March 7, 2024

South Africa requests ICJ emergency orders to halt “unspeakable” Gazan genocide

“Israel is now massacring desperate, starving Palestinians seeking to obtain food for their slowly-dying children.” The situation in Gaza is now so terrifying as to be unspeakable, writes South Africa in an urgent request for the International Court of Justice to issue additional provisional measures to stop Israel’s genocide.

January 16, 2015

John Menadue. Be careful what you wish for.

You may be interested in this repost. John Menadue

Be careful what you wish for.

With the Victorian election result the Labor Party may be hoping to see the demise of Tony Abbott in the New Year. But it should be careful what it hopes for.

Gough Whitlam successfully crippled Billy Snedden as the leader of the Liberal Party in 1974 and got Malcolm Fraser in his place, a much more substantial leader.

May 29, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Menzies' 'forgotten people' and 'forgotten issues'.

It is all very jolly for Turnbull’s troops to indulge in nostalgia and sentimentality, but they should realize that those times are gone forever. Few Australians were even alive to remember them, and the rest of us don’t want to except in black and white movies.

December 27, 2016

TILLY GUNNING. Gertrude Menear – My Great, Great Aunt-an early suffragette

A woman ahead of her time.

June 24, 2016

FRANK BRENNAN SJ. How to Stop the Boats Decently after the election

In her valedictory speech on 17 June 2013 after 20 years in parliament Judi Moylan reminded us:

If we are committed to stopping the deaths at sea, in this most intransigent of political arenas, our parliament must find a way to forge a national consensus before we can possibly entertain any hope of achieving a regional consensus.

There are presently 847 people in the Manus Island RPC and 466 persons in the Nauru RPC. There are 541 persons on Manus Island who have received a positive final determination that they are refugees. There are 915 persons on Nauru who are proven refugees, languishing on a Pacific Island with a permanent population of 10,000. Imagine if Australia were being asked to offer places to 2.4 million refugees in the next year. And make no mistake, that is the per capita equivalent to what we have visited upon Nauru with our chequebook.

April 26, 2017

KERRY BREEN and M.TAFFY JONES. Why mandatory reporting of the ill-health of doctors is not in anyone’s best interests

“Sick doctors will delay seeking help because of fear of stigmatisation and a threat to their professional status and livelihood through premature and unjustified reporting by treating doctors who themselves are made to feel insecure by the legislation. The distress and harm resulting from an inappropriate mandatory notification cannot be underestimated.”

December 10, 2016

BRUCE ARNOLD. Open Government, Open to interpretation

If we are indeed open to Open Government a salient demonstration would be facilitating Australian Human Rights Commission access to what is happening on Australia’s behalf in offshore detention centres. That would be a fine national Christmas present from Turnbull, Dutton and Brandis, with or without tinsel.

September 30, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. Malcolm Turnbull – the last straw on climate change and renewables.

Let’s be clear. All the experts tell us that the power blackout in SA had nothing to do with the energy mix – coal, gas, solar or wind. They all tell us that the blackout was due to the collapse of the key distribution towers and lines.

Yesterday, Malcolm Turnbull blamed the blackout on excessive haste with renewables and called for cuts in renewable energy targets. It was part of a continuing war by the coalition against renewable energy with the ABC now joining in. The Victorian Premier called Malcolm Turnbull’s comments ‘ignorant rubbish’.

With his populist nonsense Malcolm Turnbull finally and fully embraced the coal lobby. He has taken the final step from a believer in climate change to a sceptic.

September 21, 2016

PETER WHITEFORD. The $4.8 trillion dollar question: will an 'investment approach' to welfare help the most disadvantaged?

Social Services Minister Christian Porter on Tuesday released a report on the lifetime costs of the social security system for the Australian population, putting it at close to A$4.8 trillion.

The report was an initiative of the 2015-16 budget, when the government allocated A$33.7 million to establish an Australian Priority Investment Approach to Welfare based on actuarial analysis of social security data.

April 20, 2017

DAVID JAMES. Deconstructing the privatisation scam

It is increasingly evident how pernicious the privatisation myth is. Two recent examples have underlined it: the failings in Australia’s privatised energy grid and the usurious pricing in airport car parks. Both examples demonstrated that it is folly to expect a public benefit to inevitably emerge from private profit seeking.

December 7, 2015

Peter Gibilisco. The standardisation of services for people with disabilities.

WHAT IS MEANT BY EFFICIENCY IN THE PROVISION OF SERVICES FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES? IS IT JUST A COVER FOR GREATER STANDARDISATION?

The State Disability Plan is not the only endorsement of the need to emphasize the individualising of care for people with disabilities. We now hear of a profound development – person-centred planning is said to be the world-wide benchmarked best practice. This involves a highly individualised vision of the person with disabilities and the result is that care needs multiply into a kaleidoscopic variety of individually generated special needs and concerns.

December 23, 2014

John Menadue. The accident prone Julie Bishop.

I have written before about Julie Bishop’s mistakes as Foreign Minister despite the media spin that she has successfully generated. Those articles were: ‘Julie Bishop – Substance and Style’ on the 18th November; and ‘Julie Bishop -‘Undiplomatic, politically partisan and wrong’ on 22 November. Just recall her foolish attack on President Obama over the Great Barrier Reef.

Since then Julie Bishop has continued on her merry way with a pliant media.

March 11, 2016

Cavan Hogue. The Defence White Paper and the China threat.

In a paper distributed by the ANU East Asia Forum, Professor Hugh White has pointed out that the Defence White Paper makes two invalid assumptions: the post-Cold War US-led international order will be maintained and that it must be. He is right on both counts and I will not repeat his views here except to say I agree with them.

The so-called “rules based” order is based on Western concepts and dominated by Western countries. Many other countries simply don’t accept the rules. Even some UN rules, including those we would like to keep, are open to question by some countries especially if you consider “interpretation”. Indeed, we and others break the rules when it suits us; the Coalition of the Willing is just one example of the preachers breaking the rules and we can find countless others. Australia, like the US and Western Europe, sees democracy as an article of faith and condemns as evil infidels anyone who questions the one true political faith. Not everyone agrees with our approach and in an increasingly multipolar world do we have the capacity or need to impose our values on others so long as they don’t try to impose theirs on us?

March 29, 2017

Saul Eslake’s well timed warnings help inform the housing affordability debate

Saul Eslake, one of Australia’s most highly respected independent economists, has sounded some sobering warnings about the impact of declining rates of home ownership (and rising levels of mortgage debt) on Australia’s retirement income system. He has also once again stressed the need for reform of the demand side of the supply and demand equation affecting housing affordability.

January 10, 2017

SUSAN RYAN. Housing affordability requires immediate government action

The 2016 Intergenerational Report from Treasury predicted that by 2050 the numbers of people in Australia over 65, currently nearly a quarter of the population, will have doubled. Average age expectancy will be over 95 for women and men. Where will those people be living?

April 18, 2017

DAVID M SCOTT and PETER SEAL. Medical specialists - maintaining a high standard and duty of care.

In recent times, several articles have appeared in the print and electronic media about the alleged ‘high fees’ and ‘poor accountability’ of medical specialists. A few weeks ago on his ‘Pearls and Irritations’ blog, John Menadue posted one such piece titled ‘ Medical specialists – high fees and poor accountability’. The Australian Society of Anaesthetists (ASA) believes that some of John Menadue’s strongly asserted claims merit a measured response, and wishes to address some misconceptions that have arisen. There are almost 5000 specialist anaesthetists in Australia, and they comprise approximately 4.5% of the nation’s medical workforce. The ASA has been supporting, representing and educating anaesthetists in this country since 1934.

June 29, 2016

JON STANFORD. Brexit - UK is unprepared.

The thrust of Michael Keating’s essay on Brexit is that the vote in favour of leaving the European Union taken by the British electorate on 23 June will be bad for the UK but will have a minimal impact on the rest of the world.

If the British government accepts the advice put forward in what is an advisory referendum, Dr Keating may very well be correct. Already significant damage has been done to the UK economy, even before Article 50 has been triggered. The exchange rate for the pound is in a nosedive, some banks have lost 40 per cent of their value on the stock exchange and the nation’s AAA rating has been withdrawn.

January 25, 2013

Nova Peris and the Captain's pick

Julia Gillard’s action in parachuting Nova Peris into the Northern Territory senate seat is understandable. The ALP machinery is so decrepit and undemocratic that occasional use of power by the parliamentary leader is necessary.

Party members have left the ALP in droves over the years. It is a ramshackle organisation that is so easy to manipulate by faction heavies. With so few party members it is remarkable that there isn’t more branch stacking and manipulation in preselections. Apparently only about 230 party members voted in the preselection for Senator Crossin for the Northern Territory Senate. But there are over 30,000 ALP first preference voters in the subsequent senate election. So a small group of party members foisted Senator Crossin on ALP supporters.

March 29, 2016

John Menadue. White man’s media.

On 26 March I provided a link to an article by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian, who commented

‘The atrocities in Brussels happen almost daily in the streets of Baghdad, Aleppo and Damascus. .. A dead Muslim is an unlucky mutt in the wrong place at the wrong time. A dead European is front page news.’

We have again seen this distortion of the news being played out in the bombings in Lahore. Over 70 people were killed, including many children. A week earlier, 33 died in a terrorist attack in Brussels. Just contrast the media coverage, the response by politicians and the prayers offered by religious leaders over Easter.

September 1, 2016

EVAN WILLIAMS. Film review: Truman

Directed by Cesc Gay, Truman is a wonderful Spanish film about a couple of old buddies saying goodbye for the last time. One of them is dying of lung cancer, and the film traces their last four days together in Madrid. The good news is that Truman isn’t nearly as miserable as it sounds. In some reviews –and in the ads – I’ve seen it described as a “comedy-drama,” though the comic elements are often hard to discern.

January 15, 2014

Mission accomplished? Be careful which war you wish for. Travers McLeod

“We are going to hold the line, we are going to protect the borders”, Scott Morrison, Federal Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, told the 44th Federal Parliament in its first sitting week. “This battle is being fought using the full arsenal of measures”, he wrote elsewhere. Last week, the Prime Minister defended the secrecy of the ‘battle’, saying, “if we were at war we wouldn’t be giving out information that is of use to the enemy just because we might have an idle curiosity about it ourselves”.

May 31, 2017

RICHARD WOOLCOTT. Australian security and trade policy for 2017 and beyond.

The key issue is not what President Trump says on behalf of the United States but, what the United States actually does.

September 5, 2016

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Undermining Malcolm Turnbull.

The baying pack of coalition backbenchers demanding the abolition, or at least the dilution, of the Racial Discrimination Act may be sincere crusaders for free speech.

On the other hand they may be motivated by a desire to attack small-l liberals, of whom one is (or at least was) their own leader, Malcolm Turnbull. And some are just nasty.

But in all cases they are guilty of that most heinous of political crimes: they are out of touch with the electorate. Despite the fanatical efforts of the ideological zealots of The Australian, there is not even a squall in the twttersphere of protest about the horrors of the repression of section 18c.

February 9, 2017

MICHAEL LESTER. ‘Draining the swamp’ : the ‘Businessman’ President

Donald J Trump is called the ‘businessman’ President. The ethics and practices of ‘private’ business, and the nature and ‘business models’ of activities undertaken, are arguably, neither consistent with the established accountabilities of ‘corporate governance’ nor with the innovative future of the’ digital economy’.’

March 4, 2021

Christian Porter responsible for serial breaches of the law, now cries “rule of law”

Christian Porter is responsible for serial breaches of the law, as documented repeatedly by Pearls and Irritations. These revelations alone should be enough to see Porter removed from official duties but his relentless persecution of Witness K and Bernard Collaery – both denied natural justice and prosecuted in secret – are hardly the stuff of a model litigant. Yet now the besieged Attorney-General calls for rule of law to apply in respect of the rape allegations against him.

November 17, 2014

Steve FitzGerald on Gough Whitlam, Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou

Of the many things I admired and loved about Gough, one of the most delicious, next to our shared liking for food, was that he was the best person I’ve ever been privileged to brief. It wasn’t just that he soaked it up like blotting paper and asked for more and never forgot. It was that each piece of information was absorbed into its appointed niche and found a place in his political and historical cosmology, and emerged as knowledge, fully fashioned, and in context. One imagined the Graeco-Roman or later Christian ‘art of memory’, but of course Whitlamesque in its Enlightenment commitment to science and reason and the art of enquiry.

October 8, 2015

Wasteful costs in health.

Following the ABC Four Corners program on health costs in Australia, there have been a number of very good follow up articles.

The first, in The Conversation on 29 September is by Ray Moynihan ‘Costly and harmful: we need to tame the tsunami of too much medicine’.

https://theconversation.com/costly-and-harmful-we-need-to-tame-the-tsunami-of-too-much-medicine-48239

The second, in the AFR on 5 October, is by Neil Soderlund, Sam Stewart and Jan Willem Kuenen is entitled ‘Why overtreatment is costing Aussies $30 billion per year and how to fix it’.

July 4, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Tony Abbott shoots first and asks questions later.

In all, [Tony Abbott’s] program is for a regime which can best charitably be described as a socialist theocracy, somewhat along the lines of Abbott’s mentor, Bartholomew Augustine Santamaria – although the Abbott version would be considerably more totalitarian.

January 17, 2015

John Menadue. What does Labor stand for. Part 1

You might be interested in this repost . It was part 1 of a six part series. Part 6 will be reposted tomorrow. John Menadue

Labor’s constituency

The Labor primary vote has declined from about 45-50% fifty years ago to 35-40% today. Labor has lost its clear identity with the ‘working class’ and what it stands for. Its natural constituency and membership has declined. To contain the loss, Labor has increasingly committed itself to focus groups, marginal seat strategies and ‘whatever it takes’. Values, principles and ideas have given way to marketing of products .Money has replaced membership as the driving force of campaigns. The trade unions remain the most important institutional Labor supporter. The unions have a proud record but their influence is out of proportion to their role in the community and the ‘Labor constituency’.

October 12, 2014

Medibank Private and members' equity.

In the New Daily on 6 October, George Lekakis drew attention to a letter sent to a policy-holder in 1994 by Mary-Jo Henrisson, a customer services manager in Medibank’s NSW head office. Mary-Jo Henrisson said “We would be sorry to see you lose the equity you have built up in the fund.”

For the full story in the New Daily see link below.

http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2014/10/06/exclusive-medibank-letter-government-doesnt-want-read/

September 2, 2015

Luke Fraser. Rail infrastructure failure.

RAIL: FEWER SPENDING CHEERLEADERS, MORE JIMMY CARTER.

In June the Australian Financial Review hosted an Infrastructure Summit of the great and good in Sydney. It heard about the need for much more infrastructure: Australia was ‘well behind’ other countries in such matters. Nobody dwelt on the possibility that in transport at least, Australia might suffer from a tired and patchy regulatory inheritance and an extremely lazy generation of regulatory policy makers.

August 26, 2015

Sandra Jones. Don’t worry about the kids: Let's just protect the alcohol industry

A recent study from Monash University found that a quarter of all alcohol advertising on Australian TV was during televised sports. Importantly, 86% of alcohol advertising between 6.00am and 8.30pm (that is, when kids are most likely to be watching TV) was during sports programming.

The broadcast of alcohol advertisements on commercial television in Australia is restricted in order to limit the exposure of young people to alcohol advertising. Alcohol advertising is only permitted during periods of M (mature classification), MA (mature audience classification) or AV (adult violence classification) programs (which are restricted to between 8:30pm and 5.00am).

November 18, 2014

Michael Kelly and Michael Sainsbury on The Pope and the President.

When the Chinese government confirmed Xi Jingpin as the country’s president in March 2013, among the congratulatory letters received in Beijing was one from the newly elected Pope Francis. It was a nice touch from the leader of one “regime” to another, since the two have been at odds for decades over religious freedom.

Over the years, many observers have remarked on the similarity between the two dogmatic, highly regimented and stratified organizations operated by powerful but opaque ruling cliques, regimes that have brooked no opposition to their official diktat from the centre.

July 17, 2015

John Menadue. Refugees- from toxic politics to a humanitarian policy.

The ALP Federal conference which will be meeting in a week’s time, will be considering refugee policy along with other major issues.

I have re-posted below a post from 22 June on refugees .

Media reports suggest that boat ’turnbacks’ will be a contentious issue at the conference. There are several issues that I think should be kept in mind on this issue.

The first is that the dramatic drop in boat arrivals has not been due to turnbacks, but the decision by the Rudd Government announced on 13 July 2013, that any people arriving by boat in future would never be settled in Australia. That was the game-changer. Tony Abbott’s actions were quite marginal, including some turnbacks. These turnbacks had a great deal of publicity but they were not significant in curbing the flow of boats.

June 25, 2015

Is the European Central Bank looking after the Greek people or the banks?

Current Affairs.

In London I have been reading this interesting piece in The Telegraph, by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, (link below) on the ‘Greek problem’. It was published on 19 June 2015. John Menadue.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11687229/Greek-debt-crisis-is-the-Iraq-War-of-finance.html

February 1, 2015

John Menadue - 30th anniversary of Medicare

This article was initially posted on 1st February last year, the 30th anniversary of Medicare.

March 22, 2017

ALBERT MISPEL. 1938-2017

Pearls & Irritations advises the sad news that Albert Mispel, who was instrumental in getting this blog started (and indeed, suggested its name) has passed away. Albert had an exciting life during which he taught school in New Guinea, was a core member of the Glebe Society fighting expressways during the 1970s and, later in life, became a computer programmer/web designer. He was enthusiastic about all progressive causes. He provided the technical know-how to get this blog up and running five years ago, and supported it thereafter. He believed in the ‘cause’. The first blog password was ‘November 1975’. With many others, he would never forget the Whitlam dismissal. Albert’s death is mourned by his wife, Kathy, two daughters, Jo and Madeleine, and his grandchildren. He will be sadly missed. Vale Albert.

July 17, 2015

Stuart Whitman. Labor 2035

This article is posted from Grassroots, The Local Labor Journal - Party Reform: Past Present and Future.

It’s 2035, and Labor members from an inner suburb of Australia’s largest city are gathering in their local community centre to welcome the new Labor Prime Minister on her first official visit to the electorate.

The recently elected Prime Minister is returning to her childhood community to congratulate its Labor branch on their Community Action Programs and to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ALP National Conference that changed everything.

May 29, 2017

JOHN MENADUE. Health Reform and cooperative federalism. Part 1

In the SMH of May 29, 2017, Adam Gartrell reports that ‘The private health insurtance rebate would e abolished, consumers would be charged more for extra cover and the states would be forced to find more money for public hospitals under radical funding changes being considered by top government officials. Documents obtained by Fairfax Media reveal the nation’s most senior health bureaucrats are part of a secret task force developing a proposal for a “Commonwealth Hospital Benefit” - a new funding formula for public and private hospitals.’

See below, my post from April 12 2016, about a possible ‘Commonwealth Hospital Benefit’. John Menadue.

June 29, 2015

Walter Hamilton. Why I am an Australian citizen

Current Affairs.

Amid all the howling about terror, treason and the ABC, Australians seemingly have lost the ability to stop, listen and think. Everyone is in such a hurry to outdo the next person in vilifying and repudiating the ‘other’, whether it is a Muslim Australian, a political opponent or a commercial rival. I can’t remember when the fabric of public debate has been so tattered by prejudice, ignorance and a determined refusal to listen to the other point of view.

November 18, 2014

Renewable energy investment.

A key feature of the President Obama/President Xi communique is their commitment to substantially reduce carbon pollution. There was little mention of an emissions trading scheme or putting a price on carbon. The emphasis was on developing renewable energy as an alternative source of energy to fossil fuels. Emphasis was given to development of solar, wind and nuclear power. But in Australia, our government in attacking the established renewable energy targets has caused great confusion and damage in investment plans. As a result, renewable energy investment in Australia dropped 70% in the past year. See the link below to the report from the Climate Council which was published in The Conversation on 10 November. John Menadue.

December 22, 2014

Caroline Coggins, Pausing in Advent.

I was on retreat recently in Hong Kong and there was a very small pool with eight turtles in it. It took me some days to notice; you have to slow down to see them. Their water was muddy, there was certainly no vista here, just the close company they kept with each other, and the bonus of the big shell that they could pull their heads in and out of. I liked the turtles, I watched them lean on each other to get up, rest on top of each other, they had that shell, but mostly their heads were out, steady and still, looking at me, as I looked at them, curiously. They seemed absorbed and present in their small world, except when I jumped up quickly one day, full of some internal noise, and they too fled from their rock, plopping back into the water. I had disturbed their universe, and they disappeared for cover. Having our known world disturbed is never easy.

October 8, 2014

Geoff Hiscock. Abbott on the friendship trail with Modi

China rightly dominates most discussions of Australia’s economic outlook, but Tony Abbott has made it plain he also wants to be good friends with the other emerging Asian heavyweight, India.

A tangible example came during his visit there early last month (September), when he handed over two ancient Hindu statues that allegedly were stolen from temples in Tamil Nadu and subsequently acquired by Australian art galleries.

It was a gesture that prompted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to express his gratitude and to say Abbott had shown “enormous respect” for India’s cultural heritage.

December 17, 2014

Hazel Moir and Deborah Gleeson. Evergreening and how big pharma keeps drug prices high.

Efforts by pharmaceutical companies to extend their patents cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year. In some cases they also mean people are subjected to unnecessary clinical trials.

Big pharma makes big profits. Their useful new drugs are patented, protecting them from competition and allowing them to charge high prices. When the patent ends, other companies are allowed to supply the previously patented drug. These are known as generics. The prices of generic drugs are much lower than the prices of in-patent drugs – it has been suggested that for widely used drugs price falls can be as much as 95%.

February 14, 2017

KATHLEEN McPHILLIPS. Royal commission hearings show Catholic Church faces a massive reform task.

In research prepared for the Royal Commission, 7% of priests were identified as perpetrators. By far the worst offenders were in religious orders: for example, over 40% of John of God Brothers, 22% of Christian Brothers and 20% of Marist Brothers were identified as alleged perpetrators. These figures are particularly shocking because the rate of disclosure of abuse by victims is generally held to be under 20%.

August 15, 2017

GRAHAM FREUDENBERG. Malcolm Turnbull’s response to the Korean crisis has been contemptible.

In his grovelling ‘hip to hip’ statement on 10 August, he served up to the Australian people an utterly false and misleading version of the ANZUS Treaty and its meaning.

July 24, 2014

John Menadue--King Coal to be dethroned.

On May 1 last year I posted “A canary in the coal mine”. It focussed on the growing and wide concern about the damage to the climate caused by coal fired electricity generation. It also drew attention to the action of Jonathon Moylan who sent a hoax email concerning Whitehaven Coal to the ANZ Bank about the risk of investing in coal. The worthy and powerful tut tutted his action but I likened it to the canary in the coal mine warning of danger ahead.

July 30, 2018

CHANNEL 9 -The likely new owners of Fairfax show their skill

August 15, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Strong leaders carry out their promises - Malcolm Turnbull.

It is impossible to imagine Gough Whitlam, Paul Keating or even John Gorton being so cowed by the vengeful has-beens and disgruntled bigots who are now calling the shots in what is laughingly described as the government.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal

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