February 24, 2016

John Menadue. Wasting food in France is now illegal.

The Australian edition of Huffington Post carried a very encouraging story on 4 February this year that it is now illegal for supermarkets in France to waste food.

Both Chambers of the French Parliament have unanimously voted to ban large foodstores from throwing food away.

Supermarkets must either compost or donate unsold and nearly expired goods to charity. The law also prohibits stores from pouring bleach over food items to prevent homeless people from foraging. Schools across the country must begin to educate students to overcome food waste.

August 21, 2019

Capital punishment will not stop gun violence

It is perhaps understandable that in their anger and grief, people who have lost loved ones in gun violence call for the perpetrators to be executed. It is however, inappropriate for political leaders to pretend that capital punishment is an effective way to deal with the issue. It is little more than a diversionary tactic to forestall the adoption of policies that might prevent shootings.

September 5, 2018

EUGENE ROBINSON. Why Trump is so frantic right now.

President Trumps incoherence grows to keep pace with his desperation. These days, he makes less sense than ever a sign that this malignant presidency has entered a new, more dangerous phase.

September 12, 2018

ROSS GITTINS. How we could revive faith in democracy (SMH 6 June 2018)

How much is our disillusionment with politicians, governments and even democracy the result of our pollies 30-year love affair with that newly recognised mega-evil neoliberalism?

To a considerable extent, according to Dr Richard Denniss, of the Australia Institute, in the latest Quarterly Essay,Dead Right.

June 12, 2018

JULIAN BURNSIDE. The legality of off-shore detention

In 2002 Australia, along with more than 80 other nations, acceded to the Rome statute by which the International Criminal Court was created. The court is the first permanent court ever established with jurisdiction to try war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of genocide regardless of the nationality of the perpetrators and regardless of the place where the offences occurred.

November 13, 2017

Productivity Commission shirks real problems in VET

The Productivity Commission has undertaken a five year review of Australias productivity performance, identifying skills and the VET sectors as an area of concern. But have they got the answers?

July 4, 2019

TREVOR WATSON. Crossing a line in the Korean sand; Trump goes where others have been before

Donald Trumps crossing of the 38th Parallel into North Korea was a ten out of ten for symbolism. It was wonderful television and an outstanding PR move by the US President and the North Korean Leader, Kim Jun Un. The event took me back almost 30 years to my own crossing of the famous ceasefire line which also generated little of substance.

February 3, 2016

Ian McPhee. Let's talk about dying.

What does it mean to die well?

We must acknowledge divergent views on assisted dying and start framing laws that will enable it, writes Ian McPhee.

I am a medical specialist with advanced cancer. In a career begun more than 35 years ago, I have seen death in all its guises: in homes, at the roadside, in the emergency department, intensive care, operating theatres and on hospital wards. There has been no agelimit on these experiences.

August 28, 2019

Green Growth and De-Coupling Resource Use From GDP Growth Can't Be Done.

Another heavy report confirms that efforts to achieve GDP growth while reducing resource and ecological impacts have failed and will continue to do so. The implications for sustainability are profound but will be ignored. The finding means that unless there is dramatic De-growth all the big global problems will get worse, but this economy cannot tolerate reduction in GDP. What to do?

July 10, 2019

GREG BARNS AND TONY NAGY: The Troubling Irony: The UK Government Conference on Media Freedom and Julian Assange

On Wednesday and Thursday this week The UK and Canadian Governments are hosting a conference called Defend Media Freedom. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne is participating. Yet only a few miles away from the London conference venue Julian Assange, the publisher of WikiLeaks and journalist, languishes in Belmarsh Prison as he awaits a request by the United States to extradite him for revealing the war crimes of the United States and its allies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

July 24, 2019

GREGORY CLARK. China: A Maritime expansionist?

The call is for Australia to cooperate with the US to counter Beijings allegedly expansionist activities in the South China Sea. But was it not the US itself, in its 1951 San Francisco peace treaty with Japan - signed and ratified by Canberra and 47 others - who in effect gifted most of the South China Sea islands - namely, the Spratly and the Paracel island groups - to China? The US then organized a separate document with the Republic of China in Taiwan - the 1952 Taipei peace treaty - making it even clearer that these islands should be taken from Japan and in effect given to China.

December 17, 2017

KERRY MURPHY. Retaining a cruel and punitive policy towards asylum seekers.

Recently re-elected deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce warned the New Zealand Prime Minister to back off on her offer to help resettle refugees from Manus Island and Nauru in New Zealand. His statement seemed to hint at a warning that if New Zealand continued to push this offer, it could harm bilateral relations[1]. Ironically he said they should not interfere in Australias sovereignty, regarding non Australians sent to non Australian Manus Island and independent Nauru.

June 24, 2019

JACK WATERFORD. Morrison should move before his enemies organise( Canberra Times 22 June 2019)

Right now Labor is preoccupied with its defeat and is not the major obstacle to coalition survival.

June 20, 2019

CAMERON LECKIE. Here we go again! Yet another false flag incident?

Sun Tzu in the Art of War stated that All war is based on deception. We should keep this in mind whenever a major international incident occurs. The application of Occams Razor, keeping an open mind and considering a range of possibilities suggests that many of these incidents may have been false flag operations, including the recent attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf.

April 11, 2017

MICHAEL McKINLEY. The Foreign Policy White Paper: A Plea To See Things As They Are

We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. George Orwell.

January 20, 2015

Michael Keating. The Financial System Inquiry. Part 3: Investor protection and other matters.

I am reposting Part 3 of this important series by Michael Keating which was posted during the holiday period. John Menadue

Investor protection

It is now more than 15 years since the present regulatory system was established for the financial system. The basic presumption underpinning that approach to regulation has been that proper disclosure should be relied upon as much as possible. That way it was assumed that investors acting in their own interest would make the best decisions regarding the selection of financial products and services, and through competition thus maximise the efficiency of the system.

November 29, 2018

New revelations about Australia and the Iraq War

A new ABC report, quoting from a previously classified document, reveals that the Australian government decided in early 2002 to join the American led Iraq War, but failed to disclose that to Parliament or the public.

July 24, 2019

BISHOP VINCENT LONG-Australias Mandatory and Indefinite Off shore Detention Policy

This weekend marks the sixth anniversary of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudds announcement that no person seeking asylum by boat would ever be resettled in Australia. Every single person arriving after that date was to be subjected to indefinite detention on Manus Island, PNG, or in the Republic of Nauru, under processing arrangements between the Australian Government and those Pacific states.

September 5, 2018

BRUCE WEARNE. Thinking About Our Political Blurring of Parliamentary Boundaries!

The first time I voted in a federal election was in December 1972. I had just graduated from university. In three undergraduate years, as a member of the turbulent Monash Association of Students, I had learned that there was deep artificiality in a political view that reduces debate to two sides. I cast my inaugural vote knowing that if the McMahon Liberal-Country Coalition were returned, I would have a National Service obligation to deal with. But then they lost to Gough Whitlams Labor and conscription was scrapped.

September 28, 2018

NILE BOWIE. Mahathir has an Islam problem.

New premier wants Malaysia’s brand of Islam to reflect mercy, justice and compassion, a stance his conservative opponents have seized on as too soft and lenient.

June 17, 2019

MARGARET REYNOLDS. Queensland A Special Place?

I lived in Queensland for three decades and represented the sunshine state as a Labor Senator for sixteen years. I spent much of my time trying to convince my parliamentary colleagues and the media that Queenslanders are very much like the rest of us. They too are concerned about job prospects for themselves and their children. They want good quality health and education services. They expect governments to listen and respond to their concerns.

April 9, 2018

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Turnbull manages the fallout.

So the 30th Newspoll has finally dropped, and as he waits for the mushroom cloud to dissipate, just what will Malcolm Turnbull do to manage the fallout?

June 4, 2019

KIM WINGEREI Ministry of Mediocrity

In the (in)famous words of Donald Horne: Australia is a lucky country run by mainly second-rate people who share its luck. The new Morrison Government is a mostly uninspiring group lacking in diversity and bereft of vision. A staggering lack of diversity making it impossible to match experience, competencies and interests to suitable portfolios.

August 14, 2019

Hong Kong and Londonderry and the global crowding of everything

The uproar in Hong Kong has become very serious, with a situation as developed in 1989 before Tiananmen: of leaders unable to cope and an uprising implacable in resolve and unable to focus on achievable objectives. The comparison should not be overdrawn but Hong Kong now is threatening greater consequence than did Tiananmen. Tactically the police have made mistakes in dealing with trapped demonstrators as on Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland in 1972, staining decades with misery.

This is written on the night of 12 August 2019, events are unfolding but I make observations that may endure.

July 10, 2019

KIM WINGEREI. Facebook Libra Pitching for World Domination

Facebooks Libra launch has the potential to propel Facebook into a major player in consumer payments and credit services and may turn out to be one of the most profound change to worlds financial systems since the abolishment of the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1971.

September 26, 2019

NOEL TURNBULL. Max Weber's Politics as a Vocation in 2019

A century after Max Webers Politics as Vocation was published and 101 years after he delivered the speech on which it was based it is fascinating to use the speech as a yardstick against which one can evaluate politicians like Scott Morrison, Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.

April 16, 2019

SAM BYFORD. Huawei chairman accuses American critics of hypocrisy over NSA hacks (The Verge 27.2.2019)

_Huaweis rotating chairman Guo Ping has gone on the offensive this week at Mobile World Congress, following continued pressure on US allies to drop the Chinese telecoms giant over national security fears.

August 14, 2019

No issue matters as much as climate change

What will it take before the Morrison government recognises the great peril from climate change? Is the overwhelming consensus of scientists not enough, as they track the record-breaking heat waves globally? And why are religious leaders not echoing Pope Francis more vigorously about a looming catastrophe from global warming?

April 30, 2019

GEORGE MONBIOT. Only rebellion will prevent an ecological apocalypse (The Guardian)

No one is coming to save us. Mass civil disobedience is essential to force a political response.

August 30, 2017

CHRIS MIDDLETON. 'The Church's teaching, if it isn't expressed in terms of love - then it's got it wrong.'

The postal vote on same-sex marriage will no doubt generate much discussion within families and communities, and, in particular, will play on sensitivities in Catholic circles where an understanding of sacramental marriage is so strong.

October 23, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Game changer.

Malcolm Turnbull crows that his National Energy Guarantee is a game changer and so it is, but that doesnt mean much. The energy game has been changing for well over the last decade, and in all likelihood will go on changing for the next ten years at least. The point, surely, is not to keep changing the game but to end it, delivering certainty, price stability, and above all political success.

June 5, 2019

LESLEY RUSSELL. Restraining the Free Market That is Specialty Medicine

The past week has seen a series of media articles about how some people must fund raise to cover the cost of expensive brain cancer surgery and a paper released from the Actuaries Institute, How to Make Private Health Insurance Healthier, that highlights (yet again) the needed reforms to Australias private and publicly funded healthcare. Together they highlight the need to reign in the free marketplace that is specialist medicine in Australia and that is costly to both Medicare and private health insurance.

October 6, 2019

MICHAEL KEATING. Economic Update Part 1

The recent release of the National Accounts data confirms that the Australian economy is stuck in secular economic stagnation. This article argues that current policies are unlikely to restore economic growth sufficiently to allow Australia to realise its economic potential. The fiscal implications of this outlook for economic growth are further explored in a subsequent article to be posted tomorrow.

January 16, 2017

JAMES O'NEILL. More alarm bells ring for Australia in the South China Sea.

President-elect Trumps nominee for Secretary of state had his confirmation hearings in Washington last week. A number of his reported statements should have raised alarm among Australian politicians and foreign affairs bureaucrats. With the exception of former Prime Minister Paul Keating however, the response was largely asinine.

January 27, 2020

ANDREW WONG. Logging Makes Bushfires Worse

In the wake of the recent bushfires, the logging industry wants to thin Australias forests to reduce fire hazard. But their plan is likely to make the fire hazard far worse. Could there be another agenda at work?

April 17, 2019

GREG JERICHO. The Coalition boasts about economic management. Wheres the evidence? (The Guardian 16.4.2019)

_This is the only government since Fraser’s that hasn’t presided over an improved standard of living.

July 9, 2019

PETER MANNING. How access journalism is threatening investigative journalism.

Mainstream journalists give us a never ending series of “exclusives’. They are usually from a source that wants easy publicity, usually a Minister. In the process the journalist becomes a ‘victim’ of the source.The inference is that if you don’t give this story a good run you won’t get any more leaks. Just forget about investigating the real issues that might be at stake in this particular field or any other.See below an article that Peter Manning wrote on this subject in December last year.(John Menadue)

February 14, 2016

Jim Bowler. Mungo Man needs help to come home

I_ts time for funds and a plan to preserve and commemorate this visitor from Ancient Australia, writesJim Bowler, the geologist who discovered Mungo Mans remains._

Forty-two years ago, on 26 February 1974, I first encountered the remains of Mungo Man eroding out of the desiccated shores of Lake Mungo. He had been ritually buried over 40,000 years earlier at a time when the lake was full by an ancient community that thrived in the fertile environment. The re-emergence of Mungo Man has changed the way we understand Australian history. Together with the earlier (1969) discovery of Mungo Lady, these burials provided the foundations on which the Willandra Lakes World Heritage area was defined and accepted by UNESCO in 1981. That region stands today as Australias richest legacy of early occupation. Yet forty-two years later, after decades of constant calls for the return of Mungo Man, none of the responsible state and federal ministers have committed to caring for these sacred remains.

September 8, 2019

BRENDON KELSON. Letter to Minister for Veterans and Defence Personnel

The Hon Darren Chester MP, Minister for Veterans and Defence Personnel, Dear Minister $498M AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL EXPANSION Thank you for Robert Curtins reply of 25 July 2019 to my letter to the Prime Minister of 19 June 2019. That reply rather missed the main points of my letter so I restate them here in hope of a more fruitful exchange. This is clearly a matter for the responsible Minister and the Government as a whole, not just for the Memorial.

May 6, 2019

ALAN PEARS. The cost of Labors Paris Climate Change Policies

Economic modelling is one of many tools for policy development. It is often taken out of context and misused. The present debate over the cost of Labors climate policy provides an example. Lack of context, modelling assumptions and selective use of modelling results risks distorting future climate and energy policy, with serious consequences.

April 30, 2019

JOHN MENADUE. Political leadership . Morrison or Shorten?

We are regularly polled about who is the best leader as if it a popularity contest. That is not what leadership is about. And leadership and charisma are quite different.

Good leadership is about facing the country or group up to the hard issues. Without clearly defining why and how we need to change and creating some disequilibrium there will be no worthwhile change. Climate change is the great issue we face. Steady and focussed leadership is essential.

June 1, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. The Uluru Statement.

It is fitting that the Uluru Statement from the Heart celebrated the triumphant referendum of 1967: In 1967 we were counted; in 2017 we seek to be heard, the statement declared.

September 26, 2018

JOHN AUSTEN - Inquiry into Sydney Metro (Part 1)

We are told Sydney Metro will overcome capacity constraints on Sydneys rail network. This is false. Only a public inquiry can reveal the truth and advise on what to do.

This is the first of two articles following-up John Menadues call for a Sydney Metro inquiry.

October 22, 2017

JENNY HOCKING. A Royal Green Light: The Palace, the Governor-General and the Dismissal of the Whitlam Government

Contrary to the accepted story that the Queen was not involved in the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in 1975, it is now clear that the Palace had a significant role in the process. Those involved, in Australia and in Britain, kept this involvement hidden from the Australian people in a process of collusion, deception and artifice.

June 8, 2018

MICHAEL KEATING. What country seeks to go to war with its banker? (Repost from 30/1/2018)

This article supports Hugh Whites conclusion that the US is unlikely to succeed in fighting China for primacy in Asia. The US has been living beyond its means for a long time, and has depended on foreign finance, and especially Chinese finance, to sustain its living standards. Challenging China would require sacrifices from the American public that they are ill-prepared to make. Accordingly, it is very risky for Australia to continue to base its foreign and defence policies on the presumption that the US can be counted on to maintain its position in Asia without substantial change. What country seeks to go to war with its banker?

June 25, 2019

GEOFF RABY. Hong Kongs relationship with Beijing has been changed for ever

Hong Kongs relationship with Beijing has been changed for ever

Whatever the precise figure, the demonstrations in Hong Kong were the biggest ever in the city and possibly the biggest in Chinese history against a government. Confident in the power of their unstoppable numbers a bloody catastrophe was just avoided by the good sense of Hong Kong people. The relationship between the people of Hong Kong and Beijing has changed forever. Hong Kong has not gone according to Beijings playbook.

November 6, 2017

RICHARD BUTLER. Iraq 2003: the Fabricated War of Choice

Gordon Brown has revealed a report showing that US intelligence Agencies knew Iraq did not have WMD and told the Bush Administration so. The invasion of Iraq was a war of choice, preferred by Bush, and Blair which Howard joined with alacrity.

October 9, 2017

JOHN AUSTEN. Priorities for Infrastructure Australia.

The new Infrastructure Australia chair said the organisation is open to ideas and seeks priorities from the public. Sitting in the public gallery I suggest three priorities: (1)revisit some of its advice; (2) set out the Commonwealths role; and (3) become more independent. The aim is to improve its reputation as a Commonwealth adviser.

June 24, 2019

KELSEY CHALMERS and LESLEY RUSSELL. The National Strategy to Reduce OOP costs: will price transparency work?

Reducing patients out of pocket (OOP) costs is a major issue for the health policy agenda. But what are the chances that solutions to provide real relief for patients will emerge?

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal