On Tuesday during Parliamentary Question Time, new Energy Minister Angus Taylor announced: “the (RET) target reaches a peak in 2020 and we will not be replacing that with anything.” (more…)
John Menadue
-
GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media. (more…)
-
DENIS MULLER. Media power: why the full story of Murdoch, Stokes and the Liberal leadership spill needs to be told (The Conversation, 20.09.18)
The first German chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, said there were two sights the public should not see: the making of laws and the making of sausages. To this list of enduringly nauseating spectacles we should add one more: the political machinations of media moguls. (more…)
-
IAN BURUMA. From Charlottesville to Chemnitz: the West’s race problem.
For obvious reasons, the sight of a German mob chasing foreigners through the streets and throwing up their arms in Hitler salutes is particularly disturbing. This is what happened recently in Chemnitz, a bleak industrial city in Saxony that was touted in the former German Democratic Republic as a model socialist city (it was called Karl-Marx-Stadt between 1953 and 1990). (more…)
-
JOHN MENADUE How Murdoch extracted concessions from governments.
Rupert Murdoch claims, falsely, that he has never asked a Prime Minister for anything. Yet his whole business career in three countries has been founded on threatening or seducing politicians for privileged commercial access or opportunities.
I posted an article earlier this week on how he got favoured treatment from the Hawke Government for Ansett Airlines in which he was a major shareholder at the time.. Today I post extracts from an earlier article on how, with the help of the Keating Government, he got a foothold in Foxtel.in 1995. (more…)
-
JOHN MENADUE How Kerr, Fraser and Murdoch engineered the dismissal of the Whitlam Government. A slightly edited repost from 27 October 2015
Rupert Murdoch has form in conniving to get rid of Prime Ministers from 1975 to 2018 (more…)
-
BRUCE GUTHRIE. The growing power of media mates (The New Daily, 20.09.18)
The news that billionaires Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes essentially war-gamed the ousting of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should appal all Australians wanting media diversity and an open and transparent polity. (more…)
-
KATHARINE MURPHY. AMA president calls for urgent transfer of refugee families from Nauru.
Exclusive: Tony Bartone writes to Scott Morrison saying situation is ‘a humanitarian emergency requiring urgent intervention’.
-
MELISSA SWEET. Please support this crowdfunding campaign, so we can cover the 4th Peoples’ Health Assembly – #PHA4.
Please consider supporting this crowdfunding campaign to enable Dr Lesley Russell to report for Croakey from a landmark global health meeting in Bangladesh from November 15-19 – the 4th Peoples’ Health Assembly – or #PHA4. (more…)
-
Wentworth, Bill Shorten and refugees
What a boost it would be for humanity and decency if Bill Shorten broke with the government’s refugees policy and told us during the Wentworth by-election that the ALP would no longer support the cruel and crippling policies that leave refugees and asylum seekers stranded and abused on Nauru and Manus. What is happening is not on Planet Nauru or Planet Manus. It is happening in our neighbourhood to people it is our duty to protect. (more…)
-
ISABELLE LANE. Six big players dominate Australia’s scandal-hit aged care sector (The New Daily, 19.09.18)
Aged care providers are expected to rake in $1.7 billion worth of profits in 2018-19, but reports of poor living conditions in nursing homes have raised concerns that the industry is putting profit before people. (more…)
-
JOHN MENADUE. The scourge of lobbyists is likely to continue if there is a change of government.A Repost from June 22 2018
Lobbyists are back in the news but it looks as if the scourge of lobbyists will continue in Canberra if Bill Shorten wins the next election. There is no sign that the ALP, like the Coalition is prepared to curb the way lobbyists are corrupting public policy in Australia.. The media reports that lobby firms are taking on ‘labor staffers’ so that they can influence a future Labor Government. (more…)
-
TROY BRAMSTON. Ex-Labor leader Bill Hayden, 85, baptised into Catholic Church.
Bill Hayden, at age 85, has renounced his atheism and been baptised into the Catholic Church.
-
JAMES FERNYHOUGH. Claim we’re on track to meet emissions targets is false.
Australia’s new energy minister Angus Taylor made a claim about carbon emissions this week that looked on the surface to be fantastic news, but on closer inspection is false. (more…)
-
JOE ASTON AND MYRIAM ROBIN. Clean hands? How five Scott Morrison supporters voted to get rid of Turnbull. (AFR 17.9.2018)
Make no mistake, this new PM stood by the last one just like he stood by the one before. Like Brutus stood by Caesar. (more…)
-
DAVID DODWELL. Keep Calm and carry on amid the current state of the trade war, for time is on China’s side. (South China Morning Post 16.9.2018)
Over the weekend, Donald Trump’s trade team invited Beijing to fresh trade talks. Almost simultaneously, tweets from the White House cast doubt on the talks.
Having mulled this conundrum carefully over the weekend, and without any attempt to discover what Beijing’s leaders might do, I have decided to imagine a secret internal memo from Liu He to Xi Jinping and the Beijing trade team. (more…)
-
ROD TIFFIN. Murdoch and Stokes
If the Liberal leadership upheaval was a Muppet show, as Scott Morrison described it, Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes have been revealed as its Statler and Waldorf. Muppets fans will remember the two cantankerous old men who heckled from the sidelines. The media moguls did not publicly heckle, but their behind the scenes barracking was reflected in their media. (more…)
-
WAYNE SWAN. Ten years after the crash, tax competition threatens global economies and democracies.
Ten years ago, the global financial system was rocked by the largest crisis since the Great Depression. (more…)
-
ANDREW PROBYN. What did Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes have to do with the Liberal leadership spill? (ABC News, 18.09.18)
Malcom Turnbull’s demise as Australia’s 29th prime minister was unusual for many reasons, and truly unique for one: his was the first known prime ministership to be the subject of a billionaires’ tug of war between the nation’s most powerful media moguls. (more…)
-
JOE ASTON. Rupert Murdoch to Kerry Stokes: “Malcolm has to go.” (AFR 18.9.2018)
Murdoch met with Seven West proprietor Kerry Stokes …… “Malcolm has got to go,” he told the Perth billionaire.
(This abuse of power by media barons is appalling.There is strong case for Bill Shorten to propose a Royal Commission into this unacceptable abuse of power and the general failure of our main stream media on issues such as climate change. The health of our democracy is at stake John Menadue) (more…)
-
MEREDITH DOIG. Open Letter to Scott Morrison upon becoming Prime Minister.
Dear Prime Minister,
The Rationalist Society of Australia (RSA) congratulates you upon becoming the 30th Prime Minister of Australia. We have two concerns we would like to raise with you: firstly, your Government’s response to the Ruddock Report, and secondly, your urging Australians to pray for rain in drought affected areas. (more…)
-
JAMIE LINGHAM. The changing face of Australian immigration.
Now more than ever we need to work together as a nation to address the immigration department and the mechanisms of safe passage, and put a stop to Australia’s unacceptable practices and inhumane treatment of individuals. (more…)
-
MAUREEN DOWD. Trump Finally Makes a Friend (New York Times, 15.09.18)
The president may be shunned nearly everywhere but at the bottom of the world he has finally found a loyal mate. (more…)
-
ERIN O’DONNELL, AVRIL HORNE. Giving environmental water to drought-stricken farmers sounds straightforward, but it’s a bad idea (The Conversation, 18.09.18)
-
NICOLE GIBSON. A Letter to Canberra from a young Australian.
“Each Australian story I’ve heard is etched on my heart, permanently shifting my views and perspectives on leadership. I pray that you also have the humility to silence the chatter in your own minds and be inspired by the people you represent.” (more…)
-
BIANCA BRIJNATH. Improving dementia awareness in Australia’s multicultural communities can mean better care for all.
Sheila holds 10 teaspoons in her hands and every time the cooker whistles, she puts one down. After 10 whistles, she switches the cooker off. The rice is done. She takes down two pots and prepares one of the five vegetable dishes she remembers. When dinner arrives at the table, there are two places set for five people but she is resolute about particular people being assigned particular plates. There is to be no intermingling or sharing of plates; everyone must know their plate and place at this table. (more…)
-
JIEH-YUNG LO. Reflections of a Chinese-Australian.
To ensure we remain as the world’s most successful multicultural society, it is important to get the China debate right from now on to prevent the re-emergence of sinophobia in Australia. (more…)
-
JOHN MENADUE. Failed leadership in church and state. Repost from 24 August 2018
Good leadership is about facing the group up to the hard issues. Without clearly defining why and how we need to change and creating some disequilibrium there will be no worthwhile change.
In the AFR on September 14 2018 Laura Tingle asked ‘What makes a good leader?’.That article makes a similar case to the one I outlined on 24 August 2018. See below. (more…)
-
JAMES FERNYHOUGH. Ten years on, there’s just one positive legacy of the Global Financial Crisis.
“No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had money as well.” (more…)
-
TAMSIN SHAW. Edward Snowden Reconsidered (New York Review of Books Daily 13.09.18)
This summer, the fifth anniversary of Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA surveillance passed quietly, adrift on a tide of news that now daily sweeps the ground from under our feet. It has been a long five years, and not a period marked by increased understanding, transparency, or control of our personal data. In these years, we’ve learned much more about how Big Tech was not only sharing data with the NSA but collecting vast troves of information about us for its own purposes. And we’ve started to see the strategic ends to which Big Data can be put. In that sense, we’re only beginning to comprehend the full significance of Snowden’s disclosures. (more…)