Category: Politics

  • JOHN MENADUE. The facts don’t show that Liberals are better economic managers.

    Malcolm Turnbull has made it clear that his mantra of ‘Jobs-and-Growth’ will be at the forefront of his campaign in the next election. This week he will be talking about the growth of a million jobs in 5 years, but there is nothing really remarkable in that on average over the last 15 years about 200,000 new jobs have been created each year. Further, it is less impressive because our population is growing by about two million every five years.  (more…)

  • JOHN STAPLETON. Abbott and Turnbull’s Assault on Freedom of Speech.

    The Abbott and Turnbull governments have mounted the greatest attack on freedom of speech in Australian history. (more…)

  • ALISON BROINOWSKI. War on demand

    The UK and the US moved closer this week to enabling their governments to bypass legal and  democratic processes in committing forces to war, virtually anywhere, at any time and continuously. Australian politicians and the mainstream media seem to assume that this has nothing to do with Australia and we are not interested. (more…)

  • ‘We know where your kids live’ – John Bolton to OPCW DG José Bustani, March 2002

    In justifying her decision to commit the UK to joining the US and France in the unilateral air strikes on Syria on 14 April, PM Theresa May said in Parliament on 16 April that a requirement for UN authorisation would effectively give Russia a veto on British foreign policy. Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn called for a new War Powers Act to force the government to get parliamentary approval before launching military action instead of going along with the ‘whims’ of the US president. ‘There is no more serious issue than the life and death matters of military action’, he said. Australia’s Labor Party should take note. (more…)

  • MICHAEL KEATING. Why Australia Needs A Stronger Revenue Base

    Earlier this week the Australia Institute released an open letter signed by 48 eminent Australians calling for an increase in taxation. As we might have expected, the Treasurer, Scott Morrison, without any reflection, dismissed this call for higher taxes as “a numpty of an idea”, adding that “The idea that you increase taxes to grow the economy is stupid”. This article argues that instead it is the Treasurer who is wrong, and that full budget repair will not be possible over the medium term unless deliberate action is taken to increase government revenue.   (more…)

  • Syria a symptom of a broken international order

    Last Saturday US, British and French forces bombed three chemical weapons facilities in Damascus in retaliation for the alleged use of chemical weapons by Syrian forces in Douma on 6–8 April that killed around 70 people. (more…)

  • SCOTT BURCHILL. What The West Really Thinks About Chemical Weapons Attacks.

    How genuine is the West’s concern about the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria last week? Did they constitute a “line in the sand”, a crime so egregious that military strikes by Washington, London and Paris were necessary and morally justified? The historical record would suggest exactly the opposite. (more…)

  • ROSS BURNS. In Syria, the fog of war

    Chemical weapons have been a feature of the Syrian conflict since 2011. Are we any closer to a strategy to deal with their use — and with the forces fuelling the wider conflict? (more…)

  • DAN MCGARRY. Want to lead in the Pacific? Try listening first

    The average Australian’s conception of Pacific island nations is so limited it makes some of us wonder if they even want to understand. Our voices—and our reality—have been pointedly and repeatedly ignored in the media, and in the corridors of power. (more…)

  • MUNGO MaCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull still doesn’t get it.

    Malcolm Turnbull still doesn’t get it. 

    While desperately playing down the significance of his own 30th Newspoll loss on the unconvincing basis that he wished he hadn’t mentioned Tony Abbott’s, our leader has taken what he apparently considers the high road. (more…)

  • Downer leaps into British political fray with gratuitous advice

    There was a time, back in the days of childhood, when everything that was modern and power about Britain seemed to begin with a “V”: Vanguard and Vauxhall cars, Vickers Viscount aircraft, the Victor, Vulcan and Valiant bombers…Alexander Downer wants to  build back those days when Brits and Aussies were brothers together. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Integrating the events for the able-bodied and the disabled into the same Commonwealth Games program.

    Instead of simply a celebration of perfectly presented superbeings the games have had a texture that has not been there in the past. We have seen inclusive, even human overtones that have transcended the usual pageant of brawn which can and should be admired, but seldom produces the emotion and empathy we have seen in the last week.   (more…)

  • JOCELYN CHEY. China Watchers Are Not China Stooges.

    Australia needs informed and balanced study and reporting on China more than ever before. Informed opinion depends on the ability to see both sides of the picture and to avoid over-simplification.  (more…)

  • SCOTT BURCHILL. The attack on Syria

    There are seven points to consider after the US, UK and French attacks on Syria last week. (more…)

  • PETER RODGERS. Israel and Gaza: another bout of what?

    Given Gaza’s appalling living conditions, the outburst of violence on the Israeli-Gaza border should come as no surprise. The question is whether its signals a shift in Palestinian tactics, aimed at using Israel’s disproportionate violence to revive jaded regional and international interest in the Palestinian cause.   (more…)

  • VIC ROWLANDS. Reclaiming democracy

    Democracy across the world is under siege and facing its biggest challenge. Despite different interpretations of democracy in terms of process, – voting age, optional or compulsory, the new world is creating fundamental strains which threaten at least its current status, if not viability. (more…)

  • MACK WILLIAMS. Vanuatu : Chinese Cargo Cult ?

    Fairfax Media’s awakened interest in the South Pacific would have been only too welcome if it had not been sparked by a leak from the all too familiar ‘senior defence sources’ in Canberra and Washington which so distorted the scene.   (more…)

  • GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND …

    Josh Frydenberg and Malcolm Turnbull would like us to believe that if only recalcitrant states could sign on to the Commonwealth’s “National Energy Guarantee”, energy policy will be set on a stable path.  A more realistic view is provided by the World Economic Forum, which, in a short and hard-hitting “while paper”, warns that “tsunamic forces could swiftly upend businesses and also profoundly alter the outlook for how energy systems affect emissions and sustainable development” in all countries.

    “Never let good policy or consistency get in the way of a donor’s dollar or some leadership undermining” writes Crispin Hull on the misnamed Monash Forum. He compares the demise of coal-fired electricity with the demise of the film camera.

    What’s keeping the lid on wages growth in Australia?  Writing in the Fairfax press Jessica Irvine has a short article on the confounding situation of low unemployment and low wages. A decline in union membership stands out as a compelling explanation.

    In the New York Times Michelle Goldberg has a short review of Madeleine Albright’s book Fascism: A Warning.  Goldberg supports her review with reference to surveys by Freedom House, which “reported that 71 countries suffered declines in political rights and civil liberties last year, while only 35 saw improvements. Rather than standing against this trend, America under Trump has become part of it.”

    James Comey has a story to tell and it is very persuasive – New York Times

    Donald Trump has spent his whole career in the company of grifters, cons and crooks. Now that he’s president, that strategy isn’t working — for him or for the country – New York Times editorial.

    US taking the world to the brink – Rick Sterling, Consortiumnews.

    Winning slowly(on climate change) is the same as losing – Bill McKibben, Rolling Stone.

    Malcolm Turnbull didn’t walk away from his believes because he never had any – Peter Lewis, the Guardian.

    Frydenberg takes the low road: It’s a weak NEG or nothing – Giles Parkinson, RenewEconomy

    Anne Aly and Jacqui Lambie tell compelling stories about life before politics – Brett Evans, Inside.

    Murray-Darling – when the river runs dry – the Guardian.

    Beating the khaki drum: how Australian identity was militarised – Paul Daley, the Guardian.

    How Alinta turned into Australia’s most aggressive energy business- the Canberra Times.

    The Tesla big battery is changing the way people think about the grid – RenewEconomy

    On Saturday Extra with Geraldine Doogue this April 14th,  marine heatwaves and what they mean to our ecosystem; a MSF doctor returns from Yemen where even before the war the healthcare system was lacking; what can leaders learn from Dwight Eisenhower with Louis Galambos, Professor of History at John Hopkins University; what does the Trump and Bezos stoush tell us about progressive liberals in the US with Thomas Frank , US political analyst and how the 1918 Spanish Flu changed the world with science journalist Laura Spinney. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/

     

     

     

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  • MICHAEL O’KEEFE. Response to rumours of a Chinese military base in Vanuatu speak volumes about Australian foreign policy

    Rumour has it that Vanuatu has agreed to a Chinese request to establish a military base. The substance of this rumour is highly speculative at the least and disingenuous at most. Regardless of the truth, the fact that it raises alarm about the threat of Chinese military expansionism speaks volumes about Australian foreign policy, particularly toward the Pacific.It  looks like another beat up in the anti China phobia (more…)

  • JOHN MENADUE. Media catch-up on Newcastle Port.

    Drawing on a report from Deloitte yesterday, Matt Wade in several Fairfax newspapers breathlessly told us that restrictions on privatised ports was adding to Sydney’s gridlock.  He added that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is now investigating the secret restrictions on Newcastle Port which were introduced when Port Botany and the port of Newcastle were being privatised.

    ( This old news was at least not as bad as the media beat up on Vanuatu!)

    John Austen, in P & I, on 5 September 2016, broke all the details about this port restriction and “how port privatisation will hobble Newcastle”.  A month later, on 14 October 2016, I wrote a follow up piece “Privatisation and the hobbling of Newcastle Port”.

    John Austen’s article of 5 September 2016 follows.   (more…)

  • Substituting question marks for exclamation marks

    ‘Fake news’ seems unavoidably associated with Donald Trump. He insists on casting himself as the victim of fake news even as any resemblance between his compulsive tweeting and facts seems largely coincidental. Still, it seems a pity that the rumours proved false of the Pentagon having increased the nuclear launch codes to more than 150 characters in order to stop the president from tweeting them. (more…)

  • Morals, slogans and PR hype

    Australian politicians and media have been beating their hairy chests accusing and warning China and Russia over their failings. One is reminded of the famous  thundering headline in The Launceston Examiner ‘We warn the Tzar of Russia’ . The question is what is the motive in all of this? Do they really hope to influence these countries or is to please the US? Perhaps the more likely explanation is that it is designed to impress Australian voters? Australia has morphed from the post Vietnam distrust of militarism to almost a warrior cult so they may hope their bellicose bombast will resound well domestically. There is also an implied claim to the moral high ground  – which is hardly unique to Australia. The rhetoric from China and Russia is not much different but we think we are different. This article looks briefly at some of the claims made. (more…)

  • SOPHIE VORRATH. Why Turnbull will “never” back renewables.

    A federal government led by Malcolm Turnbull will “never” back policies that accelerate the shift to renewables, effectively tackle climate change, or help to phase out coal plants. (more…)

  • ABUL RIZVI. Inter-generational inequality, the fertility rate and population ageing.

    Australia’s fertility rate continued its steady decline in 2016-17 and fell to 1.732, close to the level when Peter Costello rang the alarm about low fertility accelerating our rate of population ageing. It is also a level well below that assumed in the 2015 Inter-generational Report (1.9) and in the ABS’s 2012 population projections (1.8).  (more…)

  • All bets off on the Korea summit outcome.

    CANBERRA – The pieces of the jigsaw are falling into place on the Korean Peninsula. But the overall picture — a denuclearized North Korea, a nuclear-weapon-free zone for all of Northeast Asia and/or a U.S. withdrawal from East Asia — remains fuzzy.

     Reaction to the March 8 announcement of a summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un was mixed. Some thought Trump’s threats of “fire and fury” had spooked Kim into a climbdown. Others argued a one-on-one meeting with the U.S. president will confer legitimacy on the North Korean leader as an equal. (more…)

  • JOHN MENADUE. Reforming the governance of Cricket Australia.

    Yesterday, I wrote about giving Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft a second chance. The focus has rightly been on them, but deliberately hidden from sight until forced out into the open has been Cricket Australia and its Board . (more…)

  • DAVID STEPHENS. Brendan Nelson’s bunker and with cap in hand: contrasts in funding our national cultural institutions

    The Director of the Australian War Memorial, Dr Brendan Nelson, has been spruiking the Memorial’s plans for a massive expansion. He showed the ABC’s Andrew Greene around the Memorial, pointing out its need for more space, particularly to show big exhibits like helicopters and jet fighters, as well as for telling the story of current and recent military campaigns. (Paul Daley comments in Guardian Australia.) (more…)

  • JOHN TULLOH: Be careful what you say about Malaysia.

    Perhaps it is time for DFAT to issue a travel advisory about Malaysia, namely be very careful what you say about the country. Uttering anything amounting to ‘fake news’ is now a criminal offence. Offenders can be fined up to $166,000 or be jailed for as long as six years – even if you’ve never been to the country. (more…)

  • NICOLE GURRAN and CATHERINE GILBERT. England expects 40% of new housing developments will be affordable, why can’t Australia?

    Australia has record levels of supply of new properties but despite various government interventions, housing still remains unaffordable for many. (more…)

  • MEDIA ALERT: APPEAL LODGED AGAINST FEDERAL COURT DECISION IN ‘PALACE LETTERS’ CASE

    Professor Jenny Hocking has lodged an appeal against the decision of the Federal Court last month in ‘Jennifer Hocking v. Director-General, National Archives of Australia’. The Court ruled that the Palace letters’, between the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, and the Queen relating to Kerr’s dismissal of the Whitlam government, are ‘personal’ not Commonwealth records, continuing the Queen’s embargo of them. (more…)