The Australian parliament is about to pass a complex package of national security laws aimed at strengthening Australia’s protections against espionage, sabotage, (covert) foreign interference and (overt) harmful foreign influence on Australian political life. The real target is China, but Russia makes a convenient public scapegoat drawing on current US/UK precedents. The draft laws which now appear to have bipartisan support are significantly improved from the first government drafts released for public comment in December 2017. Nevertheless they take Australia in an illiberal direction. (more…)
John Menadue
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ALAN BOYD. Asia’s millionaires leaving for safe havens, lower taxes.
Report says thousands of wealthy citizens are leaving Asia and the Middle East, mostly heading for new lives in Australasia, North America and Europe. (more…)
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PETER RODGERS: Postcard from Doha: blockaders, bovines and billions
A year on, the Saudi-led boycott of Qatar appears stymied by the latter’s capacity to buy its way out of trouble. Qatar’s extravagant spending on the 2022 FIFA World Cup would make many a national treasurer weep. (more…)
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JIM COOMBS: “Class Warfare” – Bring it On !
CEDA survey “Community Pulse 2018 – Economic Disconnect” perhaps tells us what we already know: The vast majority feel that they have got less than a fair share of our years of growth, and our working conditions have worsened, and they are right. (more…)
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PATTY FAWKNER. Silence is golden – and it also kills.
Will we be loyal to the silence or will we interrupt the silence that has left many Catholics feeling disenfranchised within their own Church. (more…)
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STEVE LOHR China extends its lead as the top producer of supercomputers (New York Times 26 June 2018)
U.S. has world’s fastest, but rival surges ahead as the most prolific producer (more…)
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DAVID P GOLDMAN. A tragedy in the making as the US confronts China (Asia Times)
The trade war is quickly moving to the next level of confrontation with suggestions that Trump has ‘betrayed China’ (more…)
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STEVE CANNANE. Banking royal commission: ‘Big four’ accountancy firms ‘heavily conflicted, should be under inquiry spotlight’ (ABC 25/6/2018)
Australia’s “big four” accountancy firms should be put under the spotlight of the banking royal commission, according to a British investigative journalist who has written an expose on their activities overseas. (more…)
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JOSHUA GILBERT. All the farms a stage …
As the ever closing climate change frontier looms upon Australian Shores, with signs already evident in most parts of the country, the question remains- when will our politicians act? After the failure and promises of Governments of the past, impending reforms that never come and budgets that get built and then pulled out under the feet of hopeful scientists and activists, many cling to catastrophic weather events and foreign influence to encourage change. Yet as the drought sets in over most of the country, not even political tours and tourism hopes are enough to bring the rain where we need it the most. Perhaps, those that pray for rain in hope, can be the ones that encourage Government as it is needed. (more…)
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GARRY EVERETT. Archbishop Coleridge and the culture of confusion.
It was disappointing to read the latest comments of Archbishop Coleridge of Brisbane on the topics of sexual abuse and the culture of the Church. The comments convey a certain confusion, which could imperil any attempts the Church might make to re-establish trust among its members, and between the members and society at large. (more…)
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TOM FAWTHROP. Vietnam Mass Protests Expose Hanoi’s China Dilemma
The huge nationwide protests that rocked Vietnam last week have highlighted Hanoi’s headaches in dealing with China, both as a hostile power in the South China Sea and as a key trading partner and economic investor. (more…)
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DENNIS ALTMAN. Australia’s dangerous obsession with the Anglosphere
Australia’s cultural obsession with the US and the UK has real impacts on our politics. (more…)
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SAM BATEMAN. Reflections on the United States Navy
The U.S. Navy had a horror year in 2017 with tragic accidents and a major corruption scandal. Rather than the cause mainly being a budgetary one with inadequate resources allowed the Navy, deeper cultural issues might also be involved. (more…)
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ROSS DOUTHAT. ‘#Me Too’ comes for the Cardinal (New York Times)
The first time I ever heard the truth about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., finally exposed as a sexual predator years into his retirement, I thought I was listening to a paranoiac rant. (more…)
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DORINA POJANI, IDERLINA MATEO-BABIANO, JONATHAN CORCORAN, NEIL SIPE. Freeing up the huge areas set aside for parking can transform our cities.
Parking may seem like a “pedestrian” topic (pun intended). However, parking is of increasing importance in metropolitan areas worldwide. On average, motor vehicles are parked 95% of the time. Yet most transport analysis focuses on vehicles when they are moving. (more…)
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PETER DAY. Beware the Push-Me-Pull-You Syndrome in our Universities.
Thanks to Isaac Newton we know that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
And while Newton’s 3rd Law specifically relates to objects and motion; it can equally apply to the spheres of culture and politics. (more…)
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JAMES FERNYHOUGH. This is how the biggest tax cut in history will affect you. (New Daily 21/6/2018)
Australia’s wealthiest 5 per cent of taxpayers are set to receive a $7000 tax cut, after the Turnbull government’s income tax bill passed through the Senate with the help of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
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ROBERT KAGAN. Trump’s America does not care.
Since the end of the Cold War, it has widely been assumed that U.S. foreign policy would follow one of two courses: Either the United States would continue as primary defender of the international order it created after World War II, or it would pull back from overseas commitments, shed global responsibilities, turn inward and begin transitioning to a post- American world. The second approach was where U.S. foreign policy seemed headed under President Barack Obama, and most saw the election of Donald Trump as another step toward withdrawal. (more…)
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JAMES FERNYHOUGH. Telstra’s bombshell announcement is ‘huge’ news for consumers.
Telstra’s bombshell announcement that it will split in two is “huge” news for consumers, resulting in cheaper, faster internet. But experts say it comes 15 years and $40 billion too late. (more…)
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SAM HURLEY AND KATE MACKENZIE. Climate horizons.
Companies are still lagging on modelling and disclosing impacts of climate change – more business, government and regulatory action is required. (more…)
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Vietnam: Investigate Police Response to Mass Protests.
Hundreds Detained in Sweeping Crackdown (more…)
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BHIM BHURTEL. Nepal looks toward China as a measure of last resort
After an exchange of high-level trips between Nepal and India, Nepalese Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli is to land in Beijing on Tuesday for a five-day state visit. It will be his second state visit since his accession to the Prime Minister’s Office after his party’s landslide victory in the general election in November. (more…)
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CHRISTINA HO, EDGAR LIU, HAZEL EASTHOPE. Higher density and diversity: apartments are Australia at its most multicultural.
Increasing numbers of city dwellers live in apartments. This is particularly the case for migrants. And that makes apartment buildings important hubs of multiculturalism in our cities. (more…)
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JOANNE McCARTHY. Bishop breaks ranks on church report into child abuse royal commission (SMH 21/6/2018)
Bishop of Parramatta Vincent Long Van Nguyen has broken ranks with the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference to join reform groups and politicians calling for public release of a church report responding to the child abuse royal commission. (more…)
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DAVID JAMES. Academics tangle with managerial oppressors.
The imposition of what is termed ‘managerialism’ or ‘marketisation’ on universities is almost entirely disastrous. (more…)
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PETER RODGERS. Israel-Palestine – Vale the two-state solution; where to now?
With the two-state solution in the morgue, governments around the globe will need to consider anew the unpalatable realities of this long-running conflict. (more…)
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FERGUS PEACE. Australia’s pitiless migrant policy is no model for Europe.
Italy’s refusal to let a migrant rescue ship dock feels alarmingly familiar to many. (more…)
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RICHARD GLOVER. Move over, Emmanuel Macron. Australia has the true Trump whisperer. (Washington Post 19/6/2018)
Australia is the last U.S. ally standing. We’ve escaped America’s new tariffs, our leader has yet to be labeled weak or a liar, and the United States has even agreed to accept some of Australia’s unwanted refugees. President Trump called that refugee arrangement “the worst deal ever,” but he has allowed it to be implemented.
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2018 Lowy Institute Poll – Climate change, renewables and coal.
Despite the debate and political rhetoric, most Australians have not been persuaded to support coal over renewables for the nation’s energy security. Almost all Australians remain in favour of renewables, rather than coal, as an energy source. In 2018, 84% (up three points since 2017) say ‘the government should focus on renewables, even if this means we may need to invest more in infrastructure to make the system more reliable’. (more…)