December 28, 2013

A letter to Pope Francis

The Australian Catholic Coalition for Church Renewal has called for structural amd cultural change in the governance of the Catholic Church

The letter can be found on my web site.Go to top left hand of the home page and click on John Menadue web site.

John Menadue

October 19, 2015

John Menadue. Is Malcolm Turnbull sacrificing his principles?

The polls show most Australian voters have welcomed Malcolm Turnbull’s election as Prime Minister. I did.

It is very early days, but I am concerned by signs that he is bowing very much to the right wing of his own party and former Abbott supporters rather than spelling out clearly his own policies that we heard about for years. He told the Parliament today ‘Can I simply say the government’s policies are unchanged’

May 7, 2016

John Zaw. No end in sight to Rohingya suppression in Myanmar.

The hardline Buddhist Arakan National Party (ANP) that holds a majority of seats in Myanmar’s religiously divided Rakhine State has promised to fight any attempts to grant up to 1 million stateless ethic Rohingya citizenship.

For the new National League for Democracy (NLD) government in Myanmar, the first civilian administration in the country in more than five decades, the issue of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine poses one of its most formidable challenge.

May 2, 2013

Malaysian General Elections - Change or Chaos? Guest blogger: El Tee Kay in Kuala Lumpur

The run up to the 13th General Election on Sunday May 5 has been described as the dirtiest in Malaysian history. For the first time in 54 years the Barisan Nasional (BN) Government led by Prime Minister Najib Razak fears it may lose its grip on power. For the first time the Malaysian voter has a choice of a credible opposition, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) led by Anwar Ibrahim, which is mounting a strong challenge. Indications are that the main coalition partners of BN – the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) and the Gerakan may suffer severe losses or even be wiped out. The United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) may also lose some seats to the Pan Islamic Party (PAS) of the opposition coalition.

June 21, 2014

Joe Hockey on welfare dependence

Surely Joe Hockey must soon become more careful about preaching to us about ending the age of entitlement and the need for Australians to be less reliant on welfare.

Facts are getting in his way. The latest reality check has been the release of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research’s Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) which surveys 17,000 people each year in Australia. The HILDA report found that Australians are becoming less dependent on welfare.

October 31, 2018

NICK DEANE. Armistice Day

On ‘Remembrance Day’ we should not forget that the majority of war’s casualties are actually non-combatant civilians. We should also remember that the original day was a day of great joy, as warring came to an end. Peace is the ‘default position’; war an aberration. However, current commemorations still focus on the ‘warrior hero’.

July 6, 2013

Asylum seekers - good news at last. John Menadue

The joint communique issued yesterday by President Yudhoyono and PM Rudd is the best news that I have read on asylum seekers for many years. A regional framework is the only viable policy for the future. Individual countries cannot do it alone.

The communique said

‘As co-chairs of the Bali Process, the two Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to continue to develop a regional solution, involving countries of origin, transit and destination which covers elements of prevention, early detection and protection to combatting trafficking in persons and people smuggling and other related transnational crimes. They stress the importance of avoiding unilateral actions which might jeopardise such a comprehensive regional approach and which might cause operational or other difficulties to any party. The Prime Minister of Australia welcomed Indonesia’s initiative to invite key origin, transit and destination countries to a conference to explore concrete operational and policy responses, including regional approaches and efforts to enhance border security, in addressing regular movement of persons.’

March 19, 2025

A five-minute scroll

The world awakens to the news that Israel has broken the ceasefire and now continues its bombardment in the Gaza Strip. Francesca Albanese states we cannot bear witness to global leaders doing nothing. Al Jazeera comments that the ceasefire did not collapse, it was part of Israel’s plan. In Gaza, Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda gives a first-hand account of what’s happening and a former BBC journalist speaks to Owen Jones about the obfuscation of language in journalism on the Israel Palestine situation.

June 13, 2024

Open Letter to Anthony Albanese: ‘Why collusion with this grotesque Israeli government?’

We write in sadness and despair at your government’s failure to condemn openly and persistently the Israeli government’s determination to ethnically cleanse Palestine and to cause brutality, famine, death and destruction to a whole people and their country.

June 22, 2015

Geoffrey Harcourt. Piketty, flawed, but not a light that failed.

Current Affairs

A review of Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century****.* Translated by Arthur Goldhammer, Cambridge, Mass and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014. viii + 685 pp. ISBN 978-0-674-43000-6*

*This is a smaller version of a review article to be published in the next issue of Economic and Labour Relations Review. The article contains a bibliography on which this version draws.

At each end of the spectrum of responses to Thomas Piketty’s best seller are those of Paul Krugman and Deirdre McCloskey. Krugman pronounced it “the most important book of the year – and maybe of the decade”. McCloskey graded it as mistaken on most fronts. Bob Solow supports Piketty – “Thomas Piketty is right” – and provides the clearest account of the issues without leaving the realm of simple arithmetic.

October 16, 2017

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Bravura performance from Tony Abbott as stand-up comic.

Tony Abbott’s bravura performance as a stand-up comic at the Flat Earthers Twilight Home Laugh In, or whatever it was called, deservedly received rave reviews – the consensus was that he was a raving ratbag.

March 14, 2025

A five-minute scroll

Chris Minns stands by the NSW hate speech laws. Kevin Rudd warns negotiations with Trump 2.0 administration will continue to be rough. Trump advocates for Tesla and Elon Musk. Zoe Daniels calls out some uncomfortable truths.

December 1, 2015

Michael Kelly SJ. Treating Islam’s clerics like their Christian equivalents will save lives

There is an unexpected upside to the mayhem and carnage across the world, visited on the unsuspecting innocents of countries where Muslims are not a majority of the population – Europe and beyond. It’s something the Catholic Church has had to learn, too.

And that is the simple fact that that misbehavior among religious adherents towards members of the faith community as well as those outside it – requires external intervention to be rectified and hopefully crushed.

March 8, 2016

Rosemary Breen. Living Water Myanmar

Five years ago, when I started this project of building large water tanks to collect water during the rainy season in the Dry Zone of Central Myanmar I had no idea how many lives would be changed because of this simple concept. To date 114 water tanks have been built for villages and schools due to the generosity of so many donors in Australia, the USA and the UK.

As the Australian coordinator, I have given talks and shown a Powerpoint presentation to many groups in order to raise funds, while Saya Toe, the coordinator in Myanmar, organises the team of builders who go from village to village building the tanks with help from the local people. Each time I visit there are requests for tanks from the village headmen or head teachers of schools and seeing the poverty and great need, it is hard to refuse. There are over 650 villages in the Dry Zone and the government has done nothing over the last sixty years to alleviate the situation.

February 5, 2013

Can the media spell 'policy'?

A friend of mine, Ian McAuley, has drawn attention to an election study by the ANU’s Institute for Public Policy Trends. It covers elections 1987-2010.

The study shows conclusively that our media is badly out of touch with what the public wants. For the 2010 federal election campaign, the study asked voters what were the most important considerations in their voting decision. 52% said ‘policy issues’. 25% said ‘parties as a whole’. 15% said ‘party leaders’. 8% said ‘candidates in my electorate’.

December 6, 2015

John Tulloh. Turkey's new neighbour - DAESH (Islamic State)

President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey must feel like a chess grand master playing several games simultaneously. He has far more neighbours and different cultures to contend with than most leaders: eight in all. They are a mixed bag across more than 2600 kms of borders - Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, an Azerbaijan enclave, Georgia, Bulgaria and Greece. And across the Black Sea he has Russia. Now he has an unofficial neighbour: Daesh, also known as Islamic State. It has been active along Turkey’s frontier inside Syria and regards territory it has seized as part of its self-styled caliphate.

July 6, 2015

Failure in Afghanistan. We don't want to talk about it.

On the 24th June, I posted a link to a review from the London Review of Books. (See https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/blog/?p=3957) In referring to the UK involvement in Afghanistan, it was headed ‘Worse than a defeat: shamed in Afghanistan’. The review by James Meek said

‘The extent of the military and political catastrophe [in Afghanistan] it represents is hard to overstate. It was doomed to fail before it began and fail it did, at a terrible cost in lives and money. How bad was it? In a way it was worse than a defeat because to be defeated an army and its masters must understand the nature of the conflict they are fighting. Britain never did understand and now we would rather not think about it.’

January 13, 2016

John Menadue. Preferential trade deals – gigantic foundation stones or pebbles?

Malcolm Turnbull has described the TPP as a ‘gigantic foundation stone’ that will deliver ‘more jobs, absolutely’.

The World Bank now tells us that the TPP will be more like a pebble than a foundation stone. See following article by Peter Martin in SMH on January 12, 2016.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/transpacific-partnership-will-barely-benefit-australia-says-world-bank-report-20160111-gm3g9w.html

The following is a repost on the same subject, originally posted on 13/10/2015.

John Menadue

Repost from 13/10/2015.

After two wasted years in government, it is perhaps not surprising that Malcolm Turnbull would try and gild the lily by telling us that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) ‘was of enormous benefit to us. It is a gigantic foundation stone for our future prosperity.’ What in the world has he been digesting to talk like this? Perhaps he is really extending an olive branch to the Abbott supporters he has vanquished by crediting the Abbott Government with the TPP!

February 11, 2025

A five-minute scroll

Ilan Pappe witnessed his face on a target symbol on TV screens at the airport as he returned to Israel. Australia continues to tug on the “forlock of a fading hegemon”. The ABC calls citing international law antisemitic while Amnesty International calls on German authorities to stop the crackdown on freedom of speech.

March 8, 2013

The Neverending Story. Guest blogger: Greg from Cottesloe

Side show alleys have become smaller these days. They used to be the centre of attraction at the annual Royal Show with the boxing troupes, the bearded ladies and so on but even the shrunken lane of today still has a conjuror performing the old pea and thimble trick. The conjuror puts a pea under one of three thimbles then swirls them around with appropriate flourishes and invites a member of the audience to pick the one hiding the pea. Some honest but dim fellow steps forward and has a go but…no luck. He retires ruefully shaking his head and the conjuror’s patter goes on.

March 24, 2016

Yang Razali Kassim. Will Mahathir and Anwar's uneasy alliance unseat Najib?

The unthinkable is happening in Malaysian politics. Former prime minister Mahathir Mohammad and his jailed former deputy Anwar Ibrahim have joined hands in a seemingly impossible alliance to unseat Prime Minister Najib Razak. Never before in Malaysian history have such sworn enemies buried their hatchets for a common cause.

By launching his rainbow ‘core group’ of concerned citizens of various political stripes and leanings to ‘Save Malaysia’, Mahathir has once again thrust himself into the eye of the political storm. With Anwar still in jail, the disparate forces that opposed Najib over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) investment fund scandal have finally found someone of stature to rally around in a marriage of convenience. It is ironic that the man who crushed the opposition while in power has reinvented himself in retirement as the de facto leader of what in essence is a citizens’ revolt.

July 6, 2014

Elaine Pearson. The civil war may have ended, but not the persecution.

What’s happening to boatloads of Tamil asylum seekers on the Indian Ocean? A llegations that Australian authorities have intercepted at least two Tamil boats and handed them over to the Sri Lankan navy after only brief telephone interviews are extremely troubling. Until now, the Australian government has neither confirmed nor denied these allegations – giving the now long-tired excuse of secrecy around all operational matters concerning border security.

January 11, 2014

Towback of boats to Indonesia. Frank Brennan SJ

It is essential that we receive unambiguous public confirmation that Indonesia is agreeing to the tow-back of boats. Unilateral action by the Abbott Government is just not on. It would fracture our relationship with Indonesia, would be counterproductive and contrary to our international legal obligations.

All you need do is consider Recommendation 19 of the 2012 Expert Panel chaired by Angus Houston who had headed our armed services and Michael L’Estrange who had been head of John Howard’s Cabinet Office and then head of the DFAT.

July 6, 2014

Garry Everett. Where angels fear to tread in the Catholic Church.

One of the significant and pressing pastoral theological issues currently dividing opinion among the hierarchy and among the laity of the Church, is the issue of divorced and remarried Catholics, and their access to eucharist, writes Garry Everett.

Pastoral theology is a tricky undertaking. It is easier, and certainly safer, to discuss theological matters in abstract or academic terms, or as principles to guide action. However, once theology is applied to people, their lives and actions, the task becomes infinitely more difficult.

July 22, 2015

Patty Fawkner. Mary Magdalene: friend, icon, model

We have yet to balance spirituality and sexuality in the Church especially in regard to women. Women’s leadership and spiritual influence will be compromised until we do, writes Good Samaritan Sister Patty Fawkner.

I thank my father for my friendship with Mary Magdalene.

I was a young woman when, after a brief illness, my father died of cancer. It was the first time I’d lost a loved one. I was devastated.

March 24, 2016

Eric Hodgens. Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns.

Easter brings Easter eggs and hot cross buns. You see the egg and dart pattern on the frieze of some Victorian-period buildings. But it goes way back to classical times. The eternal question - life or death.

Two men looked out through the prison bars. One saw mud, the other saw stars.

Malcolm Turnbull assures us “It’s never been a better time to be an Australian”. But Tony Abbott effectively tells us to be alert AND alarmed. George Pell’s motto is “Don’t Be Afraid” making you wonder what is he afraid of? In our darker moments we fear he may be right. They’re out to get us.

May 7, 2016

Douglas Newton. The Centenary of the Great War – and Anzac

The Great War. What we fought for and why were peace initiatives resisted for so long.

Many of those promoting the Anzac Centenary appear to believe that there are certain essentials the Australian people must learn about the Great War: that Australians fought exceedingly well; that they fought even better when led by Australians; that in fighting so well they gave birth to our national consciousness; that we owe them so much because they fought for our freedom; that in serving our country they displayed the values of the Anzac Spirit that define the Australian character – a fierce egalitarianism, contempt for privilege, democratic instincts, and mateship, that is, a generous solidarity inspiring a collective spirit, never shrinking from support for each other through thick and thin. Sadly, it must be said, many of those rhapsodising upon this Anzac Spirit show not the remotest faith in this kind of egalitarianism or solidarity in their public policy.

March 6, 2025

A five-minute scroll

Justin Trudeau eloquently calls Trump’s tariffs a trade war. Miko Peled questions why the allies aren’t liberating the concentration camp that is Gaza, Jeffrey Sachs asks how many wars China has been in in the last 40 years. Peter Cronau lists our eclectic list of defence priorities.

October 23, 2015

Richard Woolcott. Foreign policy priorities for Malcolm Turnbull - focus on the region, get out of the Middle East, and other ..

This can be an exciting time for Australia in that there is a coincidence of the need for long overdue foreign policy adjustments and the appointment of Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister. He has said he intends to be a forward-looking Prime Minister for the 21st Century. This is indeed encouraging but success will call for skilful negotiation in Cabinet and strong leadership over time. Mr Turnbull will have much more in common with Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, than he would have had with defeated PM Harper. They will meet later this year at the G20 and at CHOGM.

August 15, 2016

FRANK BRENNAN. Time to defuse Nauru and Manus Island time bombs

On the weekend, I joined Robert Manne, Tim Costello and John Menadue in calling for an end to the limbo imposed on proven refugees on Nauru and Manus Island. I think this can be done while keeping the boats stopped. I think it ought be done.

Appearing on the ABC 7.30 program last Thursday after_The Guardian_’s release of 2000 incident reports from Nauru, Peter Dutton, the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, told presenter Leigh Sales, ‘I would like to get people off Nauru tomorrow but I have got to do it in such a way that we don’t restart boats.’

February 14, 2025

A five-minute scroll

Concerns across social media for Palestinian medical doctor Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, held captive by Israel. Australian media’s role in legitimising the Palestinian genocide and the war of words regarding safety/unsafety of students. Peter Dutton’s claims of the growth of the Canberra-based public servants not backed by data.

December 5, 2016

HAZEL MOIR. Evergreening of patents and the cost of pharmaceuticals.

A low standard for granting patents can mean lengthy delays generic medicine availability. In one case this is shown to have cost taxpayers almost $A3 billion extra in Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme outlays. A solution is to grant patents only for inventions that embody a significant increase in what is known.

January 12, 2024

South Africa accuses Israel of 'genocidal intent' at The Hague

Amid Israel’s ongoing three-month war in Gaza, more than 23,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed.

January 11, 2014

A place of refuge: responses to international population movements. Arja Keski-Nummi

For over 60 years Australia has played a vital role in the development and strengthening of a system of international protection for refugees. It was one of the earliest signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention. It has been an active member of the Executive Committee of the UNHCR and has held the Chair on several occasions. Australia was one of the key countries in the development and implementation of the Comprehensive Plan of Action for Indo Chinese Refugees (CPA). Two Australians have been awarded the UNHCR Nansen Award for Refugees: Sir Tasman Heyes in1962 and Major General Paul Cullen in 1981.

September 7, 2015

Luke Fraser. True Blue

On Father’s day, anybody around the world lucky enough to have been woken by a happy young son (as I was) would have been hard-put not to have paused and thought of the image of the young Ardyl Kurdi, washed up lifeless on a beach.

Millions are again on the roads of Europe, running away, looking for safety and stability. Perhaps these are ‘the best of times and the worst of times’ that Dickens wrote of: The worst explains itself in Ardyl Kurdi. Perhaps we see the best in Angela Merkel and a relatively prosperous Germany planning to accommodate 800 thousand Syrian migrants. This will no doubt be resisted by many in that democracy, understandably: it comes with enormous risks. But perhaps Merkel’s pact recognises that Germany - the country of the Berlin airlift and a Marshall Plan beneficiary - still owes some debt of gratitude. If so, it is proposing to pay that debt out in spades. And in doing so it shames many of its neighbours, including countries whose own peoples were on the road not so long ago.

January 30, 2013

It happens every day (Guest blogger: Fr Michael Kelly S.J.)

It happens every day. People in public life try to grab hold of and change the public narrative about themselves, those they represent or lead. For most of the second half of last year, the Prime Minister had charge of the public narrative, leaving the Opposition Leader flat footed as he tried to capitalize on the Coalition’s lead in the opinion polls.

He failed. Julia Gillard made a policy announcement here, called a Royal Commission there, published a report on anything from disability insurance to the place of Australia in the Asian Century.

June 4, 2016

Michael Keating[i]. From Deficit to a Balanced Budget

The issue of budget repair has not been addressed adequately in the current election campaign. See below an earlier article by Michael Keating on various revenue and expenditure items that need to be considered. John Menadue

A Report by the CEDA Balanced Budget Commission

The Committee for Economic Development of Australia, which has a long history of independent public policy engagement, this week released an important report discussing the options for restoring the Australian Government Budget to balance.

August 15, 2016

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull, accident-prone and careless.

When you’re hot you’re hot, and when you’re not, you’re not.

Our Prime Minister was hardly responsible for the fact that the Australian Bureau of Statistics site crashed (or, the boffins insist, was pulled down) on census night. Only the very partisan and very silly are saying that it was his fault.

But that’s not the point: he will still have to wear the blame for what has been an embarrassing blooper which not only may have derailed the census, but also will set back the public’s confidence of all forms of electronic commerce – what price internet voting for elections? Forget it.

September 14, 2015

"U.S. should bear blame for European refugee, humanitarian crisis"

Disastrous intervention by the US has been the cause of many major refugee flows including the current flows out of the Middle East. The people’s Daily published an interesting article on this subject on 7 September. The article refers to refugees from Syria, Lybia, Iraq and Afghanistan. It could have added that one of the major refugee flows since WWII was triggered by the disastrous intervention in Vietnam. See article from People’s Daily below. John Menadue

July 17, 2015

Christopher Kennedy and Malcolm Fitzgerald. From sound bite to web bite.

We are so used to pointing our fingers at the Chinese for their pathetic attempts to control the web we do not see the fundamental change in Western society and the relationship between the governed and the governing. For example; in the Victorian election internet, as defined by the term ‘social media’, was given credit for the amount of damage it did to the Liberal campaign; with the out-going premier blaming his loss on the social media. Another example is the prime minister recently degrading the net as electronic graffiti after it was pointed out that the Liberals had no social presence there and consequently was losing votes by the bucket-load.

November 19, 2014

Cavan Hogue. Russia and the G20

Contrary to some media reports the G20 did not mention Russia in any of its documents and criticism came only from the West. Nothing happened which is likely to change Russian attitudes or actions.

The Russia bashing by Australian politicians and media is not likely to worry Russia and the criticism by Western nations is not having any effect either. It is worth noting that claims about “world criticism” of Russia is in fact criticism by Europe and North America with Australia trotting along faithfully behind or indeed jumping out in front.. Countries in our region have not joined in and China has got closer to Russia as a result of the sanctions. Australian attacks, especially about MH17, have of course been for domestic consumption. Our media tends to equate the world with Europe and North America.

October 23, 2014

Hugh White on Australians and War from Honest History.

In my blog of 20 October ‘It is becoming much easier to go to war’ I highlighted the reasons and the background to developments since the Vietnam War that are making it much more likely that we will commit ourselves to war.

In an earlier posting of March 23 - see below - I carried an interview with Hugh White.

We are venturing into very dangerous territory. John Menadue

Repost

December 5, 2016

OLIVER FRANKEL. When does housing become unaffordable?

Affordable housing has become one of the most hotly debated social problems of our time, yet there is no consensus on how to identify when it exists, let alone its root causes and how to fix it.

July 21, 2015

Richard Butler. The Iran Nuclear Agreement: Safe if Implemented.

The Joint Cooperative Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed with Iran by the UN Security Council’s five Permanent members, plus Germany and the EU, (Vienna, July 14th), is unprecedented. No comparable arms control plan has been as detailed or thorough. Above all, it is vastly preferable to any of the proposed alternative approaches, the main one of which has been war.

If the negotiation of this agreement had failed, there would have been further proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, in addition to whatever Iranian capability may have emerged. Israel already has them and Saudi Arabia has been contemplating them. Then, war with Iran, the preferred option in US Republican circles and Israel, would have almost certainly ensued with devastating and global effects, and, war would not have prevented Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability thereafter, for which it would have been given a massive incentive.

September 11, 2015

Ross Burns. Syria and Persecuted Minorities.

The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the international legal instrument to which Australia was an original signatory, contains a clause making clear that ‘The Contracting States shall apply the provisions of this Convention to refugees without discrimination as to race, religion or country of origin’.

It therefore seems curious that at least three Ministers, most notably the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, have made statements that echo the wording that Australia’s new program to take 12,000 Syrian refugees under UNHCR auspices announced on 9 September would give preference to ‘persecuted minorities’.

July 11, 2015

John Howard on political Royal Commissions.

Last September John Howard said

‘I am uneasy about the idea of having Royal Commissions or enquiries into essentially a political decision. … I don’t think you should ever begin to go down the American path of using the law for narrow targeted political purposes. I think the special prosecutions in the US are appalling.’

See link below to John Howard’s comments. John Menadue

http://gu.com/p/4xhj7/sbl

September 24, 2015

John Menadue. Transfield, Manus and Nauru

Transfield and its subcontractors are profiteering from lucrative contracts to run detention centres on behalf of the Australian government on Manus and Nauru. All the indications are that there is widespread abuse and oppression particularly on Nauru. It is a disgrace.

Present policies on Manus and Nauru are unsustainable yet Minister Dutton remains as Minister for Immigration and Border Protection.

If the government will not address the problems then shareholders and clients of Transfield have a duty to act on behalf of all people and particularly children and women that are being abused in our name.

December 28, 2014

Why Rupert Murdoch is forever in Twitter trouble.

In the ‘New Daily’ of December 17, 2014, Bruce Guthrie, a former editor-in-chief of ‘The Age’ and Murdoch’s ‘Herald Sun’ tells us what he thinks about Murdoch’s twittering ‘But here he was seemingly gloating over the outcome of the appalling Martin Place events as if the only thing that mattered was its news value and the profits that might bring. No wonder he was dubbed a “gleeful ghoul” for the tweet. 24 hours later, despite dozens of entreaties, he still hasn’t apologised for it.’

September 10, 2015

Peter Dixon and Maureen Rimmer. What's really at stake if the China FTA falls through.

Earlier this month Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott sounded a warning on the impact to Australia’s economy if the recently signed China-Australia Free Trade Agreement were to fail.

In a statement, Abbott said:

“If Bill Shorten and the Labor Party try to reject the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement they will be sabotaging our economic future and they will be turning their back on one of the greatest opportunities our country has ever been offered.”

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal