The Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap is a huge and controversial US intelligence base near Alice Springs in central Australia. Again the debate is flaring over whether or not the costs of hosting the base — most relevant being its challenge to Australian foreign policy autonomy, as well as being a possible or even likely nuclear target — are outweighed by the benefits. Pine Gap’s role in a possible Korean war raise these issues in new ways. (more…)
John Menadue
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RICHARD WOOLCOTT. The Australia – Indonesia Agreement on maintaining security in 1995
The Cabinet papers for 1994/95, released on 1 January this year, made it clear that Paul Keating had sought to develop a security agreement between Australia and Indonesia in 1994. The Agreement was completed in 1995. (more…)
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JUDE McCULLOCH, JANEMAREE MAHER, KATE FITZ-GIBBON AND SANDRA WALKLATE. Finally, police are taking family violence as seriously as terrorism.
Victoria Police recently announced that family violence perpetrators will be treated as seriously as terrorists and murderers. This strategy represents a major milestone in the evolving police approach to family violence. Though family violence results in far more death and injury, terrorism is nonetheless considered Australia’s leading security threat. The Victoria Police strategy represents an opportunity to reset security priorities by recognising family violence as the foremost contributor to the preventable death and injury of women and children. (more…)
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AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE. The US has a massive military presence in the Asia-Pacific.
We are warned about Chinese island building for military purposes in the South China Sea. But all this is quite minor compared to the US military bases that encircle China and provoke the DPRK.
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GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND …
A journey through a land of extreme poverty: welcome to America – the Guardian.
Australia’s least competitive industries are earning super-profits Ross Gittins – Canberra Times.
Michael Lewis writes on Trump’s campaign against Department of Agriculture scientists in Vanity Fair.
Americans can spot election meddling because they’ve been doing it for years – the Guardian
A quarter of the World’s land will be permanently drier if Paris climate goals not met: Study
NBN expert, Paul Budde laments ‘second-rate’ network – Newcastle Herald
Trump and the liar’s paradox from The Washington Post http://wapo.st/2CDf6a4?tid=ss_mail&utm_term=.2a8e5bb5f78c
In the Fairfax Media John Hewson’s New Year contribution warns that we should not repeat squandering policy opportunities as we did in 2017. “In almost every area of public policy the real challenges have simply been kicked down the road by an obsession with short-term, opportunistic, mostly negative, point scoring and blame shifting.”
In a re-broadcast of an ABC Religion and Ethics Report from May 2017, essayist and novelist Pankaj Mishra examines the worldwide sources of popular rage that have led to phenomena such as Brexit, Trump’s election, the re-emergence of right-wing nationalism, religious dogmatism, civil unrest, and a general rejection of cosmopolitanism and liberal secularism. He frames his analysis in terms of the competing philosophies of Voltaire and Rousseau, and concludes that a path to reconciliation lies in a rediscovery of the values of solidarity and compassion.
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JOHN QUIGGIN. Why 2017 was a good year for climate
On the face of it, there was plenty of bad news for the climate in 2017. Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the 2105 Paris agreement and promised to reverse the decline of the coal industry. The Turnbull government rejected proposals for an efficient transition to a low-carbon energy sector, instead announcing a half-baked National Energy Guarantee designed as a lifeline for coal-fired power. Globally, CO2 emissions appeared to rise by around 2 per cent, after remaining stable for three years in a row. (more…)
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MICHAEL LAMBERT. Overweight and Obesity Part 2: The indigenous Australians Impact
Part 1 of this two-part post provided a global and broad Australian perspective on the pandemic of overweight and obesity. This part sets out the position for indigenous Australians and argues that this pandemic is a significant part of the health gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians and that the way forward must involve interventions to address the problem at childhood and adolescent stages. (more…)
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PATRICK MCEACHERN. What is Kim Jong Un’s intention with nuclear weapons?
Unlike his father and grandfather, Kim Jong Un began his reign as the top leader in North Korea with an unambiguous and tested first generation nuclear device. He showed early signs of doubling down on the nuclear program as fundamental to national security. Contrary voices publicly articulating the trade-offs associated with varying approaches to the nuclear issue observable during his father’s term evaporated under Kim Jong Un. His regime would be unified in word and deed at least publicly as it advanced its nuclear weapons capabilities. Though Kim Jong Un’s North Korea oscillated between boisterous nuclear threats and relatively quiet nuclear development that included offers for diplomatic engagement on the nuclear issue, the nuclear program has continued to progress. This is not simply a quantitative growth of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, rather Kim Jong Un has articulated and his regime has pursued a more advanced nuclear deterrent. (more…)
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No politician has the spine to stand up to Australia’s intelligence state
It’s standard in an end-of-year piece to attempt to identify some unifying theme in the events of an arbitrarily selected period of time. Sometimes themes and commonalities really do emerge. Other times, they’re the author’s confection. (more…)
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MICHAEL LAMBERT. Overweight and Obesity Part 1: A Global and Australian Perspective
In part 1 of this two-part post Michael Lambert sets out the broad position on overweight and obesity as both a global development and the Australian situation, the costs involved and the case for national action . The second part of this post will focus on the position with indigenous Australians, its contribution to the health gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians and the need for action to target overweight and obesity in indigenous children and adolescents. (more…)
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HANS-J. OHFF. Acquiring an orphan submarine. A REPOST from January 2017
If the RAN holds firm to the concept offered by DCNS it will acquire an orphan no other Navy will contemplate commissioning into service. It will own a submarines that will be expensive to build, expensive to maintain and expensive to operate. It will be a class that has no equals — sadly for all the wrong reasons. (more…)
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PHIL GRANO. A personal response to the marriage equality postal survey.
At first I was angry and irked by Sydney Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher’s linking of an annus horribilis with the passing of marriage equality laws in Australia. Now, a few days later, I feel saddened that the leader of the Catholic Church in Australia is incapable of reading the Spirit in our times, is so mean-spirited about love, the celebration of love and institutional support for love. (more…)
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HELEN CLARK. The health of future generations is at risk.
The health of future generations is being mortgaged as a result of environmental degradation that threatens to reverse the health gains achieved over the past century, according to Dr Helen Clark, a global health advocate.
Clark, formerly Administrator of the UN Development Programme and Prime Minister of New Zealand, told the recent launch of the University of Sydney’s new Planetary Health Platform that political will and leadership from civil society and the private sector are needed to tackle the major threats to planetary health – as well as collaborations across silos.
Her speech is published in full below with permission, and is also available at her website.
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JOHN CARMODY. Who is Joan Sullivan?
Does the Fairfax slogan, “Independent. Always”, really mean independent of truth, reliability and knowledge? Or should my humble response to the extraordinary headline and story in the Sun-Herald of 31 December have been an admission that, even after an operatic obsession of more than 50 years, there might have been a great Australian singer whom I’d never heard of: “New Joan Sullivan theatre to hit high note”. Worse still, the story that followed then wrongly mentioned that legendary name twice. Talk about rubbing salt into wounds (not to mention the cliché of the headline, even if it were correct). (more…)
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American Imperium – Untangling truth and fiction in an age of perpetual war
In this article ANDREW BACEVICH says ‘Republicans and Democrats disagree today on many issues, but they are united in their resolve that the United States must remain the world’s greatest military power. This bipartisan commitment to maintaining American supremacy has become a political signature of our times. In its most benign form, the consensus finds expression in extravagant and unremitting displays of affection for those who wear the uniform. Considerably less benign is a pronounced enthusiasm for putting our soldiers to work “keeping America safe.” This tendency finds the United States more or less permanently engaged in hostilities abroad, even as presidents from both parties take turns reiterating the nation’s enduring commitment to peace.’
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CAMERON MURRAY. Game of Mates: How favours bleed the nation A REPOST
Excerpt from Chapter 1 of Game of Mates: How favours bleed the nation.
Get the book via gameofmates.com. Follow author Cameron Murray on Facebook and Twitter. Come to the Brisbane book launch on 23rd May, 6pm at Avid Reader, West End (Details and RSVP link). (more…) -
CHRIS SHEIL AND FRANK STILLWELL. Bad data collection means we don’t know how much the middle class is being squeezed by the wealthy
There is a glaring need to reform Australia’s archaic wealth inequality statistics to make them commensurate with international practice. (more…)
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GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND …
Ross Gittins says that we would be mugs to panic and cut our company tax rate.
In his book review of Polanyi’s A Life on the Left in the New York Review of Books, Robert Kuttner argues that ‘Democracy cannot survive an excessively free market and containing the market is the task of politics.”
In his book review on Inequality and the Coming Storm, Edoardo Campanella comments: “the super-rich are not all the same. Some are entrepreneurs or entertainers who create real wealth for society. Others run hedge fund, private equity firms or other rent seeking businesses who contribute nothing or little.” Inequality and the Coming Storm by Edoardo Campanella – Project Syndicate
Laura Kipnis in the New York Review of Books says ‘Like beauty contestants, women at Fox are hired on the basis of looks, then laminated into near mannequins…the optics at Fox make clear what’s expected from women’. Rupert Murdoch boasts his businesses reflect his values.
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ALAN PEARS. Turnbull has politicked himself into irrelevance on energy and climate in 2018
As we approach the end of the year, it’s useful to look back and forward. Now is an auspicious time, as two major energy-related reports have been released this week: the federal government’s review of their climate change policies, and a discussion paper from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) on future energy paths. (more…)
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FRANCIS SULLIVAN. Australian Catholic Church must take abuse commission report seriously or risk irrelevance A REPOST
After five intense years of inquiry and more than 400 recommendations — with 20 new recommendations specifically relating to the Catholic Church — the report of Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is due a considered response. (more…)
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MICK PALMER. Australia’s Illicit Drugs Policy – There Really is a better Way A REPOST
It happens time and time again. We are told breathlessly by the media with photos of bags of seized drugs flanked by Border Protection officials and police officers about how successful we are in containing the drug problem.. But is it ‘success’ when despite the new records in drug seizures the drug problem in the community gets worse and worse. Do Border Protection officials and police officers ask the key questions about whether existing policies are working?
. A former Police Commissioner did this earlier this year in Pearls and Irritations after another record drug haul
.For over half a century Australian Governments have relied heavily on law enforcement to curb the drug trade, but, despite increasingly sophisticated and efficient policing strategies and operations Australia’s illicit drugs problems have continued getting bigger and the marketplace ever more dangerous, and prosperous If we are to improve the outcomes we achieve we have to stop simply being “tough on drugs” and start being “smart about drugs”. There is a way, we have a responsibility to explore it. (more…)
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CHRISTINA HO. Racist reporting still rife in Australian media
Half of all race-related opinion pieces in the Australian mainstream media are likely to contravene industry codes of conduct on racism. (more…)
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GEORGE WRIGHT. A year of dashed hopes and tyranny in Cambodia
To many, dissolution of the main opposition party caps a year in which the country became a full dictatorship. (more…)
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Worries about Malaysia’s ‘Arabisation’ grow as Saudi ties strengthen
Malaysia’s growing ties to Saudi Arabia – and its puritan Salafi-Wahhabi Islamic doctrines – are coming under new scrutiny as concerns grow over an erosion of traditional religious practices and culture in the multi-ethnic nation. A string of recent events has fuelled the concern. Hostility toward atheists, non-believers and the gay community has risen. (more…)
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AMANDA BIGGS. Whither the private health insurance rebate?
The private health insurance rebate is an important element in maintaining the attractiveness of private health insurance membership. The government rebate subsidises the cost of private health insurance premiums (hospital, general, and ambulance policies). It is usually applied in the form of an upfront discount to the consumer on the price of the premium, although it can be claimed back through the tax system. The rebate amount varies, depending on income levels and age. (more…)
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LINDSAY MURDOCH and KATE GERAGHTY. A REPOST-The little girl in the pretty dress.
In Pearls and Irritations we have posted reports of ghastly experiences of the Rohingya people fleeing genocide, rape, starvation and displacement. Lindsay Murdoch and Kate Geraghty of the Fairfax Press, who have visited the camps in Bangladesh, have prepared a vivid recount of refugees’ experiences. This is one small extract, “The little girl in the pretty dress” (reproduced with permission). (more…)
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HAMISH MCDONALD. Australia still on smoko over Asia.
When Malcolm Turnbull hosts the ten leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for an unusual summit in Sydney in March, the Australian public will know virtually nothing about most of them or the current state of affairs in their countries. (more…)
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JASON HOROWITZ. Cardinal’s death highlights sex abuse divide.
Early on Wednesday morning, hours after Cardinal Bernard F. Law died in a Rome hospital, a priest unlocked a small chapel at the Basilica of St. Mary Major and pointed to the spot under the marble altar and life-size crucifix where the once-mighty American prelate had arranged to be buried. (more…)
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Pope Francis, on Christmas Eve, says faith demands respect of immigrants.
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis strongly defended immigrants at his Christmas Eve Mass on Sunday, comparing them to Mary and Joseph finding no place to stay in Bethlehem and saying faith demands that foreigners be welcomed.
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JOHN HANNON. Failed leadership and systemic failure
I believe it is time to address the elephant in the room, now that the Royal Commission has presented its findings. Last weekend’s Saturday Age had a dark front-page image of a large cross with claw like hands descending from the horizontal crossbar, an almost sacrilegious image, reflecting the darkness and wrongs perpetrated by some in the name of the Church. At the foot of the cross is a young man, on his knees, hands joined in front of a candle, a striking contrast between the bright light of innocence and the darkness of evil. (more…)