bank…again.

May 7, 2018

Iran's nukes redux

It takes chutzpah for a country that has an unacknowledged nuclear arsenal to point the finger at another country for clandestine nuclear activities and to demand military action to halt them.

August 17, 2017

RANALD MACDONALD. ABC deal comes back to haunt the Government (Episode Two).

Last week I began my summary of the Government’s complex negotiations aimed at getting its Media Reform Bill through the Senate with the words:“Make a deal for political expediency and then unforeseen consequences usually follow. The ABC and its future is not a bargaining chip for the Government to use to pass legislation in the Senate. Yet a deal brokered by Communications Minister Fifield to gain Liberal Democratic Senator David Leyonhjelms vote some months back, has already come back to haunt it……..".Well, the ‘haunting’ continues.

July 15, 2019

STEPHEN DUCKETT. Private health insurance needs a rethink

Australians are dissatised with private health insurance. Premiums are rising and consumers are dropping their cover, especially younger people, who are less likely to need health services. Those who are left are more likely to use services, driving insurance costs up further. Government subsidies for private health insurance and private medical care currently running at more than $9 billion every year and nancial penalties to encourage people to take out private insurance are becoming less effective. The industry fears a death spiral.

September 25, 2017

SRIPRAPHA PETCHARAMESREE. The Rohingya exodus.

The most recent Rohingya exodus has been making headlines during the past few weeks. But just a week ago Daw Aung San Suu Kyi broke her silence. In her more than 30 minute speech addressing the Myanmar Parliament and diplomats on 19 September, the term Rohingya was not used. Rohingya continues to be forbidden to name. This explicit denial of the name not only works against the existence and human rights of Rohingya but also against any desire of the Myanmar government to work towards peace and harmony as well as to fulfil its international commitment to human rights and fundamental freedoms.

November 26, 2014

Hugh Mackay. The Art of Belonging.

We need communities to sustain us, but if those communities are to survive and prosper, we must engage with them and nurture them, writes Hugh Mackay.

Arent you tired of being told that the deepest truth about human beings is that we are hopelessly selfish by nature? That even acts of apparent altruism are really just intended to make us feel better about ourselves and to look better in the eyes of others? That we are ruthlessly competitive creatures, so intent on satisfying our own needs that we are capable of aggressive and even violent behaviour towards anyone who gets in our way?

September 10, 2017

RICHARD BUTLER. Anarchy restored: Trump and Kim jong un.

The dispute over the DPRKs nuclear weapons program is a disturbing example of the renewal of anarchy as the main determinant in international politics. It is being conducted by two unreliable leaders. Intervention by saner states is needed urgently.

August 15, 2018

JOHN MENADUE- The National Party is dudding farmers.

The National Party remains highly sceptical of climate change and its effect on farmers. Yet the science is clear that global warming has contributed to the current drought. Some farmers are pointing to the failure of the National Party to address climate change.

September 20, 2017

FRANK BRENNAN. Same sex marriage and freedom of religion.

NZ Prime Minister Bill English was being interviewed by Fran Kelly on ABC RN Breakfast on Monday morning. Fran asked him about same sex marriage which is now law in New Zealand. He stressed that freedom of religion is important.She observed: You voted No in 2013 but youve said if the vote was held now, you would vote yes. Does that mean that the New Zealand experience of marriage equality has been a positive one for your country? Prime Minister English replied: Its been implemented. There are a number of people taking advantage of it. We havent had quite the same challenges around free speech and religious freedom as here but I think its really important that thats maintained. But its a pretty pragmatic approach really. Its in law. I accept that that is the case: we have same sex marriage in New Zealand and were not setting out planning to change it.

August 29, 2017

KIM OATES. Infections in healthcare: common but eminently preventable

Infections acquired in hospitals are a major contributor not only to avoidable deaths but also to the cost of health care. Among preventative measures the simple but often neglected practice of hand-washing stands out.

January 28, 2014

Walter Hamilton. A Strategy Less Than Grand: Where the 'New Japan' Goes Wrong.

In a commentary published by the Lowy Institute entitled Japan is Back: Unbundling Abes Grand Strategy*, Dr. Michael Green (Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington, DC) analyses the political and economic policies of Japans conservative government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and concludes that the overall strategy could be quite effective in enhancing Japans prestige and forcing the cooperation of China.

The article is detailed, wide-ranging and informed by high-level contacts within Japan. The credentials of the author and the forum in which his views were aired suggest they are likely to be consonant with advice that Prime Minister Tony Abbott is receiving from his foreign affairs advisers. The article deserves a close reading because Greens attempt to give Abes policies the status of a grand strategy unintentionally exposes their underlying contradictions.

