The dispute over the Adani Group’s proposed Carmichael mine and the associated port at Abbot Point has long been cast as a choice between jobs and the environment. Climate change is already well on the way to destroying the Great Barrier Reef, among many other things, and the development of the massive coal reserves of the Galilee Basin would make it almost impossible to stabilise the global climate. (more…)
John Menadue
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JULIE BISHOP. Foreign policy in an uncertain world.
“We have an independent foreign policy and we do not outsource our decisions to other countries.” Julie Bishop
Yesterday, we posted a speech by Shadow Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, ‘Engaging with China’. Today we post a presentation by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to the Australian Institute of International Affairs, 2017 National Conference in Canberra. (more…)
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NICHOLAS GRUEN. Which bank could give Australians a better bang for their buck? The Reserve Bank of Australia.
How would you like to be able to get most of your mortgage from the Reserve Bank of Australia at the cash rate of 1.5% rather than three times that after your bank has slapped on its margin for the same money? (more…)
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PENNY WONG. FutureAsia – Engaging with China (A speech to the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Canberra, 16 October 2017)
Last month, my friend and colleague Chris Bowen, the Shadow Treasurer, delivered a major speech to the Asia Society in Sydney. In it he outlined Labor’s approach to Asia. FutureAsia will be a whole-of-government framework underpinning our efforts to deepen and broaden our engagement. As the Shadow Treasurer said, Asian economies are changing, and Australia isn’t keeping up. (more…)
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RANALD MACDONALD. Open letter to Communications Minister, The Hon. Mitch Fifield
Can we just be serious just for a moment?
Having read your piece in The Australian headed “Shrill Attacks on ABC Adjustments Are Hysterical, Unhinged” (9/10/17), I cannot believe that you, Minister, REALLY believe in what you have written. (more…)
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KELLIE TRANTER. Pine Gap: Full Knowledge & Concurrence
Heavily redacted documents produced in accordance with Freedom of Information laws appear to imply that the Australian government has full knowledge of current and future operations taking place at Pine Gap and that it is given the opportunity to approve or deny proposed future conduct carried out at the base. This may have serious ramifications for Australia, a signatory to the Rome Statute, in any future proceedings in the International Criminal Court. (more…)
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KATE CHARLESWORTH and PETER SAINSBURY. The Devastating Health Costs of Coal.
Amid all the debate about energy policy – about security, affordability, and carbon emissions – there is one critical issue that has barely rated a mention: human health. Coal is hazardous to our health; renewables are not. In any discussion about energy, the human health costs of coal and the significant health benefits of switching to safe and healthy forms of energy must be considered as seriously as security, affordability and emissions. (more…)
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WALTER HAMILTON. Big changes mean more of the same in Japanese election
Early signs of trouble for the Abe government in Japan have seemingly evaporated under the more intense heat of election campaigning, and “more of the same” is now the likely outcome of the 22 October poll. (more…)
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WE ARE ALSO READING AND LISTENING TO …
Pearls and Irritations provides the following links for weekend reading: (more…)
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JOHN QUIGGIN. Socialism with a spine: the only 21st century alternative
Socialism is back, much to the chagrin of those who declared it dead and buried at the “end of history” in the 1990s. When the New Republic, long the house organ of American neoliberalism, runs an article on The Socialism America Needs Now, it’s clear that something has fundamentally changed. (more…)
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PAUL FRIJTERS. EU plans for VAT taxation are doomed to fail. Again.
Taxation is the potential downfall of the EU as an institution. The reason is that within the EU, several member states are making money from the tax evasion in other member states, a situation akin to having a wife slowly murdering her husband with poison. Unless this stops, a divorce becomes inevitable. (more…)
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ARTHUR STOCKWIN. Developments in Japan including threats to press freedom
Most international attention on East Asia today is sharply focused on North Korea’s nuclear and missile developments. But this does not mean that we can neglect the significant developments taking place in Japan’s domestic political landscape. Since winning the December 2012 elections, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has maintained a commanding majority in the national Diet, and Abe himself is sometimes called ‘all-powerful Abe’. (more…)
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PAUL FRIJTERS. Observations, lessons, and predictions for the Catalan situation
I make the following observations about the Catalan situation:What might happen! (more…)
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PETER DAY. One of us: the sanity behind an act of insanity
“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the Right of the people to Keep and Bear Arms shall not be infringed.” (U.S. Constitution, 2nd Amendment)
Thanks to the literalist and, thus, intellectually corrupt interpretation of this archaic 18th century sentence, there are more guns in the United States today than there are citizens – over 300 million. Indeed, the 2nd Amendment ‘gundamentalism’ that abounds continues to wreak havoc on its people. The U.S. is at war with itself; a war in which only the innocent are being targeted. (more…)
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JOHN CARMODY. Same-sex marriage survey is All Over, Red Rover.
Newspapers and the electronic media seem to flourish on controversy, novelty and scandal; the temptation is to expand and prolong their coverage unduly. The current postal survey on “same-sex marriage” seems to be a classic instance. (more…)
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LEONID PETROV. Imagining the catastrophic consequences of a new war in Korea.
The 1953 Armistice Agreement brought a sustainable halt to the Korean War, but has never ended it. Nor did it transform into a peace regime. During the last sixty four years the North and South Koreans have lived in conditions of neither war nor peace, which has certain advantages and downsides for both regimes separated by the Demilitarised Zone. (more…)
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ELIZABETH EVATT. Our Rights and Civil liberties- Death by a Thousand Cuts
Its time to give the Courts power to determine whether our anti-terrorism laws violate our fundamental rights of liberty and freedom from arbitrary detention. (more…)
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WE ARE ALSO READING AND LISTENING TO …
Pearls and Irritations provides the following links for weekend reading and listening: (more…)
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JOCK COLLINS. How refugees overcome the odds to become entrepreneurs
Refugees face monumental challenges when starting a business. Many lack formal education, capital, social capital (relationships in the community), English language skills, and knowledge of the local market and regulations. (more…)
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EVAN WILLIAMS. University education: the monster in the room.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that anyone lacking a rewarding occupation must be in want of a degree. A university education is not only a good in itself, but an indispensable passport to a satisfying career and a secure lifestyle. It follows that universities should be open to all, that everyone should be encouraged to take a degree and that greater public investment in higher education is the key to national progress and prosperity. All of which, as we are now discovering to our cost, is nonsense – a dangerous fallacy that politicians on all sides are unwilling to confront. (more…)
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REBECCA PETERS. Las Vegas and Port Arthur – a tale of two tragedies.
Here’s what the Las Vegas massacre has in common with Port Arthur – Las Vegas is the worst mass shooting in modern US history; Port Arthur set the same record for Australia, and in fact for the world at that time. Both massacres occurred at iconic holiday locations, popular with tourists and honeymooners. The victims, survivors and witnesses came from across the country and even overseas. This means the events have personal significance for enormous numbers of people. (more…)
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SHAUN KING. The White Privilege of the “Lone Wolf” Shooter
White killers are invariably ‘lone wolves’ and not terrorists.Muslim and African-Americans killers are treated differently (more…)
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THOMAS ALBRECHT. Australia’s refugee policy is a failure. This is not the time to shirk responsibility.
Australia’s current refugee policy has been an abject failure. A proper approach by Australia must include, at a minimum, solutions for all refugees and asylum seekers sent to Papua New Guinea and Nauru, and an end to offshore processing. (more…)
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WALTER HAMILTON. Koike’s coup.
Japan is going to the polls on 22 October, with the conservative coalition led by Shinzo Abe facing a stiff challenge from a new party led by the right-wing governor of Tokyo. (more…)
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MICHAEL LAMBERT. Achieving Clean Energy
The constant refrain from the Commonwealth of reliable, secure and affordable power appears to dismiss the other objective of clean energy. This is reinforced by the failure to endorse the Clean Energy Target recommendation of the Finkel report. However, clean energy is feasible, affordable and can be made secure and reliable and certainly is good for the environment and long-term health of people and the economy. (more…)
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HYLDA ROLFE. A Sydney icon is under threat – the creeping commercialisation.
In this blog on 20 September 2017 I (John Menadue) described how ‘the new squatters in our National Parks’ are being given commercial access to our ‘public commons’. In NSW and elsewhere National Parks are being deliberately under funded, resulting in park deterioration which will then be used as the pretext for sale or commercialisation.
A former mayor of Woollahra and now Secretary of the Sydney Harbour Association, Hylda Rolfe, in a letter to the Minister for the Environment and Minister for Heritage, Gabrielle Upton, sets out the perils the South Head National Park faces and the unhelpful attitude of the NSW government. (more…)
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MARK OGGE. We have enough cheap, easy-to-export gas for 100 years. There is just one problem …
Hard to believe, isn’t it? But it’s true: in the last decade, tens of thousands of square kilometers of Queensland farmland has been covered in gas fields. The export gas rush in Australia is one of the largest and fastest expansions of a gas industry ever seen, anywhere in the world. We are awash with gas. The problem is we are allowing almost all of the cheap and easy-to-get-at gas to be sent overseas. (more…)
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KELLIE TRANTER. Shortage of information about Iraq airstrikes
In response to criticisms from Amnesty International that the Iraq government and coalition carried out “disproportionate” and unlawful attacks to take back Mosul, a Senior British Commander, Major Gen Jones, said recently that ‘it is naive to think a city such as Mosul, with a population of 1.75 million, could be liberated without any civilian casualties while fighting an enemy that “lacks all humanity”. That pragmatic approach is what our government would have us accept in relation to our involvement in Iraq until now. (more…)
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RIC DAY. Community Pharmacists – Under-Utilised
Community Pharmacists spend too much time dispensing prescriptions and not enough time promoting the safe and effective use of their customer’s medicines. Reform is needed. (more…)
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TOM IGGULDEN. Navy may be without submarine fleet for two decades due to replacement plan, experts say
The Navy could be left without a submarine fleet for up to 20 years because of a “wildly ambitious” schedule to replace the ageing Collins Class fleet, an independent report has found. (more…)