In the spring of 2012, I made an extended visit to Saudi Arabia to report on the effects of the Arab Spring there. The arch-conservative oil monarchy was pursuing a robust counter-revolution, but the uprisings had brought new energy to reformers across the region. I was curious to see how Saudis themselves saw their country’s future. (more…)
John Menadue
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PETER VARGHESE. Australian Universities and China. Part 2 of 2
My remarks today are very much a personal perspective, drawing on my past engagement with China as a foreign policy practitioner and informed by my current role, but it is not an official University of Queensland position.
Today I wish to talk about what China means to Australian universities: what are the issues we face, how best to think about the relationship with China and, importantly, how do we manage risks while expanding opportunities. (more…)
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GEORGE MONBIOT. As the fracking protesters show, a people’s rebellion is the only way to fight climate breakdown.
Our politicians, under the influence of big business, have failed us. As they take the planet to the brink, it’s time for disruptive, nonviolent disobedience.
This article was published by The Guardian on the 18th of October 2018.
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HENNY SENDER. The weaponisation of the dollar risks rebounding on the US.
One consequence of the America First policies will be to create a bipolar financial world. (more…)
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STEPHEN HOWES. Bringing in backpackers is not the right way to get more workers onto farms.
Suddenly, getting workers onto farms is a top political priority.
Over the weekend, and again in parliament on Monday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced plans to get more backpackers working on farms. (more…)
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DAVID WOLPE. The Japanese Man Who Saved 6,000 Jews With His Handwriting.
What the astonishing Chiune Sugihara teaches us about moral heroism. (more…)
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PETER VARGHESE. Australian Universities and China. Part 1 of 2
My remarks today are very much a personal perspective, drawing on my past engagement with China as a foreign policy practitioner and informed by my current role, but it is not an official University of Queensland position.
Today I wish to talk about what China means to Australian universities: what are the issues we face, how best to think about the relationship with China and, importantly, how do we manage risks while expanding opportunities. (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE. Have we got to a tipping point in our cruelty to refugees?
Recent developments suggest we might be prepared at last to act with humanity and decency. Prime Minister Scott Morrison seems to be interested in taking up with New Zealand its long-standing offer to take 150 refugees from Manus and Nauru. (more…)
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Let us stop the Queen’s death watch (Editorial SMH 18.10.2018)
The visit by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to Australia has been delightful, especially since the happy surprise that they are expecting a baby. Back in Britain, however, there is reportedly growing impatience at Australia’s uncomfortable impasse on whether to become a republic. (more…)
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GAY ALCORN. ‘Australia is in trouble’: majority media and lobbying destroy trust in politics, Garnaut says.
Economist Ross Garnaut tells conference the independent centre is being drowned out by business interests,main stream media and lobbyists.
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JIM RUTENBERG. Reality Breaks Up a Saudi Prince Charming’s Media Narrative.
Just six months ago, American media outlets presented a sunny-side-up portrait of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia as he made a good-will tour of New York, Hollywood and Silicon Valley and dining with Rupert Murdoch. (more…)
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JIEH-YUNG LO. Morrison attempts his own Australia-China reset.
When you see a Prime Minister wonder into a marginal seat, you know a federal election is on the horizon. Scott Morrison did just that at the start of this month when he joined local member David Coleman in the ultra marginal seat of Banks. The purpose: to reconnect with the electorate’s large Chinese-Australian population and at the same time send a message to our largest trading partner. (more…)
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RICHARD DENNISS. Trump’s tax cuts will increase inequality. Australia shouldn’t follow his lead.
The fiscal policies of conservatives like Trump and Scott Morrison are eating away at the fabric of society.
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JULIE INGERSOLL. Why Trump’s evangelical supporters welcome his move on Jerusalem (the Conversation, 08.12.17)
President Trump’s announcement on Wednesday, Dec. 6 that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel received widespread criticism. Observers quickly recognized the decision as related not so much to national security concerns as to domestic U.S. politics and promises candidate Trump made to his evangelical supporters, who welcomed the announcement.. (more…)
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Trudeau refuses to let ‘politics slip into’ decision on Huawei (Globe & Mail, 16.10.18)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Ottawa refuses to let “politics slip into” the decision to allow Huawei equipment into Canada’s next-generation mobile networks even as the U.S. and Australia have barred the Chinese telecom giant on grounds of national security.
The Prime Minister’s comments come just days after two U.S. senators took the unusual step of publicly urging the Liberal government to ban Huawei from Canada’s 5G networks. Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Senator Mark Warner warned that Canada’s telecommunication safeguards are insufficient to address the risks posed by the Shenzhen company. They both sit on the U.S. Senate select committee on intelligence and Mr. Warner is vice-chair. (more…)
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BERTIL LINTER. China’s shifting view on the Korean Peninsula (Asian Times, 10.10.18)
As US-China relations deteriorate on various fronts, the last thing Beijing wants is for North Korea to fall into Washington’s sphere of influence (more…)
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‘Divisive’: Former RBA governor Bernie Fraser turns on neoliberalism (the New Daily, 17.10.18)
Former Reserve Bank governor Bernie Fraser has called for a radical rethink to policy-making, saying the way to a fairer, more equal society is with a pragmatic approach. (more…)
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SOPHIE VORRATH. Coalition backing “big coal” over climate, says Sachs: “Unbelievably irresponsible”.
US economics professor Jeffrey Sachs has slammed the Australian federal government as “unbelievably irresponsible” for its inaction on climate change, and suggested that policy progress in the Coalition – alongside the current US Trump administration – has been held hostage by major fossil fuel interests. (more…)
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MEDIA WATCH TRANSCRIPT (Paul Barry). News Corp’s contempt for climate science revealed in its coverage of last week’s IPCC report
Hello, I’m Paul Barry, welcome to Media Watch.
And last week’s dramatic report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change really sounded the alarm on the future of our planet, with scientists predicting the Great Barrier Reef could be wiped out by 2050 if we don’t act to slow down global warming..
Why does News Corp hold climate science in such contempt?…Presumably because Rupert Murdoch is a non believer….and not just in Australia. Back in 2012,America’s Union of Concerned Scientists audited News Corp’s coverage in the US and concluded:Representations of climate science on Fox News Channel and in the Wall Street Journal opinion pages are overwhelmingly misleading (more…)
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WILLIAM PESEK. In Asia, ghosts of crises past return amid Trumpian trade war.
In a region where traces of the 2008 and 1997-98 carnage linger, Washington’s assault on Asia’s biggest growth engine could ignite another disaster. (more…)
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SHIRO ARMSTRONG. Japan’s high stakes diplomacy with the US and China. (East Asia Forum 14.10.2018)
Japan is now fully embarked on navigating a course through the economic and national security minefield that lies between the United States and China. (more…)
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GRAEME STEWART. Growing inequality in access to health care is curable.
It has been sad to observe the growth in out-of-pocket expenses for patients seeking expert medical consultation and the resultant rising inequality in access to timely care and in health outcomes (“Specialists charging extreme fees”, March 6. These twin inequities are deeply felt in western Sydney. (more…)
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VINCENT BEVINS. Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s Would-be Dictator.
For most of his twenty-seven-year career in national politics, Jair Bolsonaro has been a fringe figure on the far right of Brazilian politics, hopping among nine different political parties and yelling his support for Brazil’s bygone military dictatorship into empty congressional chambers. All that has changed. Last weekend, the former army captain won over 46 percent of the vote in Brazil’s presidential race—close to an outright win in the first round. He goes forward to the run-off election on October 28 as the clear favorite. (more…)
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DOROTHY HORSFIELD. The St Petersburg International Economic Forum. A New World Order?
One of the most interesting aspects of this year’s St Petersburg International Economic Forum was the way it undermined commonplaces about a post-Soviet Russia with an economy is on the skids as a result of sanctions, international vilification, and its overdependence on energy sector revenues. How plausible were the Forum’s optimistic evocation of a new world economic order, shaped by a Fourth Industrial Revolution, in which Russia can play an integral role? (more…)
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RICHARD ECKERSLY. Getting to the heart of democracy’s decline.
The crisis in democracy is much discussed these days, but almost entirely in political terms that ignore its deeper causes. In this sense, the mainstream news media can be considered ‘enemies of the people’, peddling ‘fake news’. (more…)
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GREG JERICHO. Australia’s climate idiocracy must end – and there’s no time to waste.
The Liberal party’s biggest con was the idea that reducing emissions could be done without pain and at little cost.
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CATHERINE STUBBERFIELD. UNHCR urges Australia to evacuate off-shore facilities as health situation deteriorates.
The following is a transcript of the remarks by Spokesperson for the UNHCR Regional Representation in Canberra, Catherine Stubberfield at today’s press briefing(12 October 2018) at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. (more…)
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LOGAN PAULEY. China stakes out a role for itself in post-war Syria.
As Syria’s civil war winds down, China is looking to establish itself as an economic, and possibly military, partner for the post-war period. (more…)
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A welcome statement on Australian relations with China by Prime Minister Morrison
At a ‘Chinese community luncheon event’ at Hurstville on 4 October 2018, Prime Minister Morrison spelt out clearly the importance of a ‘mutual beneficial relationship’ between Australia and China.
This speech received wide coverage in the Chinese media in Australia, but minimal coverage in our mainstream English language media. This was very strange.
A group of former Australian diplomats and those closely involved in our relations with China decided that we should publicly record and support Prime Minister Morrison’s statement. See below. (John Menadue) (more…)
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ALAN FINKEL. The science is clear: we have to start creating our low-carbon future today.
This week’s release of the special report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has put scientific evidence on the front page of the world’s newspapers. (more…)