Category: Politics

What the astonishing Chiune Sugihara teaches us about moral heroism. (more…)

The constant reiteration in speeches of a “Rules-Based Order” is reducing the concept to relative meaninglessness, lacking either content or policy. There is already in existence a rules-based order which is undergoing change. The question is: what kind if change should that be.  (more…)

When you see a Prime Minister wonder into a marginal seat, you know a federal election is on the horizon. Scott Morrison did just that at the start of this month when he joined local member David Coleman in the ultra marginal seat of Banks. The purpose: to reconnect with the electorate’s large Chinese-Australian population and at the same time send a message to our largest trading partner.  (more…)

President Trump’s announcement on Wednesday, Dec. 6 that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel received widespread criticism. Observers quickly recognized the decision as related not so much to national security concerns as to domestic U.S. politics and promises candidate Trump made to his evangelical supporters, who welcomed the announcement.. (more…)

As US-China relations deteriorate on various fronts, the last thing Beijing wants is for North Korea to fall into Washington’s sphere of influence (more…)

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…)

Prime Minister Morrison’s announcements of a potential move of our embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and less newsworthy  but nonetheless significant, of a review of our support for the Iran Nuclear Deal, threaten seriously to prejudice  the Australian national interest. (more…)

Prime Minister Morrison has been channeling Donald Trump for the Wentworth by-election, on two key policies and in his handling of the truth of important matters. (more…)

To contemplate moving the Australian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to shore up the chances of the Liberal candidate for Wentworth, Dave Sharma, is a small but very significant example of what is horribly wrong with Australian politics and why so few Australians now have any trust in the political process. That the Prime Minister denies any connection between the thought bubble and the weekend byelection stretches credulity and pokes fun at the electorate’s intelligence. What is it about our present government that it would even contemplate such a course?  Please Mr Morrison you can do better than this, Australia certainly deserves better than this. (more…)

In a region where traces of the 2008 and 1997-98 carnage linger, Washington’s assault on Asia’s biggest growth engine could ignite another disaster.  (more…)

Japan is now fully embarked on navigating a course through the economic and national security minefield that lies between the United States and China. (more…)

Hugh White in his controversial 2010 book, China Choice, warned Australian policy makers that with the rise of China, the time would come when the US would have to make a choice as to whether to withdraw gradually from East Asia and allow China strategic space for its continued expansion or to take a stand and seek to limit China’s rise. (more…)

For most of his twenty-seven-year career in national politics, Jair Bolsonaro has been a fringe figure on the far right of Brazilian politics, hopping among nine different political parties and yelling his support for Brazil’s bygone military dictatorship into empty congressional chambers. All that has changed. Last weekend, the former army captain won over 46 percent of the vote in Brazil’s presidential race—close to an outright win in the first round. He goes forward to the run-off election on October 28 as the clear favorite. (more…)

One of the most interesting aspects of this year’s St Petersburg International Economic Forum was the way it undermined commonplaces about a post-Soviet Russia with an economy is on the skids as a result of sanctions, international vilification, and its overdependence on energy sector revenues. How plausible were the Forum’s optimistic evocation of a new world economic order, shaped by a Fourth Industrial Revolution, in which Russia can play an integral role? (more…)

Perhaps the most masterful PR campaign of international diplomacy this year was the visit to the US of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman commonly known as MBS. He was feted on a two-week coast-to-coast tour by politicians, big business, oil tycoons and the tech industry. President Trump fawned over him with a photographic display of the billions of dollars of American weaponry the Saudis were buying. ‘Just peanuts to you’, said Trump with some admiration. The media lined up like drooling supplicants. The main reason was that they all thought the new ruler of Saudi Arabia in all but name was a reformist who would steer the theocratic kingdom into the sunlit world of freedom and democracy.  (more…)

At a ‘Chinese community luncheon event’ at Hurstville on 4 October 2018, Prime Minister Morrison spelt out clearly the importance of a ‘mutual beneficial relationship’ between Australia and China. 

This speech received wide coverage in the Chinese media in Australia, but minimal coverage in our mainstream English language media. This was very strange. 

A group of former Australian diplomats and those closely involved in our relations with China decided that we should publicly record and support Prime Minister Morrison’s statement. See below. (John Menadue)   (more…)

Two events in the past couple of weeks have signalled disturbing trends in local and global politics. It might seem a long bow to draw a link between a city council election in Hobart with the sometimes rarefied atmosphere of international relations, but there is a link and it is a serious one.  (more…)