Category: Politics

  • JOHN MENADUE. The ‘war on drugs’ is a disastrous failure.We must find a better way

    Attached is a collection of articles on drug policy reform, which were published as a series on Pearls and Irritations between 6 and 11 August 2018. This series was designed to draw attention to this important issue, and to the failure of our current policies.

    Despite the clear failure of the war on drugs across the world our police and border force officers tell us breathlessly time and time again about another record drug haul. Who are they kidding about the success of present policies.?Do they even believe their own propaganda? When will they stop and ask themselves some hard questions. They might even suggest to Ministers that they need to embark on a thorough re think of failed policies.  The stubbornness of politicians is putting more and more lives at risk. (more…)

  • ALLAN PATIENCE. It’s time for a constitutional reform commission

    Acting on references from attorneys-general, the independent Australian Law Reform Commission and its state government equivalents review and recommend reforms to existing laws, and/or identify where new laws are necessary. When it comes to the Australian Constitution, the highest level of law in the country, the case for an independent constitutional reform commission along similar lines to law reform commissions has never been stronger.

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  • ANDREW FARRAN. Brexit: Going for Broke?

    Uproar and acrimony has resumed, even more intensely, over Brexit at Westminster this week on the resumption of Parliament following the Christmas break. The expectation, or rather hope, that members might have softened their hard lines after a due period of reflection and deeper thinking, in the ‘national interest’, have been sorely disappointed.

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  • CLIVE KESSLER. Mahathir’s deep dilemma for 2019 (ASIAN NIKKEI REVIEW).

    Can he win over the dominant ethnic Malays and halt the growth of Islamist forces?

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  • We need a national political summit to promote democratic renewal

    Bob Hawke’s Economic Summit following the 1983 election promoted cooperation and consensus which led to remarkable economic and social reform.  With the loss of trust in our political institutions and politicians today, we need a political summit to build consensus on democratic reform.  Such a proposal, if carefully implemented, could produce real political and policy dividends for its advocates and more importantly, for Australia.

    Australians are sick and tired of politicians. The community is deserting the major political parties in droves. 

    After the next election we need a government that will assist us in major democratic renewal. It is urgent. We need a summit of community leaders to help chart a new course for democratic renewal.   (more…)

  • LUKE FRASER. Best of 2018: Canberra has abandoned roads to inflationary spending and policy chaos.

    Botched State road projects, toll road fee hikes and congestion grab big headlines and make good sport for critics of State governments.  (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Scott Morrison says the bible is not a policy handbook.

    There was none of that namby-pamby nonsense about taking a cup of kindness for the sake of auld lang syne, or anyone else for that matter.  Scott Morrison went straight on the attack to welcome 2019. “My job – our government’s job — is to prepare Australia for any opportunity and eventuality,” he bellowed.   (more…)

  • MICHAEL KEATING. The Future of Democracy: Part 2

    Yesterday in Part 1 of this article I discussed some of the possible explanations for the apparent loss of government capacity in most advanced democracies. Today in this second Part I will discuss some of the solutions that have been proposed to restore government capacity. This discussion has been influenced in part by Laura Tingle’s excellent Quarterly Essay, “Follow the Leader: Democracy and the Rise of the Strongman”, and by some of the responses to that Essay.

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  • ALLAN PATIENCE. Knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing

    When Scott Morrison announced that the Sydney Opera House was the “biggest bill board in the country” he displayed a crass mindset straight from the commercialized anti-culture of the neoliberal era. Plastering a racing industry advertisement across the sails of the Opera House meant nothing more to him other than a great marketing opportunity. It didn’t occur to him that it amounted to the vandalising of a culturally sacred place.    (more…)

  • STEWART FIRTH. China, Samoa and debt-for-equity swaps- East Asia Forum Jan. 3 2019

    Last year, Australia discovered the debt owed to Chinese banks by Pacific island countries. As the debate over China’s intentions in the region grew, commentators pointed to the possibility that Pacific countries might be compelled to accept debt-for-equity swaps if they could not repay. The port of Hambantota in Sri Lanka, where a Chinese company obtained a 99-year lease to run commercial operations in return for helping to pay the country’s debt, was the commonly raised example.

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  • MICHAEL KEATING. The Future of Democracy: Part 1

    At the start of a New Year, a year when Australia will have to elect a new government, it seems a good time to consider the future outlook for our system of democratic government. Overall there is a sense that citizens in many of the advanced democracies have lost confidence in the capacity of their governments to deliver.

    Many explanations for this loss of government capacity have been offered, and in this article, I will discuss what I consider to be the most important explanations as a contribution to the continuing debate about what is wrong with our system of government. In a second follow-up article, tomorrow, I will discuss some of the proposed options to improve our system of government, even if returning to the alleged glory days of the past might be a bit of a stretch.

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  • PAUL KRUGMAN. The Trump tax cut: even worse than you’ve heard. (New York Times 1.1.2019)

    The 2017 tax cut has received pretty bad press, and rightly so. Its proponents made big promises about soaring investment and wages, and also assured everyone that it would pay for itself; none of that has happened.

    Yet coverage actually hasn’t been negative enough. The story you mostly read runs something like this: The tax cut has caused corporations to bring some money home, but they’ve used it for stock buybacks rather than to raise wages, and the boost to growth has been modest. That doesn’t sound great, but it’s still better than the reality: No money has, in fact, been brought home, and the tax cut has probably reduced national income. Indeed, at least 90 percent of Americans will end up poorer thanks to that cut.

    Let me explain each point in turn.   (more…)

  • DUNCAN GRAHAM. Ignoring the Doings Next Door

    On a recent edition of ABC TV’s free-for-all Summer Drum, participants sounded off about possible Democrat nominees for the 2020 US Presidential election.

    Social commentator Jane Caro sprayed the screen with alternatives. The Australian columnist Greg Sheridan, who comes across as reasonable on the telly, and community advocate Aisha Novakovich tossed in their suggestions.

    Host Adam Spencer assumed viewers knew all names and understood the American selection process, so didn’t intervene with descriptors. Nor did the talent interject: ‘Hey, this is asinine. We’ve got swags of homegrown issues to air.’

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  • GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

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

  • ABUL RIZVI: Government Continues to Pretend We Have No Air Borders

    In an echo of Donald Trump, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Immigration Minister David Coleman continued to pretend yesterday we only have sea borders and we can ignore our air borders. They announced closure of two detention centres (see here) without telling the Australian public that their mismanagement of the visa system will inevitably mean we will need lots of detention space in future if we are to ever regain control of the visa system and deal with the deluge of mainly non-genuine asylum seekers arriving by air (see here).   (more…)

  • JOHN MENADUE. The Best of 2018: Sydney Metro: A Forty Billion Dollar Deception?

    Like all our big cities, Sydney needs better public transport. The Government’s responsibility is to secure this with the best system, for the best price. But as a minimum, new investments cannot be allowed to threaten the productivity and growth potential of our existing public transport system and its commuters.

    Sydney Metro Rail is starting to show clear signs of failing us on all these counts.

    The Royal Commission into Banking shows us how ‘official’ stories can change dramatically once confronted with a process where evidence can be compelled and witnesses protected.

    On its first day in government after the next NSW election the new government should establish an enquiry into the developing rail mess.  (more…)

  • GEORGE MONBIOT. Advertising and Academia are controlling our thoughts. Didn’t you know?

    By abetting the ad industry, universities are leading us into temptation, when they should be enlightening us. (more…)

  • PETER BAUME. Labor shifts on pill testing.

    The Labor leadership has announced, if it wins government, that a drug summit will be held at which pill testing will be discussed.  This announcement was made in the run up to a March State election and so is a political action– it will appeal to a lot of younger voters in many electorates.  It is a common sense announcement. It is hoped that a trial of pill testing will follow and that pill testing will then be introduced more generally.  (more…)

  • THE GUARDIAN EDITORIAL Reforming capitalism: from controversy to consensus

    The claim that Britain’s economic model is systemically unjust was recently deemed radical and extreme. Now it is indisputable.  (more…)

  • STEPHANIE DOWRICK. The Best of 2018: Issues of Integrity, Not Sex.

    The story of a middle-aged husband and father talking up the “failure” of his marriage to justify his relationship with a much younger and previously childless woman is too clichéd to have much drama. The effect of this on the abandoned wife and, in this case, four daughters, would of course make for a story of genuine poignancy. We may even wonder what caused the younger woman to assume a future with a man who is not only married but an avowed and vocal upholder of traditional family values, whatever they are. (Loyalty, honesty, transparency and kindness could be a start.) (more…)

  • PETER SAINSBURY. Labor’s environmental policies: will the action match the rhetoric?

    The ALP has released details of the environmental policies they will introduce if elected during 2019. Central to these are a new Australian Environment Act and a new Federal Environmental Protection Agency. Labor’s challenge will be to provide national leadership to tackle the wide range of environmental threats to human health and survival, while giving businesses the policy certainty they need but not the free-passes some want.   (more…)

  • RICHARD CHAUVEL. The Cycle of Violence in Papua.

    The killing of construction workers in Nduga and the Indonesian security force’s subsequent military operations impact quite differently on the politics of the Papua – Indonesia conflict. It is contested whether the 16 construction workers were unarmed civilians or members of the security forces but the event on 2 December 2018  marked a departure from the predominantly peaceful, political struggle for independence developed since 2000. In terms of numbers of those killed, it was the largest attack in recent years. (more…)

  • JOHN AUSTEN. Public inquiries into NSW infrastructure projects.

    The former NSW Opposition Leader proposed a judicial inquiry into WestConnex and Sydney Light Rail.  The new Opposition Leader wants public inquiries into major infrastructure projects.  The NSW Transport Minister called this a ‘hairbrained idea’ saying projects are already subject to ‘independent oversight’.  He is wrong.  (more…)

  • RAMESH THAKUR and MICHAEL KIRBY. The 2018 decision merits a rich tribute for its transformative constitutionalism (The Hindu 30.12.2018)

    Trapped in a frozen political process amidst heightened public passions, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was out of sync with contemporary values on gender orientation. It is the courts that have been used as the key to unlock social progress. In a historic judgment, in Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India (2018), the Supreme Court stepped into the public policy void created by the timidity of political parties to strike down Section 377 that had criminalised homosexuality as an unnatural offence.  

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  • BOB CARR. The Best of 2018: How the Israeli Lobby operates.

    The letter was in the bulging file marked ‘Premier’s Invites’. The invitation was to an annual dinner where a peace prize was presented to a person chosen by the Sydney Peace Foundation at Sydney University. This year they had decided to present the award to Hanan Ashrawi. I knew her from CNN and had been impressed by her dignity. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Kill Bill remains the default option for Scott Morrison.

    Scott Morrison, his office informs us, is talking a short break – off to the country for a bit of biking, boating and fishing.  But not shooting; the image of our easy going prime minister with a lethal weapon in his hands might send the wrong message.   (more…)

  • CHRIS HEDGES. Banishing Truth – The story of Seymour Hersh. (Truthdig 24.12.2018)

    The investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, in his memoir “Reporter,” describes a moment when as a young reporter he overheard a Chicago cop admit to murdering an African-American man. The murdered man had been falsely described by police as a robbery suspect who had been shot while trying to avoid arrest. Hersh frantically called his editor to ask what to do.

    “The editor urged me to do nothing,” he writes. “It would be my word versus that of all the cops involved, and all would accuse me of lying. The message was clear: I did not have a story. But of course I did.” He describes himself as “full of despair at my weakness and the weakness of a profession that dealt so easily with compromise and self-censorship.”

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  • MICHAEL KEATING. The Best of 2018: Trickle down economics and the Emma Alberici article.

    The ABC says that their decision to withdraw Emma Alberici’s article was because it represented an opinion for which there is allegedly no evidence.  In fact there is plenty of evidence that increasing corporate profits will not lead to any increase in investment or employment and wages if aggregate demand continues to remain weak.  Furthermore this evidence has been endorsed by the IMF, the OECD and others.  Can the ABC cite anyone or provide evidence to the contrary, other than the ramblings of Scott Morrison and the Business Council?   (more…)

  • JOHN MENADUE. How Murdoch and Abeles twisted the arm of the Hawke Government to help Ansett Airlines at the expense of Qantas. (Edited and reposted)

     I have recalled  several times that Rupert Murdoch has said that he has never asked a Prime Minister for anything. That is quite brazen. From my own personal experience I know that is just not true.

    I was the intermediary when Rupert Murdoch asked  new Prim Minister Whitlam in late 1972 that he be appointed Australian High Commissioner to the UK

    One other example which I describe below is an example of the way  Rupert Murdoch operates, in this case in association with Peter Abeles, to extract aviation concessions from governments. At the time in 1988 Murdoch and Abeles had a business partnership in Ansett Airlines. I was then CEO of Qantas. (more…)

  • IAN DUNLOP. The Best of 2018: A Parliament Without Trust or Legitimacy Must Go

    The insults hurled by David Leyonhjelm at Sarah Hanson-Young recently put parliamentary discourse in the gutter. Leyonhjelm was roundly condemned, but not by our leaders. A limp slap across the knuckles from Turnbull and Shorten, then on to more pressing matters, hoping it will all go away. (more…)