Glyn Davis may have been ‘shocked’ by the Pezzullo revelations but, as several other observers have noted, many other people inside and outside the public service were not really surprised. Pezzullo has always been a divisive character with a management style that takes no prisoners. His has never been the collaborative leadership approach long espoused Continue reading »
Economy
Last week was China’s “Golden Week”. It is so called because it is the longest holiday of the year, with the period of Spring Festival and the National Day fused into one marathon stint. During this time, millions of Chinese pursue leisure and travel activities throughout the country in trips that amount to hundreds of Continue reading »
Rent controls may be off the immediate political agenda, but they are very much an issue for the nearly 30% of voters who rent. As more and more people face deep poverty and homelessness, the ethical imperative for revisiting rent controls is impelling. And yet, the recent negotiations between the government and the Greens revealed Continue reading »
The challenges of engagement when international tensions rise go beyond defence and security considerations. The benefits, however, are vitally important and deserve continued investment. It is essential therefore to consider carefully the terms of engagement – the sometimes conflicting principles that should guide engagement. Senior public servants, past and present, together with eminent scholars, gathered Continue reading »
The Voice campaign has revealed how much Dark Money is distorting our political debates. But will proposed reforms of money in politics crush the independents? One of the most crucial decisions about the shape of our democracy is about to be resolved. The Coalition and the ALP appear to have reached a decision to block Continue reading »
The recently concluded summit of the five member states of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) agreed to expand membership to include from next January Saudi Arabia, Iran, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE. Western media and commentators’ responses have been a farrago of sneering at the unlikely hodgepodge of countries that Continue reading »
One of the most important developments in economics is something in which economists had no hand: the identification of the environmental limits which humans, busily producing and consuming, cross at their peril. Earth has existed for about 4 billion years and humans have lived on Earth for about 200,000 years. For almost all of that Continue reading »
The impressive US Congressional Research Service (CRS) has just released another batch of independent analyses of the daunting challenges the Pentagon – especially the US Navy – face in meeting the demands to upgrade significantly its force capabilities in the Indo Pacific. All of which is now confronted by the extraordinarily chaotic legislative environment occasioned Continue reading »
Australian authorities conducted three separate internal studies in the past eight years to determine whether the commodity-exporting nation could completely diversify its supply chains from China – but all said the task was impossible, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter. Separate administrations conducted investigations into the feasibility of ‘diversifying’ import-export relationship, all Continue reading »
Things did not go so well this time around. When the worn Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy turned up banging on the doors of Washington’s powerful on September 21, he found fewer open hearts and an increasingly large number of closed wallets. The old ogre of national self-interest seemed to be presiding and was in no Continue reading »