December 20, 2018

BRAD CHILCOTT. Refugees and the ALP Conference.

On Monday night, late in the evening after Labors national conference had debated asylum seeker and refugee policy, I sat at a bar with a mix of refugee advocates, conference delegates like myself, people seeking asylum and refugees.

November 6, 2018

Discrimination recriminations in the debate about private schools

Debates about discrimination in schools need to go much further, argues Chris Bonnor

July 6, 2018

RAMESH THAKUR. Australia and the Quad (The Strategist)

On 18 January, admirals from Australia, India, Japan and the US sat together on stage at the high-profile Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi. Their presence reflected the shared strategic assessment that China has become a disruptive force in the Indo-Pacific. Taking time out to deliver a lecture at Indias National Defence College, Australian Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne echoed remarks by Indian PM Narendra Modi to the Australian Parliament in 2014, affirming that India had shifted from the periphery to the centre of Canberras strategic frame.

October 8, 2017

MICHAEL KEATING. Can Parliament control Government Expenditure?-The Use of the Advance to the Minister of Finance

The High Court has upheld the Governments decision to use the Advance to the Minister of Finance to pay for its survey of attitudes regarding same-sex marriage, and notwithstanding that funding for this survey was unlikely to gain parliamentary approval. Furthermore, the Court found that while the Finance Ministers decision must be formed reasonably, he is not obliged to act apolitically or quasi-judicially in determining access to the Advance. My concern is that this High Court decision may have tipped the balance too far against parliamentary control of government expenditure, which is a key feature of our democracy ever since Magna Carta. The question we now face is what should and can be done to restore this parliamentary control, while still allowing governments to respond to unforeseen and urgent circumstances?

March 27, 2018

BRUCE DUNCAN. Was God just a spectator at the Crucifixion?

Is Easter simply a relic from the past and a chance for a holiday break? Why have the dramatic events of Easter been so significant in our cultures, and why is Easter still so central to Christian belief?

October 27, 2019

LOUIS COOPER Canadian election washup.

Last weeks general elections in Canada ended in a minority government and the sense of an east-west divide to the nation. Canadians wanted to teach Trudeau a lesson but they also wanted him back.

April 15, 2019

ANDREW FARRAN. Extending the way to a viable Brexit?

_Is the path to Britains withdrawal from the EU now finally clear, some three years after the Referendum that decided it should leave - to regain national sovereignty, to control its borders, and to conclude its own trade agreements with the rest of the world? Deadlines have come and gone - 28th March, 12th April, 22nd May and now a flexible extension to 31 October; or the UK may leave at any time meanwhile if it can get the EU agreed Withdrawal Agreement through its Parliament. Parliament has approved the extension prospectively, largely with Labour votes but with many Tories dissenting. A majority of MPs are opposed to a no-deal Brexit. The EU Council will meet on 30 June solely to review progress, not to engage in further negotiations on the withdrawal.

June 25, 2018

RICHARD BUTLER. Trump Banishes Compassion: zero tolerance

The events at the US/Mexican border of the last days have been marked by: a quintessential Trumpian mix of lies, obfuscation, an Administration in disarray and, above all, cruelty, with children and infants as its victim. There has been a ruthless manipulation of xenophobia and racism for domestic political purposes. A most fundamental ethical value: compassion has been traduced.

August 18, 2020

'Rage against the dying of the light' in the way we treat elderly people

The alienation of elderly people from social life is abundantly evident in the impact of coronavirus on society as it exploits the vulnerable and defenceless.

November 18, 2019

JACK WATERFORD. Now is not the time for keeping mum about Scott

The Canberra bushfire of January 2003 burnt, in an afternoon, nearly three times as many houses as have been consumed in NSW in this terrible week of 2019 as fires have raged in north-eastern NSW.

October 24, 2016

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Concealing crimes in Manus and Nauru.

Those eminent jurists Malcolm Turnbull and George Brandis are normally very careful with the words they use; indeed, Brandis did his best to bore a senate committee rigid as he spent many minutes explaining exactly what he meant by the term consult.

But in spite of their learning and erudition, our latter day Perry Masons seem unable to distinguish between the difference between refute (which is the one they constantly use) and rebut (which what they presumably mean).

November 21, 2019

The invisibility of AsianAustralians is a national scandal. The silence on this scandal is a disgrace

As I read through the opinion articles in The Canberra Times and The Australian on Saturday 9 November, I grew increasingly exasperated at the total absence of any Asian voice. I then did an online search of opinion articles in the Fairfax media (The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald), plus The Daily Telegraph_. As far as could be ascertained from their names and photos (with a built-in margin for errors), of the 49 opinion articles on that Saturday, only one was by a non-Caucasian._

August 26, 2018

ROBERT MICKENS. The popes bewildering inaction on sexual abuse.

There is no question that Francis is authentic He does not demand of others what he does not demand of himself.

February 21, 2019

BRUCE THOM. Future national need for a healthy environment.

Since the mid-1980s it has become increasingly established that climate change will impact the lives of Australians, on the economy and the health of environmental assets. The interconnected functioning of natural processes requires us to look beyond the settler view of exploitation of nature. To do this we must somehow enshrine in law, such as through a Charter of Rights for Nature, the protection and restoration of valued natural assets vital to the nations long-term wellbeing.

November 26, 2019

MICHAEL KEATING-Trumps Re-election Prospects and the Economy.

The secular stagnation of the American economy over this century helped propel Donald Trump into the White House. So far President Trump is popularly credited with achieving some improvement in the US economy, but the economic outlook may well have deteriorated by the time of the next US election.

March 27, 2019

JOHN MENADUE. Labors proposed Australian Health Reform Commission is a welcome start.

For many years several of us in Pearls and Irritations have argued that we need an independent and professional health commission to lead an informed public discussion on health issues and recommend to the Commonwealth Government and COAG on how to improve our health system. In world terms we have a good system, but it is really unchanged since the Hawke government in 1983 introduced Medicare which was based on the Whitlam governments Medibank of 1975.

October 9, 2019

LAURIE PATTON. Miscommunication. Paul Fletcher spins his top like turvey

Communications minister Paul Fletcher spoke at an industry conference and outdid his Coalition predecessors in an extraordinary attempt to defend the beleaguered National Broadband Network. These are just some of the comments he made to an incredulous audience of IT professionals who know so much more than he does.

March 21, 2019

MAX HAYTON. Jacinda Ardern leads a nation in grief.

Under a remarkable young woman New Zealand is discovering deep resources of kindness and compassion. In the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre people touched by the tragedy built mountains of flowers and in their thousands attended rallies in support of the Muslims living in their communities.

November 17, 2019

LESLEY HUGHES. If not now, when?

We dont need name calling. But we do need to talk about climate change and bushfires.

March 11, 2019

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Morrison a 'fair dinkum' hole in the air.

When the people smugglers see me, they see a brick wall, boasted our great war leader.

Well, up to a point; they certainly see someone as thick as a brick and far less transparent and straightforward. But most Australians see him more like a hole in the air a political vacuum feverishly trying to present himself as authentic by relying on the constant repetition of the mantra he adopted from Alan Jones, fair dinkum.

December 31, 2019

MICHAEL ARRIA. Brown University committee votes to divest from companies connected to the Israeli occupation (Mondoweiss 6.12.2019)

On Dec 2, Brown Universitys Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies (ACCRIP) voted to recommend that the school divest from companies that facilitate Israeli human rights violations. Six ACCRIP members voted in favor of divestment, two voted against it, and one member abstained.

June 11, 2019

PAULINA GUZIK. Polish bishops hope 'knight of Malta' will help Church battle abuse. Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, the Vatican's chief expert on clerical sex abuse, will visit Poland on Friday.

When the people of Poland think of Malta and the Catholic Church, they usually think of the Knights of Malta, the fraternal order which is active throughout the country. Next week, a different kind of Maltese knight will be arriving: Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta - the island country in the Mediterranean - is coming to Poland on June 14.Scicluna is also the Adjunct Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and considered Pope Franciss most trusted expert on clerical sexual abuse, having previously served as the Vaticans chief prosecutor in abuse cases.

December 29, 2019

ANDREW PODGER.-Trying to make sense of the Thodey Report and Morrisons Response:(The Conversation 19.12.2019)

The final report of the Independent Review of the APS is much more substantial than its Interim Report. That is hardly a high hurdle, but its 18 page bibliography suggests considerable reflection beyond the (mostly disappointing) submissions and commissioned papers.

October 7, 2019

MICHAEL KEATING The Fiscal Outlook: Is the projected Budget surplus sustainable and should it be? Part 2

With a stagnant economy, there are strong arguments for a fiscal stimulus package that would almost certainly postpone the return to Budget surplus for a couple of years. But what of the longer term? This article uses the Medium Term Fiscal Projections recently released by the Parliamentary Budget Office to query the longer-term fiscal outlook, and whether Budget surpluses are in fact sustainable without policy changes.

June 12, 2019

KIM WINGEREI Independent media continues to grow

Independent media continues to grow. With 21.7% growth in online audience in the last quarter sites such as this are taking significant mind- and marketshare from the mainstream infortainment giants who continue to lose readers both online and offline.

November 5, 2017

SPENCER ZIFCAK. Australia elected to UN Human Rights Council - despite international condemnation.

Two weeks ago, Australia was chosen as one of two new member nations on the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). Before one gets too excited about this achievement it is worth noting that our countrys election was uncontested.There were three countries vying for two positions on the HRC - Australia, Spain and France. France dropped out of the race just weeks before the election was due to be held. Spain and Australia, therefore, walked unopposed into the two spots that remained.It was just as well that there was no contested election. This nations human rights record is nothing of which we can be proud. And as it happens, the UN itself has been sharply critical of several aspects of Australias human rights performance in the three months before, and the two weeks after, the countrys success.

January 6, 2020

MIKE SCRAFTON. Iran, the US, and Australia

The Middle East situation now falls outside the province of rational analytical discourse. Small events might provoke unimaginably large and uncontrollable responses.

March 10, 2019

STEPHEN FITZGERALD. At 'Espionage in Australia Exhibition' at the The Whitlam Institute (8 March 2019)

The Whitlam Institute mightnt seem an obvious place to have an exhibition about spies. But I think it is. Not that its a spy agency (if it were, it would have a budget many multiples greater than it has), but because of the driving idea in what it does: democracy, in our society and our history. And spies have a lot to do with democracy - defending it, sometimes perverting it. And theres more, connected with the Whitlam story. Whitlam wasnt a spy, either. He was in fact a man more spied against than spying. But, more than any other Australian Prime Minister, he took on the spy agencies, ours and the Americans, in the service of democracy and good governance.

December 27, 2016

OLIVER FRANKEL. Sharing our space (Part 1) - the sharing economy and beyond

Part 1 - Part 2 will be published tomorrow.

_Space sharing is an important part of the fast-growing sharing economy. New co-living paradigms are emerging which could have significant implications for the way we live and the type of housing we need. …_One of the main applications of the sharing economy is in accommodation, particularly for holiday/travel and student share housing.

July 18, 2018

PATRICK LAWRENCE. Whats going to happen when Assad wins the war in Syria? (Asian Times, 17.07.18)

Given the unexpected pace of events in recent weeks, the end of Syrias seven-year agony appears to be very near. It is now all but certain that Bashar al-Assads government will win its long war against Sunni jihadists and their foreign supporters. The focus in Syria is already turning from conflict, casualty counts, and displacement to reconciliation, resettlement, and reconstruction.

April 28, 2019

JOHN MENADUE. The scourge of lobbyists is part of our political malaise. An update

Lobbyists are back in the news but it looks as if the scourge of lobbyists will continue in Canberra if Bill Shorten wins the next election. There is no sign that the ALP, like the Coalition is prepared to curb the way lobbyists are corrupting public policy in Australia.. The media reports that lobby firms are taking on labor staffers so that they can influence a future Labor Government. And ex Labor, Liberal and National ministers figure prominently in major lobbying firms.

June 6, 2019

ROBERT FISK. The final punishment of Julian Assange. (Counterpunch 3.6.2019)

_Shame and the fear of accountability for what has been done by our security authorities, not the law-breaking of leakers, is what this is all about.

July 17, 2018

BRAD CHILCOTT. Its not size that matters, its what you do with it.

Members of the Australian Parliament are rich. All of them - from the $200m Prime Minister down to the backbencher earning $203 020 a year and regardless of political affiliation - are in the top 0.5% of the richest people in the world. Although Senator Lucy Gichuhi believes her annual income is not a lot of money its still four times Australias median salary ($55 063) - which means that 50% of Australian adults live off less than a quarter of the Senators earnings. Shes not doing it tough.

May 15, 2018

JERRY ROBERTS. Share the Blame.

It is not just the bankers who have lost status under the spotlight of our Royal Commission. Australias governing classes in their entirety are diminished. Our politicians on both sides of the House, our regulatory bureaucracies, the media, our Professors of Economics and Business Administration, our independent think tanks and their incessant propaganda of deregulation and privatisation It is time for all of them to go back to school.

March 18, 2015

John Menadue. Cars are killing our cities.

At almost every election, we are being wooed with stories of more freeways to accommodated more and more cars. It is self-defeating. In our public infrastructure we waste more money on roads than on anything else. As I have argued in my re-post below, there are a whole range of policy issues that we must address to curb the growing volume of cars and the damage that they are doing to our cities. We refuse to embrace it, but we will be forced to consider congestion taxes to limit road use.

April 23, 2019

WILLIAM BRIGGS ANZAC Day: lest we forget the militarisation of the Australian economy

ANZAC Day is once more upon us. We are told that it is a time for reflection. And, so it is. The sad truth is that we engage in little actual or meaningful contemplation of the date or of its deeper meaning. There are, of course, exhortations, there are reminders (lest we forget), there are nationalistic refrains, there are figurative and literal calls to arms, but very little by way of real or objective consideration. If we were encouraged to a deeper thoughtfulness then we would not hear school-children repeat, and sincerely mean, the nonsense that the ANZACS went to Gallipoli to preserve or win the freedoms we have today. No, we are not meant to reflect, but rather to accept that the sacrifices of a century past had merit and that we must prepare for future sacrifices.

November 6, 2018

SOPHIE VORRATH. Surge in renewables delivering cheaper power, says TAI report.

As ScoMo sets off in his big blue autographed campaign bus to Drive Down Electricity Prices in Queensland, the good news is that most of the hard work looks to have been already done for him.

This article was published by Renew Economy on the 5th of November 2018.

December 8, 2019

MICHAEL KEATING. Economic stagnation continues

Last Wednesdays release of the national accounts for the September quarter confirmed what we already knew economic stagnation continues. Most importantly, it is hard to see why the economy will ever improve under present policies. Instead we need a new and different economic strategy.

May 30, 2018

MELVIN GOODMAN. A Major Win for Trumps War Cabinet.

President Donald Trumps abrupt decision to run away from a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un should not be a surprise to anyone. The White House is encouraging the notion that Chinas Xi Jinping is to blame for souring the notion of a U.S.-North Korean summit and for toughening Kim Jong Uns negotiating position, and the mainstream media is doing its predictable best to validate such a self-serving explanation. In actual fact, the Trump administration was never prepared to discuss any issue that resembled arms control and disarmament, and national security adviser John Bolton, the formidable chairman of the new war cabinet, was never agreeable to the idea of U.S.-North Korean diplomacy.

President Obama had to put a ‘gag order’ on Admiral Harris because of his anti China attitude. Harris was initially slotted to be the next US Ambassador to Australia

December 27, 2017

AMANDA BIGGS. Whither the private health insurance rebate?

The private health insurance rebate is an important element in maintaining the attractiveness of private health insurance membership. The government rebate subsidises the cost of private health insurance premiums (hospital, general, and ambulance policies). It is usually applied in the form of an upfront discount to the consumer on the price of the premium, although it can be claimed back through the tax system. The rebate amount varies, depending on income levels and age.

June 2, 2019

ELENIE POULOS. Winners and losers in the politics of religious freedom

There should be no winners and losers when it comes to the protection of human rights in Australia. The international human rights framework was developed as a language and a set of tools to help us do better at upholding the human dignity of every person, and especially those who are marginalised and excluded in society. But right now, we are seeing an emotionally charged and politicised campaign to declare a limited notion of religious freedom the human rights winner.

August 12, 2018

CHRISTIANE BARRO. Ninety years on, no justice for Australias last Aboriginal massacre.

Last Tuesday marked 90 yearssince the lastrecorded massacre of Aboriginal people in Australia.

October 14, 2019

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Morrison kowtows to Trump

Even as Donald Trump announced he would cut and run from Syria, leaving his Kurdish allies to whatever bloody fate awaits them and opening a door for the resurgence of ISIS. our fearless prime minister was not ready to breathe a word of criticism of his friend, ally and protector.

March 28, 2019

ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ. Why Australia is the best place to be an online racist.

When no name pulled the trigger over one hundred times as he sluiced his way through the congregations at two Christchurch mosques, nothing he did was new. It was bigger, perhaps more successful, and maybe better planned than his role models had been able to realise, but his actions were entirely predictable.

December 15, 2015

Andrew Willcocks. The multi-billion dollar trade agreement you've never heard of.

In less than a week trade ministers from across the globe will come together at the 10th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Nairobi, Kenya.

The meeting follows more than a decade of stalled global trade negotiations since the WTOs Doha Round of talks in 2001.

Dominating the Nairobi discussion is the expectation that an impasse will continue over thescope and future of the multilateral Doha trade agenda, particularly given the influence of large newly-minted regional trade agreements.

December 14, 2015

David Charles. The National Innovation and Science Agenda Will it be different this time?

The Prime Minister and his government are welcoming us to the ideas boom. Showing a great sense of timing the innovation statement was made almost at the same time that Atlassian was listing on the NASDAQ. The Statement points to Atlassian as being valued at over US$3 billion. Today the company is valued at close to US$6 billion making billionaires out of its founders Mike Cannon-Brooks and Scott Farquhar and millionaires out of many of their co-workers.

February 18, 2019

JOHN AUSTEN. Transport for an incoming NSW Government.

NSW faces an election in March. This note to help an incoming government - draws on transport matters identified in Pearls etc. It wont be in the incoming governments briefs. Never mind people who matter read Pearls!

May 15, 2019

ANDREW GLIKSON. TheNewspeakroad to four degrees Celsius warming.

While a price placed on the Earth, estimated at$5000 trillion (New Formula Values Earth), belongs to the unthinkable, the haggle by conservatives over the price of mitigation of climate change underpins the reality of the Faustian Bargain.

May 1, 2019

JEFF KINGSTON. Filling the post-Heisei void (East Asia Forum)

Emperor Akihito is a tough act to follow. He is known as the peoples emperor because he brought the monarchy closer to the people by sharing the pain of those displaced by disaster and advocating on behalf of the vulnerable and marginalised. This included people suffering from Hansens disease as well as the mentally and physically handicapped. His reign contrasted that of Emperor Showa (Hirohito) who was aloof and awkward in fulfilling his public duties in post-war Japan.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal