July 22, 2015

Brian Johnstone. Pope Francis, Laudato Si and Cardinal Pell.

Cardinal George Pell has criticized Pope Francis ground-breaking environmental encyclical. As Pell told the Financial Times on Thursday, July 14, Its got many, many interesting elements. There are parts of it which are beautiful, he said. But the Church has no particular expertise in science the Church has got no mandate from the Lord to pronounce on scientific matters. We believe in the autonomy of science.

In the encyclical Laudato Si Pope Francis engages his readers on three levels; the first is that of science, the second is that of faith and theology the third is that of reasoned ethics.

November 25, 2014

John Menadue. Capitalism, inequality and taxation.

In his challenging series last week on Is capitalism redeemable Ian McAuley drew attention to how growing inequality is the cause not only of serious social concerns, but it is also presenting us with some quite serious economic problems.

There is not much doubt that in the US, the growing tax concessions for the wealthy and the obstacles placed in the path of low income and poor people to organise themselves through trade unions, has had serious economic as well as social consequences. With companies like Walmart paying poverty wages, low income people dont have the money to buy goods and services that businesses would like to sell. And despite US companies and the wealthy being awash with money, particularly as reflected in the buoyant US stock market, business is not investing in new businesses and jobs for the chief reason that the demand is just not there. Inequality is a major economic problem.

December 20, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. Series: We can say 'no' to the Americans. How the Fraser Government said 'no' on Chile and El Salvador.

In 1982, when I was Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, the Fraser Government ignored the pressure from the US that we should not help people in South America suffering at the hands of US-supported military governments.

October 12, 2018

JOHN TULLOH. The non-great expectations in Saudi Arabia

Perhaps the most masterful PR campaign of international diplomacy this year was the visit to the US of Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman commonly known as MBS. He was feted on a two-week coast-to-coast tour by politicians, big business, oil tycoons and the tech industry. President Trump fawned over him with a photographic display of the billions of dollars of American weaponry the Saudis were buying. Just peanuts to you, said Trump with some admiration. The media lined up like drooling supplicants. The main reason was that they all thought the new ruler of Saudi Arabia in all but name was a reformist who would steer the theocratic kingdom into the sunlit world of freedom and democracy.

September 4, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Business people and trade unionists.

Not only has the debt and deficit emergency ballooned and productivity stalled, but the mantra of Jobs and Growth, which Turnbull still insists is not a slogan but an outcome, has signally failed to deliver.

December 6, 2013

Being in Government is different to being in Opposition. John Menadue

Tony Abbott is being mugged by the reality of Government and how he manages day to day events. He has very little of a developed policy framework on which to draw.

In Opposition, Tony Abbott was adept at the political one-liners stop the boats, axe the tax, reduce the deficit and pay back the debt. There was not a great deal of policy to back up this political rhetoric. We are now seeing that day after day with one blunder after another.

April 11, 2017

JAMES O'NEILL. American missile strikes in Syria raise fresh questions.

Not for the first time, unilateral and illegal actions by the Americans pose a grave threat to the safety of the planet and its inhabitants.

March 1, 2016

Evan Williams. Film review Spotlight

Evan Williams recently reviewed Spotlight. This film has now won the Best Film at the recent Oscars. This review is reposted below. Evan Williams will soon also write on the Oscar awards in general. John Menadue.

The other night I watched a DVD of Foreign Correspondent, Alfred Hitchcocks wonderful thriller about a newspaperman on the trail of a secret spy ring. Nostalgic as I am for the glory days of print journalism, I love the moment when the papers editor yells from his desk: Hold the front page! You dont hear that any more. Films about newspapers those who own them and those who work for them tend to be either very funny or very serious.

September 7, 2016

Its Time to Close Australias Abusive Detention Regime

In the last few years, there have been countless official reports that have exposed abuses and recommended the closure of centres on Nauru and Manus Island. November 2014, the Australian Human Rights Commissions National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention uncovered numerous reported incidents of assaults, sexual assaults and self-harm involving children; March 2015, an independent review by Philip Moss uncovered allegations of sexual abuse by staff in the detention centre in Nauru; August 2015, the Senate Select Committees final report into conditions at Nauru recommended the immediate release into the Australian community of all children and their families detained in Nauru and in onshore detention facilities; June 2016, an independent report titled Protection Denied, Abuse Condoned: Women at Risk on Nauru reported that women were being routinely abused, raped and doomed to spend the rest of their lives on a tiny island nation, often alongside the perpetrators; July 2016, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch researchers found that the Australian Government has designed a system of deliberate abuse, in Nauru to deter people seeking safety who arrive by boat. All of these reports were ignored by our politicians with the arrogance of historys most callous rulers.

February 13, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull on climate change and coal.

Unfortunately the storms and the heat waves are making it clear to reluctant voters that climate change is not going to disappear. Sooner or later the message will filter through even to the recalcitrants of the coalition. But by then it may be too late for Turnbull and, for that matter, the rest of us.

July 7, 2014

Walter Hamilton. Abe Over Australia.

In the six years since Kevin Rudds speech, in Mandarin, to students at Beijing University appeared to signal a sudden shift in Australias foreign policy focus towards China, and away from Japan, much has happened. Some even believe that the replacement of Rudd by Julia Gillard (not linguistically so equipped and keen to distinguish her policies from his) followed by the election of Tony Abbott as prime minister (bringing an ideological as well as a political agenda to the issue) has caused Rudds pro-China course to be reversed. But this is a misreading of the larger picture. When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrives in Australia on Mondaythe most important visit by a Japanese leader since that of his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi in 1957it will signify a new phase in the bilateral relationship that began taking shape before Rudd, continued during his two administrations, and has solidified since the Abbott government gained office.

October 1, 2015

John Menadue. The government just does not get it on Free Trade Agreements.

I hope readers are not getting tired that I have said many times that the government continues to exaggerate the benefits of bilateral FTAs, most recently with Japan, Korea and China. With so little to show after two wasted years - increased debt, increased deficits, and not ‘stopping the boats’ despite telling us of success a thousand times - it is perhaps inevitable that the government will cling to small improvements in trade. But the gains are small. In the AFR on 30 September 2015, Bill Carmichael, former chairman of the Australian Industries Assistance Commission, said

May 15, 2013

Malaysian Elections Hangover.-How 51% of votes secured only 40 % of the seats. Guest blogger El Tee Kay

As a guest blogger on May 2 I described the intense interest in the General Election to be held on May 5. This was shown on election day with a voter turnout of more than 84%, the highest in Malaysian history.

The Opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) won the popular vote but lost the elections. It garnered 5,623,984 or 50.88% of the popular votes but won only 89 Parliamentary seats (40%) compared with the ruling Barisan Nasionals (BN) 5,237,699 votes or 47.38% with 133 seats. The BN lost 7 seats.

June 27, 2016

MARTIN WOLF. Brexit is probably the most disastrous single event in British history since WWII.

In the Financial Times, Martin Wolf says that the fearmongering and outright lies of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Nigel Farage, The Sun and the Daily Mail have won.

April 1, 2016

Cameron Douglas. Thailand and the military junta - an update.

Thailands military government got almost all it wanted in the countrys draft constitution, which will now be put to the people in a referendum on August 7.

The next four months, however, will be a rough time for Thailand: the release of the draft was accompanied by a warning from Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha that critics of the government could be detained for one-month for re-education.

Despite the tougher government line, the draft attracted criticism from the Pheu Thai party, the political grouping backed by ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. It issued a formal statement calling on people to reject the document.

July 9, 2016

PETER DAY. The Parable of the Good Muslim

Some right leaning Christian politicians and commentators were not satisfied when a wise man told them you should love your neighbour as yourself. And who is my neighbour, they asked. The wise man replied:

A conservative Member of Parliament was walking back home from church and fell into the hands of brigands; they took all he had, and then began beating him to within an inch of his life. Now it happened that a fellow conservative was travelling nearby, but when he saw the man and the brigands he pretended as if not to see and drove straight by. Then another devout church-goer came upon the commotion, but he too turned the other cheek and continued on his way. But a Muslim man a doctor who came upon the scene was moved with compassion. He stopped his car causing the brigands to flee. He then took out his First Aid kit and proceeded to bandage the mans wounds, comforting him with words of kindness. He then gently lifted the man into his car, laid him on the back seat, and took him to a nearby hospital. Look after him, he said to the medical registrar; he has received an awful beating. I will stop by tomorrow to see if he is alright.

April 17, 2015

Government White Paper on Energy - the good, the bad and the ugly.

In the Australian Financial Review on 15 April, Ross Garnaut comments about the Abbott Government’s Energy White Paper. He says that by failing to take global warming seriously, the White Paper discourages solar power, encourages doomed coal investment, hobbles the RET and misses the chance to raise petrol taxes. John Menadue.

See link to article below:

http://afr.com/opinion/columns/abbott-governments-energy-white-paper-fails-to-face-reality-20150414-1mkroh

May 31, 2016

FRANK BRENNAN. Asylum policies and the election.

The following is an extract from a speech by Frank Brennan at the Yass Catholic Parish Pot Luck Dinner on Saturday 28 May 2016. The full text of the speech is in the link below. John Menadue

November 25, 2013

Sexual abuse - don't mention Canon Law! Guest blogger: Kieran Tapsell

Submissions and speeches by the Australian Catholic Church about child sex abuse, remind me of Fawlty Towers, where Basil asks his non German guests not to mention the war. In the Churchs case, the unmentionable is canon law, the law of the Catholic Church. In his speech at Ballarat on 20 November 2013, Francis Sullivan, the CEO of the Churchs Truth, Justice and Healing Council acknowledged that there had been cover ups, but, once again, failed to mention that canon law was behind it.

May 17, 2016

PAUL COLLINS. Theodora the Bishop: Pope Francis and Women Deacons

The Via di Santa Prassede is a back lane close to the imposing Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Pope Francis favourite church in Rome. But there is a very significant historical building just nearby: the basilica of Santa Prassede in the laneway that takes its name from the church. It was built by a much hated pope, Paschal I (817-824). It would be good for Francis, in light of his decision to create a commission to study the possibility of women deacons, to pop into Santa Prassede next time hes in the area. Hed find it very enlightening.

June 3, 2016

MUNGO McCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull and NBN leaks.

Malcolm Turnbull is all very holy about the independence of the Federal Police following last weeks raid on ALP offices and homes over embarrassing (to him) NBN leaks.

Why, the government had absolutely nothing to do with the cops, the Prime Minister asserted virtuously. Bill Shorten should be ashamed of even thinking such a thing.

Well, perhaps, in 2016. But there was a time when Turnbull knows very well that the government of which he was a minister leant on the AFP, and leant very hard indeed.

March 7, 2024

South Africa requests ICJ emergency orders to halt unspeakable Gazan genocide

Israel is now massacring desperate, starving Palestinians seeking to obtain food for their slowly-dying children. The situation in Gaza is now so terrifying as to be unspeakable, writes South Africa in an urgent request for the International Court of Justice to issue additional provisional measures to stop Israels genocide.

January 16, 2015

John Menadue. Be careful what you wish for.

You may be interested in this repost. John Menadue

Be careful what you wish for.

With the Victorian election result the Labor Party may be hoping to see the demise of Tony Abbott in the New Year. But it should be careful what it hopes for.

Gough Whitlam successfully crippled Billy Snedden as the leader of the Liberal Party in 1974 and got Malcolm Fraser in his place, a much more substantial leader.

May 29, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Menzies' 'forgotten people' and 'forgotten issues'.

It is all very jolly for Turnbull’s troops to indulge in nostalgia and sentimentality, but they should realize that those times are gone forever. Few Australians were even alive to remember them, and the rest of us dont want to except in black and white movies.

December 27, 2016

TILLY GUNNING. Gertrude Menear My Great, Great Aunt-an early suffragette

A woman ahead of her time.

June 24, 2016

FRANK BRENNAN SJ. How to Stop the Boats Decently after the election

In her valedictory speech on 17 June 2013 after 20 years in parliament Judi Moylan reminded us:

If we are committed to stopping the deaths at sea, in this most intransigent of political arenas, our parliament must find a way to forge a national consensus before we can possibly entertain any hope of achieving a regional consensus.

There are presently 847 people in the Manus Island RPC and 466 persons in the Nauru RPC. There are 541 persons on Manus Island who have received a positive final determination that they are refugees. There are 915 persons on Nauru who are proven refugees, languishing on a Pacific Island with a permanent population of 10,000. Imagine if Australia were being asked to offer places to 2.4 million refugees in the next year. And make no mistake, that is the per capita equivalent to what we have visited upon Nauru with our chequebook.

April 26, 2017

KERRY BREEN and M.TAFFY JONES. Why mandatory reporting of the ill-health of doctors is not in anyones best interests

Sick doctors will delay seeking help because of fear of stigmatisation and a threat to their professional status and livelihood through premature and unjustified reporting by treating doctors who themselves are made to feel insecure by the legislation. The distress and harm resulting from an inappropriate mandatory notification cannot be underestimated.

December 10, 2016

BRUCE ARNOLD. Open Government, Open to interpretation

If we are indeed open to Open Government a salient demonstration would be facilitating Australian Human Rights Commission access to what is happening on Australias behalf in offshore detention centres. That would be a fine national Christmas present from Turnbull, Dutton and Brandis, with or without tinsel.

September 30, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. Malcolm Turnbull the last straw on climate change and renewables.

Lets be clear. All the experts tell us that the power blackout in SA had nothing to do with the energy mix coal, gas, solar or wind. They all tell us that the blackout was due to the collapse of the key distribution towers and lines.

Yesterday, Malcolm Turnbull blamed the blackout on excessive haste with renewables and called for cuts in renewable energy targets. It was part of a continuing war by the coalition against renewable energy with the ABC now joining in. The Victorian Premier called Malcolm Turnbull’s comments ‘ignorant rubbish’.

With his populist nonsense Malcolm Turnbull finally and fully embraced the coal lobby. He has taken the final step from a believer in climate change to a sceptic.

September 21, 2016

PETER WHITEFORD. The $4.8 trillion dollar question: will an 'investment approach' to welfare help the most disadvantaged?

Social Services Minister Christian Porter on Tuesday released a report on the lifetime costs of the social security system for the Australian population, putting it at close to A$4.8 trillion.

The report was an initiative of the 2015-16 budget, when the government allocated A$33.7 million to establish an Australian Priority Investment Approach to Welfare based on actuarial analysis of social security data.

April 20, 2017

DAVID JAMES. Deconstructing the privatisation scam

It is increasingly evident how pernicious the privatisation myth is. Two recent examples have underlined it: the failings in Australia’s privatised energy grid and the usurious pricing in airport car parks. Both examples demonstrated that it is folly to expect a public benefit to inevitably emerge from private profit seeking.

December 7, 2015

Peter Gibilisco. The standardisation of services for people with disabilities.

WHAT IS MEANT BY EFFICIENCY IN THE PROVISION OF SERVICES FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES? IS IT JUST A COVER FOR GREATER STANDARDISATION?

The State Disability Plan is not the only endorsement of the need to emphasize the individualising of care for people with disabilities. We now hear of a profound development person-centred planning is said to be the world-wide benchmarked best practice. This involves a highly individualised vision of the person with disabilities and the result is that care needs multiply into a kaleidoscopic variety of individually generated special needs and concerns.

December 23, 2014

John Menadue. The accident prone Julie Bishop.

I have written before about Julie Bishops mistakes as Foreign Minister despite the media spin that she has successfully generated. Those articles were: Julie Bishop Substance and Style on the 18th November; and Julie Bishop -Undiplomatic, politically partisan and wrong on 22 November. Just recall her foolish attack on President Obama over the Great Barrier Reef.

Since then Julie Bishop has continued on her merry way with a pliant media.

March 11, 2016

Cavan Hogue. The Defence White Paper and the China threat.

In a paper distributed by the ANU East Asia Forum, Professor Hugh White has pointed out that the Defence White Paper makes two invalid assumptions: the post-Cold War US-led international order will be maintained and that it must be. He is right on both counts and I will not repeat his views here except to say I agree with them.

The so-called “rules based” order is based on Western concepts and dominated by Western countries. Many other countries simply don’t accept the rules. Even some UN rules, including those we would like to keep, are open to question by some countries especially if you consider “interpretation”. Indeed, we and others break the rules when it suits us; the Coalition of the Willing is just one example of the preachers breaking the rules and we can find countless others. Australia, like the US and Western Europe, sees democracy as an article of faith and condemns as evil infidels anyone who questions the one true political faith. Not everyone agrees with our approach and in an increasingly multipolar world do we have the capacity or need to impose our values on others so long as they don’t try to impose theirs on us?

March 29, 2017

Saul Eslakes well timed warnings help inform the housing affordability debate

Saul Eslake, one of Australias most highly respected independent economists, has sounded some sobering warnings about the impact of declining rates of home ownership (and rising levels of mortgage debt) on Australias retirement income system. He has also once again stressed the need for reform of the demand side of the supply and demand equation affecting housing affordability.

January 10, 2017

SUSAN RYAN. Housing affordability requires immediate government action

The 2016 Intergenerational Report from Treasury predicted that by 2050 the numbers of people in Australia over 65, currently nearly a quarter of the population, will have doubled. Average age expectancy will be over 95 for women and men. Where will those people be living?

April 18, 2017

DAVID M SCOTT and PETER SEAL. Medical specialists - maintaining a high standard and duty of care.

In recent times, several articles have appeared in the print and electronic media about the alleged high fees and poor accountability of medical specialists. A few weeks ago on his Pearls and Irritations blog, John Menadue posted one such piece titled Medical specialists high fees and poor accountability. The Australian Society of Anaesthetists (ASA) believes that some of John Menadues strongly asserted claims merit a measured response, and wishes to address some misconceptions that have arisen. There are almost 5000 specialist anaesthetists in Australia, and they comprise approximately 4.5% of the nations medical workforce. The ASA has been supporting, representing and educating anaesthetists in this country since 1934.

June 29, 2016

JON STANFORD. Brexit - UK is unprepared.

The thrust of Michael Keatings essay on Brexit is that the vote in favour of leaving the European Union taken by the British electorate on 23 June will be bad for the UK but will have a minimal impact on the rest of the world.

If the British government accepts the advice put forward in what is an advisory referendum, Dr Keating may very well be correct. Already significant damage has been done to the UK economy, even before Article 50 has been triggered. The exchange rate for the pound is in a nosedive, some banks have lost 40 per cent of their value on the stock exchange and the nations AAA rating has been withdrawn.

January 25, 2013

Nova Peris and the Captain's pick

Julia Gillard’s action in parachuting Nova Peris into the Northern Territory senate seat is understandable. The ALP machinery is so decrepit and undemocratic that occasional use of power by the parliamentary leader is necessary.

Party members have left the ALP in droves over the years. It is a ramshackle organisation that is so easy to manipulate by faction heavies. With so few party members it is remarkable that there isn’t more branch stacking and manipulation in preselections. Apparently only about 230 party members voted in the preselection for Senator Crossin for the Northern Territory Senate. But there are over 30,000 ALP first preference voters in the subsequent senate election. So a small group of party members foisted Senator Crossin on ALP supporters.

March 29, 2016

John Menadue. White mans media.

On 26 March I provided a link to an article by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian, who commented

‘The atrocities in Brussels happen almost daily in the streets of Baghdad, Aleppo and Damascus. .. A dead Muslim is an unlucky mutt in the wrong place at the wrong time. A dead European is front page news.

We have again seen this distortion of the news being played out in the bombings in Lahore. Over 70 people were killed, including many children. A week earlier, 33 died in a terrorist attack in Brussels. Just contrast the media coverage, the response by politicians and the prayers offered by religious leaders over Easter.

September 1, 2016

EVAN WILLIAMS. Film review: Truman

Directed by Cesc Gay, Truman is a wonderful Spanish film about a couple of old buddies saying goodbye for the last time. One of them is dying of lung cancer, and the film traces their last four days together in Madrid. The good news is that Truman isnt nearly as miserable as it sounds. In some reviews and in the ads Ive seen it described as a comedy-drama, though the comic elements are often hard to discern.

January 15, 2014

Mission accomplished? Be careful which war you wish for. Travers McLeod

We are going to hold the line, we are going to protect the borders, Scott Morrison, Federal Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, told the 44th Federal Parliament in its first sitting week. Thisbattle is being fought using the full arsenal of measures, he wrote elsewhere. Last week, the Prime Minister defended the secrecy of the battle, saying, if we were at war we wouldnt be giving out information that is of use to the enemy just because we might have an idle curiosity about it ourselves.

May 31, 2017

RICHARD WOOLCOTT. Australian security and trade policy for 2017 and beyond.

The key issue is not what President Trump says on behalf of the United States but, what the United States actually does.

September 5, 2016

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Undermining Malcolm Turnbull.

The baying pack of coalition backbenchers demanding the abolition, or at least the dilution, of the Racial Discrimination Act may be sincere crusaders for free speech.

On the other hand they may be motivated by a desire to attack small-l liberals, of whom one is (or at least was) their own leader, Malcolm Turnbull. And some are just nasty.

But in all cases they are guilty of that most heinous of political crimes: they are out of touch with the electorate. Despite the fanatical efforts of the ideological zealots of The Australian, there is not even a squall in the twttersphere of protest about the horrors of the repression of section 18c.

February 9, 2017

MICHAEL LESTER. Draining the swamp : the Businessman President

Donald J Trump is called the businessman President. The ethics and practices of private business, and the nature and business models of activities undertaken, are arguably, neither consistent with the established accountabilities of corporate governance nor with the innovative future of the digital economy.

March 4, 2021

Christian Porter responsible for serial breaches of the law, now cries rule of law

Christian Porter is responsible for serial breaches of the law, as documented repeatedly by Pearls and Irritations. These revelations alone should be enough to see Porter removed from official duties but his relentless persecution of Witness K and Bernard Collaery both denied natural justice and prosecuted in secret are hardly the stuff of a model litigant. Yet now the besieged Attorney-General calls for rule of law to apply in respect of the rape allegations against him.

November 17, 2014

Steve FitzGerald on Gough Whitlam, Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou

Of the many things I admired and loved about Gough, one of the most delicious, next to our shared liking for food, was that he was the best person Ive ever been privileged to brief. It wasnt just that he soaked it up like blotting paper and asked for more and never forgot. It was that each piece of information was absorbed into its appointed niche and found a place in his political and historical cosmology, and emerged as knowledge, fully fashioned, and in context. One imagined the Graeco-Roman or later Christian art of memory, but of course Whitlamesque in its Enlightenment commitment to science and reason and the art of enquiry.

October 8, 2015

Wasteful costs in health.

Following the ABC Four Corners program on health costs in Australia, there have been a number of very good follow up articles.

The first, in The Conversation on 29 September is by Ray Moynihan ‘Costly and harmful: we need to tame the tsunami of too much medicine’.

https://theconversation.com/costly-and-harmful-we-need-to-tame-the-tsunami-of-too-much-medicine-48239

The second, in the AFR on 5 October, is by Neil Soderlund, Sam Stewart and Jan Willem Kuenen is entitled ‘Why overtreatment is costing Aussies $30 billion per year and how to fix it’.

July 4, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Tony Abbott shoots first and asks questions later.

In all, [Tony Abbott’s] program is for a regime which can best charitably be described as a socialist theocracy, somewhat along the lines of Abbotts mentor, Bartholomew Augustine Santamaria although the Abbott version would be considerably more totalitarian.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal