Who wins from last week’s disastrous week in politics and what can we expect it to give rise to if anything? Nothing occurs in a vacuum and now that the carnage has been temporarily suspended the commentariat is attempting to find continuities and discontinuities that might possess some explanatory value. (more…)
Category: Politics
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ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ A multicultural whirlwind blowing up for the next election
Turnbull’s gone and with him, hopefully, his recurrent but incorrect mantra of Australia as the most successful multicultural society in the world. With the next federal election now just over the horizon, understanding how the ethnic vote delivered the last election to the Coalition may help us to understand how Australia’s multicultural present could shape the next government. Moreover the concerns of these over 150 different ethnic groupings, a mishmash of cultural, familial, human rights and political worries, may become vitally important once more at the tips of the voting tails.
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ANTHONY PUN. How do the Chinese settlers in Australia feel regarding the deepening dispute between China and Australia?
The “China Panic”, a phrase coined by Professor Bob Carr, ex-Australian Foreign Minister and Director of Australian China Relations Institute (ACRI), started in December 2016 when the media and the Turnbull government started to “bash” China starting with a media blitz about Chinese political donations to political parties and alleging breach of parliamentary sovereignty and followed by proposed legislation, the Foreign Interference Bills, which was subsequently passed in the Federal Parliament. These events generated xenophobic overtones against the Chinese Australians. The government seems to change direction when PM Turnbull delivered a conciliatory speech at the University of New South Wales attended by the Chinese diplomats. Despite the turnaround, there has been collateral damage done to the 1.2 million Chinese Australians. Notwithstanding recent adversities, Chinese Australians are hopeful for better times as they believe Australians are fair minded. (more…)
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E. TAMMY KIM. Moon Over Korea (New York Review of Books 16.08.18 Issue)
Moon Jae-in eui Unmyeong [The Destiny of Moon Jae-in]
by Moon Jae-in
Seoul: Bookpal, 488 pp., ₩15,000
In Singapore on June 12, as Donald Trump vigorously shook hands with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, the man behind this improbable meeting leaned forward in his chair and smiled. South Korean president Moon Jae-in, just thirteen months into his five-year term, had helped arrange the first-ever summit between an American president and the leader of North Korea. Yet Moon was careful to keep a respectful distance. He watched on a television monitor in the Blue House, the presidential compound in Seoul. It was, however symbolic, a goal he had pursued over two decades in politics, and it brought him a step closer to healing familial and national wounds. Moon is a child of the Korean War, the son of refugees from the pre-division North. But unlike Trump and Kim, who swapped boasts and missile threats just months before their handshake, Moon didn’t feel the need to take credit. (more…)
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TONY KEVIN. Australian politics: There has not been nearly enough change.
Reflections on last week’s political bloodbath and on what needs to happen now.
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ANTONIO SPADARO SJ. The prosperity gospel-dangerous and different
SCOTT MORRISON is described as a devout Christian who worships at Shirelive, an American style Pentecostal Church in Sydney.. He formerly belonged to Hillsong. An essential feature of the ‘prosperity gospel’ of Pentecostalists is that prosperity, success and good health is a sign of God’s favour. And the lack of faith leads to poverty and sickness. On this reckoning God does not care for the poor,the sick and refugees.
In the article below Antonio Spadaro describes the origin and spread of the prosperity gospel. These are extracts from an article in La Civilta Cattolica of 18 July 2018. The full article can be found here. John Menadue (more…)
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MICHAEL KELLY. A journey with urban refugees in Bangkok.
Some days I feel like a people trafficker, though I’m not making a zack out of the trafficking. Other days I see myself as a latter-day Oskar Schindler. But mostly I just feel trapped along with the 1000 refugees and asylum seekers I’m doing my not-very-successful best to get the hell out of an open prison called Bangkok. (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE & IAN McAULEY: A new “leader”, but no sight of leadership.
The Liberal Party has a new “leader”, but there is still a dearth of the leadership in the Liberal Party, which seems to be unable to deal with hard issues, such as meeting our emissions target and coping with the effects of climate change. And there are much harder problems of economic structure calling for political leadership.
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JERRY ROBERTS Politics and Religion
Fraser Anning has given us the most spectacular take on The White Australia Policy since Labor legend Arthur Calwell’s 1947 quip: “Two Wongs don’t make a White.” Calwell later explained that he was making a joke at the expense of the member for Balaclava, T.W. White. I accept his explanation just as I accept Senator Anning’s statement that he did not know the dark Nazi use of the words, “final solution.” (more…)
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SCOTT BURCHILL. Anti-Americanism and moral panic in the West
After a similar challenge posed by George W. Bush following popular opposition to his invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Trump presidency is another reminder to America’s allies of the dangers that emerge when individuals, rather than economic and political structures, are considered significant agents of change. (more…)
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JAMES KYNGE. The US cannot halt China’s march to global tech supremacy.
The moment may one day be glorified in propaganda art. As the mist rolled off the Yangtze River, Xi Jinping stood on top of the Three Gorges hydropower dam in Yichang, a proud symbol of engineering prowess, and proclaimed that China would blaze its own trail to become a technology superpower. (more…)
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. Morrison is, and has always been, a creature of the right, both economically and socially.
A bandaid has been administered to the schism between moderates and rightists but the war will go on unabated. (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE Tracking Peter Costello is not a good start for Josh Frydenberg .
After failing with his National Energy Guarantee, Josh Frydenberg rushed to Melbourne to get some tips from Peter Costello about handling his new Treasury portfolio. In fawning style over coffee, Frydenberg described Costello as ‘the greatest living Treasurer’. It is part of the Liberal Party myth that conservatives are better economic managers. But it is just not so and for Peter Costello in particular. (more…)
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SUSAN RYAN .When it comes to women, all Liberals are conservatives.
It was with a sense of irony that on Saturday August 25th, a few hours after the parliamentary Liberal party concluded days of ugly self-mutilation by electing Scott Morrison as Prime Minister and Josh Frydenberg as deputy liberal leader, I attended at Old Parliament House Canberra a government sponsored launch of an exhibition to honour 75 years of women in the federal parliament. In 1943 Enid Lyons, Liberal, was elected to the House of Representatives and Dorothy Tangney, Labor, from Western Australia became the first woman senator. Despite Lyons’ earlier history as a Labor party member, and her marriage to Joseph Lyons who entered federal parliament for Labor but ratted and became a liberal prime minister, modern liberals have taken great pride in owning the first woman in the House. Last week they could have provided themselves with further cause for self-congratulation. They could have elected Julie Bishop as the first female liberal prime minister. (more…)
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Morrison names leading anti-wind campaigner as energy minister
New prime minister Scott Morrison has ended the experiment of combining the energy and environment portfolios, and appointed one of the country’s most prominent anti-wind campaigners as energy minister, and a former mining industry lawyer as environment minister. (more…)
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. ‘Truth isn’t truth’
While Australia was transfixed by the events of 21-24 August, troubles for another leader were mounting in Washington. Turnbull lost the Lodge, and Trump has not yet lost the White House, but a common actor in both dramas remains the Murdoch media. (more…)
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RAMESH THAKUR. Challenging the Peter Principle: From Julie Bishop to Marise Payne
Before coming to Julie Bishop’s record as foreign minister in areas of my particular interest, three preliminary comments. (more…)
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JAMES O’NEILL. Julie Bishop’s Unmemorable Tenure as Foreign Minister
The departure of Julie Bishop as Foreign Minister is no cause for regret. Her tenure was marked by hypocrisy, selective application of international law, and blindness to geopolitical realities. (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE. Julie Bishop – Foreign Minister or Senior Consular Officer A repost from 16 May 2018
In this blog and elsewhere, Geoff Raby, a former Australian Ambassador to China, has pointed out that Australia’s relationship with China is unlikely to improve until Julie Bishop is sacked as Foreign Minister. The departure of Julie Bishop as Foreign Minister is necessary, but it is unlikely that Malcolm Turnbull will act. If he did so, it would imperil his own tenuous hold on Liberal Party leadership.
Almost two years ago on 14 June 2016, I wrote about Julie Bishop’s continual and serious failings as Foreign Minister. Those failings have increased since then particularly with the management of our relations with China and more and more major cuts in ODA
That article of two years ago is reproduced below (more…)
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IAN McAULEY. We sympathise with you Malcolm, but you should have read your mail
Re-visiting an open letter sent to Turnbull just after his narrow victory in 2016. And a suggestion how he may go on contributing to the public purpose. (more…)
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. Abbott will find another patsy in his endless search for revenge.
In the end, a vestige of sanity prevailed.
The Liberal lemmings baulked on the brink and decided the final step into the chasm of a Peter Dutton prime ministership was just too crazy, and drew back. At least a bare majority of them did; they were happy to lurch well to the right, but not to launch themselves into the abyss. (more…)
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MACK WILLIAMS. Korea: We’re here because we are here!
Korean issues have often been edged out of the headlines in the past few months by a plethora of other global issues but they remain far from being resolved. “War War” been replaced by “Jaw Jaw” at least for the moment. Much is still simmering along largely beneath the radar. And much has been clouded by the chaotic US domestic scene – not only surrounding President Trump’s own governance problems but equally his relations with the US intelligence and defence establishment. So where do things stand right now? (more…)
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LAURIE PATTON. auDA reveals new governance model following government review.
auDA – the body overseeing the management of our Internet domain names system – has released the details of a new governance model. This follows a review by the Department of Communications and the Arts that saw communications minister Mitch Fifield give the organisation three months to deal with a range of matters DoCA said meant it was no longer fit for purpose. (more…)
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DAVID HUTT. Does China really dominate Southeast Asia?
Widespread reports of China’s hegemony over the neighbouring region miss the nuance of fast-shifting political and strategic dynamics. (more…)
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BRUCE WEARNE. Has the Party Ended?
“I’m not doing anything until I get legal advice as to whether his (Dutton’s) membership of the Parliament is constitutional.” (more…)
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FRANK BRENNAN. Consolations from the Liberal Party mess.
What a mess! Poor Fellow My Country. Today is not a day for reckoning about any big policy issues, because none of them was in play when members of the Liberal Party cast their votes in the party room. (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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GILES PARKINSON & SOPHIE VORRATH “Scoal-Mo” as PM. What does that mean for climate and energy policy? (RenewEconomy, 24.08.18)
It says something about the state of Australia’s politics that the new prime minister, the man who brandished a lump of coal in parliament, is considered a moderate, at least in comparison to the forces he beat to the job. (more…)
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RODNEY TIFFEN- How Turnbull shrank in the job
The most important date in the history of the Turnbull government was December 1, 2009. That was the day Tony Abbott defeated Malcolm Turnbull after a revolt by the right wing of the party defeated Turnbull’s support for an Emissions Trading Scheme to address global warming. (more…)