September 28, 2017

ANDREW FARRAN: Korea - could nuclear war come out of clear blue sky?

A decision about joining in the Korean conflict at any point could be the most critical war decision ever taken by Australia. Parliament should be allowed the time to take it. Whatever, the decision must not be taken by the Executive alone [Editorial in the Bulletin of Australians for War Powers Reform (Issue #55 of 27th Sept, 2017)]

September 19, 2019

JOHN CASSIDY. Trumps Awful Middle East Policies Are Coming Back to Haunt Him (New Yorker 17-9-19)

Trumps in a pickle, and hes the one responsible for it. By needlessly reneging on the U.S.-Iranian nuclear deal and launching a sanctions campaign that amounts to economic warfare against Tehran, he has strengthened the Iranian hard-liners and further destabilized a region that was already in turmoil. By enabling Saudi Arabia in bombing Yemen and carrying out horrendous war crimes, he has contributed to a terrible humanitarian crisis…

May 23, 2018

JACK DE GROOT. A home is much more than a roof over your head

This years Federal Budget delivered no vision, plan or commitment for addressing the growing housing affordability crisis, yet again failing to recognise how fundamental it is to our nations wellbeing to prioritise solving this problem.

June 13, 2018

PEPE ESCOBAR. The key word in the Trump-Kim show

By reaffirming the Panmunjom Declaration, the US President has committed to bringing its military back from South Korea and thus a complete denuclearization of the South as well as the North.

April 27, 2018

PETER MARTIN. How the Coalition ran interference for the banks.

The Coalition wasn’t merely asleep at the wheel when it came to the practices being exposed at the banking royal commission: it pulled out all stops to allow some of them to continue, including attempting to circumvent the will of parliament, in an extraordinary 12-month burst of activity that began within weeks of its election.

It had inherited Labors Future of Financial Advice Act, legislated in 2012 but not due to take full effect until mid-2014, 10 months after the election that swept it to power.

August 23, 2017

RICHARD BUTLER. Trump's "Principled Realism" : details withheld

President Trumps speech on a new Afghanistan strategy was partly designed to mitigate the extreme harm he did by his Charlottesville outbursts. Apart from claiming that the US would win in Afghanistan, no details were given. He bashed Pakistan, embraced India and made clear that allies, such as Australia, would be expected to support the new tack by contributing military assets and money.

October 31, 2019

GEOFF RABY. The lowest ebb the decline and decline of Australias relationship with China

Today, the Australia-China relationship is at its lowest point since diplomatic relations began 46 years ago. (This Annual La Trobe China Oration was delivered on 29 October 2019. Itis much longer than usual postings. The issues involved however are very important and very topical. John Menadue)

October 23, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Privatisation is a clear example of the failure of neoliberalism.

Neoliberalism puts markets and companies before society and the public interest. That is why after 23 successive years of economic growth there is a widespread sense that the economy is working for a privileged few and at the expense of the many. The growing popular sense of resentment and unfairness is not at all surprising.

A key feature of neo liberalism has been privatisation.It has mostly failed the majority but brought large unearned benefits for a few.

March 13, 2017

JOHN MENADUE. Making miners pay their fair share.

The victorious Labor Party in Western Australia has got off on the wrong foot in its timidity towards the mining sector. Its leader, Mark McGowan, has said that a Labor Government will not support a mining royalty proposed by the WA Nationals because it would drive investment away from WA. This is a very hackneyed line about frightening foreign investment and sovereign risk.

September 14, 2016

Nauru and Manus - the costs of detention.

In this blog, we have drawn attention many times to the inhumanity of our policies towards refugees and asylum seekers in Nauru and Manus.

In addition to our immoral conduct, there is also the extraordinary cost of keeping asylum seekers in detention. In the link below, Peter Martin in the SMH yesterday, estimates the cost at $573,000 for each asylum seeker, each year.

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-extraordinary-cost-of-keeping-asylum-seekers-in-detention-over-500000-each-20160914-grftcj.html

November 15, 2015

Michael Kelly SJ. Paris: the problem is deeper than criminal acts

Theres somethingprofoundly rotten about cultures that can give birth to the murderous behaviour on show in Paris last Friday. This is just the latest and probably most visible instance because it happened in one of the hubs of the European and North American news media.

These hubs make things that happen in too many other parts of the world actually reach living rooms worldwide. As such, this event is something that makes very clear what has been around for a long while in many parts of the world.Media focus actually makes these events part of the lives of people everywhere.

August 24, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Scott Morrison did not stop the boats

With the appointment of Scott Morrison as Prime Minister we will witness again the repetition of the myth that the Coalition and Operation Sovereign Borders stopped the boats. They did not.

I expect that many in the media will also climb aboard again to continue the myth about the stopping of the boats. Perhaps being careless in the first place the media finds it embarrassing to admit error.

October 1, 2019

KISHORE MAHBUBANI. What China Threat? How the United States and China can avoid war (Harper Magazine 22-01-19) A Repost.

Quite remarkably ,of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council ,China is the only one among them that has not fired a single shot across its border in thirty years,since a brief naval battle between China and Vietnam in 1988. By contrast,even during the relatively peaceful Obama Administration, the American military dropped twenty six thousand bombs on seven countries in a single year. Evidently, the Chinese understand well the art of strategic restraint.

November 7, 2013

When "... language itself becomes a weapon" Guest blogger: Professor Ian Webster.

When ..language itself becomes a weapon.[1]

“I know they’re rorting the system; Ive seen it in the source countries; and Ive seen it in my own electorate.” It was a party stopper from a Member of Parliament speaking informally with a group attending a meeting about preventing suicide.

The two words “refugee” and “asylum seeker” provoke private and public dissonance. The criminalisation, the “otherness”, in the way we speak about refugees and asylum seekers stands in stark contrast to our attempts to prevent discrimination against others in Australia people with disabilities, those with mental disorders, suicides and attempted suicides, and others outside the mainstream, and their families. Governments legislate to prevent discrimination and they aim to reduce the stigma of mental illness.

September 6, 2017

ROD TUCKER AND JOHN DE RIDDER. How to fix the NBN pricing model: An open letter to Bill Morrow.

Dear Bill,

The NBN pricing model is in urgent need of repair. In this letter, we offer our thoughts on how an overhaul of the pricing model can solve a number of problems facing the NBN.

October 29, 2018

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Morrison shows he is no Einstein

Scott Morrison is ploughing on regardless, business as usual. There is no need to change direction rather the imperative is to go on pretty much what we are doing, but more aggressively.

February 21, 2015

Brian Johnstone. The forgotten children. The ethical dimension.

Professor Gillian Triggs, president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, has found that by reason of its policy of the continued retention of children of asylum seekers, Australia has been and remains in breach of its international obligations. This applies to both major political parties. The legal argument is clear and has not been refuted. The best the Prime Minister could offer was bluster, condemning the report as a “transparent stitch-up.” Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson conceded that retaining children in detention was not in anyones interest, but provided no justification for continuing the detention.

The Report of the Commission argues that asylum seeker families and children have been left . . . [i]n a legal black hole in which their rights and dignity have been denied. This ethical claim needs supporting argument.

October 12, 2017

IAN MACPHEE. In Defence of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Rohingya crisis in Rakhine state in Myanmar (formerly Burma), one of the most unknown situations in the world, is now dominating daily news worldwide. Many commentators have rushed to judgment about the leadership of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi without understanding the challenges she faces.

September 17, 2017

IAN McAULEY. Mates, lobbyists and rent-seekers

Two books, one recent the other written 35 years ago, explain how special interests are strangling the Australian economy.

May 14, 2015

Michael Keating. The Role and Responsibilities of Government.

Fairness, Opportunity and Security Policy series edited by Michael Keating and John Menadue.

Different possible conceptions of the responsibilities and roles of government are an important backdrop to the policies that will be examined later in this series of articles. The purpose of the present article is to show that despite the ideological debate between the extremes on the Right and the Left of the political spectrum, in practice:

The responsibilities of governments have changed little in the last thirty years
The roles have changed, but changes in regulatory regimes and the marketisation of some services has enabled governments to better fulfil their continuing responsibilities.

Government responsibilities

February 7, 2019

PETER MANNING. The Chair the ABC needs

After a year from hell, the ABC desperately needs stability, leadership, vision and funds.

May 22, 2018

WENDY HAYHURST. Budget 2018: What happened to affordable housing?

No joy from Budget 2018. Governments do have the resources to tackle affordable housing shortfalls. They just dont have the will to accord it the requisite priority. In so failing, they ignore not only the deep and lasting social costs of such neglect, but also the strong economic case for addressing housing affordability.

September 29, 2019

CAVAN HOGUE. What is new about drones?

The attack on Saudi oil wells has given rise to a debate about the effectiveness of drones in warfare. Some have argued that this heralds a whole new world in warfare while others see it as just another example of the age old leap frogging between new attack weapons and the development of new defence against them. A similar debate exists in the case of cyber warfare.

August 14, 2021

Gladys' infection is spreading everywhere

Intransigence is experienced by many of us daily. It may even dominate our own emotional repertoire.Now, though, as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announces rising Covid infections and accumulating deaths, this unhelpful trait seems increasingly endangering.

May 8, 2018

MICHAEL KEATING AND JON STANFORD. Australias strategic risks and future defence policy; Part 2: Future defence strategy, capability and submarines

In this second article we discuss the need to develop a defence strategy that involves shifting from a force structure designed for coalition warfare to one optimised for the independent defence of Australia. We focus on the requirement for new submarines, given that these are the assets best suited for the prosecution of asymmetric warfare against a stronger power.

September 10, 2017

ANDREW FARRAN. The Korean impasse: transformed geo-politics.

While in recent weeks North East Asia has been on the edge of a precipice, the likelihood is that the military stalemate will grind on indefinitely. A decisive act by any of the principal parties would lead all into negative territory. Only an unlikely unilateral move by Kim Jong-un to abandon his nuclear/missile ambitions would alter the equation.

February 2, 2017

CAVAN HOGUE. Should we Jump with Trump on Russia?

Australia has followed the hardline advocates in the US in attributing evil actions now and in the future to Russia and Putin in particular. How accurate is this view? One of the few sensible things Trump is doing is advocating better relations with Russia which can only contribute to a reduction in international tension however much we may dislike his regime and and whatever Trump’s motives. Do we now follow Trump or his opponents on this? Australia is not a player despite being a camp follower of NATO so perhaps the less we say the better. So far Mr Turnbull has kept quiet and hopefully will continue to do so.

March 5, 2015

Max Corden. Bring Back the Carbon Tax?

Mr Hockey has invited the Australian public to join in a conversation about the economy and budget issues. Here is my mildly radical contribution.

There are two strong reasons for bringing back the carbon tax.

Tony Abbott, when Leader of the Opposition, promised to repeal the carbon tax brought in by Prime Minister Julie Gillard. And he has fulfilled his promise. Congratulations. Now circumstances have changed: the budget deficit and public debt have turned out to be important problems in the eyes of the Government because of the somewhat unexpected decline in export prices. So Mr. Abbott or his successor as Prime Minister would be justified in re-imposing this tax. This is the first reason: the revenue from a carbon tax could make a significant contribution to dealing with the deficit problem. Of course, it would not be enough, and, as is well known, other measures or reforms to generate revenue for the government are available and are certainly needed.

April 11, 2017

ROB BRIAN. Easter Reflections

This is not an easy time to be a believing/practising Catholic. Indeed, many good people have given up on the Church because of the horrendous revelations of widespread sexual abuse of children by priests and religious and by the possibly even more despicable covering-up by those who should have known better and who should have had a primary concern for the victims rather than for the good name of the Church.

July 9, 2018

KERRY OBRIEN. Speech to ABC Friends rally Sydney 8 July 2018

Let me start with a quote**:** The ABC is a vital part of our nations polity. It is one of the great foundations of journalism and news gathering and broadcasting in the country. It has a very special place in Australia. That was Malcolm Turnbull in January 2014 when he announced a cut to the ABCs budget of $254 million.

October 29, 2018

AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS. Turnbull warns Morrison over Israel embassy move after Indonesia meeting (the Guardian 30 October 2018)

The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has warned his successor against moving the Australian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem after meeting with the Indonesian president on Monday.

September 28, 2017

TOM IGGULDEN. Navy may be without submarine fleet for two decades due to replacement plan, experts say

The Navy could be left without a submarine fleet for up to 20 years because of a “wildly ambitious” schedule to replace the ageing Collins Class fleet, an independent report has found.

January 17, 2019

MICHELLE PINI. Something stinks in the Coalition and it's not just dead fish (Independent Australia 17.01.2019)

The sight of close to a million dead fish in one of Australias most important waterways may heraldthe end for the Morrison Government.

For this is hardly the first time this Coalition Government, under its various iterations, has spat in the face of Australias precious resources.

For now, however, let’s look at the Murray-Darling disaster and how we got here.

August 17, 2017

GEOFF MILLER. Korea: Missiles or exercises or both?

Despite President Trumps latest supercilious Tweet, North Korea may still seek to make the cancellation of exercise Ulchi-Freedom Guardian the price of not firing its missiles into waters near Guam.

January 7, 2016

Bob Kinnaird. Foreign worker exploitation.

To reduce foreign worker exploitation, enforce employer sanctions laws

2015 produced a never-ending stream of stories of exploited foreign workers on all kinds of temporary visas. They include overseas students, working holiday and 457 skilled visa-holders. Nearly all temporary visas and some permanent residence visas are implicated.

A Senate committee on Australias temporary work visa programs is due to report by end- February 2016. Changes are needed in many policies and practices.

June 19, 2018

LAURIE PATTON. You cant privatise an organisation that doesnt make a profit!

The ABC earns around $100 million a year from its commercial activities (mainly ABC shops). Its annual operating budget is more than a billion dollars.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal