Unaccountable spin and double standards are the stuff of “good bloke” politicians. It’s a skilful charade that perpetuates unchecked executive power and distances the parliament and public. Kellie Merritt’s husband Paul was killed “whilst on operational duty” in Iraq. She doesn’t want to collude with the “good blokes”. Truth is often the first casualty of war… and cricket.
John Menadue
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RICHARD TANTER and BUSINES INSIDER INDIA. Darwin, the Marines, and touring the American empire of bases
The idea of ‘US imperialism’ may be seen as a fiction of the ideological left, or as an overblown presentation of the presence of a few US bases in different countries. But the US military does indeed operate on a global scale. Australia is far from a unique position in the US empire of military bases. (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE- Sacrifice is being politicised. Militarism is becoming the norm.
Remembrance is morphing into acceptance of conflict. The culture war about remembrance being waged by conservatives and the military is winning with little opposition. The never ending stories of Gallipoli, the Western front and Armistice go on and on. We are celebrating war on a scale that no other country does. Government ministers, Veterans Affairs, the Australian War Memorial and the media imbedded in the military complex can’t contain themselves. Public occasions are invariably backgrounded by numerous flags and the military, often regardless of the subject at hand.
So that we won’t ask the hard question WHY we fight in so many futile wars we immerse ourselves in HOW we fight. We are deceiving ourselves.
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PETER RODGERS. Morrison and Jerusalem – what a way to run a foreign policy!
Scott Morrison’s revelation last October that he was thinking about relocating Australia’s Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem should go down as one of 2018’s crassest comments. For the PM was not “thinking” at all. Casting the possible relocation as shock therapy for the non-existent Israeli-Palestinian peace process is a fraud. (more…)
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JOHN HANNON. What is good leadership? Lest we forget.
Can’t we see parallels in leadership today, both in the Church and in society, where it can easily get more enmeshed in its own self-importance and self-interest, than in the rights and the good of the ordinary people, whom they are meant to serve, rather than command, control and oppress. Leadership by example, in service and humility, sounds nice, but it is not so simple to practise in reality, is it, as we face up to Remembrance Day and what it might mean for us today? (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE. How the politically urgent pushes the important health issues aside.
Australians have some of the best health outcomes in the world measured for example by high life expectancy and low death rates, although that is not the case with Indigenous Australians. (more…)
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GARRY EVERETT. A tale of two processes.
Last year I participated in a community consultation about increasing the water supply in south east Queensland. It was a very satisfying experience because of the process and skills of the consultants. This year I was invited to participate in a different kind of process. The Catholic Church has instituted a process for decision-making called a Plenary Council. (more…)
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GREG BARTON. Morrison wants Muslim leaders to do more to prevent terrorism, but what more can they do? (The Conversation)
With the simple statement “more needs to happen”, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was emphatic. In the wake of the terror attack on the crowded streets of Melbourne’s CBD last Friday, it is difficult to argue against any plan to do more to fight terrorism in Australia. (more…)
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MARC STEARS. Don’t give up on politics. It’s where the fight for the fair go must be won (The Conversation).
This article is the third in the Reclaiming the Fair Go series, a collaboration between The Conversation, the Sydney Democracy Network and the Sydney Peace Foundation to mark the awarding of the 2018 Sydney Peace Prize to Nobel laureate and economics professor Joseph Stiglitz. These articles reflect on the crisis caused by economic inequality and on how we can break the cycle of power and greed to enable all peoples and the planet to flourish. The Sydney Peace Prize will be presented on November 15 (tickets here). (more…)
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JIEH-YUNG LO. Ross Cameron sacking shows we won’t tolerate racism any further.
In typical fashion, Andrew Bolt through his blog at the Herald Sun mounted a defence of Ross Cameron’s sacking from Sky News Australia. Instead of recognising its racist connotations directed towards Chinese people (and people of Chinese origin for that matter) Bolt went on by saying Ross Cameron’s intentions, while recognising his poor choice of words, was to defend China. What the defenders of Ross Cameron need to understand is that, despite his pro-China intentions, it does not justify his ignorance and the right to be racist. (more…)
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PETER STANLEY. PM Hughes said ‘I bid you go fight for White Australia in France’- WW1 as the war for White Australia
Peter Stanley reviews Peter Cochrane’s Best We Forget: The War for White Australia, 1914-18
Australians’ racial anxiety towards Asia in general and Japan in particular in the decade before 1914 made Australians’ political leaders prepared to underwrite an imperial war in the hope of securing British support for the security of White Australia. (more…)
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PETER ARKELL. Choosing our head of state does not need to be difficult.
The Australian Republic appears to be coming back into the community’s discussion. The stumbling block for previous models seems to have been how the head of state will be chosen and even concern that we do not offend the Queen. Perhaps there is a solution that she would be pleased to step aside for. (more…)
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NCR EDITORIAL STAFF-Open letter to the US Catholic bishops: It’s over (National Catholic Reporter).
Dear brothers in Christ, shepherds, fellow pilgrims,
We address you as you approach this year’s national meeting in Baltimore because we know there is nowhere left to hide.
It’s over. (more…)
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MARGARET SIMONS. Good riddance to Guthrie and Milne. The ABC needs grown-ups in charge (the Guardian 12.11.18)
The most powerful message to emerge from Four Corners’ sad story about the tumult at the top of the ABC is that neither the former chairman Justin Milne nor the former managing director Michelle Guthrie appeared to be friends of the public broadcaster. (more…)
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Saudis Close to Crown Prince Discussed Killing Other Enemies a Year Before Khashoggi’s Death (New York Times, 11.11.18)
WASHINGTON — Top Saudi intelligence officials close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked a small group of businessmen last year about using private companies to assassinate Iranian enemies of the kingdom, according to three people familiar with the discussions. (more…)
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PAUL O’CALLAGHAN. For Caritas Australia, bankrolling the Pacific misses the mark.
At Caritas Australia we have long been in the business of supporting the grassroots development of our Pacific neighbours. (more…)
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RICHARD McGREGOR AND JONATHAN PRYKE. Australia must tread carefully in its Pacific contest with China. (SMH 9.11.2018)
If you want a glimpse into the future of Australia’s relationship with China, with all the elements of competition and co-operation, and tensions and bridge-building, then this week is a good place to start. (more…)
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AMANDA MEADE. ‘It was magic’: Kerry O’Brien on ABC bosses, battles and why it’s no bed of lefties (The Guardian)
‘It was magic’: Kerry O’Brien on ABC bosses, battles and why it’s no bed of lefties.
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JONATHAN FREEDLAND. US democracy is in crisis. But Trump is only the symptom (the Guardian, 10.11.18)
The talk in the US is of constitutional crisis. It’s been looming for a while, thanks to the Mueller investigation into suspected collusion between the Trump campaign and Kremlin efforts to swing the 2016 election. At some point – perhaps when special counsel Robert Mueller issues a subpoena, demanding Donald Trump answers his questions – a clash was bound to come. But it may already be upon us. (more…)
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SAMANTHA MAIDEN. ‘You’ll find yourself in tears’: PM empathises with young asylum seekers on Nauru (The New Daily)
Border protection hardliner Scott Morrison has told a Lifeline fundraiser that he cried “on his knees” over the plight of young asylum seekers held on Nauru.
(Yet Scott Morrison has the power to end the suffering of the children on Nauru ,but does not do so.!!.John Menadue) (more…)
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TONG ZHAO. Why China Is Worried About the End of the INF Treaty.
The U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty reflects Washington’s long-standing concern that the treaty constrained its ability to counter China’s fast-growing missile forces in the Asia Pacific.
This article was published by Carnegie Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy on the 7th of November 2018. (more…)
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TONY STEPHENS. 1918
I’ll go to the Armistice Day service at the Balmain war memorial this November 11 because it will mark the centenary of the end of the Great War and because it will be the end of nearly five years of almost continuous remembrance. While the youthful nation of only 18 years rejoiced with good reason 100 years ago, the end of all the remembrance will be a great relief to many Australians today. (more…)
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BENEDICT COSGROVE. Kicking “Charismatic” to the Curb.
Smart people have long argued among themselves about what language does, and doesn’t do. But pretty much everyone agrees that, if nothing else, language evolves. Words and phrases that were perfectly serviceable for decades, or even centuries, take on fresh meaning or vanish altogether. Fifty years ago, “boss” meant “cool.” A hundred years ago, “fantastic” referred to what existed solely in the imagination. Five hundred years ago, “jumble-gut lane” was slang for a bumpy stretch of road.
This article was published by BLARB on the 7th of November 2018. (more…)
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ISABELLE LANE. ‘Misleading and disingenuous’: Treasurer’s negative gearing claims slammed.
Experts have rubbished Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s claims that a proposed rollback of negative gearing will decimate the property market and send rents soaring.
This article was published by The New Daily on the 8th of November 2018. (more…)
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ISHAN THAROOR. The party of Trump goes fully far-right (Washington Post, 08.11.18)
In the run-up to Tuesday’s midterms, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) faced mounting condemnation over his openly white-supremacist politics. King has a long record of demonizing minorities, fulminating over the decline of white “civilization” and courting extremists who peddle racist conspiracy theories about the “replacement” of white Europeans by nonwhite immigrants. (more…)
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ARTHUR CHESTERFIELD-EVANS. Lest We Remember.
Lest We Remember traces the history of how Australia was drawn into wars by the British and the Americans, and looks at how poorly the strategies had been thought out and how poorly the troops themselves have been treated. The hype and hoopla of the centenary of the end of the First World War will be used by the arms manufacturers and the politicians to cover the folly and indeed to perpetuate it. (more…)
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MRIDULA AMIN, ISABELLA KWAI. The Nauru Experience: Zero-Tolerance Immigration and Suicidal Children.
A recent visit to Nauru revealed the effects of Australia’s offshore detention policy and its impact on mental health.
This article was published by The New York Times on the 5th of November 2018. (more…)
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BRIAN COYNE. Reading the needs and wants of the ordinary punters.
The ABC’s 7.30 program on Tuesday night had an interesting analysis program on Rupert Murdoch, his heir-apparent, Lachlan, and the future for their empire and the media. [See link below] While they’ve sold off much of their empire (for something in the order of 86 billion dollars [yes, you read that correctly: “BILLION”]) the Murdoch’s still control Fox News. In the program, they claim it is because it is the only network in the U.S. which gives a voice to conservatives. (more…)
