US and Australian responses to China’s maltreatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang and Israel’s blockade of Gaza reveal glaring double standards. But no worse perhaps than those of many Muslim states hungry for China’s largesse. (more…)
John Menadue
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JAMES E. CONNELL. Clergy mandatory reporter laws to protect children from abuse or neglect in the USA
Many, but not all, of the fifty States of the USA have statutes that prevent members of the clergy (of whatever faith) from reporting to civil authorities information about child abuse or neglect that the clergy person acquires in a confidential setting. An effort to repeal or revise these statutes is underway and this effort is rooted both in the sense of urgency placed on the subject by the American people and in a critical moral value that is being violated. (more…)
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LINDA BOTTERILL. A national drought policy should be an easy, bipartisan fix. So why has it taken so long to enact a new one? (The Conversation 10-10-19)
In a country as dry as Australia, surely it is a no-brainer that we have in place a coordinated, national drought response that can be rolled out the same way that the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements are triggered when the country experiences cyclones, floods or bushfires. (more…)
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ROGER BAYLISS. HMAS Watson redevelopment. Why in a National Park?
The Department of Defence is planning a $430 million plus upgrade of its naval training facility at South Head in Sydney. The project will be examined by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works and requires endorsement by Parliament. There is scant rationale for locating the Navy’s training base in this highly confined national park area. The site is incapable of expansion should training capacity need increasing. The training facility would be better located at any number of alternative locations.
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JOHN MENADUE. The failure of the National Party on rural poverty and rural health.
Country electorates have the most disadvantaged people, the poorest health and inferior health services. But the National Party does very little about it. (more…)
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GREG CLARK. The Day I met the Emperor in Waiting
The request came from out of the blue. A neighbor in rural Chiba whose wife had royal family connections had sent a message via her husband that the crown prince, Naruhito, want to talk with me. He was said to have had read an article I had written for a Nagano prefecture regional newspaper about Japan’s little known Southern Alps. He himself was planning a trip to the area. Would I and my wife be willing to visit him and have chat about it? (more…)
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HAROLD LEVIEN. Our economic downturn
The Government has failed to respond to Australia’s continuing economic downturn despite both increasing unemployment last measured at 720,000 and underemployment of 1.14 million. (more…)
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ERIC SIDOTI. Morrison’s unsettling religiosity – Part 2
“God bless Australia.”
Scott Morrison chose these three words to close his acceptance speech on winning the ‘miracle’ election’. In doing so he has taken Australia into unchartered territory. (more…)
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JUDITH IRELAND. Backstage in Canberra: who is lobbying our MPs? (SMH 12.10.2019)
Lobbying is big business and a part of life in Canberra, especially when Parliament is sitting. How does it work? (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE. A Repost: Drug policy reform series
See link below to a collection of articles on drug policy reform, which were published as a series in Pearls and Irritations between 6 and 11 August 2018. This series was designed to draw attention to this important issue, and to the failure of our current policies.
The NSW Premier has told us again and again that she is not interested in drug reform. She wants to appear tough as more and more people die as a result of her policy failures. (more…)
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ERIC SIDOTI. God Bless Scomo Part 1: The Pentecostals Are Coming?
Scott Morrison’s billing as Australia’s first Pentecostal PM has generated torrents of commentary. Much of the interest is driven by an assumption that the PM’s religious preferences herald the rise of this strange, big C conservative megachurch steamroller as a wielder of political influence. The first thing to say is that the attention to Morrison’s Pentecostalism has tended to be over-simplified and risks missing the point.
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CHARLES LIVINGSTONE. Guns and money: How the pokies’ proponents channel the NRA image (Monash University 8-10-19)
Whenever Australians learn of a mass shooting in the US, we tend to feel relieved – and maybe a little smug – that our political leaders were sensible enough to restrict gun ownership after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. (more…)
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MARYANNE SLATTERY. The only thing as certain as drought in Australia is the stupid call to build new dams (The Guardian, 15 October 2019)
In Australia, the only thing as certain as drought is the subsequent calls by politicians to build new dams.
Right on cue, the prime minister announced a $1bn commitment for new dams on Sunday. (more…)
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IAN JOHNSON. The Eastern Jesus. A review of R.S. Sugirtharajah’s “Jesus in Asia”
Over the past few years, the authorities in Beijing have given churches across the country orders to “Sinicize” their faith. According to detailed five-year plans formulated by both Catholic and Protestant organizations, much of this process involves the predictable palaver of state control: “to actively practice core values of socialism, love the motherland passionately, support the leadership of the Communist Party, obey the law and serve society.”1
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NICOLA McGARRITY, JESSIE BLACKBOURN. Australia has enacted 82 anti-terror laws since 2001. But tough laws alone can’t eliminate terrorism (The Conversation 30-9-19)
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KELLIE TRANTER Australia’s appetite for Hypersonics
While the media were understandably distracted by Secretary Esper’s comments on deploying intermediate range conventional weapons in the Pacific region in the lead up to the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (“AUSMIN”) in August, documents produced pursuant to Freedom of Information laws reveal our government’s longer running enthusiasm to ‘deepen our cooperation with the United States on hypersonics.’ (more…)
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SETH FRANTZMAN. Smoke Signals in the Next Middle East War (7 October 2019, Tablet)
Iran’s attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil fields was a warning to Israel in an escalating regional war
A bit over two weeks before the cruise missiles and drones detonated in Saudi Arabia’s strategic oil fields, igniting massive explosions that would take out more than half of the country’s daily oil exports, a group of Hezbollah activists emerged on Aug. 22 from a hill overlooking the Golan Heights. They carried with them drones, which malfunctioned when they tried to use them, apparently as a result of Israeli military actions. They were being watched by Israeli surveillance, which caught them trudging through a field. Two nights later the men, whom Israeli officials labeled a “killer drone” team, were killed in an airstrike. Israel warned at the time that Iran’s drones and precision guided missiles were a significant threat. (more…)
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JOHN BRADLEY. The alliance between America and Saudi Arabia is over (The Spectator 28-9-19)
We are witnessing the beginning of a new geopolitics in the Middle East (more…)
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MARK O’CONNOR FMS. Letters from the Synod. There are new steps: Prophetic voices amaze and energise in first week of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region
I am sure some of you might remember that fine Australian film Strictly Ballroom.
In it, there was an epic struggle going on. On the one hand, there were those convinced that there is only one model of ballroom dancing and hence their insistent and non-compromising mantra: “No new steps”.
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PAUL DALEY. Captain Cook’s legacy is complex, but whether white Australia likes it or not he is emblematic of violence and oppression (The Guardian 3-10-19)
British and Australian regret over Cook’s treatment of Indigenous people would go a long way to enhancing understanding of the continent’s shared history
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MIKE WALLER. Restoring trust in our Westminster system: politicians heal yourselves
Politics in the US and the UK represent the death of shame in democratic government. To be caught lying in today’s populist, post truth world of tribal politics is seemingly, at worst, a peccadillo. Legitimacy is now based on the will of the people (as the leaders interpret it), not by the standards they hold themselves to, or accountability to Parliament. (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE. Expanding naval bases in central Sydney does not make sense.
The Navy is proposing a $500 million expansion of its training facility at HMAS Watson which is adjacent to the historic South Head National Park. There are good defence, urban, economic and social reasons why naval facilities at Garden Island , Watsons Bay and elsewhere in Sydney harbour should be progressively re-located, probably to northern Australia. (more…)
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PRINCE CHARLES, THE PRINCE OF WALES. John Henry Newman: The harmony of difference
When Pope Francis canonises Cardinal John Henry Newman tomorrow, the first Briton to be declared a saint in over forty years, it will be a cause of celebration not merely in the United Kingdom, and not merely for Catholics, but for all who cherish the values by which he was inspired.
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SCOTT BURCHILL. Decoding Australian foreign policy
Some assistance is required for those trying to understand contemporary Australian foreign policy these days, especially those looking for consistency, principles and ethics which seem all too illusive. Below is a brief guide, one that generally holds regardless of whether the LNP or ALP is in power. (more…)
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JONAH BEN AVRAHAM. Palestinians Could Have Historic Influence in Israel’s Next Government (Truthout 5-10-19)
The political climate in Israel following September’s snap elections is by no means favorable to Palestinians. However, there is reason to be hopeful for gains in Palestinian political power as the prospect of a unity government between the center-right Kahol Lavan party and the further-right Likud party looms large. Palestinian parties are contesting for a historic amount of influence in shaping the next Israeli government, and the challenge for Palestinian political leaders will be to turn this growing relevance in Israeli politics into real power in the fight for Palestinian liberation, rather than a force for the normalization of Israel’s colonial rule over Palestine. (more…)
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THE SOUTHERN CROSS (Adelaide). New Vietnamese church a blessing. Our Lady of the Boat People.
In what was a momentous occasion in its 40-year history in South Australia, the Church of Our Lady of The Boat People was dedicated by Apostolic Administrator Bishop Greg O’Kelly SJ, with an evening of Vietnamese celebrations to follow.
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GREG BARTON. Australia isn’t taking the national security threat from far-right extremism seriously enough (the Conversation, 3 October 2019)
Until the terror attack in Christchurch in March, the threat of far-right terrorism in Australia was one we knew was coming, but believed was well over the horizon.
The sordid story of the Christchurch attacker – “ordinary Australian” turned hateful bigot turned mass-murdering terrorist – contains some uncomfortable truths for our country, not least of which is the fact that the threat of far-right extremism has arrived in the here and now. (more…)
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GERARD O’CONNELL. As Amazon Synod begins, Pope Francis looks to proceed with a ‘pastoral heart’
Pope Francis opened the first plenary session of the synod for the Amazon region this morning by praying with the synod participants at the tomb of St. Peter in the basilica dedicated to his name and then gave an incisive speech to offer some direction to guide them over the next three weeks.
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LUIZA CH. SAVAGE. How Russia and China are preparing to exploit a warming planet
Hurricanes, floods, and wildfires aside, climate change is delivering another threat: a remaking of geopolitics that stands to empower some of America’s adversaries and rivals.