May 7, 2014

A last hurrah from Graham Freudenberg on his 80th birthday

May Day 2014 fittingly the day of Neville Wrans memorial service at Sydney Town Hall may well turn out to be the day when the Labor Party began to see its way ahead. Not because of the event itself, although it certainly was a marvellous celebration of a great Labor era. But it was the day of the Shepherd Audit Report. It also happened to be the day when News Ltd bared its fangs and reminded the Abbott Government just who was calling the tune. I invite students of history to file away the Sydney Daily Telegraph on 1 May 2014 and its coverage of the Shepherd Audit next day. All its hatred of Labor was as feral as ever, but in page after page, the message to Abbott and Co was clear:

January 20, 2016

Evan Williams. Film Review: Carol.

Im not alone in rating her the best actress in the world. Or as some would prefer to say, the best female actor in the world. Or more precisely, the best female English-speaking screen actor working in mainstream cinema. And yes, Im talking about our Cate up there with Garbo, Hepburn, Streep, destined for legendhood (if I may use that word) and currently starring in Carol, an absorbing romantic drama directed by Todd Haynes.

April 5, 2017

ALLAN PATIENCE. Where do we go from here?

Why do we experience such difficulty even imagining a different sort of society? Why is it beyond us to conceive of a different set of arrangements to our common advantage? Are we doomed indefinitely to lurch between a dysfunctional free market and the much advertised horrors of socialism? Tony Judt, Ill Fares the Land

January 27, 2015

John Menadue. Health Policy Reform: Part 1 Why reform is needed.

I will be posting three articles on health policy.

This article outlines the priority areas where reform is necessary.

Part 2 will explain why reform is so difficult but not impossible. The key issue is power and how it is exercised

Part 3 will be about processes and governance issues that are necessary to move us beyond the present inertia, incrementalism and tinkering, with suggestions for policy directions. I will not be proposing specific policies.

August 16, 2017

STEPHEN DUCKETT. Why it costs you so much to see a specialist and what the government should do about it

Australians pay too much when they go to medical specialists. The government can and should do more to drive prices down. A current Senate Inquiry on out-of-pocket costs will hopefully lead to some policy action.

October 12, 2018

JOHN HANNON. Complexities of Catholic marriage.

As Brendan Byrne SJ, scripture scholar, comments on todays Gospel( 7 October 2018): Any pastor would be aware that no Sunday Gospel read throughout the year will require more careful handling than this one To simply read out the rulings of Jesus in the Gospel without comment or nuance would be to turn Gospel into Law, and simply add to a burden of guilt that may already be oppressive So, here goes, for my take!

June 3, 2016

JOHN DWYER. Restructuring the governance of health care in Australia. Part 2

Part Two. Structural reforms for better health outcomes from a redesigned more cost-effective health care system.

There is broad agreement that in the near future our General Practitioners and their teams will earn the majority of their income from capitation payments that will require, for the first time in our Primary Care system, the documentation of health outcomes. Many doctors are concerned about this direction and argue that they may have neither the time nor the necessary kills to fulfil such requirements. International experience informs us that these doubts can be reversed with the creation of Primary Health Care Organisations to assist with these and many other issues.

April 25, 2017

The Australian War Memorial and weapons manufacturers

The peace of the world for future generations is anathema to the interests of those who profit from warfare. As we commemorate again the war to end all wars, and every war since, one can only wonder what the diggers would have thought, as we allow the industry that profits from the cruelty of wars to bask in the reflected glory of those who suffer it.

March 14, 2016

Peter Gibilisco. Disability support services - effectiveness and efficiency.

Let me be frank. There are many stringencies that have to be faced in the provision of disability support services. We all know this whether we are recipients of in-home one-on-one support, residents, workers or management of disability support services, or even as officials of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). We all are under the pump in an economic climate where there is widespread political anxiety about budget blow-outs and a possible collapse of our financial and economic system. We all know this. So when I make my professional contribution, as a resident of such a health-care facility, my recommendations and pleas are complex.

July 9, 2016

KEN HILLMAN. Ageing and end of life issues.

It is well known that our population is living longer. But has our health system adapted to this ageing population? Do the elderly fit into the construct of a single diagnosis? Can we identify those who are coming to the end of their life? Do we ask them if they would prefer to spend the last few months of life in hospitals? What is the impact of the increasing number of medications that they are taking? What is the impact of modern medicine on age related deterioration?

February 17, 2017

SUSAN RYAN, OLIVER FRANKEL, JOHN MENADUE. Upcoming series on Making Housing Affordable.

After Easter, Pearls and Irritations plans to publish a series ‘Making Housing Affordable’ addressing key aspects of the housing crisis and recommending solutions, with contributions from a range of experts and other key stakeholders, including economists, planners, demographers, housing providers and policy makers.

January 10, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Turnbull on Indonesia and Israel.

The theory remains that Indonesians are all right to visit, but we still dont regard them as full allies or equals.

August 22, 2016

EMMA CAMPBELL. Is South Korea still interested in unification?

It is not easy being a young person in globalised South Korea. The intense competition that defines South Koreas education system and the irregular employment market that awaits graduates has led to rising inequality, falling birth rates, insecure employment and high numbers of youth suicide.Beyond South Koreas domestic wellbeing, globalisation and its accompanying economic insecurity also have implications for foreign affairs, particularly attitudes towards North Korea.

January 21, 2019

BREXIT AND PHILLIP

June 16, 2017

SPENCER ZIFCAK. The Black Hearts Behind Australias Offshore Detention Policy

So, the Australian Government has settled a class action brought by asylum seekers detained on Manus Island for $70,000,000. Apparently, the settlement was reached because the Government was fearful of the evidence and stories of official abuse that would have emerged over some six months should the action have been litigated in court. Lawyers in the case estimated that more than 70 witnesses would have been called and 200,000 documents examined. Afraid of the findings, the Government caved in at the door of the Court.

January 17, 2015

John Menadue. Postcard from Denmark on the Nordic Success

For holiday reading, you may be interested in this repost.

I have been interested for many years in the economic and social success of the Nordic countries, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway. Together they have a population of about 26 million.

But what triggered my recent interest and decision to visit Denmark was the sheer pleasure of watching several Danish TV series Borgen, The Killing, The Bridge. They are the best TV series that I have seen in years and far superior to the tosh that we often get from the US and sometimes from the UK. The Danish film industry receives government finance, but more importantly the Danes have invested heavily in human capital and the talent shows in these TV series. Portrayal of a countrys cultural life is important for the country to understand itself better. But in the case of Danish films, I have found them attractive enough to come and visit Copenhagen and spend some tourist dollars. Although I should say that Copenhagen is expensive.

September 30, 2024

A five-minute scroll

We start the week with British journalist James Oliver giving his views on Rupert Murdoch, Jim Chalmers brings a back-to-back surplus and a picture of media reporting in the Middle East. Jordan’s Foreign minister speaks about a peace plan supported by 57 Arab and Muslim countries, Australia takes to the streets in our capital cities, while in Iran protests have broken out against the President. Dilma Rousseff, receives China’s highest honour for non-citizens.

March 9, 2016

Richard Woolcott. The burning question - should Australia do more on the South China Sea?

My clear response is ‘No!’

China, as a major trading nation, now has the same rights as the US to protect its maritime and air approaches to its mainland. Australia should avoid provocative statements and actions at sea or in the air.

When we talk about the need to support ‘a rules-based global order’, we overlook the fact that this order was framed mainly by the US after World War II.

April 11, 2017

PETER BROOKS. Physicians outed on fees Time for Patients to take more control.

If all [of the above] fail to work perhaps a review of what Pierre Trudeau and his government did in 1984 when they took on a system not dissimilar to ours uncontrolled fee for service- and legislated that doctors could charge what they liked BUT unless they adhered to the fee negotiated between the Provincial Government and the profession (on an annual basis) the doctor lost all access to a Medicare reimbursement. This system still works today in Canada and few doctors opt out of it. Now there is a thought- and a significant game changer.

December 20, 2016

Shakespeare on refugees, strangers and inhumanity.

In a series of speeches written by Shakespeare, Thomas More makes the argument for the humane treatment of those forced to seek asylum after being expelled from their homeland. This is a repost from August 23, 2016.

September 7, 2016

SPENCER ZIFCAK. Freedom of Speech and the Racial Discrimination Act

Within days of the July election result having finally been announced, forces within the Conservative faction of the Liberal-National party moved to re-open the debate on reform to S.18C of the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA). Section 18C makes it a civil offence to insult, offend, humiliate or intimidate a person on the grounds of their race.

The Prime Minister has made it clear that he is not interested in pursuing the matter. Sensibly, he does not want to re-open the damaging schism that occurred when hostilities on the issue broke out following the Federal Courts 2011 judgment against the conservative columnist, Andrew Bolt.

Pursuant to S.18C, Bolt was found to have humiliated the indigenous applicants in the case by implying recklessly and incorrectly that because they had fair skin they were not really aboriginal. And that having fair skin they had chosen falsely to identify as aboriginal in order unmeritoriously to obtain financial and professional advantage.

August 29, 2016

TONY KEVIN. A successful reawakening of serious Russian studies in Australia ?

Doctor Dorothy Horsfield of Australian National University is to be congratulated for her vision and hard work in mounting the first serious academic Russian studies conference in Australia for many years, Putins Russia in the Wake of the Cold War**,** on 24-26 August, under the auspices of the Australian National Universitys Humanities Research Centre in Canberra.

February 14, 2017

IAN VERRENDER. Coal-fired generators have no future in Australia.

From an economic perspective, it would be far more efficient to eliminate subsidies altogether and to put a price on carbon that reflected its true cost. Private investors then would be able to choose which technology was most efficient.

September 20, 2016

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Happy birthday Malcolm Turnbull.

A bit over a year ago, Malcolm Turnbull decided that it was all about winning.

Not winning for the nation, or winning for the party, and certainly not winning for his long-held policies, but winning for himself making himself number one.

So he set about buying votes; it was, after all, almost second nature. That was the way he obtained his preselection and bludgeoned his way past the sitting member for Wentworth in the first place.

April 22, 2013

The Wars we would rather forget. John Menadue

Aboriginal Wars

The Australian War Memorial records as follows:

When it became apparent that the settlers and their livestock had come to stay, competition for access to the land developed and friction between the two ways of life became inevitable. As the settlers behaviour became unacceptable to the indigenous population, individuals were killed over specific grievances. These killings were then met with reprisals from the settlers, often on a scale out of all proportion to the original incident. It is estimated that some 2,500 European settlers and police died in this conflict. For the aboriginal inhabitants the cost was far higher: about 20,000 are believed to have been killed in the wars of the frontier, while many thousands more perished from disease and often unintended consequences of settlement. Aboriginal Australians were unable to restrain though in places they did delay the tide of European settlement; although resistance in one form or another never ceased, the conflict ended in their dispossession. (www.awm.gov.au/atwar/colonial.asp)

September 14, 2015

Josef Szwarc. Resettling an additional 12,000 refugees.

The Government has announced that Australia will resettle an additional 12,000 refugees who are fleeing the conflict in Syria and Iraq.

http://www.pm.gov.au/media/2015-09-09/syrian-and-iraqi-humanitarian-crisis

This note publishes the statement with some comments about various aspects.

“Our focus will be on those most in need the women, children and families of persecuted minorities who have sought refuge from the conflict in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.”

Comment: There were reports of political and other commentators suggesting that people of Muslim faith should not be selected. At a press conference about the decision to take in the additional refugees, the Prime Minister stated that there would not be discrimination against Muslims and said: if you look at the persecuted minorities of the region there are Muslim minorities, Druze, Turkmen, Kurds, there are non-Muslim minorities, ChristiansJews, Yazidis, Armenians, so there are persecuted minorities that are Muslim, there are persecuted minorities that are non-Muslim. The explicit rejection of faith-based discrimination is welcome: to act otherwise would be unconscionable.

July 1, 2016

PAUL BARRATT. Attorney-Generals move to control access to Solicitor-General

On 4 May 2016, the last sitting day before Parliament rose for the forthcoming election, Attorney-General Senator Brandis tabled new guidelines in the Senatewhich ruled that noone in government, including the Prime Minister, could seek the Solicitor-General’s advice without getting permission from SenatorBrandis.

April 18, 2016

Bill Carmichael. Overblown rhetoric about Free Trade Agreements.

The goal of trade policy is not limited to increasing export opportunities. Nor is it just about improving trade balances. Rather trade policy is about taking opportunities to improve the economys productive base. When assessing a nations experience with bilateral trade agreements, this is the test that should be applied.

In each bilateral agreement Australia has completed to date, projections of the potential gains for Australia, based on unimpeded access to all markets of the other country involved, were released prior to negotiations. These studies did not, and could not, project what was actually achieved in the ensuing negotiations. The quite modest outcomes for Australia from those negotiations meant the projected gains conveyed nothing about what was eventually achieved. Yet the projections were still quoted to support the agreements after they were signed, as though they reflected actual outcomes.

June 27, 2016

GREIG CRAFT. Drinking and Driving: a global problem.

Global Problem

Alcohol, drugs and driving simply do not go together. Driving requires a persons attentiveness and the ability to make quick decisions on the road, to react to changes in the environment and execute specific, often difficult maneuvers behind the wheel.When drinking alcohol, using drugs, or being distracted for any reason, driving becomes dangerous and potentially lethal [1]

January 23, 2014

Kieran Tapsell: The Inquisition of the Catholic Church at the United Nations.

The Vaticans former Chief Prosecutor, Bishop Charles Scicluna, found himself before the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child in Geneva on 16 January 2014. He joked that in the past his predecessors may have been on the other side of the table as the Grand Inquisitor.

The Church signed up to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, but had failed to provide reports under the Convention until 2012, arguing that its only responsibility for child abuse was within the 44 hectares of the Vatican City. It was a Jesuitical response that it continued to press as recently as 5 December 2013: see https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/blog/?p=1089 However, it seems that over Christmas, the Vatican had a change of heart, and was prepared to front the UN Committee to answer questions about its role in child abuse matters as a result of the Churchs canon law.

March 10, 2016

Kieran Tapsell. Cardinal Pell and the Churchs Omerta

Cardinal George Pell must now be regretting not having come back to Australia to give his evidence to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in the relatively small town of Ballarat in the State of Victoria. By claiming that his medical condition did not allow him to travel, and offering to give video evidence in Rome, he has turned his performance in the witness box into a media feast that otherwise might have gone unnoticed in the international press.

August 16, 2017

RICHARD ECKERSLEY. What most concerns us about our personal lives and the societies we live in?

Our quality of life is about much more than our standard of living.

April 18, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull on superannuation and housing.

But that means nothing to the ideological right, which is now shamelessly defying Turnbull on every level. Naturally Tony Abbott is front and centre of the rebellion, with most of the usual suspects on the backbench.

February 10, 2025

A five-minute scroll

A Palestinian man describes the horror of his Israeli captivity while the BBC questions the president of Israel about the torture and abuse in their prisons. Jeffrey Sachs explains why the US went to war with Iraq in 2003. ABC Insiders uncovers Trump’s plan for Gaza while the King of Jordan says they will never accept the forced displacement of Palestinians.

September 19, 2016

The creeping Americanisation of Australian healthcare.

In this blog, I have repeatedly posted articles about the threat to Medicare in the $11 billion pa. subsidy which the Australian government provides to support private health insurance companies in Australia. We are sleep walking into the destruction of Medicare unless we reverse this trend. The US health system dependent upon private health insurance is the most expensive and inequitable in the world.

November 24, 2016

ANDREW MARKUS. Australians more alarmed about state of politics than impact of migration and minorities.

There is no shortage of expert commentary on current shifts in public opinion, understood as a revolt against political elites.

Within Europe and the United States interpretations are supported by the British vote to leave the European Union, the increasing popularity of far-right parties campaigning on anti-immigration and nationalist platforms, and the success of Donald Trump in winning the US presidency.

In Australia, commentators point to instability in politics, elections that fail to return clear majorities, the loss of office of first-term governments in Queensland and Victoria, growing minor party representation in the Senate, and public unease at immigration policy and the Muslim presence.

December 8, 2015

Robyn Eckersley. Australia's climate diplomacy is like a doughnut: empty in the middle.

There is a profound disconnect between Australias international climate diplomacy and its national climate and energy policies.

The diplomacy could be cast in positive terms, on the surface at least.

During the first week of the climate negotiations in Paris, Australia displayed a preparedness to be flexible and serve as a broker of compromises in the negotiations over the draft Paris Agreement.

Australia has also agreed to support the inclusion of a temperature goal to limit global warming to 1.5, which is a matter very dear to the hearts of Pacific Island nations for whom climate change is a fundamental existential threat.

September 7, 2015

Josef Szwarc. Measuring our response to the refugee crisis of Syria and Iraq

PM RESCUE MISSION shouts the headline of the morning newspaper. My heart races with expectation that is immediately deflated by the first sentence: Australian will open its doors to more Syrian refugees fleeing the troubled nation but wont increase the overall humanitarian intake.

The prospect of an increase was hinted at by a press release from the PM, Foreign Minister and Immigration Minister yesterday as the latter prepared to travel to Geneva for urgent discussions with the UNHCR and other partners to inform the governments consideration ofwhat further significant contribution we can make through our Humanitarian Programme to resettle those affected by the conflict in Syria and Iraq. It went on: as a result of the Governments success in stopping illegal boat arrivals to Australia, we are now in a position to take more refugees from offshore refugee camps.

May 5, 2016

Jon Stanford. French submarines and the East and South China Seas. why?

A response to Richard Broinowski.

While the government might emphasise the roles for the new submarine that may be regarded as defensive intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance Richard Broinowski ignores perhaps the most important role, namely power projection in the East and South China Seas.

This role was perhaps most graphically illustrated the Rudd governments 2009 White Paper, which first made the case for 12 powerful new submarines. Rather extraordinarily, that White Paper mooted the possibility of unilateral action by Australia against a major adversary:

June 21, 2016

JOHN AUSTEN. Infrastructure summit reported highlights

Is there such a thing as bad or wasteful infrastructure or is it like motherhood, all noble and good?

August 4, 2014

Mike Steketee. Mandatory detention punishes but it does not deter.

It has not been easy for organised world opinion in the United Nations or elsewhere to act directly in respect of some of the dreadful events which have driven so many people from their own homes and their own fatherland but at least we can in the most practical fashion show our sympathy for those less fortunate than ourselves who have been the innocent victims of conflicts and upheavals of which in our own land we have been happy enough to know nothing Robert Menzies, Prime Minister, broadcast for the opening of World Refugee Year, September, 1959.

June 9, 2017

JOHN MENADUE. We need to better understand terrorism - how we got here and how best to respond.

The terrorist attacks in Manchester and London have received a deluge of media coverage. However, terrorism is much worse in the Middle East and other countries. Terrorism is a vivid political act, but deaths from gun violence, car accidents drugs, domestic violence and climate change are far more significant. We need to admit how we got into this mess.

March 17, 2017

KIERAN TAPSELL. A Response to Francis Sullivan

I agree with what Francis Sullivan has said in the edited version of his speech to Catalyst for Renewal. But there is a recitation of history in the full version that cannot go unchallenged.

July 13, 2015

Bob Debus. A breach of faith on renewable energy.

Well, this is just getting stupid. We are entitled, after events last week, to ask if the Federal Government has the capacity any longer to act in good faith when the interest of the coal industry is at stake.

Tony Windsor and Barnaby Joyce, whatever their manifest differences, reflected the opinion of local people, the normal application of the precautionary principle and everyday common sense when they protested last weeks approval of the giant Watermark coal mine immediately adjacent to the aquifers and rich farmland of the Liverpool Plains in northwest New South Wales. In any event, no conditions of approval can prevent the destruction on site of 800 hectares of highly endangered box-gum woodlands, their associated rare bird and animal life.

June 19, 2020

Pressing the pause button on Sinophobia

China is an authoritarian state, and an increasingly assertive one. But there are ways of expressing our concern that are not counterproductive to our national interests.

April 26, 2016

John Tulloh. The odd couple - the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and their uneasy relationship.

As enduring international couples go, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia must rank among the oddest. They have been kind of firm friends since 1933 when oil was discovered in the kingdom. Yet their societies are so different as President Obama might have seen for himself when his limousine drove through the streets of Riyadh last week. For starters, he would not have found a woman driver anywhere or one buckled up lest the bodily contours the seatbelt creates excite the male driver. America is a wide open democracy with rights for one and all whereas Saudi Arabia is like a feudal fiefdom where rights are limited - especially if you are a woman or non-Moslem - and it is an offence to question or challenge the kings word. America has no restriction on religious establishments, but in Saudi Arabia only mosques are permitted. Apostasy is punishable by death.

August 16, 2017

JEAN-PIERRE LEHMANN. Aug 15: A day to mark Western imperialism

The date marks the 70th anniversary of the independence and partition of India, an event that has its roots in Western colonial conquest of the Indian sub-continent. It should also be remembered by the imperialists who plundered the planet.

April 17, 2015

Frank Brennan SJ. Still seeking a way of stopping the boats decently

This is part of the Gasson Lecture which I delivered at Boston College today:

I return to Australia accepting that my political leaders will always maintain a commitment to stopping the boats, no matter what political party they represent; but I return insisting that there is a need for international co-operation to determine how decently to stop the boats while providing an increased commitment to the orderly transfer of an increased number of refugees across our border so that they might live safe and fulfilling lives contributing to the life of the nation.

September 5, 2016

WALTER HAMILTON. Whats in it for Putin?

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pursuing a fresh approach with Russias Vladimir Putin for resolving the territorial dispute that has prevented the two countries signing a peace treaty since World War Two. It is easy to see what Abe might hope to gain from a settlement, but no breakthrough can be expected unless it fits in with Putins own calculations.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal