April 8, 2018

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Manus - a tourist destination or a crime against humanity?

My first reaction to the report that the Australian government was planning to boost tourism in Manus Island was one of disbelief and revulsion. This was the place well, one of the placesthat successive coalition ministers gloated was hell on earth.

September 25, 2018

PAUL DALEY. 'Wholesale massacre': Carl Feilberg exposed the ugly truth of the Australian frontier.

The real settler and pioneering stories of Feilbergs Queensland were confronting and frightening.

August 7, 2019

DAVID ISAACS HOW TO RESPOND TO ANTI-VAXXERS

At the dinner table it is not uncommon to find that someone you know and like is vehemently opposed to routine childhood immunisation. Having worked in this area all my career as a paediatric infectious disease specialist and been a member of every Government immunisation advisory committee for the last 25 years, I have struggled with quite how to respond to anti-vaxxers. Here are some thoughts.

May 23, 2019

Indias 2019 elections

In the most polarising, toxic elections in Indias history, the voter turnout of (67.1% (604 million) was the highest ever. Fierce social media wars contributed to the nastiness. It is hard to say whether political discourse was coarsened more by PM Narendra Modi or his opponents.

June 30, 2019

JACK WATERFORD. Pyne turning public role to private profit (Canberra Times 29.6.2017)

Australia yet again at the bottom of the democracies for standards of public conduct, and the will to enforce them.

May 28, 2019

JOHN MENADUE. What should Labor stand for as the blue collar base declines? Part 1of 3.

A concern expressed to me by many voters was that the recent ALP campaign lacked an over-riding narrative or framework and that, being very detailed, it was vulnerable to lies and scare tactics. There were many attractive big-ticket policies but was there a vision of where Labor wanted to take Australia?

August 16, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Prime Minister Trumpbull.

The styles of Donald Trump and Malcolm Turnbull may vary but on many important issues the substance is similar.

June 24, 2018

MUNGO MacCALLUM. They dont hate us for what we do, but for who we are.

The Liberals and their allies have always favoured the private over the public, whether in hospitals, health, schools and broadcasting. The Liberal Council decision to privatise the ABC was neither new nor surprising. It was just more honest than the (private) musings of their parliamentary peers, most of whom would do it like a shot if they thought they could get away with it.

November 19, 2017

JOHN MENADUE Parliamentary reform and democratic renewal.

Most Australians have little trust in our parliament and in our members of parliament. Parliament has not responded to changes in community attitudes and aspirations. With the end of the two-party dominance it is inevitable that the parliament will be permanently in gridlock with no government controlling the Senate.

We need an independent enquiry to consider parliamentary reform and ways to breath life again into our democratic institutions. That reform would be good politics as well as good policy for the leader who would recognize the problem, listen and embrace the need for change.

May 20, 2019

MUNGO MacCALLUM. The bodgie.

Bob Hawke did not suffer from false modesty.

He always knew he was the smartest person in the room and, unlike many egoists, he was usually right, which is saying something, given the stellar ministry over which he presided for most of is time as prime minister.

March 15, 2017

JONATHAN PAGE. Who Pays The Ferryman? Befriending Death.

The human experience is haunted by mortality. It is important to encourage deep discussion of the reality of our own individual death from an early age. The potential psycho-spiritual and behavioural benefits of this discussion are immense.

February 7, 2016

Bruce Duncan. Australias moral crisis: shipping babies and families off to Nauru

How has it come to this, that the Australian government is poised to send back 37 babies, 54 children and their families 267 in all - into the traumatic conditions of Nauru?

Only a few years ago many Australians would have considered it inconceivable that our governments should have imposed such shocking treatment on people who fled to our country seeking asylum as refugees.

What has brought matters to a head is the governments cynical manipulation of the law to prevent the High Court of Australia ruling in favour of a Bangladeshi woman who had been brought from detention in Nauru to Australia because of complications in her pregnancy in 2014. She brought an action in the High Court to prevent her being returned to Nauru.

April 29, 2019

ABUL RIZVI: Government cuts permanent migration program but forecasts net migration to rise (Part 2)

Government has cut the migration program ceiling from 190,000 to 160,000 per annum but at the same time is forecasting net migration to rise from 241,700 in 2017 to 259,600 in 2018 and 271,700 in 2019. This was after it forecast a steady decline in net migration in the 2018 Budget. This is likely the result of changes to temporary skilled entry policy, working holiday makers and a continuing rise in visitors changing status after arrival including record numbers applying for asylum.

March 13, 2019

JOHN DWYER. Health Reform's "Holy Grail";Medicare must fund the "team Medicine" approach to Primary Care.

Surely my disgust at the Coalitions decision to spend more than a billion dollars re-opening the Christmas Island detention centre to make sure that none of those nasty murderers, rapists and paedophiles ever get to real Australia for any medical care, is widely shared. There is so much real health that could be purchased with those dollars.

June 7, 2018

ROSS GITTINS. The threat of terrorism in Australia is a scam that costs us dearly (SMH 25/7/2017)

This article by Ross Gittins was published on 25 July 2017 in the SMH. Since then, the government has continued to ratchet up fear of terrorism. This is a particular stock in trade of conservatives - promoting fear- fear of Communists, fear of Asians, fear of Muslims, fear of terrorists and now, unfortunately fear of Chinese.

Malcolm Turnbull, together with Peter Dutton, has said that random checks on passengers will be made at airports. But a major security risk at airports is the thousands of people employed ‘airside’ in duty-free shops, restaurants and all sorts of other commercial outlets. The airport corporations with approval of the federal government have done this to improve profits, but it has increased the security risks. Rather than introducing random checks on passengers, security would be improved by scaling back thousands of people working airside for private companies. John Menadue.

May 27, 2018

MUNGO MacCALLUM. For Hastie to drop the bomb without warning his leader was unpardonable.

Andrew Hasties use of parliamentary privilege to out the billionaire political donor Chau Chak Wing for being an unindicted (and thus uncharged) co-conspirator in the United States was always going to be controversial.

March 4, 2018

BOB DOUGLAS. Time for Australia to lead in building a safer future

A combination of hazards threatens the continued survival of human civilization on Planet Earth. They are all man-made and most are being systematically ignored or under-rated by political decision makers everywhere and especially, here in Australia.

July 29, 2019

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Labor accepts ritual humiliation.

One, two, three, four Keeping faiths a dreadful bore. Five, six, seven, eight Tap the mat, capitulate.

This, it appears, is Labors new tribal chant. And needless to say, it is less of a battle cry than a muted whimper.

May 28, 2018

MICHAEL KEATING. How Useful and Reliable are the Budget Projections?

The Treasurer wants us to believe that the Government has a credible plan to restore the Budget to a surplus and cut taxes at the same time. This conclusion is based on the projections for revenue, expenditures and the budget balance incorporated in this years budget. However, both Ross Gittins and I have separately criticised the credibility of these budget projections. I also agree with Gittins conclusion that the Treasurers unworthy intention is to leave non-economists with the impression that everything is under control and on the improve, and even economists and econocrats can be left with a false sense of comfort (Sydney Morning Herald, 21 May). In this article I now want to go further than Gittins and show why the Treasurers claim that the Government has a credible plan to restore the Budget to a surplus, while also cutting taxes, is demonstrably false.

April 10, 2018

MEDIA ALERT: APPEAL LODGED AGAINST FEDERAL COURT DECISION IN PALACE LETTERS CASE

Professor Jenny Hocking has lodged an appeal against the decision of the Federal Court last month in Jennifer Hocking v. Director-General, National Archives of Australia. The Court ruled that the Palace letters, between the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, and the Queen relating to Kerrs dismissal of the Whitlam government, are personal not Commonwealth records, continuing the Queens embargo of them.

June 23, 2019

MICHAEL KEATING. Lies, Damned Lies and [tax] statistics.

Last Saturday the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) published an article, which purported to show that Middle and high-income earners will face some of the highest tax rates in the English-speaking developed world unless the Morrison governments $158 billion tax plan is passed in full when the Parliament returns next month. Unfortunately, I consider this article to be so misleading that it reminds me of the Mark Twain quote: There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

September 28, 2018

JACK WATERFORD. Turnbull's ABC chickens home to roost (Canberra Times 28.9.2018)

_Malcolm Turnbull is a gift that keeps giving to the Labor opposition. Scott Morrison’songoing efforts to be all things to all people were again derailed this week by the ABC implosion, which saw the loss of its board chairman and its managing director, and a powerful smoky stench as Coalition jihadists ran for cover.

June 6, 2019

PETER MANNING. Good journalists failed badly

For the past fortnight Ive read, listened and watched every in-depth explanation of how and why Bill Shorten got the election wrong. The wait was deliberate. I wanted to ease my way out of the shock of how Labor lost the unloseable election. Until now, only John Hewson is the public figure who knows what its like to wear that sobriquet.

January 17, 2016

How 'Crazy' are the North Koreans?

Joel S. Wit writes about how the North Koreans have played their cards extremely well despite the appalling nature of their regime. See link to an article in the New York Times, by Joel S. Wit, who is a Senior Fellow of the US-Korea Institute at John Hopkins University.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/opinion/sunday/how-crazy-are-the-north-koreans.html

July 18, 2019

BRUCE THOM. Climate Change and Relativity---Some Parallels.

Science can be incomprehensible to many, yet it requires others to help communicate and apply great works such as those of Albert Einstein. Climate change science is also quite complex and those in this field are facing similar difficulties to those who sought to explain relativity to the broader public. It is irresponsible of decision-makers to not trust the science and ignore its implications in todays uncertain world.

June 30, 2019

MUNGO MacCALLUM. The exhumations have resumed.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the graveyard, the exhumations have resumed.

August 8, 2018

ANTHONY PUN. The Battle for Indo-Pacific.

China is surrounded by at least 16 countries, some with common borders and territorial disputes with her. Japanese PMs proposal in 2005 to form a Quad alliance (US, Australia, India and Japan) is seen by China as the introduction of Cold War in the Asia Pacific. Former Australian Ambassador to China, Geoff Raby provides a deep insight why Australia should not be a part of it. The analysis of individual countries surrounding China revealed that the BRI initiatives are making an impact on the recipient countries and they are more likely to be neutral or distance themselves from the Quad. India and Japan are likely to changes sides when it suits their national interests and that leaves Australia holding the unwanted baby.

October 16, 2018

JOHN MCCARTHY. The Jerusalem Embassy,Iran and our national interest

Prime Minister Morrisons announcements of a potential move of our embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and less newsworthy but nonetheless significant, of a review of our support for the Iran Nuclear Deal, threaten seriously to prejudice the Australian national interest.

November 26, 2017

SUSAN RYAN. A roof over their heads.

The Annual Report for 2016 of the Womens Housing Company demonstrates solutions to the terrible and growing situation of older women facing homelessness. These solutions however continue to elude policy makers, the media and business, whose failures to recognise the size of the problem and its costs to the public purse inflict great damage on the human rights of poorer older women.

October 2, 2017

RAMESH THAKUR. Australia's engagement with Asia should start at home with engagement with Asian-Australians.

Do we want to defend ourselves from Asia-sourced threats, be smarter in doing business with Asia, or be part of Asia? The Coalition seems to be pursuing the first, Labor is promising the second, but neither seems interested in the third.

June 22, 2017

BISHOP VINCENT LONG. Fashioning a more equitable and participatory society

On 16 June 2017 Bishop Vincent Long spoke at the Sydney launch of Race Mathews’ book Of Labour and Liberty: Distributism in Victoria 1891-1966_. This is a transcript of his speech, in which he suggests Whitlam would have been appalled to see how governments internationally have allowed neoliberal economics to undermine social equity today, with most of the spoils going to the privileged few, leaving the many struggling to find secure, well paid work, and younger generations confronted by excessive housing costs and stagnant wages, often with casual or part-time employment._

December 10, 2018

MICHAEL KELLY SJ The biggest con in any current debate in Australian public life

In a highly contested event, one political con over the last decade stands out as the greatest bipartisan piece of deception in any enduring debate: the obfuscation employed in the public arguments over asylum seeker arrivals in Australia.

January 22, 2018

MICHAEL McKINLEY. Defence policies and alliances have become a new religion. Part 2 of 5: The Acutely Deranged Present.

Government pronouncements in Australia, especially in the fields of Strategy and National Security, it is claimed, are determined by scientific rationality and definitely not configured according to religious belief. This is both fraudulent and a dangerous conceit: religion, has not been banished; indeed, the present reeks of ecclesiastical history and religion (more specifically, its deformation, religiosity). Accordingly, the proposition is that a more politically accurate understanding of Australias mindset is to be afforded by an interrogation of five aspects: the present state of world politics in history; the acutely deranged state of the present; the emergence of the Papal Presidency in the US; the religious state of the Australia-US Alliance; and White Papers and their like as religious documents.

September 26, 2019

EDOARDO CAMPANELLA. Back to Little England? (Project Syndicate 17-9-19)

Future historians may come to describe Brexit as the defining moment of a nationalist wave that swept away the postwar liberal international order. Yet their task will be complicated by the fact that Brexit is not, in fact, a manifestation ofBritishnationalism. To the contrary, it is precisely the lack of a proper British nationalism that has pushed the United Kingdom to the brink of disintegration.

September 22, 2019

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Government rakes in the tax.

Glory Hallelujah. Let joy be unconfined. The budget is back in balance.

Except that it isnt were still about $700 million short. But near enough is good enough certainly good enough to let an ebullient Josh Frydenberg predict more or less credibly that in nine months time, the sacred surplus can finally be delivered.

May 15, 2019

STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Election lies we cannot afford

The choice that citizens not mere voters will exercise on Saturday is primarily between socially beneficial policies, a gender-equal leadership team, a leader who can pause, listen and think - up against a leader weirdly bereft of team or original thought, but ample in promises of yet more protections for corporate and wealth interests. And bursting with self-belief. Thats an opinion, of course. Yours may differ. So maybe we should also consider how this election is positioning facts, analysis and information up against misinformation lies, con jobs - raised to an art form.

April 10, 2018

JOHN AUSTEN More on the Sydney transport mess-the Western Sydney dud deal

Announcement of a Western Sydney city deal by the Prime Minister and Premier was touted as securing a rail line through Badgerys Creek airport.It does not.In fact, it merely committed to yet another review about what to do. That may turn out to be lucky for taxpayers and Sydney.

September 20, 2018

BRUCE GUTHRIE. The growing power of media mates (The New Daily, 20.09.18)

The news that billionaires Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes essentially war-gamed the ousting of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should appal all Australians wanting media diversity and an open and transparent polity.

March 11, 2018

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull and those thirty Newspolls.

_In just under three weeks time, unless either there is a major miracle or The Australian imposes censorship, Malcolm Turnbull will confront his 30th successive losing Newspoll._So what happens then? Actually, not much. As Christopher Pyne has pointed out with the unarguable logic of arithmetic, our Prime Minister still has the numbers. When Tony Abbott hit the same target in 2015, he did not, and there is the difference.

September 18, 2019

ANDREW FARRAN: A diplomatic niche in early Australian-Afghan Relations

Given that Australia has been engaged in military operations in Afghanistan, in addition to military/civil reconstruction and stabilisation efforts, in the provinces for over 18 years, it is only appropriate that we should greet the publication of a considered history of our relations with that country, explaining how we came to be so deeply involved in a country that previously we knew little about and seemingly cared less until this time.

June 10, 2018

The missed opportunity, nine years ago, to curb foreign interference in Australian politics.

In 2009, Senator John Faulkner introduced legislation in the Senate which would have prohibited foreign political donations. The legislation was defeated by the Coalition in the Senate. A lot of ‘foreign interference’ in Australian political life could have been nipped in the bud if the Coalition had been serious about curbing political donations. Unfortunately, Anti-Chinese sentiment is now driving the debate on political donations. This could have been avoided.

See following, second reading speech in the Senate by Senator Faulkner.

March 4, 2018

ANDREW GLIKSON. The onset of climate tipping points

As extreme temperatures, sea ice melt rates, collapse of Greenland glaciers, thawing of Siberian and Canadian permafrost, increased evaporation in the Arctic and intrusion of cold fronts into Europe and North America are rising, analogies with geological hyperthermal methane-release events such as the 56 m.y. old Paleocene-Eocene boundary thermal maximum and mass extinction (PETM), and even with the 251 Ma-old Permian-Triassic (PT) boundary and mass extinctions, are becoming more likely.

October 15, 2017

RICHARD BROINOWSKI. Trump's foolishness over Iran

Those with short memories forget what a gem of non-proliferation the Iran Framework Agreement of July 2015 is. Trump wants to trash it. If he succeeds it will create regional uncertainty and the likelihood of nuclear proliferation that the Framework currently postpones. Along with his posture towards North Korea, Trump’s contempt for Iran makes him the most dangerous of American presidents.

April 8, 2019

MICHAEL KEATING. The Budget: Part 2

The Budget is the most comprehensive statement of a governments priorities. It is the Budget that tells us specifically where the government intends to spend and how it intends to pay for that expenditure.

In this article, I will seek to compare the Government and the Oppositions policies for taxing and spending, relying principally on last weeks Budget and the Oppositions reply.

April 30, 2019

JOHN MENADUE. Scott Morrison claims again quite wrongly that he stopped the boats. (ABC News 30.4.2019)

In the leaders’ debate in Perth, Scott Morrison said:**"**I fashioned a policy to deal with [boat arrivals in Australia] and we fixed it."

June 15, 2018

JOHN MOLONY. A review of Race Mathews, Of Labour and Liberty: Distributism in Victoria 18911966

Many years ago, I tried to review Ronald Knoxs lifelong study of the numerous minor sects or branches of post-Reformation Christianity. He named it Enthusiasm. Despite my own enthusiasm for the treasures amassed in the book, I was unable to write a review. The riches were so abundant and differed so much that ten reviews would not have done justice to its totality.

June 8, 2018

SAUL ESLAKE. The quest for 'security'. Is it rational? Has it made us safer? And at what cost? (reposted from 23/2/2018)

In November last year, I gave an address to the Royal Society of Tasmania the oldest such society dedicated to the advancement of knowledge outside of the United Kingdom at an event hosted by the Governor of Tasmania, Her Excellency Professor Kate Warner AC, at her official residence in Hobart. In this address I posed, and sought to answer, three questions:

How significant a risk is the threat of terrorism in Australia, both in absolute terms and relative to some of the other risks and threats on our horizon?
How effective in reducing that risk have the various measures enacted in the name of security actually been? and
How does whatever reduction in the risks posed by terrorism which has been obtained compare with the costs, broadly defined, of those measures?

October 24, 2017

MARK BEESON. Western Australia and the resource curse

The failure of successive WA governments to tax the resource sector effectively has meant that much of revenue generated by the most recent resource boom was appropriated by the multinational corporations that dominate the sector more than 80 per cent of them foreign owned, by the way.

July 28, 2019

JOHN MCCARTHY. Enter, Boris.

Engaging in meetings and over dinner in London recently with British figures observing or involved in the Brexit process brought home that, while Australians follow the Brexit drama, we know little of its detail. We enjoy the sport, but try explaining the Irish Backstop in your local pub.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal