September 1, 2014

Clare Condon SGS. Sanctioned Violence: What does it do to our society and relationships?

Some violent acts, depending on where and how they were perpetrated, are regarded as criminal. Others, however, are sanctioned by society, even applauded and cheered. Some are blatant; others are covert and subtle. Some are justified by cultural norms, by the blind eye or the deaf ear; they happen behind closed doors. Others are justified by official permission and approval, or even by public opinion. I wish to highlight four areas of sanctioned violence which I believe impact adversely on society and relationships. Australia’s response to asylum seekers and refugees Currently in the Australian community, the government...

December 4, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull and John Barilaro.

When the New South Wales Nationals leader John Barilaro called for Malcolm Turnbull’s resignation last week, it was simple for Turnbull’s federal allies to dismiss it as just another distraction – just another frustrated voice howling into the empty air.

November 30, 2016

JOHN TULLOH: Fidel's ghost teases Washington.

John Tulloh argues that for Trump to renege on Obama's changes, would be fraught with legal problems, specially for those businesses which have already invested tens of millions in infrastructure in anticipation of Cuba becoming more accessible.

April 25, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Turnbull's lunge to the populist right.

And this is the big glitch in last week’s announcements – there was a lot of sound and fury, but it was hard to see just what, if anything, will really change – except, perhaps, the squalid dynamics within the Liberal Party. At least Tony Abbott has given the changes a cautious tick. But he has not, and never will, endorse the core values of his leader. He has his own announceables to ponder.

April 1, 2016

Greg Bailey. The Liberal Party and the Institute of Public Affairs. Who is Whose?

Arguably the most influential think tank in Australia over the last decade, the Melbourne based Institute of Public Affairs, serves good beer at its functions, so I have been told. Whilst it has always been significant in pushing right wing, neo-liberal agendas, it is only in the last decade, and really during the last period of Liberal government, since October 2013, that it has emerged from the dim shadows into the brightness of political life. Previously it functioned mainly as a pressure group that would provide some kind of ‘intellectual’ substance to the economic and lobbying interests of the large...

April 18, 2016

Richard Woolcott. A modern Australia for the 21st century.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said it is a great and exciting time for Australia. Indeed, it is a time of great opportunity for the Australian Government elected later this year to take bold action which will transform Australia into an updated, modern member of the Asian and South West Pacific Region. After World War II the United States wanted to implement ideals and practices it believed should be applied throughout the world. The spread of democracy was the overarching goal. Now, however, the United States, exhausted by unsuccessful wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, now faces the rise of States with greater economic...

July 17, 2014

How does Australia’s health system compare.

The Treasurer, the Minister for Health and the Commission of Audit have warned us in one way or another that the Australian health service is unsustainable, particularly with an ageing population. The Treasurer tells us that the age of entitlement has to end in health as elsewhere. We need to keep modernising Medicare but by almost any international comparison we have one of the best and most sustainable health services in the world. We need to keep our problems in perspective. The Commonwealth Fund publishes a regular research report on health systems in major countries. The Commonwealth Fund...

January 1, 2016

Chris Bonnor . Unhappy New Year, struggling schools and parents!

Prime ministers come and go but the timing of nasty announcements doesn’t change. And so it was with the dumping of Gonski funding beyond 2017, announced in the traditional period of national lethargy between Christmas and New Year. It came despite earlier rumours which suggested Turnbull would pull a rabbit out of the hat – but the December MYEFO showed an increasing deficit of fiscal rabbits. Aside from a very few, the reaction was one of dismay, including from NSW. Amongst the few was Jennifer Buckingham who joined the usual ‘more money doesn’t deliver’ chorus, drawing attention to recent...

May 15, 2017

JOHN MENADUE. Is the seat of Wentworth to become an hereditary fiefdom?

In Malcolm Turnbull’s electorate, we have had a media blitz on behalf of his son-in-law, James Brown. Could it mean that James Brown is readying himself to take the seat of Wentworth, perhaps before or after the next election?

August 20, 2014

John Menadue. The ANZAC Myth.

The four-year and well-funded carnival celebrating Anzac and WWI is now rolling. The carnival will depict WWI as the starting point of our nation, as our coming of age! It was nothing of the sort. It was a sign of our international immaturity and dependence on others. What was glorious about involving ourselves in the hatreds and rivalry of European powers that had wrought such carnage in Europe over centuries? Many of our forebears came to Australia to get away from this. But conservatives, our war historians and colonel blimps chose deliberately to draw us back to the stupidities...

April 12, 2015

Harold Levien. The Coalition Government’s Bankrupt Economic Policies:

The Coalition Government seems to have been fighting the next elections since the day it won Office and using the same misleading tactics. Throughout the last election campaign, and for months before, the Coalition bitterly attacked both Labor’s budget deficit and government debt. Yet when the Labor Government left Office Parliamentary Library statistics show government gross debt was 19% of GDP. The advanced economies’ international organisation, the OECD, apparently calculates the figures differently showing Australia’s debt as 33% of GDP in 2013. This is still much lower than all OECD economies except for tiny Estonia and Luxemburg. Government debt to...

June 16, 2017

JOHN CARMODY. May day was in June

The only word to describe Theresa May’s unnecessary recent decision to call an early election in Britain is “hubris” and that hubris has now led to irremediable humiliation. “Strong and stable” could have described her political position before the election, but as a campaign slogan, delivered with numbingly motoric repetition, it became risible as “Jobson Growth” had been in Australia last year.

September 24, 2016

LUKE FRASER. Roads: Minister Fletcher will need a good nose for bullshit to deliver genuine reform a la Paul Keating.

Both the Grattan Institute [i] and Ross Gittins [ii] have lauded Minister for Urban Infrastructure Paul Fletcher for his hard talk on road reform. Gittins compared him to Paul Keating. Fletcher is setting out with a reformer’s zeal. Like Keating, he shows a willingness to level with the public about big problems and the costs of inaction. It would be a pity if poor advice sees Fletcher telling us about the wrong problem. If he is to approach comparison with Keating, he must be alert to policy furphies.

September 20, 2016

MACK WILLIAMS. Here we go again: Julie Bishop and Duterte!

Foreign Minister Bishop's not so gentle rebuke of President Duterte that the Philippines as a claimant state should pull its weight in the South China Sea eerily had all the elements of the earlier Australian approach to the acrimonious bilateral debate between Washington and Manila over the closure of the huge US bases in the Philippines. Much of which occurred in my 5 years as Ambassador there. Driven by our perceived Alliance obligations we were under instructions from Canberra to offer what assistance we could to the US in their debate with the Philippines on the grounds of regional security.

September 4, 2017

STEWART LITTLE. Titles registry sale a super storm.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will bequeath the state a financial disaster for millions of property owners thanks to her government’s leasing of Land and Property Information’s 150-year-old Land Titles Registry.

June 1, 2017

BASTIAN SEIDEL. Patients want health not necessarily treatment.

Achieving recognition of general practitioners as medical specialists in our own right has been an uphill battle for decades. We only achieved vocational recognition as specialists in the 1990s. For many years we were seen as #JustaGP, a term that symbolises the academic and professional discrimination our members are still subjected to today.

August 29, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. Medicare – the Labor Party does not understand its own creation.

It is claimed that at the last Federal election, the Coalition lost support because it was going to undermine Medicare. In fact, at the last election, the ALP was proposing to do more to undermine Medicare than the Coalition. Let me explain.

May 31, 2016

RICHARD BUTLER. Obama and Nuclear Weapons

It is widely acknowledged by those who have had anything substantive to do with nuclear weapons that as long as they exist they will, one day, be used, either by accident or decision. Equally, it is acknowledged that any such use would be a catastrophe. Thus, the logical and human solution is to eliminate them. Three months after he assumed his office, President Obama publicly joined those who accept these truths when, in Prague on April 9th, 2009, he said: “ I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without...

September 15, 2015

John Menadue. Turnbull and Abbott

Bill Shorten aside, most Australians will welcome our new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull. He offers a more rational, humane and consultative style of leadership. His main problem will be how to reconcile his own progressive views on such issues as climate change, a republic and gay marriage, with the hard-heads in the parliamentary Liberal party. As Laura Tingle in the AFR put it, ‘Tony Abbott has no-one but himself to blame’. He saw politics as war. He never made a sensible transition from a pugnacious and effective opposition leader to a national leader. He broke promise after promise. His...

April 10, 2017

RAMESH THAKUR. Decoding the Trump strikes on Syria

The use of chemical weapons in Syria and the US air strikes in punishment are part of the continuing descent into lawlessness by various actors with unforeseeable consequences in an already inflamed region.

December 9, 2015

John Menadue. More on second-hand car rent-seekers.

In my recent blog 'Rent-seekers in the motor industry' I drew attention to the successful lobbying by the motor industry to retain the $12,000 excise duty on used-car imports into Australia and the restriction that imports must be limited to a single second-hand vehicle. To defend its position, the Chief Executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries has said that there have been instances in New Zealand where used-car imports were linked to the Japanese mafia, the Yakuza, and instances where radioactive cars from the Fukushima nuclear disaster found their way to Russia. This type of scare-mongering...

April 4, 2016

Ian Marsh. What wrong with Australia’s political system? Part 1 of 3.

Most people are familiar with the power of incentives in economic markets. They know that efficient price signals can channel investment into productive assets and these same signals can drain funds from unconstructive pursuits. The same process more or less works at other levels. Both good and bad performance is demonstrated by similar calculations. In turn these calculations draw on a variety of other metrics – prices, volumes, demand, supply, growth estimates and so forth. People also know these numbers are reasonably reliable because they come from credible institutions. Thus markets are reasonably ‘free’ and undistorted. The Bureau and...

September 30, 2025

Here’s the full text of Trump’s 20-point plan to end Israel’s war on Gaza

The White House says its proposal would end the war in Gaza immediately if both sides accept.

May 18, 2016

IAN MARSH. Our political system is in gridlock.

Longer term policy making in Australia. Longer term policy making in Australia is in a parlous state. The scale and significance of this problem is totally unrecognised. For example, since 1996 almost no contested measure that required legislative approval has past the Australian parliament. Change to the Senate voting system was one – but it is hardly likely to weaken the influence of minor parties. The GST was another. As a result John Howard nearly lost the 1998 election.

February 7, 2015

Rosemary Breen- Living water in Myanmar

I listened to Rosemary Breen from Inverell speak at my local church about the work she is doing in Myanmar to help poor villagers get access to clean water. She was inspiring and challenging. We all know that polluted water is a cause of dysentery, diarrhoea, infant mortality and early deaths across all age groups. Rosemary Breen decided she would do something about it. If you could help financially you could greatly improve the health of many young people and reduce the death rate. My own parish contributed well over $20 000 in a Christmas appeal. As each tank...

June 27, 2016

CAVAN HOGUE. Brexit and Russia.

There has been some speculation about how Brexit will affect Russia. Probably not a lot politically but we can only speculate about the economic effects. No doubt the European Community will spend the next few years contemplating its navel and so be less focused on relations with Russia. The Europeans will be even less interested in Ukraine and this could be to Russia's advantage but it could have a negative impact if this confusion leads to a stalling of efforts to reach a peaceful solution to the Ukrainian civil war. Russia would like a solution to be found so long...

July 25, 2014

John Menadue--President Jokowi and Australia

The election of Joko Widodo as Indonesia’s seventh president is a victory for burgeoning democracy in our neighbour with 240 million people. It was a victory for civil participation by ordinary people to defeat Prabowo Subianto by a margin of 53% to 47%, by 8 million votes and winning in two thirds of Indonesia’s provinces. Prabowo had a very dubious performance on human rights when he was in the military. But like so many people from” born to rule” elites he now refuses to accept the result. What would the lower orders know about the need for strong leadership...

April 26, 2017

MARK COLVIN. “Four Weeks One Summer” by Nicholas Whitlam

In the summer of 1936, over just four weeks, it all went wrong – for democracy and for Spain, even for the British royals. Politicians failed, and Hitler was emboldened to plan a new European war, and more. When some army generals sought to overthrow Spain’s elected government Francisco Franco quickly emerged as their leader; Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy supported him with men and matériel; pusillanimous politicians in Britain and the United States, even in France, turned a blind eye – and the Spanish Civil War was on. Edward VIII took a scandalous holiday cruise with Mrs Simpson,...

September 27, 2018

QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Government moves ABC chair Justin Milne to the exit ramp (the NewDaily, 27.09.18)

The Scott Morrison government and the ABC board are moving to pressure ABC chairman Justin Milne to resign as soon as possible.

September 1, 2016

CHRIS BONNOR & BERNIE SHEPHERD. NSW public schools are bursting at the seams - but which ones and why?

A news report in The SMH August 29th revealed that more than 800 public schools in NSW are operating at 100% of capacity or more. Apparently 180 of these are stretched beyond their limits. The report listed a large number of these schools. Where are these schools and why are they in high demand? Most are primary schools, usually located in metropolitan areas. There are 118 of these for which full My School data is available. 98 of these are located in metropolitan areas. The most noticeable feature of these 98 schools is that they already enrol advantaged...

September 21, 2016

FRANK BRENNAN SJ. The hypocrisy of it all is breath-taking.

As you listen to the self-satisfied, self-congratulatory observations of our Australian representatives at the UN Summit on Refugees and Migrants and at the Obama summit, just ask yourself what Messrs Turnbull and Dutton have done to provide a humane solution for the proven refugees on Nauru (and Manus Island), given that after three years the Abbott and Turnbull governments have not resettled one proven refugee. You will recall that the MOU with Nauru was signed by the Rudd Government just prior to the 2013 election and that Richard Marles, the Labor shadow minister, told us during the recent election that...

September 12, 2016

ADELE WEBB. He may have insulted Obama, but Duterte held up a long-hidden looking glass to the US.

This article is part of the Democracy Futures series, a joint global initiative with the Sydney Democracy Network. The project aims to stimulate fresh thinking about the many challenges facing democracies in the 21st century. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has taken his “bad manners” – having gained global notoriety with his election campaign insults earlier this year – to a new level. At a press conference at Davao International Airport on Monday, on his way to meet US President Barack Obama and other leaders attending the ASEAN summit, Duterte muttered a few short words in tagalog...

December 6, 2014

Frank Brennan SJ. Making the world safer for children.

The United Nations has developed an elaborate system of committees to oversee compliance by nation states with a broad range of international human rights instruments. These committee processes are sometimes used by nongovernmental organizations pushing their own particular causes. Of late, a group called SNAP — the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — have been making submissions to U.N. committees expressing dissatisfaction with the Vatican's response to child sexual abuse. SNAP was pleased with the report published last week by the U.N. Committee Against Torture setting out the committee's concluding observations on Australia's fourth and fifth periodic reports...

June 29, 2016

IAN McAULEY. Brexit - retreat to isolationism and discontent of those left behind.

The Brexit vote has given the media a cornucopia of stories – dissent in the British Conservative and Labour Parties, the possible breakup of the “United” Kingdom and turmoil on financial markets. These, however, are distractions from two serious issues that go beyond the events in one European country and in the rarefied world of financial markets. These are the retreat to economic isolationism and the discontent of those who have been left behind. Both are echoes of the developments in Europe between 1929 and 1933, which saw such terrible consequences.

January 24, 2017

OLIVER FRANKEL. Sydney second to Hong Kong in housing unaffordability

Demographia International’s latest (13th) annual International Housing Affordability Survey provides yet more evidence of the burning issue of housing affordability in Australia, particularly in our largest cities. Sydney ranks second most unaffordable, and Melbourne is only a few places behind that.

May 28, 2018

JOHN MENADUE. Who is in charge of Australia’s relations with China? The Australian Prime Minister or ASIO?

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.

June 24, 2016

HUGH MACKAY. It’s time for a national conscience vote

Whatever this ill-conceived double-dissolution (double disillusion?) election is about, it is clearly not addressing the issue that, more than any other, is redefining what it means to be Australian.

May 30, 2014

John Menadue. Are our bankers listening or caring?

On Wednesday in London at a conference on ‘inclusive capitalism’ the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, and IMF Chief, Christine Lagarde, gave the international banking community the most severe pasting that I can ever recall of a particular industry, or at least one that operates “legally”. They said that bankers regarded themselves as different and not bound by the need for economic and social inclusion that is essential in a modern society. Both Carney and Lagarde said that the actions of the banks were excluding them from mainstream society. It is true of banks in Australia...

February 20, 2017

WAYNE SWAN. Coalition energy policy.

It’s a lost decade we couldn’t afford on climate change and energy policy – but when the consequences are felt in years and decades to come, it’s incumbent upon us all not to forget the political opportunists and charlatans who led us down this path.

September 5, 2016

JOHN AUSTEN. How port privatisation will hobble Newcastle

Commonwealth action is necessary to undo potential penalties on Newcastle Port. While the infrastructure conversation focusses on major projects like electricity grids it can ignore more significant matters. One such matter in NSW that deserves immediate attention is port privatisations. A deal included in the sales of Botany (2013) and Newcastle (2014) impedes the development of Newcastle Port and city. That deal also effects public confidence in privatisation. The deal, a ‘port commitment’, is that the state government would compensate Botany for competition from Newcastle using funds from Newcastle Port. [1] The deal reportedly requires Newcastle...

December 19, 2016

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Federal Government failure and State Government responses.

Various premiers have finally despaired of the torpor of the Turnbull administration. .. so the states have begun to go it on their own.

September 11, 2019

KEVIN RUDD. Democracy overboard: Rupert Murdoch's long war on Australian politics (The Guardian 7-9-19)

Australia has become a dangerously complacent country, dancing to the reactionary tune of the Murdoch press

August 14, 2014

John Menadue. Who owns Medibank Private?

The government has announced that it hopes to raise $4 billion from the sale of Medibank Private. But like many of its budget ‘savings’ it might find that it has to rely in this case on the High Court rather than the Senate to decide if the $4 billion ‘saving’ can be realised. The case has been made by many people that the government is not the owner and certainly not the sole owner of Medibank Private. A view is strongly held that Medibank Private is owned by members/policy holders of Medibank Private. There are 3.8 million members. There is...

January 13, 2017

CHARLES LIVINGSTONE. Gambling industry finds plenty of political guns for hire to defend the status quo.

“Responsible gambling”, like “responsible drinking”, is a clever-sounding way of deflecting attention away from the product.

August 30, 2016

Anti-global backlash is realigning politics across the West.

In the WorldPost, Nouriel Roubini writes Across the West establishment parties of the Right and the Left are being disrupted - if not destroyed from the inside. Within such parties, the losers from globalisation are finding champions of anti-globalisation that are challenging the formal mainstream orthodoxy.

September 1, 2017

JOHN MENADUE. 'Faster economic growth demands better chief executives'. (Repost from 27 September 2016)

In the AFR today (1/9/2017) under a headline 'The big end of town has no-one but itself to blame', Laura Tingle said Big business preaching against the rising tide of government is undermined by its own failures. This was theme that I wrote about in September last year on the failures of our chief executives. This repost follows.

January 10, 2017

KIM OATES. Respecting patients and keeping them safe

Some words of advice from Kim Oates for doctors and other health workers. The patient is the reason for health services. Health workers are means to that end.

June 9, 2024

Israel kills over 200 Palestinians to rescue 4 captives; U.S. allegedly involved in operation

At least 210 Palestinians were killed and 400 others were injured in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday after Israeli forces carried out a rescue operation to retrieve four captives. Reports of U.S. involvement in the operation have sparked backlash.

April 11, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Another distraction, but what a distraction.

The starting point is putting a price on carbon – some form of emissions trading policy. But this is total anathema to the coalition party room – worse even than negative gearing.

August 1, 2013

Our business failure in Asia. John Menadue

In my blog of March 14 on Productivity and Skills I drew attention to the failure of Australian business to equip itself for Asia. PM Rudd in his address to the National Press Club on 16 July this year put it very clearly. ‘I am concerned that if you went through our business elites, you would not find a lot of the top 25 executives in each of our top 100 firms who have spent any of their career time serving in Asia – the engine driver of the global economy through until mid-century. Remember this is the Asian...

May 15, 2017

The Honest History Book (UNSW Press 2017)

This is a book of singular importance. It provides the evidence and materials for the correction of the distortion of Australia’s history resulting from Anzackery and the continuing insistence that our national character was forged in and remains defined by our participation in foreign wars.

March 23, 2017

RICHARD BUTLER. The many risks we run - United Nations (Part 1 of 2)

The United Nations continues to be vital in the humanitarian field, but is failing in its role of maintaining international peace and security. The continuing abuse of their veto power, by the permanent five members of the Security Council, is jeopardizing the UN itself. This must be resisted.

April 1, 2016

Ian McAuley. Labor's policies.

Amid all the political chatter about tensions between Turnbull and Morrison, a possible early election, and the laundering of donations to the Liberal Party, Labor has released a substantial policy document –Growing together: Labor’s agenda for tackling inequality. With a gathering of Labor luminaries – Jenny Macklin (who has main carriage of the policy), Bill Shorten, Chris Bowen, Andrew Leigh – it was hardly surprising that the media had a strong presence at its launch at ANU late last month. But it turns out that the journalists were more interested in a photo shoot than in public policy,...

February 24, 2017

RICHARD WOOLCOTT. Policy for now and the future.

The United States has led Australia into one lost war ( Viet Nam),two ongoing losing wars ( the second invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan ) and,most recently, into the dubious operations in Syria opposing Assard . Russia ,China and Iran will not allow Assard to be removed and,as Ross Burns has so well argued,Australia would be prudent not to involve itself in this complex conflict .

September 20, 2019

RYAN MANUEL. The United Front Work Department and how it plays a part in the Gladys Liu controversy (ABC News 15-9-19)

Gladys Liu is in hot water over her alleged association with the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Yet no-one has alleged that Ms Liu herself, nor the Liberal Party she belongs to, holds any communist sympathies. Her association is with a body that is not in Hong Kong, where she was born, but rather in mainland China, and she hasn't been a member since 2015, well before entering.

April 25, 2017

PETER HUGHES. Citizenship Test Mark II - How much juice can you squeeze out of an orange?

It seems that Coalition governments have developed a habit of squeezing the citizenship orange for political advantage when there are some community concerns about migrants. Last week’s announcement by the Turnbull Coalition government, at a time of poor government performance in opinion polls, of a toughening of the Australian citizenship test for migrants has a familiar ring to it.

November 6, 2013

Climate change as portrayed in ten major Australian newspapers. John Menadue

Last week the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney released a report on the above subject. It highlighted, amongst other things the unprofessional performance and influence of News Ltd publications in shaping the public debate in favour of the sceptics of climate change. This is despite the overwhelming consensus by eminent world scientists as expressed particularly in the UN’s 5th Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change report just released, The panel said that it was increasingly confident that climate change was occurring and that it was now 95% confident that this was due to human...

August 30, 2014

John Menadue. Who owns Medibank Private (continued)

In my blog of August 14 I examined the question of who owns Medibank Private (MBP) particularly in light of the Abbott Government proposal to privatise the business. This is not an idle question or an academic issue only. MBP has 3.5 million members and the government has estimated its sale value at $4 billion. The Government has now announced that MBP will be sold by Christmas It is clear that for many years it was assumed that the policy-holders/members owned MBP. That is clear from an examination of the accounts and the comments of a former chairman...

April 20, 2017

TED TRAINER. Oil wake-up call.

Almost no one has the slightest grasp of the oil crunch that will probably hit them within a decade. When it does it will literally mean the end of the world as we know it. Here is an outline of what some recent analysts are saying. We had better think carefully about their claims. Nobody will of course take any notice.

April 9, 2013

Child sexual abuse: who are the abusers? Guest blogger, Professor Kim Oates

The awareness of the existence of child sex abuse, particularly its frequency, has only occurred in relatively recent times. Now, we read or view daily stories about it. Whether this widespread public awareness of the problem has done much to prevent it and to help the victims is questionable, but it is better than our previous state of ignorance. Child sex abuse is not a new phenomenon. There is no good evidence that it is more common now than in the past. However, before it started to be studied and publicised in the 1970s, it was hardly ever recognised...

February 9, 2017

STEVE GEORGAKIS. Gilchrist and Australia’s national sport, Cricket?

Until recently cricket is a sport that has rarely engaged other minority cultures, such as Indigenous Australians or newly arrived migrants. In fact, unlike other sports such as Australian Rules football, cricket has been resistant to broaden its base. ... The more multicultural Australia became, the more insular cricket became. ... The integrity stops with the baggy green and the sport sells its soul to the junk food and alcohol industry.

September 19, 2018

ROD TIFFIN. Murdoch and Stokes

If the Liberal leadership upheaval was a Muppet show, as Scott Morrison described it, Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes have been revealed as its Statler and Waldorf. Muppets fans will remember the two cantankerous old men who heckled from the sidelines. The media moguls did not publicly heckle, but their behind the scenes barracking was reflected in their media.

February 14, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Cory Bernardi and the Liberal Party.

In less exciting times, many in the Liberal Party – probably most – would have viewed the defection of Cory Bernardi with more relief than dismay. Understandably, they regard the South Australian senator as a royal (or at least monarchist) pain in the arse.

June 3, 2016

FAZAL RIZVI. The benefits to Australia of our Asian diasporas which now constitute over 17% of our population.

That Asian-Australians are making a substantial contribution to the Australian economy is a fact that can no longer be contested. This contribution is of enormous significance, especially as Australia seeks to become integrated into the regional economy.

April 13, 2017

JOHN TULLOH. Turkey - Erdogan's day of judgment.

Turkey's voters face a momentous choice: whether they want their president to have the dictatorial power of a potential tyrant or one whose authority remains curbed by parliamentary government.

December 28, 2016

Broken men in paradise.

'The world's refugee crisis knows no more sinister exercise in cruelty than Australia's island prisons.' In this long, searing account in the New York Times, Op-ed columnist, Roger Cohen, describes what he found on a recent visit to Manus Island.

July 6, 2016

MARK TRIFFITT & TRAVERS McCLEOD. Stability will only be found through ideas and democratic renewal

On Saturday, Australia’s political system crossed a line. From the normal messiness of democracy into fragmented incoherence. From voter unrest to potential revolt. The implications are clear for anyone who wants to see. Instability is no longer a one-off in Australian politics but a pattern. Out-of-touch political leadership is no longer an individual failing but systemic. The enemies of the major parties may no longer be each other. Their principal enemy is fast becoming the ballot box.

February 2, 2017

PETER DAY. Trump’s Tower of Babel

Indeed, “May God well bless America”, because what it needs now appears to be well beyond the scope of mere mortals.

May 31, 2016

JOHN O'DONOGUE: On Compassion - even for people who are 'different'

Compassion distinguishes human presence from all other presence on the earth. The human mind is one of the most gracious gifts of creation. The human mind is the place where nature gathers at its most intense and at its most intimate. The human being is an in-between presence, belonging neither fully to the earth from which she has come, nor to the heavens toward which her mind and spirit aim. In a sense, the human being is the loneliest creature in creation. Paradoxically, the human being also has the greatest possibility for intimacy. I link compassion immediately with intimacy. Compassion...

September 21, 2016

ELAINE PEARSON. Australia's harsh refugee policy is no global model.

This week in New York, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said, “Our policy on border protection is the best in the world,” and he’ll be touting the Australian model of offshore refugee detention and resettlement at two refugee summits this week. But Australia’s approach should give world leaders some pause. “I understand the need to protect the safety of Australians, the need to control the borders,” an Iranian refugee who had tried to reach Australia by boat told me. “But sometimes I wonder if it would have been better to drown at sea than live here.” I spoke with him on...

December 7, 2015

Walkley Award for refugee advocate, Safdar Ahmed.

All the 2015 Walkley Award Winners announced on Thursday evening came from mainstream media organisations except one, Safdar Ahmed. Safdar, who won in the 'Artwork' category for his documentary web-comic Villawood: Notes From An Immigration Detention Centre, is a Sydney-based artist and academic in the field of Islamic studies. The work depicts the stories of asylum seekers and refugees inside Sydney’s Villawood detention centre. It includes the testimony of people from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, including men, women and teenagers. Some of those included are long-term detainees who have been detained for up to five...

June 12, 2017

IAN MCAULEY. Learning from the UK election

There are many local factors explaining the comparative fortunes of Theresa May’s Conservative Party and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party in last week’s UK election. Issues around Brexit are unique to the UK, and May’s campaign was inept. But Corbyn’s comparative success, in defiance of the assumptions of the media and self-appointed policy elites, carries a message that goes beyond Britain, all the way to our own democracy.

September 10, 2014

Michael Kelly SJ. Pope Francis is a game-changer.

There’s no doubting that Pope Francis is a game changer and not just for the Catholic Church. The question remains whether he can pull off the changes he’s foreshowed and many Catholics want. Three decades of people being made bishops more for reasons of their readiness to comply with directives from Head Office than for any evident leadership capacities means that Papa Bergoglio as the Italians call him has little to draw on in the way of resources and personnel to see the desired changes through. And five decades of resistance by the Vatican Curia to the changes mandated...

January 12, 2017

JOHN AUSTEN. Roads – another year of congestion-causing deficits

We are spending enormous sums on roads and increasing our national debt. Communities are being seriously disrupted and the congestion is increasing. When will we put a stop to this nonsense?

May 18, 2016

TONY DOHERTY. Women deacons.

Three feet of ice, the Chinese say, are not frozen in one day. Nor does it thaw in one year. Large institutions are famous for sometimes moving with all of the speed of an inert glacier. The ancient institution of the Vatican is no exception to this rule.

August 7, 2018

ALEX WODAK. Drug Reform Series -Drug policy: prohibition and punishment is just not effective

The failure and futility of drug prohibition has been well accepted among political elites in Australia for a long time. It is time we debated the merits of regulation, combined with targeted health and social intervention, rather than blunt prohibition and punishment. Such an approach is likely to be more effective, and fair.

December 10, 2016

FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Will the refugee deal with the US come off?

IF United States President-elect Donald Trump decides not to honour an agreement to accept refugees from Nauru and Manus Island then they should be settled permanently in Australia, Jesuit theologian and lawyer Fr Frank Brennan says.

October 1, 2024

A five-minute scroll

Five minutes on X reveals the outrage toward the Australian government for its response to weekend protests while Israel is bombing Beirut. The Malaysian PM calls for western leaders to put the narrative right, while Craig Mokhiber calls for the arrest warrant of Netanyahu and Netanyahu offers the people of Iran a better future.

October 10, 2013

The apathy and hostility of South Koreans to their Northern cousins. Guest bloggers: Markus Bell and Sarah Chee

In every way, Yu Woo-seong was a model defector. In his early 30s, he was smart, friendly, ambitious and well-liked. Despite the fact that he had been in South Korea for less than six years, Yu managed to work through his university studies while adapting remarkably well to his new environment, finishing his bachelor’s degree in 2011. While taking on organizing roles in a number of Seoul-based clubs and organizations created by North Korean defectors to help new arrivals, Yu gained entry into a master’s degree program, majoring in education in social welfare. Less than one year into his graduate...

September 9, 2016

PATRICK McGORRY. We must settle the refugees before it is too late.

In this article in the SMH, Patrick McGorry, the President of the Society for Mental Health Research, says; The time has come, before it is too late, to re-settle these fellow human beings and not just the children, but all of those who qualify as genuine refugees and who deserve a second chance for life. See link to article below: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/we-must-resettle-the-refugees-before-it-is-too-late-20160907-grav05.html

February 6, 2017

TONY KEVIN. Trump, Putin and the priming of the impeachment trigger.

A game plan is now evident for the possible expulsion of Donald Trump from the US presidency by impeachment, unless he toes the line of Washington’s established bipartisan national security agenda. Putinophobia is central to this dark Shakespearean drama. Trump is increasingly friendless and bereft of the respect normally due to a US President. Recent polling suggests that 40% of Americans favour Trump’s impeachment: so far missing is sufficient Republican and Democrat votes in both houses of Congress to translate this mounting public antipathy into political action. If present trends continue, he will be either impeached, or politically neutered by...

February 17, 2017

PETER JOHNSTONE. What sort of bishops do Catholics want?

Concerned Catholics who responded to a recent Catholics for Renewal online survey showed widespread dissatisfaction with the current state of their local diocese and parishes. Their dissatisfaction referred to current governance arrangements, the need for a stronger pastoral focus and more effective leadership from their bishop based on his willingness to consult widely.

June 29, 2016

It is disingenuous of the Coalition to claim it has no intention of privatising Medicare.

The election campaign battle over Medicare should come as no surprise. It echoes disputes during previous campaigns and have their origins in ideological divides that date back to well before Medicare was founded and have persisted through the subsequent political disputes. Labor sees the health of Australians as a matter of sufficient national importance that it requires government intervention; the Coalition sees it more as a matter of personal responsibility and individual choice. The compromises struck in order to enact Medicare have meant that Australia’s healthcare has been a blend of public and private systems, with precise...

December 20, 2015

Peter Day. The Cupboard.

“There you go, Peter, today’s pay. Don’t waste it.” “Thank you, Mr Boss; I can now buy some paint for my cupboard. Have a good night, Mr Boss, I’m going home now.” “Okay, Peter, see you tomorrow … same time?” “Yes, Mr Boss, same time, same time: fifty-five past 8 o’clock in the morning.” It usually took Peter an hour to get home as he navigated the bustling alleys and back streets of Kolkata, passing fruit vendors, beggars, monks, sewerage drains, smoking meats, motorbikes, street kids, temples, magicians, orphaned dogs-cats-and-rats; not to mention the myriad friendly...

December 6, 2014

Tony Kevin. Cuts to ABC Classic FM strike at Australia’s cultural heritage’

Limelight, ABC Classic FM’s online magazine, reported on 24 November ‘The number of concerts recorded will be slashed by a massive 50%, with just 300 performances due to be recorded over the next two years verses the 600 concerts recorded during the previous two years. Broadcasts of live performances currently account for 17 hours of Classic FM’s weekly output.’ http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/news/major-cuts-abc-classic-fm%E2%80%99s-programming-confirmed So listeners will lose around 50%, i.e., 8-9 hours of Australian-performed broadcast music each week. What will we lose? Events like the 30 November broadcast of the fine new Australian opera by Iain Grandage...

September 1, 2018

JOHN MENADUE Is money behind the Coalition's addiction to coal?

It is clear to almost everyone that new coal fired generators will be not only very polluting but much more expensive to operate than the generation of power from renewables. But the Coalition keeps pressing the case for coal . Some months ago our new Prime Minister even threw lumps of coal around the Parliament to promote coal. Coal makes no environmental or efficiency sense. But it may make selfish political sense to promote coal in return for political donations from wealthy miners. In an interview with Emma Alberici on the ABC,Alex Turnbull said ‘there is an undue...

May 11, 2017

MICHAEL KEATING. The 2017 Budget - A welcome change in direction. Part 1 of 2

This Budget represents a welcome change in direction. Forget the politics, it deserves to be supported. This latest Coalition Budget finally reflects a realistic appraisal of Australia’s fiscal needs.

August 26, 2014

John Menadue. Scott Morrison at the Human Rights Commission.

Minister Morrison, assisted by the Secretary of his department, continued his aggressive ways at the hearing on August 22. He said that his policies discouraged asylum seekers risking their lives at sea. He described himself as the champion of the voiceless, ‘the ones that are at the bottom of the ocean’. He clearly wants to occupy the high moral ground. But was it really concern about deaths at sea which motivated his campaign against asylum seekers arriving by boat? Wikileaks reported that ‘a key Liberal strategist told the US Embassy in November 2009 that the boats issue was...

September 16, 2015

The Exaggeration over Free Trade Agreements.

I have posted many blogs in the last couple of years concerning the Free Trade Agreements with the Republic of Korea, Japan and China. I have pointed out that the years of negotiation of these agreements occurred under the Rudd and Gillard governments. The Abbott government gave the agreements the final touch. The other issues that I have raised is that the Abbott government has seriously exaggerated the benefits of the FTAs. Andrew Robb has referred to them as 'turbo-charging' the Australian economy. That is nonsense but unfortunately the exaggerated nonsense continues even with the new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull....

May 30, 2014

John Tulloh. Egypt's new would-be Pharaoh.

The headline in The Australian was stark and brutal: SISI VOWS TO ERADICATE BROTHERHOOD. Eradicate? This is a word you associate with efforts to get rid of a disease or an agricultural pest. But in this case it was meant as a kind of cleansing of religious adherents and caused barely a ripple of protest outsider Egypt. The story, of course, referred to Egypt’s new strongman, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has won this week’s presidential election. He says one of his first tasks will be to suppress the Moslem Brotherhood out of existence. His interim government has already declared...

August 17, 2015

Walter Hamilton. It's not the apology, stupid!

We must not let our children, grandchildren, and even further generations to come, who have nothing to do with that war, be predestined to apologize. This comes from the statement issued during the week by Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the war in the Pacific. It is perhaps unfair to highlight one sentence from a longish document, but, in my reading of it, this accurately summarizes its abiding sentiment. Abe wants to draw a line under the past. He wants to end the culture of contrition that, he believes,...

October 18, 2024

A five-minute scroll

Israel announces the 'elimination' of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Palestinians react to the reports, Netanyahu declares the war is not over yet, PM Albanese denounces Sinwar as a terrorist and Mary Kostakidis shares an interview of Sinwar, reminding us it is important to hear what they have to say. Unicef's James Elder talks with Christiane Amanpour advising the North of Gaza has had no food aid at all during October and Abby Martin recalls how the world should have reacted a year ago. TRT's documentary The American Dilemma: Elections Amid Gaza War reveals US complicity and more footage shows the...

October 17, 2024

A five-minute scroll

The onslaught of Israeli horror continues on Northern Gaza. Learn about the victim in the images shared across the world, Shaban al-Dalu, a 19-year-old university student. Israel has dropped the equivalent of six atomic bombs on Gaza, three times smaller than Hiroshima. We see horror in the aftermath as women and children are found in the debris, and the landscape in Lebanon resembling that of Gaza. There is no safe place for children, says UNICEF. Francesca Albanese is investigating private sector complicity, while Senator Wong sends more empty messages. Our five-minute scroll on X, telling the news and views you...

September 15, 2015

Rod Tiffen Lord Leveson, your country needs you, again.

Two events in the past week show the importance of the Leveson Inquiry reconvening to complete its second report. The Leveson inquiry was set up by British Prime Minister David Cameron in July 2011 at the height of the phone hacking scandal centered on Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World newspaper. Lord Justice Leveson’s inquiry became, as he said in his report, ‘the most public and the most concentrated look at the press that this country has seen’. The proceedings provided many riveting moments as in nine months of oral hearings 337 witnesses gave evidence, including victims of phone...

June 12, 2017

MICHAEL KEATING. The British Election and Brexit

Mrs. May called the election ostensibly to strengthen her mandate in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations. Although she failed to strengthen her majority, it is doubtful if the election result will have any impact on the Brexit negotiations.

July 3, 2014

Financial Planning explained by an Irishman.

Paddy bought a donkey from a farmer for £100. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. In the morning he drove up and said, 'Sorry son, but I have some bad news. The donkey's died.' Paddy replied, 'Well just give me my money back then.' The farmer said, 'Can't do that. I've already spent it.' Paddy said, 'OK then, just bring me the dead donkey.' The farmer asked, 'What are you going to do with him?' Paddy said, 'I'm going to raffle him off.' The farmer said, 'You can't raffle a dead donkey!' Paddy said, 'Sure...

April 8, 2015

John Menadue. Cafes and restaurants are booming despite penalty rates.

Despite the booming café and restaurant industry, the special pleading by employers on penalty rates and minimum wages goes on and on. Employers seem to have little appreciation that there is a difference between the market and society. The latter is much more important. The right to a decent wage and time off for recreation and relaxation with family and friends is essential. Markets are important, but they are a means to an end. Speaking of penalty rates, Peter Martin in the SMH said ‘This Easter give thanks for penalty rates, they keep us human. Easter has become...

July 24, 2014

Richard Rigby. Tiananmen 25 years on.

On the night of June 3-4, units of the Peoples Liberation Army entered Beijing, killing some hundreds of ordinary Beijing citizens as they made their way to their objective, Tiananmen Square, the focal point of massive protests that had begun in late April following the death of former Party Secretary Hu Yaobang. The square was cleared of protestors. Further killings and arrests ensued over following days. A small number of soldiers were also killed. Protests in scores of other Chinese cities were simultaneously brought to an end, with varying degrees of violence. Significant protests in Shanghai were settled largely peacefully....

March 23, 2015

Patrick Shanahan. Connecting the Mouth to the Body

Why is dentistry not part of health care? Most people cannot understand why the mouth is not included in medical management, especially since there is mounting evidence that oral and dental infection can cause medical complications that cost many times more to treat medically than prevent dentally. How did this happen? Dentistry separated from medicine over 500 years ago when the previously allied barber surgeons evolved into two streams, medicine and dentistry, and subsequently established independent schools to train doctors and dentists. Not only is dentistry independent of medicine it is also privatised, self regulated, outside...

December 20, 2016

ALISON BROINOWSKI. What side are we on in Syria and Iraq?

The mainstream media are agonising about the Syrian government‘s nearly completed overthrow of rebels and the devastation of Aleppo. But the fog of war is not a sufficient excuse for their utter confusion about who the enemy is. The Australian Government doesn’t seem to know either, nor to have any idea what a successful outcome would be. As the latest example of vacuum that is at the core of our defence and foreign policy, we can expect soon to be involved in retaking Fallujah for the Iraqis against whom US and coalition forces led by Australian General Jim Molan fought...

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal