September 27, 2024

A five-minute scroll

We round up the week at the UN in New York where thousands have gathered to denounce Benjamin Netanyahu and demand his arrest. Groups have also called for the resignation of Antony Blinken for alleged lies to Congress, and we question why Jordan, also a US ally, can speak out against Israel. Finally, we applaud the recognition of a young journalist in Gaza on the world stage.

October 22, 2024

A five-minute scroll

Renowned journalist speaks out about the three regimes of Israel while a child in Gaza speaks out about the loss of her people. A child carries her sister on her back to hospital while the IDF marches Palestinians in Gaza. Media Watch tells more stories that also need to be told, while Lidia Thorpe tells the King he is not her king. Professor Ilan Pappe talks about Zionism and cartoonist Cathy Wilcox shares her thoughts on AUKUS.

May 27, 2016

Did the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki end the war?

Today, President Obama is visiting Hiroshima. He will be the first US President to do so since the bombing in 1945. He said that he will not be apologising for the dropping of the bomb and will not try and second-guess President Harry Truman’s decision.

The widely accepted moral justification for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was that they brought a quick end to the war which if continued would result in more widespread deaths and destruction.

There is an argument that what the Japanese military feared most of all was not the bombing of civilians but the threat of Soviet occupation and perhaps partition of Japan.

June 9, 2016

IAN WEBSTER. Bulk-billing rates are not what they seem.

A categorical mistake: Is bulk-billing a reliable indicator of access to GPs?

Where I work in regional NSW, patients have difficulty finding a GP who is prepared to bulk-bill them for their medical care. The phone call to the practice receptionist ends, so often, with, “The doctor’s books are full”. At the same time we’re told that 83% of Medical Benefits Schedule (MBS) services are “bulk-billed”. Like everyone else, I thought this fact would mean increased access and affordability for patients to a local GP.

Had I thought more thoroughly about the problem and scrutinised the MBS data, the penny would have dropped.

November 24, 2016

MICHAEL McKINLEY. Quo vadis - the future of the US-Australian alliance. Part 1:

Summary. Donald Trump, Dylan Thomas, and the Australia US Alliance - A great power in decline.

June 22, 2016

MUNGO MacCALLUM. A treaty with indigenous Australians.

The idea of a country negotiating a treaty with its indigenous inhabitants is hardly novel.

Three of our closest friends and allies (New Zealand, Canada and the United States) have all done so successfully, and none of their nations fallen into terminal division and chaos.

And of course even in Australia, a treaty has been under discussion for nearly a century. Aboriginal elders have talked about it since at least the sesquicentenary of settlement in 1938, and it was seriously mooted a generation later when the great public servant, Dr H C (Nugget) Coombs proposed what he called a makharrata – a settlement.

May 11, 2018

JOHN FALZON. Budget 2018: Noodle Nation?

Budgets should be a time when governments outline a practical vision of the future in which we share our commonwealth for a just, prosperous and equitable future. In a wealthy country such as ours, it should be a time of hope.

November 18, 2013

Tony Abbott in Sri Lanka. John Menadue

Tony Abbott has continued his ‘stop the boats campaign" in Sri Lanka regardless of growing concerns about human rights abuses in that country.

He offered two patrol boats as part of a ‘foreign aid package’. His justification for this is that it would help save the lives of people drowning at sea. Please spare us this hypocracy. The real reason is that with the cooperation of the Sri Lankan Navy he hopes he stop asylum seekers leaving Sri Lanka and possibly landing in Australia. The previous government used the same phoney excuse that it wanted to stop the boats to stop the drownings.

January 14, 2017

The strange career of American exceptionalism.

In this article in The Nation, George Grandin of New York University comments

‘Obama’s recomposition of American exceptionalism was tactically successful, at least as measured by his 2012 reelection, which expanded the multiracial and cross-class coalition that had given him the White House four years earlier.

December 12, 2016

LAURIE PATTON. ‘Un-populate or perish’ – rethinking the Whitlam decentralisation vision in a digital age

There’s been quite a deal of media coverage lately about the need for better Internet access in regional, rural and remote Australia. Earlier in the year delegates to the annual Broadband for the Bush conference highlighted the communications challenges facing everyone living outside our major population centres while pointing to opportunities for better delivery of health services and education using emerging online technologies.

January 29, 2025

A five-minute scroll

Challenging the narrative: Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada was freed and deported by Switzerland, Abby Martin speaks of youth seeing world issues as they are not as mainstream media portray them. Saffrin Duggan will run the Canberra Marathon to raise funds for her husband and Humzah Yousaf takes on Michael Gove over his suggestion the IDF be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

February 5, 2016

How long can we keep lying to ourselves.

In the SMH on February 5, 2016, columnist Waleed Aly says ‘The history of asylum seeker policy in Australia will be remembered as a story of how successive governments legislated their lies to justify a world of make-believe borders and imaginary compliance.’

See link to article below:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/nauru-how-long-can-we-keep-lying-to-ourselves-20160204-gml6or.html

June 22, 2015

Max Bourke. Northern Australia – the fantasy continues

Current Affairs

The White Paper on Northern Australia. ( www.northernaustralia.dpmc.gov.au accessed June 19, 2015)

The cover of this Report features, a slightly sick (ironically seems to have a fungal disease), young seedling growing in rich black soil. The seedling well reflects the issue, the black soil does not.

When white settlers landed in Australia at the end of the 18th century they brought the techniques and understandings they knew from Europe to farming, the climate and the environment. What else could they do? It has taken over 200 years for many Australians, and some clearly still do not, to understand that the climate, soils, landscapes of Australia are profoundly different from Europe or Asia. The recently released “White Paper on Northern Development” June 2015, suggests we still have a long way to go.

May 2, 2016

Richard Woolcott. Australia/China and Barracuda submarines.

It seems that one of the important roles for the new Barracuda submarines that we are to purchase from the French is for the submarines to be able to operate at long-range in the South China Sea. Quite apart from the cost of the submarine purchase, is this a wise strategy for Australia to pursue. I have reposted extracts below from an earlier article by Richard Woolcott in which he warns of an adversarial attitude towards China based mainly on Japanese policies and US support. John Menadue.

June 18, 2016

STEPHEN LEEDER. Looking forward to a national health policy and not ignoring the community.

Health policies presented as part of the election campaign should address our expectations for prompt, courteous and effective high-quality care when we need it and not be a random collection of thought balloons - from a child’s birthday? - about waiting lists and co-payments .

Health care is essential to achieving goals for more jobs and a brighter budget. Its availability to all is a fundamental of fairness. Labor or Coalition, health policy is critical to what they hope to achieve for us. Here is why we should be hearing a national health policy from the contestants.

June 20, 2015

Michael Wesley. The Dangerous Politics of National Security.

Policy Series

In January 2013, as she launched her government’s National Security Strategy, then Prime Minister Julia Gillard proclaimed that Australia’s decade of terrorism was over. Her argument was that al Qaeda had failed to regenerate after being degraded in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and that there were other more conventional security issues, such as the rise of new Asian great powers, that would dominate the forward security agenda.

November 21, 2015

Royal Commissions for some.

The Abbott government established a Royal Commission to harass trade unions and in the process to damage the ALP. But what we are hearing in this Royal Commission is really small beer by some union hacks. It is small scale compared with the massive tax avoidance by multinational companies in Australia that is being revealed.

Yet the government has refused to establish a Royal Commission to examine the activities of these multinationals who are depriving Australia of billions of dollars of tax revenue. A Royal Commission would be very useful to flush out this very serious national problem.

October 10, 2014

Malcolm Fraser. Without a ground force and an end point, the war against ISIS will be a farce.

In The Guardian, Malcolm Fraser has said ‘Air power alone will not make a difference in Iraq. Barack Obama and his allies have the worst strategic understanding possible of what they claim is an existential threat ’ See link to article below

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/08/without-a-ground-force-and-an-end-point-the-war-against-isis-will-be-a-farce

November 18, 2024

A five-minute scroll

Three times smaller, Israel has dropped the equivalent of three atomic bombs on Gaza, and still they continue unabated, exposing Governments in their complicity and media alike. In New Zealand Māori leaders mobilise on a 1000 kilometre plus walk to Wellington in protest of legislation from the right-winged government. In the US the analysis of the US election continues, Chris Hedges talks about the Democrats and Trump, Bernie Sanders talks about oligarchy. A five-minute scroll.

December 28, 2014

John Menadue. Capitalism and the fall of communism

In this blog on 5 November I drew attention to an article by the Economics Editor of the Guardian Larry Elliott. In that article Elliott said “As the Berlin Wall fell, checks on capitalism crumbled.” The principal thesis of that article was that with the end of communism capitalism became more aggressive and less inhibited. He said

“The fear that workers would ‘go red’ meant that they had to be kept happy. The proceeds of growth were shared. Welfare benefits were generous. Investment in public infrastructure was high. But there was no need to be so generous once the Soviet Union was no more. What was known as neoliberal economics was born in the 1970s but it was not until the 1990s that market forces reigned supreme. The free market spread to poorer parts of the world where it has previously been off limits, expanding the global workforce. That meant cheaper goods, but it also put downward pressure on wages. What’s more, there was no longer any need to be inhibited. Those running companies could take a bigger slice of profits because there was nowhere else for workers to go. If its citizens did not like ‘reform’ of welfare states, they just had to lump it.”

August 25, 2015

Quentin Dempster. Rupert Murdoch destroys freedom of the press.

In a recent address to the Medico-Legal Society of NSW, Quentin Dempster has referred to the parlous state of journalism and the media and particularly the damage being caused by Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. It is a no-holds barred speech about the damage that Rupert Murdoch is doing. See link to the speech below. John Menadue.

www.facebook.com/quentindempster

April 27, 2016

Frank Brennan. Cheque book solution on asylum is unconstitutional

A bench of five justices of the Supreme Court of Justice, the highest court in Papua New Guinea, has unanimously ruled that the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island is unconstitutional.

The successful applicant in the case was Belden Norman Namah, the PNG Leader of the Opposition. Unlike the Australian Constitution, the PNG Constitution contains a list of basic human rights including section 42 which deals with ‘liberty of the person’. That provision states that ‘No person will be deprived of his personal liberty’ except in specific circumstances.

September 3, 2015

Bob Kinnaird. China FTA and binding trade treaties are undemocratic.

The China FTA and all international trade agreements are essentially undemocratic because they are ‘binding’ on all future Australian governments. They provide incumbent governments with the opportunity permanently to limit the options open to the Australian people and to tie the hands of their political opponents when they take office.

Most Australians and probably some Australian Parliamentarians would be astonished to discover that treaty-status trade agreements permanently limit the ability of future governments to make laws, regardless of the wishes of the electors.

November 18, 2014

John Menadue. Julie Bishop – substance and style

According to opinion polls, Julie Bishop’s standing has climbed. In Harper’s Bazaar she has been described as the Woman of the Year. It is suggested that she could be a leadership contender…

But how much substance and how much achievement has there really been. How has Australia’s foreign policy interests been advanced?

Before looking at the performance, it is worth recalling that no Australian Foreign Minister could be said to have failed in recent decades, from Gareth Evans to Bill Hayden to Alexander Downer, Stephen Smith, Kevin Rudd and Bob Car. One advantage that Foreign Ministers have is that there is really no domestic constituency that they are likely to upset. At the same time there are numerous media and photo opportunities to do newsworthy things like running around Beijing. The media which is so often about politics and spin rarely looks beyond style and presentation.

December 23, 2014

Jesus and the modern man.

James Carroll has been writing about religion for over 40 years. In this beautiful piece in the International New York Times of November 7 this year, he describes how he still keeps going to Mass despite his many doubts. See link below. John Menadue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/opinion/sunday/can-i-stay-with-the-church.html?smid=nytcore-iphone-share&smprod=nytcore-iphone

March 9, 2016

Terry Laidler. To Michael Pezzullo, Secretary, Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

Dear Mr Pezzullo,

Starting to get through to you, is it? Great!

Forget your law of the land, let alone your direction of the government of the day drivel — neither of these is some sort of absolute that lets you suspend all moral judgment!

For, make no mistake about it: the actions of you and your departmental officers in our name are a gross violation of basic ethics and of innocent people’s rights.

March 15, 2023

Paul Keating - Australia locks in Asian Century as subordinate to the US

The Albanese Government’s complicity in joining with Britain and the United States in a tripartite build of a nuclear submarine for Australia under the AUKUS arrangements represents the worst international decision by an Australian Labor government since the former Labor leader, Billy Hughes, sought to introduce conscription to augment Australian forces in World War One.

October 14, 2017

JOHN MENADUE. The unfairness and waste of private health insurance and the threat to Medicare. Repost from April 21 2017

History is repeating itself.

Medicare was created by the Whitlam government because of the abject failure of private health insurance or, as it was then called voluntary health insurance.

As a result of the growth of private health insurance (PHI) since 1999 under the Howard government, Medicare is now seriously threatened. Government subsidies for PHI will take us back to the pre Whitlam and pre Medicare era.

December 21, 2014

Eric Hodgens. Phillip Hughes - A Christmas Story.

The Phillip Hughes story gripped a nation. So much potential felled in an instant. Grief amplified by promise and love lost. Phillip was a Little Aussie Battler like us. But what promise! Looming all the larger because it is gone.

Pup becomes a tower of strength. We see him in a new light. Rival teams are at one. The game is bigger than the individual. The next test is both contest and tribute. An injured but newly-inspired captain makes the right calls, hits another century and wins; all the more meaningful because of a valiant, striving opponent. David Warner salutes heaven for his century. We intuitively know what he means. A great story.

November 5, 2014

John Menadue. 'No eulogy is equal to such a name'

In a celebratory Mass for Gough Whitlam, Fr Ed Campion recalled the brief inscription to Machiavelli in the Franciscan Church of Santa Croce in Florence. ‘Tanto nomini nullum par elogium, 1527’.

Look around and we see monuments to Gough Whitlam everywhere - Medicare, needs-based education funding, recognition of China, no-fault divorce, university education, land rights, an end to White Australia, and …….A eulogy may be superfluous

December 30, 2016

RAMESH THAKUR. UN rebuffs Netanyahu and Trump.

The United Nations Security Council’s pre-Christmas condemnation of Israel’s construction of settlements in the occupied territories surprised many and infuriated Israel. The move was rebuff to both Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to incoming US President-elect Donald Trump. How did it happen? And what will be the likely ramifications.

June 2, 2014

Stephen Leeder. Electronic medical records for patients!

Australia embarked on an ambitious journey when it committed to developing a medical record that would go with each patient to whatever health care provider they consulted. “The eHealth record system — launched in June 2012 — is an electronic record for a patient that contains a summary of their health information.” http://www.nehta.gov.au/our-work/pcehr

This personally-controlled version, known as PCEHR, was rather akin to establishing a colony on Mars – maybe best to get to the moon first. The enterprise was reviewed in depth last year after faltering.

January 9, 2016

Michael Thorn. The Australian cricket captain says its about the brand and not alcohol.

Repost from 24/09/2015

Premier Mike Baird’s public comments at last week’s Thomas Kelly Foundation event in Sydney wasn’t the first time he has questioned the extent of alcohol advertising in this country, particularly its strong association with big sport.

Baird made the self-evident point that such alcohol advertising has become omni-present and spoke about the need to reduce its presence.

“I find it quite an incredible position where the captain of our cricket team sits there with a big VB on the middle [of his chest],” Mr Baird said.

April 7, 2017

MARK BEESON. What it is to be popular

At a moment when the world needs informed responses to complex problems that transcend national borders, a retreat to nationalist tub-thumping is the last thing we need. Yes, there are important questions about who ‘we’ are and whom national public policies actually benefit, but they are unlikely to be answered, much less addressed by the current generation of populists.

November 5, 2016

PETER CHRISTOFF. The Paris climate deal has come into force - what next for Australia?

The Paris climate agreement comes into legal force today, just 11 months after it was concluded and 30 days after it met its ratification threshold of 55 parties accounting for at least 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

By contrast, the Kyoto Protocol, which this treaty now replaces, took more than 8 years to come into force, slowed by the United States’ persistent and erosive opposition.

At the time of writing, the Agreement has been ratified by 94 parties, including the world’s four largest emitters: China, the United States, the European Union and India. As Climate Analytics reports, these nations account for 66% of greenhouse emissions. Even if the United States were to withdraw its support under a Trump presidency, the Paris Agreement will remain in force.

April 27, 2017

SAMANTHA PAGE. In defence of public investment in childcare

When childcare issues have hit the news lately, it’s either been about the Federal Government’s new $1.6 billion package to help make childcare more affordable, or about massive fraud cases where rogue Family Day Care operators have pocketed millions of tax payer dollars.

May 3, 2016

Peter Gibilisco. A Synergistic Approach to Disability

Here is my proposal for a Dictionary definition of Synergy:

the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.

“the synergy between artist and record company” or disability support workers and people with disabilities with high support needs.

In some of my writings I have referred to what I call the “synergistic” outcomes that result from the interaction of people with disabilities and their support workers. These effective working relationships should be given the respect that is their due since they make an indispensable contribution to ongoing efforts to devise effective models of leadership in such workplaces.

August 29, 2016

MILTON MOON. Waiting for Godness -a narrative poem

by Milton Moon.©

I’m due to die sooner rather than later. My wife of sixty-seven years has already gone, her mortal remains, in ashes waiting for mine. Together they’ll go, somewhere as part of the seasons or the tides ebb or flow. She is still with me, I talk to her often, burning incense twice a day and telling her “incense is dispersed for the soul of the young girl.”

September 12, 2013

Let's hope Albo runs and wins. John Menadue

The ALP needs a ballot for its parliamentary leadership even if it takes a month or so to do so. It will be time well spent. It needs to find the right leader and continue the process of democratisation that the ALP badly needs.

Those who want to rush to a quick decision on the leadership are the faction heavies and union bosses that want to continue to control the ALP and for it to continue on its disastrous course. They want control rather than power on behalf of ordinary working people.

March 24, 2025

A five-minute scroll

ABC’s Jane Norman is called out for repeating Coalition talking points with Jim Chalmers. Overnight reports claim Israel has killed senior Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil and his family. Former First Minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, calls on the international community to realise Israel is out of control, while the Arab League calls on nations to end economic and military ties with Israel.

April 6, 2016

Richard Butler. Nuclear Security Summit: Washington Finale?

Seven years ago, President Obama spoke in Prague Square and undertook to “seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons”. He cautioned that this outcome would be immensely difficult to achieve and may not be reached in his own lifetime, but his speech was heard and widely taken as signaling an enhanced US commitment to the elimination of nuclear weapons.

A year later he called the first meeting of a Nuclear Security Summit, to be attended by Heads of State/Government. It was held in 2010 and then followed, in 2012, 2014, and last week, the 2016 Summit, held in Washington DC, was designated as the last such gathering, at Summit level.

August 27, 2014

John Menadue. The Iraq disaster - reaping what we have sown.

The seeds of the disaster in Iraq were sown long ago. We are now reaping a very bitter harvest.

A major contributor to the upsurge in violence, terrorism and extremism in Iraq is the sense of outrage that many young Muslim men feel about the invasion of their country by successive Western powers, including Australia.

The Howard Government and News Corporation which supported our participation in the coalition of the willing must bear a heavy responsibility for the unfolding horror.

May 13, 2019

JOHN MENADUE. An ancient or modern Liberal.

This poster appeared in the Wentworth electorate yesterday. Very pertinent! John Menadue

February 7, 2025

A five-minute scroll

It’s not the first time the Trump administration has imposed sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC). Independent journalist Richard Medhurst has been detained by Austrian police and intelligence services. The late John Pilger reminds us what Julian Assange uncovered about media, while Juice Media pulls the rug from under Dutton’s nuclear plans. Another week in our world.

August 19, 2016

CHRIS BONNOR & BERNIE SHEPHERD. When public schools become part of the problem

School education in Australia has been invaded from the west. In 2010 Western Australia added its contribution to free-market orthodoxy by declaring that its public schools would be given greater control over staffing and budgets. From 2010 an increasing number have become independent public schools.

Like many reforms (?) over the last few decades it has a certain resonance and indeed was initially welcomed by a large number of schools. School principals have always complained about excessive bureaucratic control of their schools.

August 17, 2016

CAVAN HOGUE. Handing over our Defence to a foreign country.

The Government has refused to allow a Chinese firm to invest in electricity because it is seen as a threat to our security but it has no difficulty in handing over our defence to a foreign country. Australian defence forces are so integrated with the US that it is hard to see how we can operate independently. Of course the USA is an ally and a friend but it is naive to imagine that the US would ever put Australian interests before American ones. It never has and it would be mad to do so. We, however, have got involved in wars that serve American interests but not Australian ones. Countries don’t have friends, they have interests.

February 3, 2016

Ian McAuley Private health insurance – does the lady protest too much?

Sussan Ley, the Commonwealth Health Minister, has hit out at private health insurers’ bid for a six per cent price increase.

In view of the strong support the Coalition has always given private health insurers, such public criticism from a Liberal Party minister may surprise us. As one-time Prime Minister Tony Abbott said “private health insurance is in our DNA”.

It would be reassuring to believe that the Sussan Ley has come to recognise private health insurance (PHI) for what it is – a high-cost financial intermediary that does nothing to take pressure off public hospitals and that has been largely responsible for diverting scarce health care resources away from areas of need.

April 6, 2014

Ben Saul. Australia's Guantanamo problem.

Ben Saul has written an article for the New York Times about the imprisonment of 52 people in Australia for up to nearly five years without trial. Secret evidence has been presented against them. They have no prospect of release.

Read the full article from the New York Times by following the link below.

Ben Saul is Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney.

John Menadue

http://sydney.edu.au/news/law/436.html?newscategoryid=64&newsstoryid=13274

April 4, 2017

RICHARD BUTLER. Fake news?

Trump’s threats against DPRK and May’s against Gibraltar, as reported, are fake news. The US’ stance on nuclear non-proliferation of nuclear weapons is a fake.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal