politics

Created
Sat, 29/04/2023 - 04:50
If we look back on the major wars of the prior century and forward to the growing menace of a war fought with nuclear weaponry, there is one prominent gap in analysis and understanding: in an imperfectly governed world, spheres of influence in certain regional settings play crucial war prevention roles. This gap is to Continue reading »
Created
Sat, 29/04/2023 - 04:52
Government announces that nice people drive electric cars; $50 a day Jobseeker payment “cruel”; and a Wiradjuri warrior’s Anzac Day. Read on for the Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy. Economics Immigration: this is really a big reform. The Reserve Bank Continue reading »
Created
Sat, 29/04/2023 - 04:54
Subordination of the military to the civil power in a democracy is non-negotiable, but is often taken for granted. More democracies falter because of a breakdown of civil-military relations than through external subversion or foreign aggression. The near monopoly over the use of lethal force that military organisations hold imposes an obligation on governments to Continue reading »
Created
Sat, 29/04/2023 - 04:55
Penny Wong has inherited huge challenges in her role as Foreign Minister. She is surrounded by alpha males controlling the defence and security debate, convinced that only deadly military weapons can secure a safe future for Australia. She heads a department historically seen as weak and irrelevant by too many men in power. They dismiss Continue reading »
Created
Sat, 29/04/2023 - 04:56
Australia, and my Party too, must make a commitment to restoring the primacy of reason, rejecting a paranoid view of history and ‘telling truth to power’. Our blind adoption of irrational policies, supine and unquestioning acquiescence to anything the United States proposes must end. Our species, facing an existential threat to civilisation from climate change, Continue reading »