Category: Politics

So the 30^th Newspoll has finally dropped, and as he waits for the mushroom cloud to dissipate, just what will Malcolm Turnbull do to manage the fallout? (more…)

My first reaction to the report that the Australian government was planning to boost tourism in Manus Island was one of disbelief and revulsion. This was the place – well, one of the places—that successive coalition ministers gloated was hell on earth.   (more…)

After Mike Quigley and Bill Morrow, who’s next for NBN Co’s CEO ‘death seat’? 

It can be called an executive death seat because the NBN’s business plan to start recouping the cost of the Turnbull government’s mis handled $49billion multi-technology mix (MTM) rollout has been shredded.  (more…)

The federal Coalition has many ideological cleavages. The division between liberals and conservatives has been most prominently on display in the same-sex marriage issue, and is again on display in arguments about intervening in the energy market to privilege the coal industry. In an article in The Atlantic The passing of the libertarian movement Kevin Williamson describes similar tensions in America’s Republican Party.

In case you’re thinking of putting in a bid to buy the Liddell power station from AGL, The Australia Institute has a report on the station’s generation costs and reliability. A used Leyland P76 may be a better investment.

The Consumers’ Health Forum has released a major report into out-of-pocket costs incurred by people with serious conditions. People surveyed by the CHF found that many of those surveyed, despite having health insurance “still had to pay thousands of dollars out of their own pockets for critical surgery, other treatment and diagnostic scans”.  The full report is summarised in a press release.

Last week on Pearls and Irritations Peter Johnstone, Convenor of the Australian Catholic Coalition for Church Reform, wrote calling for systemic reform of the Church in Australia. On the ABC Religion and Ethics Report he asks Australian bishops to release and act upon the Report of the Church’s Justice and Healing Council (8 mins).

Former prime minister Tony Abbott says that around 400 white farmers have been murdered in South Africa over the past 12 months. RMIT ABC Fact Check takes a look at the data – the ABC.

Ghost water, poor planning and theft: how the Murray-Darling plan fell apart – the Guardian.

Israeli authorities block airport ads urging women to refuse to give up seats – the Guardian.

On Saturday Extra this 7^th April, Geraldine Doogue is speaking to Michael Ignatieff , president and rector of the Central European University. He is discussing the two very different approaches to populism comparing Theodore Roosevelt to Viktor Orban in the lead up to the Hungarian elections; are we about to see another Gaza War?’ the twists and turns in the forthcoming Malaysian elections with James Chin, University of Tasmania and Ross Tapsell, ANU; HRW Burma researcher Richard Weir; our oral health with Professor John Dwyer and Lesley Russell and the life of Aboriginal advocate Mary Montgomerie Bennett with historian Sue Taffe. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/

Gerald Murnane – a great Australian novelist you may not have heard of – the Guardian

Sir John Monash was a visionary engineer, military leader and much more, who succeeded in spite of the prejudices of the conservative Melbourne establishment (read: The Coalition right wing), to become, in Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s view, “the best general on the Western Front” in WW1.  Monash was  renowned for his vision and innovation. (more…)

I watched Ken Loach’s film I, Daniel Blake again recently. Again, I cried. A sick bloke with talent and decency ends up dead before he can argue his case to be treated not as a client, customer, service user or national insurance number but as a citizen, no more no less. Surely our citizens can expect more from governments and public servants than mindless process and indifference. In the age of automation ought not compassion be precious? In the age of big data, shouldn’t it be easier to tailor public services to the individuals who pay, or have paid, taxes? This essay explores the malaise in our polity (part one) and argues for doing things differently (part two). (more…)

In the running up of the development of the NBN in the years between 2007 and 2009 some 400 people from the industry were involved in providing input into the design of this new infrastructure, they included senior engineers of all the major telcos as well as experts in e-health, education, smart grids and the digital economy. The outcome was widespread support for a nationwide fiber-to-the-home network which was furthermore supported by between 70-80% of both the voters and the business community. The project showed a vision of the telecoms and digital future for the country and also took the requirements into account of what our children and grandchildren would need. (more…)

I watched Ken Loach’s film I, Daniel Blake again recently. Again, I cried. A sick bloke with talent and decency ends up dead before he can argue his case to be treated not as a client, customer, service user or national insurance number but as a citizen, no more no less. Surely our citizens can expect more from governments and public servants than mindless process and indifference. In the age of automation ought not compassion be precious? In the age of big data, shouldn’t it be easier to tailor public services to the individuals who pay, or have paid, taxes? This essay explores the malaise in our polity (part one) and argues for doing things differently (part two). (more…)

The big question for Australian culture is not which of the three cheats is most remorseful, but why this bad behaviour by cricket heroes, once exposed, has apparently caused greater distress to Australians than any other cheating currently in the public domain.

Banks cheating their customers is the subject of a current Royal Commission. The Australian Tax Office publicly warns against claiming unjustified concessions for holiday houses. Everyone is aware of cheating by insurance companies who try to refuse valid sickness and disability claims by policyholders. (more…)

Bad behaviour by young cricketers in South Africa has unleashed strong reactions, including references to a decay of moral standards in the wider society. It should also prompt us to realise that team loyalty is not an unmitigated virtue. (more…)

As what is left of Australian cricket segues from its dismal autumn into a miserable winter, there is at least a tinge of irony in the disaster.

Last week, Malcolm Turnbull, still drooling with spittle and bile after another session of parliamentary question time, gave the world a homily about the evils of sledging before returning to denigrate, abuse and generally defame his political opponents, principally Bill Shorten.   (more…)

April 4 will mark 50 years since the assassination of Martin Luther King. In the ABC’s Religion and Ethics Report, Andrew West interviews Jonathan Rieder and Anthea Butler, two authors who have written about King’s life, ideas and legacy. West reminds us that King had “a very tough message about the poverty and violence that propped up racism, and that made the powerful very uncomfortable”.

“It’s time to finally eradicate all sales incentives for bank staff to push loans on to customers” writes Jessica Irvine reporting from the banking inquiry. Warning – her story in The Age contains harrowing accounts of exploitation of vulnerable people.

“How to make free trade fair”. On Late Night Live Phillip Adams interviews economist Dr Jim Stanford Director of the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work. What political advocates have come to call free trade agreements “in many cases have nothing to do with actual trade” says Stanford. He outlines the asymmetry of such agreements, pointing out that Investor State Dispute Resolution agreements establish “kangaroo courts that allow companies to sue governments”.

In a week where the idiotic behaviour of a sporting team has dominated our media, even Ross Gittins has weighed in to the issue. But he puts it into perspective: “I can’t see why people are so shocked to discover our cricketers have been cheating. Surely that’s only to be expected in a nation that’s drifted so far from our earlier commitment to decency, mateship and the fair go.”  He goes on to remind us about our government’s treatment of asylum seekers and the unemployed, about widespread tax evasion, and about how unscrupulous businesses treat those who are further down the food chain.

Lying in Politics: Reflections on The Pentagon Papers – Hannah Arendt, New York Review of Books (1971).

No free lunches so why are we feeding foreign multinationals’ profits? – Ross Gittins in the Canberra Times.

Cricket Australia Chairman, Peever, ducks for cover – Canberra Times.

In Saturday Extra with Geraldine Doogue this March 31^st, a discussion about women and power with Kimberly Dennis, Associate Professor, Department of Art & Art History and Program in Sexuality, Women’s & Gender Studies Rollins College, Marguerite Johnson, Professor of Classics, University of Newcastle and Susan Ryan educator, Former Age Discrimination Commissioner, and first female Labor Minister; A Foreign Affair with Jacinta Collins from the National Security College, ANU; Euan Graham, Lowy Institute and Brain Doolan, former CEO of Fred Hollows Foundation; The New York Times is going back in time to right the wrongs of all the remarkable women who missed out on an obit and writer Caroline van de Pol growing up in Broadmeadows, Victoria.

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/

Japanese PM asks China to explain secret meeting with Kim Jong Un – Free Press Journal.

Steve Cohen vs Peter Jennings debating the new cold war. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/betweenthelines/russia/9601114

Australia insincere about engaging with Asia – Global Times

OMG: Disastrous. Unbelievable. Shameful. Disgraceful. What the…! (more…)

This  Good Friday there will be two Passion ‘plays’ proclaimed throughout the world: The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to John, and The Passion of Our Lauded Cricket Captain According to Us. (more…)

Australia loves to cut down its tall poppies.

Just a few months ago, Australian cricket captain Steve Smith was being compared with the Don himself, Donald Bradman.

In the aftermath of the weekend’s ball-tampering controversy in Cape Town, the Australian media were after his head, with a fervour normally reserved for murderers and sex offenders.

And now we have the verdict. Guilty as charged with 12 month sentences for Smith and David Warner, and a nine month sentence for Bancroft.

Unfortunately, any punishment meted out to Smith, Warner and Bancroft, no matter how punitive, would always be futile when the noxious culture that ultimately led to the cheating scandal began not with the players, nor the coach, but is arguably embedded deep within Cricket Australia.   (more…)