March 12, 2023

"From the Big Build via the Frontier Wars to Boeing": Brendan Nelsons autobiography Part II

Part I of this review noted that Brendan Nelson met lots of people.

October 1, 2022

US hypocrisy knows no limits on war crimes by US presidents

_President Bidens condemnation of Russia at the UN on Wednesday, where he claimed Russia had violated the UN Charter by invading Ukraine, a country he ludicrously said posed no threat to its larger neighbour, is epic hypocrisy coming from the leader of a country that not long ago invaded and destroyed Iraq based on a total fraudulent claim asserting that country was developing or even already had weapons of mass destruction.

March 13, 2025

Who's who in the war business

“All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” Voltaire

February 21, 2025

Tariff politics, then and now

As Australia faces the threat of significant US tariffs on its aluminium and steel, it is worth remembering that 50 years ago our nation faced a choice between aligning itself with either a group of other nations, mostly from the Third World, that produced bauxite and wanted to set a price for this prime ore of aluminium, or with the US and the International Monetary Fund, then as now controlled by the US, which wanted bauxite prices to be determined on an open global market.

February 9, 2025

America and the forgotten memento mori (remember you are mortal)

In recent decades, the West has witnessed a growing trend among increasingly hubristic US leaders to proclaim the United States as “indispensable.” This rhetoric reflects a mindset often seen in declining empires: the belief that their peak is yet to come, despite mounting evidence of decay.

December 21, 2024

Barack Obama wants us to care about the oceans

What are the five most precious things in my life?

November 23, 2024

Is "knowing what's going on" too much to bear?

The courage it takes to “know”, to “realise”, to “comprehend” when “trusted” global powers act against humanity is a profoundly personal effort. Your success will only ever be relative. Yet your choices will and do affect the collective (society). They also affect your identity: where and how you feel alliances, where and how you draw a sense of belonging. Or suffer the dangers of exclusion.

November 14, 2024

AWM one step forward one step back on Frontier Wars

The Australian War Memorial oscillates between seeming to be ready to admit that Australia’s Frontier Wars ought to be commemorated in the AWM and then leaping back in fright at the thought of backlash from the RSL and others.

March 5, 2024

Boom or bubble: March market and economic review

Last Friday the All-Ords share index finally escaped its straitjacket of see-sawing sideways within a range of roundly 6,600 to 7,900 since April 2021. The All-Ords reached 8007.1 points, beating its previous high on the 4 January 2022 (7926.8). See chart below. Technical analysts view this breakout to be a particularly good omen.

February 18, 2024

Indonesia's nickel supremacy: China's backing and Australia's decline

Australia is no longer competitive in the nickel market, largely due to Indonesias recent domination in the sector. This domination strategy has been carefully planned by Indonesia as it looks to boost its downstream industrial policy in critical minerals processing with the backing of Chinese investments.

November 29, 2023

Did Argentina and Liberia give the world a lesson in democracy?

Argentina and Liberia recently held elections in which the losers graciously conceded defeat. In the United States, Trump is still preaching the big lie that he did not lose against Biden, and in Spain, the Spanish Right incites insurrection against the government of President Sanchez when he formed a majority government with an unlikely set of bedfellows.

February 14, 2023

The Order of Australia system: a bunyip aristocracy

The Order of Australia system is a bunyip aristocracy that reflects the hierarchies of British society in which the high and mighty get the cream and others are left with the skimmed milk.

December 26, 2022

Public transport system is one of Hong Kong's wonders

Bloomberg recently reported that Hong Kong has just been ranked as having the best metropolitan public transit system in the world, ahead of Zurich, Stockholm, Singapore and Helsinki. The study on which the report was based surveyed 60 major cities worldwide. It was carried out by the Oliver Wyman Forum and the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

January 22, 2025

From Kabumba to Uganda: A story of survival, advocacy, and hope

Mulumehoderwa Balangalizi, also known as Jean Peter, was born in 1999 in the village of Kabumba, located in the Kanyola zone of Walungu District in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). For much of his early life, Kabumba was home to his family’s farmland and a mountain rich with minerals—resources that eventually brought turmoil to their lives.

January 13, 2025

Israel is not our friend

Tuesday night’s Australian ABC news had me outraged with the story about Dreyfus going to Israel to – what? Mend bridges?

February 19, 2024

How long does it take to skin a cat?

Well, if the cat is the referral of public servants by the Robodebt Royal Commission for code of conduct investigations now being dealt by the Public Service Commission, the answer is a long time.

February 4, 2024

Palestinians are the new Jews

The Israeli leadership is currently engaged in an undoubted genocide against the Palestinian population of Gaza. A complementary mopping up operation continues (if in slow motion) in the West Bank.

December 11, 2023

How are Australian Jews responding to the war against Gaza?

There is a clear need to explain to outsiders what is going on in the Jewish community in Australia. There is all-too-common assumption that there is one Jewish voice on this tragedy and this is something projected by the official organisations. In fact, the published views of people such as Louise Adler or Jenna Price or others are probably close to those held by many people, but fear reigns, and silence reigns supreme. Few people are prepared to go public for fear of social or other retribution.

December 5, 2023

The realpolitik of the Gaza war

If this 2022-23 opinion poll is correct then a clear majority of Palestinians want a single-Islamic state, not a shared Islamic-Jewish one let alone a two-state solution.

November 8, 2023

Net migration of 500,000 guarantees an ugly immigration election

The October 2023 arrivals and departures data, to be published next week, is highly likely to confirm that net migration for the 12 months to September 2023 will be around 500,000. That is both unprecedented and unplanned. It will lock in an ugly immigration focussed 2025 Federal Election as net migration will fall only slowly unless there is a dramatic weakening of the labour market.

March 17, 2023

Dont cut spending, raise taxes: Weekly roundup

Dont cut spending, raise taxes; whats wrong with the governments carbon credit proposal?; and Stan Grant on the wounds of history. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy.

January 5, 2023

Nearly 80% find current global economic order unfair: Global Times poll

The Global Times released the second part of theannual survey that covered participants from 33 countries on 28 December, which showed that most participants from Western countries are unsatisfied with the current development of their countries while those from China and many non-Western countries or emerging economies are more satisfied and optimistic about their future, and many participants, especially the ones from non-Western world, believe that China could be a role model for development and able to play a leadership role to guide global development.

March 5, 2025

The good, the bad and the downright ugly: Our media is broken

We have become accustomed, not too happily, to a form of political journalism in which opinion and news have increasingly merged, blunting the essential distinction between political commentary and detached objectivity. With journalists now routinely writing both news and opinion, this distinction has become impossibly blurred, undermining the impartiality and accuracy on which political journalism depends.

February 27, 2025

An empire in denial

History rarely surprises those who pay attention. The trajectory of the current geopolitical order — from the war in Ukraine to the economic realignments centred on China and the Global South — follows patterns as old as recorded time. Yet, in the West, political elites and media institutions remain bewildered. How could the unchallenged dominance of the post-Cold War era erode so rapidly? How could NATO’s eastward expansion provoke conflict? How could the Western-designed financial order face credible challenges from Eurasian powers once dismissed as marginal players?

January 14, 2025

When leaders act like dogs: A time without shame

Figures like Donald Trump and Elon Musk are not anomalies but symptoms of a system in decay.

January 12, 2025

Is there much life after age 80?

More people live longer as life expectancies grow over the decades. For example, in 1900, the worldwide average life expectancy (defined as the average number of years remaining) was 32 years. By 2024, it is now 73.3 years. A commonly-asked question is how much life is left for those of us aged 80 and above?

March 10, 2024

Underestimating Albanese is a massive calamity for Australia

When Anthony Albanese said during 2022 hed always been underestimated but here I am, the message he was trying to convey was one of self-congratulation. He portrayed himself as a poor boy made good who deserved widespread public applause and appreciation for that achievement.

February 27, 2024

Electric vehicles will crush fossil cars on price as lithium and battery prices fall

If it wasnt already clear, the writing is now well and truly on the wall for the fossil car makers: Just a week after BYD launched its $US15,000 Corolla killer and with the worlds largest EV battery maker recently announcing its on track tocut battery costs in halfthis year, new research suggests the decline in EV prices may by happening faster than thought.

February 14, 2025

The Trumpist junktanks that turned the insurrection into a successful coup

In assessing which Trump appointment is more dangerous, Russell Vought freshly confirmed to helm the Office of Management and Budget is a contender for the worst. Vought wrote one of the chapters from Project 2025 (an “ authoritarian incubator”), but his other revelations expand on the threat.

November 24, 2024

From non-aligned Indonesia, a picture paints a thousand misunderstandings

There is more to the eye in the official photo and video of Indonesia President Prabowo on the phone to President-elect Trump. Australia misses the vital details.

November 6, 2024

Conflicts of interest and the subconscious mind

In recent days, our media have covered two “scandals” involving allegations against public figures of failing to adequately address identifiable conflicts of interest.

December 8, 2023

From Vietnam to Australia, a refugee doctors journey

On 23 November, a boatload of asylum seekers was dispatched to Nauru for offshore detention. They were found wandering the coast of Western Australia by Aboriginal people, three days earlier. This has been Australian policy for unauthorised boat arrivals since 2013; 10 arrivals in the past year. But there was a time when asylum seekers were welcome.

November 11, 2023

Whitlams overthrow: Queens Gambit to checkmate. Part 5

Well, how about a call from the CIA to MI6 saying we have a security problem in Australia? More than one call. Dozens of calls. We have a security problem with the Prime Minister. He’s endangering national security for the United States and the Alliance. The evidence is he is making noises about our bases, he’s making threats; those bases are absolutely essential to the survival of the Alliance. Now what caused the Brits to act? They made a recommendation for the demise, yes. And in a way, it allowed a duly elected Prime Minister to be tossed out of office. It’s all scary really, when you think about it."

TV Interview with Joseph Trento, author of The Secret History of the CIA

March 9, 2023

Palestinians are not terrorists

Australia supports, indeed resources, Ukrainian armed resistance to Russias invasion and its attempt to forcibly exert its sovereignty over Ukrainian soil. Very few Australians appear to find fault with this position. For what reason is Israels provocative and continuing colonisation of Palestine not seen in the same light?

March 7, 2023

Restoring societal values that make a better future for all

Can we really believe that the power structurers of human societies in 2023 are setting policies and programs that are doing the best for our future?

January 2, 2023

Protecting nature: art of the impossible?

In recent months governments around the world, including ours, have been striving to reach agreement on protecting nature. The UN summit held in Montreal aimed at reaching a global deal to secure the protection of 30 per cent of the planet by 2030.

October 21, 2022

The most powerful weapon the West gave Ukraine: notes from the edge of the narrative matrix

It’s pretty wild how the US is sending armoured vehicles to Haiti to help quash the exact sort of uprising it’s been actively trying to create in places like Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and Hong Kong.

March 20, 2025

Words under occupation

In our post-truth world, the art of messing with words has been perfected. When the Ramallah-based Ashtar Theatre issued a global call to creatives of all disciplines to join the cultural intifada in solidarity with the Palestinian people, I responded by writing a series of poems. Words under Occupation is an act of resistance and disentanglement. It comes in two versions: as text and as video. You will find the link to the video under the text.

February 8, 2025

Neoliberal learning: Horses for courses and donkeys in the paddock

This series is built on the firm belief in “a paradigm of care” being the answer to the cancer of neoliberal economic rationalism, and its bedfellows bullying managerialism, monetarism and compliance surveillance. But following the maxim that “no one likes a whinger”, I am also advocating the timeless message from Swiss American psychiatrist and expert “On death and dying”, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross: “If what you have been doing hasn’t been working, do something different!”

December 15, 2024

The National Environment Protection Agency and the integrity of Australia's ecosystems

Some of us were not too surprised when the Prime Minister pulled the plug on the passage of legislation to establish an environmental protection agency (EPA). Along with colleagues from the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists (WG) and other environmental organisations, we had been advocating for a strong independent authority that would meet the requirements set out in the review by Graeme Samuel of the federal EPBC Act.

November 10, 2024

Atrocity propaganda: Hamas, human shields and genocide

Western media never tire of citing the atrocities of Hamas while diminishing and justifying the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, even when the majority of them are women and children. But how accurate is this portrayal of events?

March 17, 2024

Gaza explosions expose Australianfaultlines

Since the Hamas atrocities of October 7, through the following months of disproportionate and incomprehensible Israeli vengeance wreaked upon the Palestinian people, the seismic waves from Gaza have been felt near the surface of Australian democracy itself.

January 1, 2024

Three extraordinary Australian journalists: Burchett, Pilger and Assange -An update

They span three generations and give their country reason to be enormously proud, writes Rick Sterling. All have depended on freedom of the press, which is now at stake.

November 25, 2023

You cannot reason with an abuser

You must take away their power, and protect their victims.

November 17, 2023

We are the custodians of the future, you and I

In the 1990s, in an Aboriginal community near Alice Springs a young boy, aged about nine, and I stood looking at some soft, waving, light-filled spinifex, seemingly floating over the deep red earth. See? he said. I shook my head. I was blind to the possibilities right in front of me.

January 4, 2022

A culture of corruption is engulfing the Morrison government

The Morrison government has corrupted the idea of democratic government itself by undermining of political institutions.

April 1, 2025

Trump’s Ukraine-Middle East hypocrisy

Vance: Is Trump “aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now”?

March 30, 2025

Bumpy relations between Japan and China

After a long hiatus, relations between China and Japan are finally stirring into action.

February 28, 2025

AUKUS ‘impact assessment’ report ignores nuclear sub risks in SA

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has released an EPBC Act ‘ Impact Assessment Report’ (IAR) to address the environmental impacts of constructing nuclear submarines at Osborne, Port Adelaide. A deluge of documents — the 200-page IAR with 750 pages of appendices — have been released for “public consultation” running till 17 March. However, the IAR fails to provide answers to community’s “right to know” on nuclear submarine accident risks and radioactive waste storage facing Port Adelaide.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal