October 3, 2023

A Yes Vote just as important to Chinese-Australians as for our Indigenous brothers and sisters

With a population of 1.4 million, Chinese-Australians are the largest ethnic minority community in Australia and our say has weight. From the perspective of that community, an important objective must be playing our part in seeing Australia lift its game to match world standards of acceptance of minorities and particularly of its indigenous peoples.

December 2, 2022

Women cannot revive Liberal appeal

How drearily predictable it is that in the wake of another loss in Victoria that mythical cohort women is being bandied about as key to a resurrection of the floundering, flailing and failing Liberal Party at both State and Federal levels. Brad Hazard is the NSW Health Minister retiring at the forthcoming March 2023 election. Hes not confused. “Obviously it would be helpful to have more women in the parliament, he said on 20 November. “But would you do that to the exclusion of getting good people in?”

November 1, 2022

Biden's foreign policy is sinking the Congressional Dems - and Ukraine

The proxy war between the U.S. and Russia is devastating Ukraine, ironically in the name of saving Ukraine.

October 16, 2022

White Man's Media: The Washington consensus and legacy media frames and conditions our thinking and actions. An updated repost

_Western media including our own act as conveyer belts for Washington propaganda.Think.Gaza

February 16, 2025

ABC sycophancy erodes our democracy

As a 60 year veteran consumer of the ABC on radio, television and on-line, I am dismayed with the national broadcaster’s declining relevance, professionalism and integrity. The place is a mess, clearly made worse under the control of Ita Buttrose and David Anderson.

December 16, 2024

Is Trump’s long shadow a chance for the Australia-China relationship?

China has recently praised Australia’s independent foreign policy, with Xi Jinping and Anthony Albanese holding friendly talks at the G20 and planning a future meeting in China. This highlights Beijing’s effort to court traditional US allies amid concerns over a potential second Donald Trump term in the White House.

March 7, 2024

PM Anwar Ibrahim rattles Australias cage on sinophobia and Gaza

Making the news in the mainstream western media around the world, but not in Australia which is hosting the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit 2024, was the forthright response from Malaysia PM Anwar Ibrahim during his press conference to a question from Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) journalist Stephen Dziedzic.

February 19, 2024

Bring on our Green Industrial Revolution But watch for white elephants

Bravo to Ross Garnaut and Rod Sims for their effort at the National Press Club on 14 February to overturn the whole national debate on climate, energy, productivity and tax. But the Green Industrial Revolution may not fall easily into Australias lap.

October 29, 2023

Herald Sun report on support for Zionist Federation letter untrue

Todays Melbourne Herald Sun carries a story that, along with other former Australian Prime Ministers, I will be a signature to a statement drafted by The Zionist Federation of Australia, condemning the attack by Hamas on Israel. This report is without foundation and is untrue.

October 30, 2022

Can China lead the way on climate reparations?

At a time when the developing nations are doing it tough in the face of inflation, rising power and food prices, many poor African, Asian and Pacific Island nations, struggling with the ravages of climate change, are asking for reparation. Will it be China and not the US that leads the way?

November 9, 2021

Australia may be standing alone on China as the US does not 'have our back'

Canberra sees any repercussions for ‘standing up to China’ as a badge of honour. But the US is grabbing our markets one after another it’s now LNG.

December 7, 2024

Australia and a Palestinian state—a dance of the seven veils?

Australia’s vote this week in support of a UN General Assembly resolution aimed at creating an “irreversible pathway” to a Palestinian state caps a year of important symbolic changes by the Albanese Government on this issue.

October 17, 2024

US boots on the ground in Israel demolishes international law

The US decision to send troops to Israel has upended the focus of attention for all those, globally, who have attempted to stop both the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the determination of the current Israeli government to create Eretz Israel: a territory incorporating – at minimum – all Palestinian land now occupied by Israel, but also likely southern Lebanon and parts of Jordan and Syria as well.

January 10, 2024

Eyeless in Gaza

Our foreign ministers first and hardest overseas task in 2024 is likely to be her visit to Israel. Penny Wong and other foreigners, apart from aid workers, cannot enter Gaza. This will circumscribe what she sees, whom she meets, and what she achieves.

March 31, 2022

Vladimir Putin made a terrible mistake, and his concessions on Ukraine are a sign of his weakened position

_For the first time theRussia-Ukraine negotiations look as if they might produce a peace dealas a top Russian defence official says that Russia will dramatically reduce its military activities around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv.

January 11, 2022

A quarter century of failure in foreign policy mars Australian credibility

Antagonistic towards China and Asia-Pacific neighbours and in thrall to America, Australian governments have presided over the demise of Australian diplomacy. It has been sidelined by exaggerated defence and security concerns.

January 6, 2022

Health policy hazard: Covid is here to stay, so where is the plan?

It is a pipe dream to imagine that living with the variants will be seamless. This pandemic will be keep throwing up new challenges for a while yet.

November 22, 2021

Yesterday President Xi Jinping discussed South China Sea with ASEAN leaders

Will the South China Sea Code of Conduct herald a new order? China will present a united front with ASEAN countries. The US may have other ideas.

January 20, 2025

Humpty Dumpty and the Rules Based International Order

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

Lewis Caroll-Through the Looking Glass.

March 31, 2023

AUKUS: a collection of views not found in our Washington dominated media

AUKUS: signed and sealed by the Liberal government when it joined the pact in September 2021, the spoils of which have been delivered by the Labor Government in March 2023. The Labor Government and Australia will pay a heavy price for what is being done in our name. We are being humiliated by our own government.

November 6, 2022

U.S midterms: set against a fractured nation

The Irish poet W. B. Yeats could have had the upcoming U.S. midterm elections in mind when he wrote, Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.

February 24, 2022

Another Biden/Blinken Blunder

_Biden and Blinken (an appropriate surname) will now notch up their second humiliating defeat following the US rout in Afghanistan.

March 29, 2025

Why does Australia need submarines?

Why submarines? The submarine’s most fundamental, key feature is its stealth. A well-handled, submarine is able to operate without causing fuss, in areas where we do not control the sea or air and gain access to areas denied to more overt platforms, such as ships, aircraft and unmanned aircraft.

January 14, 2025

Who can best manage Trump – Albanese or Dutton?

A week out from the presidential inauguration in Washington and what stands out is the sheer mischief and wildness of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, like two schoolboys running amok in the tuckshop of world politics.

December 18, 2024

'Many die and are turned into body parts, their limbs mixed together and lost.' Mass graves are a violation of human dignity

For Palestinians in Gaza, there is no room for death, as there is no room for life, due to Zionist crimes and Israeli savagery, writes Refaat Ibrahim from occupied Gaza. “Many die and are turned into body parts, their limbs mixed together and lost… They transport them into Israel, subject them to examination, sometimes steal organs in certain cases, and then return them as remains of many individuals, often mixed together. Thus, these bodies bear no features, and their identities remain unknown, eventually buried in mass graves in a way that degrades human dignity and attacks it even after death…”

October 17, 2022

Australia should rid itself of the persistent fear of China

Australia must overcome Sinophobia and rejoice in a future in the Asian region.

March 30, 2025

Environment: Humans’ contempt for the natural world drives environmental destruction

Environmentalists have failed to transform the underlying social values that drive environmental destruction. Fifteen companies produce 30% of Australia’s greenhouse gases. Mountains provide 60% of our fresh water, but not for much longer._

March 27, 2025

The 2025-26 budget had one modest surprise, but leaves a lot to the next Parliament (and probably Parliaments after that)

Treasurer Jim Chalmers pulled one unexpected rabbit out of his hat in Tuesday’s 2025-26 federal budget.

March 15, 2025

Labor's strong federal prospects in WA

The results of the Western Australian election on Saturday give credence to the latest opinion polling showing a trend back towards Labor in the past few weeks. Until mid-February the polls were suggesting the Coalition would have sufficient support to form (at least) a minority government.

November 30, 2024

A ceasefire in Lebanon - Gaza next?

Third party intervention led by the US and France has achieved a ceasefire in Lebanon. The US now needs to push for a settlement in Gaza where the combatants withdraw, and an external force is charged with maintaining the peace.

November 8, 2024

In failing to act, Australia shirks international law and enables genocide

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong’s response to Israel’s genocide in Palestine is an insult to Palestinians living under occupation, bombardment, and relentless oppression. It’s a shirking of Australia’s international obligations, and an affront to people of good conscience across this continent who, for 57 weeks, have rallied, protested, and pleaded for Australia to take a stand against these crimes.

January 19, 2023

Sinking notions: US lawmakers and Australias nuclear submarines

The implications for the AUKUS security pact were always going to be grave, significant, and unnecessary. It further subordinated Australia to participating in future conflicts; it has brought into question Australias own already whittled down sovereignty; and it has also raised the spectre of regional nuclear proliferation.

January 27, 2022

How modern technology could bring democracy to a crossroads

Advances in technology have resulted in employment and wage dislocations that are polarising society and undermining trust in political institutions.

January 19, 2022

All the Queen's men: a slow recovery after the disaster of 1975

A more dignified relationship between Australia’s governors-general and the Palace evolved in the aftermath of John Kerr’s sycophantic conduct.

December 23, 2024

Christmas: Beyond the fantastical

One of the fondest memories we carry is of how when we were young, the world was infused with magic, especially at Christmas. We would wake on Christmas Day surrounded by the gifts Santa Claus had mysteriously placed there.

November 1, 2024

The Ukraine war is lost. Three options remain

George Beebe, long-time head of Russia analysis at the CIA, a 27-year veteran of the agency and now the current head of Grand Strategy at the Quincy Institute in Washington, is just the kind of American the world needs right now. Understated, immensely knowledgeable and decent, he understands the Russo-Ukraine war in its widest sense and says three options remain open, only one that does not risk disaster for us all.

October 28, 2024

Drug ‘summiteering’ in NSW

The second New South Wales Drug Summit will be held in regional centres for two days in October and the final two days will be in Sydney on the 4th and 5th December to be co-chaired by Carmel Tebbutt and John Brogden – a balance of politics.

March 10, 2024

Housing battle lines for election 2025 begin to emerge

With last weeks announcements from the Coalition and Australian Greens, the contours of next years election housing debate have begun to take shape. Its pretty clear that, as in four of the past six national polls, this policy area will be a flashpoint of the coming contest.

January 21, 2024

The obstacles that now face Chinese FDI in Australia are only partly Australia-made

In the increasingly geopolitically charged waters of international trade and investment, Chinese technology enterprises are navigating a particularly turbulent current in Australia. The growing scepticism and regulatory scrutiny they face reflect a techno-geopolitical uncertainty, with Australia caught between its economic interdependence with China and strategic alignment with the United States.

December 17, 2023

An annus horribilis and Australias conduct less than distinguished

For those who had hoped Australia might bring a more constructive approach to issues of peace and security, years end cannot come soon enough.

November 4, 2022

B52s mark the demise of Australia as a self-reliant nation

News that the US plans to base six B52s at RAAF, Tindal, will likely change the dynamic, in what has admittedly been a half-hearted attempt by Australia, at improving relations with China.

October 11, 2022

The incoherent narrative of the AUKUS nuclear powered attack submarines-SSNs

In the year since the government announced the AUKUS arrangements especially that they involved Australias acquisition of a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines the relevant communications on this centrepiece have veered from the boastful to the oracular. Ostensibly, they emanate from the inner sanctums of Defence and National Security, or those recently within them and should, therefore, be authoritative, coherent, and unambiguous, but they arent. Indeed, what is to hand is an unedifying spectacle of the pursuit of something unfeasible and internally contradicted which defies reconciliation.

November 30, 2021

Strategists admit West is goading China into war

US military experts say a war over Taiwan is desirable, because Asias growth to become worlds economic heartland has become unstoppable.

August 21, 2021

Australia is acting like a tortoise and not a hare in the Afghan humanitarian crisis.

While our Prime Minister callously turns his back on a whole people that 20 years ago, we promised to help, a small country is offering a temporary safe haven for them from where they can then be resettled, primarily to the US

January 24, 2025

The hollow man seeks to lower the temperature

“And don’t forget Australia, that reliable imperial lapdog ready to hop to” – Eve Ottenberg.

January 9, 2025

Australian minister to fly to Israel to mend fractured relationship?

When I read the Sydney Morning Herald headline about this development, I assumed it must be a typical January “silly season” political beat-up.

January 4, 2025

Best of 2024: The Ukraine war is lost. Three options remain

December 28, 2024

Best of 2024: “I told you so”: No Aussie subs in 2030s, total reliance on the Yanks

The sweetest words in the English language: I told you so.

December 9, 2024

Assad is out, woke Al-Qaeda is in

Well it looks like the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is on its way out, likely to be replaced by one or more US puppet regimes depending on whether the nation maintains its current borders or is carved up into separate states. The empire notches another win.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal