Professor Jenny Hocking has lodged an appeal against the decision of the Federal Court last month in ‘Jennifer Hocking v. Director-General, National Archives of Australia’. The Court ruled that the Palace letters’, between the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, and the Queen relating to Kerr’s dismissal of the Whitlam government, are ‘personal’ not Commonwealth records, continuing the Queen’s embargo of them. (more…)
John Menadue
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GIOVANNI DI LIETO. Move over Canada and EU, Australia is best placed to benefit in the US-China trade tug-of-war
Australian firms are in a sweet spot between the bickering United States and China, where they can sell more and buy more cheaply because of weaker competition in both markets. Essentially, the mutual tariffs are a double blessing for Australia. (more…)
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CAROLYN PETTIGREW. Tourism and NSW National Parks – looking to the future. Part 2 of 2
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is facing a future crisis that perhaps is not fully recognised by supporters of nature conservation. Visitation is skyrocketing http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/research/NSWparkspopularity.htm which on the face of it is wonderful. More and more people are beginning, potentially at least, to value our national parks and enjoy the experience of visiting them. On the other hand, successive governments have cut funding to NPWS. Staff numbers and financial resources have dwindled relative to the areas to be managed. The solution on both sides of government seems to be to increase tourism opportunities with the help of commercial interests. https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/john-menadue-the-new-squatters-in-our-national-parks/ That may be a reasonable response, but it shouldn’t come without some serious caveats. Do we really want the Starbucks solution as in USA National Parks? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/26/yosemites-secretive-starbucks-cafe-opens-in-park-to-delight-and-dismay (more…)
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MIKE WALLER. The real problem with our banks- “it’s leverage, stupid”
“When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.” Warren Buffett
“There is no evidence that the growth in the scale and complexity of the financial system in the rich developed world over the last twenty to thirty years has driven increased growth or stability, and it is possible for financial activity to extract rents from the real economy rather than to deliver economic value. We need to challenge radically some of the assumptions of the last thirty years and we need to be willing to consider radical policy responses.” (Adair Turner, UK Financial Services Authority 2010). (more…)
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RUTH ARMSTRONG*. Pathways to justice pass through health: six ways the health sector can help reduce the harms of over-incarceration.
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FRANK JOTZO. China’s emissions trading takes steps towards big ambitions.
China’s new emissions trading scheme will start small, but comes with big potential, Frank Jotzo writes.
China recently announced that it will begin to introduce a national emissions trading scheme for carbon dioxide this year. The promise for more market-oriented climate policy in the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitting country is enormous. But it will be a gradual start and many big obstacles need to be overcome for the scheme to become an effective part of China’s climate policy portfolio. (more…)
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CAROLYN PETTIGREW. What has gone wrong with the management of NSW National Parks? Part 1 of 2
In 2014 the NSW government hosted the IUCN World Parks Congress. The government touted securing the conference as a victory for their major events calendar. The key outcome of the congress was the Promise of Sydney – the Vision was excellent. The commitments, however, from the NSW Government were almost laughable, given the importance of the Congress on the world stage. http://www.worldparkscongress.org/about/promise_of_sydney_commitments.html The shallowness of the commitments said a lot about what had become of NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) which, through the 1990’s, had been described by the IUCN as one of the five best conservation agencies in the world. (more…)
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EDMUND CAMPION. On Cardinal Gilroy At The Sydney Institute.
A few days ago, I told a friend that Gerard Henderson had just asked me to speak here tonight, to give, what he called, a ‘personal reflection’ on Cardinal Gilroy. ‘You should say,’ said my friend, ‘that you once wrote a book, A Place in the City, the first sentence of which is, ‘It wasn’t much fun living in the same house as Cardinal Gilroy.’ True. But I wasn’t there for fun. I was there, half a century ago, to be a curate in the cathedral parish.
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GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND …
The federal Coalition has many ideological cleavages. The division between liberals and conservatives has been most prominently on display in the same-sex marriage issue, and is again on display in arguments about intervening in the energy market to privilege the coal industry. In an article in The Atlantic The passing of the libertarian movement Kevin Williamson describes similar tensions in America’s Republican Party.
In case you’re thinking of putting in a bid to buy the Liddell power station from AGL, The Australia Institute has a report on the station’s generation costs and reliability. A used Leyland P76 may be a better investment.
The Consumers’ Health Forum has released a major report into out-of-pocket costs incurred by people with serious conditions. People surveyed by the CHF found that many of those surveyed, despite having health insurance “still had to pay thousands of dollars out of their own pockets for critical surgery, other treatment and diagnostic scans”. The full report is summarised in a press release.
Last week on Pearls and Irritations Peter Johnstone, Convenor of the Australian Catholic Coalition for Church Reform, wrote calling for systemic reform of the Church in Australia. On the ABC Religion and Ethics Report he asks Australian bishops to release and act upon the Report of the Church’s Justice and Healing Council (8 mins).
Former prime minister Tony Abbott says that around 400 white farmers have been murdered in South Africa over the past 12 months. RMIT ABC Fact Check takes a look at the data – the ABC.
Ghost water, poor planning and theft: how the Murray-Darling plan fell apart – the Guardian.
Israeli authorities block airport ads urging women to refuse to give up seats – the Guardian.
On Saturday Extra this 7th April, Geraldine Doogue is speaking to Michael Ignatieff , president and rector of the Central European University. He is discussing the two very different approaches to populism comparing Theodore Roosevelt to Viktor Orban in the lead up to the Hungarian elections; are we about to see another Gaza War?’ the twists and turns in the forthcoming Malaysian elections with James Chin, University of Tasmania and Ross Tapsell, ANU; HRW Burma researcher Richard Weir; our oral health with Professor John Dwyer and Lesley Russell and the life of Aboriginal advocate Mary Montgomerie Bennett with historian Sue Taffe. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/
Gerald Murnane – a great Australian novelist you may not have heard of – the Guardian
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ANDREW BLAKERS, MATTHEW STOCKS. Solar PV and wind are on track to replace all coal, oil and gas within two decades.
Solar photovoltaic and wind power are rapidly getting cheaper and more abundant – so much so that they are on track to entirely supplant fossil fuels worldwide within two decades, with the time frame depending mostly on politics. The protestation from some politicians that we need to build new coal stations sounds rather quaint.
The reality is that the rising tide of solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind energy offers our only realistic chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. (more…)
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LYNDSAY CONNORS. Where did the money come from for the recent Robocalling in Batman?
In the recent Batman by-election, the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (CECV) headed by Executive Director, Stephen Elder, contacted voters directly through so-called Robocalling to urge them to vote Labor. Since then, I have been asking myself two questions. Why should the Catholic Education authority do this at all and, second, where did the funds come from…parents, taxpayers or the Church’s own coffers? (more…)
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JIM COOMBS: The “moral crisis” in Cricket is a “beat up” with media frenzy making a mountain out of a molehill.
One would have to assume that all these outraged commentators have never played cricket with anything more substantial than a used tennis ball. For those of us who have played the game with any interest in the techniques and science of the game (alas, I am one such eccentric) know the true facts. The ball used in the “big boys” game has a leather exterior, and, in the course of play, that exterior, which has two sides, with a seam around the ball where the two sides meet, being leather, is affected by the course of play: being hit by the bat, landing on a rough surface (the pitch) at least once each ball, and rolling on the ground in the outfield, and even striking the boundary fence. This has some effect upon the ball, as a matter of course. Over the years the relative shininess of one side or other of the ball has been found to affect its trajectory through the air. As a player, you are entitled to take that into account. (more…)
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JIM COOMBS: Lets have some real banking competition.
The banks still haven’t got it. They charge $6 a month for doing nothing, theft or fraud, both crimes. But government and their appointed (neoliberal economics graduates) regulators, do nothing about it. Make the Reserve Bank of Australia the Peoples Bank…again. (more…)
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IAN CHUBB. Longing For Leadership -Part 2 of 2
Australia today faces multiple challenges. They include the fact that we are unlike any other continent with species and ecosystems that are found nowhere else. If we don’t look after ourselves, who will? There is global warming and climate change, and its impact on so much that we take for granted; an economy heavily reliant on what we dig up and sell, in a world less eager to buy. There is the spread of artificial intelligence and automation, and the impact on work and people; there is the increasing requirement to understand ever more sophisticated data, and its wise use; a growing need to grapple with almost unfathomable technologies rushing fast from the world of research into our lives. There is health care: pandemics, epidemics, complications from the spread of antibiotic resistance to bacteria, and how to keep a growing population in good health.
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NICHOLAS GRUEN. Some real banking competition – central banking for all.
As the great economic journalist Martin Wolf puts it, there’s a “giant hole” at the centre of modern economies. Although the money in our economy is a classic public good, like the air we breathe or the radio spectrum over which we communicate, almost all of it is privately created – by commercial banks like NAB and Westpac when they advance loans. (The physical money in our wallets represents a tad over 3 percent of the money supply.) (more…)
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IAN CHUBB. Longing For Leadership Part 1 of 2
Australia today faces multiple challenges. They include the fact that we are unlike any other continent with species and ecosystems that are found nowhere else. If we don’t look after ourselves, who will? There is global warming and climate change, and its impact on so much that we take for granted; an economy heavily reliant on what we dig up and sell, in a world less eager to buy. There is the spread of artificial intelligence and automation, and the impact on work and people; there is the increasing requirement to understand ever more sophisticated data, and its wise use; a growing need to grapple with almost unfathomable technologies rushing fast from the world of research into our lives. There is health care: pandemics, epidemics, complications from the spread of antibiotic resistance to bacteria, and how to keep a growing population in good health.
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PURNENDRA JAIN AND TAKESHI KOBAYASHI, LDP MEMBER. Political dynasties dominate Japan’s democracy
Hereditary political succession is not limited to monarchical and autocratic systems of government. Politicians from families that have previously occupied high office take top positions in many democratic countries. In Japan, hereditary politics show little sign of abating. (more…)
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Mapping the division of Malaysia.
Nation’s parliament set to ratify new boundaries to boost the government’s electoral prospects. (more…)
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EAST ASIA FORUM. Moritomo scandal miseries
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has led a rollercoaster, but often charmed, political life. After being forced to resign prematurely during his first stint as prime minister in September 2007 due to a stinging July 2007 upper house election defeat and a bowel illness, Abe managed a rare political comeback. In December 2012 he led his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to victory and back to government. (more…)
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Good reading and listening for the weekend …
April 4 will mark 50 years since the assassination of Martin Luther King. In the ABC’s Religion and Ethics Report, Andrew West interviews Jonathan Rieder and Anthea Butler, two authors who have written about King’s life, ideas and legacy. West reminds us that King had “a very tough message about the poverty and violence that propped up racism, and that made the powerful very uncomfortable”.
“It’s time to finally eradicate all sales incentives for bank staff to push loans on to customers” writes Jessica Irvine reporting from the banking inquiry. Warning – her story in The Age contains harrowing accounts of exploitation of vulnerable people.
“How to make free trade fair”. On Late Night Live Phillip Adams interviews economist Dr Jim Stanford Director of the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work. What political advocates have come to call free trade agreements “in many cases have nothing to do with actual trade” says Stanford. He outlines the asymmetry of such agreements, pointing out that Investor State Dispute Resolution agreements establish “kangaroo courts that allow companies to sue governments”.
In a week where the idiotic behaviour of a sporting team has dominated our media, even Ross Gittins has weighed in to the issue. But he puts it into perspective: “I can’t see why people are so shocked to discover our cricketers have been cheating. Surely that’s only to be expected in a nation that’s drifted so far from our earlier commitment to decency, mateship and the fair go.” He goes on to remind us about our government’s treatment of asylum seekers and the unemployed, about widespread tax evasion, and about how unscrupulous businesses treat those who are further down the food chain.
Lying in Politics: Reflections on The Pentagon Papers – Hannah Arendt, New York Review of Books (1971).
No free lunches so why are we feeding foreign multinationals’ profits? – Ross Gittins in the Canberra Times.
Cricket Australia Chairman, Peever, ducks for cover – Canberra Times.
In Saturday Extra with Geraldine Doogue this March 31st, a discussion about women and power with Kimberly Dennis, Associate Professor, Department of Art & Art History and Program in Sexuality, Women’s & Gender Studies Rollins College, Marguerite Johnson, Professor of Classics, University of Newcastle and Susan Ryan educator, Former Age Discrimination Commissioner, and first female Labor Minister; A Foreign Affair with Jacinta Collins from the National Security College, ANU; Euan Graham, Lowy Institute and Brain Doolan, former CEO of Fred Hollows Foundation; The New York Times is going back in time to right the wrongs of all the remarkable women who missed out on an obit and writer Caroline van de Pol growing up in Broadmeadows, Victoria.
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/
Japanese PM asks China to explain secret meeting with Kim Jong Un – Free Press Journal.
Steve Cohen vs Peter Jennings debating the new cold war. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/betweenthelines/russia/9601114
Australia insincere about engaging with Asia – Global Times
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PETER DAY. Cricket’s lost trophy
OMG: Disastrous. Unbelievable. Shameful. Disgraceful. What the…! (more…)
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IAN BUCKLEY. Finding Solutions to Humankind’s Neoliberal/Mercantile Crises.
In resolving the crises brought on within current neoliberal economies, a widespread recognition of their historical derivation from the mercantile political economy that Adam Smith described and condemned (1776) is crucial for effective understanding of this system, its corrupt roots and its persistence; likewise for its urgently-needed transformation to a just economy that works harmoniously for all.
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UTA MIHM. How to avoid excessive surgery out-of-pocket costs
Tips on negotiating with your doctor and shopping around for a surgeon who doesn’t charge excessively. (more…)
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MICHAEL LIFFMAN. Tribalism, anti-racism, and over-reach
Living, as the world does, with slavery, colonialism, brutal civil conflicts, and the Holocaust still casting the blackest of clouds over us, the principle of ‘anti-racism’ has – rightly – been developed to become an incontestable foundation of our ethics and morality. This is as it should be, and arguably can be seen as one of the major advances in humanity’s faltering progress towards a more ethical global order. (more…)
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ROBYN J WHITAKER. Jesus wasn’t white: he was a brown-skinned, Middle Eastern Jew. Here’s why that matters
I grew up in a Christian home, where a photo of Jesus hung on my bedroom wall. I still have it. It is schmaltzy and rather tacky in that 1970s kind of way, but as a little girl I loved it. In this picture, Jesus looks kind and gentle, he gazes down at me lovingly. He is also light-haired, blue-eyed, and very white. (more…)
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NICOLAS SENÈZE. Rediscovering the role of Mary Magdalene as ‘apostle of the apostles’.
Turning Mary Magdalene into a sinner obstructed women’s place in the church. (more…)
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PETER DAY: “Crucify him! Crucify him”
This Good Friday there will be two Passion ‘plays’ proclaimed throughout the world: The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to John, and The Passion of Our Lauded Cricket Captain According to Us. (more…)
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SCOTT BURCHILL. On the Russian gas attack
Given the “sexing up” and outright distortions of dodgy intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s “WMD” in 2002-3 by both the UK government of Tony Blair and US administration of George W. Bush, one can only be astonished at the credulity of those in the Fourth Estate who don’t even feel the need to ask for evidence in the case of the Salisbury gas attack on double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
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FRANCIS SULLIVAN. CEO Truth Justice and Healing Council.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s comprehensive and confronting final report rightly focuses on the Catholic Church, with one of the 17 volumes dedicated solely to that institution. The litmus test for the Church leadership in the coming months and years will be the degree to which they act on the Royal Commission’s recommendations. (more…)
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MICHAEL LAMBERT. An Update on the National Electricity Market and the National Energy Guarantee.
The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Energy Council meets in the second half of April to consider a report from the Energy Security Board on the proposed initial design of the National Energy Guarantee which seeks to address both emissions reductions and improved reliability in the National Electricity Market. (more…)