Current drug policy is based on the unrealistic belief that we can stamp out possession and use of illicit drugs, much like prohibition of alcohol in 1920s America. It also fails to account for the harm caused by our strictly punitive policy approach. (more…)
John Menadue
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TONY TRIMINGHAM. Drug Reform Series-Don’t punish drug users. Help them instead.
This is mostly a personal story, about my son Damien, who died from heroin use in 1997, at the age of 23. I feel sure that his death could have been avoided if we had at the time an approach to drug use that was based on harm prevention rather than punishment. (more…)
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RICHARD WOOLCOTT. An Updated Approach to Australia’s Engagement in the Asia and the South West Pacific.
The Australian Government and the Opposition must now base policy on three realities, namely that;
(a) Trump is essentially a unilateralist, despite the contradictory comments he often makes;
(b) United States involvement in Asia and the South West Pacific will be less active during Trump’s Presidency; and that
(c) China’s role in the Asia and the South West Pacific will be much more active in the decades ahead, including its ‘One Belt, One Road’ project. -
NICK BISLEY. Is there a problem with… the Quad?
At the sidelines of the 2017 East Asia Summit (EAS) in Manila, senior officials from Australia, India, Japan and the United States’ respective foreign ministries met under the aegis of the ‘Australia-India-Japan- United States consultations on the Indo-Pacific’. This was followed by a stage-managed meeting of the four countries’ naval chiefs at the Raisina Dialogue, a Track 1.5 process in India. The 2007 still-born Quadrilateral Security Initiative was back. (more…)
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Catholic bishops’ opposition to Donald Trump emboldens church liberals.
They may be disappointed. (more…)
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WILLIAM PESEK. Toyota driving into a fierce economic storm.
What GM used to be to America, Toyota is to Japan: a weathervane for macro trends. On Friday, the carmaker admitted it is downhill from now. (more…)
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JEFFREY SACHS. Trump is robbing America of what makes it great (Washington Post)
American prosperity since World War II has been built upon science and technology breakthroughs spurred by a powerful innovation system linking the federal government, business, academia and venture capital. U.S. innovation policy has been successfully emulated in Europe and Asia, most recently by China. President Trump’s trade war against China aims to slow China’s technology ascent but is misguided and doomed to fail; instead, American prosperity should be assured by doing what America does best: innovating at home and trading with the rest of the world. (more…)
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HELEN TYRRELL. Drug Reform series-Grasping the nettle: Prisons, drug use and the law
Every day people are imprisoned for drug-related crimes in line with ‘tough on drugs’ policies. It’s time to face the futility and unsustainability of this approach to drug use. (more…)
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KEITH HAMBURGER. Drug Reform series – punishment alone is not the answer.
Australian prisons are severely overcrowded. Much crime is drug related. Some 75% of prisoners have a substance abuse problem. The majority of prisoners are not rehabilitated by their prison experience as evidenced by high recidivism rates, particularly for First Nation people. A holistic, whole of community response is required founded in restorative justice and justice reinvestment. (more…)
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GINO VUMBACA. Drug Reform series-At last, a government sanctioned pill testing program
We are finally seeing in Australia the first signs of a recognition by government of the important public health benefits of sanctioned pill testing programs. Law enforcement alone will never overcome the problems that can arise from drug use. Much like needle and syringe programs, pill testing is a real-world response which is evidence based and rightly treats harm reduction as one of the primary objectives of drug policy.
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TONY KEVIN. Australian foreign policy – Riding two horses.
Australian foreign policy at present seems to be trying to ride two horses at once: an inherently dangerous pursuit, requiring the skills of a trained and superbly fit circus acrobat. Are we really up to this, or should we be pursuing safer courses, with our feet more firmly planted on the ground? (more…)
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MICHAEL HART. Drug Reform Series – Drub Policy-an addiction to failure
A careful assessment of our policy towards currently illegal drugs and our struggle with the trade in these drugs brings forth a somber but frank conclusion about the war on drugs. It should stop.
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RALPH SECCOMBE. Drug Reform series-Production of illicit drugs – the balloon effect
Policy on illicit drugs should be developed on the basis that supply can never be cut off. Production is like a balloon: squeeze it in one place, but it will only bulge out elsewhere. This applies all the way to the consumer. There is no pricking this balloon under the present prohibition regime. While we naturally focus on harm suffered in Australia, we should not lose sight of the harm which international policies cause in countries from which we source the illicit drugs consumed here. (more…)
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ALAN KOHLER. Another fine energy shambles (The Australian, 07/08/18)
Years of cat-herding by those who actually know and care about Australia’s electricity market will come to fruition this week with the meeting of COAG energy ministers to discuss the National Energy Guarantee, and possibly make a decision about it. Or maybe not. (more…)
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LESLEY HUGHES. Cognitive Dissonance in the Big Dry
Climate change is worsening the drought now affecting huge swathes of the continent, bringing gut-wrenching misery for farmers and the communities they support. And what have some of the parliamentary representatives of those regions been up to? They have been trying to convince the Japanese to invest in more coal-fired power generation in Australia. (more…)
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BILL BUSH. Drug Reform series- High drug incarceration – harms manifest and benefits hard to perceive
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.
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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)
