Blog

  • ERIC HODGENS. Christmas Prompts Reflection on Power.

    The powerless Jesus of the Christmas Gospel stories offers a tutorial on power in the Church today. (more…)

  • MICHAEL KEATING. The 2017-18 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook

    This Mid-Year review of the economic and fiscal outlook contains no new surprises. However, the balance of risks is  that the outcomes will  be worse than predicted. Clearly on the Government’s own projections, the nation cannot afford income tax cuts in the foreseeable future. Instead what this review reminds us, is just how threadbare this Government’s economic and fiscal strategies actually are. (more…)

  • KIM OATES. The Royal Commission, a beginning, not an end.

    The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is testament to both the evil in our society and to the courage and determination of many of the victims. But we need to be aware that most child sexual abuse occurs in places other than churches and institutions. (more…)

  • HUGH MACKAY. Another kind of deficit

    Here’s a quick Christmas quiz. (Warning: it’s not a very merry quiz.) (more…)

  • TONY DOHERTY. A Christmas reflection.

    Christmas is the celebration of a story. A story told in the gospels by two storytellers – Matthew and Luke. It’s a tale told and retold, and often so badly that, should the original storytellers be alive today, I could imagine them squirming. (more…)

  • JOHN TULLOH. Onward Christian Soldiers – but not all of them.

    Communities throughout the world are torn by religious divides. Persecution of Christians, concentrated in but not unique to the Middle East, is commanding relatively little attention. (more…)

  • MICHAEL MULLINS. Who really killed Confession?

    Most Catholics have stayed away from Confession for decades because the thought of it has made them feel small and unworthy. It’s not dissimilar to the dynamic of sexual abuse. It is part of what critics of the Church see as a power play that is designed to tighten the screws of the institution’s psychological grip on its faithful. But it needn’t be that way. Confession can offer a pathway to wholeness and growth. (more…)

  • BRUCE DUNCAN. What would Jesus make of our Christmas?

     The Christmas stories were not written for children but as preludes to the adult message of God in Jesus walking in solidarity with the entire human family. (more…)

  • DES CAHILL and PETER WILKINSON. Clericalism, celibacy and child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Australia

    The Final Report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was published on 15 December 2017.  Among its 409 recommendations was one which is proving controversial, namely, the introduction of voluntary celibacy for diocesan priests. There are compelling reasons why the Commission chose to urge a change to a long-held tradition. (more…)

  • PAUL COLLINS – Will the Vatican play ball?

    We now have the recommendations of the Royal Commission (RC) to the Catholic Church. Many of them request the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) to take specific issues to the Vatican requesting that they be implemented. The question immediately arises: how will the Vatican react? What will Rome do? What I’ve tried to do here is foresee something of that reaction. (more…)

  • MUNGO MACCALLUM. Turnbull overhauls his hyperbole

    You may have missed it in all the excitement and jubilation of the passage of same sex marriage, but last week Malcolm Turnbull announced the most significant overhaul of Australia’s espionage laws in decades. (more…)

  • MICHAEL MULLINS. It’s likely Pope Francis would support ‘killing off confession’ to support abuse victims

    At his media conference following Friday’s release of the report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Archbishop Anthony Fisher said that ‘killing off confession is not going to help anybody’. The report recommended legal strictures against the ‘seal of confession’ to allow the reporting of sex abuse. A Melbourne canon law expert is much less worried than Archbishop Fisher, and it seems that even Pope Francis would give less priority to the ‘seal’ than addressing the needs of the most vulnerable. (more…)

  • Instead of congratulating ICAN on its Nobel Peace Prize, Australia is resisting efforts to ban the bomb

    Last week in Oslo, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize was officially given to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a global campaign that was launched in Melbourne in 2007. (more…)

  • MATTHEW FISHER. Ministers for Health in name only

    Evidence on social determinants of health, health inequities and primary disease prevention and health promotion present many, currently under-utilised opportunities for Australian Government Health Ministers to genuinely be Ministers for health as well as for remedial healthcare services. (more…)

  • MUNGO MACCALLUM. Alexander wins return to obscurity

    So after all that, the bomb did not drop, the world has not ended. John Alexander has been re-elected and Australia’s champion, Bennelong’s champion, will relapse into the obscurity of the backbench whence he came. (more…)

  • JERRY ROBERTS. Will today’s Labor Government in Western Australia repeat the mistakes of 1983?

    Dominating the front page of Wednesday’s West Australian newspaper (6 December) was a picture of the State’s Premier, Mark McGowan, striking a tough-guy pose.  Ghosted over the photo of the Premier was a big headline saying “Fat Cat Cull.”  The fat cats are public service chiefs and the story revived memories of Premier Brian Burke in the days following Labor’s election victory in 1983.  The difference lies in what happened to the public service between then and now.  (more…)

  • KERRY MURPHY. Retaining a cruel and punitive policy towards asylum seekers.

    Recently re-elected deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce warned the New Zealand Prime Minister to back off on her offer to help resettle refugees from Manus Island and Nauru in New Zealand.  His statement seemed to hint at a warning that if New Zealand continued to push this offer, it could harm bilateral relations[1].  Ironically he said they should not interfere in Australia’s sovereignty, regarding non Australians sent to non Australian Manus Island and independent Nauru. (more…)

  • MARK BEESON: Agents of influence

    A form of groupthink about relations with China and the United States has become pervasive in Canberra. Ironically, this situation is encouraged by the influence of the US, despite the current hysteria surrounding relations with the PRC. (more…)

  • CAVAN HOGUE. More blessed to give than to receive?

    Provoking China to score cheap political points domestically does not advance Australian interests. While most Australians would prefer the US domestic political model to the Chinese, we are not going to change the Chinese system and so must learn to live with it. Complaints about Chinese attempts to influence Australian attitudes are naive.  All countries, including Australia, try to influence the policies of others and China is no different. Our American ally has a long history of influencing other countries clandestinely and of overthrowing democratic governments that didn’t suit its interests. Nobody is in a position to cast the first stone. The government’s unnecessary public attacks on China achieve nothing and pose the risk of threats to Australian interests from China. If you lead with your chin you are asking for trouble.  (more…)

  • KEVIN PEOPLES. An end of sorts.

    There is a time for everything …a time to be silent and a time to speak…Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

    Today the Royal Commission came to an end. I feel as if I have lost a friend. It seems somehow improper to say anything. In its place endless prattle, numbers, interviews, politics. Seventeen volumes. I am left numb. There will be a time to read them. But not today.  (more…)

  • MICHAEL MULLINS. Mothballing the clerical collar would help prevent clergy sexual abuse

    An attitude of superiority on the part of a priest or other religious functionary carries with it the distinct possibility that they will abuse their position by taking sexual advantage of someone less powerful. On the other hand, if they genuinely think of themselves as servants, sexual abuse is most unlikely. It’s time for the Church to consider doing away with the clerical collar, which is a powerful symbol of priestly power and privilege. (more…)

  • GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND …

    In case you missed Geraldine Doogue last week on Saturday Extra, she conducted three thought-provoking interviews. First was Professor Julian Le Grand of the London School of Economics, on the possibilities of employee-led mutuals contracting to the public sector. Then Sarah Barker and Karl Mallon talked about how firms are incorporating climate risk into their financial analysis. And former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten warned about the politics of identity – a political movement that “savages democracy”. He described how in Northern Ireland he developed practical methods to move beyond identity politics.

    In the Fairfax press Peter Martin explains why low pay rises have become routine. Going back to the Howard era, he explains how successive Coalition governments, fearful of wage inflation, have weakened trade unions and other mechanisms to keep wages rising in line with productivity.

    Writing in the Canberra Times Andrew Leigh (Federal member for Canberra) explains how the super-rich – “the top 1/10,000 th of the population” are using offshore tax havens to avoid tax, and Labor’s proposals to close tax loopholes.

    “We should rescue economics from the folly of neoliberalism” writes Ross Gittins, in an outline of the work of Harvard’s Dani Rodrik. Neoliberalism is simply “bad economics”.

    Ireland is still debating the scandal of child abuse in the Catholic Church, eight years after a royal commission into the matter delivered its groundbreaking report  – ABC News

    Grappling with Rome: David Marr’s lessons from the royal commission – the Guardian

    Public service boss Martin Parkinson proposes national survey on government – Canberra Times

    AGL says batteries are coming, but coal is uninvestable – RenewEconomy

    Is the Rohingya repatriation to Myanmar a reality or illusion – La Croix International

    A study has found that the new penalty rate cut has not stimulated jobs – Sydney Morning Herald

    The Audit Office has slammed the Federal Government’s dud investments in ‘clean coal’ RenewableEnergy

     

     

  • LAURIE PATTON. Setting the Record Straight – The Australian newspaper publishes rebuttal to Internet Australia attacks

    For former journalist and media executive Laurie Patton, spearheading Internet Australia’s campaign for #BetterBroadband meant becoming accustomed to the occasional sledge from the pro-NBN Co forces. However, a series of false and defamatory newspaper articles led to an out-of-court settlement and the publication of an ‘op-ed’ setting the record straight. (more…)

  • RAMESH THAKUR. Australia charts a flawed foreign policy course

    Australia’s 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper sketches the global geopolitical transition with remarkable precision and elegance and the document is exceptionally strong on principles, rules and norms as the foundation of world order. The word “rules” is used 70 times, “norms” 22 times, “principles” 15 times and “international law” 26 times. (more…)

  • JOHN MENADUE Repost of a Submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

     In November 2013, together with colleagues, I made a submission to the Royal Commission on the governance and systemic problems which lead to an abuse of power in the Catholic Church.  That abuse of power is not limited to sexual abuse of children. See submission reposted below: (more…)

  • Schools: will we ever join the dots?

    I have this little website, Edmediawatch, which monitors media reports about schools. It is a long-running repository of policies, decisions, research and commentary. I even have an ‘Edu-fact check’ section which uses a variety of f-words to pass judgment on claims about school education. It’s worth doing, but the site is quite a depressing catalogue of shallow reporting, recurring failure, ignored research, predictable panics, copying others’ mistakes, the triumph of vested interests, rebadged quick-fix solutions and the short termism that pervades our public life. (more…)

  • PETER JOHNSTONE. Public relations responses to Royal Commission

    The damning findings of the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in the recent reports on the Catholic dioceses of Melbourne and Ballarat seem to have elicited a standard Church response: 1. Accept critical findings; 2. Express regret to victims and families; 3. Apologise for failings of the incompetent bishop at the time; 4. Accept responsibility. (more…)

  • GILES PARKINSON. Turnbull blows trumpet for right wing idiocy on energy

    Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has chosen to close the year in much the same way as he started it on climate and energy policy: awaiting yet another review, and parroting the ever more absurd claims of the fossil fuel lobby and the right wing of his Coalition government on energy. (more…)

  • KIM WINGEREI. Political Donations Must End!

    Political donations are a scourge on democracy.  No business, corporation, organisation or individual gives without the expectation or hope of an outcome, and it fundamentally undermines the democratic decision making process.  Banning all donations to political candidates, representatives and political parties is the simple solution. (more…)

  • SANITSUDA EKACHAI. Why Buddhists fail simple test of compassion

    When Pope Francis avoided addressing the Rohingya genocide directly during his recent Myanmar visit, questioning his silence is missing the crux of the problem. (more…)