Blog

  • JOHN MENADUE. The NBN and the wholesale/network arm of Telstra that should never have been sold.

    Yesterday Malcolm Turnbull , perhaps unwittingly,sheeted home the real responsibility for the NBN debacle to the privatisation of Telstra by the Howard Government.  In his attempt to blame the Rudd government for the current problems, he really let the cat out of the bag.  He said

    If you want to look at a country that did this exercise much better, it was New Zealand. What they did was they basically ensured the incumbent telco – the Telstra equivalent – split its network operations from its retail operations and then that network company, called Chorus, became in effect the NBN.’

    (more…)

  • IAN VERRENDER. The case for an east coast gas reservation policy

    A little over a decade ago, then-West Australian premier Alan Carpenter had his back against the wall with threats from the gas and oil companies.. But he insisted on a gas reservation policy for WA.  Exxon quickly came to heel. (more…)

  • JERRY ROBERTS. Where were our politicians when the Rio Man bad-mouthed our country?

    While Rio Tinto and former chief executive Tom Albanese deny fraud charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, critics in our hemisphere are asking what is going on in the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.  A more important question is what happened to our politicians in 2010 when Albanese insulted our nation. (more…)

  • JOHN AUSTEN. Trouble in infrastructure paradise, NSW Part 1 of 2

    Sydney readers are being subjected to an onslaught of infrastructure puff pieces featuring former Transport Minister now Premier the Hon. Gladys Berejiklian MP.  It coincides with a desire to ‘showcase the Government’s infrastructure credentials’ and raise the Premier’s profile.  It also coincides with big swings against her Government in by-elections. But the major projects currently underway in Sydney are characterised by poor planning and a failure to link key nodes, lack of cost control, and a loss of interoperability in the rail system.

    This is the first of two articles on the matter.  The second will deal with the transport and metropolitan ‘plans’ just released by the Government. (more…)

  • GREG BAILEY. Lobbyists and the Privatisation of the Political Process

    Recent exposures of the extent of lobbying in Canberra and the revolving door of politicians becoming lobbyists highlight the extent to which politics here and in other Anglo-Saxon countries has become privatized. The effectiveness of the lobbyists–who are essentially mercenaries–poses a threat to democratic process and contributes strongly to what I call “the privatization of politics.” Government has always to some extent been an oligopoly of vested interests. Lobbyists have cemented this situation even further. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Game changer.

    Malcolm Turnbull crows that his National Energy Guarantee is a game changer – and so it is, but that doesn’t mean much.  The energy game has been changing for well over the last decade, and in all likelihood will go on changing for the next ten years at least. The point, surely, is not to keep changing the game but to end it, delivering certainty, price stability, and above all political success. (more…)

  • JOHN DWYER. The folly of looking at private health insurance as a single issue . Part 2 of2

    So “Private Health insurance is in the DNA” of the Coalition government we hear from Minister Hunt. That may well be the case but there is no evidence to suggest that the delivery of equitable, quality health care to all Australians is so programmed. Indeed many have commented that the recent focus on private health insurance and the need for younger Australians to embrace a very poor deal is couched in rhetoric which suggests that Private Hospital care is better than Public Hospital care and, in any case, the public hospital system may not be there for you when you need it. (more…)

  • WALTER HAMILTON. When Nothing Happened in Japan

    After Sunday’s election, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would be entitled to quote Mark Twain: ‘Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated’. Political death, that is. His ruling coalition threw back all challengers and retained the crucial two-thirds majority in the lower house required for a constitutional amendment. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull and Daniel Andrews.

    The success of Victoria’s Labor government in passing its Assisted Dying legislation through the lower house is surely an object lesson in how to handle a sensitive and contentious subject.   (more…)

  • IAN McAULEY. Turnbull’s National Energy Guarantee: can it work?

    The Commonwealth’s proposed National Energy Guarantee is vague and confusing, and is based on dated engineering and economic ideas. But it may allow an economically responsible government, if we elect one, to reshape it into a set of policies that honour our environmental responsibilities and modernise our energy sector. (more…)

  • STUART HARRIS. The US and North Korea: the importance of history.

    North Korea’s belligerent missile tests have given rise to fears that the hardening rhetoric on both sides will lead to military conflict involving nuclear weapons.  These fears have resulted in moves to moderate this tension by some of the players, with US Secretary of State Tillerson seeking to communicate with the North, and South Korea’s  President Moon seeking dialogue with the North.  (more…)

  • JENNY HOCKING. “A Royal Green Light”: The Palace, the Governor-General and the Dismissal of the Whitlam Government

    Contrary to the accepted story that the Queen was not involved in the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in 1975, it is now clear that the Palace had a significant role in the process. Those involved, in Australia and in Britain, kept this involvement hidden from the Australian people in a process of collusion, deception and artifice. (more…)

  • PETER ARNOLD. Calling for medical help at night

    Obtaining first-line medical attention at night, especially if the patient is house-bound, has become increasingly difficult. Proposals to improve affordable access to such services need to take account of changing urban structures, medical culture and community expectations.  (more…)

  • JOHN DWYER. The folly of looking at private health insurance as a single issue rather than a policy failure .Part 1 of 2

    So “private health insurance is in the DNA” of the Coalition government, we hear from Minister Hunt. That may well be the case but there is no evidence to suggest that the delivery of equitable, quality health care to all Australians is so programmed. Indeed many have commented that the recent focus on private health insurance and the need for younger Australians to embrace a very poor deal is couched in rhetoric which suggests that private hospital care is better than public hospital care and, in any case, the public hospital system may not be there for you when you need it. (more…)

  • MAX HAYTON. NZ election finally produces a government.

    A stunning election outcome has given New Zealand a new government with the potential to transform the country’s economy and society. Risen star and youngest ever New Zealand woman Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, aged 37, leads a coalition that ends the nine-year reign of the conservative, centre-Right National Party under former money dealer John Key and farmer Bill English. Ardern and her partners represent a fresh multi-hued approach.   (more…)

  • MICHAEL LAMBERT. The National Energy Guarantee – what do we make of it?

    After a progression of schemes, such as the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), The Carbon Pollution Tax (CPT), Direct Action, including the Renewable Energy Target (RET) as well as dabbling with the Emissions Intensity Scheme (EIS) and the Clean Energy Target (CET) we have now being presented by those proud parents, Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg, with the latest addition to the energy policy family, the NEG, the National Energy Guarantee. Will it work and how; is it better or worse than its alternatives; and what are the key issues to address if it proceeds?   (more…)

  • WE ARE ALSO READING AND LISTENING TO …

    Pearls and Irritations provides the following links for weekend reading and listening: (more…)

  • JOHN MENADUE. Rent-seekers and corruption risks in the Australian mining industry and elsewhere.

    In this blog Gigi Foster and Paul Frijters said:  ‘The vast majority of the richest Australians work in property, mining and banking/finance. … Tellingly, the highest earning workers in these industries do not invent or use advanced production or distribution technology… People in these highly regulated industries are handsomely rewarded when they can negotiate special favours, such as property rezonings, planning law exemptions, mining concessions, labour law exemptions or money creation powers.’ (more…)

  • PETER RODGERS. Australia and capital punishment – rhetoric and reality

    In pursuing Australia’s ultimately successful bid for election to the UN Human Rights Council, Foreign Minister Bishop declared that Australia would be ‘unrelenting’ in its efforts to abolish capital punishment globally. But Australia’s track record of selective outrage gives little hope for an energetic, universalist approach that goes beyond the rhetorical.
     (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. SJ Towards an economy that works for all.

    The promise of riches from the trickle-down effect is at best patchy for many Australians, and non-existent for others. Continuing with the same economic and social policy settings will exacerbate the already growing divide between the rich and the poor and eventually damage the economy to such an extent that it has a detrimental effect on everyone. (more…)

  • ALAN PEARS, ANNA SKARBEK, DYLAN MCCONNELL. Federal government unveils ‘National Energy Guarantee’ – experts react

    The federal government has announced a new energy policy, after deciding against adopting the Clean Energy Target recommended by chief scientist Alan Finkel. (more…)

  • JOHN MENADUE. John Kerr talked to John Guise

    We know that John Kerr spoke in advance to many people, in secret ,about the dismissal of the Whitlam Government . He spoke to Garfield Barwick, Anthony Mason, Prince Charles and Lord Mountbatten. But he did not speak to his own Prime Minister

    We are now told that he also spoke to  Sir John Guise, the Governor General  of New Guinea about the dismissal. The following is a letter printed in the Canberra Times on 18 October 2017 from Mark Lynch who was Secretary of the National Executive Council of New Guinea.  (more…)

  • JOHN AUSTEN – Road pricing; an update

    Reports about the Grattan Institute’s assessment of Sydney and Melbourne traffic is the latest re-ignition of road pricing arguments.  However, the risk that policy falls further into the hands of vested interests needs to be addressed.  There is an urgent need for Commonwealth advisers to lift their game. (more…)

  • PAUL BUDDE. The future NBN might look rather different.

    Some of the new technologies that are now arriving on the horizon could well mean that a different NBN scenario might unfold – a merging between fixed and wireless broadband. (more…)

  • JOHN QUIGGIN. Jobs bonanza? The Adani project is more like a railway to nowhere

    The dispute over the Adani Group’s proposed Carmichael mine and the associated port at Abbot Point has long been cast as a choice between jobs and the environment. Climate change is already well on the way to destroying the Great Barrier Reef, among many other things, and the development of the massive coal reserves of the Galilee Basin would make it almost impossible to stabilise the global climate. (more…)

  • JULIE BISHOP. Foreign policy in an uncertain world.

    “We have an independent foreign policy and we do not outsource our decisions to other countries.”  Julie Bishop

    Yesterday, we posted a speech by Shadow Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, ‘Engaging with China’. Today we post a presentation by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to the Australian Institute of International Affairs, 2017 National Conference in Canberra.   (more…)

  • NICHOLAS GRUEN. Which bank could give Australians a better bang for their buck? The Reserve Bank of Australia.

    How would you like to be able to get most of your mortgage from the Reserve Bank of Australia at the cash rate of 1.5% rather than three times that after your bank has slapped on its margin for the same money? (more…)

  • GEORGE BROWNING. Violence and Religion

    Recently released Fairfax poll figures indicating that Australia records the highest percentage of citizens of any comparable country believing the world would be better off without religion because of its assumed connection with violence is somewhat of a shock.  That we are apparently more tolerant of religious difference than most is comforting, but does not ameliorate the first figure. (more…)

  • MERRIDEN VARRALL. Chinese student furore reveals Australia’s poor integration strategy

    Why does Australia encourage international — including Chinese — students to study within its borders? Australian universities are about teaching and learning, but they need to be properly resourced to do so, so one reason for encouraging foreign students is the funding they bring to Australian universities. Another more important aspect is the potential to enrich their appreciation for Australia’s way of life, its values and its ethics — which can ultimately enhance Australia’s soft power. (more…)

  • Private Health Insurance: focus on premiums ignores the cost of using it

    Last week’s announcement from the Turnbull Government purported to be about making private health insurance “simpler and more affordable” but in fact delivered more for health insurance funds’ bottom lines than for Australians’ budgets and highlighted the contorted, confused and controversial logic that underpins the government’s push requiring taxpayers to contribute to the financing of both tiers of a two-tiered healthcare system. (more…)