In a recent article in The Conversation, Professors Stephen Duckett and Fiona McDonald and Ms Emma Campbell suggest “restrict[ing] Medicare access to GPs who agree to bulk bill all patients, while allowing those who don’t bulk bill to rely solely on out-of-pocket payments”. While there is much to commend this proposal, it is not without Continue reading »
politics
When a senior officer in the Australian Defence Force assumes political positions that are in the realm of the overtly political, and is not disciplined for having done so, the government is derelict in its duty to maintain the firewall between the civil and the military. Worse, it constitutes an offence against democratic theory and Continue reading »
US foreign policy is based on an inherent contradiction and fatal flaw. The aim of US foreign policy is a US-dominated world, in which the US writes the global trade and financial rules, controls advanced technologies, maintains militarily supremacy, and dominates all potential competitors. Unless US foreign policy is changed to recognise the need for Continue reading »
“Keep Calm and Carry On” posters should be put up in all Canberra government departments. The British Ministry of Information produced the original of this meme in 1939 to prevent public panic about widely predicted German air attacks. A new version is needed in Australia in 2023 to counter fears of imminent invasion and subversion Continue reading »
At the National Press Club yesterday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong responded to her critics by laying out the role Australia must play in the world as she sees it, in order to help shape the future of our region. It was an extraordinary feel-good speech that nevertheless sent a very clear message to the region: Continue reading »
The Opposition’s Shadow Minister for Home Affairs Barnaby Joyce has condemned Senator Lidia Thorpe after she was banned for life from a Melbourne strip club, with the Member for New England telling Senator Thorpe that she needs to respect strip... Read More ›
Scholz’s corrupt past resurrected again, coalition sinking, and questions arising over who in German government is actually steering foreign policy.
In facing the great challenge of our time, a super-state resident in continental Asia and an itinerant naval power seeking to maintain primacy – the foreign minister was unable to nominate a single piece of strategic statecraft by Australia that would attempt a solution for both powers. Paul Keating’s response to Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s Continue reading »
Taking stock of the EU's economic divorce from Russia.
From his stronghold at Princeton University, Sheldon Wolin watched his political system collapse. In the latter days of his life, Wolin erupted into utter despair. His final testimony was heartbreaking: America had become ‘the showcase of how democracy can be managed without appearing to be suppressed.’ No opinion critical of the set-up is in any Continue reading »