John Menadue

It was Tony Abbott who bestowed the appellation “best retail politician in the country” on Barnaby Joyce. Even now, some continue to preface their comments about him by claiming he is possessed of some form of political genius. It is true that Joyce has been successful at the time-honoured Nationals tactic of demanding handouts for farmers despite a complete lack of policy rationale (beyond Joyce’s personal and, given recent events, now ironic vision of Australian agriculture as a rural idyll of white heterosexual families). Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted on irrigation infrastructure and concessional loans to farmers at Joyce’s behest. But a quick check of Joyce’s other career highlights suggests he has serially been a problem for his own side of politics.  (more…)

Are we heading for another Saturday Night Massacre? – Woodward and Bernstein.

The wall Street “correction” is a financial phenomenon, only loosely connected to the real economy. As ABC Business Editor Ian Verrender explains, “markets — and particularly Wall Street — disconnected from economic fundamentals years ago”.  High American share values have been driven by years of easy monetary policy, and more recently by Trump’s fiscal recklessness. Mild monetary tightening has caused a panic.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the ABC has kicked off its new program The Economists with a session on the economics of love.  Peter Martin discusses the economics of loyalty – to one’s companion, friends, children, country.  Such loyalty may not align with the “rational” economics of self-interest, but it has huge evolutionary advantages.

Fairfax journalist Jessica Irvine writes about corruption. No the brown-paper-bag-full-of-$50-notes corruption, but the corruption that emerges when governments regulate markets. She points out that  “rent-seeking, the practice of attempting to manipulate government decisions to earn profits above what would otherwise be required to stay in business, is now rife”.

Dispatchable wind and solar will be the death of coal and gas – RenewEconomy

Why not fund an Australian tobacco industry?  We’re doing it for weapons – Crispin Hull

Security agencies use their cock-ups to demand more power they don’t need – Jack Waterford

NSW minister altered Barwon-Darling water sharing plan to favour irrigators – the Guardian..

Why Antonio Gramsci is the marxist thinker of our times – New Statesman

Church leaders never fully acknowledged that the culture, structure, processes of the church were part of the problem – Fatima Measham

The family who owns Tasmania’s gambling industry – the Canberra Times.

An aspiring Democrat Presidential  candidate takes on a bank and wins – New Republic

Is private health insurance a con? The answer is in the graphs  – Greg Jericho

Tesla big battery is already bringing Australia’s gas cartel to heel – RenewEconomy

“Private health insurance rebates don’t serve their purpose. Let’s talk about scrapping them” – the Conversation.

On Saturday Extra with Geraldine Doogue this 10^th February: political controversy continues in Kenya that now has a President and a “People’s President”, guests Nic Cheeseman from the University of Birmingham and columnist with Kenya’s Daily Nation and Njoki Wamai, a Kenyan researcher at the University of Cambridge; how the manslaughter charge of a junior British doctor who has also been struck off the medical register has concerned the medical profession in Australia with former President of the AMA and former chair of the WMA Mukesh Haikerwal and health economist Stephen Duckett; the Winter Olympics have begun in South Korea and  Scott Snyder, from the  Council on Foreign Affairs compares today’s situation with that of the Summer Olympics thirty years ago in South Korea and North Asia expert Rana Mitter on the lingering tensions between Japan, China and the Korean Peninsula and the promising situation of an upcoming summit between these countries (sans North Korea). In a good news story, journalist Lisa du Bode discusses the success of women farming seaweed in Zanzibar. www.abc.net.au/rn/saturdayextra

 

 

 

 

Recently Iranian women started a movement  all over the country especially in Tehran . They stand on a platform, take their scarves off and drape them over a street sign. It is in protest again the Islamic dress code . In Tehran, 28 women have been caught and gaoled so far . The first woman arrested did it in Tehran’s Revolution Street so they are called “The Girls of Revolution Street.”  See photos. (more…)

Recently in P & I the question has been raised as to how we can get better government – parliamentary reform, more professional public service, changes in economic policy and so on. But it is the answer to the question above which seems to have got lost.  (more…)

Every February, the Australian Electoral Commission releases data on political donations for the previous financial year. The data routinely show that among the ffbiggest corporate political donors are mining, infrastructure and defence companies and groups. (more…)

The big story about this week’s political donations disclosures is how little they really tell us. Over the last decade the major parties have routinely only transparently disclosed 10-20% of their incomes as donations. (more…)

The release last month of (albeit heavily redacted) Treasury advice to the Turnbull Government on the likely effects of the policies the Labor Opposition took to the 2016 election regarding negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount once again highlight the extent to which those defending the status quo in this area are willing to create their own ‘alternative facts’ in order to promote their arguments. (more…)

The revolving door of politics represents a particularly difficult problem for modern democracies. And when senior public servants leave their positions to work as lobbyists for the infrastructure industry – an industry that takes a lion’s share of government spending, and is afforded substantive protection from scrutiny by “commercial confidentiality” – that problem grows substantially.   (more…)

Capitalism must change to avert climate change, according to the vice-chair of the world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock. (more…)

In 1998 I was a freshly minted law grad who felt great purpose in joining the Harbour Bridge march for the first ‘Sorry Day’. I had just begun my first real job with the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and my country was grappling with the Stolen Generation Report. It seemed the time was right for recognition and reconciliation, and I shared a sense of optimism about Australia’s identity and place in the world. (more…)