On a recent trip to Stockholm, when Swedish politicians complained that aid had slipped from one per cent of Gross National Income to 0.8 per cent, I cringed with shame – then changed the subject. (more…)
John Menadue
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JOHN MENADUE. The Transition of Pearls & Irritations
To readers and supporters
With good content and only word of mouth promotion we have over 6500 subscribers and about 5000 daily readers. There is steady growth. P and I helps set the agenda on important public issues.It will not come as a surprise to you that we are looking to migrate P & I to a safe home, either an individual(s) or an organisation that shares our values and beliefs.
P & I doesn’t attempt ‘balance’. It has a point of view. (more…)
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Peter Drake- Vale FRANK HAMBLY AM.
Francis Sutherland Hambly, the doyen of university education in Australia, died in Canberra on 21 November 2018, aged 83. Frank served the universities as Director and Secretary of the Australian Vice-Chancellor’s Committee (AVCC) from 1966 to 1996; indeed he personified the AVCC. (more…)
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BILL EDEBOHLS. Advent – Pulling no punches
Christians know that Advent is about preparing – getting ready – for the coming of Christ. Getting ready for his second coming at the end of time and also getting ready for the celebration of his birth at Christmas. (more…)
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JEFFREY D. SACHS. The War on Huawei (Project Syndicate, 11.12.18)
The Trump administration’s conflict with China has little to do with US external imbalances, closed Chinese markets, or even China’s alleged theft of intellectual property. It has everything to do with containing China by limiting its access to foreign markets, advanced technologies, global banking services, and perhaps even US universities. (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE. Fake news, spin and media complicity on border protection and boat arrivals.
In his desperate political situation, Scott Morrison last week became even more shrill in telling us ‘Bill Shorten is a clear and present threat to Australian security … and I’ll fight them [the ALP] using whatever tools or tactics I have available to me to ensure that we do not weaken border protection laws’.
His tools and tactics are designed to appeal to fear and are based on deception and misrepresentation.
The Coalition sees boat arrivals or the threat of boat arrivals as a means to advance its political interests. It is as sordid as that. As a ‘senior Liberal party official’ told the American Embassy some time ago, ‘the more boats that come, the better for us’. (more…)
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LYNDSAY CONNORS, JIM McMORROW. Gonski Will Still Feature on the Federal Election Menu.
Labor and the Coalition both appear to be poised to go to next year’s federal election brandishing their contrasting versions of ‘Gonski’. Key features of the original 2011 Gonski model for funding the nation’s schools generated broad consensus. Given that it relates to an issue that has been persistently fraught in Australian politics, this should not be dismissed lightly. (more…)
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JACOB GREBER. Why Former Australian Leader Believes China is About to Outflank Trump on Trade (CAIXIN GLOBAL/AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW)
(AFR) — China could be preparing to spring a global compact to drive tariffs to zero, and approach Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) members including Australia for access to the grouping, positioning Beijing as a champion for free trade.
That’s the view of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who believes China’s President Xi Jinping may even use next month’s World Economic Forum summit in Switzerland to launch across-the-board liberalization that would “take the world by storm.”
“That indeed could represent a serious new challenge to American leadership,” Rudd warned in a speech in New York on Wednesday (more…)
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PATTY FAWKNER. Honouring the stranger-guest-host relationship (The Good Oil).
Something insidious is happening throughout our world that is threatening the intrinsic human nexus between stranger, guest and host, writes Sister Patty Fawkner. (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE. A way out of the politicking on refugees- A repost from 20 August 2018
We can be proud of what we have done for refugees in the past but like many others I am ashamed that we have now had a succession of ‘leaders’ who have appealed to our most selfish instincts.
When I feel discouraged about our national failure, I am reminded of Graham Greene’s challenge that ‘the only unforgivable sin is despair’. (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE. Newcastle Port – another botched privatisation -A repost from 5 September 2016
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has taken legal action over the terms on which the NSW Coalition Government in 2013 privatised Port Botany and Port Kembla and imposed severe restrictions on Newcastle Port.
Our mainstream media has shown scant interest in this episode of ‘crony capitalism’ which lessened competition, disadvantaged the Hunter region and put more trucks on our roads. It was done to boost the sale price of Port Botany and Port Kembla so the Coalition could claim a successful privatisation. The public interest was ignored.
Over two years ago John Austen, in P & I, on 5 September 2016, broke all the details about this port restriction and “how port privatisation will hobble Newcastle”. A month later, on 14 October 2016, I wrote a follow up piece “Privatisation and the hobbling of Newcastle Port”.
John Austen’s article of 5 September 2016 follows. (more…)
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CHRIS BROOKS. Swept Up in France’s Yellow Vest Protests (Truthout).
I’ve never been tear gassed before. The smell is similar to fireworks and the effect is explosive—and effective. I immediately wanted to get as far away as I could from the noxious source of burning eyes and throat. (more…)
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PAUL DALEY. The moment that forever changed my perspective on Anzac mythology (The Guardian).
The Surafend massacre shows that the core business of good history must always be the preservation of memory.
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SAMANTHA MAIDEN. Tanya Plibersek backs Shorten’s boat turn-back policy in major backflip (The New Daily, 11.12.18)
Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek has backed boat turn backs but pledged a Shorten government would “get people off Manus and Nauru” and boost Australia’s refugee intake. (more…)
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JENNIFER RANKIN. Group led by Thomas Piketty presents plan for ‘a fairer Europe’ (The Guardian 10.12.18)
A group of progressive Europeans led by the economist and author Thomas Piketty has drawn up a bold new blueprint for a fairer Europe to address the division, disenchantment, inequality and rightwing populism sweeping the continent. (more…)
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CECILIA MERRIGAN.“Is That an Advent Wreath?”
An Advent tale about a small father-less family from South West Africa that has been granted asylum in Australia. This is their first Advent in a new country. (more…)
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HELEN DAVIDSON. Gareth Evans and Bob Carr join call for Labor to increase Australia’s foreign aid. (The Guardian 7.12.2018)
Former ministers want party’s national conference to commit to target of 0.7% of gross national income. (more…)
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HAMISH MCDONALD. Christian Missionaries and Their Mistaken Message from God (AsianSentinel, 05.12.18)
As fans of the old The Phantom comic strip will recall, an island in the Bay of Bengal is the location of the Skull Cave, home base of The Ghost Who Walks, established by an ancestor washed ashore in a “half-drowned” state after an attack by “Singh pirates” and nurtured back to life by the island’s devoted natives. (more…)
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CHRIS BURGESS. Genuine immigration reform still alien to Japan.
On 14 October 2018, a number of marches were held across Japan to mark what the organiser — the Japan First Party — labelled ‘anti-migrant day’. The target of the protestors’ wrath was the government’s proposal to revise the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act to introduce two new types of residence status for foreign workers in industries currently undergoing labour shortages. (more…)
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RICHARD ECKERSLEY. The demise of the official future
Americans are more likely to think the US is heading in the right direction since Donald Trump’s election. Why? (more…)
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JOHN ELDER. Coulda been a contender: Why Tony Abbott keeps on punching (The New Daily).
Two significant events happened this weekend: Boxer Anthony Mundine was knocked out in 96 seconds by Jeff Horn, ending a career that was never wholly satisfying for the man or his followers.
Meanwhile, Tony Abbott put his gloves up once more, telling The Australian newspaper on Saturday that he’s ready and able to join the front bench, perhaps even to be prime minister again. (more…)
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JORGE HEINE. The BRICS, their bank and beyond (India Inc.)
A strategic expert traces the origins of what brought Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa together and what the future holds for these emerging economies of the world. (more…)
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BEVAN RAMSDEN. Caught in the middle of US-China contention, Australia sides with the US in their efforts to contain and keep China out of the Western Pacific.
Australia is currently facing a major change in strategic circumstances and the argument for pursuing a truly independent foreign policy, for the economic benefit and security of the Australian people, has never been so great. (more…)
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EAST ASIA FORUM-Preparing for the Next US Recession
One thing was clear from this weekend’s G20 summit. Asia and the world face many risks, and most of them emanate from the United States of America. (more…)
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DAVID BROOKS. The return of chastened America (New York Times).
Who should run the United States next? I vote for experience and the learning from past mistakes. (more…)
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GARRY EVERETT. Who Is manipulating what?
Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney, reportedly said recently: “What Synodal Fathers (Bishops) are wary of, I think, is the way synods might be manipulated today, swept up by the fashions of the age.” He is further reported as being of the view that at the recent Synod on Young People, the young people in attendance “hunted in a pack” and that they “played to a very particular script”. (more…)
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ROSS DOUTHAT. The Two-Emperor Problem (New York Times, 24.11.18)
Generally, Donald Trump’s Twitter beefs are an expense of spirit and a waste of breath. But a minority of them are genuinely edifying, and illustrations of his likely world-historical role — which is not to personally bring down our constitutional republic, but to reveal truths about our political situation, through his crudeness and goading of others, that might be harbingers of the Republic’s eventual end. (more…)
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RICHARD WOOLCOTT. The emergence of China can not be denied.
The recent APEC meeting in Port Moresby underlined the deepening competition between China and the United States in the Asia Pacific region. China has been expanding its influence in the South China Sea and beyond and with the United States,Japan,and regrettably Australia consulting on how it can check China’s expansion.
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JOHN QUIGGIN. Public Private Partnerships. The mirage.
In the UK Budget last week, the Chancellor, Phillip Hammond announced the end of the PF2 scheme, the Conservative government’s replacement for the discredited Public Finance Initiative originally introduced by the Conservatives under John Major, but greatly expanded by Tony Blair’s New Labour. This announcement is less than meets the eye in a couple of respects. Financing under PF2 had already slowed to a trickle.
(The NSW Government should read this to understand what has gone wrong with the PPP venture at the Northern Beaches Hospital…..John Menadue)
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ROBERT KUTTNER. The crash that failed.
Review of “Crashed: How a decade of financial crises changed the world” by Adam Tooze, Viking.
The historian G.M. Trevelyan said that the democratic revolutions of 1848, all of which were quickly crushed, represented “a turning point at which modern history failed to turn”. The same can be said of the financial collapse of 2008. The crash demonstrated the emptiness of the claim that markets could regulate themselves. It should have led to the disgrace of neoliberalism—the belief that unregulated markets produce and distribute goods and services more efficiently than regulated ones. Instead, the old order reasserted itself, and with calamitous consequences. Gross economic imbalances of power and wealth persisted. We are still experiencing the reverberations. (more…)