An extraordinary piece of evidence presented to the Commission is that up to 7% of Australian Catholic clergy have been child abusers. (more…)
Blog
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JAMES O’NEILL. Just whose news is fake?
The term “fake news” has gained a certain currency in recent months, perhaps reaching its apogee with the Washington Post’s notorious list of alleged fake news sites. (more…)
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. The pact of silence.
The death of Dr David Kelly in 2003 has not been explained to the satisfaction of everyone in Britain. Investigations suggest the Government of Tony Blair still has questions to answer. (more…)
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DENNIS ARGALL. The complexity of saying no to the Americans.
The degree of ‘interoperability’ with US forces shapes the minds of Australian service personnel from top to bottom as also it shapes procurement planning and justification. … Any review by us of the Alliance relationship would run-up against a deep history. It would require a radical shift in the pattern of power within Australian strategic policy-making bureaucracy and public commentariat. (more…)
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. Trump and Turnbull.
The problem is not with America and Australia – it is with Trump and Turnbull, and more urgently with Turnbull. Sooner or later he will have to decide: does he continue as the next in line of Trump’s Aunt Sallies, punching bags and door mats or does he have a plan B? Perhaps it is finally time to unleash his inner political animal – assuming, of course, that he actually has one. (more…)
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TONY KEVIN. Trump, Putin and the priming of the impeachment trigger.
A game plan is now evident for the possible expulsion of Donald Trump from the US presidency by impeachment, unless he toes the line of Washington’s established bipartisan national security agenda. Putinophobia is central to this dark Shakespearean drama. Trump is increasingly friendless and bereft of the respect normally due to a US President. Recent polling suggests that 40% of Americans favour Trump’s impeachment: so far missing is sufficient Republican and Democrat votes in both houses of Congress to translate this mounting public antipathy into political action. If present trends continue, he will be either impeached, or politically neutered by his fear of impeachment. On Washington’s blasted heath, Trump’s enemies are marshalling their forces and priming their weapons. (more…)
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DENNIS ARGALL Korea, China, US and Trump
It has not helped that senior military people have been inclined to simply call the North Koreans crazy, any more than it helps now to simply call Trump crazy.
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IAN McAULEY. What lies beyond capitalism?
This a review of Wolfgang Streeck’s book ‘How will capitalism end?’.
Communists of the world, relax! Don’t spend your efforts trying to bring down capitalism, because it’s going to bring itself down. (more…)
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Labor Again Exposed as Morally Bankrupt on Private School Overfunding
An unholy alliance between Tanya Plibersek and Tony Abbott on overfunding of private schools was again revealed this week. Labor’s position on overfunding was exposed as morally bankrupt, cynical and at complete odds with its supposed support for the principle of needs-based school funding. (more…)
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PETER DAY. Catholic Archbishops to front Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
This week the Catholic archbishops of Australia will be called to give evidence at the full panel of Royal Commission in Sydney. (more…)
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JOSEPH CAMILLERI. The Politics of Paralysis: Australian style
It is hard not to conclude that our major parties have been the primary stumbling block. They seem singularly ill equipped to envisage, let alone manage, the institutional changes called for by a globalising and increasingly interdependent world. If innovation holds the key to the future, we would do well to look elsewhere for leadership or inspiration. (more…)
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CAVAN HOGUE. Should we Jump with Trump on Russia?
Australia has followed the hardline advocates in the US in attributing evil actions now and in the future to Russia and Putin in particular. How accurate is this view? One of the few sensible things Trump is doing is advocating better relations with Russia which can only contribute to a reduction in international tension – however much we may dislike his regime and and whatever Trump’s motives. Do we now follow Trump or his opponents on this? Australia is not a player despite being a camp follower of NATO so perhaps the less we say the better. So far Mr Turnbull has kept quiet and hopefully will continue to do so. (more…)
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FRANK JOTZO. New coal plants wouldn’t be clean, and would cost billions in taxpayer subsidies.
Following a campaign by the coal industry, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has argued for new coal-fired power stations in Australia. But these plants would be more expensive than renewables and carry a huge liability through the carbon emissions they produce.
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RICHARD BUTLER. Australia and the US: Truth Time.
There is an extraordinary amount of deception and lying around current US policy. The Republican establishment will need to work out where it stands on Trump’s agenda. This is precisely the time for truthful discourse in Australia about our relationship with the US. (more…)
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OLIVER FRANKEL. Focusing on supply only will not solve the affordable housing crisis
There is now widespread recognition in the echelons of government, both Federal and State, that we face an affordable housing crisis. However, there is still no consensus about how to solve it.
The Coalition insists the problem can be fixed by bringing on more supply. Labor regards a supply only market-based approach as too simplistic, and accepts the need also to address demand-side management, including through reform of negative gearing. (more…)
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GEOFF DAVIES. Brexit, Trump and a Rigged System. Part 2 of 2.
Neoliberalism let loose the anarchic forces of free markets just at the time when we most needed them to be restrained and redirected so as not to wreck our planetary home. (more…)
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PETER DAY. Trump’s Tower of Babel
Indeed, “May God well bless America”, because what it needs now appears to be well beyond the scope of mere mortals.
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GEOFF DAVIES. Brexit, Trump and a Rigged System. Part 1 of 2.
Behind the votes for Brexit and Trump lies a simple and widespread perception: the system is rigged in favour of the rich. That perception is accurate. People may lash out at scapegoats and follow false prophets, but their disgust and alienation are quite justified. Trump promised to break up the cozy club at the top, and many people said Yes. (more…)
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RICHARD WOOLCOTT. A foreign policy for Australia.
Our Prime Minister and Foreign Minister often refer to the “rules based world order.” This “order”, of course, was established primarily by the United States after the end of World War 2. The “rules” have been disregarded by the US itself when it has suited it to do so. As a result It is not accepted by some major countries, especially China, which would want to be involved in the development of any new rules based order. In this context, the dominant influence of the defence and intelligence communities in Australia and in the US must be restrained. (more…)
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MARK BEESON. Turnbull turns toady for Trump
Let’s hope it’s worth it. Malcolm Turnbull has sacrificed whatever remaining credibility he may still have had as a small ‘l’ liberal in a desperate effort to save his tawdry deal with the American government. What looked like a brilliant political ploy to resolve the running sore of off-shore detention, has now come back to bite him. (more…)
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ALLAN PATIENCE. The End is Nigh! Anticipating a Post-Capitalist World
Capitalism is in crisis. What Marx referred to as its internal contradictions have begun undermining its very foundations. It is time to ask what a post-capitalist world will be like. (more…)
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ROBERT MANNE. The Muscovian candidate? Donald Trump and Russia.
This article was first published by The Monthly in December 2016.
To uncover the truth about the relations between Trump and Russia, therefore now requires not only painstaking investigation but, even more, political courage from members of the Republican Party in the Senate, the US intelligence services and the American mainstream media. The future of the Trump Presidency now rests in their hands. (more…)
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WALTER HAMILTON. Bad hombres.
Donald J. Trump likes to sound off about ‘bad hombres’ sneaking into the United States to spread terror and crime. Bad hombres come in many shapes and disguises, not only as bad people but also bad ideas. (more…)
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JAMES O’NEILL. ‘One belt one road’ (OBOR) – a new geopolitical paradigm.
The scale of the projects (OBOR) is astonishing. As of July 2016 China had more than 900 contracts in place or under negotiation with a propose investment value of over $900 billion dollars. This was in addition to a separate contract worth over $400 billion signed with Russia for the supply of natural gas. (more…)
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull and Donald Trump on ‘alternate facts’.
The Trans Pacific Partnership is not worth pursuing by anyone serious – which leaves Turnbull and Ciobo, still clinging, not even to a straw, but to the open waters of internationalism. (more…)
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CHRIS BONNOR & BERNIE SHEPHERD. The vanishing private school
Just when we are getting used to the idea of having a mix of public and private schools in Australia along comes a development with the potential to upset everything once again. Over the years our federal and state governments, apparently without comparing notes, have raised private school funding to the point where those schools can no longer be considered to be … private. (more…)
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Welcoming the Stranger
In solidarity with refugees, young Catholics joined in a Mass in Lafayette Square outside the White House. See link below to article in ‘America, The Jesuit Review’. (more…)
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JOHN TULLOH. The simplistic naivete of Donald Trump
We certainly live in far more interesting, if not astonishing, news times now that a Manhattan real estate developer occupies the White House. We wake up each day wondering what was the latest personal whim Donald Trump chose to exercise while we slept. (more…)
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GEOFF HISCOCK. Key Indian states go to the polls in February
While most of Asia-Pacific focuses on the beginning of the Trump presidency and China’s prickly response so far, a substantial slice of the world’s biggest democracy, India, is about to enter a crucial round of state elections that will also have an impact on regional stability and economic growth. … in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, where 140 million of its 200 million people are on the electoral roll — more than the 130 million American citizens who cast votes in the US presidential election. (more…)
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GREG WOOD. The TPP is dead – so scotch ISDS
With the Trans Pacific Partnership’s (TPP) demise, Australia should take the chance to reconsider its approach to international trade negotiations. Certainly we should never again sign an agreement with wide ranging Investor State Dispute Settlement provisions (ISDS) which are definitely not in the interests of our society, democracy or economy. (more…)