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The Queensland election could be occurring on another planet, as far as the locals are concerned. Pauline Hanson’s One Nation may exercise a morbid fascination but the bigger current issue is the link between the infrastructure proposed for the Adani Carmichael mine and the railway which would link it from the middle of nowhere to the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. (more…)

I want to apologise for a failure going back to the Bicentenary in 1988.  The very fact that 26 January continues to cause controversy is possibly the best reason for keeping it as the national day. The ambiguity of its meaning obliges us constantly to re-examine our modern origins. The new round of debate drew from Malcolm Turnbull the wisdom that it “stands for Australian values”. He managed to say much the same thing at Beersheba of all places. So we are to seek “Australian values” from Botany Bay to Beersheba. All this took place in the middle of the self-imposed fiasco in which his own Deputy Prime Minister (and by extension a huge proportion of us all) is in a legal limbo about his citizenship.  (more…)

Sorry, but Medicare needs to change” writes Ross Gittins. A fee-for-service model fitted with the nation’s needs in 1974 when the Whitlam Government introduced universal publicly-funded health insurance, but over a half-century our needs have changed. We should be putting more resources to preventing and managing chronic conditions and reducing the need to call on specialists and hospitals, with a policy focus on patients rather than the interests of service providers.

Japan and North Korea may be arch foes but there’s a school in the Japanese capital for Koreans that have remained loyal to the North’s three Kim regimes to learn their language, culture and heritage.  Another perspective on the same school system can be found here.

With Brexit, Britain seems to be embracing an introverted irrelevance, says Steven Erlanger in the New York Times International Edition.

There is nothing wrong with Catalonia becoming independent, says Colm Toibin in the Guardian.

Who bears the brunt of corporate tax cuts asks Kimberley Clausing

What next for the refugees and failed asylum seekers on Manus Island? asks Harriet Spinks

Prime Minister Turnbull now asserts that the onus is on individual Parliamentarians to prove their non-dual citizenship status (a status that previously did not disqualify). How can the onus of proof be put on them when that determination may be in the hands of an external authority? (more…)

It was not so long ago that the functions of more social democratic nation states were legitimated and visible because they represented wide public ownership of many physical resources and delivered many essential and community services.  Whether that form has elements in it that  would allay current problems and improve future governance needs to explored. What is clear is the need to reverse and reform the causes of deep distrust.   (more…)

The raid on the offices of the Australian Workers Union by the Australian Federal Police demonstrates a disrespect for trade unions contrary to the Catholic tradition. Since the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891, Catholic Social Teaching has recognised the right of workers to join together collectively in unions as an important element of the search for the common good in a market economy. The political theatre indulged in by the Employment Minister Michaelia Cash and the Registered Organisations Commission is especially worrying for the deeper attitudes it reveals.  (more…)

Good democratic governance requires those in power to both be seen as both trustworthy and representing voters , effectively and fairly. Those ostensibly in control need to provide evidence that they are delivering, or ensuring access to those services and resources that are seen as public responsibilities. The disappearing common wealth and rising focus on individualised self-interest benefits need to be seen as causing the rising anti-elite, populist politics that undermine social cohesion, rather than  just blaming the changes on  limited economic flaws, e.g. the GFC. If we are to restore trust in good democratic processes, we need to recognise and address the social effects of citizens being redefined as customers in the shift to market models, as well as  the increased invisibility of public good and goods.    (more…)

There is great irony in the fact that the citizenship weapon which the government so recklessly aimed at migrants ended up blowing up in the face of its own parliamentarians. (more…)

Life is an equation in hydrocarbons was a favourite aphorism of the late RFX Connor, Minister for Minerals and Energy in the Whitlam Labor governments of 1972-1975. The phrase belied a deep understanding by Connor of the Australian petroleum and natural gas industry at the time together with a suggestion of big ideas waiting to be explained. One big idea that Connor had was the need to develop Australia’s natural gas deposits to maximise their economic return in the international market and secure sufficient gas reserves to satisfy Australia’s domestic requirements, both domestic and industrial, for the foreseeable future. (more…)

Taking a break between grave matters of national security and remembering the holocaust in Israel, Malcolm Turnbull said somewhat incongruously that he was having more fun than he had ever had in his life. (more…)

John Menadue’s lament in his Thursday post for the loss of trust in our public institutions was so comprehensive that it left me feeling devastated.  His re- posting was inspired by Senator Jacquie Lambie’s criticism of lobbyists and it is to the Senate that we must look for assistance. (more…)

After a week of incompetence, chaos and downright embarrassment Malcolm Turnbull may have been looking for a silver lining. (more…)