November 24, 2019

Morrison fiddles while Australia burns

I had the privilege of serving closely all of the Prime Ministers from Whitlam to Howard. Each of them sought this office because they wanted to pursue a policy agenda they thought would make Australia better. However, the evidence suggests that Scott Morrison is different his objective is seemingly limited to being there.

October 7, 2018

MUNGO MACCALLUM. Government sees no mental disease on Nauru.

Scott Morrison has announced that the productivity Commission is to inquire and report on how mental disease affects the Australian economy.

November 14, 2016

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Donald Trump - a change agenda?

First the Poms abandoned common sense in backing Brexit and now the Yanks have voted against their own best interests (and those of the rest of the civilized world) by electing Donald J Trump.

This was not a rational decision; it was the ultimate political gesture, a defiant middle finger towards what they imagined was The Establishment, by which they actually meant anything and anyone they resented.

It was the act of a demented driver who deliberately veers across the median strip into the oncoming traffic: he knows it will certainly harm him, he may not survive, but with any luck he will take a couple of expensive imported limousines and their fat cat passengers with him. There will be carnage and mayhem, but what a spectacle that will show them all.

January 8, 2020

CAVAN HOGUE - The Trumpet shall sound, And we shall be razed!

Australia’s response to US Trumpeting in Iraq has been muted and said nothing about whether we agree in principle that it is acceptable to assassinate foreign nationals in other countries. Russia in Britain?

November 18, 2019

NICK DEANE. Taking the Fight to China?

The call for Australia to take the fight to China in the South China Sea by a retired, senior bureaucrat is surprising. It fails to take account of Chinas expressed defence strategy.

June 12, 2016

JOHN THOMPSON. Private health insurance seek to extend tentacles.

The recent report of the Inquiry into Chronic Disease Prevention and Management in Primary Health Care by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health has been somewhat overshadowed by the current election campaign.

One of the terms of reference of the Inquiry required the Committee to consider the role of private health insurers in chronic disease prevention and management.

January 4, 2020

RICHARD FLANAGAN.- Australia is Committing Climate Suicide

As record fires rage, the country’s leaders seem intent on sending it to its doom.

Read Richard Flanagan in the New York Times of January 3, 2020.

s://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/03/opinion/australia-fires-climate-change.html

December 28, 2019

MICHAEL JANDA.-Ken Henry's tax review is gathering dust, but its ideas could kick-start Australia's economy (ABC 23.12.2019)

Ten years ago to this day, Ken Henry handed then-treasurer Wayne Swan a wish list of tax reforms to set Australia up for the 21st century.

January 23, 2018

The bomb for Australia? (Part 3)

After the Cold War ended, the existence of nuclear weapons on both sides wasnt enough to stop the US from expanding NATOs borders ever eastwards towards Russias borders, contrary to the terms on which Moscow thought Germanys reunification and the admission of a united Germany into NATO had been agreed. Several Western leaders at the highest levels had assured Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO wouldnt expand even one inch eastward. In 1999, Russia watched helplessly from the sidelines as its ally, Serbia, was dismembered by NATO warplanes that served as midwives to the birth of an independent Kosovo.

November 14, 2019

GREG BAILEY. The New South Wales Fires, the National Party and Climate Change. PART 1

In responding on Monday to the severity of the NSW and QLD fires two senior NP politicians made statements attacking the Greens in a manner that was most intemperate and which has attracted almost universal criticism? But was their underlying motivation genuine concern for those affected by these predictable fires, or a desperate attempt to win back some of the electoral support slowly dripping away from them?

April 6, 2018

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND ...

The federal Coalition has many ideological cleavages. The division between liberals and conservatives has been most prominently on display in the same-sex marriage issue, and is again on display in arguments about intervening in the energy market to privilege the coal industry. In an article in The Atlantic The passing of the libertarian movement Kevin Williamson describes similar tensions in Americas Republican Party.

In case youre thinking of putting in a bid to buy the Liddell power station from AGL, The Australia Institute has a report on the stations generation costs and reliability. A used Leyland P76 may be a better investment.

May 30, 2018

New figures show States have cut funding to public schools.

New figures show that government funding increases have massively favoured private schools over public schools across Australia since 2009. Total government funding per student in public schools was cut between 2009 and 2016 while large funding increases were provided to Catholic and Independent schools. Even during the Gonski funding period of 2013-2016, funding increases for private schools far outstripped the increase for public schools.

December 6, 2017

Why should Israels lobby have different standards?

The government’s plans to tackle foreign influence in Australian life provide an opportunity for the first time to define the level of Israeli activity designed to influence the making of our foreign policy. George Brandis didn’t plan this. But it is likely to be an outcome.

December 5, 2019

DAVID SOLOMON. Taylor's numbers crunched.

When should a minister stand aside (that is, be stood aside); when should a minister resign (be sacked)? Prime Minister Morrison has provided his answer in the case of Angus Taylor, his Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction. Not now. But not ever? we will see.

March 21, 2019

ADRIAN PISARSKI. Tackling the Housing Crisis Properly Requires a National Housing Strategy

There is a plethora of well-intentioned research and opinion aimed at solving Australias growing housing crisis, including Labors proposed reforms to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. However, to be really effective, all of this must be considered in the context of a new national housing strategy. Only by taking that sort of holistic approach can we transform Australias housing system to be fit for the 21st Century.

February 13, 2018

The media, the Iraq war and Fallujah

The Australian media continues to fail us badly over its coverage of the Middle East wars, terrorism and the continuing disaster of ISIS. That failure began with the invasion of Iraq . Unlike important overseas media, no Australian media has admitted or apologized for its failure in the coverage of the Iraq war and its consequences. As is often the case, our media was embedded in the ADF in support of Coalition policy. The political class sticks together.

News Corp media has been most at fault.

November 15, 2018

GARRY EVERETT. A tale of two processes.

Last year I participated in a community consultation about increasing the water supply in south east Queensland. It was a very satisfying experience because of the process and skills of the consultants. This year I was invited to participate in a different kind of process. The Catholic Church has instituted a process for decision-making called a Plenary Council.

May 2, 2019

RICHARD COOKE. News Corp: Democracys greatest threat. (The Monthly. May 2019)

Denialism, nihilism and the Murdoch propaganda machine

_The slim, match-fit form ofThe Daily Telegraph columnist Piers Akerman, resplendent in a blue Tony Abbott T-shirt, and standing next to the former prime minister, was not supposed to be there. Not supposed to be in the photo, that is. It was Abbott who posted the picture to social media, accidentally revealing his mate on the hustings.

February 12, 2019

ABUL RIZVI. Another Dutton mess. This time Citizenship processing.

The Auditor-General on 11 February 2019 found in its audit of citizenship application processing that these are not being processed in either a time efficient manner or a resource efficient manner. But this is a tiny portion of a wider malaise in the administration of a once world class immigration system the Government and the senior leadership of the Home Affairs Department has allowed be run down. The record numbers of largely non-genuine asylum seeker applications (see here and here) and the Governments lack of action on these (the backlog of these at primary and review stages is now likely to be well in excess of 60,000 Home Affairs will not reveal the actual backlog) is the end result of the wider malaise.

November 27, 2017

TIM LINDSEY. Will Indonesias fugitive Speaker escape again? The elites war on the Anti-Corruption Commission continues.

Indonesians have been riveted for the last two weeks by a bizarre series of events that finally led to the arrest late last week of Setya Novanto, the speaker of the DPR, Indonesias national legislature.

October 19, 2018

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media.

August 1, 2016

JON STANFORD and JOHN MENADUE. The submarine confusion continues. Is the way being prepared for Australia to acquire nuclear submarines?

REPOST

In an interesting development relating to Australias new submarine acquisition, Peter Jennings, Executive Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), has written a piece in The Australian (7 June 2016) that is clearly at odds with the Institutes previous public stance. Jennings says that while conventional power for Australias submarines has previously been an article of faith, the capabilities required for our future submarine would in many ways be better performed by nuclear-powered boats.

January 30, 2019

ISHAAN THAROOR. The lesson of Davos: - China has arrived (Washington Post 25 January 2019).

Can we live in a world where America is still a strong power but doesnt have the kind of primacy it had in the past? asked Mahbubani. Thats a reality an America First administration is staunchly trying to resist. In Davos, though, it is afait accompli.

August 30, 2018

GEORGE BROWNING. Alternative facts & fake news the lubricant of conservative politics.

We are spending an inordinate amount of money on defence and security to protect ourselves from an enemy without, but it is now clear that we face a far greater threat from the enemy within, revealed through alternative facts and fake news, the lubricant of conservative politics. In the disgraceful power struggle between so-called conservatives and liberals in federal politics we have seen a championing of the Trump brand and the heinous connection between evangelical Christianity and individual rights. A right-wing commentator has revealingly lamented that the trouble with Turnbull is that his natural home is within the ABC not Sky News! What more needs to be said about the extraordinarily destructive and binary world into which we have fallen.

November 10, 2019

MARK BUCKLEY. Why Labor Lost

As this years election result became clear, Bill Shorten stated, We were up against corporate leviathans, a financial behemoth, spending unprecedented hundreds of millions of dollars advertising, telling lies, spreading fear they got what they wanted. That is the voice of a hapless victim, complaining about forces beyond his control, and not the alternative leader of the country.

April 11, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Reforming the governance of Cricket Australia.

Yesterday, I wrote about giving Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft a second chance. The focus has rightly been on them, but deliberately hidden from sight until forced out into the open has been Cricket Australia and its Board .

February 23, 2018

ROSS GITTINS. Self-interest standing in the way of a fix for the Murray-Darling

Genelle Haldane, my desk calendar tells me, has said that “only until all of mankind lives in harmony with nature can we truly decree ourselves to be an intelligent species”. I’ve no idea who Haldane is or was, but she’s right.

February 21, 2019

JOSEPH E STIGLITZ. How Can We Tax Footloose Multinationals? (Project Syndicate)

Apple, Google, Starbucks, and companies like them all claim to be socially responsible, but the first element of social responsibility should be paying your fair share of tax. Instead, globalization has enabled multinationals to encourage a race to the bottom, threatening the revenues that governments need to function properly.

October 30, 2018

MOHAMAD BAZZI. How Saudi Arabia wins friends (New York Times, 29.10.18)

After the Khashoggi murder, the kingdom has fallen back on the tactic of wielding its oil wealth to buy loyalty.

April 15, 2018

JOCELYN CHEY. China Watchers Are Not China Stooges.

Australia needs informed and balanced study and reporting on China more than ever before. Informed opinion depends on the ability to see both sides of the picture and to avoid over-simplification.

March 10, 2019

JOHN AUSTEN. High speed rail - Please don't bite the bullet.

The Federal Opposition recently got media attention for high speed rail by exhorting Australia to bite the bullet. Australians should indeed bite the bullet on high speed rail by demanding public apologies for failures: large amounts of public money wasted; false expectations fanned; bureaucratic misbehaviour rewarded and aversion to a reasonable approach urged by a Prime Minister! The Opposition might lead off, apologising first to Newcastle.

September 29, 2019

JEFFREY BRAITHWAITE: How to improve the health system, part 2: learn from things going right as well as things going wrong

At the Australian Institute of Health Innovation at Macquarie University we have around 80 projects going on at any point in time. There are more than 180 people doctoral and masters students, professional staff, researchers, visiting academics and associates and dozens of partners, nationally and internationally. We are working on providing the evidence that supports practical and implementable change in the health system, delivering real benefits to people.

September 26, 2019

JEFFREY BRAITHWAITE: How to improve the health system, part 1: support the staff

I hear many stories and over the years have conducted many studies about peoples experiences with doctors and hospitals. I access these in the course of my work as a health systems researcher and some simply come to me as a parent, husband, son, or friend. All can at least potentially be used to change the health system.

November 23, 2017

JOHN MENADUE. 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper.

Yesterday, the government released the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper.

A group associated with Pearls & Irritations made a submission in the preparation of the White Paper:Submission on foreign policy white paper - filling the void.

The media release concerning the White Paper follows. That media release also carries a link to the full White Paper.

Next week Pearls and Irritations will be reviewing and commenting on the White Paper

April 24, 2018

Anzac Day: From respectful remembrance to festival of forgetting

Are our war memorials becoming sites for mere flag-waving? Should they feature exhibition halls boosting national pride in our military prowess? If so, Anzac Day itself risks descending into a Festival of Forgetting.

May 8, 2016

'Refugees don't self-harm because of me, Peter Dutton, they self-harm because of you.'

One of the many disappointments of Malcolm Turnbull’s prime ministership is that he reappointed Peter Dutton as Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. This disappointment is reinforced by his attempt to blame refugee advocates rather than his own policies for the self-harm of asylum seekers. Sarah Smith, a supporter of refugees, tells of the heartbreak she feels at the pain inflicted by Peter Dutton. But he blames others.

See link to article by Sarah Smith in The Guardian of 5 May 2016. John Menadue.

March 20, 2019

LINDA BRISKMAN. Let's disentangle free speech and hate speech in the media.

We are all seeking answers to the heartbreaking mass murder of Muslims in Christchurch. It assuages consciences if we can attribute blame that absolves us as a collective of non-Muslim Australians. There are many nonetheless who cannot be let off the hook. The media is one.

June 6, 2019

EVA COX. Feminist options: revive the Social Contract and fix the trust deficit.

So the ALP lost the election and everyone has a post mortem explanation of what went wrong (egIan Macaulay: it’s the economy)or what needs to be the future focus (Albo: It’s jobs, we are here for the workers).Yet the big story should be how voters reflected increasing distrust of the current ‘democratic processes’ because of policy omissions. The low turnout, reported high levels of really undecided voters, and the failure of the accuracy of poll sampling to reflect the results are all indicators that too many voters were not engaged because of not trusting their decisions.

September 17, 2019

JOHN CARLIN. Let Them Shoot Themselves

Boris Johnson will go down in history, not as a Churchill he so much admires, but the prime minister who led his country into humiliation and global irrelevance.

October 23, 2016

MUNGO MacCALLUM. The Turnbull-Abbott shoot out.

In the normal world, the question of whether a gun could fire seven rounds or five rounds would be largely academic; if there was a dispute it could be expected to be settled swiftly and uneventfully.

But in the confused and murky world of Malcolm Turnbull, in which reality and fantasy merge into a nightmare and every step seems mired in quicksand, with progress tortuous and salvation impossible well, thats just another average week.

Within four short days what should have been the merest glitch has developed into major shit storm in which Turnbull and his predecessor, Tony Abbott, are trading accusations of deceit and engulfed in righteous outrage which will delight the opposition and the media for days, if not weeks to come.

November 15, 2018

GREG BARTON. Morrison wants Muslim leaders to do more to prevent terrorism, but what more can they do? (The Conversation)

With the simple statement more needs to happen, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was emphatic. In the wake of the terror attack on the crowded streets of Melbournes CBD last Friday, it is difficult to argue against any plan to do more to fight terrorism in Australia.

October 3, 2019

TED TRAINER. Greta, climate, affluence and growth when will they join the dots?

Global concern about climate change has now reached a remarkable level, thanks in large part to Greta Thunberg and her team. There is however, in my view, little understanding of what the underlying problem is or how to solve it. The climate problem is just one of many factors driving consumer-capitalist society to its imminent destruction.

June 27, 2019

BRIAN LAWRENCE. The Government's tax package and Labor's response: the perspective of a cleaner

_The Government’s tax package is unfair to low paid workers. In response, the Labor Opposition has just announced that it will support Stage 1 of the package, within which is embeded much of that unfairness. How might we reduce the unfairness?

May 16, 2019

ERIC HODGENS: A Possible Australian Church Contribution.

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (RC) is one of the most thorough investigations of its kind worldwide. The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) and Catholic Religious Australia (CRA) have made a combined response accepting virtually all the commissions recommendations. This puts them further down the track of adaptation than most countries in the world. If it works out, Australia has the chance to be showing the way for other nations, the Roman Curia and even the Canon Law itself.

October 10, 2019

PATRICK COCKBURN. Iraq is in Revolt. (CounterPunch 7.10.2019)

_Iraq is poised at a turning point in its modern history as its people wait to see if the government curfew and close down of the internet will end the ongoing demonstrations.

March 23, 2018

CHRIS BONNOR. Is it time to shut Goulburns Catholic School doors again?

For those who dont have a life and follow the school funding saga, the recent spat over Catholic school funding wont come as any great surprise. Labors proposed extra $250 million commitment has attracted criticism, most recently from The Australian Council of State School Organisations. The analysis and criticism focuses on various interpretations of future funding plans, but the implications are much wider. To find out more, all we have to do is cast our eyes towards Goulburn in New South Wales. To see the future we only need to look back.

March 24, 2019

ANTHONY PUN. Chinese Australian votes and the 2019 NSW State Election

This article promotes the theory that there is an effective Chinese Australian vote that can change political outcome of a seat if the ingredients viz. issues affecting Chinese Australians, high percentage of Chinese Australian voters and a marginal seat. This observation is similar to the ethnic votes under John Howard administration. The conclusion is drawn from observation of events leading to the election, the election result, the use of social medial as a strategic weapon.

November 21, 2016

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Trump, Turnbull and ANZUS.

So with a single bound across the Pacific, Trumpery has come to Australia or at least to our elected leaders, which is the troubling bit.

Last week Malcolm Turnbull was inveighing against the elites yes, Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, the multimillionaire lord of Wentworth, Mr Harbourside Mansion himself.

His complaint that the elitist ABC was talking about section 18c the ABC, not the manic Murdoch press which has spent relentless months on the same subject until Turnbull was forced to throw a chunk of raw meat to his right wing predators in the form of an inquiry, and the forthcoming dismemberment of the unlucky Gillian Triggs, who has been designated as official blood sacrifice.

June 12, 2019

GREG JERICHO. Coalition's lies, damned lies and election-winning strategies (The Guardian)

No, the government doesnt care about reducing carbon emissions and no, the economy is not strong.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal