February 23, 2024

Taylor Swift exposed as an agent of the Deep State - Weekly Roundup

Prospects for real tax reform if only the Coalition would behave like grownups, early signs of real wage growth, no more visas for rich spivs, the case for nationalising the insurance industry, and Taylor Swift exposed as an agent of the Deep State. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues.

January 6, 2024

What needs to change in vocational education

TAFEs Competency Based Training sounds logical but dig a little and its roots are exposed. CBT has its origins in the post WW2 era of the Scientific Management of workers and production lines. In this world, products, processes and people are all standardised, the better for a hierarchy of management control.

November 22, 2023

A satisfying cricket win - and not just for sporting reasons

For a former cricketer (one time Port Melbourne Cricket Club thirds all-rounder) and keen participant in politics it was immensely satisfying to see Australia winning the ICC World Cup while the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi was there in the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad to witness it.

March 26, 2023

Anzus, shared values and sovereignty: not what it seems

_Recently, Australias Defence Minister, Richard Marles said Our alliance with the United States is completely central to our national security and to our worldview.

December 21, 2022

Glyn Davis struggles to address his troops

In recent years the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) has in the Christian Advent season delivered an annual address to the Australian Public Service.

March 24, 2025

Where are the honest and critical reports?

Can any self-respecting journalist or political commentator inform me and many Australians as to why they continue to bolster the Australia/United States togetherness as though it is the same relationship of years past? The United States is not a friend – it is increasingly becoming a pariah state, joining its very best friend, Israel.

November 13, 2024

From Fowler to Barton, Labor HQ ignores the rank and file

With a Federal election early next year, and opinion polls showing Labor at best only level with the Coalition, it would seem wise for Labor HQ to ensure that no mistake is made in the choice of candidates even in supposed safe seats. But head office need to control, which in 2022 led to parachuting Kristina Keneally into the Sydney western suburbs seat of Fowler, looks like being repeated in Barton, where MP Linda Burney is not contesting the next election.

November 12, 2024

Like Kamala, Albanese doesn’t seem to get it

This was a mood election; It was not a referendum about Kamala Harris. Nor was it a referendum of Donald Trump’s character.

October 12, 2024

What is really going on in Palestine

Foreign Minister Penny Wong was keen to remind Guardian readers that “Australia has not supplied any weapons or ammunition to Israel for at least the past five years”. Only, as the Albanese government was forced to clarify, that excludes components for the US F-35 combat aircraft that is used to bomb Gaza. Australia has made over four billion dollars to date from contributing to the global supply chain: a trade that has continued uninterrupted throughout the past year.

November 16, 2023

Tuvalu: A good deed, gone bad

Australias offer to Tuvalu, allowing residents facing displacement from climate change to resettle in Australia, was clearly a good deed. It was an act of humane generosity. But the good deed was besmirched by the conditions attached to it. In return for this good humanitarian deed, Australia will have effective veto power over Tuvalu’s security arrangements with any other country.

October 31, 2024

Come in now Indonesian democracy, your time is up

It took less than a week for the reality to be exposed. Even Deputy PM Richard Marles must now acknowledge that the nation next door he praises for its moderation and democracy is now a military dictatorship and a serious threat.

April 4, 2024

Did Dutton and Tehan disagree on immigration levels?

In a recent interview on Perth radio, Opposition Spokesman on Immigration, Dan Tehan, asserted: I’ve been saying now for well over 18 months, it’s [meaning immigration] too high.

March 12, 2024

"The darkest place to which this conflict sinks" - Four Corners: The Forever War

For five months now, our screens have been bombarded by images depicting Israel’s air and ground assault on Gaza. This extraordinary footage, this apocalyptic scene, shows just how widespread that destruction has been. Israel is still denying foreign journalists independent access to Gaza. We’re in Israel, about a kilometre from the border, reports the ABC’s John Lyons.

January 25, 2024

Australia Day: The differences that unify

Australians are a perverse bunch. We tend to exhibit two distinct and contradictory sentiments every Australia Day. For many, it is an excuse to bask in overweening pride and to declare loudly our normalcy as citizens of this great land. It presents an opportunity for flag-wavers, anthem-singers, chauvinists and proud nationalists, to strut their stuff. It is grist for the mill for what populist politicians call Team Australia.

January 17, 2024

Australias prison system: desperately in need of reform

We should be concerned about conditions for prisoners. Why? The obvious answer is that if the recidivism rate is high then the system is not working.

March 14, 2025

Palestinian speech and the trials of Mark Dreyfus

“The label Zionist is used, not in any way, accurately. When critics use that word, they actually mean Jew. They’re not really saying Zionist, they’re saying Jew because they know that they cannot say Jew, so they say Zionist or words [such as] Zeo or Zio.” –Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, October 2024

December 18, 2024

Voters blame one man for rising energy bills while companies get away with gouging

If, as seems likely, Anthony Albanese and his government lose seats at next year’s federal election, one thing we can be certain of is that the nation’s economists and econocrats won’t be admitting to their not insignificant contribution to Labor’s setback.

January 16, 2024

USA announces Australia's participation in Yemen war, parliament in the dark

Is this a constitutional crisis? On Friday 12 Jan 2024, a USA official spokesman announced that Australia was to provide a support role for the UK and USA troops who were about to attack Yemen. No announcement had been made to this effect by the Australian Government. The Australian people had to wait for the next day to know definitely if in fact such a decision has been made. How is it possible for the USA spokesperson to announce an Australian policy decision on going to war against another sovereign state, no less - before it had been declared by the Australian Government?

January 13, 2024

Henry George: more comebacks than Dame Nelly Melba

Henry George (1839 1897) was a remarkable, self-taught radical American political-economist who developed a theory of land taxation, which evolved to become, in essence, a programme for applying a single, substantial annual tax on all land but not on improvements to the land such as buildings - while abolishing all other taxes.

January 10, 2024

Sudanese catastrophe: male egos, womens violation

Since April 2023, in a civil war in Sudan, an estimated 10,000 people have been killed, six million internally displaced, over one million are refugees in neighbouring countries, 18 million people are reported by the UN to be food insecure; and where fighting has reached the borders of neighbouring countries, food aid has been suspended.

December 19, 2023

Freedom of information laws: grand in theory, dismal in practice

Accountability only works if information about government is readily available. And who doesnt believe in accountability, at least in theory?

October 16, 2023

The Voice has been silenced, but now we must listen

As vanquished Australians, white and black, fell back in ruin, defeat and humiliation on Saturday, the most galling prospect they must face is that for many of the victorious, the Voice battle was but the first engagement in a longer war. They do not want to give their enemies time for regrouping, or even for trench-building by which they can defend what they have got. Now, they might think, is the time to preserve the momentum for fundamental change in indigenous affairs.

October 15, 2023

The missing link in Australias climate change adaptation strategy: Social infrastructure

We have likely crossed a tipping point for Australias temperate broadleaf and mixed forests when a critical level of heat or drought triggers a massive, devastating event. Climate change is driving a new era of unnatural disasters and as a country we are not prepared to cope. Australian Climate Council, 2021.

January 27, 2023

Weekly roundup: the Liberals' journey to oblivion

The Voice up against Dutton and the Greens on a unity ticket; surely there is no case for Stage 3 tax cuts; and the Liberals election post-mortem. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy.

February 12, 2025

Prevention – putting health into healthcare

Health outcomes are about more than access to healthcare services: they are highly dependent on the social and economic determinants of health. Despite lip service to the importance of these factors and preventive health actions, the Australian healthcare system is relentlessly focused on treating sick people, with subsequent economic and social costs incurred by governments, society and individuals.

January 15, 2025

Saving Labor from a likely defeat

In an ideal world politics would focus on rational and intelligent debate between enlightened people — just like in Ancient Greece — without, of course, the exclusion of women and slaves. Albeit there are some serious doubts about the Liberal Party’s commitment to advancing women.

December 20, 2024

Caste divisions among Indian diaspora remain in Australia

Australian politicians’ inability to understand the complexity of the Indian diaspora is, in part, fostering division among these migrants, the Guardian Australia claims in analysis published on Sunday (December 8).

January 15, 2024

The barbaric conduct of the Israeli state must be stopped. The dignity and freedom of the Palestinian people must be upheld

The genocidal violence unleashed by Israel in Occupied Palestine since October 7 has produced unspeakable tragedy and suffering for the Palestinian people. Such barbaric behaviour places the State of Israel outside the bounds of a civilized world. Israel has become a pariah state, and must be treated as such by the international community.

October 10, 2023

In the final week of the referendum make up your own mind

What can we achieve together in this final week of the referendum campaign? Join me on Thursday for a special webinar with First Nations women Lynette Riley and Beverly Baker to learn first hand about the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

February 10, 2025

An open season on Palestine

Since the inception of the Zionist movement in the late 19th century, its policy towards Palestine has been, still is and will continue to be about land theft, dispossession and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

November 16, 2024

Coups are not electorally disqualifying, just look at the dismissal

Many Australians will be surprised that voters across the US could cast a vote for Donald Trump after a (poorly) attempted coup on January 6, 2021. The only reason we might find this shocking is because we don’t talk about the Dismissal of the Whitlam government in 1975 as what it really was – a successful coup.

March 14, 2024

Ukraine: the dangerous economics of the war of production

After two years of bloody trench warfare and aerial annihilation the economics of the war in the Ukraine are putting the means to end it yet further out of reach. With an avalanche of armaments being poured into the military vortex, the consequences of the unacceptably large losses of life and further massive destruction of peoples habitats and welfare are becoming of somewhat secondary concern to the US and Russian protagonists. Their involvement has become an existential battle between Western values and the evils of authoritarianism and western imperialism.

February 25, 2024

One last chance for the low paid to receive tax equity

21 days after the Federal Government did an about-face on its earlier promise to maintain the previously legislated income tax regime, it has secured passage through the House of Representatives of major changes to Australias income tax legislation. But speed and the evident equity in the major part of those changes, principally directed at middle Australia, has poorly served the interests of Australias low paid workers. Might the Senate crossbench prove to be the voice of the low paid?

January 12, 2024

Israel faces justice in the Hague, US readies veto power

As South Africa presents its case against Israel to the International Court of Justice, even Genocide Joe might hesitate to defy a “binding” order of the world’s highest judicial authority by continuing to support, militarily, financially and diplomatically, Israel’s genocidal assault against the people of Gaza.

January 2, 2024

Albo is in denial. He seeks protection and reassurance

Instead of thinking through and independently acting in Australias best interests, Prime Minister Albanese has followed in the footsteps of his discredited predecessors and outsourced defence and foreign policy to the US.

February 23, 2022

Can someone in government explain why we are buying tanks?

_When did US generals become arbiters of Australias strategic policy like its some banana republic.

November 23, 2021

Morrison turns China threat into an election wedge

Borrowing from the Vietnam War-era Coalition playbook, the prime minister is putting domestic politics ahead of long-term policy for dealing with Beijing.

January 8, 2025

“Fading Light” - Dementia

How handsome, deft and strong you were in daring youth.

How clear and clever you thought and ably spoke.

You walked with grace and poise amidst all other folk;

Your person brought a sense of thoughtful, stolid truth.

March 27, 2024

Government funding increases continue to favour private schools

New figures again demonstrate the bias against public schools in Australias school funding system.

January 8, 2024

Bidens Valley Forge myth-making divides America and boosts Trump

President Bidens Valley Forge address might have felt like a feat of oratorical brilliance to the coterie that is locked into a mythical America. However, it was wildly out of touch with the views of many voters. Dismissing the genuine grievances and discontent with politics-as-usual, and not recognising that Trump provides an appealing alternative to disgruntled voters disillusioned with the elites and institutions, was its most grievous shortcoming.

February 2, 2023

Lessons for UK Labour from Australia

Anthony Albaneses electoral success and the quiet competence of Labors administration has not gone unnoticed by the commentariat and political analysts here in the UK. A sea change from the noisy and brash Morrison days.

October 7, 2022

News Corp tied into extreme right wing CPAC

Last week a group of Neo Nazis performed their salute while protesting a youth Queer event in Melbournes Moonee Ponds. The police stood by, allowing the intimidation as an exercise in free speech, despite the fact that Victoria has made displaying the swastika illegal.

March 4, 2025

The real estate deals of the century

The world is shocked by President Trump’s solution for the ‘Palestinian Problem’. It’s similar to the one his father used to up-market his NY tenement properties – call in the police to throw the tenants out into the street.

February 7, 2025

North-South Korea relations – missed opportunities

While confrontations continue in Seoul between right and left-wing factions over the fate of Yoon Suk Yeol following his ill-conceived declaration of Martial law on 3 December 2024, it is instructive to look back at the many attempts to improve North-South relations when things seemed not quite so hopeless. Can they be revived?

November 26, 2024

Why oppose the latest deportation and surveillance Bill proposal

The imminent bill must not be passed.

October 29, 2024

The Queensland contradiction: Reflections on a state election

Lock up criminally minded children and teach them a firm lesson. Mind your cars, mind your keys. Chat about the Olympics and moan about whether stadia should be built or refurbished. Mumble about water, dams, and roads. Bridges for cassowaries that are not used by those magnificent yet inconsiderate birds. Marvel at members of parliament with duplicate names such as Grace Grace.

October 28, 2024

Intel’s security flaws and backdoors: why China’s call for a cybersecurity review is justified

Intel has found itself under scrutiny yet again, with Chinese officials and cybersecurity experts calling for a thorough review of the company’s products sold in China.

October 20, 2024

Country town showcases world-standard young pianists

Every two years, a musical feat of world standard is achieved by a young Australian in an unlikely Victorian country town. Shepparton, home of irrigation and stone fruit, population almost 70,600, or an average AFL crowd, hosts it.

April 2, 2024

Booming shares, but slowing economy - April market and economic review

Callum Thomas, editor of Top-Down charts sums it up well - Sentiment is increasingly consensus bullish. Bears have all but gone extinct. Large and small investors alike are basically all-in. Tech stock valuations have surpassed the 2021 peak. Downside volatility has collapsed. Overall, the evidence is all consistent with what you typically see during a bull market.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal