November 25, 2022

An open letter to Bill Gates on food, farming, and Africa

We, 50 organisations focused on food sovereignty and justice worldwide, want you to know there is no shortage of practical solutions and innovations by African farmers and organisations. We invite you to step back and learn from those on the ground.

October 18, 2020

Remembering Harold Evans (AIIA Oct 9, 2020)

Harold Evans had an indefatigable role in encouraging and expanding coverage of international affairs in the publications he edited and in the books he published. He also had great enthusiasm for hiring and fostering well-trained Australian journalists.

January 24, 2025

Australia’s experiment with drug summits

Australia’s first official meeting referred to as a ‘drug summit’ was convened on 2 April 1985 in Canberra by Bob Hawke, the then ALP Prime Minister.

January 9, 2025

Summing up

The world and its people are facing very serious local and global emergencies. Climate change, economic instability, limits to free speech, threats to independent media and increasing social in__equality all signal the breakdown of democratic systems across the world. The genocide in Gaza and the war in Ukraine are ongoing. Our political institutions and leaders are failing us with increasingly conservative policies that favour big business.

January 22, 2024

Push to get superannuation invested in defence is despicable

In a recent speech, the Federal Treasurer hastily bundled together three things that he felt superannuation funds ought to invest in: renewable energy, defence and housing. It was a classic ‘sandwich’ communication: bracket the unpleasant item between two that sound good.

January 16, 2024

Goodhart's Law and the overlooked complexities in Australia's employment services sector

Yesterday, I wrote that the Jevons Paradox is a good explanation for the problems of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Today, I look at another theory – Goodhart’s Law – to explain what is wrong with Australia’s $3 Billion a year employment services sector.

March 31, 2023

New obesity treatments offer hope, but can we afford them?

Worldwide obesity has tripled since 1975. WHO surveys tell us that more than 2 billion adults, 18 years and older are overweight and of these nearly 800 million are actually obese. 39 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in a 2020 survey and it is estimated that 400 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 are overweight or obese. At least 6 million people die each year as a direct result of their obesity rather than its complications.

November 5, 2021

An exceptional nation, for routine deception

Emmanuel Macron’s swipe at Scott Morrison shows our allies are fed up with Australian politicians’ routine deception and obfuscation.

January 31, 2024

Can Kim Williams fix turmoil at the ABC?

With the announcement last week of Kim Williams as the new ABC Chair, it’s timely to consider not only what needs to be done to address recent controversies but, more broadly, what we as a society want from our major public media institution and what is needed for it to thrive.

November 19, 2023

In praise of Afghanistan’s cricketers

Much has been written about the International Cricket Council’s World Cup competition being played in India, but relatively few of the words have been about the incredible achievements of the Afghanistan team. Against a backdrop of poverty, war, political turbulence and natural disasters, the team performed magnificently.

November 21, 2022

Qatar and the "Budweiser" World Cup

On Friday, beer sales were banned at eight tournament stadiums just days before the FIFA world cup commenced. This is a stunning about face from a sporting body. What explains such an embarrassing backdown?

March 19, 2025

A letter to us all: What kind of democracy do we want?

In Goldstein, we’ve met them. You’ve likely encountered them too – those entitled, aggressive voices who seem to believe democracy is theirs to command, not ours to share. They’re the ones who stand too close, snapping photos and videos without permission, hurling insults at volunteers who dare to stand for something. They target Team Zoe volunteers and supporters with a particular venom, dismissing Zoe’s work — “She’s achieved nothing” — while tearing down everyone alongside her. We saw them during the Voice referendum, furious that anyone would champion First Nations’ voices seeking fairness. And they’re back now, bristling as community independents challenge the Liberal Party’s once-assured hold on seats like ours.

October 8, 2024

One year after 7 October: statement by the Australian Jewish Democratic Society

If any lesson can be drawn at this dismissal juncture, it must surely be that violence engenders violence …

January 9, 2024

Rates cut outlook

The recent sharp falls in US, UK, European and Australian inflation rates have convinced analysts that central bank rate rises are over and the next move will be rate cuts in 2024. The US Federal Reserve chairman in the first half of December signalled that too.

November 14, 2023

Judicial activism overturns years of inhumane cruelty on immigration detention

It is, alas, far too early to proclaim the end of Australia’s barbarous and inhumane refugee management system. But a series of recent High Court decisions cutting back, on constitutional grounds, the arbitrary powers of immigration ministers and bureaucrats may well be later seen as the moment that the tide turned on a nightmare that has diminished Australia’s and Australians’ international reputation and citizenship, treated thousands of asylum seekers with deliberate cruelty to no good end, and, probably made us less rather than more capable of dealing with a continuing crisis of the movement of people from war, famine, climate change and ethnic violence.

October 11, 2023

Private health insurance: and the rort goes on

There’s a government review of health insurance. Here’s why you haven’t heard of it … and what needs to change.

October 1, 2023

The RSL - from a power lobby to poker machine empire

The RSL was once one of the most influential lobby groups in Australia. Today it is better known for the number of poker machines it operates.

December 14, 2022

High stakes in the climate diaspora

Weeks and months after devastating floods hit many regional centres across NSW and Victoria, there emerged a fresh crop of mycelium-like symbols, otherwise known as ‘for sale’ signs. Pitched on lawns in front of stud-exposed and newly renovated houses, or on empty blocks of land. These commercial hoardings have become the grim tell-tale signs of the climate diaspora.

October 17, 2022

How the West’s sanctions on Russia boomeranged

When President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February, he began two very different wars. One was a military conflict in which the Russian armed forces have suffered repeated defeats, from the failure of the initial invasion to the successes of the Ukrainian counter-offensive.

January 22, 2025

How the states vote, and why the PM started his 2025 campaigning in Queensland

The Virginia University’s publication, Sabato’s Crystal Ball, recently published an interesting article about the recent voting performance of the various US states relative to the nation as a whole.

January 7, 2025

Jeffrey Sachs and Joanna Lei on Taiwan and US-China conflict

Now the neocons are ready to make Taiwan the Ukraine of Asia.

November 26, 2024

Tragedy followed by farce in Future Fund dispute

When Marx wrote “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice, the first time as tragedy**,** the second time as farce” he might as well have been talking about the recent spat between former Treasurer Peter Costello and the Albanese Government Treasurer, Jim Chalmers.

January 18, 2024

If immigration must stay in Home Affairs, here's how to fix the agency

The founding secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, Mike Pezzullo, was dismissed late last year for egregiously breaching the public service code of conduct. The man who lectured public servants they should live by that code, broke it in a manner no previous secretary in living memory had done.

November 25, 2023

Rolls Royce ACT law reform council given Mini Minor resources

The terms of reference for the ACT Law Reform and Sentence Advisory Council are Rolls Royce, but the resources - three public servants - are Mini Minor. While the council is well constructed and will certainly be well led, it needs more horsepower.

January 7, 2023

The CIA can't make make up its mind who to back in Venezuela!

You need to fix your eye on the ball if you want keep up with the frocking and de-frocking of America’s offshore political proteges – especially in Venezuela.

March 24, 2022

M K Bhadrakumar : Zelensky rubbishes Biden's war on Russia

What was the need for all that happened in the period since mid-December when Russia transmitted to Washington its demands for security guarantees? This question will haunt US President Joe Biden long after he retires from public life.

March 22, 2021

Marise Payne and Kurt Campbell believe their own propaganda about economic coercion by China

_The Australian Government and our tame media complain continually about China’s ’economic coercion of Australia. But the conflict with China has in many cases been provoked by Australia. The US has not looked at the facts and stumbles in blindly.

November 22, 2024

Are 'dead' Palestinian children less important than 'murdered' Israeli hostages?

I audibly gasped when Andrew Podger referred to Israel’s response in Gaza as a “lack of care” in a recent P&I article. Hardly a balanced use of words.

March 18, 2024

China’s falling exports to EU, US signals West’s economic decline

We have all no doubt have seen the bad news that China’s exports to the EU have reduced, China’s exports to the US are declining rapidly and, as a result of it, we’re being told by Western media that China is on the verge of collapse.

March 7, 2024

Hiding in plain sight - Malaysian Airlines flight 370

As we approach the tenth anniversary of the 2014 disappearance of flight 370, Malaysian Airlines, we are getting the usual barrage of media speculation about the alleged mystery and its possible causes.

March 4, 2024

What’s missing from the universities review

Reaction to the release of the Final Report of the Accord Review of Australia’s universities has been relatively positive. However, while some university administrators recorded their appreciation and perhaps their relief, there is little in it for academic staff.

December 18, 2023

Under heavy pressure to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility, Attorneys-General disappoint

More than 100 health, legal, social, community services providers, advocates and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Organisations have stepped up pressure on the nation’s Attorneys-General to raise the age of criminal responsibility nationally to at least 14 years old, with no exceptions.

January 8, 2023

‘Boys will be boys’: why consumers don’t punish big polluters for greenwashing lies

Stigma is an awful burden for business. But what if – for some companies – stigma is an asset?

December 24, 2024

Jesus in the rubble of Gaza

December 5, 2024. On the eve of Christmas as thousands of Americans file towards the White House to watch the Christmas tree lights turned on, Christians come together to witness for Peace against the horror currently taking place in Gaza and the West Bank. Palestine. A captive nation which has lived under Israeli occupation for 75 years.

October 11, 2024

As high-rise developments boom, overhaul of strata committees of management long overdue

There are roughly three million strata townhouses and apartments in Australia. The focus on high-rise developments to address the housing crisis has seen a 7 per cent increase in the number of strata properties over the last two years. In Victoria, the government redevelopment plan for inner Melbourne proposes that 84 per cent of new dwellings will be high rises of ten storeys or more.

March 8, 2024

Comprehensive upgrade puts Australia in Vietnam’s top tier

The conclusion of a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” by two states leads few observers to experience frissons of excitement. However, the Partnership agreed yesterday between Anthony Albanese and Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Minh Chinh is more than an announceable wrought by officials to garner a headline or two for their principals.

January 27, 2024

For all the talk, public and social housing just got worse

The Productivity Commission has released a damning report on Australia’s worsening public and community housing disaster.

January 10, 2024

Australia nears half-way mark to 82% renewables

Renewable energy sources supplied nearly 40 per cent of electricity demand in Australia over the course of 2023, according to data from OpenNEM, edging the nation closer to the halfway mark on its target of 82 per cent renewables by 2030.

January 23, 2023

‘The bell tolls for Pell and the church I knew’

As some gather to honour the passing of Cardinal George Pell, I lament what the Church has become under clerics like him. When I was a priest (1975-1980), the Church had a credible voice, and priests were respected as pastoral leaders. With some hope for the future, my feelings lately are of sadness.

December 23, 2022

The rub of the (very) green at the ‘Gabba

“It’s not cricket” is a term that originates from the idea of the importance of fairness. In the first cricket Test against South Africa we’ve just seen a case of alleged lack of fairness, of a kind, demonstrated at the ‘Gabba in Brisbane.

December 15, 2022

It's time to seek the human story of Syria

The mainstream media has presented a picture of Syria that is cartoonish, brutal and ugly. Instead of a bohemian woman artist or a women’s choir singing from the Tales of Hoffman (or millions of other potential ‘human stories’), a bloody, exclusivist ‘revolution’ has been exalted by journalists in a way that entrenches patriarchy and ignores the human concerns of Syrians.

April 2, 2025

No surprises, but strategic circumstance weighs heavily on China’s ‘Two Sessions’

China’s 2025 ‘Two Sessions’ emphasised stability and strategic focus, avoiding major surprises despite the volatile global landscape.

October 6, 2023

Curse of the cumulative impacts

There are many actions taken by individuals, corporations, and governments that by themselves might be considered minor but when taken together can substantially cause harm to environmental values. Revision of the federal EPBC Act provides an opportunity to include provisions that will help mitigate adverse effects of these “cumulative impacts” on areas containing threatened species and ecological communities.

November 6, 2022

8 billionth human: Has the population bomb exploded?

Sometime in the next few weeks, human being number 8,000,000,000 will enter the world. But what sort of a world will they inherit?

November 23, 2024

Science and technology shapes our world

After the second world war there was another bout of industry building. Here, in an extract from his Keynote Address at the 2024 Pearcey Foundation National Awards, Emeritus Professor Roy Green reflects on the creation of Australia’s first computer, and what it can teach us about today’s industry policy challenge.

October 31, 2024

Keeping promises to the people of Bougainville

As anger boils among younger generations for allowing themselves to be conned by Australia on independence, a diplomacy of promise-keeping is needed to prevent the fragmentation of Bougainville, followed by the fragmentation of Papua New Guinea, writes John Braithwaite.

October 28, 2024

When the White House goes to war

Michael Hirsh, a prominent columnist for Foreign Policy has just published an instructive review in that journal (partial paywall) of Bob Woodward’s forceful new book “ War”. The review is entitled: “ What a New Book’s Explosive Revelations Tell Us About Biden, Trump, and Putin”. Curiously, the Hirsh book review rounds out to its Biden-elevating, JFK-comparison without referring to John Mearsheimer’s directly relevant seminal article “ Why the Ukraine Crisis is the West’s Fault”.

October 14, 2024

Never ending war on terror keeps us anxious, fearful, committed

President Bush declared the War on Terror in 2001. Dr Alison Broinowski AM, Australians for War Power Reforms (AWPR), former diplomat and Author, argues that America and its Western Allies including Australia have been involved in multiple ’never ending’ foreign wars with no declaration in sight of victory.

March 6, 2024

Dutton's new form of climate denial

When Twiggy Forrest, Private Eye, The Financial Times and Bloomberg all describe why nuclear power is not the answer you have to wonder why Peter Dutton can’t hear the message.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal