We are not yet in election mode and can assume that both parties are reserving their campaign strategies and tactics for the end. But at the moment, Morrison and the coalition will have defeated themselves. (more…)
Tag: mw
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Respect for the APS did not last long
Praise of the Australian Public Service for its COVID 19 efforts last year, and appearances of respecting its policy contribution, seem now to have disappeared. The PM’s disdain of the public service as a key institution in our democracy, shown in his response to the Thodey Report in December 2019 and his earlier disparaging of its policy advising role, are apparent again in his departmental secretary appointments last week. (more…)
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South Australia’s impressive renewable energy transition
South Australia underwent a significant renewables transition under successive ALP governments from 2002 until 2018. In 2002 SA generated its electricity locally from brown coal and gas and imported around 30% of its annual needs from Victoria where brown coal production dominated. There was no production from renewables. Jump to 2018, when the ALP lost office after 16 years, and the state was generating 52% of its electricity from renewables with the remainder from natural gas, with 3% of net annual production being exported east. (more…)
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Why is Australia still investing in a balanced defence force?
When the Prime Minister recently compared Australia’s strategic situation to that in 1939, he was right in two respects. Both in 1939 and in 2021, we have put too much trust in a ‘great and powerful friend’ to secure our independence. Australia’s problem is a Defence department that, simply put, lacks foresight, resourcefulness and innovation. (more…)
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The world is in a crisis of our own making – is it sowing the seeds of change?
The world is in a crisis. And many of our leaders are failing us. People are despondent, angry and sad, many unable to see their loved ones, many more not knowing how to cope. There is no end in sight, unless we look beyond the concreted corridors of power. (more…)
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Sunday environmental round up.
Greta Thunberg accuses world leaders of pretending to tackle climate change. Ecocide gets a legal definition – President Bolsonaro beware! Economic viability of gas power plants justified on false assumptions and lots of reasons why nuclear isn’t the answer either. Australia’s emissions per person not as praiseworthy as the government would have us believe.
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What does it take to get sacked from the Morrison Cabinet?
Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away there was a concept called the Westminster principle of Ministerial responsibility – if you failed in your responsibility you resigned or got sacked. (more…)
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Carbon Offsets are a Delusion
Any government, corporation, industry or nation, that is relying on carbon offsets to justify claims to be “Net Zero” is relying on bogus accounting – looking at the credits whilst sweeping the debits under the carpet. -
Public service must learn from robodebt fiasco
Justice Murphy of the Federal Court castigated the Commonwealth in unprecedented terms in his judgment approving settlement of the class action on behalf of those affected by Robodebt.
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Controlling lobbyists is needed to increase trust in government
Good and bad government behaviour, the management of crises, lack of accountability, preferencing of mates, the favouring of powerful interests, undue influence and lobbying, they all impact on people’s trust in government. (more…)
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When is a secret meeting for lobbying not a secret meeting?
ICAC urges ban on secret meetings with lobbyists. In other words, ICAC practitioners imagine a new system for governing…or do they? What is ‘their system’s’ purpose and how might it work out in the long run? Some general features pertain.
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Afghanistan: An enterprise for the stupid
Viet Nam, Iraq and now Afghanistan demonstrate that our ally, the US, is flaky. (more…)
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AstraZeneca vaccine: let young people choose for themselves
Choosing the AstraZeneca vaccine involves weighing up the risks and benefits. Young people weigh these differently from older generations, and should be allowed to make informed decisions for themselves. (more…)
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The IGR report and its failure to expose the critical policy choices
The Treasurer’s recently released Intergenerational Report has been widely criticised for its narrow modelling framework. But even within this framework, the assumptions appear to be excessively optimistic. Consequently, the Report’s conclusion that Australia’s budget is fiscally sustainable way into the future is not credible. (more…)
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The chaotic incompetence of our roll out of the Covid vaccines? Part 2
Controversy characterises the current, somewhat heated, discussions about how to use the vaccines available to us. While we hope to eventually employ at least four effective vaccines at the moment our choice is limited to one of two, the AstraZenica vaccine which we can manufacture here and the Pfizer vaccine which we need to import. (more…)
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Timor-Leste, Witness K, Bernard Collaery, Howard and Downer
This is a tale of greed, denial, delusion, racism, power, loyalty, ethics and courage. Dressed in black are Howard and Downer, in white are Witness K and Collaery. The tale takes place in the subterranean world of spies, spooks, spivs and secret trials. (more…)
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The chaotic incompetence of our roll out of the Covid vaccines? Part 1
Who would have thought that a well educated and scientifically sophisticated nation like ours would find itself dead last among OECD countries when the percentages of citizens fully vaccinated in each country are examined. (more…)
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The untold story of Apple Daily: deception, misogyny and quiet Americans
The Western media will repeatedly report that Beijing is to blame for Apple Daily’s problems in Hong Kong, hoping and praying that no one will point out the key fact that demolishes the argument: The newspaper group has been even more of a disaster in Taiwan, where it has stopped all its print publications, despite the island allegedly having glorious USA-Style True Democracy. USA! USA! (more…)
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Key Assange accuser backs away from what he told US prosecutors
Why the reluctance of the Australian media to report on a significant development in the Assange case?
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Carbon Leakage: the Achilles heel of climate change
Not dealing with “carbon leakage” has plagued emission reduction negotiations since the United Nations Climate Change Convention of 1994. It led to the failure of the US to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, then the Protocol itself, and may well lead to the demise of not only the 2015 Paris Accord but the WTO.
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Why can’t we agree on the powers needed for a Commonwealth Integrity Commission?
Ministerial discretion under the Westminster system as it is applied in Australia is a useful but corruptible power.
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Can we have confidence in the Therapeutic Goods Administration?
Two recent decisions by the TGA have further reduced the confidence that health professionals and consumers have in the regulation of complementary medicines. The first was allowing complementary medicines as a reward for people vaccinated against COVID-19. The second was approving a TGA assessed (Aust L(A)) application for Caruso’s Prostate EZE Max.
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A sinking DFAT has given policy making over to ASPI
Despite the line being spun by recently retired Secretary, Frances Adamson, AC, DFAT appears to be in the process of being scuttled by ASPI.
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Nobody’s handmaiden: how nurses are taking on the top jobs despite opposition.
For so many years, nurses have been viewed as doctors handmaidens, as subordinate professionals. Indeed, the way in which the medically-dominated Medical Benefits Schedule Review Taskforce (MBSRT) treated the 14 evidence-based, patient-focussed, recommendations of its own Nurse Practitioner Reference Group (NPRG) – namely, by rejecting all of them – suggests that for some medical practitioners, these images are still current enough for them to feel they can treat the nursing profession with disdain. (more…)
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What has Australia gained from the crisis the pandemic represented?
This time last year, I was arguing that Morrison would be judged at the next election not by his success in managing the pandemic, but by his success in reviving the economy. I think it is largely his fault that he is now about six months behind schedule in leading Australia out of the pandemic, and that this has reduced his political opportunities. Had he done as well as, say, Israel or Spain in organising vaccines – and he could have – he could be thinking of an election towards the end of this year. It looks as if he must now look to the first half of next year. (more…)
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Private schools brawl to get their snouts deeper in the funding trough
A coalition of Independent schools complained (on the ABC 7.30 Report) that they are disadvantaged by the Morrison Government’s new funding model because their funding increase is not as big as others. They want yet another special deal from the Morrison Government as do many other Independent schools.
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Sunday environmental round up.
Food farming is an important source of air pollution, no matter how much the industry denies it. Urgent measures needed to ensure that the energy transition has the metals it needs. Thirty years of climate change diplomacy doesn’t seem to have achieved much.
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ICAC wants real regulation of lobbying with its unfairness and the inherent risks of corruption.
ICAC tried 11 years ago to persuade the NSW Government to introduce a basic system to regulate lobbyists in the state, but only the bare bones of its proposals (essentially, just 5 out of 17 recommendations) were put into effect. It has now revisited the problem and determined a far more comprehensive scheme that would allow an independent official to monitor not only lobbyists but the ministers and government officials that they try to influence. (more…)
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The Great Barrier Reef in danger. But is there a China conspiracy afoot?
The Government deliberately fuelled a conspiracy theory that China must have been involved in the UNESCO report. It is alleged that the Prime Minister’s Office backgrounded journalists along these lines for the first 24 hours of the release. The Australian ran a story, China-led ‘ambush’ on health of the Reef. This was a complete fabrication to deflect from the substance of report.
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Militarism has become the norm. We now even have an Army Lieutenant General heading the vaccine roll out
What a reflection this is on the standing of the Australian Public Service and the Morrison Governments lack of interest in a robust and well functioning civil society. We invariably turn to the military. (more…)