May 17, 2017

ANDREW FARRAN. More troops to Afghanistan: at best a patch job; at worst perpetuating futility

Whereas economic globalisation might seem for a time to be on the wane, in the military sphere globalisation is on the rise. Regional alliances are being transformed into global alliances. ANZUS has been merged de facto into NATO, and where NATO is persuaded to go so shall we. Australia has been involved in Middle East conflicts – in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria – and is now under pressure to expand its Afghanistan commitment. We should be clear about the purpose and intended outcomes of such commitments.

April 18, 2016

Tony Wood. The $50 b. submarine project.

Jon Stanford’s papers on the submarine project make an important contribution and deserve widespread circulation particularly among our decision makers. The replacement submarine decision has profound implications for all Australians. Its intention is to provide a deterrent to “potential adversaries”, but also to offer to the young members of our defence force weapons at least comparable with those they might face in opposition. To achieve this it is proposed we spend more on this project than we have ever spent before on military equipment.

April 16, 2015

Marilyn Lake. Fracturing the nation's soul.

You might be interested in this repost. John Menadue.

During World War 1 Australia lost its way. Its enmeshment in the imperial European war fractured the nation’s soul.

World War I had consequences for individuals as well as nations. HB Higgins’s life would be deeply affected by the British decision to invade the Ottoman empire in early 1915. As a member of the new federal parliament in 1901, Higgins had opposed Australian participation in the Boer War, fearing that this would set a terrible precedent for involvement in other imperial wars, whose purpose, goals and strategy would always be determined by other powers. He also doubted the legitimacy of the European war, writing to his friend Felix Frankfurter, Professor in Law at Harvard, ‘What do you think of it? … [T]here are higher ideals than attachment to a country because it is my country. I blame our British jingoes…’ Higgins was deeply troubled when his only child Mervyn elected to join British forces fighting in the Middle East.

October 1, 2016

JULIE WALKER. Australia should compare CEO and average worker pay like the US and UK.

Australia should follow the lead of the United States in requiring public companies to disclose how much their CEO makes each year directly compared to an “average” rank and file employee. Ballooning executive pay contributes to income inequality and the CEO pay ratio provides a measure of the extent of the pay gap between the top and bottom income levels in the economy.

US companies will be required to disclose from 1 January 2017 the ratio of pay of a CEO’s annual total remuneration to the median annual total remuneration of all company employees. UK companies are also subject to a variation of the CEO pay ratio rule, with relevant regulation requiring disclosure of the CEO’s remuneration compared to their employees. In Australia companies don’t have to disclose this ratio, although companies do disclose information about remuneration for executives.

August 13, 2013

Minimizing PNG and Nauru. John Menadue

Before I outline what I suggest we should do after the federal election let me first raise a few important background issues.

The Indo China program

In working with Malcolm Fraser and Ian Macphee I was actively involved in the Indochina refugee program under which Australia took 240,000 people, including family reunion. It was a successful humanitarian program which most Australians now look back on with pride. It also broke the back of White Australia but did not fully banish it. It still shows up to today in a de facto form, in hostility and demonization of asylum seekers.

January 7, 2016

John Tulloh. The Cost of the star-spangled arms banner.

Repost from 05/10/2015

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watched, we’re so gallantly streaming? And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there; O say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

March 17, 2017

HANS J OHFF. A Future Submarine bonanza for France

Seen through the eyes of an engineering contractor and shipbuilder I suggest that the French have hit the jackpot. They will be falling over themselves to sign the proposed Framework Agreement between the Government of Australia and the Government of the French Republic concerning cooperation on the future Submarine Program.

May 17, 2017

JEAN – PIERRE LEHMANN. Conspicuous Western & Japanese Absence from Belt & Road Initiative Summit is a Big Mistake

The conspicuous absence of the heads of state from the major Western economic powers and Japan at the 14/15 May Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) in Beijing is a big mistake and a missed opportunity for enhancing dynamic and cooperative globalisation.

August 23, 2016

IAN WEBSTER. Malcolm Turnbull and homelessness - reaching mentally ill people

This week our PM, Malcolm Turnbull, was admonished when he gave $5 to a homeless man in Melbourne. He was sorry if people thought he should not have done this. He said, “I felt sorry for the guy”….”there but for the grace of God go I.”

George Orwell wrote after being ‘down and out’ in Paris and London, “Still I can point to one or two things. I have definitely learned by being hard up. I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny, nor be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant. That is a beginning.”

June 9, 2017

MICHAEL KELLY. Time to think outside the square for the Church in China

Joseph Jiang’s timely essay on the Church in today’s China will annoy some but asks all the right questions.

July 17, 2013

Joining the dots on Asia. John Menadue

The advocates of stronger ties with Asia spend a great deal of time with seminars and press statements about the importance of the region to our future. They are correct but they refuse to join the dots and advocate the changes on the really important issues impeding our relations with our region. Some of those impediments are symbolic and some are real. They include:

How can we expect our region to take us seriously when we have an English Queen as our head of state? Many Asians that I have spoken to are polite but shake their head with bemusement that we have a foreign head of state living in London.
Many in Asia are sceptical about our dependence on the US and allowing our foreign affairs and defence policies to be determined very largely by our relationship with the US at the expense of relations with regional countries. They have not forgotten John Howard’s reference to Australia as being the US’s ‘deputy sheriff’ in the region. Regional countries do place importance on the continuing role of the US in our region, but not in the slavish way that we do.
We have a clubbish Anglo-Celtic business sector that espouses better relations with the region but closes its ranks against persons with serious Asian experience or competence in the language.
The continuous demonization of asylum seekers is a disingenuous re-run of White Australia – appealing to our fear of the foreigner which was the key driver of White Australia in the past. Malaysia is continually bashed by the Greens, the Coalition and NGOs when it offered the prospect of building a regional arrangement for asylum seekers.
Our media reflects our overwhelming ties to the UK and the US. Just look at the inflated coverage of the Boston bombings compared with the civil war broken out in Iraq with thousands of bombing deaths. By our own involvement in the Iraq war we have contributed to this catastrophe. But three deaths in Boston is much easier and cheaper TV footage.
We give lip service to the importance of Asian languages, but we are not prepared to fund it.
Working holiday programs with countries in our region which provide opportunities for young Australians to live and work in the region have been largely stalled for the past twenty years.

So much of the public debate about our relations with the region is froth and bubble. We avoid the hard issues. If we address them we would really show a genuine determination to build our future in our own region.

April 26, 2017

ALLAN PATIENCE. How much lower are we going to go?

The current Australian values and new immigration visa debates, blusteringly initiated by Malcolm Turnbull and his would-be successor Peter Dutton, represent one of the lowest points in recent Australian political history. Are these panicking populists capable of dragging the country any lower? Very likely they will try, because the politics they have now so fully embraced can take them nowhere else.

October 8, 2016

LAURIE PATTON. Essentially, our NBN is just not good enough (but please don't say so!)

… And don’t tell Malcolm Turnbull, who was Minister in charge of the NBN.

This week’s Essential poll found that dissatisfaction with the National Broadband Network is both widespread and pretty even across the political spectrum. Only 22 percent of respondents believe the NBN will adequately meet our future Internet requirements [ http://www.essentialvision.com.au/future-internet-requirements].

For those of us focussing on Australia’s potential to become an Innovation Nation and who’ve been watching the NBN debate with increasing despair this was no surprise. Although, as you dig deeper there appears to be a well-developed appreciation of the benefits of high speed broadband underlying peoples’ concerns.

July 26, 2017

STEPHEN LEEDER. Review of the Medicare Benefits Schedule.

The Medicare Benefits Schedule, or MBS, is the basis for Medicare payments made for medical care in the community. It runs to over 900 pages and contains 5,700 items. Well over $2Ob pass through its ledger each year. It includes long and short clinical consultations and surgical procedures ($17b), pathology tests ($2.65b) and x-ray and other imaging ($3.2b) that form the bulk of out-of-hospital care, mostly but not entirely ($1b not) provided by doctors.

September 27, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. 'Faster economic growth demands better chief executives'.

There was a revealing heading in a recent article by Ross Gittins, the economics editor of the SMH, ‘ Faster growth demands better chief executives’. He concluded his article by pointing to the need for business leadership to seize the economic opportunities .‘ Our overpaid and underperforming chief executive officers are getting (it) wrong’.

He says ‘Deloitte Access estimates that if the gap in management quality between Australia and the US were halved today, our productivity would rise to 80% of the US level, up from its present level of 77%. Achieving such an increase today would lead to a 5.3% increase in gross domestic product over its present level. This represents an increase in GDP of about $70 billion, equivalent to about $3,000 a person per year. … Deloitte Access concludes from other research that fast-growing businesses “take an attitude that success is in their hands and nobody else’s.” But so often our business sector keeps running to government for help . The rubric it invariably uses is ‘getting rid of regulation and red tape’.

In this blog I have often remarked that some business people and particularly the Business Council of Australia spend a great deal of time lobbying governments to advance their business interests rather than running their businesses, or ‘sticking to their knitting’.

February 7, 2019

RICHARD DENNISS. Our regulators fail to protect the vulnerable from the greedy. Let's find out why. ( A repost from 19 September 2018)

Neoliberalism’s best trick was convincing us that ‘empowering’ citizens to shop around would deliver better services at a lower cost.

June 9, 2016

ANDREW LEIGH. Why the government's company tax cut is a carnival sideshow.

In the 1890s, Texan cowboy Clark Stanley began marketing a new product at medicine shows.

A man who could kill rattlesnakes with his bare hands, Stanley promised people that his rattlesnake extract would bring relief from rheumatism, sprains, swelling, back pain and toothache.

It wasn’t until 1917 that Stanley’s operation was finally shut down, with a court finding that the product not only didn’t provide a cure; it wasn’t even made from snakes. And so the term ‘snake oil’ was born.

January 20, 2015

Robert Douglas. Senate report on Australian inequality.

Bridging our growing divide: Inequality in Australia is an important report tabled without fanfare in the Senate by its Community Affairs References Committee. The report is clearly argued and well-buttressed by data and references. The points it makes about an issue central to the kind of society we are developing in Australia deserve wide community discussion.

The inquiry terms of reference called for a review of the extent of income inequality, the rate at which it is increasing and its impacts on access to health, housing, education and work.

November 24, 2016

LAURENCE TROY. Sydney needs higher affordable housing targets.

The release this week by the Greater Sydney Commission of city-wide draft plansmandating some measure of affordable housing in new developments is a step in the right direction. However, the target of 5-10% on rezoned land is too low to make a serious impact on the city’s affordable housing shortage. It must be more ambitious.

Research highlights the central importance of affordable, stable housing to economic and social wellbeing. Yet, in Sydney, the lack of affordable housing has reached crisis point. Everyone from community housing providers to Commonwealth Treasury secretary John Fraser is pointing out that rising house prices are creating massive social and economic problems.

May 17, 2017

JUDITH WHITE. Arts policy and the need to counter the undermining of public cultural institutions

Writing a book is a solitary occupation, but with this one I’ve been constantly aware of the hosts of people – staff, members, volunteers, benefactors – who are concerned about what is happening to our public institutions. And they are public institutions: they belong, by Acts of Parliament, to the people.

March 27, 2013

The Pacific Solution has failed. John Menadue

The Government fell for a dud Coalition “policy” that suggested that by re-opening Nauru/Manus the flow of asylum seekers by boat would be reduced or even cease. We recall that many times Tony Abbott said that on becoming Prime Minister, the first thing he would do would be to get on the phone to the President of Nauru to re-open the Nauru detention centre.

Following the Houston Report and in a spirit of political compromise, the Government foolishly accepted the Coalition policy to re-open Nauru/Manus as deterrents to boat arrivals. It was part of a larger package.

September 12, 2019

TROY BAISDEN. New Zealand launches plan to revive the health of lakes and rivers (The Conversation 6 Sep)

New Zealand’s government released a plan to reverse the decline of iconic lakes and rivers this week. It proposes higher standards for water quality, interim controls on land intensification and a higher bar on ecosystem health.

August 16, 2016

RICHARD BROINOWSKI. Merchants of Death - the Weapons Trade

According to Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick in The Untold History of the United States (2012), North Dakota Senator Gerald Nye persuaded the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1934 to investigate the enormous profits made by American weapons makers during the Great War. Amplifying public indignation, Fortune magazine ran an article in March of that year claiming that it had cost the US Treasury $25,000 to kill an enemy soldier in 1917-18: ‘Every time a burst shell fragment finds its way into the brain, the heart or the intestines of a man in the front line, a great part of the $25,000, much of it profit, finds its way into the pocket of the armament maker.’

June 24, 2015

John Menadue. Facts on the $11b per annum private health insurance industry subsidy.

The Minister for Health and Ageing, Sussan Ley has said she wants to canvas community and expert views on PHI (private health insurance).

If she does consult the community on this issue that will be a welcome change, for consideration of the PHI is usually a private discussion with the vested interests – the PHI industry, doctors and private hospitals.

I am not holding my breath about real consultation with the community. So much ‘consultation’ is purely token. Furthermore the community is genuinely confused about the range of look-alike policies that are very hard to understand until the patient has to pay.

December 16, 2014

John Menadue. The Sydney seige and social misfits. Will we ever learn?

I posted the following blog ‘Will we ever learn?’ on 27 October this year. Amongst other things it highlighted the domestic risks that would result from the Abbott Government’s decision to join the war in Iraq and Syria.

Keysar Trad from the Islamic Friendship Association has today described the hostage taker and killer as a ’nutter’.It is also clear that there were numerous warning signs in the previous behaviour of the attacker,

November 14, 2014

John Menadue. Media failure.

Yesterday I posted a story from ‘a former ABC correspondent’ concerning cutbacks in ABC bureaus, particularly in our region. The post was entitled: ‘The ABC:soft targets and collateral damage’.

Cutbacks at the ABC are a very serious problem and will prejudice Australia’s future in our region. So much of Australian media reflects the pattern laid down more than a century ago and remains heavily dependent on the US and the UK for news and views. These latest developments at the ABC are likely to worsen this dependence on North Atlantic media organisations. I wrote a blog on this subject on 17 April last year. Extracts from it are posted below>

June 23, 2016

LINDA SIMON. Do the Parties really care about vocational education and training (VET) these elections?

National TAFE Day was celebrated on June 16 this year, a little over two weeks before the Federal elections. Both Labor and the Greens took the opportunity to restate their support for TAFE and launch further policies. However the Government’s media release from Senator Scott Ryan, Minister for Vocational Education and Skills, focused only on criticisms of Labor’s policies, with no indication of how the Government might support TAFE. “On National TAFE Day 2016”, he said, “The Turnbull Coalition Government is standing with thousands of TAFE students against Bill Shorten’s knee-jerk plan to charge students thousands of dollars in upfront course fees.” He went on to say: “Labor’s ill-thought-through plan for massive upfront fees stands in stark contrast to the deliberative and consultative approach of the Turnbull Coalition Government, which has introduced more than a dozen measures to crack down on dodgy providers, and put students’ and taxpayers’ interests at the heart of VET FEE-HELP reform.”

May 9, 2016

John Austen and Luke Fraser. Urbane transport policy. Part 1 of 3.

Prime Minister Turnbull made a splash on urban transport recently. He sketched a vision of ‘30 minute cities’ where residents spend on average just one hour a day travelling to regular activities like work and shopping. He also considered mass transit solutions rather than just more motorways.

This article is the first of three raising questions about where politics and bureaucracy find themselves in transport and its infrastructure - and where they might head next. In a subsequent post, more on funding and the role of the Commonwealth. For now, the PM’s focus on mass transit and 30 minute cities:

October 11, 2014

Michael Kelly SJ. A new magazine - Global Pulse.

Global Pulse Magazine brings together the rich editorial resources of some of the world’s leading independent publishers in the Catholic Church for an international English readership. Global Pulse provides insights into the Church and in the wider world of politics, religion, ethics, society and culture. Visit www.globalpulsemagazine.com

In October, access is free so you can get a taste for what’s on offer. From November, you can subscribe for $22 for a year’s subscription

April 27, 2016

John Menadue. Slogans or advocacy.

At the last election, Tony Abbott gave us a long list of slogans.

One of them was to ‘axe the tax’. And he did axe the carbon tax. But it was a serious mistake. With the continuing strong evidence of global warming, we badly need a carbon tax or an ETS to reduce carbon pollution. In addition to reducing our capacity to reduce carbon emissions, axing the tax meant that the Commonwealth Budget lost $7.6 b. p.a. in revenue. The slogan won the day. The losers were the planet and the budget.

August 3, 2015

Mack Madahar. Nurse Practitioners: Challenges and Opportunities.

Nurse Practitioners were provided access to the MBS in November 2010. Besides limited access to pathology/radiology, nurse practitioners were provided with four time-tiered MBS item numbers for professional attendances. While most nurse practitioners have established themselves in public hospitals, primarily because of the relative financial certainty it provides, there are a handful of NPs trying to establish a niche in primary care.

There is tremendous amount of debate in primary care about burgeoning Medicare costs and the ability to offer fully subsidised primary care. Whilst GPs are well placed in primary care, primary health care nurse practitioners have demonstrated to be an excellent resource in providing care that is safe, effective and affordable. Besides improving patient satisfaction, primary health care nurse practitioners facilitate a focus on complex and chronic care needs, which may increase patient throughput and productivity. Such services provide excellent examples of nurse practitioners offering value-added service at little cost. Nevertheless, primary health care nurse practitioners face daily challenges, some of which are worth mentioning. This in order to gain better understanding of these problem/s and convert such challenges into possibilities for change into the future.

April 14, 2015

John Menadue. Murdoch is about ideology not tax dodging.

There was an interesting exchange between Julian Clarke, News Corp’s local boss, and Senator Christine Milne in the Senate Economic References Committee into Tax Avoidance. Julian Clarke spelt it out very clearly that Rupert Murdoch was running The Australian for ideological purposes. The exchange was as follows:

“With due respect, I don’t expect you to agree with this, but I consider The Australian to be the finest national newspaper operating in Australia,” [Clarke] said in reply to a question from Senator Milne.

March 17, 2025

A five-minute scroll

It is 22 years since Rachel Corrie was killed by the Israeli military as she defended a Palestinian home against a bulldozer. Adam Bandt on ABC’s Insiders says the priority should be to end AUKUS. Bombing continues in Yemen where Ansar Allah is maintaining a blockade in the Red Sea. The Australia Institute calls out rising house prices.

January 20, 2017

FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Timorese have had a win but could still lose big-time

Without any media fanfare, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop published a statement on 9 January 2017 announcing that Australia and Timor Leste had agreed to terminate the 2006 Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS).

April 9, 2015

John Menadue. The miners may have been better off with a super profits tax.

As a result of the lower iron ore prices there is a dramatic shake-up coming amongst our iron ore companies, the largest of which are foreign owned.

These companies conducted a vociferous campaign against the Resources Super Profits Tax. They were successful. As a result of the failures of the Rudd and Gillard Governments to effectively tax the mining companies, the state governments particularly of Western Australia and Queensland stepped in with very large increases in royalties. The Western Australian Government could hardly have believed its good luck in the royalties it extracted from the iron ore companies in Western Australia as a result of the China export boom.

February 9, 2015

John Attia, John Duggan. Why the government would have us pay more for poorer health.

The Coalition government has been claiming that Australia’s public health system is unsustainable since the 2014 budget. But its plans for the health system actually reflect the underlying belief that user-pays health systems are better – despite evidence to the contrary.

Less than a year and a half into the Abbott government’s first term, we’re on our second health minister and the third iteration of some kind of plan to introduce a co-payment for seeing a doctor. Despite widespread and vocal opposition to its plans, the government remains committed to introducing this price signal into the public health system.

April 12, 2013

Reviving Malaysia. John Menadue

As I pointed out in an earlier blog (27 March 2013), the Nauru/Manus ‘solution’ is not working to deter asylum seekers. The government foolishly adopted Tony Abbott’s proposal.

With the failure of Nauru/Manus, the Minister for Immigration, Brendan O’Connor has spoken about the need to revive the earlier proposal on Malaysia. Last weekend the SMH published an editorial headed ‘Time to revisit the Malaysian plan’.

Arja Keski-Nummi and I have consistently supported the Malaysian plan. We did not see it as perfect by any means, but it did provide a basis for developing a regional arrangement. We are glad to see that at last the merits of the Malaysian plan are being examined again.

May 11, 2017

IAN MCAULEY. The budget - still tough on the young

The Commonwealth’s budget has a Keynesian boost for a sluggish economy, and is based on an optimistic, or even heroic, assumption that economic growth will deliver a fiscal surplus within a few years. We have heard similar claims from treasurers, Labor and Coalition, ever since 2009. The Government’s other claim is that it is “fair” – a claim that holds up only if one ignores its effect on young people.

December 14, 2018

TIM COSTELLO. World Vision Australia Chief Advocate on our ODA failing

On a recent trip to Stockholm, when Swedish politicians complained that aid had slipped from one per cent of Gross National Income to 0.8 per cent, I cringed with shame – then changed the subject.

May 17, 2017

QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Death and departure at the ABC

The death of ABC broadcaster Mark Colvin on Thursday, May 11th, came as we were preparing to farewell religious broadcaster John Cleary from the ABC after a 37 year career.

July 4, 2016

KAITLIN WALSH. Come on down Malcolm! Because YOU are The Biggest Loser

If revenge is a dish best served cold then surely schadenfreude is best when tasted hot and fresh. As when viewing the tattered remnants of the Turnbull camp following Saturday’s election.

March 18, 2025

A five-minute scroll

As media campaigning ramps up for the forthcoming election, Peter Dutton avoids the question of his polling while Media Watch reveals the Liberal Party connections of Freya Leach and Juice Media produces a satirical clip on majority government. On global tensions, Professor Keyu Jin from the London School of Economics speaks about China and the US.

July 7, 2016

The election campaign's other big lie: the Coalition hasn't delivered 'export agreements'.

Pearls and Irritations has carried many articles about the exaggerated claims for free trade agreements. That exaggeration continued during the election campaign. One of the five pillars of Malcolm Turnbull’s ‘plan for jobs and growth’ was the alleged benefits of recently negotiated FTAs.

An increasing feature of the most recently negotiated FTAs is that Australia’s hard-won labour standards are being negotiated away through 457 visas in return for access to overseas markets and particularly China.

November 13, 2014

The ABC: soft targets and collateral damage

In 1963, the ABC’s then Controller of News reported to his superiors on the results of a wide-ranging visit to Asia. He recommended that the ABC undertake a major expansion of its overseas operations, driven by the belief that the journalists and camera operators of the national broadcaster were best equipped to keep Australians informed of the events, trends and decision-makers directly affecting them. This was seen as a core part of the ABC’s charter; few doubted it. Today, sadly, more and more of the ABC’s independent foreign newsgathering operations are being dismantled and the good work of decades squandered.

August 16, 2017

PAUL BUDDE. NBN goes against the very principles of conservative government

That the NBN goes against the very principles of conservative government became very clear to me in my discussion with the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network. When addressing the various well-documented problems of the NBN the chair of the committee repeatedly mentioned in defence of the current multi-technology-mix MtM policy that many other counties were also not deploying national FttH.

October 22, 2019

PETER RODGERS. These days, who' want to be a human right?

US and Australian responses to China’s maltreatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang and Israel’s blockade of Gaza reveal glaring double standards. But no worse perhaps than those of many Muslim states hungry for China’s largesse.

September 26, 2016

MUNGO MacCALLUM. World's best practice - the Gulags on Manus and Nauru.

At a sparsely attended audience well past prime time at the United Nations General Assembly, Malcolm Turnbull used his pulpit to proclaim that Australia’s border security was the world’s best.

And it is – up to a point. Not since the demolition of the Berlin Wall has there been such ruthless sealing of our frontiers. The boats may not have stopped entirely, but they have been very effectively repelled from our shores.

We have, as even Peter Dutton, Turnbull’s hanger on in New York, admitted, something of a natural boundary; the country is, as our national anthem notes, girt by sea. No other major nation on earth has such an advantage.

May 7, 2015

Alex Wodak. Prohibition and its discontents: who really killed Chan and Sukumaran?

The fall out from Indonesia’s execution of Chan and Sukumaran for drug trafficking continues. In their unprecedented press conference on 3 May, the leaders of the Australian Federal Police argued that under existing laws and guidelines, they were obliged to share intelligence with their Indonesian counterparts. Moreover, under similar conditions in future, the AFP expects that similar decisions will be made. The basic problems are that many young Australians travel to countries that still retain the death penalty for drug trafficking (and some other offences) and prohibition is still the global drug policy. So the execution of Australians and citizens of other nationalities for drug trafficking in future are inevitable.

March 17, 2017

The hideous Syrian tragedy

Our armed forces have been deployed abroad opportunistically, even cynically, for decades. This must be avoided in future if they are to serve Australia’s true defence interests in future.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal