Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue

  • MEDIA ALERT: Appeal lodged against Federal Court Decision in ‘Palace Letters’ case.

    Professor Jenny Hocking has lodged an appeal against the decision of the Federal Court last month in ‘Jennifer Hocking v. Director-General, National Archives of Australia’. The Court ruled that the ‘Palace letters’, between the Governor – General, Sir John Kerr, and the Queen relating to Kerr’s dismissal of the Whitlam government, are ‘personal’ not Commonwealth records, continuing the Queen’s embargo of them. (more…)

  • WILLIAM CASE. UMNO’s ethnoreligious order is not gone — just waiting.

    Malaysia’s new Pakatan Harapan government rode to power on a pledge to clean up Malaysia’s foul politics. It was wise to focus on the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional’s transgressions: Pakatan’s appeal lay less in its own glowing imagery and manifesto than in the electorate’s widespread contempt for the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which leads the now opposition Barisan Nasional coalition. (more…)

  • DEREK ABBOTT. The Way We Live Now.

    In 1988, with the Hawke government successfully carrying through a program of profound economic reform while avoiding the social divisiveness that characterised Margaret Thatcher’s not dissimilar policies in Britain, and with John Howard’s toe in the water on a return to White Australia decisively rejected by his own party and the community at large, it was possible to envisage a future for Australia as a tolerant, socially inclusive, ‘good international citizen’. (more…)

  • NICK KILVERT. Fossil record points to ‘major transformation’ of Australian ecosystems in next 100 years.

    If the world continues on a “business-as-usual” trajectory on climate change, global ecosystems including Australia’s will undergo a “major transformation” over the next century. (more…)

  • STEPHEN LONG. The reality is new coal power is not the answer for cheaper electricity bills (ABC News, 03.09.18)

    The tipping point’s been reached: renewable energy is now a cheaper source of power for Australia’s future electricity needs than coal. (more…)

  • DAVID SHULMAN. The Last of the Tzaddiks.

    In the somewhat exotic Jewish home in Iowa where I grew up, it was axiomatic that there was an intimate link between Judaism and universal human rights. Like nearly all Eastern European Jewish families in America, my parents and grandparents were Roosevelt Democrats, to the point of fanaticism. They thought that the Jews had invented the very idea, and also the practice, of social justice; that having started our history as slaves in Egypt, we were always on the side of the underdog and the oppressed; that the core of Judaism as a religious culture was precisely this commitment to human rights, and that all the rest—the 613 commandments, the rituals, the theological assertions—was no more than a superstructure built upon a strong ethical foundation. For me, this comfortable illusion was shattered only when I moved to Israel at the age of eighteen. (more…)

  • BEHROUZ BOOCHANI. Australia needs a moral revolution (the Guardian 31.08.18)

    Five years ago, on a boiling hot day, Australian immigration minister Scott Morrison entered Manus Prison. A number of refugees who represented various groups were invited to meet with him. In that meeting, the refugee representatives found themselves being threatened – Morrison pointed his finger at them and yelled: “You have no chance of coming to Australia and you must return to your countries.” I depict this exact scene and its aftermath in my book No Friend but the Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison. (more…)

  • GABRIELLE CHAN. Climate change making drought worse, farmers’ federation chief says.

    Fiona Simson says people have been tiptoeing around the subject for too long and it is time for a national strategy. 

    (more…)

  • GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

    A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media. (more…)

  • GARRY WILLS. The Priesthood of The Big Crazy (The New York Review of Books, 23.08.18)

    The grand jury report of Catholic priests’ predations in Pennsylvania is enough to make one vomit. The terrifying fact that hundreds of priests were preying upon over a thousand victims in that state alone makes one shudder at the thought of how many hundreds and thousands of abusers there are elsewhere in the nation, elsewhere in the world. It is time to stop waiting for more reports to accumulate, hoping that something will finally be done about this. Done by whom? By “the church”? If “the church” is taken to mean the pope and bishops, nothing will come of nothing. They are as a body incapable of making sense of anything sexual. (more…)

  • ALESSANDRO DEMAIO. An evidence-based five-point plan to tackle child obesity in Australia.

    Few challenges are a greater threat to the health of Australians than obesity. Weight gain has now become the norm—the biological and social path of least resistance. Within a decade and without significant government intervention, more Australians are expected to be obese than normal weight.  Opportunities to stem the tide of obesity do exist – we have the evidence and largely we know what to do. Here is an evidence-based five-point policy plan, a lifeSPANS approach, that focuses on our kids to move the health agenda forward. (more…)

  • PETER SMALL. National Party and Climate

    Why farmers who are at the forefront of the impact from climate change, continue to support the National Party, a party of climate sceptics?

    After a week of unfathomable machinations in Canberra, a decade of climate wars and the “death” of five Prime Ministers we are no nearer to a policy on climate or energy than we were 10 years ago.

    As a 77 year old farmer, who has lived amongst Country and then National Party and Liberal supporters all my life, I will try and shed some light on this complex and intriguing issue. (more…)

  • TRISTAN EDIS. Turnbull was knifed by a lie: Renewables are already bringing prices down.

    Australia has replaced yet another Prime Minister mid-term via a leadership coup. (more…)

  • WALEED ALY. Dutton’s au pair drama shows hypocrisy of immigration policy (SMH 31/8/2018)

    “As a discretionary and humanitarian act to an individual with ongoing needs, it is in the interests of Australia as a humane and generous society to grant this person a tourist visa.”

    That’s Peter Dutton, then immigration minister, in the official document by which he intervened to allow an au pair to enter the country.

    And what an incredible sentence it is! A humanitarian act. An individual with ongoing needs. A humane and generous society. So … a tourist visa? What humanitarian situation serious enough to require intervention from the immigration minister himself can be relieved by a spot of tourism?   (more…)

  • JANE CADZOW. The watchman – Scott Morrison (Sun Herald, 3 November 2012)

    Accused of inflaming racism, Scott Morrison insists people have the wrong idea about him. Jane Cadzow meets the Liberals’ immigration spokesman. This article was published in the Sun Herald on 3 November 2012 .

    In his maiden speech in 2008 Scott Morrison said ‘From my faith, I derive the values of loving kindness, justice and righteousness’ (more…)

  • DAVID GOLDMAN. Europe, Japan, China and Russia line up against US.

    Investment patterns are shifting in response to America’s new assertiveness.  (more…)

  • CNN Interview with New York Mayer BILL de BLASIO (DEM) on Rupert Murdoch’s media

    BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to RELIABLE SOURCES. I’m Brian Stelter.

    If you asked New York City’s mayor what lies behind a lot of the negativity and the divisiveness creeping this nation, he’s got a simple answer for you. He says it’s the media empire of Rupert Murdoch that’s at fault. Bill de Blasio has long been a critic of the hometown “New York Post” newspaper. Murdoch has owned it for years. He says it’s right-wing propaganda.

    Now, he’s also been talking about Fox News as well, of course on a week when Laura Ingraham’s hateful comments are on the news. … (more…)

  • JAMES FERNYHOUGH. Climate change action off the agenda under Morrison government.

    Energy Minister Angus Taylor has unveiled a new energy policy focused exclusively on reducing electricity prices, in a strong signal the Morrison government will abandon all efforts to lower carbon emissions. (more…)

  • NEAL BLEWETT. Establishing, defending and improving Medicare.

    Neal Blewett AC delivered the Hayden Oration at Ipswich on 15 August 2018.  

    Neal Blewett as Minister for Health from 1983 under the Hawke government, and later Minister for Community Services and Health, implemented the Medicare universal health scheme, disability services, campaigns to reduce tobacco and alcohol abuse, and a national strategy to combat AIDS/HIV.  They were all remarkable achievements.

    In this oration, Neal Blewett records the development of Medicare and the unremitting hostility of conservative politicians, the AMA and others to Medicare.  From page 11 of the oration, he outlines how Medicare could be strengthened and expanded to include dental care and other improvements.  

    See link below for full text of the oration.  John Menadue.   (more…)

  • ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ A multicultural whirlwind blowing up for the next election

     

    Turnbull’s gone and with him, hopefully, his recurrent but incorrect mantra of Australia as the most successful multicultural society in the world. With the next federal election now just over the horizon, understanding how the ethnic vote delivered the last election to the Coalition may help us to understand how Australia’s multicultural present could shape the next government. Moreover the concerns of these over 150 different ethnic groupings, a mishmash of cultural, familial, human rights and political worries, may become vitally important once more at the tips of the voting tails.

    (more…)

  • E. TAMMY KIM. Moon Over Korea (New York Review of Books 16.08.18 Issue)

    Moon Jae-in eui Unmyeong [The Destiny of Moon Jae-in]

    by Moon Jae-in

    Seoul: Bookpal, 488 pp., ₩15,000

    In Singapore on June 12, as Donald Trump vigorously shook hands with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, the man behind this improbable meeting leaned forward in his chair and smiled. South Korean president Moon Jae-in, just thirteen months into his five-year term, had helped arrange the first-ever summit between an American president and the leader of North Korea. Yet Moon was careful to keep a respectful distance. He watched on a television monitor in the Blue House, the presidential compound in Seoul. It was, however symbolic, a goal he had pursued over two decades in politics, and it brought him a step closer to healing familial and national wounds. Moon is a child of the Korean War, the son of refugees from the pre-division North. But unlike Trump and Kim, who swapped boasts and missile threats just months before their handshake, Moon didn’t feel the need to take credit. (more…)

  • TONY KEVIN. Australian politics: There has not been nearly enough change.

    Reflections on last week’s political bloodbath and on what needs to happen now.

    (more…)

  • JOHN CARMODY: The Catholic Right

    While Malcolm Turnbull’s own manifest lack of political skills and understanding has played a major role in his downfall, he and others are perfectly correct to recognise that “outside forces” – including some journalists and other media figures who seek to be “players” rather than simply observers and commentators – have also contributed significantly to his fate .  (more…)

  • ANTONIO SPADARO SJ. The prosperity gospel-dangerous and different

    SCOTT MORRISON is described as a devout Christian who worships at Shirelive, an American style Pentecostal Church in Sydney.. He formerly belonged to Hillsong. An essential feature of the ‘prosperity gospel’ of Pentecostalists is that prosperity, success and good health is a sign of God’s favour. And the lack of faith leads to poverty and sickness. On this reckoning God does not care for the poor,the sick and refugees.

    In the article below Antonio Spadaro describes the origin and spread of the prosperity gospel. These are extracts from an article in La Civilta Cattolica of 18 July 2018. The full article can be found here.  John Menadue (more…)

  • SCOTT BURCHILL. Anti-Americanism and moral panic in the West

    After a similar challenge posed by George W. Bush following popular opposition to his invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Trump presidency is another reminder to America’s allies of the dangers that emerge when individuals, rather than economic and political structures, are considered significant agents of change. (more…)

  • JAMES KYNGE. The US cannot halt China’s march to global tech supremacy.

    The moment may one day be glorified in propaganda art. As the mist rolled off the Yangtze River, Xi Jinping stood on top of the Three Gorges hydropower dam in Yichang, a proud symbol of engineering prowess, and proclaimed that China would blaze its own trail to become a technology superpower. (more…)

  • Help from across the Tasman

  • DAVID HUTT. Does China really dominate Southeast Asia?

    Widespread reports of China’s hegemony over the neighbouring region miss the nuance of fast-shifting political and strategic dynamics.  (more…)

  • BRUCE WEARNE. Has the Party Ended?

    “I’m not doing anything until I get legal advice as to whether his (Dutton’s) membership of the Parliament is constitutional.”  (more…)

  • GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

    A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media. (more…)