Pearls and Irritations

Tag: mw

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A royal abuse of political power

The revelations this week by The Guardian UK of the Queen’s secret intervention in political matters to protect her personal fortune are simply extraordinary. New documents from the UK Archives set out in excruciating detail the power of the monarch to vet legislation in her own interests. Under the guise of exercising the arcane ‘royal consent’, long considered a mere formality taken only on ministerial advice, the Queen and Prince Charles can secretly alter any Act that might affect the monarch personally. This they have done with alacrity.

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Feb 12, 2021
Tamed Estate: IR reforms ‘dangerous’, ‘extreme’ but let’s go with Christian Porter’s description – ‘modest’

When tabling the omnibus Industrial Relations bill in early December, Christian Porter described the changes as “modest”. The mainstream media duly followed suit and in no time at all had even dropped the quotation marks.

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Feb 12, 2021
Can we clean up gambling in Australia?

ClubsNSW has become a powerful political force, and along with the Australian Hotels Association is a major political donor. ClubsNSW has in fact signed an MoU with every NSW premier since Barry O’Farrell. Why this is necessary is a mystery.
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Feb 11, 2021
Unaccountable leaders set the tone for all in public service

The decline of good government has not been an accident. Those in public service are probably of much the same calibre, idealism and intellectual capacity as ever. What they are not getting is leadership – by words or by deeds.

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Feb 10, 2021
The Morrison government: increasingly an ethical vacuum

Almost weekly, the person behind Anthony Albanese’s Twitter feed puts out a short statement, hanging off a recent event, calling for powerful corruption commission. A Labor Party seriously interested in winning government ought to be doing much more. (more…)

Feb 9, 2021
Aged care, quarantine: open and shut cases of federal responsibility but Morrison won’t step up to the plate

Experts have spent years warning the federal government that pandemics would increase in frequency and severity. Yet the government was asleep at the wheel when Covid hit. Older people paid a heavy price, with Australia having one of the highest rates in the world of deaths in residential aged care as a proportion of total Covid-19 deaths.

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Feb 5, 2021
War Crimes? What war crimes? Nothing to see here

Burying crimes under layers of legal process is tantamount to cover-up. And cover-ups destroy democracy. Just another one to add to the list of evidence showing the Morrison government’s problem with accountability – ‘sports rorts’ and the bonanza for Liberal donors from the ‘Leppington Triangle’ land deal being just two examples.

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Feb 5, 2021
Eddie McGuire: words matter, because words and actions are indivisible

Which bit was the object of the apology? The misinterpretation, the original sins or the reaction?

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Feb 4, 2021
Morrison’s not a miracle worker; he just got lucky with an inept Opposition Leader

Since the Coalition came to power in 2013 Australia has fallen down the Transparency International corruption index from seventh to its current 11. With endless material to attack the Coalition over corruption issues, why is the Albanese-led Opposition apparently incapable of doing so? (more…)

Feb 4, 2021
Society depends on science: we need to get serious about protecting it

Science dodged a bullet with the end of the Trump presidency but the threat has not gone away. The concepts of truth, transparency and empiricism are universal. For too long, scientists have stood aloof from these conversations – to society’s detriment.

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Feb 3, 2021
Promise to restore integrity, Mr Albanese, and you might be surprised

Anthony Albanese, you possibly have the worst job in Australian politics. Up against a federal government rich in marketing skills and basking in its entitlement and a public that is buying it. Please give us more of your passion and tell us your plan. (more…)

Feb 3, 2021
Campaign autopsy by Trump pollster paints damning picture

The 27-page report pins Trump’s loss on voter perception that he was untrustworthy and disapproval of his pandemic performance.

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Feb 3, 2021
Why does Australia allow the US to choose our enemies?

Trump was right: the US fights ‘forever wars’, and only the names of the enemies change. America is never without an enemy, an heir and a spare. Military force remains the default American response to most problems. Australia needs to warn the new US administration that we’re not interested in illegal, expeditionary wars.

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Feb 2, 2021
Inspirational heroes abound – discover and promote them

Gellibrand MP Tim Watts draws on his family experience – his children, Hong Kong Chinese wife and in-laws – for his book “The Golden Country: Australia’s Changing Identity”. A modern response to Donald Horne’s 1960s “Lucky Country”, Watts see our future as a “golden country”, reflecting a largely Asian Australia. (more…)

Feb 2, 2021
Who is Scotty Morrison, master of the dark art of linguistic deception? Part 1

Humpty Dumpty: When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.
Alice: The question is whether you can make words mean so many different things.
Humpty Dumpty: The question is which is to be master — that’s all.”
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass. (more…)

Feb 1, 2021
Coalition’s political games don’t mix well with existential threat

We could secure a spectacular future for ourselves and help the planet. Instead the federal government dodges the hard decisions; passes the buck. Fortunately, state and territory governments are stepping up to the plate.
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Jan 29, 2021
Media in the Asian Century: Digging in deeper in an already fraught relationship with China

China sanctions a sting in the tail for Trump officials; role of ASPI in provoking ire of China flies under the radar; and conservatives perform impressive backflips on Biden.

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Jan 29, 2021
Lessons from our diplomacy in Asia in the 1930s

Scott Morrison says he has been “revisiting” the 1930s, a period in which Australia faced an “existential threat”. The strategies of conservative policy makers of the 1930s are worth examining by today’s leaders so we don’t repeat the disasters of that time.

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Jan 29, 2021
Confected outrage all in a day’s work for News

A lesson in skewing the conversation; Morrison’s gloss wearing thin?; promoting US election conspiracy theories; and kid-glove treatment for Gladys.

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Jan 29, 2021
Brexit still not done and dusted?

The lies and misrepresentations spun by Brexiters (and the UK government) ever since the 2016 Referendum are coming home to roost. While niggles and irritations were expected, they were seen as transitional. But major consequences for the British economy are heaping up.

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Jan 28, 2021
Rupert Murdoch’s faulty memory. (edited repost from 21 Dec, 2016)

Rupert Murdoch has asserted many times that he has never asked anything from a prime minister yet the Guardian has proof that contradict that claim, as do I.

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Jan 28, 2021
And then there were three – Australia’s dwindling oil exports

With a growing dependence on imports, Australia will become more vulnerable to disruptions to supply. It will not be easy to quantify the disadvantages. And it will be extremely difficult for governments to decide what level of insurance against disruption would be appropriate. (more…)

Jan 28, 2021
Australia’s ‘exceptional’ human rights record

Leaders who consider their country exceptional are less likely to acknowledge any shortcomings. In light of recent criticism of Australia’s human rights record, will our leaders feel so ashamed of being labelled exceptional that they will look to implement standards of common decency considered central to a fair-go culture? (more…)

Jan 27, 2021
Some want voter suppression in Australia

While many of us in Australia are impressed with the state of our nation, especially when we compare it with our rich and powerful ally, the USA, we should not get too smug, with plenty of warning signs of some really bad American ideas about to be imported. (more…)

Jan 27, 2021
Fundamental purpose of superannuation is to provide adequate retirement incomes, not finance bequests

The priority for retirement incomes policy is to ensure that retirement savings are used efficiently to generate an adequate income. Until this occurs, there should be no change in the legislated increases in the compulsory superannuation guarantee contribution rate. (more…)

Jan 26, 2021
Let the JobKeeper rorts roll

Where do we start when considering the $100 billion JobKeeper scheme? Should we focus on the opaque nature of the scheme in which less than 3% of JobKeeper payments have been disclosed in public company accounts and there is no way of finding out who got what and how much? (more…)

Jan 25, 2021
CIA, the USA and a poor night’s sleep for the world

Joe Biden’s appointment of William Burns as CIA director shows how the US, of whatever stripe, views the world. It sees things in absolute black and white. Peace and security can only be assured if ‘we’ remain dominant. (more…)

Jan 21, 2021
Australia’s political talent pool more like a puddle

Once upon a time in Australia, the best and the brightest presented themselves for election. Now, it seems, Cabinet ministers are chosen on the basis of loyalty to whoever is sitting in the prime ministerial chair. And talent is in short supply. (more…)

Jan 21, 2021
Pandemic deaths have numbed our humanity and perception of risk

On one terrible day in December, Covid-19 deaths in the US for the first time exceeded the death toll from the World Trade Centre terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. To make people care we need to personalise the issue.

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Jan 21, 2021
Chocolate: still tainted by child labour

What is your New Year resolution? To get fitter and eat less sugar, including chocolate? There’s plenty of other reasons to re-think our love affair with chocolate. (more…)

Jan 17, 2021