December 16, 2018

MARIANA MAZZUCATO. Can the STATE deliver?

Visitors to Australia are drawn to this countrys iconic coastline. After landing in Sydney early in the morning I went straight Bondis famous Icebergs ocean pool to do a few laps. It was spectacular. A gorgeous pool in the depths of the sea, a symbol that its not just infrastructure, but well-designed infrastructure that makes a difference: public value that public and private actors can create when they get the mix right. Icebergs is one of around 150 ocean baths in the state of New South Wales. Some are licenced to private operators, others are run by local government. If Icebergs is any indication, they are all a unique public realm long-lived investments that provide access to the natural environment, a base for local business, and a place for communities to come together.

August 3, 2019

PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 4 August 2019

With apologies for the anthropomorphism, Sydneys newly-hatched Sea-Eagles would like this weeks round up as it focuses on their future habitats: land and marine environments (with good news about soil carbon and regenerative farming and not good news about deforestation and seabed mining). And for once, an example of Australia leading the way on climate change can you guess what it is?

January 3, 2020

EVAN JONES.- Fires. Are they Australias Potemkin Moment?

The French economist and social critic Frdric Lordon recently penned an article on his blog at Le Monde Diplomatique titled The Potemkin Moment.

October 25, 2018

Shinzo Abes China visit will push infrastructure and sea ties to counter US tensions (South China Morning Post, 20.10.18)

First visit to Beijing by a Japanese prime minister since 2011 expected to bring economic cooperation that prepares the way for warmer political relations.

May 12, 2020

Update on the economic outlook

The government and its advisers expect this recession to be relatively short-lived, but the recovery may well be less complete than they anticipate and are planning for.

January 4, 2021

Assange ruling sensible, but no implications for press freedom

The judge accepted the legal arguments presented by US lawyers, saw no inherent threat of potential injustice, but denied the extradition request on health grounds. However, dumping, unfiltered, thousands of files on to the web is not journalism.

May 21, 2020

PAUL PERVERSI. Understanding anti-China Bias and other prejudices

Recent articles in Pearls and Irritations, such as those by Paul Malone, James Curran, Ramesh Thakur and Mike Scrafton, have highlighted the nonsensical nature of much analysis, reporting and opinion, particularly in relation to a trenchant and sustained bias against China. A fascinating question is to ask what is behind this trend.

December 21, 2018

JAMES BUTTON. The ALP Federal Conference.

It looks like the times will suit Bill Shorten. Voters dont love him, yet in a year in which the feral rump of the Liberal Party hopelessly botched a coup that felled a Prime Minister but failed to install his self-anointed successor, by-election after by-election and poll after poll showed Shortens party poised to take power.

February 13, 2018

IAN BUCKLEY. Homo sapiens' catastrophic prospects: why and how wise remedies so long resisted.

Proposed here is whether the wise counsel of Jesus of Nazareth, Adam Smith, George Kennan and legions of other insightful souls might well provide a sound basis for solutions to the worlds self-made catastrophic disasters - a vitally crucial issue demanding action before point of no return overtakes all.

January 11, 2018

JERRY ROBERTS. The Miners Win Again- A REPOST from October 27 2017

A two-paragraph story under the heading Gold hike dead on page 24 of the West Australian newspaper, Friday 13 October, ended the latest chapter in the one-sided battle between Australian governments and the mining industry. The miners won again.

June 13, 2019

Liberal leadership change in WA shows conservative confidence

_Liza Harvey’s unopposed ascension to leadership of the West Australian parliamentary Liberal Party points to growing confidence among conservatives in the West but Mike Nahan deserves high prai_se for holding the fort after the Liberals’ 2017 rout.

June 5, 2018

TONY WALKER. Australia needs to reset the relationship with China and stay cool.

Lets call it the China syndrome. This describes a condition that is a bit compulsive and not always rational.

Australias response to Chinas continuing rise mixes anxiety, even a touch of paranoia, with anticipation of the riches that derive from the sale of vast quantities of commodities.

Economic dependence on China is two-edged and potentially policy-distorting.

February 13, 2019

JON STANFORD. Comment on Mike Scrapton's article 'The casual talk of war'.

_Isnt it interesting that in the Prime Ministers attempt yesterday to make us all very frightened indeed about the national security threats that a Labor government would expose us to ranging from hordes of asylum seekers at the gates, including paedophiles and murderers in their ranks, to increased domestic violence against women he completely forgot to warn us about the elephant in the room, namely a major war in the South China Sea over Taiwan. This is now widely canvassed among academic strategic experts, including Hugh White and Paul Dibb, as being distinctly possible in the not too distant future. But apparently as far as the PM is concerned, impoverished refugees and drunken husbands pose a much greater threat to the Australian community.

November 19, 2018

ERIC SIDOTI. Let the Privatisation Games Begin

Privatisation has been the source of ongoing debate in this country since at least the 1980s. For much of the intervening years though to question the virtues of privatisation - and the accompanying sanctification of competition and choice- has been treated as economic heresy. The threat of political excommunication strangled policy development. Its to be hoped that we are witnessing the passing of those days as the welcome exchanges between John Menadue and Michael Keating in this revered blog might suggest. However, a genuine debate must go beyond the origins and the entrenched belief that privatisation is purely a matter of economic practice.

February 23, 2016

Michael D. Breen. Freedom to Mock.

Tim Minchins Come home Cardinal Pell nails it for many in Oz. Minchin voices the rage, the frustration and the suffering of unrequited victims, their relatives, and Church goers and observers.

Rage boils when people feel unheard. It becomes incandescent over unfairness. It sizzles when one class triumphs over another.

The song flashes the spotlight on the dark places were abuse happened initially or where cover up merchants operated.

The song is composed. Also composed is the Statement from the Catholic Communications Office February 17th. The past few days has (sic) seen a great deal of incorrect information relating to Cardinal George Pell and his upcoming Royal Commission appearance.

May 14, 2020

ALEX MITCHELL. Top cops pay rise

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has been given a pay rise of $87,000 while nurses, teachers, firefighters and most public servants have been handed a pay freeze. A major row was inevitable.

May 30, 2020

PETER SAINSBURY. Sunday environmental round up, 31 May 2020

Its not difficult knowing what to do to prevent an environmental and human catastrophe. Whats difficult is making it happen and starting it now, especially in Australia. Todays articles highlight some recommendations for governments. Finally, a couple of wins in court, and reproduction and Raymond Chandler.

March 8, 2018

ROSS GITTINS. If governments don't get this message they will be tossed out.

A highlight of our trip to New York after Christmas was a visit to the Tenement Museum down on the lower east side, where the movieGangs of New Yorkwas set. It was the area where successive waves of Irish, German and Russian immigrants first settled, crowded into tenements. We were taken around the corner to see inside a tenement building restored to its original condition. As we climbed the back stairs, we were shown a row of dunnies and a water tap in the backyard. This, we were told, was one of the first tenements required to have outside toilets and running water under a new city ordinance.

June 10, 2019

CHRIS BONNOR Selective schools ... again

Making stupid policy on the run is hardly new, but Gladys Berejikliansdecision to establish a new selective school in Sydneys south-west has set new precedents. Few people seem to support it, even fewer will benefit. It ignores the debate about selective schooling, a debate underpinned by concern about the regressive impact on the unselected schools and students without any significant gains for the annointed. This captains call by the NSW premier even fails basic tests of fairness and logic.

May 6, 2019

KATE McDOWELL. Together or not in the performing arts.

The way the performing arts is funded in Australia hasnt changed since the 1990s, but the Australian cultural landscape has changed dramatically.

April 7, 2019

ANDREW GLIKSON. Under a greenhouse atmosphere

According to the UNHCR, since 2008 an estimated 22.5 million people have been displaced by climate or weather-related events. According to researchers from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the University of Wisconsin global warming is already responsible for some 150,000 deaths each year around the world. In 2014, theWorld Health Organization (WHO) estimatedthat climate change would lead to about 250,000 additional deaths each year between 2030 and 2050, from factors such as malnutrition, heat stress and malaria.

January 10, 2019

JOHN MENADUE. The 'war on drugs' is a disastrous failure.We must find a better way

Attached is a collection of articles on drug policy reform, which were published as a series on Pearls and Irritations between 6 and 11 August 2018. This series was designed to draw attention to this important issue, and to the failure of our current policies.

D_espite the clear failure of the war on drugs across the world our police and border force officers tell us breathlessly time and time again about another record drug haul. Who are they kidding about the success of present policies.?Do they even believe their own propaganda? When will they stop and ask themselves some hard questions. They might even suggest to Ministers that they need to embark on a thorough re think of failed policies. The stubbornness of politicians is putting more and more lives at risk._

December 21, 2017

Hunger and disease haunt Rohingya refugees

‘Sometimes we borrow from neighbors or we starve’

December 16, 2018

GEOFF MILLER; Whatever Happened to North Korea?

There was a lot of scepticism about the Singapore summit between Trump and Kim and what it might produce, but some sort of process between North Korea and the US seemed the logical next step. However, while further summits between North and South Korea have taken place, and there has been actual progress between the two and plans for more, nothing appears to be happening at a senior level between the Unites States and North Korea. And in the absence of such movement the whole North Korean issue, so recently the centre of world attention, has been well and truly relegated to the back pages by the China-US dramas, Trumps and Mrs Mays troubles and other events.

January 9, 2020

MICHAEL THORN,- The cricket trifecta-booze,junk food and betting.

Cricket Australias gift to fans this Christmas was an unhealthy serving of booze, betting and junk food ads.

February 17, 2019

BOB DEBUS. How close to Armageddon do we have to get?

The 2019 OECD Environmental Performance Review for Australia, launched recently and reported in The Guardian if hardly anywhere else, makes horrible reading. Australia is home to a 10th of global species and is seen by many as synonymous with pristine coastal areas and an outback brimming with nature. However the country is increasingly exposed to rising sea levels, floods, heat waves, bushfires and drought wildlife is in a poor state and its condition is worsening Australias Strategy for Nature 2018-2030 appears unlikely to catalyse progress. With the exception of the Reef 2050 Plan funding for conservation and research is falling. “Australia has no national long term vision on sustainable developmentis one of the most carbon-intensive economies in the OECD, has no long term strategy for lowering emissionsand emissions are projected to increase by 2030.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/30/australias-record-on-emissions-and-sustainability-condemned-by-oecd-review

April 30, 2019

VACY VLAZNA. The Sarafand Massacre and Anzac Cover-up, Part 1

In the early winter of 1918, the wheat, barley and sesame fields of Sarafand al-Kharab lay fallow. Oranges, figs, almonds and olives had been harvested, the summer honey stored. At night the goats and sheep were brought into the warmth of the adobe brick houses.

May 29, 2020

ABUL RIZVI. Global Talent Independent Visa: Permanent residence in a week or two

The new Global Talent Independent (GTI) visa provides a direct permanent residence for highly skilled professionals in high growth sectors. According to the Department of Home Affairs, processing times range between two days and two months with many being decided within a week or two.

January 15, 2019

ABUL RIZVI. Is The Australian making excuses for incompetent immigration administration?

Nick Cater writing in The Australian (see here if you can get past the Paywall) seems to think people trying to manipulate the visa system is news. Has he been as asleep to this while our intrepid government has allowed a world class visa system to deteriorate into chaos (see here)? It is the chaos in our visa system that has enabled Dutton to set a new record in the number of mainly non-genuine asylum seeker applications (see here). But rather than ask the hard questions about how a government obsessed with border protection could have allowed this, Cater looks to blame anyone other than the government.

February 25, 2018

CAVAN HOGUE. Report from the Quotidie Praeco Romanum on the visit of the vassal chieftain Flexus Taurus to the Imperial Capital.

Emperor Trumpus Augustus graciously received in audience today a barbarian chieftain named Flexus Taurus representing the vassal province of Terra Australis. Flexus Taurus assured the Emperor that Rome had no more loyal vassal than Terra Australis whose inhabitants were devoted to all aspects of Roman civilisation.

June 24, 2019

JO KHAN. We still have time to act on climate change but records will tumble for next 20 years regardless of emissions: study (ABC News)

Our last summer was the hottest on record in Australia, and we can expect the record breaking weather to continue for at least the next 20 years, new climate change research has found.

May 26, 2019

PHILIP ALMOND. Five aspects of Pentecostalism that shed light on Scott Morrisons politics

Prime Minister Scott Morrison began his victory speech on Saturday with the words, I have always believed in miracles. This was no mere hyperbole. Morrison appeared to be declaring his belief that God had actively intervened in the political process to bring about his re-election.

October 19, 2018

WILLIAM BRIGGS. There are no racists here.

Race and racism have come to dominate political debate in Australia in recent times. However, as Senator Ian McDonald assured us earlier this year, racism does not exist in Australia! The Liberal Party have declared themselves a racist free zone, although the Sudanese community in Melbourne might see Duttons statements that they are nothing more than a collection of crime gangs a little inflammatory. There is no racism in the ALP, although Shorten has claimed that foreign workers are responsible for a rise in unemployment. Both parties share policies that effectively criminalise asylum-seekers. The Greens are not racist, but there has been an appreciable rise in anti-Chinese racism following Greens leader Cassie OConnors outbursts. Nobody is a racist and yet racism is on the rise.

December 28, 2018

JERRY ROBERTS. The banking culture in context.

Our banks are urged to change their culture and the federal government proposes a Commission to fight corruption but such measures scratch the surface. Our problems are not hidden behind closed doors. They are in plain sight. They are in full public view. Our society worships false gods. Old Testament scholars advise us that such stories end badly.

July 26, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Who is in charge of Australia's relations with China? The Australian Prime Minister or ASIO? (Repost from 28/5/2018)

ASIO is on a roll in co-ordinating the attack on China and its alleged covert operations in Australia. Only last Friday we learnt that super patriot Andrew Hastie, formerly an officer in SAS and currently Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, cleared his parliamentary speech with ASIO but not his own Prime Minister. That is extraordinary for a person supposedly in parliamentary charge of supervising the activities of ASIO.

November 15, 2017

ERIC WALSH. After Turnbull?

Will someone please provide Malcolm Turnbull with a fiddle; something to occupy our leader while his party and possibly his government burn.

March 13, 2020

MICHAEL KEATING. The Government's Economic Response to the Coronavirus.

The Governments economic stimulus package has generally been welcomed. But how good is it, and what are the implications for the longer-term economic outlook?

October 25, 2018

CLIVE KESSLER. Umno defeat in Malaysia. What now? (Malay Mail, 20.10.2018)

After its electoral repudiation by so many voters at GE14, Umno needs to think about its future prospects and direction. It now needs to look forward clearly. It can do so only by first looking backwards, honestly.

November 19, 2018

MICHAEL McKINLEY. The ascendancy of the age of Thorby (Part 1 - The state's justification for requiring passive citizens)

Contrary to popular belief, modern democracy does not welcome an active, engaged citizenry especially between election campaigns because its interventions would hinder the operations of the state. The preferred condition is one of citizen passivity in which the authorities go about their business of securing the national interest as defined by themselves through an ever-increasing array of national security arrangements contrary to any robust definition of accountable and responsible democracy. In Australia this is justified by fiat and pseudo theory, and practised in plain sight.

July 19, 2016

RICHARD BUTLER. Foreign Policy. An Independent Australian Foreign Policy(Repost from Policy Series)

Summary:

For fifty years, since Australia entered the war in Vietnam in 1965, Australian foreign policy has been made increasingly subservient to a specific concept of Australias relationship with the United States. That concept, first enunciated by Prime Minister Menzies in 1955, was that for its survival, Australia needed a great and powerful friend. All of our key decisions in foreign policy since then have been shaped by our own construct of what loyalty to the United States and the Alliance demanded. That construct has been to follow the US practice and to identify foreign policy with military and security policy.

January 28, 2019

IAN ROBINSON. What has Captain Cook ever done for us?

The Prime Minister is intent on making a big fuss about James Cook. He is even promoting, at great expense, a circumnavigation of the continent by a replica of Cooks ship Endeavour_. This is an insult to Matthew Flinders who actually did circumnavigate the continent, who made a much greater contribution to our nation than Cook, and who, moreover, gave us our name. Forget Cook. Lets give Flinders his due._

February 14, 2019

JOHN MENADUE. Scott Morrison did not stop the boats.

The myth is repeated time and time again that Scott Morrison ,the Coalition and Operation Sovereign Borders stopped the boats. They did not. But if you tell a lie time and time again people will believe it. It is a marketing trick that Scott Morrison has learned well.

I expect that many in the media will continue the myth about the stopping of the boats. Perhaps being careless in the first place the media finds it embarrassing to now admit error.

S_orry if I keep repeating myself but facts are facts. As a US Senator put it ’everyone is entitled to their own opinions but no one is entitled to their own facts'_

October 7, 2018

Of academic freedom and institutional integrity: A Canadian prequel to the ANU rejection of the Ramsay Centre millions

At the University Chancellors 11th national conference in Adelaide on 4 October, the Australian National University Chancellor Gareth Evans delivered the inaugural Chancellors Oration. One section of his speech dealt with the imperative to defend university autonomy.

December 21, 2015

Moira Rayner. Corrupt churches need women leaders

Lord Actonsaid that ‘Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ It was in correspondence about the then pope’s proposed new doctrine of papal infallibility.It is often overlooked that he added, ‘Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.’

When I was a child, the greatest misuse of priestly power imputed to the ‘RCs’ was the sometimes brutal violence used in the ‘care’ of disobedient pupils, unmarried mothers, illegitimate and ‘removed’ children and orphans in institutions run by nuns, brothers and priests.

January 31, 2016

John Menadue. Royal commissions partisan politics or public interest.

Australia has had a string of politically inspired and often useless royal commissions. The fiasco surrounding Dyson Heydons acceptance of an invitation to speak at a Liberal Party dinner made it even more likely that his enquiry into trade unions would be quickly discounted, except for those who wanted to pursue a political agenda against trade unions and by implication, their association with the ALP.

In response to the Trade Union Royal Commission report, Malcolm Turnbull identified himself with business and the political right rather than the public interest or the middle ground. He is consistently taking an ambivalent approach whether it is on climate change, coal mining, gay marriage the republic or the NBN. In response to Heydons report, he was not as hectoring as the Employment Minister Michaelia Cash. That is not his way with words, but in substance he followed along.. It was the same on his visit to the US. The tone was different but not the substance. We could do with more matter and less art

November 19, 2019

STEPHEN LEEDER- Global Change and Us

Recent fires in Australia and California have provoked discussion about the effects of climate change. These extreme events, not unknown in times past, seem to be more frequent now and suggest that the recorded changes in global temperature may be responsible. Blame a common feature that follows disasters is variously ascribed to political inertia over fossil fuels or local failure to take evasive preparative action as through preventive hazard reduction. Political polarisation has followed. We need a good dose of cooling off before developing effective stronger coping strategies.

January 29, 2019

ABUL RIZVI. Is the Government walking both sides of the street on immigration?

Scott Morrison has announced (see here) a commitment to create 1.25 million jobs over the next five years, beating Tony Abbotts commitment in 2013 to create 1 million jobs over five years. But to achieve 1.25 million jobs over five years, Morrison will need to maintain an even higher level of net migration than over the past five years. How should we reconcile this with Morrisons earlier speech committing to reduce immigration, particularly to reduce congestion in the major cities (see here)? Well the two cant be reconciled. One of them must, almost by definition, be untrue.

April 25, 2018

ELIZA BERLAGE. Our flailing aid created a Pacific problem.

The report by Fairfax’s David Wroe of a potential Chinese military presence on Vanuatu sent alarm bells ringing for many. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said a Chinese military base in the region would be ‘of great concern’ and Australian diplomats met with Vanuatu officials last week to find out more details.

November 19, 2018

JERRY ROBERTS. The Holy City.

The Jerusalem embassy is Scott Morrisons first serious mistake as Prime Minister, but Australians think Tel Aviv is a subsidiary of Telstra so he may get away with it. It is the bread and butter domestic issues that win and lose elections. There may be subjects that interest Australians less than Middle Eastern politics but I cant think of one.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal