November 3, 2017

FRANK BRENNAN. Questions Ardern can ask Turnbull about Manus.

When Prime Minister Turnbull meets with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Sunday, he will receive a renewed offer of help from New Zealand in relation to Manus Island. For the last four years, New Zealand has offered to take 150 refugees from Manus Island. Messrs Turnbull and Dutton have seen fit, unilaterally and contrary to the signed agreement with PNG, to step in (on behalf of PNG presumably) and refuse New Zealand’s offer of help. At the same time, they continue to say that these refugees are the responsibility of PNG. It’s hard to see how they continue to have it both ways.

December 24, 2014

Michael Kelly SJ. Pope Francis and the Curia.

The tongues are certainly waging worldwide over the Christmas message of Pope Francis to staff at the Vatican – the priests, monsignors, bishops and cardinals gathered for an end of year assessment by the pope of the year that has passed.

A few perfunctory words to round out a very busy year or a general expression for thanks for various contributions? Not at all! A full on, Gospel based account of the traps of bureaucracy, the hypocrisy that can beset professional Catholic administrators and an implied warning that more is to come when the anticipated plans to restructure the Vatican Curia are announced in the next couple of months.

July 30, 2014

Wiryono Sastrohandoyo. The new Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

Joko Widodo is an upright, decent and honourable person.

It is the general feeling in Indonesia that his election is a victory for the Indonesian people and the generally peaceful election process. This is a sign of the growing maturity of Indonesia’s young democracy. Jokowi was great during his two terms as mayor of Solo, a small city of half a million people in central Java. He has been less impressive during his two years as Governor of Jakarta with a diverse population of more than ten million people. Now he has to deal with a larger and even more diverse population of 240 million.

August 19, 2014

An abuse of power by the Israeli lobby.

In 1967 the Israeli military attacked the USS Liberty, an American spy-ship which had been monitoring Israeli transmissions about the conflict during the Six-day War. Intercepted Israeli communications indicated that the goal was to sink the Liberty and leave no survivors.

As the story reveals, - see link below - both the US President Lyndon Johnson and the Secretary of Defence, Robert Macnamara, did their best to ensure that this action by the Israeli military - an attack on the US navy - never became public.

January 29, 2017

JOHN AUSTEN. The Premier and privatisation; selling silverware for transport tupperware?

Commentators on Premier Baird’s years focussed on short term matters such as money from privatisations or inconvenience caused by infrastructure building. The most important question, the merit of infrastructure built with sale proceeds, may take years to answer. NSW will be lucky if it ends up with transport infrastructure of lasting value from the sale of the state’s silverware.

April 24, 2015

Walter Hamilton. In the Name of the Emperor

Emperor Hirohito never made it to Okinawa. He passed away before he could fulfill that stated desire. (He was scheduled to go in 1987, until illness intervened.) Okinawa was the scene of some of the most savage fighting of the Pacific War: 100-200,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians died there in April-June 1945, as well as 14,000 Americans.

The Okinawan or Ryukyu Islands were annexed by Japan in 1872 during the reign of Hirohito’s grandfather, the Emperor Meiji. Ever since, the islands’ ethnically distinct people have remained stuck at the bottom of Japan’s socio-economic ladder; Okinawans endured disproportionately heavy sacrifices during the war, and continue to do so.

November 13, 2014

Frank Brennan SJ. The G20 Agenda and Pope Francis

The leaders of the world’s 19 largest economies (together with the EU) are meeting in Brisbane this weekend at the annual G20 meeting. Australia is the host and Prime Minister Tony Abbott is the president this year. The host country gets to put its stamp on the agenda. Last year at St Petersburg, the G20 acknowledged the “need to work to ensure that growth is strong, sustainable, inclusive and balanced”. At these meetings, a lot of word-smithing goes on even before the world leaders disembark their planes and change into the compulsory conference shirts. In the lead up to this meeting, Australia has been wary about the word “inclusive”, preferring a commitment to achieving “strong, sustainable and balanced growth”. When the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors met in Cairns as guests of Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey in February, they set a goal of economic growth “at least 2 percent above the currently projected level in the next five years”. Since then the IMF has twice downgraded its global growth forecasts in light of the weaker than expected global activity, volatility in the financial markets, and geopolitical tensions. Back then no one was talking about Ebola or the need to go to war against the Islamic State.

November 3, 2017

TESSA MORRIS-SUZUKI. Manus Island - Mr. Turnbull, Just Say 'Yes'

The nightmare scenario that everyone has predicted for months is now unfolding. Desperate and frightened refugees are digging in the ground for tainted water. Hundreds of men who are dependent on psychotropic medication because of neglect and mistreatment now have less than a month’s supply of medication left. But there is a small window of hope. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern has offered to take 150 of the refugees, possibly opening the way to other resettlement arrangements. Malcolm Turnbull meets Ardern on 5 November, and has the choice of accepting this offer, or slamming the door in the faces of the refugees. Mr. Turnbull, just say yes.

August 6, 2014

Tessa Morris-Suzuki Rare Earth, politics and human rights.

On 5 July 2014, the ABC’s PM program ran a report which revealed that “a leading Asian human rights activist has urged the Federal Government to investigate a Queensland-based resources company and a prominent Australian geologist over mining deals with North Korea that he believes may breach United Nations sanctions”. (http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2014/s4061381.htm)

The report looked at a project by the firm SRE Minerals to develop rare earth mines in North Korea. The prominent geologist in question is Brisbane based scientist Louis Schurmann. This scheme has come under attack from Japanese activist Ken Kato, head of an organisation known in English as “Human Rights in Asia”, and in Japanese as the “Asian Investigation Organization” (Ajia Chosa Kiko). Kato, as PM reported, has lodged a complaint with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, stating that Schurmann’s activities may be in breach of UN sanctions because “rare earths are an indispensable material for guided missiles”.

July 4, 2015

John Menadue. The Greek crisis and regime change.

Current Affairs

A lot of the blame for the present crisis should be borne by many countries and institutions, but the one group that is least responsible is the present left-wing government of Greece, Syriza.

The major blame must rest first with the previous Greek governments that mired the Greek people in corruption and cronyism. The second group that must bear immediate responsibility is the incompetence of the Troika – the EU, the European Central Bank and the IMF, led very much by the German Government. The austerity campaign inflicted on Greece has resulted in the GDP shrinking by 25%, accompanied by unemployment of 25%, and youth unemployment of 50%. Such a situation is unacceptable and is likely to result in extreme outcomes. Something just has to give in Greece.

June 17, 2015

John Menadue. Early tax avoidance: the window tax

Holidaying in Bath, I came across an early example of tax avoidance. A window tax was introduced in the UK in 1696. It was believed to be a progressive tax on the assumption that the wealthy property owners had larger houses and more windows. But the tax avoiders found a way around the problem…fill in the window spaces with masonry and avoid the tax even if it looked very ugly. Wealthy property owners don’t often have good taste or care about neighbours. The tax was abolished in 1851. Tax avoidance is now largely conducted in secret and the scale of it by such companies as News Corp, Westfield Glencore, Google, Apple and the Big Pharma multinationals puts the tax avoiders in Bath in the shade.

May 13, 2016

Bruce Wearne. Political questions that can't be answered by our publicly funded public relations firms.

Last week, four days before the election was called, I received a “pre-election” letter from my “Parliamentary representative”. It began with the following disclaimer:

Dear Fellow Corangamite Resident: Soon there will be another election and I write to apologise for the fact that your letter boxes will be swamped with election material. However, it will be an opportunity for you to choose your representative - and yes, I will be standing and asking for your vote.

March 14, 2013

Francis I. An unpredicted but not unpredictable result. Guest blogger Michael Kelly SJ

While everyone agrees that the election of Jorge Bergoglio as Pope Francis is unprecedented in many ways, it is not entirely a surprise. He was runner up to Joseph Ratzinger in the 2005 Conclave that saw him elected as Pope Benedict XVI.

Bergoglio is the first Jesuit, first Latin American and first Pope from the South. He is of Italian migrant parents but not a “Romano” or a Curial Cardinal having had no time in his working life at the Vatican.

July 18, 2016

JOHN AUSTEN. Road pricing rather than more road funding must be the priority.

Road pricing is a hot topic for policy advisers although less popular with the public and elected representatives. This article attempts a (overly) simple explanation of what, why and whereto of road pricing.

April 9, 2014

Kieran Tapsell. Two empires.

Antonio Caballero, Semana, Colombia, 30 March 2014 http://www.semana.com/opinion/articulo/antonio-caballero-dos-imperios/381891-3

Barack Obama is normally very careful in his rhetoric, but some days ago, he said something a little unfortunate. When criticizing Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, he said to the press: “We (the United States) have considerable influence on our neighbours. But generally, we do not need to invade them to enforce their cooperation.”

Generally? In its brief history of a little more than two centuries, the United States has invaded its neighbours on the American continent twenty nine times, beginning with its defeat in attempting to annexe Canada in 1812 (although even before that it had been casting its eye on Mexico and Haiti after its slave revolution). It was distracted for a period while it exterminated its internal enemy, the Indian tribes. Then it was full bore ahead.

January 13, 2015

Charlie Hebdo and Algeria.

Robert Fisk of The Independent traces the Charlie Hebdo massacre back to the French occupation and disaster in Algeria. See link to this article below.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/charlie-hebdo-paris-attack-brothers-campaign-of-terror-can-be-traced-back-to-algeria-in-1954-9969184.html

November 13, 2014

Global Pulse Magazine

You can now subscribe to Global Pulse Magazine.

Global Pulse Magazine which you can view at www.globalpulsemagazine.com was launched on September 29 and for the last month has been free to visit.

We invite you to subscribe at and receive daily newsletter. Just go to the homepage of www.globalpulsemagazine.com and at the top right hand corner you can click the SUBSCRIBE button and follow the prompts.

Global Pulse Magazine combines the resources of five leading Catholic publishers – Commonweal in New York, La Croix in Paris, UCAN based in Bangkok, Eureka Street in Australia and eRenlai from China though edited in Taiwan.

October 15, 2014

Frank Brennan SJ. The Vatican Synod has let the genie out of the bottle. Deo Gratias

Let there be no doubt. There is change, and a great deal of uncertainty, in the air in Rome. And it is not just coming from Pope Francis. The Catholic Church retaining some of the attributes of a royal court in its mode of governance provides its senior prelates with every opportunity to emulate the tone and substance of the remarks and the ambiguity of approach of the one they call “the Holy Father”. The Pope has the opportunity even when convening a synod of 190 bishops to handpick those who steer the synod process, write the minutes and manage the media statements to the world. On Monday, Cardinal Peter Erdo, the chief reporter (general rapporteur) of the Synod on the Family released the ‘relatio post disceptionem’ after the first week of the Synod. This is not a final text. It is simply a working document “intended to raise questions and indicate perspectives that will have to be matured and made clearer by the reflection of the local Churches” in the year ahead.

March 17, 2015

John Menadue. Private health insurance and funding a Medicare Dental Scheme.

In this blog I have written extensively about the damage that private health insurance (PHI) is doing in Australia. We are sleep-walking into a US style health disaster.

If people want private health insurance, that is their right, but I see no reason why the taxpayer should subsidise a socially divisive and nationally damaging subsidy.

The damage of PHI is increasing year on year. In my most recent blog on the subject at the time of the last annual increase in PHI premiums, I pointed out that since 1999 when John Howard introduced the subsidy on PHI, overall prices have risen by only 50% but PHI premiums have risen by over 150%.

January 29, 2017

TIM LINDSEY. Indonesia's inconvenient truths.

Concerns regarding Australian military teaching materials and remarks uncovered late last year have placed strain on relations with Indonesia. The strange affair of our on-again-off-again defence cooperation arrangements with Indonesia continues to confuse most observers.

November 23, 2016

CHRISTIAN DOWNIE. Why China and Europe should form the world's most powerful 'climate bloc'.

Filling the void created by Donald Trump!

It seems almost certain that US President-elect Donald Trump will walk away from the Paris climate agreement next year. In the absence of US leadership, the question is: who will step up?

Sadly this is not a new question, and history offers some important lessons. In 2001 the world faced a similar dilemma. After former vice-president Al Gore lost the 2000 election to George W. Bush, the newly inaugurated president walked away from the Kyoto Protocol, the previous global pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

December 21, 2014

John Menadue. What does it mean?

We have all been moved by the outpouring of grief and emotion by the deaths in Martin Place, the school children killed in Peshawar and eight children murdered in Cairns. The flood of floral tributes has been remarkable. We saw it only a few days earlier with the untimely death of Phillip Hughes. There was an even more remarkable outpouring with the death of Princess Di in 1997.

But what does our response mean? How do we interpret these events?

May 13, 2015

John Menadue. The Budget and Liberal economic management.

Current Affairs: The Budget

Opinion polls and the public generally seem to believe that the Liberal Party is a superior economic manager to the Labor Party. There are also signs that the Liberal Party believes this about itself.

But the somersault in last night’s budget was extraordinary. I don’t think I have ever seen a government repudiate so quickly - what it had been telling us for years - how it was necessary to ensure our future. We had dire problems of debt and deficit that the former government had bequeathed to the Abbott/Hockey government.

August 6, 2014

'The real danger to Israel comes from within' interview with Eva Illouz and De Spiegal.

This interview in De Spiegal is of interest and merit on the Gaza crisis. See link below. John Menadue.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/interview-with-sociologist-eva-illouz-about-gaza-and-israeli-society-a-984536.html

August 23, 2016

RICHARD BUTLER. Nuclear disarmament - Australia’s Profound and Cynical Failure.

In 1995 Prime Minister Keating established the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. He did this because he was appalled at the intensity of the, mainly US/USSR, nuclear arms race. He wanted to find a safe way in which nuclear weapons could be eliminated, to which international agreement might be given. The Commission was composed of 16 eminent persons from relevant fields. Keating appointed me as Convenor of the Commission.

In 1996, Keating having lost the national elections, I presented the completed Commission Report to Prime Minister Howard. His demeanor was as if I was handing him a funnel web, but I had taken with me to the meeting, Commission member Sir Josef Rotblat, 1995 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. I asked Joseph to make the speech. Howard was obliged to be polite to him.

A month or so later, in New York, Australia broke a deadlock on the text of a Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which was then adopted by the General Assembly. It makes illegal the conduct of all nuclear explosions, in all environments, for all time.

A month later it was signed by all Permanent Members of the UN Security Council – the recognized Nuclear Weapon States. I was present at the table when President Clinton signed for the US. Although its terms are being observed by all signatories, CTBT has not yet formally entered into force because it has not been ratified by a few essential states, including the US.

Last week, in Geneva, a negotiation involving all state members of the UN Conference on Disarmament, came to an end. The agreed report, to be sent to the UN General Assembly, proposed that the Assembly institute a multilateral negotiation on a Treaty to ban all nuclear weapons.

It had been understood in Geneva that the report would be adopted by consensus. It had been the subject of much negotiation and compromise. At the last moment, Australia’s representative, objected and insisted that there be a vote. The vote had the following result: 69 in favour, 22 against, (all 7 nuclear weapon states ),13 abstentions. Although there was deep concern, indeed some anger, that Australia had insisted on a vote, the result was considered to be clear enough. So, the proposal of a Ban negotiation will go to the General Assembly. It is considered certain that the Assembly will adopt the proposal and establish a negotiating mechanism to commence work, next year, on a Ban Treaty.

March 14, 2013

Habemus Papam. Guest blogger Chris Geraghty

The signs are hopeful, but the challenges are herculean.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio is a good, simple man. As Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires he used to cook his own meals and catch the bus to work with the other workers. These are good signs. His feet are on the ground, his toes in the dirt and his mind in the street. We can expect him to turn his back on Renaissance dress and Byzantine ceremonial, to take off the red shoes and cast aside the ermine and feathers, and return to the values of the Gospel – to simplicity, a marked preference for the poor and downtrodden, to justice for all, to healing and to a loving freedom from the harshness of the law. Francis I may even prove a force hostile to Wall Street, to the extravagances of greed and extreme capitalism, to corruption inside and outside the Vatican, and a champion of the fair-go for all.

September 28, 2016

BOB KINNAIRD. The Coalition’s Backpacker tax and work rights package

The Coalition’s backpacker policy announcement yesterday focussed on tax rates but also includes a significant expansion of work rights under Australia’s working holiday maker program (WHM or 417 and 462 visas). …. The Coalition’s main aim is to provide an increased supply of cheap and captive foreign labour to the agricultural sector on a long-term basis. But the new policy applies to WHMs in all sectors.

September 29, 2013

One-liners won't work in Jakarta. John Menadue

In his meeting with President Yudohono tomorrow, Tony Abbott will find that his one-liners that have been so successful in Australian politics will not have traction in Jakarta. It will require a lot more subtlety than ‘stop the boats’ and ‘axe the tax’.

Our Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop has already been shown how Indonesian society and politics work. She was outflanked by the Indonesian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marty Natalegawa, who completed a doctorate at the Australian National University in Canberra. He understands Australia and Australian politics very well. At her meeting with Marty Natalegawa in New York, Julie Bishop failed to appreciate that the rhetoric of the coalition about border protection will not work in the complex environment of Indonesia.

August 4, 2015

Warwick Elsche. Bronwyn, the captain’s pick.

The loss of Bronwyn Bishop from the role of Speaker in the Federal Parliament is a blow to the Abbott Government.

Bishop was not the least talented in a Government which – despite the supposed neutrality of the office – she seemed never to cease to be a part.

In her chaotic 22 month reign as Speaker of the House of Representatives she was, in the eyes of long-time parliamentary watchers, the least competent, least impartial and most disruptive person ever to hold that office.

June 25, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. Brexit and a failure of leadership – a sad, sad day.

There are lessons for many, including Australia, in Brexit and in the demise of David Cameron.

That demise resulted from a failure of leadership. He pandered to the extremist Eurosceptic in his party. Instead of dismissing them and telling them politely to jump in the Thames – and showed leadership in what he believed in – the UK in Europe – he offered them a plebiscite that gave a platform to little Englanders on so-called sovereignty and immigration.

April 22, 2016

Rob Nicholls. NBN - election issue or fizzer?

Cable competition

NBN Co has let a contract worth $1.6 billion for Telstra to construct the hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) network in the mainland state capital cities. The deal has the ACCC on edge with Rod Sims expressing concern that Telstra will get a retail edge. As he said in a media release: “It is important that Telstra doesn’t get a head-start selling retail services over the NBN just because its technical expertise is being used in the construction and maintenance of the NBN”.

October 16, 2013

The Mideast Road to Nowhere. Guest blogger: John Tulloh

If ever there were a news story which goes nowhere, it must surely come under the heading of ‘Middle East peace talks’ with specific reference to the Israelis and Palestinians. Google the topic and you will find no less than 84,800,000 references at last count.

Mediators come and go, the protagonists gather at the White House and Camp David, optimistic speeches are made, governments change, the Oslo accords were agreed, detailed ‘road maps’ reached, fresh initiatives made, the UN has been involved and international leaders have descended on Israeli and the Palestinian capitals with high-minded intentions and yet nothing really changes.

November 14, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. Donald Trump – a false prophet and implications for Australia.

Trump prides himself in being a change-agent, but he really wants to restore the past and protect privilege. He will also do a great deal of social damage.

Analysis of the US election tells us that many American ‘working class whites’ were sick of elites, whether they were in business, the media, Wall St, the banks, political parties, government and Washington with all of its special interests. These Americans in the rust belt states around the Great Lakes felt that the elites were not listening to them and that the political left was more concerned about culture wars and gender politics than the dignity of work. They knew that globalization and trade agreements brought great benefits for the 1%, but they were left behind.

April 27, 2014

Walter Hamilton. Anti-climax in Tokyo

Three words for Shinzo Abe––and for history. Three words: ‘…including Senkaku islands’ (was Obama’s omission of the definite article ‘the’, one wonders, part of a subconscious hesitation?). Thus a US president for the first time explicitly committed his country to defend Japan if it should come to blows with China in their territorial dispute.

Barack Obama affirmed that the islands were covered by Article V of the Japan-US Security Treaty which states: ‘Each Party recognizes that an armed attack against either Party in the territories under the administration of Japan would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional provisions and processes.’

June 12, 2014

John Menadue. Joe Hockey and class warfare.

In his speech to the Sydney Institute last night, Joe Hockey said that the criticism of the budget was unfair and reminiscent of ‘class warfare’ of the 1970’s.

Joe Hockey was right on one thing. There is class warfare and he is waging it particularly against the young and the aged in Australia. Warren Buffet a multi billionaire put it pungently in the US recently ‘There is certainly class warfare going on and my class is winning it’.

August 23, 2016

ANDREW MACK. ‘National security’ and the Ausgrid bid

On 19th August Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison confirmed his earlier decision to block the NSW government’s planned lease of 50.4 per cent of the New South Wales Ausgrid electricity distribution network to two Chinese companies: the Chinese government-owned State Grid Corporation of China and Hong Kong listed Cheung Kong International (CKI). Morrison based his decision on the Foreign Investment Review Board’s advice that these companies represented a threat to the ‘ national interest…on the grounds of national security’. When asked at a press conference what specific security threat was posed by the Chinese bidders Morrison replied: The only person who’s security-cleared in this room to hear the answer to that question is me’.

The Treasurer’s cryptic media release and public comments leave many crucial questions unanswered. In particular, was the security issue the most important factor or were there other important considerations at play? What was this ‘exhaustive process’ and the major parameters applied?

May 27, 2024

BREAKING: Horrendous images of burnt children after Israel bombs Rafah refugee camp [Graphic content]

Hours ago Israel bombed a refugee camp in Rafah, an area Israel designated as safe four days ago, setting it ablaze - tents housing families and including the UNRWA office.

April 22, 2016

Richard Eckersley. The mismeasure of progress: Is the West really the best?

Western liberal democracies dominate the top rankings of progress indices. But are they the best models of development when their quality of life is, arguably, declining and unsustainable.

The measures of human progress and development that we employ matter. Good measures are a prerequisite for good governance because they are how we judge its success. They also influence how we evaluate our own lives because they affect our values, perceptions and goals. Measures both reflect and reinforce what we understand development to be: if we believe the wrong thing, we will measure the wrong thing, and if we measure the wrong thing, we will not do the right thing.

August 23, 2014

John Menadue. The Bishop and the Prime Minister

In August 1987 The Bulletin published an account by Tony Abbott of why he left the seminary. A link to Tony Abbott’s account is below. Following Tony Abbott’s account, Fr Bill Wright on August 25, 1987, replied. He was a priest at that time in the Archdiocese of Sydney and Vice Rector of St Patrick’s College, Manly. He is currently Bishop of the Diocese of Maitland/Newcastle. He is mentioned as a possible successor to Cardinal George Pell in Sydney.

July 29, 2014

Ben Saul. The Occupation of Palestine.

There is very partisan criticism of Hamas for firing home-made rockets into Israel. But the core problem is not rockets. It is the occupation of Palestine by Israel and the imprisonment of two million Palestinians in a sliver of land called ‘Gaza’.

I often think how we should or could respond if our country was occupied by a foreign power. Surely there would be resistance to that occupation. That is fundamentally what the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians is about.

February 13, 2013

The Bad Samaritan. Guest blogger Greg at Cottesloe

You don’t have to be Christian to get it about helping sick or injured strangers but the parable of the kindly Samaritan does have its limits. What happens when the Samaritan notices the packet of smokes and the crumpled betting tickets? Irritation then becomes outrage - could that be a bottle of liquor in his pocket? And how can anyone be reading rubbish like that? “Thank God I stopped to help him. We’ll fix him up in no time. Let’s start with…….” Most people have started to feel uneasy before this point, sensing that simple kindness is changing into a darker something else.

July 14, 2015

John Menadue. Q&A – Why bother with Ministers?

The ABC has tied itself into a knot in trying to appease the government and get ministers back on Q&A. But why bother? If ministers aren’t allowed or don’t want to go on the program, so be it. They would not be missed and neither would most members of the shadow ministry.

I must confess that I am only an occasional viewer of Q&A. It is not for me. It unfortunately follows the adversarial and confrontational approach that is so debasing so much of public discussion in Australia on important issues.

December 15, 2023

CNN goes to Gaza

CNN’s Clarissa Ward and her crew became the first western journalists to enter Gaza independent from Israeli forces since October 7, briefly visiting a 150-bed hospital that was recently constructed in a soccer stadium by the United Arab Emirates in the southern part of the enclave before leaving to report on the footage from Abu Dhabi.

October 17, 2018

BOB CARR. How the Israeli Lobby operates.A repost

The letter was in the bulging file marked ‘Premier’s Invites’. The invitation was to an annual dinner where a peace prize was presented to a person chosen by the Sydney Peace Foundation at Sydney University. This year they had decided to present the award to Hanan Ashrawi. I knew her from CNN and had been impressed by her dignity.

April 22, 2016

Adrian Bauman & William Bellew. Does a spoonful of sugar help the medicine go down?

“A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”, according to Mary Poppins. Many more spoonfuls of sugar currently pervade our lifestyles and unconscious food choices. The recent media focus on sugar has been remarkable, but the media frenzy has sought a single solution, a quick fix, to what is in reality a complex problem: childhood and adult obesity. Rapid increases in obesity rates have occurred since the late 1980s in Australia and in many other countries, and even if starting to plateau, still leaves 63% of adult Australians overweight or obese.

April 15, 2014

Patty Fawkner. An Easter story

If we think about it, each of us has an Easter story. Mine goes back to the death of my father.

Dad died when I was a young nun. It was my first experience of the death of someone I deeply loved. Where once the word “loss” seemed a somewhat evasive euphemism, it was now acutely apt. I felt empty and fell into an abyss of grief, a grief that had begun eighteen months earlier, the day Dad was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. He was 57.

July 3, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. Conservatives have set the gold standard in scare campaigns.

After following politics and elections for over 60 years, it is quite extraordinary to see the Liberal party complaining about the Medicare scare campaign. In a downcast and confusing speech on election night Malcolm Turnbull spoke of the ‘well funded lie campaign on Medicare.’

In fact, I think the ALP is right on the threat to Medicare, although I would have used different arguments.

July 1, 2013

What should Prime Minister Kevin Rudd do about boat arrivals? John Menadue

The new government has indicated that it will be reviewing current policies on such issues as carbon reduction and boat arrivals. I have written extensively about asylum seekers and refugees. I suggest that in the short term, the PM should consider the following on boat arrivals.

We need some perspective in the political debate. We should acknowledge that there is a political problem but there is no need to panic. We are a nation of immigrants and refugees. Our wealth is built on it. We had about 16,000 asylum seekers in 2012, although there has been a surge in recent months in boat arrivals (7,500 in the March quarter) compared with air arrivals (2,200 in the same quarter). In 2012 the US had 82,000 asylum claimants. In Germany it was 64,000, in France 55,000 and in Sweden 44,000. Our borders will never be completely secure but as an island continent and country we are much more secure than almost any other country and the number of asylum seekers coming to Australia is quite small compared with other countries. There is a world-wide problem of refugee flows eg Syria and we cannot isolate ourselves from the problem. Apart from our migration program of about 200,000 persons per annum, we have over 700,000 foreigners who can work in Australia under various temporary resident permits, e.g. 457, working holiday and student visas.

August 11, 2015

John Menadue. Parliamentary reform and the new Speaker.

In my post of 12 May this year ‘ Democratic renewal and our loss of trust in institutions’, I wrote about our loss of trust in so many institutions including our parliament and political parties. If Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten want to improve public debate and restore some faith in our public institutions the election of new speaker Tony Smith provides an opportunity to change course.

The most trusted of our institutions are all public institutions; the ABC, the High Court and the Reserve Bank. The least trusted are political parties and the expenses mess triggered by Bronwyn Bishop will add to that lack of trust.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal