Just five short years after (literally) eating humble pie live on national TV for presiding over the most corrupt, criminally minded, bin-raking, sleaze-mongering crowd of press hacks ever to spread their poison in the English-speaking world, Rupert Murdoch is back at the door of Sky in the UK, huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf of yore. (more…)
John Menadue
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STEPHEN GRENVILLE. Australia’s AAA credit rating under threat, but who cares?
Five year ago the Financial Crisis Enquiry Commission, set up by the US Congress following the Global Financial Crisis, described the rating agencies as ‘essential companies in the wheel of financial destruction’ and ‘key enablers of the financial meltdown’.
Closer to home, Stephen Grenville, a former Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, expressed similar reservations in this blog (see repost) John Menadue (more…)
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RICHARD WOOLCOTT. Julie Bishop – supporting bad policies.
The Foreign Minister’s outrage was highly selective … her speech was indeed strong on talk, but weak on effective action. (more…)
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RICHARD WOOLCOTT. A declining Australia.
With dropping levels in education and a fading economy Australia is in a decline. What we need is a clear focus on our own area, Asia and the South West Pacific. (more…)
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KELLIE TRANTER. FOI documents expose Australia’s unlawful invasion of Syria.
‘Make no mistake: we unlawfully invaded a sovereign state.’~ Kellie Tranter
Not one journalist in the country – although I am happy to stand corrected – asked either the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Attorney General or the Defence Minister to explain how the Government of Syria was ‘unwilling or unable’ to prevent attacks.
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GARRY WOODARD. New series. We can say ‘no’ to the Americans.
We have said No to the Americans: Robert Menzies
Saying No to America was not an upfront characteristic of Menzies’ foreign policy, based as it was on supporting and attracting the support of ‘great and powerful friends’. Supplementing that was his politically profitable propaganda about threats from Asia. (more…)
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RICHARD WOOLCOTT. New series. We can say ‘no’ to the Americans.
The present situation offers the Turnbull Government – or its successor -an opportunity to move beyond policies towards Asia based on fear of China and on compliance with United States wishes. (more…)
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FRANK JOTZO. Trump and Climate – but new opportunities for China.
The Trump Presidency is a fork in the road for climate action. While it may set back global climate efforts, an inward-looking US government that ignores climate change provides new opportunities for leadership elsewhere, Frank Jotzo writes.
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BRUCE ARNOLD. Open Government, Open to interpretation
If we are indeed open to Open Government a salient demonstration would be facilitating Australian Human Rights Commission access to what is happening on Australia’s behalf in offshore detention centres. That would be a fine national Christmas present from Turnbull, Dutton and Brandis, with or without tinsel.
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We need a transformational foreign policy.
The following submission to the Hon. Julie Bishop for the White Paper on Foreign Affairs and Trade has also been sent to the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and Senator Wong, as well as selected MPs and Senators.
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JOHN THOMPSON. Privatising Medicare by stealth.
Like the frog in hot water, Medicare’s privatisation by stealth can only result in an unfortunate end – despite the current government’s protestations of innocence. (more…)
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BOB KINNAIRD. Indian IT professionals on rock bottom 457 wages undermine Turnbull’s ‘innovation’ dream
The Coalition’s cheap labour 457 visa wage policy is destroying jobs for young Australians lured into studying IT courses under the Turnbull government’s high profile ‘Innovation’ push… Indian 457 visa IT workers are being approved at much lower rates than experienced Australian IT professionals and even new IT graduates. (more…)
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DAVID PEETZ. The battle over the Building and Construction Commission isn’t finished yet
Now that the ABCC will mostly be a mere shadow of its former self, the Building Code becomes an even more important point of distinction. … It is the identity and ideology of the Director of the ABCC that matters a lot more than the underpinning legislation.
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WALTER HAMILTON. Education as a way of life
The OECD-endorsed rankings of educational proficiency recently released give the lie to those in Australia who attribute outcomes solely to levels of spending. Throwing more money at the Education Establishment will not automatically produce smarter students. (more…)
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SAM HURLEY. Outsourcing doesn’t help our neediest citizens.
Outsourcing of employment services has failed to make significant headway on better outcomes for the most disadvantaged clients.
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TRAVERS McLEOD. General Mattis, the new US Defence Secretary – the right choice for an ahistorical President
With General Petraeus, General Mattis changed the mindset of the US military. Let’s hope that if duty and ethics call, Mattis can change the President’s mind too.
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REG LITTLE. Understanding cultural differences between Australia and China.
Australia’s most urgent challenge today is overcoming two centuries of ‘false education’ about China. Western thought culture tends to be characterised by assumptions, abstractions, rationalities, theories and belief. In contrast, Chinese thought culture tends to be holistic, fluid, intuitive, reflective, strategic and practical. (more…)
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WALTER HAMILTON. When all else fails, try Pearl Harbor
Prime Minister Abe of Japan is running out of tricks, but there is no viable alternative.
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HAZEL MOIR. Evergreening of patents and the cost of pharmaceuticals.
A low standard for granting patents can mean lengthy delays generic medicine availability. In one case this is shown to have cost taxpayers almost $A3 billion extra in Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme outlays. A solution is to grant patents only for inventions that embody a significant increase in what is known. (more…)
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Aung San Suu Kyi’s government appears unable – or unwilling – to halt what some describe as ‘ethnic cleansing’.
The Rohingya in Myanmar are facing increasing attacks and harassment. Australia and the region must be prepared to respond. (more…)
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Castro’s legacy. Cuba’s achievements in health have been remarkable.
In the article from The Lancet, Arjun Suri points out that despite spending one tenth per capita of what the US spends on health, Cuba’s infant mortality rate is better than the US and that the two countries have equivalent life expectancy. (more…)
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Asia Dialogue on Forced Migration – the desperate situation of Rohingya in Myanmar.
Situation in Rakhine State in Myanmar of grave concern – the region must be on high alert. Mass displacement inevitable if violence continues to escalate. (more…)
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VINCENT MAHON. China ready to step up and lead on climate change.
Vincent Mahon contends that China is poised to promote global leadership on climate change should the US under Trump walk away from its Paris commitments. (more…)
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GARRY WOODARD. Trump and ANZUS. Quo vadis series.
Quo vadis – Australian foreign policy and ANZUS.
Summary. Will Australia allow itself to be drawn into Sino-American tensions in the incorrect belief that it has no choice under ANZUS or ‘five eyes’. (more…)
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RICHARD WOOLCOTT. The Trump Presidency and Australia. Quo vadis series.
Quo vadis – Australian foreign policy and ANZUS
Summary. Our relationship with the US is of course very important and substantial. This does not mean that we should be seen as not responding quickly to the greatly changed world of 2016. (more…)
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Quo vadis – the future of the US-Australian alliance. Part 2.
Summary. Malcolm Fraser warned us that we no longer have an independent capacity to stay out of America’s wars. (more…)
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LAURENCE TROY. Sydney needs higher affordable housing targets.
The release this week by the Greater Sydney Commission of city-wide draft plansmandating some measure of affordable housing in new developments is a step in the right direction. However, the target of 5-10% on rezoned land is too low to make a serious impact on the city’s affordable housing shortage. It must be more ambitious.
Research highlights the central importance of affordable, stable housing to economic and social wellbeing. Yet, in Sydney, the lack of affordable housing has reached crisis point. Everyone from community housing providers to Commonwealth Treasury secretary John Fraser is pointing out that rising house prices are creating massive social and economic problems. (more…)
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ANDREW MARKUS. Australians more alarmed about state of politics than impact of migration and minorities.
There is no shortage of expert commentary on current shifts in public opinion, understood as a revolt against political elites.
Within Europe and the United States interpretations are supported by the British vote to leave the European Union, the increasing popularity of far-right parties campaigning on anti-immigration and nationalist platforms, and the success of Donald Trump in winning the US presidency.
In Australia, commentators point to instability in politics, elections that fail to return clear majorities, the loss of office of first-term governments in Queensland and Victoria, growing minor party representation in the Senate, and public unease at immigration policy and the Muslim presence. (more…)
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GRAHAM FREUDENBERG. The travesty of Britain’s greatest legacy – parliamentary government
To my generation which saw the almost bloodless collapse of the Soviet Union, Trump’s election is small beer in the scale of improbabilities. But the combination of Trump and Brexit, so improbable scarcely a year ago, raises a more astonishing proposition.
It is that so much of our hopes for stability and the success of Western liberalism should now centre so largely on Germany! The question can even be put in the terms Disraeli used in 1871, after the Franco-Prussian war and Bismarck’s Proclamation of the German Empire in the Palace of Versailles: “Is it to be a European Germany or a German Europe?” (more…)
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CHRISTIAN DOWNIE. Why China and Europe should form the world’s most powerful ‘climate bloc’.
Filling the void created by Donald Trump!
It seems almost certain that US President-elect Donald Trump will walk away from the Paris climate agreement next year. In the absence of US leadership, the question is: who will step up?
Sadly this is not a new question, and history offers some important lessons. In 2001 the world faced a similar dilemma. After former vice-president Al Gore lost the 2000 election to George W. Bush, the newly inaugurated president walked away from the Kyoto Protocol, the previous global pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (more…)