February 21, 2024

A grim atlas guides NZs right-wing politics

The coalition that took power in New Zealand late in 2023, after a campaign centred on attacking the countrys founding Waitangi Treaty, has been exposed as hosting considerable Atlas Network infiltration.

February 5, 2024

Opportunity for real tax reform goes wanting

I very much doubt that Anthony Albanese will be losing much sleep from opposition claims that he is a liar, or not to be trusted on anything after his volte face on tax cuts focused at higher income earners. Thats even if you regard as a lie an election promise which is subsequently not followed to the letter.

February 24, 2023

Dont blame Lowe: he has a lousy job Weekly roundup

AEMO warns Australia could be plunged into darkness; Don’t blame Lowe: he has a lousy job; and the Murdoch media’s internal culture: it isn’t pretty. 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 15, 2022

On The Beach a haunting evocation of nuclear war

Professor Emeritus Richard Falk, from Princeton University, argues that, nuclear dangers have become more salient than at any time at least in this century. More than sixty years ago the outstanding novelist, Nevil Shute, accentuated the same profound hazard in his most considered work, On the Beach.

November 14, 2023

Final election count complicates New Zealand Coalition negotiations

The final count of all votes cast in the New Zealand general election has brought into play a third element in the new governments coalition negotiations.

March 17, 2023

On AUKUS, gallery journalists defend the line

In the Canberra press gallery, policy analysis takes second place to ephemeral politics, as highlighted by the response to Paul Keatings criticisms of the AUKUS submarine deal.

November 9, 2021

Blacklisting the Israeli spyware company

The US has blacklisted Israeli spyware company NSO, which is associated with the Saudi government’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

March 2, 2025

Inclusive solutions for exclusive schools

The 2025 school year is under way, and every young Australian is sharing the experience of renewing friendships and the routines of school and learning.

January 14, 2025

A battle between our governments and the ‘Mandarins’ who serve them

Former prime minister Tony Abbott claims “unelected and unaccountable” public servants stymied his government. History records a long running battle between our governments and the so-called ‘mandarins’ who are supposedly there to serve them

January 6, 2025

Building a new concrete revolution to net zero

No wonder the United Nations is worried. Making one ton of cement emits nearly one ton of carbon dioxide. With an area the size of Paris being built on every week globally, construction contributes heavily to climate change. In Australia, CO2 from building is tipped to double by 2050.

April 2, 2024

Strategic response to Australias housing problems long overdue

In just four years since the advent of COVID-19, Australias house prices have climbed by a dizzying 50%. Defying orthodox expectations that property inflation would be quelled by rising interest rates, that upward trend has continued even since the RBAs monetary tightening phase began in mid-2022, with prices up by 12% in that period alone.

April 1, 2024

Americans are starting to realise theyve been lied to about Ukraine

It took some years for Americans to realize theyd been lied to about the war in Vietnam. Thanks to the publication of the Pentagon Papers, and thanks to the antiwar movement, Americans eventually learned about the injustices and failures of that war. Likewise, it took several years after the starts of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for Americans to realise theyd been lied to about those wars as well. Americans are just now starting to realise that theyve been lied to about the war in Ukraine. _

March 19, 2022

Russia, Ukraine, familiar refrains and reflexes

_It is no exaggeration to echo Tom Paine: these are the times that try mens souls. It is an immemorial abode and custom, brought on this time by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a provocation undoubtedly deserving of outrage and indignation and just, legal, moral and ethical response.

January 11, 2025

The illegality of the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team in the Tour Down Under

The presence of the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team in the forthcoming Tour Down Under is illegal under international law. The Australian Friends of Palestine Association is calling on government and private entities to prohibit the unlawful participation of the Israeli team in the event.

March 15, 2025

Going, going… to the highest bidder: Australia’s school system

Recent headlines confirm that it is now difficult to deal with the market forces that successive governments in this country have unleashed in our school system and which are now driving it in perilous directions.

January 31, 2025

Is Catherine King’s Tulla runway approval invalid? Yes, if climate impacts are included

On 10 September 2024 federal aviation minister Catherine King gave Melbourne Airport the go-ahead to build a third runway.

January 30, 2025

Why did they shoot? Pakistan's unprecedented incident of state-sanctioned violence

Of the two billion voters who set out to vote across 60 countries last year, 33 percent were from the Commonwealth, a 56-member union with 2.7 billion citizens. In 2024, demands for democracy and human rights characterised elections worldwide. But many voters within the Commonwealth faced more dangerous political environments, where peaceful resistance was met with brute force.

November 15, 2024

One word fouls straits settlement - "Overlapping"

It was supposed to be the Tour Triumphant, showing that Indonesia - the globe’s fourth-most populous nation - has a cosmopolitan new boss who can stride the world stage with panache. But cashiered former general Prabowo Subianto has tripped badly.

December 2, 2023

Frederick Rawdon Dalrymple, AO

Rawdon Dalrymple was a senior diplomat and career officer in the Australian foreign service, from 1957-1994. The iterations of his departments morphed from: External Affairs, Foreign Affairs to Foreign Affairs and Trade. He had a distinguished record of high achievement and he was posted overseas to many capitals, initially including: Bonn, London, Manila and Jakarta. His other postings, as head of mission, were to; Tel Aviv, Jakarta, Washington and Tokyo. He was promoted to Deputy Secretary in 1985 and retired in 1994. An AO was awarded to him earlier.

October 25, 2023

How to choke EV use - car first, service later

Governments across the nation claim they want to reduce pollution. On their list are electric cars. Consumers are encouraged with rebates, tax breaks and blarney, but discouraged by inaction on infrastructure.

October 12, 2023

Was the Uluru Statement of the Heart a prophetic vision for Australia?

Prophets nurture and evoke a new way of thinking. They give us images and words which subvert our system and tell us that we havent seen the whole picture yet. Prophets are not just concerned about social change for the sake of social change. They are concerned above all with transformation and freedom of the heart, and then out of that free heart, the prophet says, Listen. The prophet creates a new, freeing consciousness which allows us to hear the divine word and in the midst of that freedom, the prophets plant a promise, an alternative and new vision.

March 12, 2023

Is Rupert running out of political clout and financial luck?

Rupert Murdoch may be running out of political clout and financial luck.

February 22, 2023

Vale James Charles Ingram AO FAIIA

James Charles Ingram AO (27 February 1928 15 February 2023) was a senior Australian diplomat with a lengthy, varied and significant career.

December 28, 2022

Best of 2022: 25 Years ago, I warned expanding NATO ranked with the errors that led to WWI and II

Expanding NATOs military demarcation point to the very borders of the former Soviet Union was an error which may rank with the strategic miscalculations which prevented Germany from taking its full place in the international system at the beginning of this century.

October 18, 2021

Australian media fails to challenge Israel lobby: Review of Dateline Jerusalem

The Australian mainstream media have been bullied into submission bythe Israel lobby, considered at home to be the most effective in the world.

March 31, 2025

Absurdity and satire: The only logical approach to international politics

We live in absurd times. The nature of our current society and political landscape can only be described as “buffoonery”, and the most appropriate method of dealing with such matters is satire. But so has it always been!

February 23, 2025

Servile or just vile: Australia's pandering to US, Israel

I’m waiting to hear Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledge the sovereignty of Palestine as a nation of equal standing with Israel, and the second nation referred to in the “two-state solution” to which Albanese and Labor only pay lip-service. The words fall easily from the lips, but the absence of action empties them of any substance.

October 7, 2024

Australia's unfinished multiculturalism

Large-scale immigration programs have contributed substantially to Australia since 1947, bringing much needed skills and demand into the economy. They have also helped make Australia a more culturally sophisticated country. In the 1970s, the oppressive policies of assimilation and integration were replaced by the policy idea of multiculturalism. Today, Australian politicians boast that Australia is the most successful multicultural society in the world. Their boasting is baseless. A combination of crass political opportunism and policy neglect mean that Australia’s unfinished multicultural project is floundering.

March 7, 2024

The persecution of Julian Assange

I see in the persecution of Julian Assange, a parallel with a technique put together by the United States in the destruction of Iraq that they called shock and awe, wherein all of the institutions of state were destroyed and plundered, with the exception of the department concerning itself with the production of oil. Now the parallel in publishing, in journalism, is Julian Assange. Every aspect of his life is absolutely destroyed. His family, facing bankruptcy in pursuit of some sort of freedom or justice for Julian, and intimidation and crushing, absolute crushing of the courage. There’s just no chance now that anybody will take upon themselves the work of Julian Assange, knowing that the United States will just simply destroy you, John Shipton says in an interview with John Jiggens.

February 14, 2024

Closing the Gap: Governments must modernise their approach to Indigenous corporations

How governments approach Indigenous governance is crucial to addressing the reform task set by the Productivity Commissions recent report.

February 5, 2024

School funding back in the news

Its our own Groundhog Day experience: when it comes to school funding, we end up doing the same thing over. Jason Clares promise to fund all public schools towards their entitlement might bear fruit, but what if nothing else changes?

February 2, 2024

The case for an Australian king - Weekly Roundup

How the governments tax changes plan will affect Lamborghini sales. What the CPI really means. Everything economists dont know about productivity. The case for an Australian king. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues.

January 28, 2024

The Trial of Jimmy Lai: A letter to the UK Prime Minister

There can be no question of the National Security Law being repealed. Likewise, I imagine there is no question of your government repealing its National Security Act (2023).

October 12, 2023

I wouldnt start from here: Advice on Australia-China relations

Engaging China: How Australia can lead the way again (Sydney University Press 2023) reviews most aspects of the Australia-China relations and proposes useful ways to develop them for the national benefit. Jointly edited by Jamie Reilly and Jingdong Yuan, it includes contributions from thirteen scholars, journalists and former diplomats, a foreword by former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans and a postscript by former Ambassador Stephen FitzGerald. It does not apologise for its advocacy of greater engagement in a productive and secure manner.

January 1, 2023

Democratic socialism in Australia: deconstructing the military, industrial complex

Capitalism and liberal democracy are failing and destroying our world. In this, the third in a three-part series, I explore how Australia must embrace a new future by emphasising trade and cultural relationships in foreign policy, managing mass media concentration and the military/industrial complex, and addressing social inequality. We have the means. Do we have the will?

February 15, 2024

Teacher bashing: Grattan joins the chorus

The release of the latest PISA results provided another opportunity to bash schools and teachers. Amy Haywood and Jordana Hunter, from the Grattan Institute joined the chorus of denigrators.

February 13, 2024

What if Putin's translator was an Aussie?

In a hard hitting interview, American commentator Tucker Carlson questions Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia, February 6th, 2024 on who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. View the Australian translation here.

February 20, 2023

Subjectivity: the overlooked dimension of the debate about economic growth

The continuing debate in Pearls and Irritations about economic growth and sustainability has largely ignored a critical dimension: the role of human subjectivity.

January 28, 2025

Help defend the Jewish Council's anti-racism work against Murdoch press smear campaign

Today marks 237 years since the commencement of the violent dispossession of First Nations peoples from this land. It represents a day of mourning and protest. We are reluctant to email you about anything other than this today, but we feel it is important to keep you informed about the vicious and escalating attacks on the Jewish Council and our Executive Officer, Sarah Schwartz, in response to Sarah’s anti-racism work.

January 18, 2025

Canada and Australia's federal elections

Not for the first time the political landscapes in Australia and Canada are worthy of comparison. This year both nations are holding elections and the opposition parties, the Conservatives in Canada and the Liberals in Australia, are led by right wing populists.

March 19, 2024

Global economic and financial review

The American economy is strong, Australias economy has slowed to a standstill, and Xi Jinping is proving to be a dry economic rationalist rather than a warm indulgent socialist. Read on for this week’s global economic and financial review.

March 31, 2023

Are the Liberal/National parties in deep trouble? - Weekly roundup

Portents of another financial crisis; do the Coalition realise theyre in deep trouble?; and why young people should be out on the streets in anger. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues.

March 20, 2023

Nuclear safety agency silent on disposal of AUKUS radioactive waste

At this stage there is little interest in how to dispose of the high level uranium waste from AUKUS SSNs, let alone put First Nations voices to the fore. This is unlikely to change while the nations most prominent journalists see it as their job to promote the dominant military doctrine and boost the demonisation of China, while rubbishing inconvenient interlopers such as the former prime minister Paul Keating.

November 11, 2024

Modern slavery in Australia’s diplomatic heart: envoys’ abuse of domestic workers exposed

Court rulings have revealed harrowing stories of abuse and neglect at the hands of envoys operating under diplomatic immunity in Canberra.

February 6, 2024

Record highs: February market and economic review

Not only has the stock market shaken off its new year hangover but the All-Ords is now higher than after its Santa Rally in December 2023. Indeed, it has reached a record high.

January 22, 2024

Israel now ranks among the worlds leading jailers of journalists. We dont know why theyre behind bars

Israel has emerged as one of the worlds leading jailers of journalists, according to anewly released census compiled by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

November 20, 2023

Innovation policy advice should be more than an echo chamber

At a recent Innovation Forum, the Minister for Government Services, the Hon Bill Shorten, volunteered the observation that the Australian research and innovation community is in danger of becoming an echo chamber, if it wasnt already.

October 31, 2023

An ultraconservative shadow network is forming, designed to influence you

It was helpful of Greg Sheridan to advertise in The Australian (27/10) the new ultraconservative conference that he is attending in London. While his column is no doubt intended to recruit, it is useful in shining a spotlight on a traditionally shadowy architecture of influence.

December 20, 2022

Post-liberal, post-democratic and authoritarian; is that America's future?

Australians see American politics as a traditional electoral contest between Democrats and Republicans, or progressives and conservatives. However, a more illiberal, intolerant, and authoritarian political faction is being forged and its presence is being felt in mainstream American politics.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal