October 13, 2019

The establishment strikes back at the deplorables. Part 3: Impeachment

The whistleblowers complaint, made on 12 August, was based entirely on hearsay. The existing guidelines had said in bold, underlined, all-caps: FIRST-HAND INFORMATION REQUIRED. After receiving the complaint, the intelligence community inspector-general (ICIG) revised the internal guidance to permit evidence that was not first-hand.

October 18, 2017

JOHN QUIGGIN. Jobs bonanza? The Adani project is more like a railway to nowhere

The dispute over the Adani Groups proposed Carmichael mine and the associated port at Abbot Point has long been cast as a choice between jobs and the environment. Climate change is already well on the way to destroying the Great Barrier Reef, among many other things, and the development of the massive coal reserves of the Galilee Basin would make it almost impossible to stabilise the global climate.

July 30, 2018

RUTH ARMSTRONG and TRENT YARWOOD . Staying in or opting out: My Health Record goes viral for all the wrong reasons (Croakey, 17.07.18)

Ruth Armstrong writes:

After years of relative obscurity and sluggish engagement, Australias attempt at transitioning the population to the use of individual digital health records via My Health Record was all anyone could talk about yesterday.

May 31, 2018

ALLAN PATIENCE:The serious under-development of Papua New Guineas university system

There is a crisis in Papua New Guineas university system. Universities are devastatingly under-resourced and under-performing. The bizarre persecution of PNG University of Technologys Vice-Chancellor, Dr Albert Schram, also points to a disastrous governance breakdown at university council level. Can the Australian university sector do anything to help? Yes it can.

October 16, 2018

GRAEME STEWART. Growing inequality in access to health care is curable.

It has been sad to observe the growth in out-of-pocket expenses for patients seeking expert medical consultation and the resultant rising inequality in access to timely care and in health outcomes (Specialists charging extreme fees, March 6. These twin inequities are deeply felt in western Sydney.

July 4, 2018

ROGER SCOTT. Paying the piper but hating the tune

The ANU has touched off a debate which has ramifications across the whole university system, or at least that section of it with prestige high enough to attract philanthropists with deep pockets.

June 17, 2018

ANDREW LEIGH. Rising to the challenge of inequality.

Thomas Piketty and his colleagues have used new data to track inequality and sharpen the choices we face.

October 29, 2018

RENA PEDERSON. Target the Generals, Not The Lady (American Interest 11.10.18)

Despite the outcry, Aung San Suu Kyi does not deserve most of the blame for the tragedy unfolding in Myanmar. The Nobel Foundation got it right.

September 6, 2018

MARTIN WOLF. Why so little has changed since the financial crash (Financial Times)

“Here I am back again in the Treasury…but with one great difference. In 1918 most people’s only idea was to get back to pre-1914. No one today feels like that about 1939. That will make an enormous difference when we get down to it.” The financial crisis was a devastating failure of the free market followed by a period of rising inequality within many countries.

July 28, 2019

JOHN DWYER -Failed regulation in health.

When I was much younger I often dipped into Ripleys Believe it or not for a laugh, amazement and even enlightenment. I had a look at their website recently as I prepared to tell you a story that would fit well into their library and found that Ripleys is alive and well, daily producing their remarkable vignettes; Frederic Baur, creator of Pringles chips had his ashes buried inside one of his cans, the common Swift can stay in the air for 10 months without landing, men only blink half as often as women, cats can be allergic to humans! Well, here is a serious story that is certainly hard to believe but, regrettably, is true.

September 11, 2018

HAMISH McDONALD. Australia takes immigration debate to a new low. (Nikkei Asian Review 5/9/2018)

In early August, the population of Australia reached 25 million, according to the government’s statistics bureau – more than three times its size in 1948, when I came into the world as one of 7.7 million Australians.

Unlike a lot of my compatriots, I’m happy about the expansion and hope there will be many more Australians in years to come, from all kinds of ethnic, religious and national backgrounds.

Most of us in the outer Sydney suburb where I grew up in the 1950s were descendants or children of migrants from the British Isles. Every Monday morning at school we listened to “God Save the Queen,” the British national anthem, while one of us held the Southern Cross, Australia’s national flag, and another, the British Union Jack.

The inflow of more cultures has only made Australia a more interesting and secure place.

August 28, 2018

SCOTT BURCHILL. Anti-Americanism and moral panic in the West

After a similar challenge posed by George W. Bush following popular opposition to his invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Trump presidency is another reminder to Americas allies of the dangers that emerge when individuals, rather than economic and political structures, are considered significant agents of change.

September 10, 2018

GARRY EVERETT. No Way To Start.

To be a dissenting voice is a risky business. If you oppose the prevailing orthodoxy, you are either disowned because you are wrong; or you struggle to have your voice heard, because your message is not popular.

November 7, 2018

LAURIE PATTON. ACCC begins search for light at the end of the NBN technology tunnel

The boss of the ACCC, Rod Sims, has told The Australian“its recent dealings with the retail telcos has highlighted a weakness with the fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) access technology.

For numerous broadband experts, not to mention millions of hapless NBN customers, this might be seen as a classic no shit Sherlock moment. However, it is probably the most significant recent development in the long running saga that began with Labors 21st Century fibre-based national broadband network, only to end in tears for so many when former prime minister Tony Abbott ordered his heavily-wedged communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to destroy the NBN.

August 26, 2018

DAVID HUTT. Does China really dominate Southeast Asia?

Widespread reports of China’s hegemony over the neighbouring region miss the nuance of fast-shifting political and strategic dynamics.

July 2, 2018

GREG HAMILTON. The Class War Part 2: The Bludging Class.

Were paralysed by a state of cultural anarchy that marks the decline of the Enlightenment Age and its class war that will see one percent of the worlds population owning over two thirds of all wealth by 2030. Do we want to save ourselves from that? And if so, how do we go about it?

October 2, 2018

Walking together for a better future (Eureka Street, 01.10.18)

Frank Brennan’s keynote address to the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council Assembly entitled: ‘Strong Faith. Strong Youth. Strong Future Walking Together in a movement of the Australian people for a better future’. 1 October 2018, Technology Park Bentley, Perth

July 3, 2018

ALLAN PATIENCE. Politics as a Vocation

In his famous essay Politics as a Vocation the great German scholar Max Weber explained that the kinds of people who tend to become politicians lie along a spectrum. At one end of the spectrum are those who live off politics. They are there to boost their own egos and serve their own interests and the narrow interests of those who subsidize them. They see politics as a profession a means for accruing status, power and material rewards entirely for themselves and their cronies. At the other end of the spectrum are those who live fo__r politics. They are dedicated to serving the community to defend justice, fairness, and the wellbeing of all. The people in this latter group see politics as a vocation a sacred calling.

April 29, 2019

ISABELLE REINECKE. How strategic litigation can strengthen our democracy

Australian politics is becoming increasingly polarised. Policy decisions are made for short term political gain against the advice of experts, and democratic checks and balances are being degraded. Strategic litigation is a tool that can be used to cut through the politics and surface the facts - even for causes that vested interests with deep pockets are stacked against. But litigation is costly. A new organisation, Grata Fund, is working with philanthropy and crowdfunding to provide financial assistance to help private citizens push back against unfair laws and policies through the courts.

September 14, 2018

ANTHONY PUN. History of Multiculturalism: Part 2- A decline in support of Multiculturalism from the Howard to the Rudd-Gillard Administrations.

The racial discrimination legislations flourished under Multicultural with NSW leading the pact. A crack in Multiculturalism support emerged during the Howard Administration with the rise of Pauline Hanson and her racial politics. It was the ethnic vote that saved the day and Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock worked to recapture the votes. Multiculturalism continued under the Rudd-Gillard Administration its policy became controversial when the composition of appointees to the Australian Multicultural Council was question by the multicultural communities. The future Multiculturalism is briefly discussed.

December 28, 2017

House prices are not necessarily correlated with changes in supply and demand

A recent research report, Regional Housing Supply and Demand in Australia, by the ANUs Centre for Social Research and Methods, has reignited the debate about the relationship between house prices and imbalances in the supply of and demand for housing.

Few would dispute that steeply rising prices in some of our largest cities have made homeownership much less affordable in recent years. This has been exacerbated by slow wage growth. Many disagree however on the causes of such rapid price growth, and on what is to be done to improve affordability. The Federal and NSW governments put the blame firmly on inadequate supply. Doubt thrown on this causality by the ANU Report is one of the reasons it has sparked such interest.

April 18, 2018

SCOTT BURCHILL. What The West Really Thinks About Chemical Weapons Attacks.

How genuine is the West’s concern about the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria last week? Did they constitute a line in the sand, a crime so egregious that military strikes by Washington, London and Paris were necessary and morally justified? The historical record would suggest exactly the opposite.

March 19, 2018

CHANDRA ROULSTON. Before most of us had made our morning coffee, they were gone.

_I come from a country town in central Queensland called Biloela. A town where you can leave work to pick up the kids from school and it takes five minutes because we have one traffic light. A place where the “Buy Swap Sell” pages in the local newspaper are equal parts items for sale and posts asking: Anyone know who owns this? My favourite so far being a runaway bull on the golf course._And then Border Protection took our neighbours.

October 31, 2018

JOE ROACH. Inequality-A case of wood and trees.

Economists love data. For some it is a case of the more the merrier.or, at the least, the more data the more articles than can be published. Whether this contributes much to the overall good is doubtful. When it misleads it needs to be called out.

December 12, 2019

ANDREW PODGER.- Grattan Ducks its own Push for a Sensible Discussion of Private Health Insurance.

In their first Saving Private Insurance report in August, Stephen Duckett and Kristina Nemet from the Grattan Institute presented a most helpful framework for assessing the future role of private health insurance in Australia in the context of our universal public insurance scheme, Medicare.

July 30, 2019

WILLIAM D. HARTUNG. The US Military-Industrial Complex on Steroids(TomDispatch 16.7.2017)

When, in hisfarewell addressin 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the dangers of the unwarranted influence wielded by the military-industrial complex, he could never have dreamed of an arms-making corporation of the size and political clout of Lockheed Martin. In a good year, it now receives up to$50 billionin government contracts, a sum larger than the operatingbudget of the State Department. And now its about to have company.

May 17, 2018

VIC ROWLANDS. Education, which way forward.

Gonski’s Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools is timely but one would hope it will be supplemented by a closer look at the needs of lower achieving students for whom prospects in the next age, with the gap between rich and poor, becomes even more pronounced, are not encouraging. Gonski says:The basics must be in place by the time you’re eight, but there is more to this than a change of methodology.

June 24, 2019

MICHAEL PASCOE. War with Iran could break the American alliance and force Australia to become independent (The New Daily, 23 June 2019)

Im writing this at 10,000 metres, a dangerous place to write. Theres something about thin air on a plane and a couple of glasses of wine that moves the bladder closer to the eye.

May 21, 2019

NATHAN GARDELS. "Huawei to Hell"recalls Toshiba threat. (The World Post 11.5.2019)

The US was able to coerce Japan on trade, but China will be much harder to coerce.

May 6, 2020

SEAN INNIS and BOB MCMULLAN. Restarting Australian democracy Part One

For many Australians, the relative decisiveness and efficiency of government decision-making over the past few months has been a welcome change.

June 11, 2018

PAUL WALDMAN. Trumps effort to isolate us from the world is going great.

In 2013, before travelling to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant, Donald Trump asked plaintively on Twitter whether Vladimir Putin would be attending, and if so, will he become my new best friend? Putin never showed, and President Trump is apparently still pining for the Russian presidents approval. Meanwhile, there may never have been a president of the United States who is so unremittingly hostile to Americas closest allies.

December 1, 2019

ABUL RIZVI: Asylum Applications from China and Malaysia

Government has argued the surge in asylum applications from Chinese and Malaysian citizens is just part of normal growth in the caseload (see here). Nothing could be further from the truth. The surge is entirely the result of poor policy such as the staffing cap, Home Affairs rushing implementation of e:visas for Chinese nationals to save money and one that is slow to respond when things go wrong despite its rhetoric about being strong on border protection and immigration integrity.

May 20, 2019

DENNIS ARGALL. Lessons and thoughts for Labors future

There is a lot of emotion in the wake of disaster for Labor in the federal elections on 18 May 2019. There will be forensic examinations and recriminations. There is good prospect of a Labor Government after the next elections if

Labor must go steadily and clearly and must look like a government in brief exile.

September 10, 2019

MASSIMO FAGGIOLI. Brexit as a spiritual crisis: remain, leave, and an incarnational Church. The whole debate about leaving or remaining in the Catholic Church amid the sex abuse crisis is a form of ecclesial Brexit

In his novel “A Legacy of Spies” John Le Carr ponders the relationship between England and Europe.

July 2, 2019

BERNARD MOYLAN. Homily on Israel Folau

I intended to speak today about the hyperbolic language Jesus used in order to get a point across. The point in todays gospel is that life is more than rigid responsibilities and that our following him should be unencumbered. He is also reported as saying that if your eye offend you, pluck it out; if your hand offend you, cut if off. We are not meant to take these statements literally.[more]

July 22, 2019

ELISE HARRIS. Persecuted Christians urge more action, fewer empty words

With global religious persecution increasingly thrust into the international spotlight, members of several Christian communities suffering violence and discrimination have said promises are no longer enough, but action is needed from political leaders.

Typically seen as a political non-priority, religious persecution, and anti-Christian persecution in particular, has been getting more attention since the 70th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights was marked in December 2018.

September 11, 2018

ANDREW FARRAN. The US goes after the International Criminal Court

It is monstrous and ill conceived that the US National Security Adviser to President Trump, the notorious underminer of international institutions, including those with clear humanitarian purposes, one John Bolton, should get on his high horse to denounce the ICC whose jurisdictional powers are as far removed from the United States as are the terms of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas removed from the United States in the South China Sea.

September 10, 2018

JUDITH WHITE. Governments, bankers and burning museums.

When Brazils Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro burned down on 2 September, staff described it as a tragedy foretold. For years, successive governments had cut recurrent funding for the museum, whose collection of 20 million priceless and irreplaceable objects was the finest in South America. The building can be replaced; not so the collection.

In Canberra, the Australian War Memorial is the only institution not subject to cuts!

April 25, 2019

PAUL BARRATT. Ten Neglected Issues that Australia21 Believes Should be Addressed During the Election Campaign.

The 2019 election campaign having begun, I wish, on behalf of Australia21, which I chair, to draw attention to a number of issues that require proper attention and debate in order to enable Australian voters to make an informed choice about the candidates and parties they wish to support.

April 15, 2019

DUNCAN GRAHAM. Indonesia - after the count - chaos?

The alphabet of election campaign hyperbole runs from Absurd through Fatuous and Stupid to Zero (as in logic).Most statements are ephemeral for the nonsense spruikers know little is taken seriously once the losers are trampled by the triumphant.

But inIndonesiapledges by the former champion of the 1998 Peoples Power Revolution are causing deep disquiet.

January 1, 2020

JOHN MENADUE. Failed leadership. A repost from 17 September 2018

Good leadership is about facing the 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. We have have had failed leadership on climate change.

January 28, 2019

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Warren Muldine is hardly a lifelong true believer.

Warren Mundine is a serious politician. For most of his life he has been a player in the great game, either directly or more often and perhaps more effectively indirectly, through working in and around his community.

_His campaigns have not always been successful but he has a solid record of achievement in both advocacy and business. Under norm_al circumstances he would be seen as a worthy and effective candidate for parliament.

February 4, 2019

JOHN MENADUE. Conservatives like Scott Morrison set the gold standard in scare campaigns.

With the Coalition policy cupboard bare and broken we should not be surprised about the attacks on Bill Shorten and a scare campaign in the electorate. Last week Scott Morrison told us that he is ‘cashed up and ready to go negative’. We are being warned about the coming disaster if many well off people are denied the benefits of negative gearing,capital gains concessions or denial of tax credits even for people who don’t pay any tax at all. But that was just the beginning. Rhodes scholar winner and Minister for Energy threatened that ‘Labor’s energy policies would shut down Gladstone and Mackay’. At least that other Rhodes Scholar, Tony Abbott warned that only one town, Whyalla, would be shut down as a result of Labor’s energy policies.

September 6, 2018

ANGUS WHYTE. A farmers perspective on the drought.

As someone who is dependent on Mother Nature for a living, climate is very much a front and centre issue for all farmers.I graze livestock on semi-arid, native rangeland pastures in western NSW; the numbers we graze is dependent on the amount of pasture we grow, which of course relies on sufficient rainfall. Heres what I think about the drought.

May 24, 2018

JOHN AUSTEN. Revolving doors at the infrastructure club

Infrastructure Australia should be made a Commission and do its work in public.

January 9, 2020

JOHN TULLOH. Beware of whom you threaten, Mr Trump.

There is no tougher nut to crack in the Middle East than Iran. It is ferocious in its Shia Islamic nationalism. It has a proud historical heritage going back 2500 years to Cyrus the Great and the fabled Persian empire.

October 15, 2019

ABUL RIZVI. Current surge in asylum seekers is not normal for Australia

Writing in The Conversation, Regina Jefferies and Daniel Ghezelbash argue the current surge in onshore asylum applications is not unprecedented because tourists or students often lodge claims for asylum due to circumstances beyond their control. They give the example of the Chinese students after the Tiananmen Square massacre. But Jefferies and Ghezelbash fail to note the very stark differences between the two situations.

December 22, 2019

BOB MCMULLAN. Lessons for Labour from Labor

The crushing defeat of the British Labour Party was much worse than that suffered by the Australian Labour Party earlier in the year. However, there were some disturbing similarities and some common lessons to be learnt. _The ALP is fortunate to have had the Emerson/Weatherill Review. The British Labour Party needs to do something similar.

February 27, 2019

FRANCIS SULLIVAN. Pell conviction blows apart bishops' mantra

Yesterdays announcement of the conviction of Cardinal George Pell has been shattering for many and a relief for others.

The fact that the most senior cleric in Australia has been found guilty is devastating on many levels. Not the least because he was such a high-profile proponent for the safeguarding children in the church and its provision of compensation to victims.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal