Medicare funds the established system of health care delivery, a system that has not seen major changes since Medicare was established 56 years ago. It needs serious reform and particularly in the way the health workforce is structured. The pandemic has revealed serious weaknesses. (more…)
John Menadue
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Coalition outsources role of government to business, the US
The Coalition acts as an agent of the business sector in domestic affairs and an agent of the US in international affairs. (more…)
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LobbyLand: An Analysis of Australian Industry Associations’ Influence on Climate Policy
This analysis identified five lobbying organisations that stood out as the ‘most obstructive, negative and influential’ in refusing to address climate change. They were the Minerals Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, NSW Minerals Council, the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Petroleum Producers and Exploration Association. (more…)
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LobbyLand. The used motor vehicle lobby.
We are paying to protect an industry that no longer exists. We see it almost every day in the media; rent-seekers like the motor industries extracting benefits for themselves through political influence and lobbying at the expense of the broader community. It has very little to do with markets.
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The perils of outsourcing (privatisation) on many fronts
In Pearls and Irritations in recent weeks we have posted articles about the serious erosion in the quality of care and services in many fields – disability care, vocational education and training, child care and particularly aged care, where more than 650 older people have died in private, for-profit “homes”. All too often service quality has been sacrificed for profit. Political ideology has become more important than quality services for the public.
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Social Housing: the social need and the economic opportunity
The unfairness of Joe Hockey’s first budget in 2014 presaged the end of his political career. If Josh Frydenberg fails to address the need and opportunity for action on social housing will it start his political decline?
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LobbyLand. The scourge of powerful special interests and lobbyists.
A major reason for the loss of trust in governments and parliaments is the way powerful special interests with their lobbyists have come to dominate the public debate and skew decisions in their favour. The fossil fuel sector is the most obvious and recent example.
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Houses are becoming commodities to buy and sell and not homes.
The Property Council and our tame media are obsessed on property prices. Are prices up or down this month? They see property as a commodity for wealth creation.
Housing policy should be about housing as a human right and for use, where in homes we raise families, entertain friends and where we can close off from markets and business.
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The underfunded ABC is at the mercy of well-funded, anti-China organisations
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute is funded by the Defence sector including US arms manufacturers. They call the tune in their anti-China campaign. Yet ASPI pretends it is ‘independent’. The ABC and others fall for the anti -China paranoia.
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Infrastructure Stimulus: there are smart projects out there, if we care to look
Infrastructure spending is touted as the path to economic recovery, but our leaders can no longer afford to throw billions at programs with little economic merit or policy logic.
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Our intelligence agencies are out of control -An edited repost from Jan 17, 2019
It seems likely that the prosecution by the Commonwealth Government of former spy (Witness K ) and his lawyer Bernard Collaery will be heard in closed court. What a travesty of justice this is.
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We need a standing Royal Commission to supervise our intelligence agencies
We need intelligence agencies that are accountable. We do not have that at the moment. We have witnessed the failure of bank regulators. Regulatory failure in the intelligence sector is even more in plain sight. (more…)
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The confusing and wasteful role of the States in our foreign relations
The role of the States in relations with foreign countries has been raised by Scott Morrison. It has an unfortunate anti-China ring about it but he is correct to assert the primacy of the Commonwealth in foreign relations. In Japan, in the late 1970’s I found state commissioners a pest. They confused Japanese ministers and officials.
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What a post-war contrast – Germany and Japan; Angela Merkel and Shinzo Abe (REPOST from Aug 31, 2017)
For all its atrocities in the 1930s and 1940s, Germany has become an exemplar country promoting prosperity and peace. Angela Merkel stands out as a world leader more than any other. By contrast, Japan has again become a divisive country in its region and its Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has been acquiescing and promoting an ultra-nationalist cause. Germany quickly came to terms with its past. Japan has refused to.
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An apology
My regrets that the Pearls and Irritations site was down for an extended period yesterday. It is now up and running again with all articles available.
Regards John Menadue (more…)
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The perils of privatisation and private greed
The pandemic has starkly shown us the importance of good government, good public policies and good public institutions. It has also shown us the failure of private institutions, private markets and outsourcing to private providers. If the wholesale arm of Telstra had been kept in public hands we would have had a modern NBN long ago. The behaviour of the privatised Commonwealth Bank has bought shame to us all. (more…)
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Military and security agencies are eroding civil society
War and militarisation has become ever-present in so much of our public life. Civilian power and responsibility is being marginalised. We go to war without our Parliament even debating the merits of such a momentous act. We are ceding civilian control to our military and security agencies.
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Iran’s pact with China is bad news for the West (Foreign Policy 9 August 2020)
Tehran’s new strategic partnership with Beijing will give the Chinese a strategic foothold and strengthen Iran’s economy and regional clout. (more…)
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A progress report on Pearls and Irritations
Pearls and Irritations has topped 10,000 subscribers. (more…)
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Hong Kong from the inside
Reporting by outsiders on Hong Kong tends to be over-simplistic and seen through Western eyes. We need to look at things through the eyes of Hong Kongers. The old Hong Kong is dead but the new one may emerge not quite like either the West or China would foresee. (more…)
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The Queen’s implausible denial
It beggars belief that the Queen did not know that John Kerr was planning to sack Gough Whitlam. She may not have known the detail of the coup in progress, but she knew the substance. But like Lord Nelson she pretends she did not see anything. Nonsense. (more…)
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Australia firms in China say bilateral tensions now a bigger risk than weak economy: survey(South China Morning Post 17.7.2020)
For Australian businesses with close China ties, tensions between the two countries pose a more worrisome threat than a slowdown in the Chinese economy, a new survey has found. (more…)
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John Kerr, Martin Charteris and the Palace Letters.
In his grovelling and voluminous letters to the Palace and Martin Charteris, John Kerr had time to comment on some of the minor players. The letters from the ‘loyal and obedient servant’ of Her Majesty, reminded me of my discussions with him before the Dismissal and the events in the year afterwards. (more…)
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RICHARD CURTAIN. Key elements of a suppression strategy
What is a workable alternative to an elimination strategy? (more…)
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GARY MOORHEAD. Cheap renewable energy and the future of manufacturing.
Whether it’s economic recovery post COVID, enhancing our future defence capabilities or even helping deal with climate change, manufacturing has become the new black. But before we can see any lift in manufacturing performance, a truly wicked problem must be overcome. (more…)
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The Palace knew for months before November 11 that John Kerr was considering dismissing Gough Whitlam (A repost from 11.11.2015)
Based on an examination of John Kerr’s ‘treasure trove of previously unpublished papers’, Professor Jenny Hocking has provided overwhelming evidence that before the dismissal John Kerr had extensive conversations and correspondence with the Queen, Prince Charles and Sir Martin Charteris, the Queen’s private secretary. To support his actions John Kerr clearly wanted these papers released to show that he had the Queen’s backing (more…)
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NUALA KENNY. Disinfecting denial and secrecy.
“Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known” (Matthew 10, 26-28) Courageous proclamation of the “good news” of God’s love for us is the heart of Jesus’ mission.
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High Court Judges and not just Dyson Heydon
A High Court judge colluded in the dismissal of a Prime Minister. The separation of powers was put aside. My confidence in our institutions took a battering. (more…)