November 15, 2021

School curriculum overhaul needed for Australia to find its place in Asia

The failure to properly resource Asian studies in Australian schools and universities is a problem for Australia’s long-term security.

November 20, 2024

The US political system and its capitalist, imperialist agenda has failed

Trump’s victory has exposed, for a second time, the failings of the entire US political system and its pursuit of a capitalist, imperialist agenda.

April 3, 2024

Housing affordability and equality: part 1

The first part of this article explores how home ownership has become almost impossible for most aspiring first-home buyers and how that is creating a much more unequal distribution of wealth. A second part tomorrow will discuss the policy options to restore home ownership and thus a more equal and cohesive society.

March 4, 2024

Israel: a terrorist state

Thursday February 29, starving Gazans try to obtain flour for their families. From the safety of their tanks, Israeli soldiers fire. One hundred and four people are killed, 750 injured. Israeli army spokespersons blame the crowd and insist that most fatalities occurred when Gazans were crushed by aid trucks.

February 3, 2024

Cautious, middle of the road wisdom wont solve Asias problems

The recent Statement from former Australian Foreign Ministers Gareth Evans and Bob Carr calling for Australia to play a role in seeking detente between the US and China in Asia is worthy. But is it realistic?

It tells us that the Australia-Japan initiated International Commission on Nuclear Non- Proliferation and Disarmament of 2009, is a model of creative, middle power diplomacy.

But in the name of protecting its own security Tokyo rejects any disarmament proposal thathints of sacrificing absolute US nuclear security. How is that supposed to promote detente in Asia?

January 10, 2024

No peace to keep: Israel, the ICJ and implications for Australian policy

For the foreseeable future Israel will not commit itself to allowing Palestinian statehood. It will remain in occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. And so long as the occupation continues, there will be no peace to keep.

November 1, 2023

One less terrorist

As of October 29, the Palestinian Ministry of Healths official confirmed figure for those killed by Israeli bombing and shelling of the territory of the Gaza Strip was more than 8000, including more than 3400 children, which, statistically, is one child killed every 10 minutes since October 7.

December 31, 2022

Indonesia’s successful G20 Summit: a turning point?

The Indonesian G20 year was like no other. The Russian war in Europe divided the G20. No G20 communiques emerged from the ministerial meetings held during the run-up to the summit in mid-November 2022. There was a moment when it seemed that the summit would only tackle low-hanging fruit. But Indonesian President Jokowi Widodo embraced the tensions rather than avoiding them.

November 29, 2022

Dutton will find sudden enthusiasm for the NACC when Labor is questioned

Imagine the day when an NACC investigation reaches the point where it becomes known, perhaps from a leak, that a Labor minister and her office are under investigation. Maybe selling access to the minister for clients with interests to press with the minister.

October 24, 2022

Medicare "rorts"ridiculous, but reform still needed

Suggestions that Medicare is being rorted to the extent of $8 billion a year are ridiculous. But that doesnt mean there isnt a need for reform in how Medicare pays GPs.

October 25, 2021

Are Albanese and Labor really ready to govern?

Anthony Albanese has avoided many potential conflicts with the government. But that cleverness has helped obscure what, if anything, he stands for.

February 27, 2025

Jeffrey Sachs' explosive address at the EU Parliament sends shockwaves across Europe!

Jeffrey Sachs, the American economist and public policy analyst who is also a professor at Columbia University, gave an unconventional address to the EU Parliament last week. Below is a short version of his comments; the full version is here.

February 2, 2025

2025 Jerusalem (Al Quds) Peace Prize to Wendy Turner

At the 2025 Jerusalem (Al Quds) Peace Prize ceremony in the Melbourne Town Hall on Friday evening February 21, this year’s award will go to Wendy Turner, trade unionist, ageless social justice activist and long term advocate for the human rights of all Palestinians.

January 30, 2025

Lies, damned lies and catastrophic risks

For the second year running, lies have emerged as the primary risk facing humanity, in the Global Risks Survey 2024-25 conducted by the World Economic Forum of 900 experts worldwide.

January 6, 2025

Howard’s Iraq War legacy: Tasmania’s brief moment of integrity

The release of newly declassified 2004 cabinet documents about Australia’s involvement in the Iraq War sheds further light on one of the most controversial decisions in the nation’s history. The evidence confirms what many suspected: secrecy, manipulation, and unverified claims drove the Howard government’s decision to commit troops to Iraq. Amid the rush to war, Tasmania’s The Mercury briefly stood apart, publishing an anti-war editorial in September 2002 that warned of the dangers ahead.

December 30, 2024

What is at stake if countries ignore the ICC’s arrest warrants?

Imagine… the state court has handed down an injunction to arrest certain individuals in your community for alleged crimes. Until now, the police have unfailingly done their duty and arrested individuals when instructed to do so by the court. But this time, they refuse to make these arrests. They disagree, they say, with the court’s decision, so they refuse to uphold the law on this occasion.

December 21, 2024

‘Nothing to see here’ says Australia as third Thales corruption case starts globally

Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy turns a blind eye to “unethical conduct” between Thales and the Defence Department despite national audit office warning of “capture” by weapons giants.

November 30, 2024

Another nail in the coffin for Australia’s phantom defence needs

The US submarine base was always going to come first, not for the sake of supplying useless boats for Australia’s phantom defence needs, but for keeping an ever watchful US imperium stocked.

November 29, 2024

War powers reform: no ticker for a no-brainer

Worst of Friends by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain is a simply wonderful book, aimed at “pre-schoolers and up”.

November 2, 2024

In the face of genocide: a document of shame

Today, November 2nd is the 107th anniversary of one of the darkest days in the bloody history of the British Empire. For exactly 107 years ago today the then British Foreign Secretary, Lord Arthur Balfour, a Christian Zionist Lord wrote a personal letter to Lord Walter Rothschild, a Jewish Zionist Lord, in which he gifted him Palestine as a ‘homeland’ for the Jews.

April 2, 2024

Weaponising antisemitism impedes justice and peace

Weaponising a real fear in the West of being called or being seen as antisemitic, while simultaneously exploiting long-entrenched anti-Arab prejudice, the Israeli government has successfully exempted itself from legitimate interrogation, reproach and effective sanctions for its unchecked expansionist ambitions and inhumane, racist actions against Palestinians.

December 16, 2022

The breakdown of US hegemony is the defining feature of our strategic environment

The defining feature of our present strategic environment is not a competition between the US and China. It is the breakdown of the singular hegemonic command of the United States, under its own weight.

December 14, 2022

Australia: a frontline state in the new Cold War

On 15 November 2022, during the G20 summit in Bali (Indonesia), Australias Prime Minister Anthony Albanesetoldjournalists that his country seeks a stable relationship with China. This is because, as Albanese pointed out, China is Australias largest trading partner. They are worth more than Japan, the United States, and the Republic of Korea combined. Since 2009, China has also been Australias largest destination for exports as well as the largest single source of Australias imports.

December 10, 2022

Thinking differently about peace and security, lessons from Costa Rica

World-wide threats to life on earth imply a desperate need to think differently about peace and security. Costa Rica teaches how.

November 25, 2022

Weekly Roundup: is the Reserve Bank overshooting on inflation?

A former Liberal leader calls for higher taxation; Is the Reserve Bank overshooting in its war on inflation; and wasnt Medicare meant to be universal? Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy.

November 10, 2022

Ethiopian Civil War and its manufactured humanitarian crisis

The brutal internal conflict between Ethiopian national forces under the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has inflicted untold suffering on millions of innocent people.

March 10, 2022

Ukraine highlights our defence procurement shambles

With the Russian invasion in full swing and the collateral havoc of civilian casualties and mass evacuations before our eyes on TV it is premature to try to draw many firm conclusions about the longer term global implications of the Ukraine situation let alone for Australia. But there are immediate lessons which should not be buried by the increasingly blatant khaki election campaign by the Coalition already descending on Australia.

February 18, 2022

ABC Managing Director David Anderson has released an important and ground-breaking essay on the ABC and its future.

Now More than Ever: Australias ABC (Monash University Publishing) is a passionate and well-argued cri de coeur from a man who has devoted his working life to the public broadcaster, from the mail room to the top office.

February 7, 2022

Festival of light: boycott was justifiable to support Palestinians

Opponents of the boycott have mounted some surprisingly weak objections, when there are more serious questions to be asked.

February 24, 2025

Can Europe dare to do the smart thing and partner with China in Africa?

