February 17, 2025

Who should take responsibility for youth crime?

A baby might be kicked into life as the result of a careless moment behind the woodshed or a romantic frolic in a grand four-poster bed. Either way, nine months later, that squirming mass of new life will enter the world – wanted or unwanted, prepared for or not.

January 17, 2025

Western media believe 24 Californians matter more than 46,000 Palestinians

Last week, news headlines heralded the disaster of 24 lives lost in Californian wildfires. Yet the same media outlets petered out the news of thousands more being killed by deliberate man-made bombing, starvation and destruction of homes and hospitals by Israel in Gaza.

December 20, 2023

Closing Loopholes Bill confronts the new realities of self-employment

Self-employment has changed in recent years. It’s been both shrinking and becoming more precarious. Proportionately, there are fewer business owners and there’s more gig work.

November 9, 2023

Optus outage: We can’t afford to have a single point of failure in our telecoms system

The recent Optus outage cannot be considered a ‘rare occasion.’ Over the last few years, we have witnessed several major outages across the telecoms networks, making it imperative for us to prepare ourselves for such events. We must address Telecom system vulnerabilities to prevent widespread outages.

October 11, 2023

The Voice: through the disinformation to the source of opposition

On Saturday, 14 October, Australians will vote on a seemingly inoffensive change to their Constitution. Why is it meeting such opposition? The case of the destroyed site at Juukan Gorge offers a hint. Are Australian mining companies, with such a poor record of respecting the voice of aboriginal communities, the true source of opposition?

February 12, 2023

School reform: shift the deck chairs, forget about the ship

The school year has started with the usual flurry of excitement about new policies and reforms, but flaws in the structure of Australia’s school system still aren’t on any agenda.

January 17, 2023

The Voice is an invitation to the Australian people

The nation is approaching a watershed decision. Are we brave enough to try and correct the wrongs of the past?

April 4, 2025

Medicare's much-needed reform held hostage by vested interests: Michael Lester in conversation with John Menadue, AO

Access to affordable primary healthcare through GPs has collapsed, forcing more people to rely on overcrowded and understaffed public hospitals. These hospitals, meant to be a last resort, have instead become the costly default option. _

February 10, 2025

Musk – a perfume on the nose

Elon Musk may not have fallen out with Donald Trump just yet, but he is definitely on the nose with the American public.

March 21, 2023

Asylum cases in Australia for first time exceed 100,000

In February 2023, the number of asylum cases in Australia for the first time exceeded 100,000.

January 31, 2022

Sea of hypocrisy around US freedom of navigation operations

These US operations in the South China Sea may violate international law, increase the risk of confrontation and are politically motivated.

March 27, 2025

The fundamental problem at the heart of defence policy

The noise over meeting US demands on military spending underlines the fundamental problem at the heart of Australian defence policy: there is no strategy.

February 19, 2025

US’ ‘China Initiative’ would be counterproductive

The “China Initiative” was the name of a controversial program run by the US Department of Justice, which was introduced in late 2018 during the first Trump administration.

February 29, 2024

Death of a Giant for Peace: the Johann Galtung legacy

On Feb 17, aged 93, Norwegian Johann Galtung, polymath Professor of Peace Studies died. In a world riven with conflicts, whose leaders appear to know more about weaponry, destruction and murder than about peace making, Galtung‘s teaching offers a penicillin for peace, an antidote to the arms trade and to persistent violence.

December 16, 2023

Bernie Sanders and the eviscerated left

The Left, and certainly a number of broadly defined progressives, have a strange affinity towards violence and conflict. When the absurdly labelled Global War Against Terror was declared by the semi-literate US President George W. Bush, the use of torture and resort to illegal invasions had the support of such noted liberal figures as Michael Ignatieff.

December 13, 2023

The Janitor

November 19, 2023

Losing my religion

Theology has long been used to justify war. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it’s happening again in the Middle East.

March 18, 2023

Rainbow alert on China

Crikey sets its sights on “human rights abuse” of China’s LGBTQI+ community relying on a single source for its investigation - the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

March 6, 2023

Seeing university reform through an ethical lens

The current review of Australia’s higher education sector, the Australian Universities Accord (the Accord), aims **‘**to drive lasting and transformative reform in Australia’s higher education system’. We propose that this review be undertaken through an ethical lens.

March 4, 2023

Covid killing 500 Australians a month: The Weekly Roundup

Will the Albanese government restore Medicare as a universal system? Covid is still killing about 500 Australians a month; and crazies in the Liberal Party branches try to undermine their few remaining sound parliamentarians. 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 6, 2021

For 21st century primary health care, we need bold and brave leadership

It’s long past time to implement primary care reforms — but whose voices are being heard in the discussion?

January 13, 2024

A slow genocide and the joy of eradicating a people

Israel is relying on world sympathy fatigue and amnesia. They are biding their time for the world to look away so that they can finish the job they started back in 1948. That is, the elimination of the Palestinian people. With luck, they hope, the world will stop their bleeding-heart moaning about Gaza and the plight of the Palestinians. The joy of the eradication of the ‘Palestinian Problem’ will, God willing, be complete in 2024.

December 15, 2023

What next after the General Assembly vote?

The UN General Assembly has now voted on the resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel/Gaza conflict which the United States vetoed in the Security Council. Only two European countries voted with Israel and the United States. No country in Asia either voted “no” or abstained on this resolution. This suggests that the U.S. government’s hopes of enlisting loyal Asian support for confronting, containing and countering its perceived primary adversary, China, will not be easily achieved.

December 27, 2022

To better serve Australia’s need, broaden mental health beyond Psychology

There is much hoo-ha following the government’s decision to revert to 10 subsidised psychology sessions from the pandemic-fuelled 20 sessions in place for the last couple of years.

December 17, 2022

Asian Media Report: Japan scrapping military spending limit

In Asian media this week – Missile systems able to attack enemy bases. Plus: media question official defence line; new criminal code worries LGBTQ community; benefits of soft diplomacy; junta leaders economic illiterates; instant change in COVID rhetoric.

April 3, 2025

Peter Dutton: The man who would be PM

It should never have been the case. Peter Dutton, leader of the Coalition opposition, is in with a chance to win the 3 May Australian election.

March 7, 2025

Never has violence been initiated by the oppressed

Violence is initiated by those who oppress, who exploit, who fail to recognise others as persons – not by those who are oppressed, exploited and unrecognised.

October 14, 2024

The forthcoming Queensland state election

In the forthcoming October 26 state elections, my prediction is that Labor in Queensland will get hammered.

October 25, 2023

A war for the human future

Our human world is becoming an increasingly dangerous place. Quite apart from what is happening between Gaza and Israel, and in the war between Russia and Ukraine, we are currently living with a series of human-made catastrophic threats that are coming together to threaten the very existence of our own human species. All of these threats are manageable, but we are not yet managing any of them adequately. And the combination is terrifyingly lethal.

March 12, 2022

Alex Sundakov - Ukraine. We wait with sadness and horror

But with every day I am seeing signs of Ukraine not just doing better than expected, but actually positioning itself for the post-war future.

April 4, 2025

China’s spies are here to help Albo: Anti-China Media Watch

The Australian reliably informs as that in Beijing it’s “all the way with Albo for PM”; the latest Chinese ship in the proximity of Australia’s waters is both an act of aggression and proof positive that New Zealand’s scientists are among the most “clueless” creatures on earth; and Confucius Institutes have to go from Australian university campuses.

April 2, 2024

A town like Alice. How a complex, isolated solar grid could provide blueprint for rest of Australia

Alice Springs is near the very centre of Australia: An iconic town made famous by its isolation, people, and multiple books and movies, and which now finds itself at the forefront of how to transition large isolated grids from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

February 24, 2024

Indigenous incarceration

More than a quarter of Canberra’s daily average prison population is Indigenous but only 2 per cent of people in the ACT identify as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person.

January 27, 2024

Navigating towards a fair and equitable society

The ideologies of capitalism and socialism are perceived to be irreconcilable. Individual freedom and the desire to accumulate wealth without government hinderance is pitted against the recognition of the necessity of the State to provide a humane, fair and sustainable society; one in which we all can flourish.

December 30, 2023

Private schools had biggest decline in PISA results

Catholic and independent schools had the biggest declines in the OECD’s Programme of Student Assessment (PISA) test results since 2009. Their students lost 1½ to nearly two years of learning in reading, mathematics and science. The falls in test scores were far bigger than for public schools.

February 26, 2023

Preventing civilisation collapse: Australia should lead the way

Can we avoid, what a growing number of researchers and writers, consider, will be the likely collapse of human civilisation in the not-too-distant future, if we do not quickly and radically change direction?

February 21, 2023

No basis for temporary protection visa scare mongering

Opening up access to permanent residence for long stay refugees on temporary visas is right and inevitable. The decision will not set off a major new surge of maritime asylum seekers. The Coalition and their supporters have selective memories. Temporary protection visas were never a deterrent anyway.

November 6, 2022

Is hydrogen for export over-hyped?

There is a good deal of hype about the potential for exports of Hydrogen. But there are technical and competitive reasons to question how large a boom it will be. There are other opportunities in the low-carbon world, and the need to decarbonise the economy is urgent.

March 28, 2022

Don’t believe what you hear about fuel excise and road funding in the forthcoming election campaign

_It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that road spending is way too high, priorities are wrong, and there is a roads empire which is out of control.

March 31, 2025

Time to call it. The US doesn't give a stuff for us

Despite 80 years of Australian unwavering loyalty, as expected the US, “our closest ally”, is now screwing us on tariffs, with a hefty 25% tariff placed on Australian steel and aluminium exports.

March 17, 2025

The Australian War Memorial needs to be removed from the influence of international arms companies

Last week the ABC Four Corners program “Sacrifice“ highlighted the harsh reality that we have lost control of the Australian War Memorial, which is dedicated to remembering the many thousands of Australian lives impacted by war. This investigation exposed the way in which unscrupulous political decision-making has led to a major redevelopment that risks turning this unique national institution into a “Disneyland of war”.

December 13, 2024

Why is youth radicalisation framed solely within an individualist lens?

At the same time as the finding of Amnesty International - over twelve months into the ongoing destruction of Gaza - that the state of Israel is indeed committing genocide, the Five-Eyes security and law enforcement agencies released a jointly authored report sounding the alarm on youth radicalisation.

March 22, 2024

The superpower with a persecution complex

This week, Gideon Levy interviewed by Phillip Adams on the ABC’s Late Night Live and Gershon Baskin in the Times of Israel, reminded us why the Israel Palestine conflict is so intractable.

October 19, 2023

Pearls and Irritations: A dissident challenge to the West’s narrative control

Pearls and Irritations has been a source of enlightenment since its foundation in 2013. It has progressively increased in importance.

October 14, 2023

The one word Israel is desperate you not define - terrorism

Terrorism: “(adjective) unlawfully using violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in pursuit of political aims.” Has any term more fully captured what the state of Israel inflicts on Palestinians?

March 15, 2022

C.Douglas Lummis-Japan declares Okinawa a "combat Zone" in possible war with China

_On 23 December last year, the Japanese Government informed the Kyodo News service that in the event of a “Taiwan Contingency” the US military, with the help of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, would set up a string of attack bases in the “southwest islands” of Japan.

February 21, 2025

At last: A serious attempt to fix retirement phase of super

Last year’s Treasury Discussion Paper, "The Retirement Phase of Superannuation", highlighted the emphasis that has been placed on the accumulation phase of Australia’s superannuation system, and the continued slow progress on the retirement phase, 30 years on from the system’s creation. Sadly, the government’s timid response in November to Treasury’s suggestions and the wealth of submissions its review attracted demonstrated once again unwillingness to bite the bullet and ensure the system actually meets its objective of “delivering income for a dignified retirement”.

January 22, 2025

For the world’s biggest coal export port, the future is just beginning

This month my term as chair of the Port of Newcastle comes to an end. It’s been a time of transformational change for the world’s biggest coal export port, with an ambitious growth and diversification plan ready to weigh anchor.

March 13, 2024

The future of Australia’s overseas student program

At over 40 percent of net migration, Australia’s overseas student program was growing unsustainably before the pandemic. The border closures hid many of the problems and led the Coalition Government to make policy changes that made the situation much worse when borders re-opened ( unrestricted work rights, fee-free visa applications, covid visa).

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal