Blog

  • JOHN MENADUE. We are joined at the hip to a country perpetually at war. Part 1

    Next week I will be posting articles asserting that we are running great risks in being tied to what Malcolm Fraser called our dangerous ally, an ally almost always at war.The risks,disasters and dangers predate Donald Trump . Think Vietnam and Iraq.

    In recent issues of Pearls and Irritations I have posted many articles, mainly by very credible Americans (Sax,Nichols,Bacevich)  about how America has never had a decade without being at war, how it has subverted and overthrown numerous foreign governments and has a military,industrial ,intelligence and political complex that depends heavily on continual wars. We have become part of that complex.

    I repost below an article by Andrew  Bacevich from December 29 2017- ‘When will America’s wars have their Harvey Weinstein moment’  He asks ‘What makes a Harvey Weinstein moment? The now-disgraced Hollywood mogul is hardly the first powerful man to stand accused of having abused women. The Harveys who preceded Harvey himself are legion, their prominence matching or exceeding his own and the misdeeds with which they were charged at least as reprehensible.’

    Other reposts on related issues will follow this week. (more…)

  • Henry Reynolds. Militarisation marches on . A REPOST

    The Australian military featured heavily again in our celebrations of Australia Day 2018. There were Army parades in Canberra and the Navy on show in Sydney Harbour.

    The militarisation of Australia and the language of war has become the new norm. Is that what Australia Day should be about? What about our civilian achievements?

    There was no attempt at least officially to seek reconciliation with Indigenous people.

    This article by Henry Reynolds  ‘ Militarisation Marches on ‘was initially posted on April 18 2015.  John Menadue

    (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Do we really need an honours system?

    The hard fact is that the lists which bulk up the morning papers each year are far from representative of our diverse population, and suggest that there is at least a vestige of the despised British class system still lingering at the edges of the cultural cringe.   (more…)

  • BOB DEBUS. Restoring integrity in nature conservation Part 1 of 2

    The Australian Government’s short and pointless document, published just before Xmas and entitled Strategy For Nature 2018-2030, has been accurately described as a ‘global embarrassment’. It is useful only insofar as it reminds us that Australian government policies for nature conservation have, in the last five years, easily matched the destructive irrationality of polices directed toward climate change.   (more…)

  • ANDREW FARRAN. A hard or soft Brexit. More likely Black and White

    Letter from London 

    Britain finds itself trapped like a fish with no way out other than capitulation to the best terms it can get – in relation to which the remaining 27 EU members have the upper hand.   (more…)

  • ‘We have to change capitalism’ to beat climate change, says world’s biggest asset manager

    Capitalism must change to avert climate change, according to the vice-chair of the world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock. (more…)

  • ROGER SCOTT. Gittins on Universities Part 2: ‘Home and Away’

    ‘We’ve turned our unis into aimless, money-grubbing exploiters of students‘ [Ross Gittins, Canberra Times, 17 September 2017]

    Part 1 of my response to Gittins’ article dealt with the human side of the current university scene and noted pressures to conformity and uniformity, but this underestimates the element of underlying  competitiveness. (more…)

  • LEANNE SMITH. When did Australians stop caring about our national identity?

    In 1998 I was a freshly minted law grad who felt great purpose in joining the Harbour Bridge march for the first ‘Sorry Day’. I had just begun my first real job with the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and my country was grappling with the Stolen Generation Report. It seemed the time was right for recognition and reconciliation, and I shared a sense of optimism about Australia’s identity and place in the world. (more…)

  • GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND …

    On Saturday Extra this 27th January Geraldine Doogue is discussing the cost of government consultants with Julian Hill, ALP member for Bruce and businessman Tony Shepherd; Changes to gambling laws with Charles Livingstone from Monash University and Sam Duncan from the Holmesglen Institute in Victoria; Supreme Court judge and author Michael Pembroke on his book Korea: Where the America Century began and A Foreign Affair discusses reforms in Saudi Arabia, diplomacy successes in South Korea, Vladimir Putin and the anniversary of the secret police and one hundred years since Woodrow Wilson’s 14 point speech with Anthony Bubalo, Lowy Institute, Kyle Wilson, ANU and Lauren Richardson, ANU.

    Companies that pay more tax deliver shareholders better returns. Writing in The Conversation Kerrie Sadiq and Bronwyn McCredie report on their research covering ASX200 companies from 2012 to 2017. They found that a higher percentage of tax paid by a corporation correlated with a higher dividend returns and that that share prices were more likely to increase.

    In a report on the quality of the advice given by financial advisers at the four major banks and the AMP, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has found that in three quarters of the customer files they reviewed the advisers had not demonstrated compliance with the duty to act in the best interests of their clients. They found that “10% of the advice reviewed was likely to leave the customer in a significantly worse financial position”.

    It’s time to revive the republican debate: we cannot keep pushing it off into the future. On Late Night Live, Phillip Adams interviewed historian Benjamin Jones, author of This Time: Australia’s Republican Past and Future.  Writing in the Canberra Times, John Warhurst calls on republicans to assert their case: they “must not be afraid to call out monarchist myths and needless distractions”.

    Donald and Melania Trump approached New York’s Guggenheim Museum, requesting a loan of Van Gough’s Landscape with Snow for the White House. The museum declined the Trumps’ request, but they did offer another exhibit, Maurizio Cattelan’s exhibit “America”, a solid gold toilet instead.

    Since bitcoins are not useful as a medium of exchange, or desirable in themselves, their true value is zero – John Quiggin in Inside Story.

    UK regulator has blocked Rupert Murdoch’s bid for Sky – the Guardian and the Economist.

    Massacres and protests: Australia Day’s undeniable history – Calla Wahlquist (Guardian)

    The Australia Day barbeque-stopper is the same every year – Paul Daley.  The whispering in our hearts.

    The government’s objective is the main problem with the NBN – Greg Jericho (Guardian)

    Sydney transport planners off the rails with metro plans – Canberra Times

    Tesla battery moves from showboating to making money – RenewEconomy.

    ​Why is Trump’s staff turnover higher than the 5 most recent presidents? – Brookings Institution

    One-percent of Australians own more wealth than the bottom 70 per cent combined – the Guardian

    I’m unapologetically pro-life and ashamed that Trump spoke at the March for Life – Haley Stewart

    The United States and Russian may find themselves in a nuclear arms race, again.

    The true author of “The Art of The Deal” says Donald Trump is more self-absorbed than you can possibly imagine.

    How Sydney’s transport system has gone off the rails – the Conversation.

    Mixed messages from the United States as Turkey attacks Syrian Kurds – the New York Times

  • KIM WINGEREI. Book review of “Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom” by Thomas E. Hicks, Pulitzer Prize winner.

    At first glance they may seem like an odd couple, but their influence on the seminal events and the thinking of the 20th century is equally profound. Winston Churchill defined and led the resistance against the tyranny of Adolf Hitler; George Orwell understood and explained the nature of totalitarian regimes. They were both men who were prepared to change themselves in order to change the world.

     Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas E. Ricks has written an insightful account of these two men whose paths never crossed and came from opposite ends of society and ideology. The book focuses on their life and deeds from the late thirties until after the Second World War. Ricks does not eulogise either man, he recognises their flaws and earlier failures, yet puts them both in the historic perspective that they deserve. (more…)

  • MELISSA STONEHAM. Who wins when powerful health leaders align with the gambling industry?

    Last November, Australian casino giant Crown Resorts announced it had appointed former Federal Health Department head Jane Halton to its board.

    In the post below, Dr Melissa Stoneham laments the high profile move, asking why a health leader who had taken on the tobacco industry would now work for another industry that causes great harm to individuals and the community, and what Crown might hope to get from the appointment. (more…)

  • MICHAEL MULLINS. What happened to my Australian accent?

    I spent the summer of 1983-84 in the Philippines. During this time I fell in love with the Philippines and its people and felt ashamed to be Australian.

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  • ANDREW GLIKSON. An Orwellian climate: the rise of dangerous ideologies in a heating world.

    It is impossible to say anything good about “Ingsoc”— George Orwell’s brutal and inhumane 1984 dystopia, mimicking Hitler’s and Stalin’s regimes, with only one proviso:  Bar blowing atomic bombs in distant wars, no mention is made in the book of a systematic devastation of the planetary environment—something modern global civilization is in the process of wilfully committing through large-scale carbon emission and hair-trigger nuclear fleets. The parallel rise of extreme ideologies around the world, denying the existential threat to nature and habitats, is closely relevant. (more…)

  • FRANCESCA BEDDIE. What do we mean by Australia Day?

    All the talk about Australia Day – what it symbolises, for whom and when we should celebrate – prompted me to delve into the history of the date, which has long been contentious. Before we lock in the date, we need to decide what we want our national day to commemorate.   (more…)

  • EMMA ALBERICI. Sugar tax and the power of big business: How influence trumps evidence in politics

    Australia markets itself as a liberal democracy committed to the principles of equality and fairness.  But in practice, those with clout or money or both can influence public policy in a way other members of the public cannot. (more…)

  • STEPHEN LEEDER. Forget the Dog: make 2018 the Year of the Sceptic.

    Much medical research is incomplete or wrong. The participation of drug companies in sponsored research and continuing education for doctors whereby the results of research are communicated to them demands healthy scepticism.   (more…)

  • JOHN MENADUE. Cricket – grog and junk food!

    Over the holidays I have very much enjoyed watching on television Australia winning the Ashes series, although they seem to be exhausted after the celebrations and are performing poorly in the ODI series. The visual TV coverage on Channel 9 is outstanding. The camera crews do a great job. I enhance my enjoyment by minimising the audio content. Except for the opening and closing of each session, and at the fall of each wicket, I keep my TV console on mute. Channel 9 is destroying a well-earned cricket legacy. Perhaps the loss of Richie Benaud was the beginning of the end.

    But that is the good news. Unfortunately I can’t get away from the almost saturation picture coverage of junk food (KFC) and alcohol (XXXX and Canadian Club). Last year it was Victorian Bitter and Bear-Wine-and-Spirits or BWS.  (more…)

  • MICHAEL McKINLEY. Defence policies and alliances have become a new religion. Part 5 of 5 : White Papers, Strategic Reviews, Papal Bulls and Encyclicals

    Government pronouncements in Australia, especially in the fields of Strategy and National Security, it is claimed, are determined by scientific rationality and definitely not configured according to religious belief. This is both fraudulent and a dangerous conceit: religion, has not been banished; indeed, the present reeks of ecclesiastical history and religion (more specifically, its deformation, religiosity). Accordingly, the proposition is that a more politically accurate understanding of Australia’s mindset is to be afforded by an interrogation of five aspects:  the present state of world politics in history; the acutely deranged state of the present; the emergence of the Papal Presidency in the US; the religious state of the Australia-US Alliance; and White Papers and their like as religious documents. (more…)

  • GRAHAM FREUDENBERG. Ode to Australia Day.

    Ode to Australia Day

    (In tribute to the late John Hirst and his masterpieces Freedom on the Fatal Shore)

    The heroes of famed Waterloo
    Or great Nelson’s mighty crew,
    If chance had gone a different way,
    Might well have peopled Botany Bay.
    The Duke himself, he called them “scum”
    Kept under by the lash and rum,
    Not from Eton’s playing fields
    But from poverty’s seething yields,
    So, too, our founders, if truth be told
    Soldiers and convicts – “undesirables” manifold.

    So Dutton, Hanson: shame on your smear
    Better than you have by boat come here.
    “True patriots all, for be it understood”
    “They left their country for their country’s good”. *
    Their founding service you might emulate
    Improve this nation – and emigrate.
    No good you do by staying here,
    Purveying hate and feeding fear.
    What of Australia do you really know,
    Of migrant waves who’ve made us grow,
    Since Phillip Britain’s flag unfurled
    To take possession of a stolen world?

    Graham Freudenberg
    26 January 2018.   (more…)

  • HENRY REYNOLDS. Another Australia Day!

    Another Australia Day; another angry national debate! Little has changed, then, since last year. The partisans of both persuasions have returned to their old trenches. The rhetorical exchanges are much as they were twelve months ago.

    (more…)

  • PETER SAINSBURY. Australia’s 2017 carbon emission projections – yet more spin and red herrings from the Australian government

    Despite Australia committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28% by 2030 compared with 2005, the Australian government is projecting, but trying hard to cover up, a 3.5% increase in greenhouse gas emissions between now and 2030. It is also encouraging companies to increase their emissions if they can increase their productivity – thus confusing ‘efficiency’ with the need to reduce the total amount of greenhouse gas pumped into the atmosphere if we are to limit global warming to manageable levels. There is a need for greater transparency and honesty in government communications. (more…)

  • ALISON BROINOWSKI. Murky wars and missions unaccomplished.

    In December 2017, Australia announced the withdrawal of six RAAF Hornets from Syria. But this is not our ‘mission accomplished’ moment. The US is committed to a longer war in Syria, and its target is Iran.  (more…)

  • IAN McAULEY. Reframing public ideas Part 8: Choice

    Market-based capitalism, we are told, brings us choice. But often “choice” is within a limited range of similar products and services. In the name of supporting markets we can be denied the choice of being able to share services with one another, and the choice of opting out of markets. (more…)

  • HARRY DEMPSEY. Will Trump snap Japan’s tenuous tightrope?

    The unhinged madman foreign policy of US President Donald Trump means Tokyo must walk a tightrope to manage the US–Japan alliance. On security policy, on trade and on North Korea, Japan will increasingly have to develop its own independent regional vision. (more…)

  • LEANNE WELLS. More Government tax incentives for health insurance?

    While in the real world consumers struggle to meet private health care costs, health funds are hoping for yet more government help. (more…)

  • MICHAEL McKINLEY. Defence policies and alliances have become the new religion. Part 4 of 5 : The Sacramental Alliance.

    Government pronouncements in Australia, especially in the fields of Strategy and National Security, it is claimed, are determined by scientific rationality and definitely not configured according to religious belief. This is both fraudulent and a dangerous conceit: religion, has not been banished; indeed, the present reeks of ecclesiastical history and religion (more specifically, its deformation, religiosity). Accordingly, the proposition is that a more politically accurate understanding of Australia’s mindset is to be afforded by an interrogation of five aspects:  the present state of world politics in history; the acutely deranged state of the present; the emergence of the Papal Presidency in the US; the religious state of the Australia-US Alliance; and White Papers and their like as religious documents. (more…)

  • JOHN MENADUE. Australia Day – a progress report.

    The Australia of today is vastly different to the Australia of my childhood with its widespread racism and sectarianism. It was socially suffocating. For those changes I am very grateful. There is a lot that we can be proud of.  No country has integrated newcomers as well as we have. But there have been failures and remedial action yet to be taken. We are yet to be reconciled to our indigenous brothers and sisters who watched the European boat arrivals in 1788. We are yet to take our share of responsibility for the displaced and persecuted people of the world.   (more…)

  • JIM COOMBS. Reverse Robin Hood: rob the poor to overstuff the rich.

    To take but two examples, Education and Tourism, it seems our economic system is designed to service the desires of the already well-provided-for.  (more…)

  • ROGER SCOTT. Response to Gittins on higher education – Part 1.

    ‘Ross Gittins says We’ve turned our unis into aimless, money-grubbing exploiters of students (Canberra Times, 17 September 2017]

    What is there to say about Gittins’ comments, I was asked by John Menadue.  How valid are his general contentions and how valid are his criticisms?   Like the curate’s egg (and the university system as a whole) it is good in parts but Gittins is unfair in some of his generalisations.  (more…)

  • MICHAEL KEATING. The Trump Tax Cuts and Economic Growth

    The forecast positive impact of the Trump tax package mainly results from a temporary incentive to bring forward business investment. This is irrelevant to the cuts in company tax rates proposed by the Turnbull Government, and cannot be used as vindication for their policies. Furthermore, the Trump tax package fails to address the fundamental flaws in the US economy, and in the longer term, has a negative impact on US economic growth.   (more…)