September 24, 2024

A five-minute scroll

As Israel bombs Lebanon a five minute scroll on X uncovers the brutality and the voices that are speaking out against it, calling out Australia’s role as a puppet state.

July 16, 2015

Peter Blackrock. Germany in control.

What is happening in the European Union and Eurozone? Clearly, there is a seismic shift underway. Here is one interpretation of what is happening.

The key driving force behind the shift is the German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble. He is the number two in the right-wing Christian Democratic Union, behind Chancellor Angela Merkel, although many say he really calls the shots. He is 72. He’s a nationalist. He is a fiscal conservative. He doesn’t believe Germans should keep paying for the sins of their fathers by prostrating themselves before the European Ideal. He wants to leave behind a legacy. Time is short. He must move fast.

May 7, 2016

Greg Wilesmith. Guantanomo Bay: Obama's big failure.

Good news on Gitmo. There are just 80 prisoners left in their cramped, high security cells in a small, far off, scrubby peninsula on Cuba.

Thats about 160 fewer than when Barack Obama became president in early 2009 promising to close Guantanomo within a year.

So not exactly Mission Accomplished! as President Bush trumpeted after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Obamas presidential promise wont be fulfilled and amounts to another big political failure.

April 19, 2016

David Peetz. Having a say at work.

Theres a phrase you sometimes hear about the workplace: leave your brains at the gate.

Workers use it to summarise the dismissive view their bosses have about the contribution employees can make and about how much say workers have in what they do at work.

Not all bosses are like that. But it seems most employees want more say at work sometimes called voice or participation in decision-making or even workplace democracy.

July 24, 2013

Regional Settlement Agreement with Papua New Guinea - a post-script. John Menadue

With the dust settling a little I thought it might be safe to return to this issue!

I said in my blog of July 20 that I supported the general thrust of the RSA with PNG, although a lot remained to be sorted out and the implementation is already showing signs of problems. Without repeating myself too much, however, I emphasise the following.

We cannot ignore that close to 1,000 souls have been drowned at sea trying to get by boat to Australia. Surely the critics cannot ignore this.
Regional arrangements are the only way to go. It involves burden-sharing and cooperation, particularly now with PNG. We cant fix the problem on our own as we found during the Indochina outflow of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Active involvement by UNHCR in this arrangement is most important. Both Australia and PNG are signatories to the Refugee Convention with PNG recently withdrawing its reservation. The UNHCR is considering the arrangement.
Children cannot be exempted from the arrangement or the boats will fill up with children. Other arrangements are necessary to protect children.
For several years I have highlighted that asylum seekers arriving by air have exceeded boat arrivals by a significant margin and the politicians and the media ignored that fact. But now the facts have changed. Boat arrivals in the first six months of 2013 were about 14,000, a trebling compared with the 4,500 who arrived in the first six months of last year.If boat arrivals continued at this rate the whole refugee/humanitarian program in 2013 of 20,000 persons would have been taken over entirely by boat arrivals.That was clearly unacceptable. As John Maynard Keynes said, when the facts change, I change my view. The facts have changed in respect of boat arrivals.
The public hostility to boat arrivals, although quite irrational at times in my view, was threatening to prejudice the whole humanitarian and refugee program of our country. This program must be protected and expanded.
There is no orderly queue for refugees but the fact is that with the trebling of asylum seekers arriving by boat in recent months it has a serious impact on those waiting in refugee camps in the region, Africa and the Middle East.
There has been some diversionary media coverage about the cost of the RSA with PNG. But the costs of existing arrangements are extremely high and look like increasing. The cost of offshore asylum seeker management by Department of Immigration and Citizenship is expected to be $2.9 billion this year; up $700 million on last year. The government has also allocated $1.4 billion to the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. More money is spent by the Navy and some other agencies. By contrast, the foreign aid program to PNG will cost $517 million this year. If as the government hopes, boat arrivals slow there could be considerable savings. The government could also save money by abolishing mandatory detention.

A lot remains to be done and implementation will be difficult as we are seeing already.

August 20, 2015

Cavan Hogue. Russian and Chinese naval exercises.

From August 20-28 Russia and China will conduct a large scale naval exercise in the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. Russia will send 20 ships and China seven plus11 aircraft. They will practice air defence and anti-submarine drills as well as a beach landing.

Both countries are publicly beating up their defence ties as part of a closer relationship. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jin Ping have met and made appropriate noises about their growing friendship. Clearly both countries see advantage in closer relations as they face criticism from the USA and some other countries.

July 4, 2014

John Tulloh. Iraq's road to disintegration.

As far-fetched as this scenario was until recently, it is just possible that international governments may one day face an unprecedented dilemma: whether to recognise a caliphate as an independent country. The newly-declared Islamic State (IS) - formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) - is indicating it is separate to the Baghdad and Damascus regimes. It is its own state, though the U.S. has scoffed at the very idea. Then again, there is growing indecision in Washington in how to deal with these unwelcome developments.

February 5, 2025

A five-minute scroll

Senator Barbara Pocock gives a picture of the future under Dutton. At the UN Palestine calls for the people of Palestine to be respected in their return to rebuild their homeland, while the Belgian Parliament recognises genocide. In Australian sport Sri Lankan opener Usman Khawaja supports sacked sports journalist Peter Lalor.

July 4, 2013

The dispute over the islands - leaving well alone. Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton

Which of China or Japan has the stronger claim to the Senkaku or Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea, the dispute that has driven their relations to the lowest point in 40 years?

Chinas case is that the islands, having been appropriated by imperial Japan, were forfeit when it surrendered to the Allies in 1945. Japan argues that China acquiesced in Tokyos annexation of the uninhabited islands in the 1890s and only changed its tune after oil and gas reserves were found nearby in the 1960s. From my reading of the facts neither argument can be sustained.

March 5, 2017

RICHARD BUTLER. It Now Begins, in Earnest.

Governing in earnest now begins in the US under the new Administration. The Congress, still deeply divided, will need to make sense of Trumps sketchy proposals. They are unlikely to agree or succeed. The need for Australia to review and redefine the conduct of its relationship with the US has become even more urgent.

February 26, 2025

Jewish Council slams Uni adoption of dangerous, politicised and unworkable antisemitism definition

The Jewish Council of Australia says Australia’s 39 Universities have endorsed a dangerous and politicised definition of antisemitism which threatens academic freedom, will have a chilling effect on legitimate criticism of Israel, and risks institutionalising anti-Palestinian racism. It adds that they did so without meaningful consultation with Palestinian groups or diverse Jewish groups who are critical of Israel.

December 22, 2014

Kieran Tapsell. Two reports from the Child Sexual Abuse Royal Commission.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse published two reports on 19 December 2014. The first related to Case No. 11 dealing with four institutions run by the Christian Brothers Congregation in Western Australia from the 1920s until the 1980s for wards of the State, child migrants and children sent there privately. It made findings about the poor treatment and education of the boys, the many instances of sexual abuse by 16 named Christian brothers and 2 priests, the lack of supervision by the leaders of the Christian Brothers and by the State, the failure to report these crimes to the police and to dismiss these brothers.

January 3, 2014

Putting the Jesuitical back into the Jesuit. Guest blogger: Kieran Tapsell

The Vatican has two hats. It is the mini-State of 44 hectares in Rome, and it is the Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church. When it suits, it puts on one hat and hides the other. At the Murphy Commission in Ireland it relied on its status as a foreign country in refusing to hand over documents relevant to the Commissions investigation of child sexual abuse.

The recent response of the Church to the UN investigating committee on child abuse is another example. Fr. Frederico Lombardi SJ said that the Holy See would not be responding to the committee because: When individual institutions of national churches are implicated, that does not regard the competence of the Holy See, but rather the laws of the countries concerned..The competence of the Holy See is at the level of the Holy See. In other words, the Holy See is only responsible for sexual abuse within the 44 hectares of the Vatican City, but not elsewhere.

September 19, 2013

Where ignorance is bliss ... ('tis foolish to be wise) Guest blogger Arja Keski-Nummi

The Abbott government appears to have signaled that they do not believe in nation building.

They have created a Department of Immigration and Border Protection and moved the vital settlement support services from this portfolio to be lost in a larger welfare-oriented agency. The fact is that migration and settlement are two sides of the same coin and it is this symbiotic relationship that has been fundamental to making sure that Australias migration programs have been the envy of the rest of the world.

November 24, 2014

Elaine Pearson. Australia should reconsider refugee transfers to Cambodia

The Australian government should press Cambodian authorities to implement key reforms to improve treatment of refugees in Cambodia before transferring any refugees from Nauru.In new Human Rights Watch interviews, asylum seekers and refugees living in Cambodia described hardships as a result of the Cambodian governments failure to process regular nationality documents and due to poor economic conditions in the country. These include: difficulties in obtaining employment, denial of access to education, substandard access to health services, extortion and corruption by local authorities, and discrimination by officials and the public. Refugees said fear of mistreatment by the authorities kept them from speaking out or joining organizations to bring complaints.In September 2014, Australia and Cambodia signed a Memorandum of Understanding whereby refugees will be voluntarily transferred from Nauru to Cambodia. The Australian government will fund temporary accommodation and resettlement services for the refugees for at least one year, and then on a case-by-case basis, and health insurance will be provided for five years. The Australian government also committed to provide an additional A$40 million (US$35 million) over four years in development assistance for other projects in Cambodia as part of the bilateral refugee resettlement agreement.The Australian government shouldnt make the refugees in Nauru suffer further by dumping them in a place unable to adequately resettle or reintegrate them, said Elaine Pearson, Australia director at Human Rights Watch. Cambodia should fix its faulty refugee protection and support services frameworks before accepting any refugees from Nauru, and the Australian government should insist on that.In November, Human Rights Watch interviewed 10 refugees and asylum seekers currently living in Cambodia, and consulted with refugee and migrant support organizations, human rights groups, and United Nations agencies. Most of these refugees and asylum seekers requested Human Rights Watch to withhold their names and nationalities for fear of retribution.Cambodia took over issuing refugee status determinations from UNHCR in 2009, and currently hosts 63 refugees. Under Cambodias Sub-Decree No. 224 of 2009 on Procedures for Recognition as a Refugee or Providing Asylum Rights to Foreigners in the Kingdom of Cambodia, the government should issue residency cards and ensure refugees have the same legal rights as legal immigrants.

August 13, 2016

GEOFF HISCOCK. Long-awaited tax change raises tantalising prospect for Indian economy

The tantalising prospect of a 10% growth rate is on Indias economic horizon in the next few years, now that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won legislative backing for the long-awaited goods and services tax.

On August 3, Indias upper house approved a bill to bring in a nationwide GST, creating a much simpler tax regime that will help create a unified market of 1.3 billion consumers. In theory, interstate trade barriers will come down, enabling the faster and cheaper delivery of goods across the country.

But and it is a massive but there are numerous obstacles to the introduction next year of what most economists agree is the most important Indian tax reform for decades. Modi still needs more than half the states to approve a constitutional amendment, parliament will need to pass at least one more bill and a special GST council needs to be set up.

October 27, 2014

Mike Steketee. Whitlam: the power of persuasion.

This article was first published by The Drum.

Gough Whitlam’s sheer presence, drive and ambitions disguised some deep flaws. But his vision and achievements stand in stark contrast to the politics we often have seen since, writes Mike Steketee.

“It’s time”. It seemed like a modest slogan for a momentous event - after 23 years, a new government led by a towering figure promising sweeping change.

But it was perfectly pitched for maximum impact. Not all Australians were swept up in the political euphoria but all but the most died-in-the-wool conservatives could see that after 23 years, with the party of Menzies now under the leadership of the comical Billy McMahon, the Liberals had reached their fag end.

August 28, 2014

Michael Keating. Budget Choices

Faced with the rejection of a significant part of its Budget, the Government is reportedly looking around at alternative compromises. Essentially the Government wants to ensure that the Budget is balanced by 2017-18. Consequently if some of the present savings are rejected the Government wants to insist that alternative expenditure cuts are adopted or there are more tax increases, or we finish up with some combination of alternative expenditure savings and tax increases.

November 9, 2014

Walter Hamilton. Japan and China: agreeing to disagree

In diplomacy, sometimes a nod is as good as a wink. You can argue later over the question of who nodded first (if at all). The leaders of Japan and China are maneuvering towards their first face-to-face meeting after two years of chilly and occasionally belligerent relations. To enable the meeting to happen officials on both sides have been engaged in a tortuous diplomacy of the nod/wink kind.

The Japanese have a word, nemawashi, which loosely translates as spade work. They are masters at the patient, protracted negotiationsand accompanying softening up processnecessary to bring off a business deal, public works project or diplomatic coup. Their obvious equals in this are the Chinese.

March 13, 2025

A five-minute scroll

Geoffrey Watson tells it like it is about Brendan Nelson having an undisclosed paid role with French arms dealer Thales while serving as a director of the Australian War Memorial. Netanyahu joins IDF forces in the takeover of Palestinian homes and posts about it. In our Parliament, just 11 voted No against criminalising “hate” speech to oppress Australians criticising Israel, while the rest were swept up in the hysteria.

May 7, 2016

Kim Williams. Fair use does not mean free: Copyright recommendations would crush Australian content

As someone who has spent my life running organisations that take risks, invest billions and innovate to provide the best of local and international content to Australian consumers, reading the Productivity Commission’s draft report into our intellectual property arrangements was profoundly dispiriting.

I cannot think of another recent report that so seriously misses the main drivers of its area of inquiry namely innovation and the incentives to produce new work. At the same time, the report treats Australian creative content and its production with a disdain bordering on contempt, and that is surprising for any economic statement.

August 20, 2015

Naval shipbuilding in South Australia is a waste of money.

In this blog on 19 August, I reposted an earlier blog from Jon Stanford on ‘The government’s new naval shipbuilding policy’.

Hugh White, a columnist at The Age and Professor of Strategic Studies at the Strategic and Defence Study Centre, ANU, has written a recent article on the same subject. The article is consistent with the thrust of Jon Stanford’s earlier article.

See link to Melbourne Age article below:

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/naval-manoeuvres-a-costly-exercise-to-secure-votes-not-borders-20150816-gj0fjh.html

July 4, 2014

Kerry Murphy. The four questions quiz for refugees.

When Malaysian Flight MH370 disappeared, the Australian Government made a major contribution towards the international search operation. Almost daily there were announcements by Prime Minister Abbott and other Ministers about new information they were checking and hopes of finding the plane. Media accompanied the air force on the search and the Australian contribution was a genuine effort as part of an international search mission.

What a contrast when a boat or two of Sri Lankan Tamils arrives seeking our protection. Minister Morrison refuses to even acknowledge there is a boat or two. The refuses to comment on on water matters. Then we hear there is a possibility the asylum seekers will be returned to Sri Lanka, after they are asked four questions, three of which are about identity.

April 27, 2017

JOHN MENADUE. A rigged gas market and market failure.

Yesterday, the government announced that it would impose an Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism on gas exports from July this year. This will give the government authority to limit companies’ gas exports if they are emptying Australian gas reserves to meet overseas export contracts. Two years ago - I drew attention to the market failure in gas policy. I have reposted below that article of April 28, 2015. John Menadue

April 27, 2013

An Excel coding error with tragic consequences. John Menadue

In 2010, just after the Greek financial crisis, two respected conservative Harvard economists, Reinhart and Rogoff, published a paper Growth in a time of debt that said that once debt exceeded 90% of GDP, economic growth drops off sharply. Their thesis added great weight to those urging austerity on such countries as Greece, Spain and many others.

Paul Krugman in the New York Times of April 18 has drawn attention to a major flaw in their tipping point theory for national debt. According to Krugman, Reinhart and Rogoff, allowed researchers at the University of Massachusetts to examine the spreadsheets that helped produce this precise 90% tipping point. The researchers found that some data had been omitted, they highly questioned statistical procedures that had been used, but most importantly of all they found that Reinhart and Rogoff had made an Excel coding error.

December 14, 2014

Quentin Dempster. Submission to the Senate Select Committee.

S U B M I S S I O N

Senate Select Committee into the Abbott Governments Budget Cuts****on Friday 12 December 2014

Quentin Dempster appearing as a private individual

VANDALISING THE ABC

Following is a list of impacts which I have assembled from available sources. I can add to it as more information comes to hand. The committee already has the benefit of formal statements of impacts from the ABC (and SBS) and their claimed justifications. This list is to help the committee understand and put into perspective the audience impact through the reduction of production resources, journalists and program makers not always frankly stated by ABC management. The ABC has said that 300 staff are to be terminated immediately with a further 100 through restructuring operations over 2015.

December 2, 2013

The cost of healthcare in Australia and remuneration of doctors. Guest blogger: Professor Kerry Goulston

The cost of healthcareis unsustainablehere and in many other countries. In Australia it is 9.5% of GDP, estimated to rise to 16-25% by 2025. There are obvious reasons for thispopulation ageing, end of life heroics, increased technology and increased use of procedures. A rapidly increasing contributor to the cost of healthcare in Australia comes from out-of-pocketexpenses-estimated by Yusef and Leeder in a seminal paper Oct 2013-in the Medical Journal of Australia to be $28 billion per annum. For older households this represents an annual cost of $3,585. Yusef and Leeder point out that the decline in adequacy of coverage of Medicare rebates for medical services has increased the need for co-payments . This means that some people in lower socio-economic groups are not seeking medical care and are not getting their prescriptions filled. This needs review.

October 1, 2013

Sri Lanka - the civil war may be over but peace has not returned.

The Australian government in cooperation with the Sri Lankan government and its security services has been returning asylum seekers to Sri Lanka. They are called ‘voluntary returnees’. Increasingly however, doubts are being expressed by many commentators about the continuing plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka. In the following article, published in Catholic News on September 12, Father Regno, Director of the Catholic church’s social work in the Jaffna community, and other commentators describe the plight of many Tamils. John Menadue.

June 3, 2013

The Miners' Lament. John Menadue

It is only a matter of time before the miners start lamenting that they did not seriously negotiate with Kevin Rudd over his Resources Super Profits Tax (RSPT).

The mining industry has always favoured rent/profit taxes instead of royalties. What the mining industry really disagreed with was the rate of the Resources Super Profits Tax.

The GST Distribution Review Report of October 2012 said the following.

Well designed rent-based taxes are likely to be more economically efficient than royalties, particularly in periods of low commodity prices or high costs. . .Other factors, such as the size, variability and timing of the return received by government, as well as administration and compliance costs, are also important considerations when choosing between alternative resource charging regimes. .. The commonwealths design of the Mineral Resources Rent Tax [MRRT] and the Petroleum Resources Rent Tax [PRRT] has created an opportunity for states to seek to increase their revenues at the expense of the commonwealth an undesirable and unsustainable situation, which needs to be resolved.

August 13, 2016

LUKE FRASER. Infrastructure - a partner in our labours.

The Senate must be permitted to help avoid major infrastructure debacles.

Many recent posts in Pearls and Irritations have focussed on democratic renewal. Some have decried a lack of trust and competence in our political class. At the same time our retiring Reserve Bank governor advises government should spend more on productive infrastructure.

Given that the Australian Senate looks harder and harder to deal with for any government and public faith in major infrastructure projects is at a low ebb, how do we proceed?

March 5, 2017

Australian foreign policy and Israel: an enduring disgrace

The recent visit to Australia by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the forthcoming foreign policy White Paper should provide an opportunity for Australia to re-examine its support for the State of Israel. There is however, every indication that the current and past levels of support will endure. The most puzzling question is: why is this the case?

May 8, 2014

John Menadue. Penalty rates and Liberal lobbyists.

There is a campaign underway to cut weekend and holiday penalty rates particularly in the restaurant and hospitality industries. True to form the Australian Financial Review says that weekend penalty rates are a relic of times past.

A report leaked to the ABC indicates that the government will ask the Productivity Commission to undertake a comprehensive review of workplace laws. This will include penalty rates, pay and conditions, unfair dismissal, enterprise bargaining flexibility and union activities. It is proposed that this review by the Productivity Commission will consider the performance of the Fair Work Act. The Commission is expected to report to Joe Hockey by April 2015. He is ministerially responsible for the Commission. He makes the references to the Commission.

January 14, 2017

WALTER HAMILTON. Rex Tillerson and Australias national interest

President-elect Donald Trumps Cabinet picks are being cross-examined in public for the first time. Here begins the real business of assessing how a Trump administration might behavein more than 140 characters. The indications so far suggest the need for an early reappraisal.

April 27, 2017

RICHARD BUTLER. Malcolms Anzac Day Gift. Australian troops will be in the Middle East for the 'long term'.

The Prime Ministers statement that Australian military forces will need to remain in Afghanistan and the Middle East indefinitely must be clarified as must be the powers under which such decisions are legitimately made.

March 10, 2025

A five-minute scroll

ABC’s Antony Green applauded for his analysis of Western Australia’s election that saw Roger Cook returned as premier. Cyclone Alfred impacts on the South-East Queensland and Northern NSW coastline. Conflict in Syria must challenge Australia’s government while a policeman in the UK advises protesters it is ok to protest for Israel, but not Palestine.

June 3, 2014

John Menadue. The Blame Game in health

Attempts to resolve the Commonwealth/State blame game have been unsuccessful and expensive. Time and time again federal governments try and buy off state criticism by spending more taxpayers money without any real improvements in the delivery of health services.

This futile blame game is not surprising in a federation where there are nine departments of health for a population of 23 million.

Over many years there has been confusion about the role of the Commonwealth in hospitals. In 2007 John Howard offered to underwrite community organisations prepared to take over State hospitals. (The issue at the time was the Mercy Hospital in Launceston.) In 2009 in his book Battlelines, Tony Abbott said that a Commonwealth withdrawal from hospitals would be a cop out. It would be anachronistic and inefficient. Kevin Rudd threatened to take over State hospitals if a satisfactory arrangement could not be made with the States but backed down even though opinion polling showed strong support for a Commonwealth takeover of State Hospitals.

December 17, 2016

TESSA MORRIS-SUZUKI. The 'information war' hits Sydney.

This action by a small number of Japanese in Australia harms the Japanese community itself and demeans the work of those in Japan and elsewhere who have fought so long and hard for historical truth and justice.

May 15, 2014

John Menadue. For some the age of entitlement continues.

Joe Hockey talks endlessly that the days of entitlement are over. They may be over for the unemployed, students, the sick and pensioners in fact the majority never had days of entitlement. But they are certainly not over for the miners and the financial sector. These two sectors survived unscathed from the budget. This tells us a lot about who is running this government.

For the miners, the mining tax and the carbon tax will end at a cost to the taxpayer of at least $10 billion per annum. The rebate on diesel fuel will remain. The government tells us that it had to honour these promises. The same commitment to honouring promises was easily discarded in the case of the unemployed and the sick.

June 2, 2017

DUNCAN MacLAREN. Brexit: the danger of a no deal and the UK election.

Electioneering in the UK was stopped in homage to the 22 people who died and the many people injured in the bomb attack on a pop concert in Manchester on May 22nd. It didnt stop the xenophobic call for ending immigration again despite the fact that the perpetrator was born in Manchester and, as the Mancunian brother of a young man, Martyn, who died in the blast said, probably talked like him. The brother added that he and Martyn were sons of a Turkish mother and the atrocity should not be used to demonise immigrants and ban migration. A kind word of sanity among the hate crimes which predictably doubled after the attack.

April 15, 2017

RAMESH THAKUR. Donald Trump is more believable and moral than Putin Seriously?

Instead of cheering US resort to increasingly robust use of military firepower as the first response to international crises, Western leaders should be ring-fencing Trumps instinct to reckless behaviour in order to avoid a catastrophe.

August 16, 2016

Migration experts say it is unlikely closing camps on Manus and Nauru islands would re-start boats. We are beyond that point.

See link below - article by Ben Doherty in The Guardian, 16 August 2016. It includes an interview with me, Peter Hughes and others, on the need to act quickly to process in Australia, the detainees presently held in Manus and Nauru.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/aug/16/after-the-nauru-files-how-can-australia-go-about-ending-offshore-detention

December 30, 2016

PETER SAINSBURY. A timely call to end massive public subsidies of the private health insurance industry

The private health insurance industry is a parasite on the health system and the public purse. The government-funded rebate on private health insurance premiums goes to the insurers, not the health care providers, and allows the government almost no control over how its money is used to treat sickness and promote health.

If, for some reason unsupported by most of the evidence, the Government wishes to support private hospitals and private practitioners (as distinct from private health insurance companies), it would deliver itself, the public and patients a much better deal if it by-passed the useless middleman and negotiated with and paid private providers directly.

January 31, 2015

High Court decision on Tamil asylum seekers

The majority decided that the detention from 1 to 27 July 2014 was lawful at all times and thus there was no claim to damages for the detention.

June 16, 2018

MACK WILLIAMS. North Korea - managing Donald !

Amid the avalanche of reporting and commentary of the Singapore Summit one needs to step back to assess just how the Trumps much vaunted (by him) negotiating style so far has played out . This is not just an academic exercise. It is vital for countries like Australia whose future has become so entwined within the United States geopolitical view of the world . We must have a more informed understanding of the way Trump operates if only to minimise the risk of being blindsided like other close US allies such as the Republic of Korea and Japan have just suffered . We need to analyse not only how successful the Trump deal approach has been but also how he has been forced to modify it since beginning to negotiate in public with the North Koreans. At the same time we also need to note some diminution of the influence of the US defence/security establishment within the current administration.

November 23, 2014

Walter Hamilton. The ABC and its competitors

When the British conducted atomic tests at Maralinga in South Australia in the 1950s Australias newspaper proprietors tried to prevent the ABC bringing along its recording equipment to capture the event. They wanted the ABC locked out of the story because it would steal their thunder: how could a printed article about an atomic explosion compete with sound and vision? The national broadcaster appealed for help to Prime Minister Menzies who ruled that the ABC had the right to be there.

December 2, 2013

Funding withdrawal forces the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia into Administration. Guest blogger: Ian Webster AO

The Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia (ADCA) has served Australia for 50 years. It has worked collaboratively but honestly with all governments from Menzies to Rudd. But last week the Abbott government cut off funding.

Compared with the costs of alcohol and drugs, alcohol alone costing $36 billion per year (Foundation for Alcohol Research and Evaluation commissioned study), the annual costs of $1.5 million to run ADCA is peanuts. Despite this it has a nation-wide constituency of 350 organisational, association and individual members almost all being front-line agencies.

January 27, 2024

Groups intensify global push for Gaza cease-fire after ICJ ruling

“An immediate cease-fire by all parties remains essential andalthough not ordered by the courtis the most effective condition to implement the provisional measures and end unprecedented civilian suffering.”

May 15, 2014

John Menadue. Seven dollar GP co-payment and an unintended consequence

If the co-payment takes effect, it is likely to result in an increase in doctors fees. As Ian McAuley has pointed out, the attraction of bulk-billing for the doctor is that it removes the cost of handling and accounting for transactions. The invoice is sent directly to Medicare.

Once the doctor is obliged to handle the $7 co-payment, another transaction occurs; either by cash or probably credit card. This inevitable patient/doctor money transaction will provide the doctor with an opportunity to charge above the bulk billing rate.

August 13, 2016

PETER HUGHES. Manus and Nauru time for the government to be creative

This is a repost of an earlier article by Peter Hughes on 28 April 2016.

The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Supreme Court decision and the announcement by the PNG Prime Minister that Manus will be closed only bring forward the inevitable the Australian government has to find a way to get the current caseload of refugees and asylum seekers out of PNG and Nauru.

Realistically, the only option is Australia and New Zealand.

Think for a moment about the other possibilities.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal