September 24, 2019

IAN BOWIE. Australia's Place in the World

In geopolitics, Geography matters. Dimensions such as distance, relative location, area, terrain and economic reach between countries all influence how countries are positioned in the shifting sands of global power. Australian perceptions of geographic dimensions are often distorted by the manner in which our continent is shown on maps of the globe.

March 15, 2017

JAMES O'NEILL. Further developments in MH17 case ignored by our media.

In January 2017 Ukraine issued proceedings against Russia in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. The claim has barely been covered in the international media and not at all in the Australian media.

February 6, 2018

JENNY HOCKING. Relics of colonialism: the Whitlam dismissal and the fight over the Palace letters

We will make better decisions on all the great issues of the day and for the century to come, if we better understand the past. Gough Whitlam

The celebration of the Queens birthday in Australia is a perfect reflection of a fading, remnant, relationship. Commemorated in the Australian states as a public holiday on three different days none of which is her birthday and honouring an event of dubious significance, the Queens birthday reminds us that, despite our national independence, the symbolic ties of colonial deference remain.

August 12, 2018

HYLDA ROLFE. Whats in a name? The threat to our National Parks

For three years now, Sydney-based company Gap Bluff Hospitality Pty Ltd (GBH) has been revising an offer it made to NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) under which the company would assume a large share of the burden of repair and maintenance of former Defence and other buildings in the Gap Bluff and Green Point sectors of Sydney Harbour National Park at Watsons Bay NSW. While the financial terms of the offer were not made public, the deal envisaged the adaptation and use by GBH of several buildings in the National Park as an integrated event/function complex. The mountain laboured.

June 13, 2019

MACK WILLIAMS . North Korea : The tangled web becomes more so !

That the past few months have seen no real progress towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula is not all that surprising given the swirling global environment demanding priority attention for President Trump and other key stakeholders. Post mortems of the failed Hanoi Summit have revealed some significant divisions within both sides. Trump persists in proclaiming his close personal relationship with Kim Jong-un will eventually produce a deal but many of his allies and advisers remain sceptical. In the past few weeks the China card has become a major issue not only for Trump but also for President Moon as the spin-off from the US:China tariff war and the associated Huawei controversy pose some daunting issues for Seoul.

April 18, 2018

Syria a symptom of a broken international order

Last Saturday US, British and French forces bombed three chemical weapons facilities in Damascus in retaliation for thealleged use of chemical weapons by Syrian forces in Doumaon 68April that killed around 70people.

August 5, 2019

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Hollow man starts his honeymoon.

Newspoll has emerged from its grotto and ScoMos troops are cheering. The honeymoon has kicked in, and how.

Their messiah has given them a convincing cushion, one that should maintain them in comfort for many months, if not years. Forget those constant predictions of doom and gloom that their bible warned of in the past those were all wrong. This time the truth has been revealed. Break out the bubbly.

June 20, 2017

KAI HE. How to save the Shangri La Dialogue

It was a sign of the Shangri-La Dialogues declining relevance when China sent a low-level delegation and India no delegation at all to this years talkfest. To ensure its futurestanding, this important meeting needs to shift its focus to achieving concrete security cooperation outcomes.

August 20, 2019

PETER LEWIS. When it comes to choosing the US or China, perhaps our chickens are coming home to roost (The Guardian 20-8-19)

Essential poll finds Australians less emphatically American than many would have predicted is economic self-interest winning?

August 28, 2018

MICHAEL KELLY. A journey with urban refugees in Bangkok.

Some days I feel like a people trafficker, though I’m not making a zack out of the trafficking. Other days I see myself as a latter-day Oskar Schindler. But mostly I just feel trapped along with the 1000 refugees and asylum seekers I’m doing my not-very-successful best to get the hell out of an open prison called Bangkok.

May 13, 2019

GRAHAM FREUDENBERG. Vale Evan Williams

No Australian adorned the professions of politics and journalism like Evan Williams. He was much more than a beautiful writer. He was a beautiful man, who brought a shining light and grace to thousands of lives. He died a few days ago.

August 12, 2019

Morrison prepares for war

_Scott Morrison is not too keen on history._When it comes to politics or at least the politics of the Liberal Party, which to him is all that matters history began with his election as Prime Minister. Everything that happened before then, and especially in the three years before then, is utterly irrelevant it should, must, be forgiven and forgotten.

July 22, 2019

JACK WATERFORD. AFP needs a leader who is a character with character, not a bureaucrat with opinions (Canberra Times 20.7.2019)

The old-fashioned cop type Dutton is said to want are mostly known for preferring their prejudices to the facts.

August 12, 2019

Inside the world of the Chinese shoppers who are unnerving Australians

Reports on daigou (personal shoppers) in Australia have evoked mixed feelings about Chinese presence and influence in Australian everyday and economic lives.

May 23, 2019

JOHN MENADUE. Spare us the details!

In the last election campaign I agreed with almost all of the ALP program, but clearly not enough of the public did. There was just too much to explain and communicate. The ALP did not succeed in telling it’s story or a narrative as it is often called. As a result the program was prone to exaggeration and exploitation by the Coalition , predatory vested interests like the property spivs and many in the media who did not ask hard questions of the Government with its policy vacuum. With that policy vacuum Scott Morrison set about to scare the electorate about the ALP program. He succeeded.

February 6, 2013

Japanese Amnesia. Guest blogger: Susan Menadue Chun

In the Washington Post articleshttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/japan-must-face-the-past/2013/01/25/7a9b9244-6713-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7_story.html Jennifer Lind describes how Japanese conservative politicians have been playing a potentially dangerous game in disputes with neighbouring countries. The dispute arises mainly because of Japans inability to acknowledge its past aggression.

The current Japanese hostility to neighbours is in part designed to distract national attention away from the countrys economic woes. Fortunately, Prime Minister Abe did not antagonise the ROK on territory issues as feared on Takeshima Day on 3 February 2013.(Takeshima/Dokdo are the disputed islands between Japan and ROK). Hopefully, it is a sign that Prime Minister Abe is becoming more moderate. He may even decide not to make any more visits to the Yasukuni Shrine which commemorates Japanese war criminals and others.

June 25, 2019

MICHAEL KEATING. Australian National Outlook

A very significant new report was released last week on the Australian National Outlook. In this article, I summarise the reports discussion of the key challenges and policy choices that Australia faces, which will affect our future over the next fifty years.

May 9, 2019

Scott Morrison is not an 'accidental' Prime Minister. 'He was in it right up to his neck' in the overthrow of Malcolm Turnbull(Peter Hartcher, SMH 26.3.2019)

T_he first vote of the week, on August 21,was a two man contest between Turnbull and Dutton. Morrison was not in the contest. His numbers men organised for five Morrison supporters to vote for Dutton in the first spill ballot. It was a ruse-those five votes were not aiming to instal Dutton as leader. They were ‘parked ’temporarily as votes for Dutton in a bid to slam Turnbull. Then, when Turnbull’s position became hopeless, the way would be open for Morrison to enter the contest. The five would then switch to Morrison. It worked.._

Joyce told Turnbull. ‘But Morrison is a schemer.Watch out for him. He’s going to come for you’

June 28, 2018

ALLAN PATIENCE: Whose class war?

The Murdoch media and its political minions in the Coalition have declared that Bill Shorten is conducting a class war against hardworking Australian aspirationalists. The pseudo-conservatives in the media and the parliament equate Labors opposition to their taxation policies with seriously undermining the Australian economy while destabilizing Australian society.

July 25, 2019

DUNCAN GRAHAM. Joko Widodo is no Lee Kuan Yew

Even read in English its a stirring speech with hints of John F Kennedys inaugural address: Ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country. By the standards of Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo, a normally awkward public performer, it was well delivered, calling on voters to move on from the hates of the 17 April election campaign and embrace Pancasila.

August 12, 2019

Broken government: its the engine as well as the drivers

Ministers and bureaucrats seem only able to manage spot fires, not policy review beyond three-word-slogans.

Ken Hayne, the former High Court judge who conducted the banking royal commission is quite right in suggesting that the political and bureaucratic system is broken, and in need of fundamental reconstruction. But some of those wisely nodding their heads, or shaking them, according to their immediate partisan advantage, are missing a part of the point: its the car thats broken; its not the driving he is criticising.

September 2, 2018

GEOFF MILLER. Challenges facing the new foreign policy team.

There are many uncertainties and unresolved issues facing the new government within its own ranks. These are paralleled by the international situation it has to deal with. As former Prime Minister Turnbull said in his introduction to last years Foreign Policy White Paper, change, unprecedented in its scale and pace, is the tenor of our times.

August 26, 2019

Morrison like a salesman talking through a screen door.

Scott Morrisons gee-up to the public service last week was, as usual, that of a dodgy marketeer trying to assure a sceptical customer that he and only he could be trusted to deliver the goods.

July 18, 2018

STEPHEN BELL. How rising inequality is stalling economies by crippling demand (The Conversation 17.07.18)

Aggregate demand is being hit by the concentration of income growth among the top earners and is now a drag on economic growth.

December 12, 2013

The Holden mess gets worse. John Menadue

Yesterday I posted a blog Taunting Holden to Leave.

Let me add to the continuing story of this major stuff-up.

The Abbott Government, through Industry Minister Macfarlane asked the Productivity Commission to advise on assistance to the car industry. He asked for a report by March next year. On Monday this week, Minister Macfarlane was asked if he supported Holden remaining in Australia. He replied Absolutely! Are we doing something about it? Absolutely! But this attempt by the Minister for due process and proper consideration was saboutaged by Joe Hockey. Holden was put to the sword by the Abbott Government long before the Productivity Commission could report.

June 7, 2018

STEPHEN LETTS. The GDP myth: The planet's measure for economic growth is deeply flawed and outdated.

Just as it has every three months for the past six decades, next week the Australian Bureau of Statistics will unleash a torrent of numbers that make up the national accounts.

September 26, 2019

ROBERT FISK. As Netanyahus Power in the Middle East Wanes, Trump Has to Find His Own Way to Deal with Iran (Counterpunch 24-9-19)

There is an extraordinary irony in the fate of bothBenjamin NetanyahuandIran. The first has been captaining theTitanic,in the words of one Israeli academic,through the past couple of days. The second a rather better captain, it might be said has been captaining a couple of tankers in and out of the Mediterranean and the Gulf.

September 3, 2018

KIM WINGEREI. The Legacy of the Lucky Generation

Mine is the lucky generation our parents endured hardship, enjoyed unsurpassed economic growth and shielded us from the past. But what will be our legacy?

February 26, 2014

Kieran Tapsell. The Trickle-down Effect in Toowoomba

Cardinal Francis George, the former President of the United States Bishops Conference has been described as one of the Catholic Churchs most formidable intellectuals. In the 2003 Ave Maria Law Review he wrote an article entitled, Law and Culture, in which he discusses the famous U.S. Supreme Court case of Brown v The Board of Education, which ended legal segregation in the United States. He pointed out that law, whether just or unjust, acts as a teacher. The segregation laws, he wrote, were a reflection of the culture at the time when they were passed, but their very existence deepened and entrenched that culture.

June 30, 2020

Canberra Shuffles its China Briefcase to decouple,rather than improve relations.

After more than half a years delay, Foreign Minister Maryse Payne has announced the appointment of a new Chair of the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations, Ms Pru Bennett, a senior advisor to the global strategic advisory Brunswick Group.

July 16, 2019

PERCY ALLAN. How to Avoid a Recession - why QI should replace QE

Both the IMF and the OECD say that monetary policy is largely exhausted so fiscal policy should now be used to ramp up economic growth held back by the triple Ds of high Debt, ageing Demographics and disruptive Digitisation (including robotics). Australias Reserve Bank has come to the same conclusion.

June 18, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Coalition legacies.

There are six major issues that dominate public life today and require resolution. Those issues are –the dire consequences following the Iraq invasion, tax cuts during the mining boom that result in continuing budget deficits and debt increases, the threat of climate change and increased carbon pollution, the NBN debacle, hostility to refugees and asylum seekers, and problems with foreign influence and political donations which are producing an anti-Chinese sentiment.

March 10, 2015

Graeme Pearman. Managing climate change: in whose interest?

The role of greenhouse gases in determining the temperature of the Earth has been known since the first half of the 19th century and in recent decades observations have shown clearly that human activities are changing the levels of these gases in the atmosphere. The science community has articulated the broad consequences of this for more than three decades.

Yet in Australia the period from the late 1980s to the present has been characterised by a trend from an internationally leading and proactive approach to an approach that puts Australia in danger of incurring political and economic sanctions reflecting our growing pariah status. Maria Taylor has suggested this trend reflects a shift in cultural values including, important in the context of this volume, the demise of the public interest. Environmental leadership by the Hawke government has been overtaken by a dominant commitment to the neo liberal economic ideology. Sections of the media also played a role in communicating the new narrative about the irreplaceability of fossil fuels and a general scepticism about the science of climate change.

June 27, 2019

PAUL COLLINS. Give me a break!

Please, please, give me a break from Israel Folau! Weve all heard more than enough about whos going to hell. He can believe whatever he wants and he can blow his bags ad nauseam to his Pentecostal mates. But we dont have to take it seriously. Hes a rugby footballer, for goodness sake, not a biblical scholar! His literalist and fundamentalist views are simply wrong; theyre not what the bible says and they dont represent the views of the vast majority of Christians.

January 16, 2019

FINTAN O'TOOLE. Today Britain discovers it cannot escape history. (Irish Times 16.1.2019)

Today is supposed to be historic, one of the most epic moments in the long life of the Westminster parliament. So why does it not feel like that? The tabling by a British prime minister of an agreement on the terms of withdrawal from the European Union ought to feel much bigger than this. Some of the reasons are obvious enough: the sheer tedium of the journey; the tragicomic chaos that undermines the desired solemnity; the lack of any great drama attaching to the immediate outcome of the vote; the knowledge that this decisive moment will in reality decide nothing.

July 11, 2019

ABUL RIZVI: Government reveals details of its net overseas migration (NOM) forecast

The Government has at last revealed some details of its 2019 Budget forecast for a record breaking level of sustained NOM. The key is a significant increase in the net contribution from temporary visa holders. This would mean the current stock of around 2 million temporary entrants in our population must rise even more rapidly. Are we on the way to transitioning from a migrant settler nation to a guest worker society? But if there is a shortfall in forecast NOM, what would be the implications for the Prime Ministers job creation pledge and for its ten year tax plan?

September 29, 2019

IAN MACPHEE. Manus Island

As a defence lawyer in criminal cases in New South Wales and Papua New Guinea I saw many prisons, including on Manus Island. Most had a harsh reality that one might expect in jails for convicted criminals. Yet I will never forget some of the cruelty inflicted on prisoners who had misbehaved in NSW jails.

August 4, 2019

RICHARD TANTER. An Australian pathway through Pine Gap to the nuclear ban treaty

The Pine Gap Relay Ground Station could be closed, with appropriate notice of intent, without genuine disadvantage to US national security. This would provide a technically and strategically feasible pathway past the most important obstacle posed by Pine Gap to Australia becoming compliant with the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons(TPNW).

January 23, 2018

ROGER SCOTT. Response to Gittins on higher education - Part 1.

‘Ross Gittins saysWeve turned our unis into aimless, money-grubbing exploiters of students(Canberra Times, 17 September 2017]

What is there to say about Gittins comments, I was asked by John Menadue. How valid are his general contentions and how valid are his criticisms? Like the curates egg (and the university system as a whole) it is good in parts but Gittins is unfair in some of his generalisations.

August 29, 2019

Tongue firmly in cheek: Does the world have a responsibility to protect American victims of atrocities?

George Mickhail did us all a great service by noting the vast disparity in forceful response to protestors by the police forces of France against the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests), and those of Hong Kong against the anti-China protestors. The French are clearly well ahead of the Hong Kong authorities in the brutality stakes but its the latter who draw widespread condemnation in the Western media. This is but yet another explanation why the Western media has destroyed its credibility in the non-Western world. See the hostility of the government and the indifference of the masses to Western media criticisms of the Indian crackdown in Kashmir. In a similar vein, recalling the criticism of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) as a 21st-century version of Rudyard Kiplings White Mans burden, I offer the following extract from The United Nations, Peace and Security (Cambridge University Press, 2017, pp. 29192 ).

July 8, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Domestic violence is a greater threat than terrorism

Last week in Sydney we saw the tragic death of two teenagers as a result of domestic violence. We know that over 12 months on average one woman is killed every week in Australia by a current or former partner.

Yet national effort and resources are directed overwhelmingly to counter terrorism where in the last decade only three people in Australia have been killed.

September 22, 2019

KEVIN RUDD. Australia destroys its own reputation in the Pacific (East Asia Forum 9-9-19)

The dust-up at the Pacific Islands Forum was not simply a zero-sum game between the Pacific and Australia over coal. While this may have been the tip of the spear, it went to a far deeper divide over climate and development assistance that has now dramatically been exposed and will continue to hamper Australias ability to Step Up regional engagement. Australia has so far only upset its friends, opened the door further to China, and trashed its global reputation.

August 19, 2019

Scott Morrison voted off the Pacific islands

The Great White Father has arrived the far flung atolls of the Pacific. And, like the missionaries before him Scott Morrison is delivering the bringing of the light – a gospel of hope and salvation.

Well, up to a point. Boiled down, his message is that if they are worried about the rising waters, they should sandbag the foreshores and move to higher ground if there is any, because he is not going to do anything substantial to help.

May 5, 2019

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.

Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of the quest for untold, unearned wealth. Treasure Island, was also an acute observer of politics. He once declared: Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.

September 14, 2017

RICHARD BUTLER. New Sanctions on North Korea: No substitute for direct political engagement

The new sanctions on DPRK will likely suffer the failure of so many such sanctions orders. DPRK policy and actions have their reasons. Those must be addressed directly, politically. Will the nuclear weapon states do it, or is it too close to their bones?

August 29, 2018

NEAL BLEWETT. Establishing, defending and improving Medicare.

Neal Blewett AC delivered the Hayden Oration at Ipswich on 15 August 2018.

Neal Blewett as Minister for Health from 1983 under the Hawke government, and later Minister for Community Services and Health, implemented the Medicare universal health scheme, disability services, campaigns to reduce tobacco and alcohol abuse, and a national strategy to combat AIDS/HIV. They were all remarkable achievements.

In this oration, Neal Blewett records the development of Medicare and the unremitting hostility of conservative politicians, the AMA and others to Medicare. From page 11 of the oration, he outlines how Medicare could be strengthened and expanded to include dental care and other improvements.

See link below for full text of the oration. John Menadue.

September 17, 2019

DUNCAN GRAHAM. PM in gaffe-strewn Indonesian TV interview

Scott Morrison has given a rambling error-littered interview to Indonesian TV where he fudged the figures of casualties in the 2002 Bali bomb blast. The Prime Minister told English-speaking journalist Andini Effendi that more Indonesians were killed than Australians when the reverse is true. The official final death toll of 202 men and women in the 12 October terrorist attack was 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, 23 Britons and 53 from other nations.

July 14, 2019

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Supreme Court sets Albanese a real test.

The muffled roar of applause last week was coming from Scott Morrison and the coalition, cheering,, of all things, the Supreme Court of Victoria. Justice Peter Riordan reserved his decision over the maverick union leader John Setkas appeal to block Anthony Albaneses attempt to expel him from the Labor Party.

July 29, 2019

How good is Scott Morrison?

By any standard, Scott Morrisons Government has a very threadbare policy agenda. Furthermore, the Government seems resistant to new ideas, whether they are from its backbench or the public service. According to Scott Morrison the role of the public service is limited to implementing government policy, which may help explain the thinness of his Governments policy agenda.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal