The dismissal of the Whitlam government in 1975 remains as controversial as ever. Its last chapter is to be decided in the High Court when it hears a case brought by historian Jenny Hocking seeking public access to the letters between the governor-general, Sir John Kerr, and the queen. (more…)
John Menadue
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PRIYA CHACKO. India’s changing and Australia’s paying no attention(EAF 1.2.2020)
With bilateral trade negotiations stalling and India choosing not to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, attention has shifted away from economics and towards defence and security cooperation as the key to building a closer relationship between Australia and India.
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JENNY PRABHU. WHAT IS IT THAT WE SEE, BUT DO NOT WANT TO SEE?
Is it in our thirst for more of everything? (more…)
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TESSA BOYD-CAINE. After the hoses,can we work together?
An example of the kind of collaboration that is possible was formed in response to the enthusiastic but initially uncoordinated pro bono legal response to the Black Saturday fires. Bushfire Legal Help, as it was called at the time, brought together the key players in pro bono legal assistance to coordinate that response, ensuring the help that was on offer was directed to where it was of most use. (more…)
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MINXIN PEI. The Coronavirus is a Disease of Chinese Autocracy(Project Syndicate 28.1.2020)
When China’s leaders finally declare victory against the outbreak of the new and deadly coronavirus, they will undoubtedly credit the Communist Party of China’s leadership. But the truth is just the opposite: the party is again responsible for this calamity. (more…)
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TOM GREENWELL. Less choice, less affordability: the private school subsidy paradox
It’s become an annual ritual: the media reports on private school fee rises, then the various school spokespeople dig out last year’s talking points and it’s on again…until next year. But there is more – and it goes back a long way. The biggest news of all is that the decades-long expansion of public funding to private schools has done the opposite of what its proponents claim.
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PETER BROOKS. Government’s new out-of-pocket medical costs website – a missed opportunity
The long-awaited Australian Department of Health website designed to provide Australians with information on specialist medical costs, which went ‘live’ on 30 December 2019, is (so far at least) a significant missed opportunity. (more…)
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ELEANOR FLYNN et al. Australian Catholic Women still listening for leadership from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference
As a group of women who seek the equality of Women in the Australian Church, Women’s Wisdom in the Church (WWITCH) are appalled by the recent abolition of the stand-alone Council for Australian Catholic Women, and the closure of the Office for the Participation of Women in the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC). (more…)
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GREGORY CLARK. Tokyo-Moscow Territorial Games.
It’s not often that a world leader, or anyone else for that matter, gets unknowingly to celebrate the funeral for something dear and departed from him. (more…)
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BARNEY FORAN. Its the economy stupid, but lets make it fit for purpose
Media rants on our summer firestorms blame the lack of fire preparedness or a tardy emissions policy. To nudge Australia out of harm’s way over the next fifty years requires systemic and harmonious change over six big areas: implementing local firecare systems, more taxes to pay for it, enacting the social contract to bring us all along, building in fire resistance, developing a fit-for-purpose economy and finally, driving the first five by more benign personal consumption patterns. (more…)
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EMILLIAN KAVALSKI and NICHOLAS ROSS SMITH.Putin’s reforms may model Deng Xiaoping.(SCMP 27.1.2020)
After 20 years, Putin may be looking to protect his legacy by negotiating a controlled power handover in Russia, retiring from day-to-day administration while keeping a firm hand on policy direction as Russia’s father figure – much as China’s Deng Xiaoping did
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GEOFF HARCOURT and PETER KRIESLER. Secular economic stagnation around the world
“Secular stagnation” refers to the long-run (or secular) tendency for growth rates to stagnate in advanced capitalist economies – associated with high unemployment and excess capacity. (more…)
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HAGAI El-AD. Netanyahu Exploits the Holocaust to Brutalize the Palestinians (Haaretz23.1.2020)
Netanyahu didn’t invent the idea of leveraging the Holocaust for political gain. Yet he is taking even that low to new depths, stripping Palestinians of basic human rights in the name of the survivors of the Holocaust (more…)
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ANDREW WONG. Logging Makes Bushfires Worse
In the wake of the recent bushfires, the logging industry wants to ‘thin’ Australia’s forests to reduce fire hazard. But their plan is likely to make the fire hazard far worse. Could there be another agenda at work? (more…)
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RICHARD FLANAGAN. How a nation adapts to its own murder.(NYT 27.1.2020)
Australia is going up in flames and its government calls for resilience while planning for more coal mines. (more…)
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CHRIS McDONNELL. Many Years on from Auschwitz-Birkenau.
On Saturday January 27th the Red Army came from the East and entered Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration camp to liberate those still alive. The unfolding horror from the camps began.
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JOHN CARMODY. Australia Day. We cannot allow our future to be based on falsity and denial
Perhaps because, by its very nature, establishing a colony at Port Jackson in 1788 was theft of another people’s land, Australia seems to have been a racist society from the beginning and to have remained so. (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE. Who is responsible for ‘Commonwealth emergency management”?
The role of the Department of Home Affairs is clear (more…)
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HAJO DUKEN. Monarchy vs Republic – Two decades later and still debating the wrong questions
Two decades after the failed referendum, it seems that the debate about Australia becoming a republic is still stuck in the 20th century ignoring everything that has happened since. (more…)
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VACY VLAZNA. On Becoming Australian: A Migrant Story, Part 2
Co-host of ABC Minefield, Scott Stevens astutely, impeccably summed up the generosity inherent in The Uluru Statement of the Heart. (more…)
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TONY COADY. Bouncer barrages, Bodyline and the Laws of Cricket Revisited
In Pearls and Irritations ( September 2, 2019) I wrote about the way that the long-standing intimidatory bowling of bouncers in international Test cricket is both clearly in conflict with the Laws of cricket in spite of being widely practiced, relished by most commentators, and ignored by umpires. (more…)
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VACY VLAZNA. On Becoming Australian: A Migrant Story, Part 1
Australia is an unresolved crime scene (more…)
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BRUCE DOVER. The Foxification of the Murdoch media in Australia.
The ructions inside the Murdoch empire last week when youngest son, James made a very rare but very public criticism of the family companies news coverage of climate change in the wake of the Australian bushfires shines a revealing light on what is likely to be the continued ” Foxification” of our local media. (more…)
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JON BLACKWELL and KERRY GOULSTON. Aspects of Australian healthcare reform (part 3 of 3) – Big problems and big opportunities
In the first of this 3 part series, we outlined the shortcomings and achievements of our efforts to plan and implement Healthcare Reform in NSW some years ago. In the second paper, we outlined the more recent approach in Denmark, which had a wider and more inclusive Reform Plan. In this third paper, we stress the enormous difficulties currently facing all Australians needing healthcare both now, and in the years ahead, and propose a way forward.
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GRAEME WORBOYS: Kosciuszko: Post 2020 fire responses
In January 2020 severe bushfires burnt parts of Kosciuszko National Park impacting its National Heritage listed catchment wetlands, fauna and flora values. (more…)
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TONY COADY Bouncer barrages, Bodyline and the Laws of Cricket Revisited
In Pearls and Irritations ( September 2, 2019) I wrote about the way that the long-standing intimidatory bowling of bouncers in international Test cricket is both clearly in conflict with the Laws of cricket in spite of being widely practiced, relished by most commentators, and ignored by umpires. (more…)
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MILES LITTLE. The decency of the commons
Bushfires have devastated this country, yet have allowed us to see the best of human motives and actions. They have also exposed us to disappointments, further loss of trust in governance and a sense of insecurity. (more…)
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JON BLACKWELL and KERRY GOULSTON. Aspects of Australian healthcare reform (part 2 of 3) – Learning from Denmark
In the first of this 3 part series, we described some partially successful NSW government healthcare reforms in Greater Metropolitan Sydney, and identified shortcomings in their planning and implementation. In this second part, we look at radical reforms to the Danish healthcare system, commencing in 2007, and some of the outcomes of those changes.