Category: Politics

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Shorten and Trump.

Malcolm Turnbull and his supporters regularly deride Bill Shorten as standing for nothing – first as a populist weather vane, and more recently as a constant nay-sayer in the style of Tony Abbott.

And there has been some grounds for the accusations: Shorten has not always appeared a firm and consistent advocate of policies. But in the last couple of weeks he has changed, standing up for both his politics and principles.

Both have been on display with his rejection of Turnbull’s demands to restore the Building and Construction Commission and to pass the Same Sex marriage Plebiscite; this was inevitable and predictable. But he has also doubled down in joining, improbably, with Jacqui Lambie to pursue an international competitive backpacker tax. And more importantly to opposes Turnbull’s unconscionable move for a lifetime ban on refugees to ever set foot on Australia. (more…)

Nov 14, 2016
JOHN MENADUE. A refugee swap with the US to end the horror of refugees in Manus and Nauru may be on the cards!

I hope that this is so but it may not be straightforward.

There is history in such a swap that journalists and others should be aware of.

In its last year the Howard Government negotiated with the USA what came to be called the Mutual Assistance Arrangement .It was 1 to 1 resettlement. Australia agreed to resettle Cubans who had been intercepted at sea (that is they had not made landfall on US territory) and transferred to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. In return the US agreed to resettle people found to be refugees who were in Nauru.

While the population in Guantanamo Bay also consisted of Haitians the US had a separate arrangement with Canada for their resettlement. Canada would not resettle the Cubans as they were technically still on Cuban territory and therefore were not considered to be refugees. (more…)

Nov 12, 2016
SUSAN RYAN. Affordable housing and inclusionary zoning.

There are recent signs that governments are belatedly starting to move on the urgent problems created by the lack of affordable housing. A variety of data sources shows that increasing numbers of people, especially older women, face homelessness. Based on 2011 census figures, among poorer single older women alone, we are looking at something like half a million who do not own a home and once they have left the workforce cannot afford private rentals.

This problem does not only affect poor older Australians who have ended their working lives. Younger people, especially in our cities are locked out of home purchase. House prices rise continually, fuelled by extravagant tax concessions to private investors. Those excluded from home purchase must rent, adding pressure on the rental market. Without major changes in housing policy these renters will also face homelessness later in life. Homelessness in Australia is likely to reach unmanageable levels. (more…)

Nov 12, 2016
Trump and American Decay.

In this article in Foreign Affairs, Francis Fukuyama says:

The decayed American political system can be fixed only by a strong external shock that will knock it off its current equilibrium and make possible real policy reform. Trump’s victory does indeed constitute such a shock but, unfortunately his only answer is the traditional populist-authorian one, trust me, the charismatic leader to take care of your problems. As in the case of the shock to the Italian political system administered by Silvio Berlusconi, the real tragedy will be the waste of an opportunity for actual reform.

Francis Fukuyama is an American political scientist, political economist and author. Fukuyama is known for his book “The End of History and the Last Man” (1992).

Nov 12, 2016
ANDREW PESCE. The Health Care Home: too important to fail

It has been a long road for peak medical organisations in Australia to publicly recognise and support the concept that Fee for Service payments (where medical services attract a Medicare rebate for attendances and/or procedures) may not always be the most appropriate remuneration methods in primary care. Now, both the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the AMA acknowledge that alternative payment systems have a place for patients with high healthcare needs because of special circumstances and/or chronic illness. This is a well-established concept, which has shown that primary health care services can establish viable business models based on a mixture of FFS for acute conditions (providing care for a sports injury in a young otherwise healthy person) and payments for annual cycles of care for people living with chronic medical conditions (eg diabetes requiring regular ongoing care from different providers). In New Zealand for example, a shift to up to 60-70% of practice income from blended payments, with the remainder from FFS has been well received from GPs there. (more…)

Nov 11, 2016
ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ. A Bigots’ Frenzy: how race, class and gender still matter in the Australian politics of Section 18C.

Australia is a democratic pluralist society and there lies the rub. Democracies privilege freedom, while pluralism requires civility. In the increasing hyperbole surrounding the question of the impact of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act many are arguing that freedom of speech should trump freedom from hate, and others that the current “balance” is fine.

A sociology of the protagonists suggests that those who are proposing to diminish the protections offered to victims of racial vilification under 18C are predominantly well-off (Christian) Euro-Australian males, who are also the majority of those previously complained against under 18C. Those who are opposed to changes to 18C tend to be drawn from minority groups in terms of ethnicity, race and religion, and are more likely to be women. (more…)

Nov 11, 2016
IAN McAULEY. Mein Drumpf: Hitler, Donald Trump And A Shot Across The Bow For The Left

We’re not sure who first said “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme”, but it’s an apt reminder of the similarities between the forces that have propelled Trump into the US presidency, and the forces that brought Germany’s National Socialists to power in 1933.

Trump claims, correctly, to be part of “an incredible and great movement”.

There is indeed a “great movement”. As in the 1930s countries are turning to what may be loosely described as far-right populism, a movement embracing notions of national or racial exceptionalism, a rejection of globalization, and identification of a supposed conspiracy of internal enemies with a corrosive influence on public ideas. (more…)

Nov 11, 2016
RICHARD BUTLER. President Trump: Foreign Policy and the Alliance

Donald Trump’s victory has shocked America and the world. America is deeply divided. Where he might take US foreign policy is unclear. We need to redefine the Alliance relationship.

The competition between Trump and Clinton was widely described as savage, to an unprecedented degree. It was also a competition between two candidates who polling showed they were the least liked of all time. Thus, a significant number of voters saw their decision as one of choosing between two evils.

These are important facts about the election and the state of the US polity, but of fundamental importance in determining the outcome was that it became an election about the state of affairs in middle America: economic hardship, glaring inequality, and despair about the ability and willingness of the conventional political process to fix things.

Significantly, these were in fact the realities to which Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren had called attention, but their potentiality as candidates was negated by the Clinton machine. (more…)

Nov 11, 2016
TESSA MORRIS-SUZUKI. Trump: it’s time to go back to basics.

The election of billionaire and reality TV host Donald Trump to the most powerful political position in the world has created global shockwaves. As countless commentators have already observed, Trump’s election is a stunning reminder of the depth of social division in the United States. For millions of Americans, particularly in the rust-belt states and rural areas, Trump’s candidacy provided a golden opportunity to stick a finger up at the political establishment that has so long neglected their needs and anxieties. And the more outrageous his statements, the better he became a symbol of that finger. (more…)

Nov 11, 2016
STEPHEN FITZGERALD. Donald Trump. Seizing the opportunity to strengthen relations with countries in Asia.

Kim Beazley, as shocked as anyone by the election result, has said: “We do have one advantage going for us with a Trump presidency, and that’s this. We are a member of the only American alliance that the Trump people unreservedly approve of. So at least we’ve got a basis of a discussion with them.” Kim seems to believe this is some kind of plus. But I think it is frightening. The favoured client of the Trump people! If that is true, what does it say about us, and the expectations of us in regional and international affairs as the Trump presidency gets into stride?

Bob Carr said to his fellow panellists on ABC News 24 on Wednesday that they must stop ‘normalising’ Trump, the Trump phenomenon and the coming Trump presidency, stop saying well we’ve had this kind of thing before, like Reagan for example. You can see this ‘normalising’ already in the first responses of Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop. But as Bob said, you have to understand that Trump’s win expresses a complete shift in the US political scene and it’s not going to change after Inauguration day. (more…)

Nov 10, 2016
IAN MARSH. Trump’s Victory and Australian Politics

A new anti-globalisation surge.

Trump’s ascension no doubt creates new agenda challenges for Australia. But his campaign generated so many diverse and inconsistent statements that the policy landscape remains obscure. What is crystal clear is the gulf between elite worldviews and large swathes of public opinion. Remember those panegyrics to economic globalisation: The World is Flat and The Golden Straightjacket? What now of Thomas Friedman’s assured analysis?

Here is one potted reading of the past half century or so. Start with the mass party world. The parties drew their power and reach from class identity. Here is Ernest Bevin’s description of his (British) socialisation: ‘I had to work at ten years of age while my employer’s son went to the university until he was twenty. You have set out for me a different set of conditions. I was taught to bow to the squire and touch my hat to the parson; my employer’s son was not. All these things have produced within me an intense hatred, a hatred which has caused me to organise for my fellows and direct my mind to a policy to give to my class a power to control their own destiny and labour….At present employers and employed are too often separated by something akin to a barrier of “caste” …The operatives are frequently regarded by employers as being of a different and inferior order…So long as these views continue to exist they inevitably produce an intense class bitterness.’ (more…)

Nov 10, 2016
ROBERT MANNE. It’s Time

The Turnbull government has recently introduced new asylum seeker legislation into parliament. It has two parts. The first part aims to prevent any asylum seeker who tried to reach Australia after July 19 2013, including those who have been found to be genuine refugees, from ever being allowed to settle in Australia. The second part aims at banning the adults in this cohort settled in another country from ever visiting Australia even on a tourist or a business visa.

The first part of this proposal writes into law what has previously been a bipartisan political agreement. Turning this consensus into legislation has however three implications. (more…)

Nov 10, 2016
JOHN MENADUE. Donald Trump- the billionaire outsider!

But is there a possible silver lining?

I am surprised and horrified by the election of Donald Trump as the Leader of the ‘Free World’. He is sexist, racist, xenophobic and a Muslim-basher. He doesn’t dog-whistle like our prime ministers, but speaks out bluntly on issues in ways I find offensive. Yet clearly large numbers of Americans like his populist nonsense.

It seems that Clinton may have narrowly won the popular vote but Trump has clearly won the numbers in the Electoral College. Perhaps the system was rigged after all – but in Trumps favour!

I have been disappointed so many times in the past in elections. It is not a new experience for me.

The Trump victory is a repeat of what we saw in Brexit and what is developing in so many other countries around the world, particularly in Europe. Many people clearly feel that they are being left behind. Yet the populists who exploit this alienation have no credible policies in response. In Europe in the 1930s, we saw the enormous damage that populists can play in the lives of people who feel alienated and vulnerable. (more…)

Nov 10, 2016
FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Dog-whistling again on asylum seekers.

Labor has decided not to support the Turnbull government’s latest asylum bill which was announced in a most hamfisted way on the Sunday morning before last, and which contains very unacceptable overreach measures. So now it will be a matter for the Senate cross benchers. The Turnbull-Dutton bill is a disgraceful mishmash of dog whistle measures. (more…)

Nov 9, 2016
ROSS GARNAUT. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Part 2.

The Challenge of Globalisation.

This is the second of a two-part series of extracts from an address which Professor Ross Garnaut gave to the Sydney Democracy Network, University of Sydney, 7 September 2016. The full text of his address can be found on his website.

PART 2. RESPONDING TO THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBALISATION.

Democratic capitalism’s return to success depends on reconciling concerns for ordinary citizens’ standards of living with the demands of globalisation.

A global economy would work better with global governance. However, there is little tolerance for international governance in contemporary democratic polities. There are some real advantages in governance at smaller scales where it is appropriate. Efforts towards global economic governance should therefore concentrate on issues where it has the greatest value.

I focus here on trade and development, where we can build on the role of the World Trade Organisation. (more…)

Nov 8, 2016
MUNGO MacCALLUM. Paranoia about boat people and manufactured demagogic outrage.

There must surely be more to the government’s latest assault on the boat people than simply crude wedge politics and gratuitous cruelty; but if there is, the Prime Minister is not saying – at least not yet.

This, of course, is part of a long-standing tradition. When and where asylum seekers are concerned, nothing is to be revealed unless it is absolutely necessary, and not always then.

But Malcolm Turnbull’s announcement last week that anyone seeking to arrive to Australia by boat after July 2013 is now to be banned from our fair shores always and forever seems more than usually puzzling. The boats stopped two years ago. So the new move is not only sadistic: the image of a jackboot trampling on the faces of the already defeated and helpless is hard to avoid. It is also, as Bill Shorten equivocally avers, ridiculous; and worse, it is almost certainly unworkable. (more…)

Nov 8, 2016
ROSS GARNAUT. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Part 1.

The Challenge of Globalisation.

I will be posting in two parts, extracts from an address which Professor Ross Garnaut gave to the Sydney Democracy Network, University of Sydney, 7 September 2016. the full text of his address can be found on his website: https://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/rossgarnaut/files/2015/12/Garnaut_CapitalismSocialismDemocracy_070916_3-2ei70mk.pdf

PART 1. THE PROBLEMS WE FACE WITH GLOBALISATION

In the twenty first century, modern economic growth is raising incomes in the new participants—most of the world’s people—most emphatically in China and other countries which have passed the turning point in economic development. At the same time, it is placing downward pressure on living standards of ordinary people in the developed countries.

Largely due to these dynamics, income distribution has become more unequal in the developed countries and more equal in the world as a whole. Much has been made of the capture by the “one percent” of most of the increase in incomes in developed countries so far this century. The top one percent in the world as a whole has also done very well. Ordinary people in the big Asian developing countries have had even bigger percentage increases in incomes . (more…)

Nov 7, 2016
MUNGO MacCALLUM. Family First or Day First?

The name of Bob Day, the now former senator, was never one to conjure with.

If he was noted at all, it was usually as the Sancho Panza to David Leyonhjelm’s Don Quixote – a loyal and reliable hanger-on, grounded where his leader tended at times to eccentricity. Leyonhjelm, the Liberal Democrat Libertarian, could be a touch unpredictable and troublesome, most recently in the brouhaha over his attempted deal to rebirth the Adler shotgun.

Day, on the other hand, was an unswerving ideologue, a relentless crusader for a hard-line economic fundamentalism. Given that the designation of his party was Family First, it might have been thought that he would have put social concerns – the family, in fact – at the forefront. But while he was sturdily conservative over such matters, these were essentially side issues. (more…)

Nov 7, 2016
JOHN TULLOH. U.S. finally starts to ease its Cold War punishment of Cuba

It is astonishing that an impoverished speck on the rump of the most powerful country in the world has managed to intimidate it for more than half a century. Cuba, only 144 kms off the coast of Florida, has had to suffer Uncle Sam’s unforgiving wrath because it became a Communist regime, locked up opponents and did not hold free elections. Tough trade and travel embargoes were imposed by Washington. Residents of the land of the free for decades have been banned from going there and woe betide if you were caught with one of Cuba’s famed cigars. But in recent years there has been some forgiveness. If Hillary Clinton becomes the next U.S. president, she has promised to end the embargo. However, the last word will not be hers. It is Congress which has that authority and it is showing no sign of softening its stance. (more…)

Nov 3, 2016
BRUCE ARNOLD. Testing the body politic? Lobbying by the pathology industry.

Pathology testing in Australia is big business, getting bigger as the population ages and we rely on high-tech medicine for intractable ailments. Advocacy by commercial interests and government pathology service providers shapes public policy. It potentially affects elections rather than just the national budget. It matters. It is inadequately recognised and less understood.

What we know about lobbying by the pathology industry in the 2016 election is how little we know. Our ignorance matters, because it tells us something about the realities of a liberal democracy in 2016. It also matters because we need an informed public discourse about health policy and health costs. (more…)

Nov 3, 2016
JEFFREY SACHS. The fatal expense of American imperialism.

In this article, Jeffrey D. Sachs says

“the United States … is squandering vast sums and undermining national security. … today the United States has similarly over invested in the military and could follow a path to decline if it continues the wars in the Middle East and invites an arms race with China.”

See link to full article below.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/10/30/the-fatal-expense-american-imperialism/teXS2xwA1UJbYd10WJBHHM/story.html

Jeffrey Sachs is University Professor and Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. This article was first published in the Boston Globe on October 30, 2016.

Nov 3, 2016
MARK BEESON. WA provides a masterclass in what not to do with a resources boom.

It wouldn’t be too unkind to suggest that Western Australia is not considered as the national benchmark of sophisticated public policy. Indeed, the state has recently attracted much attention – and derision – for the way its policy making elite squandered the wealth generated by the resources boom.True, we now have more sports facilities than you can poke a stick at, not to mention a major makeover of the city foreshore – albeit noticeably empty of the promised high profile developments that were supposed to succumb to its irresistible allure. But you can’t accuse the Barnett government of not having big ideas. (more…)

Nov 3, 2016
MACK WILLIAMS. The real shipping choke point for Australia – Sibutu Channel

Neither the Australian government nor the Australian media have informed us about the critical nature of the Sibutu Channel.

As mentioned in this blog some time ago. the active political and media discussion in Australia about the South China Sea has continued to ignore the fact that the most critical choke point for Australia’s huge trade with North Asia is the Sibutu Channel. This lies inside Philippines territorial waters between Sabah and the southernmost Philippines islands. Nor has our media recognised that this area has long been a hot spot for the Muslim insurgency in the Philippines and more recently the radical Abu Sayyaf. The latter have an established history of kidnapping and ransom and worse – with a number of foreigners currently in their hands. (more…)

Nov 2, 2016
JOHN MENADUE. White Man’s Media – A weekly column. This week: The US elections.

In this blog I propose to run a regular Wednesday column White Man’s Media focusing on the derivative nature of our media and its failure to reflect our own region ..

I have in mind pieces of 100 -400 words. The longer pieces might focus on some of our complacent foreign affairs ‘ experts’ and their faulty analysis. There will also be opportunities to highlight omissions and draw attention to error strewn foreign reports.. Whilst I want to avoid ‘gotcha’ type pieces some short and pithy pieces like the old SMH Granny would also be useful.

Contributions would be welcome . Please send to johnmenadue@staging-johnmenadue.kinsta.cloud

The US elections.

Our TV and radio are broadcasting twice as many items on the US election, as they broadcast on the most recent Australian election. Isentia Media tells us that in the same phases of the two election campaigns, Australian TV and radio ran 9,000 items on the Australian election. They ran 17,000 items on the current US election campaign. (more…)

Nov 2, 2016
PHIL GLENDENNING. We Need To End Australia’s Refugee Shame. Now

‘Human beings are never a means to an end. They are an end in themselves’. Emmanuel Kant’s words in the seventeenth century echo down the centuries in stark contrast to Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru and Manus Island. The recent Four Corners program, The Forgotten Children gave Australians an all too rare opportunity to hear from the refugee children of Nauru themselves, and to see for ourselves what is being done in our name.

Two days ago a young asylum seeker rose early, turned on his computer and read that the Government was preparing to ban all post-July 2013 boat arrivals from ever entering Australia under any circumstances. He went to his bathroom and swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills. He is one of the 30,000 asylum seekers in the community without rights or resolution to his case. (more…)

Nov 2, 2016
FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Turnbull’s Policy Challenge Wrapped in Turnbull Cant

On Sunday morning, Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton held a joint press conference to announce new legislation in relation to the asylum seekers who have been held on Nauru and Manus Island now for over three years.

In this policy area, the perfect is the enemy of the good, and the prospect of a bipartisan approach on ‘means’ despite agreement on ‘ends’ has been slight since the Tampa affair in 2001. (more…)

Nov 1, 2016
MUNGO MacCALLUM. Trickle down.

The economic theory known as supply side is better known as trickle down, because it goes something like this.

You give large sums of money to those who already have it, because they know the best way to handle it – they will invest it rather than simply trouser the loot.

As a result, the benefits trickle down to the rest of the community in the form of more jobs, better productivity and higher wages and conditions. And there may even be a few drops left for those at the very bottom: everyone benefits. (more…)

Nov 1, 2016
JOHN MENADUE and IAN McAULEY. The future of globalisation.

Rescuing globalisation from cheer leaders and populists.

If we cannot make globalisation work for all, in the end it will work for none. Kofi Annan

Last week John Menadue raised the issue of globalisation, welcoming comment from other people in his blog community.

As he points out, the rise of Trump in the USA, the Brexit vote in the UK and the success of protectionist parties in our federal election have all elevated globalisation as a pressing issue, and there is a risk that we slide into an era of isolationism and protectionism. (more…)

Oct 31, 2016
JOHN NIEUWENHUYSEN. How Australian Political Leaders Can Abandon and Mistreat Asylum Seekers

Living as a White youth in apartheid South Africa in the 1950’s, I often wondered how it was possible for a small minority to dominate and oppress the large majority of the population who were denied the vote because of the colour of their skins.

Much of the answer lay, I believed, in the capacity of the apartheid system to separate the lives of the different racial groups and to ensure that when people met, it was always in the context of White master-Non-White servant relationships. Members of the different defined racial groups were thus hardly ever able to converse ordinarily and to learn of the lives and aspirations of their fellow South Africans of different skin colours. (more…)

Oct 31, 2016
Royal family are even more secretive than MI5.

Jenny Hocking has been researching and publishing some vital information about the dismissal of the Whitlam Government by Sir John Kerr . In that research, she has been denied access to the papers. She is taking legal action in the Federal Court against the National Archives to release correspondence between Sir John Kerr and the Queen. (See ‘The Palace Letters‘)

In The Times, Ben MacIntyre writes about the secretive nature of the British Royal Family. See his article below from The London Times of October 28, 2016. John Menadue. (more…)

Oct 31, 2016