Pearls and Irritations provides the following links for weekend reading and listening: (more…)
Category: Politics
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TIM LINDSEY. Watch out Indonesian democracy – Islamism, communism and Jokowi’s Neo-New Order?
On 16 September, police broke up an academic discussion at the offices of renowned activist NGO the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH). The topic was the killings of alleged leftists in 1965 and 1966 in the wake of the failed coup that brought former president Soeharto to power. (more…)
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RAMESH THAKUR. APLN Group Statement on Nuclear Threats
On Tuesday 26 September 2017, 55 Asia–Pacific political, diplomatic, military and civil society leadership figures, who are members of the Asia–Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN), signed a statement urging that nuclear crises are best resolved diplomatically, not militarily; and that internationally negotiated deals to resolve nuclear crises should be respected by all parties. (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE. The submarine mess that Pearls and Irritations has high lighted for 18 months.
At the National Press Club yesterday Mike Keating and Hugh White again drew attention to the very serious problems of our proposed submarine purchases. We will be following their addresses further.
The following is a repost from December 16 last year.
For eight months in Pearls & Irritations, Jon Stanford, Michael Keating, myself and others, have drawn attention to major problems with the proposed build of the Shortfin Barracuda submarine in Adelaide by the French company, DCNS. With the exception of Brian Toohey and Michael Pascoe. I cannot recall one journalist who has seriously examined the problems of our future submarines. Yet those problems are screaming out for careful analysis.This post highlights the background to the submarine decision and the serious lack of public debate.
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MICHAEL MULLINS. Proper scrutiny will expose ‘traditional marriage’ as dangerous.
Pope Francis has confirmed his resolve to dump Pope John Paul II’s legacy regarding marriage and the family. He will replace it with his own more inclusive vision, which he outlined in a speech in October last year. This suggestion of openness has obvious implications for Australia’s Marriage Law Postal Survey ‘no’ campaign, which presents traditional marriage as a virtuous institution that is beyond question and beyond change. (more…)
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ELAINE PEARSON and JOHN BLAXLAND. Myanmar Rohingya crisis: Australia needs to stand up and help as the situation worsens
The world seems to be sitting on its hands as the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar descends into what the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has described as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. (more…)
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MUNGO MACCALLUM. Easier for Turnbull to deal with ‘Blackout’ Bill than ‘Abominable’ Abbott
ABC news flashed the headline last Thursday: “Abbott headbutted by SSM supporter.” For a delirious moment I thought that Malcolm Turnbull had finally run out of patience with his sniping, undermining, wrecking tormentor and replied to his latest provocation with a full blown Liverpool kiss. (more…)
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JIM COOMBS. The neo-liberal failure on energy
JIM COOMBS: The source of our current “economic imperatives” and crises, especially in the fields of energy, is that we can’t see beyond the “neoliberal” (does it have a meaning?) insistence that only a “market solution” answers economic problems. Surely, “economics” is better than that. (more…)
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. At last our national daily has finally come clean.
The Australian has now abandoned any pretence that the current plebiscite has anything to do with same sex marriage and instead embarked on a holy war to maintain, and if possible enhance, religious (by which it really means Roman Catholic) privilege. (more…)
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MAX HAYTON. The New Zealand Election: MMP will decide
The result of the New Zealand election on Saturday was inconclusive. On the night the leader of the Labour Party Jacinda Ardern said “MMP will decide” who governs for the next three years. MMP or Mixed Member Proportional elections usually create coalitions. It has done so again. (more…)
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MAX HAYTON. NZ election, politics and leaks.
A dramatic event in the last week of the New Zealand election campaign looked set to destabilise the Government’s re-election plans. Although it was a major development which continues to disrupt the travel plans of thousands of visitors and New Zealanders, the Government’s polling looks firm. (more…)
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MICHAEL THORN. More about rent seekers and lobbyists.
There is nothing new in stories about ‘jobs for the boys’ .Both sides of politics are equally guilty. What is surprising is that the practice endures despite the frequent media stories and the public’s obvious disgust. Behind the appointment of a new leadership team at Tourism Australia by Tourism Minister Ciobo lies another egregious example of this; ‘you rub my back and I will give you a nice sinecure’ practice. (more…)
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WE ARE ALSO READING …
Pearls and Irritations provides the following links for weekend reading:
Dance of the elephants – Inside Story (Matthew Ricketson). When governments and Big Media dance together, it is not a pretty picture.
US Senate Democrats show off anti-religious bigotry – Washington Post (Michael Gerson)
Pope Francis Calls Out Trump, Accuses Him of “Pro-Life” Hypocrisy – Vanity Fair (Tina Nguyen)
Bangladeshis helping Rohingya: “I gave them shelter because I am a human being” – Aljazeera
Debate about energy needs to put people first – Pearls and Irritations Repost (Tony Maher). What coal mine workers think about the energy mess, by the National Secretary of the CFMEU.
Rooftop solar and storage, cheaper than subsidising old coal – RenewEconomy (Giles Parkinson). Coal is expensive, dirty and old hat!
The life my brother never had because he was gay – Canberra Times (David Kirby). David Kirby writes about his brother, Michael.
We’ve turned our universities into money-grubbing exploiters – Ross Gittins. It’s not just the current government’s assault on university funding. Commercialisation of our universities goes back at least 30 years and has left academics with the dismal choice of a crippling workload or a lowering of teaching and research standards.
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EVAN WILLIAMS. Nanny state? Bring it on!
Among conservatives, the term “nanny state” is enjoying a new vogue. And its use is by no means confined to a handful of loony libertarians. Any action intended to protect personal safety or curb anti-social behaviour is now seen as evidence of the dreaded nanny state taking over our lives. Gun-control laws, mandatory helmets for bike riders, plain packaging on cigarettes, compulsory vaccination for kids – all are part of a sinister left-wing plot to destroy capitalism. (more…)
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RAMESH THAKUR. Mr President, the United Nations is not a New York sub-office of the State Department
On Tuesday, Hurricane Trump made landfall at UN Headquarters in Turtle Bay. What had been feared as a category 5 storm had weakened to category 3 – which can still cause considerable destruction. Trump invoked Biblical language in justification for the harsh rhetoric against the ‘scourge of our planet’ today: ‘If the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph’. (more…)
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GEOFF MILLER. North Korea: see you, and raise.
Trump’s apocalyptic speech to the UN, combined with Mattis’s comments, are designed both to daunt Kim Jong Un and to alarm China and Russia into putting more pressure on him. (more…)
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FRANK BRENNAN. Same sex marriage and freedom of religion.
NZ Prime Minister Bill English was being interviewed by Fran Kelly on ABC RN Breakfast on Monday morning. Fran asked him about same sex marriage which is now law in New Zealand. He stressed that freedom of religion is important. She observed: “You voted ‘No’ in 2013 but you’ve said if the vote was held now, you would vote ‘yes’. Does that mean that the New Zealand experience of marriage equality has been a positive one for your country?” Prime Minister English replied: “It’s been implemented. There are a number of people taking advantage of it. We haven’t had quite the same challenges around free speech and religious freedom as here but I think it’s really important that that’s maintained. But it’s a pretty pragmatic approach really. It’s in law. I accept that that is the case: we have same sex marriage in New Zealand and we’re not setting out planning to change it.” (more…)
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JOHN MENADUE. Principles to guide housing policy and programs.
Housing policy should be based on three important principles. First, we should value housing for its use-value, not its exchange-value. Second, housing policy should be part of community and neighbourhood building. Third, housing policy should promote social mixing and sharing, rather than stratification. (more…)
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TONY SMITH. The farcical appeal to ‘family values’
Some opponents of marriage equality have resorted to spurious arguments about ‘family values’. The record of arch-conservatives on war, overseas aid, asylum seekers, Indigenous affairs, the social safety net, free market capitalism, the working poor and the monarchy suggests that the reference to family values is a hollow and hypocritical rhetorical device. (more…)
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PAUL BUDDE. Smart energy – or tilting at windmills
After more than 15 years of industry initiatives aimed at smart energy, the government has successfully frustrated and/or stopped such initiatives and is actively working against the solutions preferred by the industry (smart grids, gas, renewables, batteries). (more…)
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MUNGO MACCALLUM. With Turnbull, hope is all we’ve got.
Malcolm Turnbull is doing something about the energy crisis he has manufactured. (more…)
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PETER FLINN. The brave new world of fire services in Victoria: is it go or woe?
The Country Fire Authority (CFA)in Victoria has long been recognised as one of the world’s leading volunteer fire-fighting organisations, but its boundaries with Melbourne’s Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB),which comprises career fire-fighters, have not changed since 1945. (more…)
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MAX HAYTON. Jacindamania in NZ
The New Zealand election campaign has produced a star but is it rising or setting or is it just a descending meteorite heading for early burnout? The polls on September 23 will give the answer. Current polls a week from Election Day are confused and confusing. (more…)
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. Murphy was a political giant, a man of voracious appetites on many levels.
Murphy may have been flawed, but he was a flawed colossus, a Labor hero. Whatever his peccadillos, history has already redeemed him. (more…)
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IAN McAULEY. Mates, lobbyists and rent-seekers
Two books, one recent the other written 35 years ago, explain how special interests are strangling the Australian economy. (more…)
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MICHAEL SAINSBURY. In defence of the tragic, impotent silence of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Can Pope Francis help with her effective silence over the Rohingya crisis being perpetrated by Myanmar’s military that is a measure of her government’s helplessness? (more…)
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JOHN AUSTEN. Doubts about infrastructure go beyond Sydney Metro.
John Menadue recently asked for an open public inquiry into the NSW Metro scheme. Given the momentous questions about that scheme and its supposed evaluation there is no doubt such an inquiry must be Australia’s highest infrastructure priority. (more…)
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RANALD MACDONALD. Testing times for the ABC with a ‘competitive, neutrality enquiry’.
One of our most trusted institutions is under real threat- and, like Humpty Dumpty, once broken may never be able to be put together again. (more…)
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WE ARE ALSO READING …
Pearls and Irritations provides the following links for weekend reading. (more…)
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WARWICK ELSCHE. From as far away as Australia it is difficult to assess America’s Trump administration.
Reading as widely as possible and watching American news reports helps but does not altogether solve the problem. Indeed, many Americans, far closer to the action are finding themselves similarly baffled. The President of just eight months has, in his own words, given us a picture of a truly remarkable occupant of the world’s top office. (more…)