In French, buck teeth are called dents à l’anglaise, literally “English teeth”. Stay with me. The connection to the old dart, France, and the dishonourable origins of AUKUS will be revealed. (more…)
Category: Policy
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‘It’s back to the (fossil fuel) future for Peter Dutton’
It’s only the first week – and if you thought Peter Dutton’s election campaign looks chaotic, dishevelled, and thin on policy substance, you’re right.
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Medicare’s much-needed reform held hostage by vested interests: Michael Lester in conversation with John Menadue, AO
Access to affordable primary healthcare through GPs has collapsed, forcing more people to rely on overcrowded and understaffed public hospitals. These hospitals, meant to be a last resort, have instead become the costly default option. (more…)
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Electricity prices – government and Coalition policies compared
It’s not much wonder that the public is confused about electricity pricing when journalists and politicians use the terms “prices” and “bills” interchangeably, and when Opposition spokespeople deliberately lie about the reasons electricity prices are high and make up ridiculous claims about how electricity prices and bills would tumble if they were elected. Peter Dutton’s speech in reply to the budget added to that confusion. (more…)
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Israeli practices exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza
The Gaza Strip has witnessed catastrophic humanitarian crises during the genocide committed by the Israeli occupation. The war has caused widespread destruction of infrastructure, leading to the near-total collapse of the healthcare system and essential services. (more…)
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The personification of politics
Reducing the complexities of international politics to the idiosyncratic personalities of world leaders suggests the Western media believes concision is an antidote to the short attention spans of readers, viewers and listeners. They may be right about this. (more…)
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Immigration policy and the federal election
Peter Dutton is desperate to talk about immigration during the current election campaign. That will largely be about pointing fingers at Labor, sometimes misleading fingers as he did during his budget reply and not providing details of his own policies. (more…)
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Building Australia’s future – For whom?
As the next federal election looms, the Albanese Government is preparing to campaign under a new slogan: “Building Australia’s Future”. (more…)
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Time to split from sugar daddy
Last week, I listened to Stuart Rees and Sue Wareham, two regular contributors to P&I, discuss kindness and cruelty in public policy. (more…)
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Environment: Humans’ contempt for the natural world drives environmental destruction
Environmentalists have failed to transform the underlying social values that drive environmental destruction. Fifteen companies produce 30% of Australia’s greenhouse gases. Mountains provide 60% of our fresh water, but not for much longer. (more…)
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The fundamental problem at the heart of defence policy
The noise over meeting US demands on military spending underlines the fundamental problem at the heart of Australian defence policy: there is no strategy. (more…)
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Hurry up and wait
One principle of American military affairs has been said since the 1940s to be “hurry up and wait”. That certainly applies to AUKUS, an agreement so urgent that in September 2021 Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese only 24 hours to agree to it. (more…)
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When war is around be careful what you wish for!
If anyone is yet to be disgusted with war and the reckless use of armed force, recent news from Gaza and Ukraine will change your mind. (more…)
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Active Management – Rethinking our approach to forest stewardship
Our recent research raises an important and challenging question: Are our well-intentioned management interventions like thinning in high conservation value forests truly serving nature, or are they inadvertently accelerating the degradation of these critical ecosystems? (more…)
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Universal early learning and the three-day guarantee
The passing of the Early Childhood Education and Care (Three-Day Guarantee) Bill 2025 marks a major shift in Australia’s early childhood education and care system. For the first time, tens of thousands of children who were previously excluded from early learning will have access to at least three days of subsidised care each week (72 hours per fortnight), regardless of their parents’ work or study status. (more…)
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Australia-China relations: A question of trust
Let’s restore the trust in China that we once enjoyed. This was the key message I presented to an online forum titled Does China Threaten Australia’s Peace and Security hosted by the Australian Peace and Security Forum on 18 March. Following is a condensed version of my talk. (more…)
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Pine Gap – No price could ever be right
To the horror of the Australian defence and foreign policy establishment, Senator Jacqui Lambie had a characteristically sharp and to the point response to Donald Trump’s imposition of a 25% tariff on Australian steel exports to the United States. (more…)
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Environment: The folly of focusing on net zero
Governments and corporations have been tricking the public by focusing emissions reduction attention on net, rather than real, zero. Reducing methane emissions would reduce global warming quickly and cheaply. Bring back our swamps.
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A poor start to the strategic examination of R&D
In 2024, in a context of declining R&D and productivity, the government appointed an independent expert panel to lead a “strategic examination” of Australia’s R&D system. In February the first discussion paper was released along with invitations to make submissions. (more…)
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Sad day for the US as it fails an ally
I don’t intend to move these round-ups into international relations. There are excellent Australian sources with a foreign policy orientation – Pearls and Irritations, the Lowy Institute and Australian Foreign Affairs. But events around Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine should have repercussions not only for our foreign policy, but also for our domestic policy, particularly in the way we may be led or misled by the strongman “leader”. (more…)
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Australian immigration and the federal election
The Albanese Government has done a reasonable job in repairing the immigration train wreck it inherited from the Coalition. However, excessive caution and fear of being wedged has severely limited its achievements. In the forthcoming election, the Dutton Opposition can be expected to be short on policy, but to stoke up fears about border security and foreigners. He will borrow from the nasty Trump playbook when convenient. Australia deserves better immigration policy and administration. (more…)
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Universalism the panacea for Palestine
Defence of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination is a collective responsibility fuelled by commitments to theory and ideology inherent in universalism. In domestic and foreign policies and in the conduct of personal relations, the values associated with universalism concern altruism and inclusiveness, each goal delivered in a spirit of generosity. (more…)
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Discombobulating the media election campaign coverage
The priestly pundit caste in the media is well into their election coverage rituals while the political parties are busy adjusting their strategies to tailor their offerings to these ritual needs. (more…)
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Resolving insolvency: Tariffs are key to Trump’s solution
Donald Trump has resorted to tariffs, imposed against friend and foe alike. There are no compromises or special deals because it’s not about favours for friends, or compliance, or punishment. Tariffs are part of a desperate bid to stave off insolvency. (more…)
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Minority government: what will it look like?
After the election Australia is likely to have a minority government with the independents, who will hold the balance of power, negotiating each issue on its merits. But democracy is best served if each independent states before the election which party they will support to form a government by guaranteeing supply. (more…)
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What happens if no party achieves a parliamentary majority?
This article is taken from Ian McAuley’s regular Saturday round-ups of links to writings, interviews and podcasts of Australian political and economic issues. (more…)
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The good, the bad and the downright ugly: Our media is broken
We have become accustomed, not too happily, to a form of political journalism in which opinion and news have increasingly merged, blunting the essential distinction between political commentary and detached objectivity. With journalists now routinely writing both news and opinion, this distinction has become impossibly blurred, undermining the impartiality and accuracy on which political journalism depends. (more…)
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Trump Mk II, McKinley and late-imperialism
Donald Trump’s first term as president tested the US’s political boundaries, but his second term has demolished them. A month in and his second presidency is already notable for upending US domestic democracy and completely recasting US foreign policy. Some of this was predictable. (more…)
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People’s inquiry into campus free speech on Palestine to shine a light on repression
When power oppresses, civil society must hold it to account. Like media and the arts, university campuses in Australia have become sites of censorship and suppression of free speech on the question of Palestine. (more…)