Europe’s relationship with Africa encompasses significant grim history. Yet the continent is more central to how Europe’s future will look than ever. Meanwhile, China’s remarkably constructive relationship with Africa today presents a potential primary mode for substantially enhancing Africa’s prospects. This geopolitical fact also represents a crucial opportunity for Europe to partner with China and confidently shape its own future. Provided, that is, Europe hasn’t, influenced by the US, crushed its capacity to act in its own best interests.

January 24, 2025

China Media Watch

Reports of Uyghur forced labour imports to Australia: The mainstream media continues to produce China reports that are agenda driven, biased and based on poor or no research. There is no balance and rather than be constructive, there’s an all-out determination to be destructive.

January 18, 2025

All at (sixes and) sevens and eights: Taiwan policy

The fate of the world may well rest on Taiwan but our policy is at sixes and sevens, or rather, according to recent statements in the Australian press, at sevens and eights.

January 9, 2025

The silent crisis killing public education

The exodus from Australia’s public schools is not a quiet migration – it’s an outright stampede. This dramatic shift, particularly in secondary education, reveals a deep crisis that policymakers, academics, and unions acknowledge superficially but lack the courage to confront head-on. At the heart of this issue lies the unspoken truth: public schools are increasingly burdened with students facing complex challenges.

December 9, 2024

Thorpe’s genocide case against Netanyahu’s Australian advisor as back in court

Mark Regev is “an Australian citizen and he’s advocating for genocide,” Uncle Robbie Thorpe explained last week.

December 5, 2024

If you want peace, don't prepare for war

In a series of baby but not blindfolded steps, our Government is making Australia ready for war. The latest of these appeared in the small print of a memorandum on 27 November.

March 15, 2024

It's a huge policy failure that Australia can't defend itself

Not unexpectedly, the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine project has run into reality as Virginia class production slows down, leaving Australia with no Defence policy. A huge strategic failure, if endorsed government assessments are believed, which has left Australia vulnerable and dependent on America.

February 20, 2024

Do you think anyone heard us?

January 5, 2024

The Search for the Palace Letters

Controversial documentary, THE SEARCH FOR THE PALACE LETTERS to premiere on ABC TV + iview on Monday 8 January at 8:00pm AEDT

December 29, 2023

On China/Australia relations the language has improved but there has not been much change of substance

A major problem for a settler society like Australia is to reconcile our history and our geography. In the last 10 years we’ve lost ground in reconciling the two.

December 3, 2023

The race to the bottom

November 7, 2023

Israel and Palestine the pain increases hour by hour

The land the Palestinians dream about returning to is no more, and the land that Israelis dream about possessing forever has turned into an immoral and unsustainable nightmare.

March 26, 2023

The gatekeepers have spoken

Since 1901, the often-self-appointed gatekeepers of Australias defence and diplomacy have had the greatest difficulty with the idea of accountability.

March 24, 2023

Out of touch, out of date, or out of their minds?

Our foremost practitioner of the quick and deadly put-down, Paul Keating, copped plenty of blowback after his National Press Club performance on 15 March.

December 4, 2022

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is heading for a gloomy election year

While Ardern is a success overseas, events occurring both in the domestic market and overseas have been working against her government. The Covid Pandemic, the Ukraine war and the high cost of fuels, inflation, high interest rates and a likely year long recession combine to create concerns for New Zealand families and a night-mare scenario for Labour in the election due next year.

January 5, 2022

Whether running immigration or being PM, Morrison fiddles the books

Using income tax receipts to offset departmental spending undermines good government. But that doesn’t faze this government.

November 26, 2021

Not just the corners: ABC assault on Assange undermines foundations of journalism

Demonised by governments, abandoned by his homeland, Julian Assange ends another year in captivity, a living rebuke to double standards in the media.

November 19, 2021

From our readers: We must fight for the common good

In letters to the editor this week: the need to work for the common good, avoiding war over Taiwan, and some advice for Labor ahead of the election.

January 8, 2025

Selective outrage won’t kill the death penalty

The world, thankfully, has come a long way from the time when animals as well as humans were put to death for unacceptable behaviour. Regrettably, Australia, a self-proclaimed abolitionist, is only really serious about capital punishment when the lives of its citizens are at stake.

January 2, 2025

UN expert urges medical world to cut ties with Israel amid attacks on Gaza hospitals

As Israeli forces stand accused of war crimes during attacks on multiple Gaza hospitals in recent days, Francesca Albanese — the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories — on Monday implored the global medical community to respond by cutting ties with Israel.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal