The announcement by ASIO Boss Mike Burgess that the National Terrorism Threat Level would be raised from ‘possible to probable’ has received massive mainstream publicity, a spike in talkback radio angst and widespread freelance interpretation about who presents the incipient threat. Never shy of an opportunity to name the culprit, News Ltd, led by The Continue reading »
policy
I do agree with Ken Russell that inaction on the climate crisis is indefensible and I understand why he believes that climate scientists should be at the forefront of the global campaign to take targeted and effective action. But, until I watched the Graham Readfearn Guardian interview ‘The Weight of the World’, with scientist Graeme Continue reading »
The trading of Russian FSB assassin Vadim Krasikov for various Russian political prisoners, including US citizen Evan Gershkovitch and a number of Russian dissidents, illustrates the incompetence of US and German leaderships in foreign policy – and reflects the reason that Russia is winning the war in Ukraine! The essence is a failure to understand Continue reading »
The Coalition has announced today that they will soon be releasing their policies for the next election with regards to women. They explained that the minute that Linda Reynolds’ law suit against rape victim Brittany Higgins concludes then they will... Read More ›
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland’s warning that the ballot box is ‘not a guide to Middle East policy’ (The Australian, 26 July 2024), coupled with her concerns about social cohesion, highlights federal Labor’s naivete and how out of touch it is with the electorate. Continue reading »
Cabinet reshuffle – policy and outcomes matter, not who is in charge, say refugees. Here is the pressing to do list for the incoming immigration minister: Close offshore. Bring them here. Permanent visas for fast track victims Recognise refugee contribution and industry Increase humanitarian intake Permanent visas for Medevac refugees on and offshore Refugees who Continue reading »
One of the characteristic features of modern western democracies is, as John Ralston Saul has pointed out, that it has focused on the development of narrow forms of expertise and then used reason to apply that narrow expertise to addressing specific social, cultural, economic and political issues. This is particularly true of the proliferating management Continue reading »
by Yingyao Wang* The technocratic project, which once captured political imagination with its potential to manage society and the economy could be managed with rationality and scientific knowledge, seems in decisive decline. Democracy has reasserted its dominant value, and recent populist attacks on expertise have sounded a death knell for technocraticism. If anything, the technocrats […]
The housing crisis will not be solved for those who are suffering the most by the mish mash of half hearted, small steps, and policy responses currently favoured by governments. They lack the courage to commit to direct government intervention on a sufficient scale in the failed housing market in the form of publicly funded, Continue reading »
With former secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Varghese undertaking a review of taxpayer dollars spent on strategic policy work, Australia’s China hawks have argued a Canberra-based thinktank, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), cannot be touched. After an employee of the Chinese embassy included funding an “anti-China thinktank” in a Continue reading »