Following “revelations” of $8 billion Medicare “rorts” in the Nine newspapers last spring, Health Minister Mark Butler commissioned Dr Pradeep Philip to conduct a review of Medicare integrity and compliance. His report has now been publicly released, and subject to vastly different readings. Judging by the press reports so far, two versions of the review Continue reading »
politics
Perhaps Australia should play the “long game”, and do everything we can to avoid a war in the Pacific, not just work out how we might take part in one. Despite all the war talk in our media about the need to arm against China, be prepared for conflict, etc, in a recent interview the Continue reading »
The overblown rhetoric on imminent war with China has been justified as the need for the Australian people to be fully informed of threats to the nation. But the same rationale has not been applied to the security threat of climate change, a far greater risk the response to which will be far more costly Continue reading »
Serious questions must be asked about conflicts of interest among Australian government advisors in both AUKUS and the Defence Strategic Review. Under the Morrison government, the US, in keeping with its strategic objective of strengthening its alliances in the Indo-Pacific, stepped up its efforts to bolster support within Australia for the bilateral relationship – especially Continue reading »
The Pentagon Papers whistleblower, who has a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, is urging a ceasefire in Ukraine. “This is not a species to be trusted with nuclear weapons,” he tells Marjorie Cohn. The legendary Daniel Ellsberg has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In a March 1 email to friends, Dan wrote, “I’m sorry to report to you that Continue reading »
It seems Liberal voters are figuring out that their party has been hijacked. Labor voters are slower off the mark, but Labor also bears little resemblance to its past. Political terminology lags even more, which obscures radical shifts in our political mainstream. Robert Menzies was reported by Senator Ron Boswell to have said in 1970: Continue reading »
There is something but not much to celebrate over the safeguard compromise. It may well ensure we reduce our emissions by 43%. But the Labor government’s continued permissive attitude to new fossil fuel projects is in blatant disregard of the IPCC’s pathway to a 1.5C limit on global warming. Just how conflicted is Labor? Until Continue reading »
Despite some brilliant analyses of the AUKUS agreement from credible and informed commentators, it is hard for critics to get a hearing, much less influence policy. It will not have escaped the notice of regular readers of these pages that some of the smartest people in Australia have serious concerns about the AUKUS alliance and Continue reading »
When the ALP Government led by Anthony Albanese came to power in 2022 it was confronted by the AUKUS minefield laid by its predecessor, the LNC Government led by Scott Morrison. It did, however, have options, one of which was to reject outright the Babylonian extravagance and complexity of arrangements consequent to a process marked Continue reading »
…. not the path to a life of harmony and peace. The 1924 Hibbert Journal published what appears to be the earliest printed version of a very well-worn joke with the final punchline: “a gintleman with a face like your honour’s can’t miss the road; though, if it was meself that was going to Letterfrack, Continue reading »