At 160 prisoners per 100,000 of population, Australia’s prison rate in 2016 was more than 3 times the rate of the 1940s and 1950s. The steep increase correlates with an increasingly repressive drug policy and the closure of mental health institutions.
John Menadue
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MICK PALMER. Drug Reform series-The Blind Eye of History: from policing alcohol prohibition to policing drug prohibition
Australia has some unhappy laws which result in people using illicit drugs being severely punished. When thinking about this, one should recall laws used half a century ago to criminalise Aboriginal people who drank alcohol. (more…)
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RICHARD FLANAGAN. The world is being undone before us. If we do not reimagine Australia, we will be undone too
In the full transcript of his speech to the Garma festival, the author says the country can make itself stronger by saying yes to the Uluru statement (more…)
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SALIM MAZOUZ, FRANK JOTZO, HUGH SADDLER. Could the NEG bring down power prices? It’s hard to be confident that it will.
The final design document for the National Energy Guarantee (NEG), released this week, contains a range of claims about the policy’s ability to drive down both greenhouse emissions and electricity prices. But still there is precious little detail on how exactly these assertions are backed up. (more…)
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MARION McCONNELL. Drug Reform series-The long road to drug law reform
“What should I tell people about your son’s death”, asked our Minister. He was there to discuss arrangements for our son’s funeral. In my overwhelming grief it hadn’t crossed my mind, but now it immediately struck me. Our son had died from a heroin overdose. He is now tainted with shame. We, his mum and dad will also be made to feel the shame. Not something I ever thought my family would have to cope with. What should we do? How should we handle this? I need not have stressed because in an instant my husband replied in a sure but shaky voice: “Tell the truth”. (more…)
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GEOFF GALLOP. Drug Reform series-The politics of drug decriminalisation
Policies around drug decriminalisation should be evidence based, recognise the need for a nuanced rather than fundamentalist approach and take account of the advances made in the field of harm reduction, not just law enforcement. Reform measures should be premised on a mix of rights, health and community safety principles and reflect the views of a broad cross-section of society. (more…)
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ANN SYMONDS. Drug Reform series -The politics of social change
The War on Drugs has failed. Not only has it failed to stem the use of illicit drugs but it has also given rise to a host of other issues, including increased crime and corruption and a higher rate of disease and death from the use of such drugs. Reform is long overdue, including a review of alternatives to blunt prohibition. We can learn a lot from overseas experience. (more…)
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BERNARD MOYLAN. Scandals In The Church.
I am not attempting to whitewash the Church. It must take its proper responsibility for any abuse of power, learn something from its self-abasement and work even harder to implement gospel values wherever they are most needed. It may take quite some time to emerge from the present morass but it is still a task worth pursuing. The Church must still follow, even when bruised and demoralised, Christ’s injunction to work towards bringing about the kingdom of God on earth, however impossible it looks from where we now stand. (more…)
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MICHAEL JENSON. Nigerian farmers are under attack, so why don’t we hear about it?
We’ve heard a lot lately about white South African farmers being killed in farm murders. But another group of African farmers are being killed in far greater numbers and we’ve barely heard a whimper. (more…)
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JUDY HEMMING. The US Marines in Darwin according to precedent: neither in the national, nor the local interest.
Australian Defence Policy, in lockstep with the US as regards “managing” the rise of China, embraces the deployment of US Marine to Darwin as being consistent with the national interest. Where the social fabric of the Northern Territory is concerned, however, the potential for Darwin to be just another locale to be trashed by the US military has not been sufficiently investigated. (more…)
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LYNDSAY CONNORS. The schools funding saga wends on its way and everything changes while everything stays the same.
The recent by-elections suggest that when it comes to the politics of schools funding, everything stays the same while everything changes. (more…)
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GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media. (more…)
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CLIMATE COUNCIL. Drought and climate change. The elephant in the room we refuse to talk about.
The Climate Council in it’s Fact Sheet, Climate Change and drought June 2018 reports on how climate change is contributing to droughts. A key finding is that ‘climate change is likely making drought conditions in southwest and southeastern Australia worse’.
Yet the media,politicians and farmer organisations consistently fail to acknowledge the link between climate change and weather.
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ANDREW STARK. Oh, Canada! (New York Review of Books 19.07.18)
A cover of The Economist in 2003 featured a moose—that universally recognized symbol of Canada—wearing sunglasses. Inside, the magazine extolled Canada’s new sophistication: its openness, even then, to legalizing gay marriage and decriminalizing marijuana; its cosmopolitan cities (Toronto would soon become the most diverse metropolis in the world, with over half of its residents foreign-born); and its growing international cultural clout.
(Perhaps surprisingly Australians and Canadians have very little contact or knowledge of each other..John Menadue)
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NICHOLAS GRUEN on Dunera Lives
I have reached a new stage in my life. It is the book-launching stage, first identified in Egyptian writings where it was called the “scroll rolling” stage of life, though we only know this second hand from Phoenician sources. At least judging from my experience, it comes upon one quite suddenly. I hadn’t launched any books until this May and now I’ve launched two. Naturally, at my stage of life, I would be a fool not to make myself available for your next book launch. (more…)
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SCOTT BURCHILL. Syria – a few definitive outcomes.
As the war in Syria grinds towards some kind of resolution, it is possible to say a few definitive things about what is going on in the region and the role of external players. (more…)
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VINCENT CHEOK. If spirituality or religion has a bearing on geopolitics then Australia needs to understand what moves the spirit and soul of India and China for our Asian neighbours will be the new global superpowers in a new multipolar multilateral world.
This post is prompted by the release of the final draft of the National Register of Indian Citizens in Assam Province on 30/7/18. This verification exercise was made in accordance with the terms of the Assam Accord of 1985. Not surprisingly more than 4 million did not qualify as they could not prove that they or their ancestors entered the country before midnight on March 24, 1971 – the eve of the Bangladesh War. Obviously, most of these are Muslim Bengalis, who or whose ancestors presumably fled overpopulated Bangladesh. (more…)
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NY TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD. A New Batsman for Pakistan.
Imran Khan, cricket-star-turned-politician, promises a new path for Pakistan. But his ties to the military, and his own at-times erratic behaviour, may stand in the way. (more…)
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AMITENDU PALIT. Does Australia need a lesson in Indian economic strategy?
The recently released Indian Economic Strategy to 2035 report outlines three core objectives for improving the Australia–India economic relationship. These include making India one of Australia’s top three export markets by 2035, making India the third-largest Asian recipient of Australian foreign direct investment by the same year and bringing India ‘into the inner circle of Australia’s strategic partnerships and with people-to-people ties as close as any in Asia’.Recommendations for achieving these objectives are driven largely by the choice of states and sectors, 10 each respectively, that the report considers top priority for Australia. (more…)
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MICHAEL JENSEN. Nigerian farmers are under attack, so why don’t we hear about it? (ABC NEWS, 02.08.18)
We’ve heard a lot lately about white South African farmers being killed in farm murders. But another group of African farmers are being killed in far greater numbers and we’ve barely heard a whimper. (more…)
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BERNARD SHIU. Canberra announces opt out of My Financial Record.
Today, the department of treasury announced a My Financial Record will be created for everyone – unless you tell them you don’t want one by 15/10/2018. (more…)
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‘Matter of death and life’: Espionage in East Timor and Australia’s diplomatic bungle (Lateline, 26.11.15)
East Timor’s most senior leaders have accused Australia of committing a crime and acting immorally after a spying scandal that rocked the relationship between the two countries. (more…)
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PETER DAY. No womb in the Inn.
Too often the issue of abortion is couched in terms of women’s rights only – “It’s my body. It’s my choice – back off!” (more…)
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James Wimberley Coal crash in India
Tony Abbott told us that coal was good for humanity. More recently the federal resources and energy minister Josh Frydenberg told us that there was a strong ‘moral case’ to export coal to countries such as India.
That has more to do with coalition politics than any logic. Now India is moving rapidly away from coal as John Quiggin points out in his blog which was derived from James Wimberley….see below (John Menadue)
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OMRI BOEHM. Did Israel Just Stop Trying to Be a Democracy?
Last week, Israel’s government pushed through Parliament a new law calling Israel the “nation-state of the Jewish people.” That statement may sound like a truism — and in some respects it is one — but the implications of it officially being made are monumental. (more…)
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JIM COOMBS. Man Up.
The facts cannot be more obvious, so when will us smarties tell the world: “The neo-liberal (what the hell does that mean) idea of unrestrained “business” and minimal government, i.e., no regulation of shonks, see banks, insurance companies, labour hire firms, gambling enterprises, franchise swindlers, Uber et al sucking off at the margin, does not work for the majority of our people, in particular the poor, the weak and the old, while making those shonks “rich beyond the wildest dreams of avarice”. (more…)
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MURRAY HEASLEY. On witch-hunts and the Kiwi way: the proposed New Zealand Historical Abuse in State Care Royal Commission.
The New Zealand government is currently evaluating the terms of references and scope of its royal commission into child abuse. It is likely to exclude faith-based institutions on the grounds that the State was not directly involved in their operations. The New Zealand bishops withheld any support of involvement until a letter in late March 2018. (more…)
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CHARLES A. KUPCHAN AND EDWARD ALDEN. Trump Is Poised to Do Irreparable Harm to World Trade (Foreign Affairs 24.07.18)
During his trip to Europe this month, U.S. President Donald Trump derided his NATO counterparts over defense spending, undermined British Prime Minister Theresa May by second-guessing her approach to Brexit, and then groveled before Russian President Vladimir Putin. A firestorm of controversy has ensued. But at least the trans-Atlantic security alliance emerged intact from Trump’s trip. That we breathe a sigh of relief at NATO’s mere survival reveals just how low the bar has sunk during the Trump era. (more…)
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RUTH ARMSTRONG and TRENT YARWOOD . Staying in or opting out: My Health Record goes viral for all the wrong reasons (Croakey, 17.07.18)
Ruth Armstrong writes:
After years of relative obscurity and sluggish engagement, Australia’s attempt at transitioning the population to the use of individual digital health records via My Health Record was all anyone could talk about yesterday. (more…)
