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John Menadue

LESLEY BARCLAY, HANNAH DAHLEN, NIGEL LEE. Australia is breaking records for intervention in childbirth, and the costs are many.

Variation in rates of obstetric intervention, including caesarean section, were recently cited by the Grattan Institute’s Dr Stephen Duckett when suggesting that a new Code of Conduct for doctors should include a focus on over-intervention.

In the article below, Emeritus Professor Lesley Barclay AO, Professor Hannah Dahlen and Dr Nigel Lee argue that concerted efforts to reduce caesarean section rates in Australia would bring benefits for women, babies and those who fund health services. (more…)

Aug 23, 2018
IAN BUCKLEY.Historical Light on Current Aims to Attack Iran

This article highlights the vitally important role played by former US intelligence officers to prevent ongoing illegal regime changes across the world, presently Iran. Then, to better understand current examples, it explores their historical origins, consequences and possible remedies aimed at prevention. (more…)

Aug 23, 2018
FENG ZHAUKUI. Joining B&R can open up new opportunities for Japan.

Recently, more and more Japanese companies have taken actions that show their positive attitude about participating in the Belt and Road (B&R) initiative, and Japanese leaders have also made some positive gestures.

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Aug 23, 2018
TIM COLEBATCH. A party too divided to rule.

The reckoning has arrived for a party — and its Coalition partner — riven by cultural fixations.

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Aug 22, 2018
MARK HUDSON. The too hard basket: a short history of Australia’s aborted climate policies (The Conversation, 20.08.18)

Less than three years ago, after Malcolm Turnbull had wrested the prime ministership from Tony Abbott, I wrote an article entitled “Carbon coups: from Hawke to Abbott, climate policy is never far away when leaders come a cropper”. (more…)

Aug 22, 2018
TONY BERG. To Close the Gaps, Deal with Alcohol Abuse.

For ten years our political leaders have talked about closing the gap. The harsh reality is that the gap in disadvantage suffered by indigenous Australians fails to close. Worse, there has been little discussion about why the gaps do not close despite all the money, the effort, the programs and the goodwill over the decade. Not only are the gaps obstinately immovable, but they are worse than they appear. (more…)

Aug 21, 2018
WILL STEFFEN. A Fundamental Re-think of the Climate Change Challenge

Using a complex systems framework, we argue that a set of feedback processes intrinsic to the Earth System could form a planetary threshold which, if crossed, would not only speed up climate change, but also take the trajectory out of human control and propel the system irreversibly to a Hothouse Earth state. (more…)

Aug 21, 2018
BEVAN RAMSDEN. The Force Posture Agreement between the U.S. and Australian Governments

This Agreement makes Australia a base in the Indo-Pacific-South East Asia for the U.S. military and from which they can parade their strength, intimidate and launch hostile acts against our neighbours. (more…)

Aug 21, 2018
STEPHEN GRENVILLE Who has been best for Australia: Trump or Obama? (Lowy Institute, 14.08.18)

US President Donald Trump comes in for widespread criticism, but he has at least one well-placed Australian defender. Former foreign minister Alexander Downer says that for Australia, Trump has been better than Obama. On the whole, Trump has been “good for us”. This is seriously misguided. (more…)

Aug 20, 2018
KOFI ANNAN. Stop ‘war on drugs’ (05.11.13, CNN)

Each year, hundreds of thousands of people around the world die from preventable drug-related disease and violence. Millions of users are arrested and thrown in jail. Globally, communities are blighted by drug-related crime. Citizens see huge amounts of their taxes spent on harsh policies that are not working…

.(In memory and honour of Kofi Annan who died recently.John Menadue) (more…)

Aug 20, 2018
GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

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

Aug 18, 2018
DAVID JAMES. Australia’s deadly game of mates (Eureka Street, 13.08.18)

In Australia it is common to hear criticisms of the corruption in developing countries. It is a constant theme, for example, in media coverage of Papua New Guinea, our nearest neighbour. (more…)

Aug 17, 2018
ANIKA MOLESWORTH. The drought and intergenerational equity

In failing to act on human-induced climate change, our political leaders are neglecting the rights of the next generation. (more…)

Aug 17, 2018
LYNDSAY CONNORS. Tempora mutantur…

Times change, but the Australian system of planning and funding schools is in a time warp, being held back by vested interests from keeping pace with the demands upon it. (more…)

Aug 17, 2018
TIM LINDSEY. Jokowi’s deputy pick confirms rise of conservative Islam in Indonesia

The selection of the controversial and highly conservative head of the Indonesian Ulama Council as Jokowi’s vice presidential running mate is disturbing. It reveals Jokowi’s lack of political authority and is yet another demonstration of increasing intolerance among Indonesian Muslims. (more…)

Aug 17, 2018
NASSRINE AZIMI. Rethinking Our National Holidays?

I often ask my students to think what it means to live in a country with a constitution that prohibits wars of aggression, and removes from national priorities war-mongering discourses, distractions and impulses? (more…)

Aug 16, 2018
PETER SMALL. Mulesing; Have we convinced ourselves of our own rhetoric to the wool industries detriment?

It is five years since I first went to China and I heard the plea of wool processors for Australia to do something to increase the availability wool from non-mulsed sheep. I responded with the well-worn rhetoric as to why we had to mules. You all know the lines; – “Mulesing is the lesser of two evils; a death from fly strike is much worse” (more…)

Aug 16, 2018
JEFFERY SACHS. We Are All Climate Refugees Now.

This summer’s fires, droughts, and record-high temperatures should serve as a wake-up call. The longer a narrow and ignorant elite condemns Americans and the rest of humanity to wander aimlessly in the political desert, the more likely it is that we will all end up in a wasteland.

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Aug 15, 2018
VIJAY PRASHAD. The knife in Iran’s back: Trump opens door to chaos.

On Tuesday night, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani went on television to talk about the reinstatement of sanctions by the United States against his country. He prepared the country for more privations as a result of the sanctions. Responding to US President Donald Trump’s offer of a meeting, Rouhani said pointedly, “If you stab someone with a knife and then say you want to talk, the first thing you have to do is to remove the knife.” (more…)

Aug 15, 2018
MARC HUDSON. The Nationals have changed their leader but kept the same climate story (The Conversation 28 February 2018)

After Barnaby Joyce’s demise as Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader, and his replacement by Michael McCormack, we might wonder what the junior Coalition partner’s leadership change means for Australia’s climate policy. (more…)

Aug 14, 2018
WAYNE McMILLAN. Are Millennials Thinking Seriously about Socialism?

A recent report from the Australian conservative, right wing think tankThe Centre for Independent Studies, 1. reckons that Australian millennials are lurching towards Socialism. In this report millennials don’t mention what they think about Socialism, or what shape or form it should take and how it could be implemented. I guess they are feeling that any alternative to Capitalism that promises a glimmer of social, economic and ecological hope is worth a go. (more…)

Aug 14, 2018
JOSEPH E STIGLITZ. The US is at Risk of Losing a Trade War with China.

The “best” outcome of President Donald Trump’s narrow focus on the US trade deficit with China would be improvement in the bilateral balance, matched by an increase of an equal amount in the deficit with some other country (or countries). In fact, significantly reducing the bilateral trade deficit will prove difficult.

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Aug 14, 2018
JENNIFER DOGETT AND P & I CONTRIBUTIONS. -An important series on drug law reform (Croakey)

Drug law reform is an issue that has been on the political agenda for decades, with varying degrees of urgency. Yet despite the overwhelming evidence for law reform and the sustained efforts of advocates from a range of sectors, most of the political and legislative changes required to reduce the harms associated with illicit drug use have not been achieved. (more…)

Aug 13, 2018
HYLDA ROLFE. What’s in a name? The threat to our National Parks

For three years now, Sydney-based company Gap Bluff Hospitality Pty Ltd (GBH) has been revising an offer it made to NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) under which the company would assume a large share of the burden of repair and maintenance of former Defence and other buildings in the Gap Bluff and Green Point sectors of Sydney Harbour National Park at Watsons Bay NSW. While the financial terms of the offer were not made public, the deal envisaged the adaptation and use by GBH of several buildings in the National Park as an integrated event/function complex. The mountain laboured…. (more…)

Aug 13, 2018
CHRISTIANE BARRO. Ninety years on, no justice for Australia’s last Aboriginal massacre.

Last Tuesday marked 90 years since the last recorded massacre of Aboriginal people in Australia. (more…)

Aug 13, 2018
DEREK ABBOTT. Time to play to the ALP’s strengths

The outcome of the super Saturday by-elections have settled the question of Bill Shorten’s leadership at least until after the next general election. Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership also seems secure, if for no other reason than the lack of plausible alternatives. Both are unpopular and the by-elections (and polls) suggest that the electorate is sick of the focus on the leadership challenges and three word slogans masquerading as policy. (more…)

Aug 13, 2018
DOUG TAYLOR. Drug Reform Series. Canada is set to become only the second country in the world to legalise marijuana.

Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, announced the move to legalise marijuana earlier this year. He said the move would take the market share away from organised crime and protect the country’s youth. (more…)

Aug 11, 2018
GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

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

Aug 11, 2018
WILLIAM FINNEGAN. California Burning.

On the northwestern edge of Los Angeles, where I grew up, the wildfires came in late summer. We lived in a new subdivision, and behind our house were the hills, golden and parched. We would hose down the wood-shingled roof as fire crews bivouacked in our street. Our neighborhood never burned, but others did. In the Bel Air fire of 1961, nearly five hundred homes burned, including those of Burt Lancaster and Zsa Zsa Gabor. We were all living in the “wildland-urban interface,” as it is now called. More subdivisions were built, farther out, and for my family the wildfire threat receded. (more…)

Aug 11, 2018
Q&A with Michael Dillon: History and Indigenous Policy

In this Q&A, former senior bureaucrat Michael Dillon offers some very thoughtful insights into the last several decades of Indigenous policy-making and the role of historical knowledge in the policy process. (more…)

Aug 11, 2018

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