Oh dear! This week new NBN Co boss Steven Rue told Senate Estimates they are still projecting that FTTN (the trouble-plagued technology using Telstra’s ageing copper wires) will be used until 2040. Experts, including Internet Australia chair Dr Paul Brooks, say FTTN will have to be replaced within 5-10 years of completion, preferably before then. (more…)
Category: Politics
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BEN HILLMAN. Xinjiang and the “Chinese Dream”.
Since ethnic riots broke out in Urumqi in 2009, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has steadily turned Xinjiang into a provincial police state. Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities are being closely surveilled and detained by security forces. (more…)
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ROSS GITTINS. Tax reform is pushed by rich males, for rich males (SMH 24.10.2018)
I know it’s a shocking thing for an economics writer to confess, but I’ve lost my faith in the Search for the Golden Tax System. I no longer believe that reforming our tax system is the magic key to improving the nation’s economic and social wellbeing. (more…)
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TONY KEVIN. What Aust Govt should do about the Khashoggi murder and other great Saudi crimes of state.
I believe Khashoggi was coldly and brutally murdered in a symbolic and deliberate medieval deterrent state punishment in a Saudi consulate on foreign soil. Australia should declare the Saudi Arabian Ambassador here persona non grata, and should withdraw our Ambassador in Saudi Arabia.
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ANDREW FARRAN. Brexit: The bus can be avoided after all!
It had been expected that Prime Minister Theresa May would be thrown under a bus, figuratively speaking, this week, next week, or sometime soon. If this has not happened it would be that no potential usurper has a plan that could secure passage through Parliament. Meanwhile, it is said, she is staring down her political opponents as might Boudicca in similar circumstances! (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE. Privatisation is a clear example of the failure of neoliberalism.
Neoliberalism puts markets and companies before society and the public interest. That is why after 23 successive years of economic growth there is a widespread sense that the economy is working for a privileged few and at the expense of the many. The growing popular sense of resentment and unfairness is not at all surprising.
A key feature of neo liberalism has been privatisation.It has mostly failed the majority but brought large unearned benefits for a few. (more…)
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Australians oppose Trump’s decision to declare Jerusalem Israeli capital.
A special Roy Morgan SMS Survey taken on December 14-15 2017 shows a large 76% of Australians opposed to US President Donald Trump’s decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel with only 24% of Australians expressing support for Trump’s decision earlier this week.
This article was published by Roy Morgan on the 16th of December 2017. (more…)
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VIJAY PRASHAD. Khashoggi saga takes spotlight off Yemen tragedy.
By now, few doubt that Jamal Khashoggi is dead. It is most likely that the Saudi journalist – who once advised kings and billionaires – was killed by an interrogation team sent from Saudi Arabia to meet with him in Turkey.
This article was published by Asia Times on the 18th of October 2018. (more…)
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MICHAEL TOMASKY. Fighting to Vote.
If you grew up, as I did, in the 1960s and 1970s, watching (albeit through a child’s eyes) the civil rights movement notch victory after victory, you could be forgiven for thinking at the time that that happy condition was normal. By high school, in the late 1970s, I began reading some history and learning about the struggles people endured to win the right to vote in this country. I thought then that these battles were over and done and won—that a new consensus had been achieved.
This article was published by The New York Review of Books on the 11th of October 2018 issue. (more…)
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BOB CARR. Australians have no interest in joining U.S. cold war against China
Alexander Downer chewed ruminatively on his steak: “If you want a cold war with China, you will get a cold war with China.” (more…)
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MUNGO MACCALLUM. Welcome to chaos.
Emergency warning: off the streets, go to the storm shelters immediately, It is too late to flee – save yourselves as best you can. (more…)
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MACK WILLIAMS. Korea: Still many challenges ahead
Despite President Trump’s exchange of “love letters” with the North Korean leader, from the public record it seems that Secretary of State Pompeo’s last discussions with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang failed to achieve any significant breakthrough on denuclearisation. But there have been several important developments in the Korean scene over the past few months which impinge directly on Australian national interests. (more…)
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LYNDSAY CONNORS. Morality, marketing or a strange convergence of both?
In the final weeks of the run-up to the Wentworth by-election, the Prime Minister promised rapid amendments to anti-discrimination law to remove the freedom of private schools to expel students on the basis of their sexuality, his own fears of ‘gender whispering’ in public schools that he claimed had driven him to enrol his children in a private religious school being cast aside with such haste that it took some sections of the private school sector by surprise. (more…)
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MAX HAYTON. Democracies work despite flaws.
The electoral laws in New Zealand and Australia differ in significant ways. There are claims New Zealand may have the more democratic system. (more…)
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MARTIN HIRST. Who’s got the energy mix to win the Victorian state election?
As the Victorian election looms, energy prices are a critical issue for voters. The Liberals espouse scrapping the renewable energy target and lifting the ban on onshore gas extraction. Labor has its program for expanding wind and solar. Voters have a clear choice on energy and climate but have been presented with a false dichotomy: cheap and dirty versus clean and expensive. Will voters buy it? Academic and journalist, Dr Martin Hirst, looks at the facts and reports that, whoever prevails, wholesale power prices are falling anyway. (more…)
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The three structural dead weights of India–Pakistan relations
On 2 September, ahead of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit, the Pentagon announced the cancellation of US$300 million in aid to Pakistan for its alleged failure to take effective action against terrorist networks operating from its soil, including the Haqqani network and the Afghan Taliban. This was part of a broader cut announced on 4 January. Meanwhile, the history of unsettled borders, periodic wars and continual armed clashes, combined with growing nuclear arsenals in both countries, makes India–Pakistan relations a highly critical question for Asia and world security. (more…)
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JOHN STAPLETON. The fiasco of Australia’s telecommunications.
Complaints against the troubled broadband network have risen yet again with the latest Telecommunications Ombudsman’s Report, released this week, showing significant increases in complaints over the last year. (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE. Wentworth wipe-out!
The only surprise in Wentworth was the scale of the Liberal Party collapse. Spin and marketing by the Prime Minister was easily recognised. The poor product could not be hidden.
Within twenty four hours of the debacle both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer told us that there would be no change of policy,particularly on climate change. They both have tin ears.
The outstanding result for Kerryn Phelps shows once again the reservations electors have about the performance of our major parties. Their vote continues to decline. Strong independents in safe Coalition seats could have a field day at the next general election. (more…)
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MUNGO MACCALLUM. A fairy story.
It started as theatre of the absurd, but by the end of the week it had become an increasingly improbable fairy story. (more…)
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ROGER SCOTT. Wentworth byelection – tale of two (other) cities.
Events in Canberra over the past weeks call into question the quality of governance which Australians can reasonably expect from our politicians. By contrast the Queensland political system and its parliamentary processes can be seen to offer the Westminster model functioning in optimal fashion. Could this be attributed to the relative significance of female politicians at the core of decision-making? (more…)
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KIM WINGEREI. An Australian Spring
The Wentworth by-election was not just a resounding loss for the Liberal Party, but also the clearest message yet that the people have had enough of party politics. Fielding an impressive and like-able candidate who did (almost) nothing wrong in his campaign, the Labor Party lost, too. (more…)
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JACK WATERFORD. Morrison lacks whatever it takes.
Only about half the present population were around paying any sort of attention to politics when Graham Richardson was a great power in the Labor Party, in the Hawke and Keating governments and in the land. He had power and menace, and openly relished a reputation for ruthlessness, faithlessness and a complete lack of sentimentality in pushing what he would claim to be in the interests of party re-election. Anything – policy, platform or principles – or anyone – as long as it was not him – in the way of what he thought best for the party was excess baggage had to be disposed of, without delay or excessive emotion. (more…)
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ROSS BURNS. Moving to Jerusalem
If you wanted to launch a thought bubble to see if there was any room for manoeuvre on Australia long-standing position on the central Middle East issues, would you do it the way chosen by PM Morrison this week? Certainly not if you wanted to justify it in the context of Australia’s commitment to a ‘two state solution’. A decision to follow Trump’s move of the American embassy to Jerusalem would essentially ditch any outcome based on negotiations between the two parties, handing Israel in advance most of the key points of a ‘final status’ outcome. (more…)
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ALI KAZAK. Mr Morrison in Jerusalem: serving war or peace?
In his recent press conference Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: he is open to the suggestion of recognition of Israel’s capital in West Jerusalem, “the opportunity” for “a capital for a Palestinian Authority” in East Jerusalem and the Government’s commitment to a two-state solution in the Middle East living side by side remains Australia’s policy. He informed us of his decision to vote against the United Nations resolution on Palestine to chair the G77, his proposal to the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to appoint defence attaches in the Australian and Israeli embassies to further enhance cooperation on defence and of Australia’s review of Iran nuclear deal. (more…)
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DENNIS ARGALL. A letter from Italy: to put some global and Australian issues in perspective.
In the languages of the mighty, in the temples of globalisation, the simplicities of neoliberal globalisation and orthodoxies of Brussels and money, Italy is the coming big problem, bigger than Greece, needing to be reined in, needing to conform and spend less. A country which many of the serious and mighty think is a bit of a joke.
My intention in writing this, against a backdrop of daily fast paced developments, is to show the complexities of this country, its compassion and passions and urgencies. Things are in a ditch here. Whereas from 2010 to 2015 Australia’s GDP grew from USD 0.92 to 1.32 trillion, Italy’s shrank from 2.4 to 1.9 in similar period, having doubled in the first decade of this millennium.
Italy’s intention is to deepen its budget deficit in 2019, contrary to EU wishes. Compromise will be difficult. There are elements in the budget which are naive; the Brussels lambasting will be severe, Merkel seeks compromise, but Brussels is Brussels. (more…)
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GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media. (more…)
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HUGH EAKIN. The Khashoggi Killing: America’s Part in a Saudi Horror (New York Review, 18.10.18)
In the spring of 2012, I made an extended visit to Saudi Arabia to report on the effects of the Arab Spring there. The arch-conservative oil monarchy was pursuing a robust counter-revolution, but the uprisings had brought new energy to reformers across the region. I was curious to see how Saudis themselves saw their country’s future. (more…)
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WILLIAM BRIGGS. There are no racists here.
Race and racism have come to dominate political debate in Australia in recent times. However, as Senator Ian McDonald assured us earlier this year, racism does not exist in Australia! The Liberal Party have declared themselves a racist free zone, although the Sudanese community in Melbourne might see Dutton’s statements that they are nothing more than a collection of crime gangs a little inflammatory. There is no racism in the ALP, although Shorten has claimed that foreign workers are responsible for a rise in unemployment. Both parties share policies that effectively criminalise asylum-seekers. The Greens are not racist, but there has been an appreciable rise in anti-Chinese racism following Greens leader Cassie O’Connor’s outbursts. Nobody is a racist and yet racism is on the rise. (more…)
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STEPHEN HOWES. Bringing in backpackers is not the right way to get more workers onto farms.
Suddenly, getting workers onto farms is a top political priority.
Over the weekend, and again in parliament on Monday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced plans to get more backpackers working on farms. (more…)