May 14, 2018

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Nicknames

Treasurer Scott Morrison got very excited last week, bouncing and bubbling all over the place. And it wasn’t just because of his pretty ordinary budget: building a stronger economy may be a worthy slogan, but it is hardly inspiring. What was really turning him on was that he (or someone talking to him) had invented a new nickname for Bill Shorten: Unbelieva-Bill.

October 3, 2017

MARK OGGE. We have enough cheap, easy-to-export gas for 100 years. There is just one problem ...

Hard to believe, isn’t it? But it’s true: in the last decade, tens of thousands of square kilometers of Queensland farmland has been covered in gas fields. The export gas rush in Australia is one of the largest and fastest expansions of a gas industry ever seen, anywhere in the world. We are awash with gas. The problem is we are allowing almost all of the cheap and easy-to-get-at gas to be sent overseas.

May 28, 2019

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Albo has authenticity ScoMo can only fake.

It didn’t take long for the hubris to kick in.

Before the dust was settled, an exultant Liberal was reported ass gloating: “We just campaigned on a strong economy – we’ve got a mandate to do anything!” Well, anything – or nothing.

April 18, 2018

JAMES FERNYHOUGH. Cheap mortgages for everyone! Greens’ call for ‘People’s Bank’ unpicked

The Greens have unveiled a radical plan to give Australians access to much cheaper home loans than are currently on offer, in an unabashed attack on the big four banks’ stranglehold on the mortgage market.

April 8, 2019

RICHARD BROINOWSKI Trump's wall- bordering on chaos

Trump threat to cut off aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, will be counter-productive. The refugee ‘caravans’ will not stop, but increase. He will also further alienate the Mexicans, who refuse to pay for the wall along their border with the United States, but who also want to discourage Central American asylum seekers. Can Mexico’s new left-wing president stand up to Trump?

May 29, 2019

ANDREW GLIKSON. Greta Thunberg . 'You lied to us'

“The first law of humanity is not to kill your children” (Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, EU chief climate scientist).

August 30, 2018

ANTHONY PUN. How do the Chinese settlers in Australia feel regarding the deepening dispute between China and Australia?

The “China Panic”, a phrase coined by Professor Bob Carr, ex-Australian Foreign Minister and Director of Australian China Relations Institute (ACRI), started in December 2016 when the media and the Turnbull government started to “bash” China starting with a media blitz about Chinese political donations to political parties and alleging breach of parliamentary sovereignty and followed by proposed legislation, the Foreign Interference Bills, which was subsequently passed in the Federal Parliament. These events generated xenophobic overtones against the Chinese Australians. The government seems to change direction when PM Turnbull delivered a conciliatory speech at the University of New South Wales attended by the Chinese diplomats. Despite the turnaround, there has been collateral damage done to the 1.2 million Chinese Australians. Notwithstanding recent adversities, Chinese Australians are hopeful for better times as they believe Australians are fair minded.

October 3, 2019

ANU ANWAR. How China is using tourists to realise its geopolitical goals (East Asia Forum 19-9-19)

Decades of astonishing economic growth have given China new tools for extending its influence abroad and achieving its political goals. Some of these tools are inducements, including Belt and Road Initiative projects and new development financial institutions. But China has demonstrated that it will use its new economic leverage in pursuit of political goals unrelated to economic exchange, swiftly shifting inducements to punishments. One example lies in the field of tourism.

July 22, 2019

Boris Johnson’s Reticence on UK Ambassador was Responsible and Mature.

Johnson’s judicious refusal to be baited will give him the political space to begin repairing bruised relations with the White House and its tweet-prone cantankerous occupant.

May 23, 2018

SUE WAREHAM. How the Australian War Memorial has lost its way.

In a submission to the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories inquiry into Canberra’s national institutions Sue Wareham ,on behalf of the Medical Association for Prevention of War (MAPW) calls for major changes at the AWM

The submission notes that the inquiry’s purpose is to report on strategies that Canberra’s national institutions are using to “maintain viability and relevance to sustainably grow their profile, visitor numbers, and revenue”. Extracts below from this submission by MAPW call for new forms of public engagement and audience participation.

September 2, 2019

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Morrison falls into a dunny and smells like a rose.

How lucky is ScoMo? Once again our miraculous marketer has fallen into the dunny and emerged, if not covered in diamonds, at least with a passable array of bling.

August 26, 2019

Where to from here?

One persistent question that has been asked since the failure of Cardinal George Pell’s appeal last Wednesday has been: Why isn’t the Vatican acting to force him from the College of Cardinals and expel him from the priesthood? They moved with amazing speed in the case of Theodore McCarrick, Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, DC, after he was accused of sexual abuse of minors. Why isn’t the same speedy process happening with Pell?

August 1, 2018

KIM WINGEREI. You cannot kill what’s already dead!

Apparently, the sale of Fairfax to Nine is the end of journalism in Australia, the triumph of the cheque book as the only arbiter of a good story and the death knell of democracy. Paul Keating - that most eloquent and cerebral of political alley cats - was particularly scathing in his assessment, but he isn’t alone.

August 19, 2019

Kashmir: the battleground that will shape the fate of India (CapX 15-8-19)

On 5 August, the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fulfilled a founding ambition and repeated election promise: they ended Kashmir’s unique status in India’s federal structure by scrapping Article 370 of the Constitution.

April 5, 2017

TONY SMITH. Company tax cuts by any other name

The federal government might have called its company tax cuts bill by another almost Orwellian name, but semantic disguises should not fool anyone. Tax cuts are being delivered to Australian business.

June 1, 2020

JENNY HOCKING. High Court says 'Release the Palace Letters'

In an emphatic 6:1 decision the High Court has ruled that the ‘Palace letters’ between the Governor-General and the Queen relating to the 1975 dismissal of the Whitlam government are Commonwealth records, ending the Queen’s embargo over them and opening them for public access under the Archives Act.

April 17, 2018

Was DT Mouse-Trapped Into Attacking Syria?

Those of us of a certain age will remember the phrase ‘DTs’, short for delirium tremens: a rapid onset of confusion caused by an alcoholic’s immediate abstinence. Is the world suffering from a different set of DTs: the rapid-fire onset of domestic and global crises by a confused president revelling in his role as the wrecker-in-chief of international law, global norms and diplomatic conventions?

December 5, 2017

MICHAEL KEATING. Tax Cuts: What can we expect? Part 2 of 2

In Part 1 of this series, posted yesterday, the conclusion was that restoration of a sustained Budget surplus would require a combination of expenditure cuts and tax increases. This second Part 2 finds that the projected swing from Budget deficit to surplus requires a swing of 3 per cent of national income. It then explores the scope for expenditure cuts and tax changes to achieve this swing. The conclusion is that most of the required swing will have to be achieved by a net increase in taxation revenue relative to GDP.

September 18, 2018

JIEH-YUNG LO. Reflections of a Chinese-Australian.

To ensure we remain as the world’s most successful multicultural society, it is important to get the China debate right from now on to prevent the re-emergence of sinophobia in Australia.

May 30, 2017

Manchester and terrorism. Part 2 of 3.

In this three-part article, Ramesh Thakur argues that the scale of the terrorist threat to Western societies must be kept in perspective, that Western actions in the Middle East may have fomented more terrorism than they have defeated, and that an attitude of denial regarding the potential for problems of large-scale Muslim immigration feeds mutual paranoia and hostility and is not conducive to social cohesion.

July 18, 2019

BOB DOUGLAS. Changing Australian Refugee Policy: What is realistically and politically feasible?

Is there a new spirit of bipartisanship developing between Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese? As well as discussing a bipartisan approach to the legislation of religious freedom and an indigenous “voice”, might they also consider a new bipartisan approach to refugee policy?

July 8, 2019

ALLAN PATIENCE and GARRY WOODARD. Morrison as a middle power statesman?

In attempting to predict how Scott Morrison will develop as a foreign policy Prime Minister, the obstacles in his way should first be noted. While his potential authority within the party room is considerable, he lacks the foreign policy experience of previous Prime Ministers such as Menzies, Whitlam, Hawke and Rudd.

September 22, 2018

DAVID TIMBS. The priest shortage and the elephant in the room.

Twice in recent weeks, Fr James Clarke, Chair of the National Council of Priests (NCP), has stated that the majority of Australian priests and probably most laity support a comprehensive examination of all aspects of the Catholic priesthood and pastoral ministry in Australia including seminary formation of future priests. Clarke has also flagged that in their submission to the forthcoming National Plenary Council the NCP will also be calling for decisive action to be taken to address the issues related to the crisis facing the Australian Church as a direct result of the drastic decline of Australian-born priests in active parish ministry. The NCP is also calling into question the bishops’ policy on the run of importing foreign priests to make up for the shortfall.

January 13, 2018

STAN GRANT- We ignore our racist past-A REPOST from August 21 2017

I passed by Hyde Park this week in the heart of Sydney and looked again on the statue of Captain James Cook. It has pride of place, a monument to the man who in 1770 claimed this continent for the British crown.

December 13, 2017

PETER JOHNSTONE. The Seal of Confession: resorting to the Age of Christendom

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has recommended to Australian federal and State governments, that the Catholic ‘seal of confession’ should not exempt priests from a proposed offence of ‘failure to report’. The response of some Church commentators has been dismissive and disrespectful of the work of the Commission, foreshadowing defiance of civil law.

November 23, 2017

MICHAEL KELLY. What brings a Jesuit Pope to Asia?

One of the biggest influences on Pope Francis remains relatively unexplored – Pedro Arrupe, the Superior General of the Jesuits (1965-83) who appointed Jorge Bergoglio Provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina (1973-79) at the tender age of 36.

September 24, 2018

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Morrison and the Muppet Show

In hindsight, it wasn’t Scott Morrison’s brightest move to describe his colleagues as the Muppet Show.

November 26, 2018

ANDREW FARRAN. Brexit: Facing the Brexit cliff even when a viable path beckons

The UK is facing its Brexit cliff and will only have itself to blame if it stumbles over. The EU has done its best to accommodate UK requirements but has now lost patience. No renegotiation is in prospect. However a path to a mutually beneficial modus vivendi is now clear if the UK will take it.

November 22, 2017

PETER RODGERS. Mohammad bin Salman - Saudi Arabia's reformer or wrecker?

Perhaps as a child Mohammad bin Salman watched too much Superman. Now, as Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, he’s dashing hither and thither, ostensibly remaking the royal family, the country and the region. In his wake there’s profound confusion, national austerity mixed with personal profligacy, imprisoned billionaires, bruised egos, civil war, fractured alliances, recovered loot and many crossed fingers. Will MbS (as he is invariably dubbed) end the Kingdom’s addiction to oil and change its lazy economic ways? Will he force Iran and its backers to pull their heads in, acknowledge Saudi suzerainty and the joy of regional peace and Trumpism? Will he find a cure for the pathogen infecting Saudi Islam and drag his kingdom in the 21st century? Or will his dictatorial and impetuous ways blow up the House of Saud, destroying enemies and friends alike?

March 11, 2019

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Farmers, miners and failed leadership.

I think it was in 1969 I first predicted that the Country Party (as the Nationals were then called) would wither away.

October 10, 2017

JON STANFORD. Australia’s Future Submarine; Part 2 of 3 : Addressing the problems in a second-best world

At the National Press Club in Canberra on 27 September 2017, Hugh White, Professor of Strategic Studies at the ANU, launched an independent report by Insight Economics on Australia’s future submarine (FSM). The report, Australia’s Future Submarine: Getting This Key Capability Right, was commissioned by Gary Johnston, a Sydney businessman and owner of the website, submarinesforaustralia_._

July 3, 2018

ROGER COHEN. Of course, it could not happen (New York Times 30 June 2018)

We are all frogs in President Trump’s slow-boiling pot.

July 24, 2019

JOHN MENADUE. Taxpayer subsidised Private Health Insurance is a political scam.

Stephen Duckett of the Grattan Institute has highlighted the growing and serious plight of PHI as more and more young people decide not to waste their money and are opting out of PHI. In response the CEO of NIB in a bizarre suggestion proposes that the government should ‘scrap Medicare and mandate private health cover’(AFR 23 July 2019). This is special pleading for a broken and terminal system.It would make things worse. He wants the government to save his failing industry despite a $12 b annual subsidy.

All the evidence shows that PHI is indefensible as to both equity and efficiency. _Just look at the health disaster in the US. It is a wreck.

August 1, 2018

OMRI BOEHM. Did Israel Just Stop Trying to Be a Democracy?

Last week, Israel’s government pushed through Parliament a new law calling Israel the “ nation-state of the Jewish people.” That statement may sound like a truism — and in some respects it is one — but the implications of it officially being made are monumental.

July 6, 2018

BOB BIRRELL AND EARNEST HEALY. The Housing Affordability Crisis in Sydney and Melbourne

The housing affordability crisis in Sydney and Melbourne is close to the worst in the developed world. As of 2017, the ratio of median house prices to median household income in Sydney was 12.9 and in Melbourne 9.9. Only Vancouver and Hong Kong were as bad or worse on this metric.

June 14, 2018

NICHOLAS GRUEN. All finance requires is an upgrade for the internet age

The Financial Times has published a letter from Nicholas Gruen in response to Martin Wolf’s column about the Swiss ‘sovereign money’ referendum, previously reprinted on this blog). Mr Gruen’s letter is as follows:

Given the resounding ‘no’ from the Swiss Vollgeld or ‘sovereign money’ referendum, and notwithstanding Bob Sleeper’s relief, Martin Wolf’s central question from last week’s column remains. A decade after the devastation, where’s the “radical rethink” of finance?

May 24, 2018

DAVID JAMES. Japan could lead the way in forgiving debt

As the world economy groans under soaring levels of debt, the place to look is Japan, whose current government debt-to-GDP ratio is an eye watering 253 per cent. It is Japan, which led the developed world into its current mess, that is likely to lead the world out of it by cancelling debt. The consequences of such a move, if it happens, would be far reaching.

March 8, 2018

How liberals can reclaim nationalism.

In this article in the New York Times International Edition of 5 March 2018 Yascha Mounk argues that ‘instead of exhorting their fellow citizens to live out their nations highest ideals, many activists seem content with denouncing past and present injustices.. This has enabled the bigots and racists to bend the meaning of the nation to their own sinister ends’.

August 23, 2017

SPENCER ZIFCAK. The Trouble with Section 44: the constitutional provision afflicting our Parliament

It’s been quite a month. At least seven members of the Federal Parliament have been referred to the High Court to determine their eligibility to have been elected, and there is a real prospect of an outcome that could cost the Turnbull government its House of Representatives majority. The stakes are very high.

September 22, 2018

ANDREW FARRAN. Brexit: Calamity awaits the world trading system.

The route to overcoming any impasse in the UK/EU Brexit negotiations may involve riding roughshod over their respective obligations under the global trading system, in particular the WTO. This, together with President Trump’s on-going assault on the system, threatens to bring it down altogether – with nothing better in its place.

June 25, 2019

JOHN WILLOUGHBY. Reflections on the average health of average people

I’m writing this, in the concluding years of a career in neurology and neuroscience, concerned for humanity. What do I conclude about the human condition at this time? In a nutshell: we are what we are: overbreeding mammals headed for a population crash as we over-consume the world we live in.

August 13, 2019

All hail, Queen Mega

This week Indonesian streets are bursting with red and white bunting, celebrating the late leader Soekarno’s proclamation of independence from the Netherlands on 17 August 1945.

Then followed a four- year protracted guerilla war against the stubborn Dutch who couldn’t sniff the stench of post-war rotting colonialism. After an estimated 150,000 deaths, the majority civilians, the United States of Indonesia was internationally recognized. Australian unions were active supporters of the revolutionaries.

February 12, 2025

A five-minute scroll

Seventy-nine countries sign a letter supporting the International Criminal Court, but not Australia. Biden has laid the plan for what Trump will do next in Gaza. Paul Keating reminds us that life in Australia is comparably better than in the US. The Albanese Government is on track to meet 2030 goals for the renewable energy Dutton plans to cut.

January 15, 2016

John Duggan. Advice from expert clinicians or the AMA

For those interested in the cost of health care the recently released interim report by the Medical Benefits Schedule (MBS) Review “obsolete MBS items track one” demonstrates the dawning recognition that there are procedures and tests that do not justify their existence or federal funding.

The story begins with the decision of Ms Sussan Ley, Minister for Health to form the Medical Benefits Schedule Review taskforce, with a mandate to review the schedule in its entirety. The Task Force is ‘an expert clinician led Medicare Benefit Schedule (MBS) review … established to lead an accelerated program of MBS reviews to align MBS funding services with contemporary clinical evidence and improve health outcomes for patients’.

December 27, 2018

SYLVAIN CYPEL. From Sans Culottes to Gilets Jaunes: Macron's Marie Antoinette moment.

In Soviet times, Russia’s Jews told a joke about a man named Rabinovitch who was distributing pamphlets in Red Square. In a matter of minutes, the KGB had found him and taken him to headquarters. Only there did the agents realize that the sheets of paper were completely blank. “But there’s nothing written here,” one of them said. Rabinovitch said: “They know quite well what I mean.”

For two months, the French government has been unable to make head or tail of the blank sheets of paper handed out by the gilets jaunes, or Yellow Vests, this decentralized, leaderless movement that has no explicit agenda or demand apart from the abolition of a fuel tax. While Emmanuel Macron’s government has blindly concluded that this sudden, violent movement bereft of any clearly articulated purpose has no other goals, movements don’t block major intersections just to protest hikes in gas costs.

October 9, 2018

PAUL BONGIORNO. Political climate uncomfortably hot for Scott Morrison (New Daily 9.10.2018)

_The Prime Minister Scott Morrison found himself in a very awkward spot on the day the world’s most authoritative climate science body released its latest report.

September 6, 2018

ABUL RIZVI. Playing God.

Did Peter Dutton breach his own guidelines for ministerial intervention?

July 2, 2019

GARETH EVANS. Breaking through the bamboo ceiling: Asian-Australians in the Asian Century.

Asian-Australians are an underappreciated and underutilized national resource as we face the challenges and opportunities of the Asian century. The 2012 White Paper, and everyone else, agrees that we dramatically need to lift our ‘Asian capability’ – defined by the Diversity Council of Australia as meaning ‘individuals’ ability to interact effectively in Asian countries and cultures, and with people from Asian cultural backgrounds, to achieve work goals.’

March 12, 2018

BILL ROWLINGS. TPP-11 still flawed, costly for most Australians.

The trade deal known as TPP delivers financial benefits to some 100,000 people in agricultural and farming enterprises, paid for by extra imposts on the purchases of many millions of urban Australians. In future, every time an Australian buys an app, pays to listen to music, gets a prescription from the chemist, does banking, he or she will be subsiding rural and corporate interests to the detriment of the average Aussie Jo… because of the TPP.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal

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