December 19, 2022

Expect epiphanies on Australian defence policy this March

In 2023, announcements from Canberra on foreign affairs, defence, and trade will come thick and fast. They can be expected to be regressive, in contrast to the Albanese governments positive domestic agenda.

October 7, 2021

How the conservatives grew to reject experts and science

Anti-vaccine rioters on Melbournes streets were part of QAnon’s radicalisation of ordinary citizens around the world in this Covid era. They are the local eruption of an aggrieved demographic which resents a system it struggles to comprehend.

March 15, 2025

Cut defence spending to make us stronger and safer

There’s a simple solution to the problem of Chinese warships sailing around Australia: a reciprocal agreement – you don’t sail off our coast and we won’t sail off yours.

January 21, 2025

Will Trump’s hard line on Beijing ‘blow up’ Canberra’s China policy?

Canberra insiders fear the second coming of Donald Trump could bring pressure on Australia to disown its “stabilisation” policy with Beijing.

December 12, 2024

Who benefits from an attack on the synagogue in Melbourne?

In my condemnation of the attack on the synagogue in Melbourne, I said, “This is not acceptable by any means. Unlike the Zionists who kept silent and never condemned Israel’s destruction of 819 mosques and 3 churches in just over a year in Gaza, many of which are historic, Palestinians do not condone attacks against holy places.”

March 27, 2024

Is China an Imperialist nation?

I was recently sent a complete list of Chinas invasions of other countries in the last 2,245 years to demonstrated that China is historically an imperial nation and hence dangerous.

March 14, 2024

Asia, America or independence: Australians have decided, will politicians listen?

A recent poll conducted by The Guardian found that nearly twice as many people agreed with Paul Keatings suggestion that Australia should be an independent middle power in Asia, rather than an ally of the United States. Perhaps the electorate are smarter than some of our political class seem to think.

January 4, 2024

An ecological manifesto for the end of the world

We are facing the end of the world as we know it, but it doesnt have to be the end of the world. Our task is to bring people together in a spirit of mutual aid, and to cultivate the Living Democracy that is the only alternative now to authoritarianism, says a new book, Living Democracy by Tim Hollo.

December 19, 2023

Does Gaza ceasefire vote signal a shift in foreign policy?

Since coming to office in 2022, the Albanese Governments foreign policy has been dominated by its enthusiastic embrace of the AUKUS agreement with old allies, the United States and the United Kingdom. However these nations are totally out of step with global opinion about gross breaches of international law by the Netanyahu regime and neither has been able to influence Israel to at least consider alternatives to the ongoing catastrophic war.

November 29, 2023

Unmasked: The Crown is the enemy of the People

In the Commonwealths prosecution of whistleblower David McBride for his disclosures of possible crimes by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, the Crown has (to date) been successful in arguing something that will surprise most Australians that being that an Australian soldier does not serve Australia, or the Australian people or the public interest. Instead, a soldiers oath obliges him or her to swear to do nothing more or less than to well and truly serve [only] Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her Heirs and Successors according to law, and to resist Her enemies.

November 8, 2023

Australia-China relations: Diplomacy and a win Without a Fight

We should be greatly encouraged by Prime Minister Albaneses visit to China. Isolation is always a bad thing. Dialogue is essential for relationships to be sustained or nourished. This is the most important aspect of the visit, far outweighing in importance any specific outcome.

March 13, 2023

The cost and unnecessary suffering of military spending

The authoritative Peterson Foundation calculates that last year the US spent more on its military than the next nine countries together. This means more than China, India, Russia, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, Japan and South Korea combined. In 2023, the US allocated $US 858 billion to military spending compared to Chinas $US224 billion. China’s spending is 1.7% of GDP compared to 2% for Australia and 3.5% for the US.

January 21, 2023

Japan is not the most warlike nation in history

Jimmy Carter called the US the most warlike nation in the history of the world, and said that peaceful’ China is ‘ahead of us in almost every way.

December 17, 2022

Action on the Jenkins Report: good progress on behaviour, but more needed on institutional issues

It is now a year since the Jenkins Report on parliamentary standards was published. With the release last week of the Final Report of the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Standards with its proposed codes of conduct, and the Review of the MOP(S) Act by PM&C reporting earlier in November, we now have the wherewithal to implement all the Jenkins recommendations.

October 20, 2022

We need an all-party declaration of support for the ABC

Now is the time to consolidate the ABCs role permanently by enshrining the national broadcaster, through an all-party Declaration, as an institution thats integral to our democracy and to which all citizens have a right.

December 29, 2024

Jesting on the environment: Australian mining gets a present

How reassuring it is to be a mining magnate in Australia. Far more significant than royalty, such figures are the unelected captains of industry who know that governments will do whatever they can to accommodate their wishes and whims. True, the rhetoric might sometimes be sharp and seemingly at odds, especially when it comes to that great irritant known as climate change, but the business of Australia is mining, and so it remains.

November 17, 2024

A blessed synchronicity: How even memories of war can give hope for peace

Remembrance Day, 11 November: our little Monday afternoon music group. After the morning’s mournful recollections of war, cheerfully we’re comparing notes about our lives, friends, upcoming events in town. Then we settle back in our armchairs, ready for the music. Our hostess, Gretel Kempster, presses the button.

November 12, 2024

Grinding the axis

Axis is a four-letter word that should be banned or at least binned for the time being. The US uses the term in a distinctly hostile way, and now Andrew Shearer, Australia’s chief security adviser, has adopted the same language.

October 10, 2024

The future of NBN - Privatisation in a changing market landscape

This week, the government announced its intention to introduce new legislation that would keep the National Broadband Network (NBN) in public hands, reinforcing its election promise.

March 13, 2024

Alice in Aukusland: America first and the stillbirth of Australian SSNs

_AUKUS has become a stillborn project.

February 25, 2024

The despoiling of public life: Scott Morrison and authoritarian paranoia

There are few surprises regarding the final episode of Nemesis, the three-part account on how the Liberal Party, in partnership with the Nationals, psychotically and convulsively disembowel itself from the time Tony Abbott won office in 2013. Over the gore and violence concluding the tenures of Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, one plotter rose, knife bloodied and brimming with confidence: Scott Morrison. As always, he claims to have done so without a trace.

February 23, 2024

A remarkable Hong Kong media story

In Hong Kong, a vibrant Chinese media-oasis is forming within the vast territory long staked-out by the exceptionally dominant Mainstream Western Media.

January 23, 2023

What is the way ahead for the Australian Submarine Fleet?

Currently Australia has 6 Collins Class submarines in service all of which are approaching end of service life.

December 29, 2022

Democratic socialism in Australia: why its time again

Capitalism and liberal democracy are failing and destroying our world. In this, the first of a three-part series, we explore the failure of this system and the case for change.

November 18, 2022

Weekly roundup: Multi-employer bargaining wont bring industrial strife

Hard numbers on emissions are really scary; how Australia goes to war; multi-employer bargaining wont bring industrial strife; and slavery in company supply lines. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy.

October 16, 2022

Pictures and words: The manipulative uses of images and language in Ukraine

12 OCTOBERI have been reading for some days, mostly in independent publications whose credibility I am not in a position to assess, about what goes on in the territories Ukrainian troops have recently retaken. It seems that what ensues very quickly are violent campaigns of reprisals wherein those whose sympathies lie with Russia are called collaborators and subject to assassination or arrest.

February 9, 2022

Pigeons come home to roost: toxic gender pay gap is exposed by the pandemic

Those in power must address the gender wage gap to ensure the capacity of governments and services to employ more health and community workers.

March 28, 2025

Are we losing the battle against urban development on floodplains?

After two recent bouts of flooding already this year in Far North Queensland and more in the south-east of the state and in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, the perennial matter of our use of floodplains is in the news once more. Specifically, the issue of building houses on flood-liable land has come to public attention again.

January 27, 2025

Humanity’s operating system has been infected

Humanity is like a vast operating system designed to run on principles of fairness, collaboration, and kindness. Research shows that humans are hardwired to work together, share resources, and build systems based on trust and mutual benefit. This is how we’ve thrived for millennia.

December 31, 2024

Best of 2024: Why do Chinese EVs meet so much resistance?

There was a time when the world looked to China to reduce its emissions. China was, they quite rightly pointed out, one of the globe’s worst polluters.

December 22, 2024

Does Israel have a right to exist? The impact of Statehood

Last month, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur, was asked: “Do you believe Israel has a right to exist?”

December 11, 2024

Settlements in Palestine

As we are potentially approaching a time when the world must address a Palestinian resolution, it is appropriate to consider possible obstacles. As Australians, our vote at the UN last week calling on Israel to end the occupation, is most unlikely to avoid the obstacle addressed here.

November 9, 2024

Pro-Israel Democrats brought down their own party

For many years, American politicians have recited and acted in accordance with the “truism” that “no politician ever lost an election by being too pro-Israel.”

March 3, 2024

Horror in Gaza and the shallowness of Western civilisation

Modern Israel has existed for 860 months, yet the past 5 will define its culture, its values, and the very basis of its religious inspiration before the bar of history for generations to come.

January 28, 2024

Are Asian Americans moving to the Republican Party?

For some years Asian Americans have strongly favoured the Democratic Party with their votes. The main reasons for this were that when they came to America, they settled mostly in large cities run by the Democratic Party in Democrat states. The Democratic Party claimed them as minority people that were part of the Democratic coalition of voters, or the Rainbow Coalition. The Party organised to help newcomers and get them to vote. Finally, Asian Americans followed models including Asians that won elective office in the United States that were predominantly Democrats.

December 27, 2023

Pope decries arms industry profits for pulling 'puppet strings of war'

“The human heart is weak and impulsive; if we find instruments of death in our hands, sooner or later we will use them,” said the Pope in his Christmas Day blessing. “And how can we even speak of peace, when arms production, sales and trade are on the rise?”

October 12, 2023

Bitter truths: colonisation was not so good for some

These days, Melbournians celebrate the contribution of the Kulin clans to the life of the city. But even as Elders welcome us to the MCG, and clan members, young and old, bring vibrancy to the citys cultural, intellectual and spiritual life, commentators on the Voice referendum report that many voters have little knowledge of the history of this place and its continuing impact on Kulin lives. It is as if a people just walked away and left the place to the invaders.

March 30, 2023

Labor prepares return to disastrous Forward Defence doctrine

Nearly everything the Labor government says about nuclear subs is ludicrous and highly damaging.

March 25, 2023

Australia's paper sea horse

Many a joke telling session starts with Have you heard the one about ? The latest joke in the ASEAN region is .the one about AUKUS?

February 18, 2023

War: truly the last resort for Australians?

If war is the last resort, why doesnt our governance system enforce that condition? Will our War Powers be reformed in 2023?

November 17, 2022

Make Trump great again

Only once has a defeated President gone on to win re-election four years after his first term. Grover Cleveland, who won in 1884 and again in 1892 is generally ranked by historians in the middle rung of American Presidents. Beside Donald Trump he is a paragon of Presidential dignity.

January 12, 2022

The China threat: Dutton is dragging Australia into dangerous waters

The Defence Minister is stoking anti-China sentiment in Australia a foolhardy stance that is damaging our economy and putting us at risk of military conflict.

February 1, 2025

The upending of UNRWA could be the end of the UN’s role in humanitarian affairs

The unilateral action of the Israeli government to ban the UN specialised agency UNRWA and its humanitarian work in Palestine is wrong, both morally and legally. Moreover it threatens the substructure of specialised agencies that underlies the UN system generally, on which relief and humanitarian assistance for poverty stricken or famine affected regions and their displaced persons, rely.

December 13, 2024

A casualty of expectations

Everyone, it seems, is getting stuck into Anthony Albanese. Its not as though he has done much that is wrong. He hasn’t gone back on his promises, except, perhaps, in not delivering improved environmental legislation, and of course he failed to deliver on the Voice, though he tried.

December 7, 2023

A different kind of climate movement: the Kaldor Centre Principles on Climate Mobility

Every second, someone is displaced by a disaster. Each year, nearly three times as many people are displaced within their own countries by disasters than by conflict the vast majority in the Asia-Pacific region. Climate change will amplify the problem as worsening cyclones, floods, bushfires, droughts and food insecurity force millions from their homes. Most people will move within their own countries, but some may be displaced across international borders. Yet others will be stuck at home, without the resources to move out of harms way.

October 30, 2023

We are the Silence: How words bear witness in life and in death

In August of this year, Yousef Maher Dawas, a young Palestinian author, wrote a story of hope and resilience, titled Kidney Transplant and Rebirth: A Palestinian Love Story. On the 14th of October, Yousef was killed by an Israeli missile strike, along with several members of his family. Remember his words. He was not a number.

October 11, 2023

Gaza shatters the facade of calm

Palestinians have long warned that Israel’s blockade and repeated aggressions would eventually lead to an explosion. But few of us in Gaza expected this.

January 27, 2023

Ukraine: The ignominious unravelling of the West has begun

Western powers appear to have no viable strategy to bring the Ukraine war to an end. The best they can do is keep Ukraine on life support. But, as Sun Tzu put it, tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

November 14, 2021

Graveyard of Empires: US repeated Soviet failures in Afghanistan

Having covered the Soviet war in Afghanistan, Trevor Watson reflects on his time experience of the Cold War, the CIA and the KGB.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal