January 17, 2015

John Menadue. What does Labor stand for. Part 1

You might be interested in this repost . It was part 1 of a six part series. Part 6 will be reposted tomorrow. John Menadue

Labors constituency

The Labor primary vote has declined from about 45-50% fifty years ago to 35-40% today. Labor has lost its clear identity with the working class and what it stands for. Its natural constituency and membership has declined. To contain the loss, Labor has increasingly committed itself to focus groups, marginal seat strategies and whatever it takes. Values, principles and ideas have given way to marketing of products .Money has replaced membership as the driving force of campaigns. The trade unions remain the most important institutional Labor supporter. The unions have a proud record but their influence is out of proportion to their role in the community and the Labor constituency.

October 12, 2014

Medibank Private and members' equity.

In the New Daily on 6 October, George Lekakis drew attention to a letter sent to a policy-holder in 1994 by Mary-Jo Henrisson, a customer services manager in Medibank’s NSW head office. Mary-Jo Henrisson said “We would be sorry to see you lose the equity you have built up in the fund.”

For the full story in the New Daily see link below.

http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2014/10/06/exclusive-medibank-letter-government-doesnt-want-read/

September 2, 2015

Luke Fraser. Rail infrastructure failure.

RAIL: FEWER SPENDING CHEERLEADERS, MORE JIMMY CARTER.

In June the Australian Financial Review hosted an Infrastructure Summit of the great and good in Sydney. It heard about the need for much more infrastructure: Australia was well behind other countries in such matters. Nobody dwelt on the possibility that in transport at least, Australia might suffer from a tired and patchy regulatory inheritance and an extremely lazy generation of regulatory policy makers.

August 26, 2015

Sandra Jones. Dont worry about the kids: Let's just protect the alcohol industry

A recent study from Monash University found that a quarter of all alcohol advertising on Australian TV was during televised sports. Importantly, 86% of alcohol advertising between 6.00am and 8.30pm (that is, when kids are most likely to be watching TV) was during sports programming.

The broadcast of alcohol advertisements on commercial television in Australia is restricted in order to limit the exposure of young people to alcohol advertising. Alcohol advertising is only permitted during periods of M (mature classification), MA (mature audience classification) or AV (adult violence classification) programs (which are restricted to between 8:30pm and 5.00am).

November 18, 2014

Michael Kelly and Michael Sainsbury on The Pope and the President.

When the Chinese government confirmed Xi Jingpin as the countrys president in March 2013, among the congratulatory letters received in Beijing was one from the newly elected Pope Francis. It was a nice touch from the leader of one regime to another, since the two have been at odds for decades over religious freedom.

Over the years, many observers have remarked on the similarity between the two dogmatic, highly regimented and stratified organizations operated by powerful but opaque ruling cliques, regimes that have brooked no opposition to their official diktat from the centre.

July 17, 2015

John Menadue. Refugees- from toxic politics to a humanitarian policy.

The ALP Federal conference which will be meeting in a week’s time, will be considering refugee policy along with other major issues.

I have re-posted below a post from 22 June on refugees .

Media reports suggest that boat ’turnbacks’ will be a contentious issue at the conference. There are several issues that I think should be kept in mind on this issue.

The first is that the dramatic drop in boat arrivals has not been due to turnbacks, but the decision by the Rudd Government announced on 13 July 2013, that any people arriving by boat in future would never be settled in Australia. That was the game-changer. Tony Abbott’s actions were quite marginal, including some turnbacks. These turnbacks had a great deal of publicity but they were not significant in curbing the flow of boats.

June 25, 2015

Is the European Central Bank looking after the Greek people or the banks?

Current Affairs.

In London I have been reading this interesting piece in The Telegraph, by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, (link below) on the ‘Greek problem’. It was published on 19 June 2015. John Menadue.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11687229/Greek-debt-crisis-is-the-Iraq-War-of-finance.html

February 1, 2015

John Menadue - 30th anniversary of Medicare

This article was initially posted on 1st February last year, the 30th anniversary of Medicare.

March 22, 2017

ALBERT MISPEL. 1938-2017

Pearls & Irritations advises the sad news that Albert Mispel, who was instrumental in getting this blog started (and indeed, suggested its name) has passed away. Albert had an exciting life during which he taught school in New Guinea, was a core member of the Glebe Society fighting expressways during the 1970s and, later in life, became a computer programmer/web designer. He was enthusiastic about all progressive causes. He provided the technical know-how to get this blog up and running five years ago, and supported it thereafter. He believed in the cause. The first blog password was November 1975. With many others, he would never forget the Whitlam dismissal. Alberts death is mourned by his wife, Kathy, two daughters, Jo and Madeleine, and his grandchildren. He will be sadly missed. Vale Albert.

July 17, 2015

Stuart Whitman. Labor 2035

This article is posted from Grassroots, The Local Labor Journal - Party Reform: Past Present and Future.

Its 2035, and Labor members from an inner suburb of Australias largest city are gathering in their local community centre to welcome the new Labor Prime Minister on her first official visit to the electorate.

The recently elected Prime Minister is returning to her childhood community to congratulate its Labor branch on their Community Action Programs and to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ALP National Conference that changed everything.

May 29, 2017

JOHN MENADUE. Health Reform and cooperative federalism. Part 1

In the SMH of May 29, 2017, Adam Gartrell reports that ‘The private health insurtance rebate would e abolished, consumers would be charged more for extra cover and the states would be forced to find more money for public hospitals under radical funding changes being considered by top government officials. Documents obtained by Fairfax Media reveal the nation’s most senior health bureaucrats are part of a secret task force developing a proposal for a “Commonwealth Hospital Benefit” - a new funding formula for public and private hospitals.’

See below, my post from April 12 2016, about a possible ‘Commonwealth Hospital Benefit’. John Menadue.

June 29, 2015

Walter Hamilton. Why I am an Australian citizen

Current Affairs.

Amid all the howling about terror, treason and the ABC, Australians seemingly have lost the ability to stop, listen and think. Everyone is in such a hurry to outdo the next person in vilifying and repudiating the other, whether it is a Muslim Australian, a political opponent or a commercial rival. I cant remember when the fabric of public debate has been so tattered by prejudice, ignorance and a determined refusal to listen to the other point of view.

November 18, 2014

Renewable energy investment.

A key feature of the President Obama/President Xi communique is their commitment to substantially reduce carbon pollution. There was little mention of an emissions trading scheme or putting a price on carbon. The emphasis was on developing renewable energy as an alternative source of energy to fossil fuels. Emphasis was given to development of solar, wind and nuclear power. But in Australia, our government in attacking the established renewable energy targets has caused great confusion and damage in investment plans. As a result, renewable energy investment in Australia dropped 70% in the past year. See the link below to the report from the Climate Council which was published in The Conversation on 10 November. John Menadue.

December 22, 2014

Caroline Coggins, Pausing in Advent.

I was on retreat recently in Hong Kong and there was a very small pool with eight turtles in it. It took me some days to notice; you have to slow down to see them. Their water was muddy, there was certainly no vista here, just the close company they kept with each other, and the bonus of the big shell that they could pull their heads in and out of. I liked the turtles, I watched them lean on each other to get up, rest on top of each other, they had that shell, but mostly their heads were out, steady and still, looking at me, as I looked at them, curiously. They seemed absorbed and present in their small world, except when I jumped up quickly one day, full of some internal noise, and they too fled from their rock, plopping back into the water. I had disturbed their universe, and they disappeared for cover. Having our known world disturbed is never easy.

October 8, 2014

Geoff Hiscock. Abbott on the friendship trail with Modi

China rightly dominates most discussions of Australias economic outlook, but Tony Abbott has made it plain he also wants to be good friends with the other emerging Asian heavyweight, India.

A tangible example came during his visit there early last month (September), when he handed over two ancient Hindu statues that allegedly were stolen from temples in Tamil Nadu and subsequently acquired by Australian art galleries.

It was a gesture that prompted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to express his gratitude and to say Abbott had shown enormous respect for Indias cultural heritage.

December 17, 2014

Hazel Moir and Deborah Gleeson. Evergreening and how big pharma keeps drug prices high.

Efforts by pharmaceutical companies to extend their patents cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year. In some cases they also mean people are subjected to unnecessary clinical trials.

Big pharma makes big profits. Their useful new drugs are patented, protecting them from competition and allowing them to charge high prices. When the patent ends, other companies are allowed to supply the previously patented drug. These are known as generics. The prices of generic drugs are much lower than the prices of in-patent drugs it has been suggested that for widely used drugs price falls can be as much as 95%.

February 14, 2017

KATHLEEN McPHILLIPS. Royal commission hearings show Catholic Church faces a massive reform task.

In research prepared for the Royal Commission, 7% of priests were identified as perpetrators. By far the worst offenders were in religious orders: for example, over 40% of John of God Brothers, 22% of Christian Brothers and 20% of Marist Brothers were identified as alleged perpetrators. These figures are particularly shocking because the rate of disclosure of abuse by victims is generally held to be under 20%.

August 15, 2017

GRAHAM FREUDENBERG. Malcolm Turnbulls response to the Korean crisis has been contemptible.

In his grovelling hip to hip statement on 10 August, he served up to the Australian people an utterly false and misleading version of the ANZUS Treaty and its meaning.

July 24, 2014

John Menadue--King Coal to be dethroned.

On May 1 last year I posted A canary in the coal mine. It focussed on the growing and wide concern about the damage to the climate caused by coal fired electricity generation. It also drew attention to the action of Jonathon Moylan who sent a hoax email concerning Whitehaven Coal to the ANZ Bank about the risk of investing in coal. The worthy and powerful tut tutted his action but I likened it to the canary in the coal mine warning of danger ahead.

July 30, 2018

CHANNEL 9 -The likely new owners of Fairfax show their skill

August 15, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Strong leaders carry out their promises - Malcolm Turnbull.

It is impossible to imagine Gough Whitlam, Paul Keating or even John Gorton being so cowed by the vengeful has-beens and disgruntled bigots who are now calling the shots in what is laughingly described as the government.

May 20, 2016

GEOFF HISCOCK. Asias easy opportunities overshadow Indian business ties. Australian businesses lack enthusiasm for Indian opportunities.

At the Australia India Business Council forum in Sydney earlier this week, Indian diplomats wondered why Australian businesses lacked enthusiasm about engaging with an economy that is destined to become the worlds third largest within the next two decades.

January 20, 2017

MARIAN SAWER. What can be done about political trust? The 2016 federal election inquiry

The major political parties largely control the process of electoral reform and judge any proposal by its possible partisan effects. Considerations of partisan advantage almost always take precedence over the restoration of public trust in the political system.

July 11, 2015

Peter Day. Warning: role models may shrink

Role models: We love them. We look up to them. We say we need them. We want to know them. We want to live through them. But who are they, and what purpose do they serve?

In Australia they tend to be sportsmen and celebrities of note: young people who can kick a footy, smash a tennis ball, and generally do things much faster and better than the rest of us - and look good while doing so.

February 28, 2015

John Menadue. Health Insurance - here we go again!

The Health Minister, Sussan Ley has just announced a 6.2% increase in private health insurance premiums. Increases of this order happen almost every year.

Since the Howard government introduced the rebate on private health insurance in 1999, the cost of private health insurance has increased over 150%. Overall prices have increased by less than 50% in this period.

Because private health insurance has not got the will or ability to control prices, it is a ‘price taker’ as economists say, it underwrites large increases in health costs particularly by private specialists. That is why we are all paying more in out-of-pocket expenses. But it is even much worse than that. Private health insurance makes it more difficult for Medicare to control fees.

November 20, 2015

John Tulloh. Europe: The political impact of a dead Syrian.

Ahmed al Mohammad may have a greater impact on Europe than his evil terrorist deeds did in Paris last week. It appears he was a Syrian asylum-seeker who, according to Greek records, passed through Greece last month and made his way through the Balkans to join his cohorts in France. He satisfied whatever checks there were and was sent on his way with tens of thousands of others. We will never know what happened after then because he died in the mayhem.

February 17, 2017

OLIVER FRANKEL. Making housing affordable. Vancouvers new Empty Homes Tax

Vancouvers response to the housing affordability crisis, now includes a new Empty Homes Tax at 1% per annum of the value of each empty home covered. Australian reports suggest that there may be 90,000 empty dwellings in Sydney and 83,000 in Melbourne.

September 15, 2015

Stephen Leeder. The takeover of the Medical Journal of Australia.

A quick glance at the last page of the most recent issue of the MJA reveals that there is as yet no replacement editor-in-chief and that two of the most senior medical editors Janusic and Armstrong are missing in action, as is the Editorial Advisory Committee. There is an interim editor. Many of the assistant editors have gone as well replaced in the AMA presidents memorable words on ABC Radio because all they did was move words around on the page. This they had been doing, together with checking facts, assertions, arithmetic, grammar, syntax, clarity and originality of submitted papers and keeping the faith in the MJA community some for 20 years. This activity was now to be done by anonymous staff employed often overseas by the publishing giant Elsevier.

April 19, 2015

John Menadue. Best we forget - the Frontier War and the Maori Wars.

See below post I made on this subject in October 2013. John Menadue

Repost. The drumbeat grows louder.

In the lead-up to the centenary of Gallipoli in 2015 the military drums are growing louder. We are expected to cheer it all. In the process we will be encouraged to engage in a lot of mindless myths. Amnesia will also play a large part.

In an interview published in the SMH on October 5 this year, Brendan Nelson, the Director of the Australian War Memorial, former Minister for Defence and Parliamentary Leader of the Liberal Party, said: The soul of the nation is embedded in many ways in the [Australian War] memorial. Is it? I certainly hope not. He then added the more obscene the war, the more inexplicable for us it seems today, the more many [young people] admire these men and women who went in our name. What an extraordinary thing to say! In short, he is saying that the more inexplicable or dubious the war, the more young people admire the values of those that served in those wars.

December 27, 2014

John Tulloh. The flight of Christians from the Middle East.

If there is one region which Christians increasingly want to abandon, it is the biblical heartland of their faith: the Middle East. They are fleeing in greater numbers than ever before. They are fearful of the growing turmoil in places like Syria and Iraq, the spread of radical Islam and, of course, now the presence of Islamic State (IS) and its dire warning to non-believers that ’there is nothing to give (you) but the sword’. The exodus has alarmed Pope Francis who said: ‘We will not resign ourselves to imagining a Middle East without Christianity’.

September 10, 2019

HENRY LITTON. Joshua Wong article in Australian 2 Sep

Joshua Wong, in his article in The Australian of 2 September, made a valid point when he asked rhetorically who were the ones who did not give young people a stake in society ?

July 16, 2015

James Button. A Moment of Unexpected Hope

From the local Labor journal, Grassroots - Party Reform, Past, Present and Future.

This should be a moment of unexpected hope for the ALP. Remarkable election wins in Victoria and Queensland, theopinion polls tracking well, another Liberal Government exposed as mean, tricky and out of touch…it all suggests that after the debacle of the last federal election Labor might be back in power far sooner than anyone could ever have hoped for. The climate of ideas should be on Labors side, too. The great policy challenge of the day how to sustain economic and jobs growth while expanding opportunity and protecting the environment is going to require smart, interventionist government; laissez-faire wont do it**.**

December 27, 2014

What will Israel become?

In the International New York Times of December 20, Roger Cohen focuses on the future of Israel. He says ‘Every day … another European Government or parliament expresses support for recognition of a Palestinian state … In the space of a few weeks something has shifted. The Leader of the Labor Party, Isaac Herzog has been ushered from unelectable nerd to plausible patriot. Polls show him neck and neck with the incumbent [Benjamin Netanyahu]. For link to this article see below. John Menadue

November 19, 2015

John Menadue. Why Cayman Islands?

I must confess I was surprised to learn that Malcolm Turnbull uses a hedge fund domiciled in the Cayman Islands. The story has come and gone without much examination.

Conflicts of interest

In the SMH of 24/25 October 2015, the veteran journalist Alan Ramsey highlighted what Malcolm Turnbull told the parliament about his hedge fund in the Cayman Islands. Malcolm Turnbull had said

In order to avoid conflicts of interest [in Australia] almost all of my and my wifes investments and theyre all disclosed are in overseas managed funds, which means that I and Lucy have no say in which individual companies those funds invest it.

November 12, 2015

Malcolm Turnbull's NBN is off the rails.

Paul Budde comments in his BuddeBlog on 6 November 2015

‘If you abandon national FttH (fibre to the home)you also undermine the infrastructure required by the new economy. … The MTM [multi technology mix] leads to the Balkanisation of infrastructure in Australia and will favour companies such as Telstra and TPG. … The NBN Co will remain bleak from a financial position. … All of this becomes an even sadder story day by day, as at the same time it becomes clear that the trumped up costs of an FttH-based NBN were wrong. … The second rate roll out is going to cost roughly the same as the original FttH rollout.’

January 18, 2015

John Menadue. Why are the Nordics so successful? Part 2.

You might be interested in part 2 of these articles on the Nordics.

In my earlier postcard from Denmark, I described the Nordic success.

I didnt mention that they are rated the happiest people in the world, have the lowest rates of corruption and are on track to achieve their target of 50% renewable energy by 2020. Copenhagen is a very liveable city.

But why have Denmark and other Nordics, Finland, Sweden and Norway been so successful?

October 1, 2015

Why the Rich are so much Richer in the US

Nobel Prizewinner Joseph E. Stiglitz has been at the forefront of the debate in the US and elsewhere about growing inequality. In a recent review in the New York Review of Books, James Surowiecki comments on three recent books by Stiglitz. He says:

“The numbers are, at this point, woefully familiar: the top 1% of earners take home more than 20% of the income and their share has more than doubled in the last 35 years. The gains for people in the top 0.1%, meanwhile, have been even greater. Yet over that same period, average wages and household incomes in the US have risen only slightly, and a number of demographic groups (like men with only a high school education) have actually seen their average wages decline.”

November 26, 2015

Victoria Rollison. Couples counselling for Labor and Unions

When I saw the news that the Electrical Trades Union invited the Greens Adam Bandt to address their National Officers conference, and didnt invite a speaker from the Labor Party, the lyrics of Gloria Gaynors “I Will Survive” came to mind: I’m not that chained up little person still in love with you, and so you felt like dropping in and just expect me to be free, and now I’m saving all my loving for someone who’s loving me. This is not a lovers spat. The ETU has felt unloved by the Labor Party for a long time. In 2010, the unions members made their displeasure official through a public, conscious uncoupling. As explained on the ETU website our-history page: The mood of the ETU membership towards the Labor Party has changed. The members no longer have faith in the Labor Party to listen to and act in the best interests of workers. The argument put forward is that political parties only listen to swinging voters. To that end, in 2010 the ETU membership voted to step away from its affiliation with the ALP and support whichever voice in the Parliament speaks genuinely for the workers.

December 6, 2024

A five-minute scroll

Trump announces the head of NASA and the USA’s future among the stars. Barbara Pocock speaks out on nuclear waste in our own backyard. An Israeli professor speaks out on the genocide, while Israel has continued attacks in Gaza overnight. On the anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s death we are reminded of his views of the US.

October 1, 2014

John Menadue. Stuck in a closed information loop

Conservatives who read and listen to News Corp media have a problem. They are encouraged to believe that the world is really like News Corp says it is. The inevitable result is a loss of reality.

Paul Krugman in the New York Times on September 23 wrote of the problems of right-wing Republicans who keep complaining about the lazy jobless. He said

In a nation where the Republican base gets what it thinks are facts from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, where the partys elite gets what it imagines to be policy analysis from the American Enterprise Institute or the Heritage Foundation, the Right lives in its own intellectual universe, aware neither the reality of unemployment nor what life is like for the jobless. You might think that personal experience almost everyone has acquaintances or relatives who cant find work would still break through, but apparently not.

April 13, 2017

RICHARD BUTLER. US Missile Attack on Syria

The US missile strike on Syria was an act of aggression the consequences of which could be immense. The facts of what happened at Khan Sheikhun must be established.

June 30, 2015

Europe's attack on Greek democracy.

See below link to article by Joseph Stiglitz in Project Syndicate. Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel Laureate in Economics and University Professor at Columbia University. He was also Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank. John Menadue.

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/greece-referendum-troika-eurozone-by-joseph-e–stiglitz-2015-06

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal