September 21, 2017

RAMESH THAKUR. Mr President, the United Nations is not a New York sub-office of the State Department

On Tuesday, Hurricane Trump made landfall at UN Headquarters in Turtle Bay. What had been feared as a category 5 storm had weakened to category 3 which can still cause considerable destruction. Trump invoked Biblical language in justification for the harsh rhetoric against the scourge of our planet today: If the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph.

October 11, 2015

John Menadue. The infrastructure mess and wasteful road spending.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott said that he planned to be the infrastructure prime minister. There was little to show for it apart from wasteful spending on roads. He said that the Commonwealth should ‘stick to its knitting’ and not get involved in funding public infrastructure. His focus was on roads.

Our new prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull has spoken at the weekend of exploring radical road and rail funding, and has announced Commonwealth funding for a light rail project on the Gold Coast.

June 27, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. With his Gonski II win, Malcolm Turnbull has something to smile about at last.

Turnbull can chalk up a rare and vitally important win before the winter recess closes in. It came just in time for the longest night of the year; our Prime Minister, if not all his colleagues, will hope that this is a sign that increasing hours of daylight, if not actual sunshine, will follow.

September 27, 2018

MICHAEL PASCOE. Not pretty, but riveting: Royal commission interim report due (the New Daily, 27.09.18)

Here comes the first of Kenneth Haynes large hobnailed boots up the backside of Australian banking, superannuation, financial advice, wealth management, insurance and regulation. Its not going to be pretty, but its certainly going to be riveting. Most obviously the Big End of Town’s CEOs and chairmen were mostly spared embarrassing questioning about what they knew.what they should have known and their general competence

May 21, 2018

CHRIS MARTIN AND HAL PAWSON. Last years affordable housing green shoots have withered

Budget 2018 fails the 1.5 million Australian households living in unaffordable rental housing or officially homeless, despite the urgent need for Commonwealth leadership on affordable housing policy.

August 16, 2018

BOB CARR. ASIO and the China scare (the Australian 14 August 2018)

Australia was unimaginable without the dynamic presence of Chinese-Australians. Those were the words of Malcolm Turnbull last week, resetting the rhetoric of Australia-China relations.

March 13, 2014

Alex Mitchell, reporting from Hobart. The Tasmanian Chainsaw Massacre.

On the eve of any election it is the practice of tabloid editors to reach into battered folders containing tried and trusted headlines capable of exciting readers on polling day PHOTO FINISH or TOO CLOSE TO CALL or sometimes ITS A CLIFFHANGER.

With Tasmanians going to the polls this Saturday none of the above are suitable. Thats because the result is a foregone conclusion: a landslide for Will Hodgmans Liberal Party. Perhaps well see WILLSLIDE or TASSIE GOES BLUE.

May 13, 2015

John Menadue. Role of government . The importance of values.

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

Good government must be based on some broadly shared values that inspire and enthuse us.

We can accept that our leaders must make some compromises from time to time, but we need to know what they stand for. We look for leaders who have conviction.

For example, we need to discuss tax reform but so often it becomes a technical discussion when what is really at stake is the sort of society we want and how tax can help us in the goals we seek. Tax is a means to an end. It is not an end in itself. Oliver Wendell Holmes put it succinctly that taxes are what we pay for a civilised society. That is where the discussion about tax should start.

June 19, 2017

GREGORY CLARK. Canberra's new identity problem.

With its new citizenship rules requiring applicants to show proof of attachment to Australian culture and values, Canberra has triggered a national identity debate. It is accused of showing xenophobic tendencies. But national identity could be much more complex than the critics realise. Ever wondered, for example, why we get annoyed when people in a crowded train carriage begin speaking into their cellphones? But we do not mind so much when they talk loudly among themselves?

April 4, 2019

The New York Times 'How Rupert Murdoch's empire of influence remade the world'.

On Wednesday 3 April 2019, The New York Times published a 20,000 word article about the influence o the Murdoch family, (Rupert, James and Lachlan) and the developing divisions within it. See link below to the New York Times article.

September 28, 2017

WE ARE ALSO READING AND LISTENING TO ...

Pearls and Irritations provides the following links for weekend reading and listening:

May 20, 2018

SAUL ESLAKE. What has changed in the housing market over the past year?

Property prices have moderated in our largest cities over the past year, thanks in part to tightening of lending by APRA, and on inflows of foreign capital. There is some respite for first-time buyers, but the picture for renters is mixed. This years Budget had nothing significant for housing and those on lower incomes have little to celebrate in terms of housing reform.

January 1, 2017

TONY KEVIN. Henry Kissinger's last hurrah!

Henry Kissingers renascent role in US-Russian diplomacy

Remarkably, 93-year old Henry Kissinger is still making judicious and fruitful public and private interventions in Russia-US relations. It seems his moment may have come again to make a difference as an East-West peace-broker, as he did in the Nixon-Brezhnev years ( for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1973).

April 12, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Media catch-up on Newcastle Port.

Drawing on a report from Deloitte yesterday, Matt Wade in several Fairfax newspapers breathlessly told us that restrictions on privatised ports was adding to Sydney’s gridlock. He added that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is now investigating the secret restrictions on Newcastle Port which were introduced when Port Botany and the port of Newcastle were being privatised.

( This old news was at least not as bad as the media beat up on Vanuatu!)

John Austen, in P & I, on 5 September 2016, broke all the details about this port restriction and “how port privatisation will hobble Newcastle”. A month later, on 14 October 2016, I wrote a follow up piece “Privatisation and the hobbling of Newcastle Port”.

John Austen’s article of 5 September 2016 follows.

April 22, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. The banking royal commission confirms our worst fears about many business executives and crony capitalism

There was a revealing heading in an article a while back by Ross Gittins, the economics editor of the SMH, Faster growth demands better chief executives. He concluded his article by pointing to the need for business leadership to seize the economic opportunities - Our overpaid and underperforming chief executive officers are getting (it) wrong.

But it is all much worse than we thought as the incompetence and greed of some of our senior business executives has been revealed in the banking royal commission.

We also now know why the Liberal Party resisted for so long a royal commission. It was to protect their business mates. It is called ‘crony capitalism’

October 25, 2015

Robert Brown Two concerns about the governments response to the financial system inquiry.

Its been a big week for the Australian financial services industry. Firstly, there was the unusual decision by the big banks to raise mortgage interest rates in an economic environment which would normally result in no change or even a drop in rates, claiming with some justification that new capital adequacy requirements forced them to do it. Secondly, there was the governments generally positive response to the recommendations of Financial System Inquiry chaired by former CEO of the Commonwealth Bank, David Murray.

August 21, 2018

GEOFF RABY. Australia needs a foreign policy not a speech (Australian Financial Review, 21.08.18)

The Prime Ministers intervention last week to take charge of China policy and begin to set out a clearer framework for managing the relationship was much too late and probably too little, but it was a welcome start nonetheless.

January 16, 2014

The power of vested interests and why drugs cost so much in Australia. John Menadue

Why does the widely used cholesterol reducing drug Atorvastatin cost $A19 in Australia and $A2 for the same package in NZ? Why does the widely used cancer drug Anastrozole cost $A92 in Australia when the equivalent drug in the UK costs $A3.30. The answer is the political power of Medicines Australia and how it twists the arm of governments.

In a blog on January 7, I drew attention to the political power of vested interests to undermine the public interest and good policy development in Australia. I referred particularly to the miners and their role in destroying the super profits tax, the polluters opposition to the carbon tax, the hotel and liquor industry which is responsible for violence on our streets and poor health in the community, and the gambling industry particularly Clubs Australia, that successfully opposed proposals to shield problem gamblers. Just consider how James Packer has been able, so easily, to use his political power to avoid any public process in obtaining a licence for his high-rollers casino in Sydney.

January 28, 2014

John Menadue. Alcohol and violence on the streets --- the tip of the iceberg.

In recent weeks public attention has been focused on alcohol fuelled violence in Sydney streets and the very slow response of the NSW government. But the response when it did come really only addressed the ugly tip of the iceberg. the violence on the streets. The government response was superficial minimum mandatory sentencing, greater powers for the police, special licence conditions and lockouts and closures.

Very little attention was given to prevention and remedial action the widespread social and economic cost of alcohol misuse across Australia as revealed in our workplaces, roads, and criminal justice and health systems.

May 11, 2015

John Menadue. Democratic Renewal and our loss of trust in institutions

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

We speak often about the need for new ideas and policies to fill the void in the public debate.

We will be examining these issues in this series Fairness, Opportunity and Security.

But I think there is a prior problem. We need political reform to restore trust in our political system and our polity.

In the community there is a pervasive sense of powerlessness and disillusionment with governments, parliament and political parties. We are tired of one liners, zingers and endless rhetoric. We want to be treated as adults in a serious discussion, on issues like climate change, fairness and our colonial type dependence on the US.

August 24, 2017

JOHN FALZON. Politics is concentrated economics

Stark displays of inequality, such as the concentration of homeless people in Martin Place, challenge us to unite in solidarity with those who are oppressed by injustice an injustice that is a deliberate aspect of our neoliberal economic system.

May 4, 2019

BERNARD KEANE. The media has failed spectacularly on climate change (Crikey)

The media’s coverage of climate change in the election campaign has reflected the Coalition’s long-term strategy of denialism, rather than a desire for genuine scrutiny.

August 16, 2018

ANIKA MOLESWORTH. The drought and intergenerational equity

In failing to act on human-induced climate change, our political leaders are neglecting the rights of the next generation.

August 15, 2018

JERRY ROBERTS Why kill Bill?

Despite the failure of the strategy in the Super Saturday by-elections, Malcolm Turnbull is more determined than ever to kill Bill. What drives this homicidal obsession?

September 23, 2019

ROSEMARY OGRADY. For the Record

On the evening of Monday 16 September 2019 at a Melbourne bookshop, Allen & Unwin launched Fallen: The inside story of the secret trial and conviction of Cardinal George Pell by Lucie Morris-Marr.

January 31, 2019

RICHARD BUTLER. A Guessing Game

Trumps extraordinary public attack on the whole of the US intelligence community has fuelled a guessing game: the well established one which questions the relationship between intelligence assessments and policy development; and, a current one, which questions whether Trump has any interest in policy having a factual basis. Its anyones guess where the latter will lead.

March 12, 2015

Amanda Tattersall. Community organising aims to win back civil societys rightfulplace.

In the wake of the Second World War, Karl Polanyi wrote that the public arena is made up of three interconnected sectors: the market, government and civil society. He argued that democracy thrives when these three are in balance. If only that were the case today. Since the late 1980s, the global influence of the market sector has increased and, at the same time, civil society has decreased.

This can be felt every day in Australias cities. We see it in declining investment in community infrastructure everything from a lack of public transport to unaffordable housing. First in Sydney, then in other Australian cities, as well as across the world, civil society organisations like churches, schools, unions, community and religious organisations are rebuilding the power of civil society using community organising.

August 23, 2017

GILES PARKINSON. Super cheap solar - and why that's good for Australia's mining sector

Australias most pre-eminent solar researcher, Dr Martin Green, says the cost of solar PV technology will fall substantially in coming years, and while bad for the countrys thermal coal industry it will spell good news for other Australian mineral and materials exports.’ Any loss in thermal coal sales due to strong solar PV uptake will be offset 5 times over by increased demand for more valuable resources- coking coal,iron ore,alumina and copper'

September 10, 2017

ALAN KOHLER. Coalitions retreat back to coal-fired power stations and the loony fog

In 2015 Australias businesses made the mistake of thinking the Coalition government was serious about tackling climate change, and solemnly lined up to support it….There won’t be any new coal power stations and the lives of existing ones won’d be extended unless the government bizarrely and unnecessarily pays for it. If that happened,it would bring about the final divorce of business and the Coalition and the final retreat by Malcolm Turnbull into the loony fog inhabited by Donald Trump and the coal dancers on the Coalition’s right.

June 17, 2018

RANALD MACDONALD. The threat to public broadcasting in this country becomes more menacing by the day.

Those who say that the ABC will be around for years to come have their heads truly in a world of denial.

On top of the Governments huge cuts to funding, with 1000 less employed today than four years ago, continual harassment and criticism, now the Federal Liberal Council meeting in Sydney (June 16) has, on a 2 to 1 vote, sought the selling off of the ABC.

June 28, 2017

PETER RODGERS. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the US: the conniving and the confused

Saudi Arabias ultimatum to Qatar says much about the Kingdoms dreams of regional hegemony, its proxy war with Iran, and its glaring double-standards over interventionism. It amounts to a demand for Qatars total surrender. Qatar faces meaningful pain from the Saudi-led economic boycott but the chances of it acceding to the ultimatum are zero. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration struggles to develop a coherent approach.

June 26, 2017

BRUCE THOM. Disaster preparedness and climate change: a national conundrum

Australia’s policies on climate adaptation and disaster preparedness are not being brought together across jurisdictions to make the nation more resilient to inevitable shocks, let alone the insidious effects of reduced rainfall and water supplies. Professor Bruce Thom suggests how the imbalance between emission control and adaptation can be addressed with three related policy suggestions.

August 9, 2018

RICHARD WOOLCOTT. An Updated Approach to Australias Engagement in the Asia and the South West Pacific.

The Australian Government and the Opposition must now base policy on three realities, namely that;

(a) Trump is essentially a unilateralist, despite the contradictory comments he often makes; (b) United States involvement in Asia and the South West Pacific will be less active during Trumps Presidency; and that (c) Chinas role in the Asia and the South West Pacific will be much more active in the decades ahead, including its One Belt, One Road project.

June 23, 2015

Bob Kinnaird. China FTA labour mobility fails the national interest test

Current Affairs.

Prime Minister Abbott said nothing about the labour mobility provisions in the China Australia FTA (ChAFTA) package when releasing the FTA text last week. There will be a strong community reaction once these provisions are understood.

The Federal Labor Opposition set two benchmarks for the China FTA labour mobility provisions to pass the national interest test: retention of labour market testing or comparable safeguards on temporary migration; and they must enhance, not constrain, job opportunities for Australians.

September 5, 2017

PAUL FRIJTERS. What does the North Korean situation say about China?

It is easy to get drawn into the drama of rockets fired over Japan, and massive hydrogen bombs tested by a North Korean regime that likes to threaten mass extinction of its enemies, particularly with the tweeter-in-chief responding in kind. I worry though that the real game is in China, because the suspicion is that China has helped NK develop its technology, and one has to wonder what could drive the Chinese leadership to do such a thing.

August 27, 2017

JAMES O'NEILL. American blueprints for war pose an existential threat to Australia.

The recent statement by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to the effect that on defence issues Australia and the United States were joined at the hip raises the serious question of how far Australia will actually go in support of the United States as it embarks on one foreign policy misadventure after another? A possible change of government in Australia after the next election will not make any appreciable difference. The Labor leadership is always quick to ensure minimum daylight between themselves and the Coalition whenever yet another pledge of fealty to the Americans is made.

August 2, 2018

SCOTT BURCHILL. Syria - a few definitive outcomes.

As the war in Syria grinds towards some kind of resolution, it is possible to say a few definitive things about what is going on in the region and the role of external players.

September 13, 2017

PETER HAYES and DAVID VON HIPPEL. North Korea - How crucial are oil imports for its nuclear and missile programs?

A recent report by the Nautilus Institute by Peter Hayes and David von Hippel suggests that the impact of strong sanctions against oil imports by North Korea from China may not have a telling or early impact on its nuclear and missile development program.

February 2, 2017

FRANK JOTZO. New coal plants wouldn't be clean, and would cost billions in taxpayer subsidies.

Following a campaign by the coal industry, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has argued for new coal-fired power stations in Australia. But these plants would be more expensive than renewables and carry a huge liability through the carbon emissions they produce.

May 2, 2019

ABUL RIZVI. Partner Visas A Lesser Known Dutton Scandal

At end June 2018, the Government had allowed a backlog of over 80,000 Partner visa applications to build up. These are overseas-born people who are married to, or intend to marry, Australian citizens or permanent residents. Rather than take steps to deal with the backlog, Dutton started to cut down on the number of Partner places available, even though the law requires spouse visas be managed on a demand driven basis. His successor David Coleman has decided to continue the scandal.

September 11, 2017

EVAN WILLIAMS. Dunkirk - film review.

We all know the story or do we? It was one of Britains great wartime triumphs. With the British Expeditionary Force driven back to the French coast by advancing German armies, thousands of Allied troops were stranded on the beach at Dunkirk, and the call went out from Winston Churchill to rally the little ships and bring them home. Countless small craft fishing boats, launches, dinghies, even rowing boats crossed the Channel to gather survivors and ferry them home for joyful reunion with their families.

February 14, 2019

ABUL RIZVI: Asylum Seekers and Character Checking

Government has expressed concern that under the Medevac Amendments, serious criminals will enter Australia. Immigration Minister Coleman said at Question Time that a backpacker from Norway passes a stronger Character test than the people entering under the Medevac Amendments. While this is superficially correct, in practice the Government is being quite misleading. Lets unpack the issues.

October 9, 2015

Misha Coleman. Open Letter to Julie Bishop on Sri Lankan war crimes.

8 October 2015.

Dear Ms Bishop

Thank you for co-sponsoring the UN Human Rights Committee resolution negotiated by the Sri Lankan Government, which will hopefully provide some answers and finality to the mothers of 146,679 missing people, through the establishment of a domestic war crimes panel. You'll know that these Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian mothers are stilllooking for their children, their husbands, and they still long to re-inhabit their houses and their land. (The resolution is essentially the response to the investigation which was undertaken by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights into atrocities committed in the final decade of a 26-year civil war, and was passed unanimously last Thursday).

SRI LANKAN GOVERNMENT OFF THE HOOK Given the plethora of horror contained in the 272 page OHCHR report, the ultimate wording of resolution is understated to say the least. The Sri Lankan administration is reported to be ecstatic with the final wording: Colombo newspapers reporting last week that "Sri Lanka is happy that it is off the noose", and the Prime Minister being quoted last week as saying that his successful negotiation of the final wording (much watered-down from the original) means that "I have kept (the former President) Rajapaksa out of the electric chair."

Given the closeness of the relationship between Australia and Sri Lanka, we ask you to support the 'new' Sirisena/ Wickremesinghe Government to move swiftly on a number of reforms, without further postponements and delays, in return for the ongoing diplomatic and financial support that Australia continues to bestow upon the Sri Lankan leadership. Immediate reforms are also crucial since the resolution adopted today has no timeframe for implementation.

URGENT REFORMS Key and urgent reforms include the review and repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act which provides, amongst other things, legal 'cover' for torture and random detention. Another problematic piece of legislation is the Strategic Development Act, which appears to facilitate the confiscation and occupation by the Army of private land, for ''strategic' developments such as coal-fired power stations, tourism projects and golf courses. It's also difficult to understand the necessity and wisdom of the recently expanded Public Security Ordinance - which gives military the powers to act in a policing role, noting that there are an estimated 160 000 soldiers in the north and east now (with not much to do), representing about one soldier to every six civilians.

DECIDING TO RETURN You'll also know that a huge factor in people's decision to return to Sri Lanka and to the north is their ability to reclaim the land they owned and inhabited - but it's estimated that of the 67 000 acres of land occupied by the Sri Lankan military in the north, only 1000 acres has been released/returned to date.

EXPECTATIONS? So what do you expect from the resolution? There is certainly an expectation by many Sri Lankans that those who are responsible for deliberate murders of civilians, deliberate bombing of hospitals and no-fire zones, and even genocide if proven, must be punished. This is an expectation that applies to LTTE cadres, the military and the political machinery. It should be noted though that around 18 000 members of the LTTE have already been punished and 'rehabilitated'.

And the victors wrath continues: frequent reports are still made that former LTTE cadre are being picked up off the streets and taken to the dreaded Terrorism Investigation Division for example. Only last week, a man who claims to have left the LTTE in 1997 was arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Division and allegedly transferred to the notorious 4th floor 'torture department'.

WHAT NEXT? If you expect Sri Lanka to move on, and recognise that the days of the LTTE are over, surely Australia can also finally release those asylum seekers from our detention centres who arrived towards the end of the civil war (2008/2009) many of whom have been in detention in Australia for more than five years, based on adverse ASIO assessments which were often largely based on information provided by the former and highly corrupt Rajapaksan Government.

JULIE BISHOP: WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO? Hundreds of Sri Lankan asylum seekers still languish in legal limbo in Australia, awaiting their claims for asylum to be processed, while ongoing harassment continues towards their family members who remained behind in Sri Lanka.

The expedient narrative that those who have fled Sri Lanka since the end of the civil war are "economic migrants", includes those who have lost their children, lost their spouses, lost their jobs, their homes and their land-is this the definition of an economic migrant that you use during the on-water, enhanced screening process that was especially designed by the Department of Immigration for Sri Lankan asylum seekers?

Australia has rewarded the new Sri Lankan Government with political and diplomatic support, which has resulted in the foreshadowed economic and travel sanctions against the political leadership being taken off the table, and which has helped the new Government to regain international credibility.

Will you now reward the Sri Lankan people with your support for some genuine reform, and will you please process - fairly - the hundreds of Sri Lankans who have sought protection from you and your Government in Australia?

Misha Coleman is the Executive Officer of the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce and wrote thisletter from Colombo, Sri Lanka.

This letter was distributed to members of the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce.

September 23, 2019

BILL MCKIBBEN. If the world ran on sun, it wouldnt fight over oil (Guardian 18-9-19)

We are sadly accustomed by now to the idea that our reliance on oil and gas causes random but predictable outbreaks of flood, firestorm and drought. The weekendsnews from the Gulfis a grim reminder that depending on oil leads inevitably to war too.

May 19, 2015

Michael Keating. The Future of Federalism

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

Six months ago Tony Abbott announced that he wanted to create a more rational system of government for the nation that we have undoubtedly have become. A worth aspiration, but what does it mean in reality?

Fundamentally there are two contending doctrines regarding the future of federal-state relations in Australia. One view is that we should be working towards a clearer separation of the respective roles and responsibilities of each of the two levels of Government. The other view is that the two levels of government inevitably have to share responsibilities, and that the best way forward must be a system of cooperative federalism based on better arrangements for sharing joint responsibilities in the future.

May 20, 2018

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Turning a blind eye to the sheep trade.

The problem with exporting live sheep is that the practice is inherently unpleasant.

August 28, 2018

HENRY REYNOLDS. Henry Reynolds: Australia was founded on a hypocrisy that haunts us to this day.

US slave owners wrote and spoke about liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness. Similar hypocrisy, buried in the foundations of settler Australia, has escaped comparable scrutiny.

November 14, 2014

Ian McAuley. Is capitalism redeemable? Part 4: Moral conflicts

Luxembourg (more properly the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg) is one of Europes smallest sovereign nations, both in population (about the same as Tasmanias) and area (about one thirtieth of Tasmanias). Many Australians might have driven right through it, not realizing that in a half hour or so they had crossed a whole nation.

If corporate accounts are to be believed, however, it is a major centre of economic activity. Ikea, Fedex and Amazon all firms with global distribution functions realize a large proportion of their profits in Luxembourg, even though it is landlocked.

July 22, 2018

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Trump, the Queen and Putin.

It could have been worse. Donald Trump did not try and grab Queen Elizabeth by the pussy at least as far as we know. But no doubt his critics would say that was only because he was so preoccupied with kissing Vladimir Putins arse.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal