October 30, 2024

Clean slate for prison reform

The Canberra community decided on 19 October to remove from its parliament the two most recent ministers for corrections, Mick Gentleman (Labor) and Emma Davidson (Green).

October 9, 2024

Advancing effective competition

Revelations about supermarket pricing have appropriately focussed attention on the need to enhance competition in concentrated markets. Other markets ranging from technology to beer have evidenced like problems. We suggest that the process will be helped significantly by further amendment of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 to better allow the ACCC to properly pursue these issues.

December 17, 2022

The complex and differing images of jailed former tycoon Jimmy Lai

The latest prison term for former media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying will inevitably be portrayed by the Western media as further communist persecution of the citys leading pro-democracy fighter. But many local people who lived through more than two decades of Lais media dominance will have a very different take. If you want a better understanding of this intriguing and complex figure, you need to take into account both his local and international images.

October 22, 2022

Exit Liz Truss; enter lettuce

When are you going to govern? The only thing you have governed for the past year is your own survival. Jess Phillips, Labour MP, October 20, 2022

March 14, 2022

Ukraine - US Brzezinski's ghost and the goading of the USSR

_Back in 1998, in an interview with the French news magazine, Le Nouvel Observateur, President Jimmy Carters National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, boasted how the US national security establishment had laid the groundwork for the eventual Russian invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.

March 29, 2025

AUKUS: Many chickens but no subs

John Menadue recently argued convincingly that the “AUKUS chickens were coming home to roost already”. Shortly thereafter, the Guardian helpfully reported that a “ Trump pick for the Pentagon says selling submarines to Australia would be ‘crazy’ if Taiwan tensions flare”.

January 23, 2025

AI – Boom! Bubble? … Bust ???

Anniversaries are not harbingers of doom. Twenty-five years back, Walter Marks of Oakland Capital, which now manages $US200 billion, had warned his clients that the dot.com boom was a bubble about to burst. On March 23 that year, the market peaked. From there, the Millennium Bug was not in the race to the bottom.

December 18, 2024

A Trumpian Dutton will use Howard’s legacy to march into office, and Albanese will let him

The coming month of January 2025 is shaping up as Australia Day month. The Coalition has signalled it will be making heavy weather of the weeks leading up to and following Sunday, 26 January. The hubbub will likely focus on Australian flags and an intense determination to stand by the 26th as the day in January sanctified by tradition as the one when the nation contemplates the glories of our history and the impact we make on the world beyond our land of beauty, rich and rare.

March 13, 2024

Australian housing crisis: We need a Ben Chifley

Having a comfortable place to live is a human right. It is enshrined in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Australia has signed. But it is clear from todays housing crisis Australia has lost its way.

February 12, 2024

Chinese Australians are happy ScoMos leaving politics. Is this an opportunity for the Liberals?

This level of dislike for Morrison among Chinese Australians should come as no surprise, given that the roughest patch in Australia-China relations happened during his reign. But now he’s gone, can Peter Dutton begin to mend fences?

December 26, 2023

AUKUS and US militarisation a concern for NZ sovereignty

As the New Zealand coalition government backs closer alignment with US geo-strategic interests, critics warn of instability and loss of sovereignty in a region militarisation is dividing.

October 6, 2023

Which way for school students with disabilities?

To truly serve all students, well have to rethink how schools do school.

February 19, 2023

Disability can be progressive. Supportive regimes must be progressive too

In 2007, at age forty-four, I stood as a Senate candidate for Victoria in the federal election. In 2011, I moved into a shared support accommodation facility, where I suffered a severe loss of choice and control. Disability can be progressive. Supportive regimes for those subjected to physiological deterioration need to be progressive too. They must adapt continuously to meet the actual situation, and the distressing development, that the person is confronting.

November 4, 2022

Federal Budget: TAFE at the heart of Labors economic plan?

To understand the complete picture of what the Federal Labor Government has promised for TAFE and vocational education and training, you need to look at Labors election Plan for the Future, the outcomes of the Jobs and Skills Summit and now the Federal Budget.

March 20, 2022

Homicidal drives: US dreams of killing Putin

The US imperium will dispose of leaders and prominent figures it does not like, even if it fails along the way.

March 14, 2025

Maybe the inflation surge didn’t happen the way we’ve been told

According to Reserve Bank deputy governor Andrew Hauser last week, we’ve entered a world characterised not just by volatility, complexity and uncertainty, but also by “ambiguity” – a world where “you don’t know the model”, meaning that “judgment and instinct are as important as formal analysis”.

February 15, 2025

The politics of fear: How belief and emotion drive electoral outcomes

As the inevitable federal election approaches, the major parties are already revealing their strategies. The Australian Labor Party is opting for a cautious approach, banking on the expectation of securing a second term. Treasurer Jim Chalmers focuses on delivering intricate explanations of Australia’s economic performance within a global context, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese highlights his government’s efforts to improve wages and overall economic conditions. Their campaign seeks to present a narrative of stability and progress despite global challenges.

December 27, 2024

Let’s get this right. Israel is not a democracy

In defending Israel’s actions in Gaza, a common refrain from supporters and right- wing politicians is that Israel is the only democratic country in the Middle East. The notion a democratic country can be above criticism despite charges of war crimes and genocide, suggests this exclusive club of democratic states can never be subject to international law or global opprobrium. So, a rule for us and a different rule for others.

January 6, 2024

No country for old men: Why ignore our elder statesmen?

I am currently reading a book by Jeffrey Sachs whose articles often grace these pages. I am struck by the wealth of his experience having advised governments over many years, and his ability to take a long view of world events, in particular the deterioration in the United States position in the world since the end of World War 2. But he, like many in his generation, is routinely ignored. I do not see his name listed as one of President Bidens advisers.

December 5, 2023

Sydney YIMBY and the weaponising of heritage

I live in the inner west/southwest of Sydney, traditional lands of the Gadigal, Wangal and Darug-speaking peoples. Our built heritage traces the areas development and amplifies its desirability, economic viability, and peoples quality of life. According to Time Out, Marrickville and Enmore are some of the coolest neighbourhoods in the world.

October 30, 2023

Hamas has set a trap. It depends on Israels brutal response

In the 75 years since it won nationhood in a field of blood, Israel has fought many wars against its neighbours and its indigenous population. Each has been an existential struggle, because its enemies wanted still do to annihilate it altogether.

October 26, 2023

With echoes of Iraq war, ADF deployed to Middle East

The decision to deploy the Australian Defence Forces to the Middle East in the middle of the war in Gaza puts the Albanese Government into the same category as many appalling predecessors.

November 10, 2022

Labor brings Israel-Palestine policy back to the middle: will it matter?

The announcement of the Albanese Governments decision to reverse Australias recognition of West Jerusalem was sloppily handled. That was the only surprise in it.

February 21, 2025

How new is Trump’s foreign policy outlook?

It was offensive, thoughtless, and ridiculous for President Donald Trump to ponder aloud at a press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu about America colonising Gaza, moving out the existing population, and turning it into a seaside holiday destination. Given how many statements like this Trump has made as president, not just as a candidate, it is tempting to see him as uniquely dangerous.

December 4, 2024

Politicking wins, vulnerable people lose out

Isn’t it better to hold on to integrity, uplift the lives of the most vulnerable in our society and risk losing an election, rather than win an election through the brutal treatment of society’s most vulnerable people?

October 19, 2024

The NSW native forest logging industry is unsustainable – a fast transition out is needed now

The NSW Government is currently seeking submissions on the future of native forest logging in the state. One option is not on the menu—yet should be. That option is the rapid and permanent exit out of native forest logging and a switch to a plantation-only timber industry in the next 2 years. This is essential because the industry, as it stands, is demonstrably unsustainable. And unsustainable in several key ways.

February 11, 2024

E-cigarettes are not the solution to the tobacco pandemic

A landmark event in global public health is taking place in Panama City on Feb 5-10: the 10th Conference of Parties (COP10) of theWorld Health Organisation(WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Since 2003, the FCTC has been ratified by 183 countries, and all of them, including China, have made steady progress in monitoring tobacco use, smoke-free areas, quitting, health education, raising tobacco taxes, and bans on promotion.

December 8, 2023

Climate, health, and the Rising Tide

Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels. Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness Antonio Guterres

November 29, 2023

Ten key steps towards 21st century health reform

Australians place great value on their health and their health system. They believe that, with some exceptions, the health system is gold medal winner by world standards on access, equity and quality. In its core values, it is a system of which we should all be proud. But, 40 years after the introduction of Medicare, we are now victims of our own success. Our long life expectancies, the miracles of modern medicine and the expectation that all should benefit, mean that it’s now under enormous strain.

October 28, 2022

Guilt and dread as floods remind us of ecological crisis

The flood crisis engulfing much of Australia reminds us of the future we face in an era of climate change. Heres the thing; writing abstractly about something and experiencing it directly are two very different things. Or so Ive discovered.

March 26, 2025

Restoring tax equity for the low-paid should be an election issue

The critical issue in the May 2025 election is likely to be about the rising costs of living, with competing views about whether the Labor Party is responsible for them and which of the major parties is most likely to address them.

December 20, 2024

Australian state curbs protest against Israel, silences Palestinians

Observe the formula carefully. On the public broadcaster SBS, Jillian Segal, still fresh in her role as antisemitism envoy, made a suggestion in the wake of the December 6 attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne. Australian “cities should not be utilised” for protests held in solidarity with Palestinians affected by the ongoing Hamas-Israel War. As with all contemptuous of any right to protest, Segal proposed that those wishing to gather for such a purpose be parcelled and segregated, preferably away from city environs. “There should be places designated away from where the Jewish community might venture, where people can demonstrate.”

February 15, 2024

We need to talk about Gina and Andrew

Natural resources are owned by the people of Australia, but mining companies dont like paying us for the resources they take out of the ground. And when they look like having to pay more, their response is swift and brutal.

January 2, 2024

The wrong side of history

March 10, 2023

Poor ranking for gender equality on IWD: Weekly roundup

A poor ranking for gender equality on International Women’s Day; the computer code that has the Reserve Bank on a loop of rising inflation and rising interest rates; and why we should tax the family home. Read on for the Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy.

March 11, 2025

Australia’s economy has turned the corner, and consumer spending was a big help

Australia’s economy expanded at the fastest pace in two years in the December quarter, boosted by an improvement in household spending and stronger exports.

February 1, 2024

Trust governments with AI? Perhaps not, when there is a revenue stream involved

International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, was recently quoted in the Guardian (Tuesday 16/1/24) saying that in most scenarios artificial intelligence (AI) would probably worsen overall inequality across the global economy and could stoke social tensions without political intervention.

December 27, 2022

Best of 2022: The major parties refuse to tackle the lobbying scourge. Can the Teals and the Greens save the day?

_The major obstacle to lobbying reform is that for members of parliament, their staff and senior officials, lobbying provides a very lucrative income when they leave parliament, the military or the public service. So they refuse to act on the lobbying scourge.

November 21, 2024

Social media ban targets the wrong age group and the wrong type of media

To reduce social harm, instead of a ban on teens accessing social media, should we consider a ban on over 60 year olds reading and listening to News Corporation outlets?

March 1, 2024

The bucolic stupidity of nuclear energy - Weekly Roundup

The bucolic stupidity of nuclear energy, repairing the damage after the Coalitions war on learning, why Dutton would be a lousy baby-sitter. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues.

October 28, 2023

Hoping against hope: The Synodal process and prospects for equality for women in the church

The most pressing challenge for the Catholic Church remains addressing women’s inequality in its ranks. The current Synod on Synodality offers some hope, but there are huge roadblocks. The likelihood of equality for women in the Church requires a leap of faith, extremely long-term thinking, and hoping against hope. I cannot see it happening in my lifetime.

March 28, 2023

Toothless protections: the public interest disclosure act and Richard Boyle

Australian legal and political history is littered with examples of petty and vicious prosecutions, notably against those considered dangerous tittle tattles who give the game away and seek to shine some light on the unpalatable practices of those in power.

October 20, 2022

How the US military/business complex works. Jobs in Saudi for the Generals

“The government fought us for two years to keep these records a secret,” said one Washington Post journalist. “We sued, and won.”

October 17, 2022

Terror on Crimea Bridge and Russia unleashing shockn awe

_The western narrative of a ’losing Russia’ has just been decimated by Moscow’s blitzkrieg against Ukraine and its foreign-backed terror operations.

March 17, 2021

Australia to welcome Hong Kong 'democrats': are they a proxy for others?

The Australian government has now welcomed Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders to settle in Australia, ahead of millions of desperate refugees fleeing wars and genocide. Such is the power of a label on general public and media gullibility.

February 16, 2025

Stopping the neoliberal bullies dividing up the spoils at our expense

American TV and movie comic Groucho Marx (no relation to Karl) had a gift for one liners, such as: “Honesty and fair dealing, that’s what people want. If we can fake that we can make a million!”

March 26, 2024

Pine Gap supports nuclear war fighting, not monitoring arms control agreements

Richard Tanter stated in Pearls and Irritations on March 21 in regard to my piece on a former Defence Deputy Secretary, Paul Dibb on 14 February, that Media self-censorship, and acceptance - if not cultivation - of a mystique of impenetrable opacity about Pine Gap has facilitated public acceptance of government silence, misdirection and mendacity about Pine Gap. The inference is that I am guilty as a member of the media.

March 18, 2024

After the (failed) referendum dust settles

David Marrs recent book, Killing for Country, confronts the reality of the dispossession of Aboriginal lands in Queensland by the Native Police Force. It is a recounting of wholesale and indiscriminate slaughter of natives in order to settle the land that never was Terra Nullius.

February 4, 2024

How to break free from slavish adherence to U.S. foreign policy

Current Australian defence policy involves close integration with the United States military in all areas, making an independent foreign policy impossible and ensuring Australias automatic involvement in US-instigated wars such as a war with China, our major trading partner. A policy of neutrality would free Australia from involvement in such disastrous military adventures and enable the pursuit of peaceful and mutually beneficial relations with all countries. Recent polls have shown that neutrality has considerable support in the Australian community.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal