This article was first published by The Monthly in December 2016.
To uncover the truth about the relations between Trump and Russia, therefore now requires not only painstaking investigation but, even more, political courage from members of the Republican Party in the Senate, the US intelligence services and the American mainstream media. The future of the Trump Presidency now rests in their hands. (more…)
The scale of the projects (OBOR) is astonishing. As of July 2016 China had more than 900 contracts in place or under negotiation with a propose investment value of over $900 billion dollars. This was in addition to a separate contract worth over $400 billion signed with Russia for the supply of natural gas. (more…)
The Trans Pacific Partnership is not worth pursuing by anyone serious – which leaves Turnbull and Ciobo, still clinging, not even to a straw, but to the open waters of internationalism. (more…)
While most of Asia-Pacific focuses on the beginning of the Trump presidency and China’s prickly response so far, a substantial slice of the world’s biggest democracy, India, is about to enter a crucial round of state elections that will also have an impact on regional stability and economic growth. … in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, where 140 million of its 200 million people are on the electoral roll — more than the 130 million American citizens who cast votes in the US presidential election. (more…)
With the Trans Pacific Partnership’s (TPP) demise, Australia should take the chance to reconsider its approach to international trade negotiations. Certainly we should never again sign an agreement with wide ranging Investor State Dispute Settlement provisions (ISDS) which are definitely not in the interests of our society, democracy or economy. (more…)
If the compounding mess of the global trading ‘system’ is to be overcome, trade negotiators need to get back to first principles. (more…)
Commentators on Premier Baird’s years focussed on short term matters such as money from privatisations or inconvenience caused by infrastructure building. The most important question, the merit of infrastructure built with sale proceeds, may take years to answer. NSW will be lucky if it ends up with transport infrastructure of lasting value from the sale of the state’s silverware. (more…)
The financial advice industry is on a journey towards professionalism”. While I can’t say exactly what this tired assertion means, I can say that it is invariably offered as an impatient response to pesky commentators who dare to suggest that the latest round of reforms (responding to the latest round of financial services industry scandals) may not achieve the results that consumers deserve. (more…)
According to the World Health Organization, there are 3.3 million deaths attributable to alcohol use worldwide each year. Alcohol marketing, promotion and sponsorship are widespread in most of the world today and marketers are moving increasingly to digital and social media, where efforts at regulation have fallen far behind industry innovations in producing audience engagement and brand ambassadorship. (more…)
Large seizures of illicit drugs always attract considerable publicity, and are no doubt very positive for the law enforcement agencies and politicians involved. But do they benefit the community? (more…)
When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this month stood alongside Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull near The Gap––once Sydney’s favourite suicide spot––they presented themselves as brothers-in-arms for multilateral free trade. How quickly things can change. (more…)
This is a repost from 26/1/2013
A major barrier to our future in the region is our dependence on foreign institutions and powers. First it was the British and now the Americans. We cling to others. (more…)
As a former Minister for Transport, Gladys Berejiklian leaves a very dubious record in port privatization. The Chair of ACCC, Rod Sims has said ‘Privatisation (of NSW ports) is costing consumers and damaging economic reform’. (more…)
Improving the results of disadvantaged students is the major challenge facing Australian education. Yet, the Minister continues to wilfully ignore the extensive research evidence demonstrating that increasing funding for disadvantaged students is critical to improving outcomes. Five major academic studies published in the last year alone show that increased funding improves results, especially for disadvantaged students. (more…)
The neocons stayed put in the State Department and other positions closely linked to the Obama White House, where they became allies with the liberal hawks in continuing ‘spreading democracy’ by overthrowing regimes. America’s mainstream news and opinion purveyors, without demurring, accommodated the architects of reality production overseen by Dick Cheney. This did not end when Obama became president, but in fact with seemingly ever greater eagerness they gradually made the CIA/neocon-neoliberal created reality appear unshakably substantial in the minds of most newspaper readers and among TV audiences in the Atlantic basin. (more…)
The bigger problem with the TPP was that it simply had virtually no benefits for Australia. (more…)
This is a repost from May 13, 2015.
There are many key public issues that we must address such as climate change, growing inequality, tax avoidance, budget repair, an ageing population, lifting our productivity and our treatment of asylum seekers.
But our capacity to address these and other important issues is becoming very difficult because of the power of vested interests with their lobbying power to influence governments in a quite disproportionate way. (more…)
Apart from his regret at losing the nearest thing to a mate among the premiers, Turnbull must be feeling more than a little conflicted, because the inevitable comparisons that will be made between the two leaders will not be in his favour. (more…)
New unreported data shows Australia’s proud tradition of inclusive economic growth is at risk, writes Shadow Finance Minister Jim Chalmers. (more…)
The new airport at Badgerys Creek will test national competition and state transport infrastructure policies and may reveal the latter to be gravely flawed. The usual Commonwealth-state funding fight spectacle should be treated as a trivial pantomime and not distract from the serious policy issues that must be addressed and their permanent consequences for many Australians. In any event, rich spoils extracted from the public purse await the airport’s owners and infrastructure industry players. (more…)
Friend or foe, ally or rival, it no longer seems to matter: hey, world, make way for the guy who pushes in at the checkout, double parks at the school gate, dumps his garbage in the park, talks through the movie, and calls in sick every Monday. The idea of American Exceptionalism was bad enough, but now comes ‘American Entitlement’. (more…)
The gambling lobby’s influence in overriding popular opinion and the public interest in Australia is well-known. But is its electoral power exaggerated? A look at this year’s ACT election suggests that perhaps the gambling industry is less influential than it appears to be. (more…)
Like the rest of us, Nick needs time: time to mature; time to know himself; and time to sort out the wheat from the chaff – as regards the latter, I think he’s already worked out that the media is mostly full of chaff… and don’t the media hate it, love it, know it, resent it, milk it. (more…)
The major political parties largely control the process of electoral reform and judge any proposal by its possible partisan effects. Considerations of partisan advantage almost always take precedence over the restoration of public trust in the political system. (more…)
Brexit: the Constitutional Angle
I hate to boast of my prescience but my article in this blog in April 2016 warned, in the case of a successful Brexit vote, of the birth of a “Little England searching for a greatness that is delusional in the current world of alliances”. That nightmare has become true. With two acts of political lunacy perpetrated by the English (and I mean English) on one side of the Atlantic and the Americans on the other, we are now facing a global scenario of the absurd you could not make up. (more…)
The moment you condemn something or someone for being “Politically Correct”, you have transformed yourself from being a billionaire businessman, a media pundit, or the bloke down the street, and have instantly become a champion of the oppressed silent majority against the murky and invisible forces of darkness that are supposedly imposing Political Correctness on us. (more…)
Australian health would be much improved if the $11 billion subsidy for private health insurance was abolished and part of those funds allocated to universal dental care within Medicare.
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Housing affordability is a hot topic in Australia. Governments are increasingly recognising that more needs to be done to provide a greater range of affordable housing options, especially in the major cities. It is well documented, however, that proposals for affordable housing development often encounter opposition from host community members. (more…)
There is no doubt that an increasing proportion of older Australians on the age pension will be dependent on the private rental sector in coming decades. This is because of the housing affordability crisis and increasing divorce in later life, combined with the virtual stagnation of the social housing sector. (more…)