John Menadue

  • MARILYN HATTON and MOIRA COOMBS. Catholic women speak out.

    The Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse’s report and its recommendations are essential for the care and protection of children and care of victims and their families. They are also important steps in preventing the perpetuation of the destructive clerical culture that produced the horrifying sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.   (more…)

  • GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND …

    Writing in the Fairfax Press, Andrew Norton of the Grattan Institute explains the government’s planned $ 2.2 billion cuts to university funding – cuts they can make without going through Parliament.  He explains how they will have their greatest impact on resource-intensive courses such as engineering and education, while leaving courses such as law and business largely untouched.

    “Under the influence of more than a century of relentless advertising and commercialisation its original significance as a religious holy-day has been submerged beneath an orgy of consumerism, materialism and over-indulgence” writes Ross Gittins in his Christmas message. He reminds us of the waste around our commercialised Christmas – food we don’t eat, clothes we don’t wear, unwanted gifts that we never use.

    The Climate Council reports that Hidden Pollution Data has been released, and it is not good.

    A gas shortage next year is unlikely, but that’s the only good news – The Conversation

    Heretics welcome! Economics needs a new Reformation – Larry Elliott in the Guardian

    A report on Burma’s Methodical Massacre at Rohingya Village

    Pearls & Irritations put together a Making Housing Affordable Series, organised by John Menadue, Susan Ryan and Oliver Frankel.  A copy of the PDF is attached. 2017-05-22 – Making Housing Affordable series.

    The Rohingya crisis has put lives in limbo – Lindsay Murdoch in the Age

    Brothers from male-only religious orders outnumber priests in historic child abuse allegations involving the Catholic Church. Despite the forensic efforts of the royal commission, the operations of the most prolific offenders remain shrouded in secrecy.

    Yanis Varoufakis writes on “Taking the Red Pill or the Blue Pill” in the Journal of Political Economy.

    Why Rupert’s Really Splitting Up the Family Business – Michael Wolff

    “People on low incomes are sacrificing basic goods to take out insurance” – the Conversation.

     

  • Hunger and disease haunt Rohingya refugees

    ‘Sometimes we borrow from neighbors or we starve’  
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  • JONATHAN PILBROW. IPAN on the link between war and refugees

    Human Rights Day, recently observed, is a very significant day, commemorating the UN General Assembly endorsement on 10 December 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the right to seek asylum.  Human Rights Day is an important time to highlight that that wars create and exacerbate humanitarian crises and the conditions that lead to refugees, which raises critical issues about Australia’s continued involvement in U.S. wars. (more…)

  • PATTY FAWKNER SGS. Of Mary and Maya.

    When we see the images of Mary and her child this Christmas, may we pause and think of Maya and the countless victims of sexual exploitation, writes Sister Patty Fawkner.   (more…)

  • TONY DOHERTY. A Christmas reflection.

    Christmas is the celebration of a story. A story told in the gospels by two storytellers – Matthew and Luke. It’s a tale told and retold, and often so badly that, should the original storytellers be alive today, I could imagine them squirming. (more…)

  • DES CAHILL and PETER WILKINSON. Clericalism, celibacy and child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Australia

    The Final Report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was published on 15 December 2017.  Among its 409 recommendations was one which is proving controversial, namely, the introduction of voluntary celibacy for diocesan priests. There are compelling reasons why the Commission chose to urge a change to a long-held tradition. (more…)

  • MATTHEW FISHER. Ministers for Health in name only

    Evidence on social determinants of health, health inequities and primary disease prevention and health promotion present many, currently under-utilised opportunities for Australian Government Health Ministers to genuinely be Ministers for health as well as for remedial healthcare services. (more…)

  • KERRY MURPHY. Retaining a cruel and punitive policy towards asylum seekers.

    Recently re-elected deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce warned the New Zealand Prime Minister to back off on her offer to help resettle refugees from Manus Island and Nauru in New Zealand.  His statement seemed to hint at a warning that if New Zealand continued to push this offer, it could harm bilateral relations[1].  Ironically he said they should not interfere in Australia’s sovereignty, regarding non Australians sent to non Australian Manus Island and independent Nauru. (more…)

  • KEVIN PEOPLES. An end of sorts.

    There is a time for everything …a time to be silent and a time to speak…Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

    Today the Royal Commission came to an end. I feel as if I have lost a friend. It seems somehow improper to say anything. In its place endless prattle, numbers, interviews, politics. Seventeen volumes. I am left numb. There will be a time to read them. But not today.  (more…)

  • GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND …

    In case you missed Geraldine Doogue last week on Saturday Extra, she conducted three thought-provoking interviews. First was Professor Julian Le Grand of the London School of Economics, on the possibilities of employee-led mutuals contracting to the public sector. Then Sarah Barker and Karl Mallon talked about how firms are incorporating climate risk into their financial analysis. And former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten warned about the politics of identity – a political movement that “savages democracy”. He described how in Northern Ireland he developed practical methods to move beyond identity politics.

    In the Fairfax press Peter Martin explains why low pay rises have become routine. Going back to the Howard era, he explains how successive Coalition governments, fearful of wage inflation, have weakened trade unions and other mechanisms to keep wages rising in line with productivity.

    Writing in the Canberra Times Andrew Leigh (Federal member for Canberra) explains how the super-rich – “the top 1/10,000 th of the population” are using offshore tax havens to avoid tax, and Labor’s proposals to close tax loopholes.

    “We should rescue economics from the folly of neoliberalism” writes Ross Gittins, in an outline of the work of Harvard’s Dani Rodrik. Neoliberalism is simply “bad economics”.

    Ireland is still debating the scandal of child abuse in the Catholic Church, eight years after a royal commission into the matter delivered its groundbreaking report  – ABC News

    Grappling with Rome: David Marr’s lessons from the royal commission – the Guardian

    Public service boss Martin Parkinson proposes national survey on government – Canberra Times

    AGL says batteries are coming, but coal is uninvestable – RenewEconomy

    Is the Rohingya repatriation to Myanmar a reality or illusion – La Croix International

    A study has found that the new penalty rate cut has not stimulated jobs – Sydney Morning Herald

    The Audit Office has slammed the Federal Government’s dud investments in ‘clean coal’ RenewableEnergy

     

     

  • SANITSUDA EKACHAI. Why Buddhists fail simple test of compassion

    When Pope Francis avoided addressing the Rohingya genocide directly during his recent Myanmar visit, questioning his silence is missing the crux of the problem. (more…)

  • MATTHEW FISHER. Australia’s policy failure on mental health.

    Australia rates highly on international measures of physical health status such as life expectancy at birth, suggesting we are healthier than ever before, but the data on mental health and illness tells a very different story. On measures of mental health and illness we are doing poorly and compare badly to other OECD countries. Despite a large body of evidence on social determinants of metal health and illness, our policy responses are overwhelmingly dominated by individualised responses such as drug treatments, counselling and resilience programs. This unwillingness to recognise major social causes of mental illness is a national policy failure.  (more…)

  • Jared Kushner is wreaking havoc in the Middle East

    The entire Middle East, from Palestine to Yemen, appears set to burst into flames after this week. The region was already teetering on the edge, but recent events have only made things worse. And while the mayhem should be apparent to any casual observer, what’s less obvious is Jared Kushner’s role in the chaos. (more…)

  • DAVID ISAACS AND ALANNA MAYCOCK. Australia is wilfully damaging the health of children on Nauru to make a point – and it is appalling.

    When we visited Nauru as paediatric specialists three years ago, we were asked to see 30 of the 100 children being detained on the island. Among them was a six-year-old girl who had tried to kill herself and a two-year-old boy with such severe behaviour problems a doctor had prescribed anti-psychotic medicines. Their parents were in despair. They had fled persecution, trying to save their children from harm, but had ended up imprisoned on a remote island, without hope. We left with the view that these were the most traumatised children we had ever consulted on, far worse than children we had seen in Australia, Africa, Asia or Europe.  (more…)

  • ANDREW GREENE. Spies need scrutiny, new NXT senator warns.

    Federal Parliament lacks the power to properly monitor Australia’s “growing” intelligence community and the billions spent on their clandestine activities, the country’s newest senator has warned.  (more…)

  • JIM COOMBS. Get a better court, eh, what?

    The electors rightly regard the “citizenship saga” as a pile of nonsense. It did not need to be so, but the High Court was not up to its job. Worse, latter day xenophobia is being fed by the “security industry” to interfere with our freedoms and our capacity to deal with other nations (except the US). (more…)

  • JOAN STAPLES: Incredulous disbelief at Gary Johns to head charities regulator.

    The appointment of Gary Johns last week as director of the regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), has created incredulous disbelief and concern amongst NGO leaders.  For decades, Johns has been proactive in criticising the public advocacy of NGOs and even their very existence. (more…)

  • MARGARET BEAVIS. Will the Nobel Peace Prize change Australia’s double speak?

    On December 10th the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to ICAN – the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons –  which was founded here in Melbourne in 2006. The Nobel Committee made the award “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.”   (more…)

  • ROSS BURNS. The Art of the Pushover

    There are perhaps no negotiations more fraught, or with higher stakes, than those surrounding Israel-Palestine. Has the self-professed “world’s greatest deal-maker” dropped the ball after making his first major play in the region? (more…)

  • GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND …

    Looming in the New Year is debate over the Government’s anti-lobbying legislation, dressed up as a move against foreign influence. Fairfax journalist Peter Martin warns that if the Coalition gets its way, when the next election comes around charities would be prevented doing anything that may be seen as attempting to influence how people vote.  (The Murdoch media, although it is foreign-owned, and the Minerals Council would still be fee to influence how people vote, because they are not charities.) ABC political reporter Anna Henderson comments on the government’s appointment of former Keating-era Labor MP Gary Johns as the new charities commissioner, “a staunch critic of charities that conduct public advocacy work”.

    Peter Martin also warns us not to get too excited about promises of income tax cuts. His basic message is that the Commonwealth budget cannot afford a significant tax cut. Wage rises forecast in recent budgets, which would have allowed for cuts to compensate for bracket creep, haven’t occurred.  Perhaps another reason for fiscal tightness is that many corporations are paying no tax, in data presented by the ABC’s Emily Clark.

    German pilots are refusing to deport asylum seekers – the Independent

    Amazon’s track record may signal a change in Australian industrial relations – TheConversation

    Turnbull’s department head says Tony Abbott damaged the public service.

    Government’s social security cuts seem all toughness and no love – Ross Gittins

    Lesley Russell describes how commercialisation and the greater dominance of private providers has led to lower standards in aged care.

    Ross Gittins writes about voters rejecting the fruits of neoliberalism, privatisation and many other economic reforms.

    In a time of deep political, social and economic uncertainty for everyone (except the ultra-rich), Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin provide some theoretical and practical guidance for the left. This Truthout interview is an effort to help reimagine a realistic social order in an age when the old order is dying but the new has yet to be born.

  • GRAHAM HAND. No, Gladys, build it and they will not come

    The NSW Government has announced it will knock down and rebuild Allianz Stadium at Moore Park at a cost of $700 million and the Olympic Stadium at Homebush, only 17 years old, at a cost of $1.6 billion. However, there is little ‘business case’ evidence that new stadiums would make a material difference to attendances at football games, although Sports Minister, Stuart Ayres argues, “With better quality facilities, more people will come and attend matches.”   (more…)

  • PETER BROWNE. Historian of the present.Ken Inglis

    When I visited Ken Inglis early last month, a few weeks before he died, I found him engrossed in the day’s edition of the Sunday Age. It was perhaps eighty years since he’d begun reading the papers as a schoolboy in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Preston, and during that time he’d become one of Australia’s most highly (and warmly) regarded historians. But his passion for the press — his fascination with the way it recorded “the history of the present”, as the historian Timothy Garton Ash calls it — was undiminished. And not just newspapers — on the table beside his bed were copies of the New Yorker, the magazine that helped shape his style and fuel his remarkable curiosity. (more…)

  • KATHARINE BETTS AND BOB BIRRELL. How do Australian voters’ view the level of immigration? TAPRI and Scanlon compared

    There has been growing controversy about Australia’s level of overseas immigration. In the year to March 2017 Australia’s population is estimated to have grown by a massive 389,100, some 231,000, or 60 per cent of which was due to net overseas migration. For the last few years around two thirds of the net growth in migrants have been locating in Sydney and Melbourne. (more…)

  • LARRY JAGAN. Suu Kyi should heed Pope’s suggestion on UN role

    Pope Francis’ visit to Myanmar last week was an overwhelming success and may provide the much needed spark to ignite the government’s peace process and its efforts to bring reconciliation to the country’s violence-torn western region of Rakhine. The Pope’s message was loud and clear: the only way forward for Myanmar was “love and peace”, the title used for his visit. (more…)

  • FRAN BAUM. Beyond the social determinants: a manifesto for wellbeing

    Last week the Australian Health Policy Collaboration launched their Health Tracker by socioeconomic status, which is a report card on the health of adult Australians  in relation to chronic diseases, risk factors and rates of death, by quintiles of disadvantage. (more…)

  • TIM COSTELLO. A striking lack of ambition.

    The Turnbull Government’s white paper on Australian foreign policy has raised as many questions as it has provided answers. Much comment has focused on its failure to resolve, or even point to a resolution of, the tension between Australia’s unwavering adherence to US hegemony and the undeniable rise of China as a global and regional power. (more…)

  • PETER GOSS. How to achieve excellence in Australian schools: a story from the classroom

    A new Gonski review is examining how to achieve educational excellence for Australia’s 3.8 million school students. The success of the review will ultimately depend on whether its recommendations lead to better practice in the classroom. And the best way for policy makers to improve classroom practice is to develop a more adaptive education system. (more…)

  • ROSS GWYTHER. A sledgehammer for a walnut ?

    Unbeknown to most Australians, a court case has been underway in Alice Springs over the past few months with implications far and wide.  Employing a sixty year old law drafted during the height of the anti-communist 1950s in Australia, the Federal Government has called for seven years jail for each member of a small group of people known as the Pine Gap Peace Pilgrims, whose only offence was singing and praying in the grounds of Pine Gap in 2016. (more…)

  • JOAN STAPLES. Government targets international philanthropy for civil society.

    A Bill expected to be introduced by the Government this week, may deliberately create confusion by linking foreign donations to political parties, with foreign donations to civil society organisations.  It is expected to propose banning both. (more…)