Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
Category Archives: PolicyDebate
One side or the other, or another entirely!
Moral Clarity
“Few events create as much moral clarity as the unprovoked, brutal invasion of a peaceful nation by a militaristic empire.”
In Vladimir Putin’s warped worldview anyone who disagrees with him simply does not exist. Or, they are Nazis’ who must be hunted down and exterminate.
Russian death squads are now roaming the Ukrainian countryside murdering civilians and dissidents. Anyone who opposes Putin is, by their definition, a fascist enemy.
Putin’s arguments and even more his actions make him the fascist, the natural heir to Adolf Hitler’s evil mantle.
Few events create as much moral clarity as the unprovoked, brutal invasion of a peaceful nation by a militaristic empire.
Noah Smith
How Putin is following Hitler’s playbook
Nigel Jones writes: “So has Putin been following Hitler’s playbook in his confrontation with Ukraine? It looks very much like it. Consider: on 28 May 1938 Hitler told a meeting of his top generals:
‘I am utterly determined that Czechoslovakia should disappear from the map’
Similarly, Putin has openly expressed the view – not just once, but frequently – that Ukraine is an integral part of a greater Russia that has been torn from the bosom of the Motherland and must be restored, either peacefully or by naked force. Only this week, in a rambling televised monologue, using language eerily reminiscent of the Nazi Fuhrer, Putin described Ukraine as a ‘colony’ that had ‘no historical right to exist’.
Putin Believes Ukraine Doesn’t Exist
As absurd as it might sound, Putin is actually arguing that the Ukraine doesn’t exist. A country which has a rich history going back millenia – long before Russia was created – does not even exist in Putin’s mind.
Such are the weird perambulations of a mind used to absolute, unquestioned power. Putin has been in the Kremlin for 22 years now – using different titles.
Since winning the second Chechnya war in the late 1990s, his approach hasn’t changed. He launches small wars utilizing maximum violence. After killing off the ruling elite he doesn’t like, he installs a puppet government – consisting either of Russians or of locals who are totally subservient to his aims.
When people rebel – as they did in Belarus two years ago, or in Khazakhstan late last year – Russian ‘peacekeepers’ are sent in to ensure that the Kremlin aligned clique remains in power.
Putin’s death squads then fan out across the dissident area and even into Germany, the United Kingdom and the US. All well known, all clearly documented.
But we – the world – has let him get away with it. Until now.
He’s Writing a Cheque His Ass Can’t Cash
Unlike his early wars in Chechnya, Dagestan, Moldova, Georgia, the northern Caucasus, in the Crimea and in eastern Ukraine, this war is aimed at subjugating an entire European country of 50 million people. The Ukraine is as big as France. Its people are sophisticated, educated and have extensive high technology industries.
This isn’t a fringe war against an essentially rural peasant rebellion. It is a major European war – the likes of which we haven’t seen since 1945.
More on Putin’s warped worldview on Vox.
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
Why Buy A Failing AGL?
What Does Atlassian Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes Really Want?
Mike Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures and Brookfield, a Canadian asset management company have offered to take over Australia’s oldest listed company, AGL, which began life as Australian Gas & Light.
Cannon-Brookes styles himself as an eco-warrior, offering to shutter AGL’s remaining coal fired generating plants early.
He says that would be one of the single most important decarbonization steps on the planet.
Even if accepted at face value, that claim is somewhat overblown and frail reasoning for a multi-billion dollar investment.
So, what assets does AGL possess that Cannon-Brookes would value?
Failing AGL Trying To A Itself Into Two Companies
AGL is losing money and has been struggling for some years.
Management has been in turmoil, unable to successfully adapt to the changing generating and electricity distribution industry. Visionary executives have been ejected in favor of Liberal Party (and IPA)-backed business-as-usual political hacks. Political interference from the IPA think tank has driven continuous management changes, seriously damaging the market’s assessments of the company’s reliability, long term vision and earnings potential.
AGL’s market capitalisation, has fallen to significantly less than AUD $5 Billion, well below its enterprise value which is north of $7 Billion. Investors, in other words don’t have confidence in the current management.
That means there are assets of $7 Billion up for grabs – at a price significantly less than $5 Billion. Cannon-Brookes could buy the company, shutter the coal fired generators and still be ahead of the game.
In desperation, the current management has been trying to split the company into two: AGL Australia and Accel Energy.
Grok Ventures – a $2 Billion Venture Fund
If successful, where would AGL (or AGL Australia and Accel Energy) fit in Cannon-Brookes’ investment fund, Grok Ventures?
Most of Grok’s investments have been in technology – Canva, CultureAmp, SpaceX, Who Gives A Crap, Bitcoin, Adelaide-based Fleet Space Technologies, and Spriggy.
But Grok has also taken a significant stake in a variety of renewable energy plays – right along the value chain. Among the largest is the investment in the $30 billion Sun Cable project to partially power Singapore from a solar farm in the Northern Territory.
Grok has also invested in home solar fintech Brighte, Sun Drive Solar, (a Sydney solar panel startup to provide solar panels to Sun Cable), Goterra a maggot-based waste management business, a meat replacement companies Fable Food Co. and Vow Food Co.
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
- Hamas’ ‘success’ may Signal its Doom
- (no title)
- China Holds Debtor Country Toes To The Fire
- Putin’s Defeats Mount Up – As Do The Bodies
- Malthus Lite
Not So Quiet On the Eastern Front
Russia Invades: Claims To Be ‘Peace Keeping”
In a foul and bloodthirsty move, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has replayed Adolf Hitler’s 1938 invasion of Czechoslovakia. Just as Hitler justified his invasion by claiming he was liberating the Sudetenland Germans, Putin is claiming he is bringing peace and freedom to the Russians living in the border provinces.
Next: Peace In Our Time?
Will today’s leaders recognize the danger?
Hitler had to be stopped. We moved too slowly, in the end it cost nearly 60 million lives to finish off the insane Bavarian corporal. When will we decide that enough is enough and that it is time to stop Putin?
Russian Thinking Doesn’t Change
In 1946 US diplomat George Kennan sent his famous ‘Long Telegram’ analyzing Russian insecurities and paranoid thinking.
“… at the bottom of the Kremlin‘s view of world affairs is a traditional and instinctive Russian sense of insecurity.”
The authority of previous Russian rulers was “archaic in form, fragile and artificial in its psychological foundation, unable to stand comparison or contact with political systems of western countries.”
This understanding of Russian history used to be cloaked by Marxist Leninism, now it is shrouded in a visceral nationalism.
Their obstinacy in dealing with the West was born out of necessity; seeing the rest of the world as hostile provided an excuse “for the dictatorship without which they did not know how to rule, for cruelties they did not dare not to inflict, for sacrifices they felt bound to demand.”
Until the Russians either experienced consistent failures or their leader was persuaded that they were negatively impacting their nation’s interest, the West could not expect any reciprocity.
The Russian government can be understood as occupying two distinct spaces: an official, visible government and another operating without any official acknowledgement.
(Today’s Putin’s Chef.)
[While the former would participate in international diplomacy, the latter would attempt to undermine the West as much as possible, including efforts to “disrupt national self confidence, to hamstring measures of national defense, to increase social and industrial unrest, to stimulate all forms of disunity.”
Kennan concluded that the Soviets ultimately had no expectation of reconciliation with the West.
Plus ca change!
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
Australia, Chile Dominate Lithium Production
Oz fastest out of the blocks, ramping up production
But China dominates the lithium production value chain
Lithium is today’s “white gold” – due to its crucial role in batteries for everything from mobile phones and home storage to electric cars.
Lithium production more than doubled between 2016 and 2020, up from 40,000 tonnes to 86,300 tonnes.
Australia’s lithium mostly comes from hard-rock mines that produce spodumene concentrate, which is then converted into lithium.
Most of Chile’s lithium comes from salar brines which contain high concentrations of lithium.
China The Dominant Value Chain Investor Globally
China, the third-largest producer, is the biggest investor in the lithium production industry globally.
Since 2018, Chinese companies have invested more than $5 billion in lithium mining projects in various countries. China, moreover, dominates the refining and battery manufacturing stages of the lithium-ion supply chain.
By far the largest Chinese purchase was the US$4 Billion+ acquisition of Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA, which operates lithium mines in Chile’s Atacama desert and the Mt Holland lithium mine in Western Australia
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
If Trump Comes Back …
What if Trump wins back the White House in 2024? How will allies like Australia deal with the instability? Not to mention the irrationality.
Getting ready for Trump as President 47
In order to adjust to an unpredictable United States, Canberra needs new habits
Ben Scott reviews Paul Kelly’s new book on Scott Morrison – dubbed the amateur – repositioning Australia’s foreign policy. (Much to Paul Keating’s fury.)
Scott: “A central feature of what Kelly calls the Morrison Doctrine is the Prime Minister’s confidence in America, and in Australia’s “forever partnership” with the United States. Kelly portrays this commitment as more than rhetorical. He argues that Morrison understands “the risk that America might be a less reliable senior partner because of its domestic fractures, but it is a risk he is prepared to take … Morrison believes the bigger gamble for Australia lies in hedging its bets – deciding on more accommodation of China.”
Read further on The Interpreter
As the English Express reported Paul used his usual moderate tone, calling the UK Foreign Secretary demented and deluded.
Keating, PM from 1991 to 1996, penned a piece for the Pearls and Irritations blog which directly called out comments made by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on China.
“Remarks by the British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss that China could engage in military aggression in the Pacific, encouraged by Russia’s contingent moves against Ukraine, are nothing short of demented.
The Express was not amused.
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
Kremlin Gas Reaches Many European Markets
Data from the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators shows which countries’ energy supply would be most at risk in the case of a Russian gas freeze. Among Europe’s major economies, Germany imports around half of its gas from Russia, while France only obtains a quarter of its supply from the country, according to the latest available data.
The biggest source of French gas was Norway, supplying 35 percent. Italy would also be among the most impacted at a 46 percent reliance on Russian gas.
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
Aussies “Bamboozled” By Free Choice
APRA Exec Cole ‘troubled’ by quantity and performance of funds DIY investors can choose from within A$3tn superannuation sector
Just another bureaucrat lamenting her lack of control of the market?
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority board member Margaret Cole is in today’s Financial Times lamenting the high number of funds retirement savers wishing to make their own decisions can choose from, and has pledged to crackdown on trustees failing to weed out poorly performing products.
Catastrophic, isn’t it? Customers actually having a free choice.
Not in the interests of overly powerful Canberra bureaucrats.
Read Cole’s condescending arguments on the Financial Times.
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
Amateur Repositioning Australia
His Repositioning of Australia Is Going To Shape Our Century
Whether he is re-elected later this year or not, Australia is going to have to live with Scott Morrison’s foreign policy decisions for a long time.
To a much greater extent than John Howard, Scott Morrison has changed Australia’s alignments in the geopolitical world. Once, courtesy of Paul Keating, inching in the direction of aligning our diplomatic stance with our trade relations – that is with the emerging South East Asian Nations and China, we are now firmly back in the Anglosphere.
Notionally, as in World War I, we are an ally of Japan. We also have a strategic alignment with India – but not with Pakistan, Sri Lanka or much of the pro-Beijing world.
Writing in the Lowy Institute’s Interpreter, Paul Kelly says: “When he became Prime Minister in 2018, Scott Morrison was a foreign policy amateur confronted by unprecedented challenges: an assertive Beijing and a looming rivalry between the two biggest economies in world history, the United States and China. Morrison lunged into foreign and security policy by making highly contentious changes that will be felt for decades, not least the historic decision to build nuclear-powered submarines.”
Read further on the Interpreter.
At the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Professor James Laurenceson and Associate Professor Chengxin Pan argue that the whole AUKUS alliance ignores China’s achievements and future ambitions. They argue it also ignores China’s legitimate security fears.
Beijing’s security ‘fears’ and the emergence of AUKUS
US expert on the Asia Pacific, Charles Edel speaks with Australian analyst John Lee about the state and the direction of the U. S. Australian relationship.
Two years ago Edel and Lee wrote a report on the future of the US Australian alliance in the era of great power competition.
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
Aussies Losing Trust In Media
In January 2021 just over half Australians trusted what they read or heard from the media.
That trust declined rapidly over the last 12 months and now only 43% of Australians trust the media.
That’s one of the fastest confidence collapses in the world – and a marked acceleration of a trend that has been evident for some decades.
PR firm Edelman’s Annual Trust Barometer for 2022 found that faith in the media fell in 15 countries – with the biggest falls in Australia and the US.
Overall 56% of people said the media was a divisive force in society. And just one-third (35%) said the media contributed to making societies more cohesive.
Two-thirds (67%) of people globally said they believe journalists and reporters purposely try to mislead people by saying things they know are false or grossly exaggerated – up 8 percentage points on last year’s report.
Andrew Banks reports on Mumbrella
But wait … Trust in Business Is Stable, In NGOs Increasing!
Trust in the corporate world is stable and is actually increasing for NGOs.
Edelman CEO Richard Edelman said “Government was the most trusted institution as recently as May 2020, when the world sought leadership capable of tackling a global pandemic.”
“Now, after the confused and bungled response, when it comes to basic competence, government is less trusted than businesses and NGOs. People still want government to take on the big challenges, but only four in 10 say government can execute and get results.
The Cycle of Distrust
Edelman has studied trust for more than 20 years and believes that it is the ultimate currency in the relationship that all institutions—business, governments, NGOs and media—build with their stakeholders.
If they are correct, governments and mainstream media are the big losers in the 2020s.
Read more on the Edelman Trust Barometer.
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
Top 8 Cities For International Students
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
Robert Blocks Research Funding
Unis, Profs, Furious at Education Minister Blocking Research Grants
Blocking Research For Political Reasons
Stuart Robert, still recovering from a broadband rorting scandal, is now involved in a furious brawl with dozens of top academics after he delayed, then cancelled, funding for six research projects he didn’t like.
Sixty-three leading Australian professors have signed an open letter attacking acting education minister Stuart Robert’s veto of funding for six research projects on “national interest” grounds.
All the professors are Laureate Fellows of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellows – the most prestigious research fellowship in Australia.
The Australian Research Council is an independent academic body which recommends research projects for funding after “rigorous and independent peer review”.
Three times in the last 15 years Education Ministers have intervened for a variety of reasons, blocking grants recommended by the ARC.
Robert first delayed approvals – until just before Christmas on projects that were due to begin Jan 1, then knocked out six projects on nebulous ‘national security’ grounds.
Unis seek explanation of research grant ‘politicisation’ by Joseph Brookes in InnovationAus
Open Letter
Dear Professor Sue Thomas (CEO of the Australian Research Council) and the Hon Stuart Robert MP (acting Minister for Education and Youth),
As current and past ARC Laureate Fellows, we are very concerned in the way that applications for 2022 ARC Discovery Projects were managed.
Our concerns are threefold.
First, the funding decisions were announced a month later than usual, only a week before funding could commence on January 1st. Most if not all university research offices were by then closed till the new year. It is highly unlikely that any of these grants can indeed commence on January 1st, and staff be hired.
No good reason has been given as to this delayed notification. The retention and recruitment of research staff is greatly harmed by such delays. This late decision is likely to have the greatest impact on early career researchers, especially with regards to diversity and inclusion.
Second, the funding decisions were announced on Christmas Eve, giving an appearance that the date was chosen to avoid close scrutiny. This was a heartless date to give the many unsuccessful applicants news about their applications.
Third, and most critically, six grants — all in the humanities — were subject to rigorous and independent peer review and were recommended for funding but vetoed by the Minister as they “do not demonstrate value for taxpayers’ money nor contribute to the national interest”. These projects cover topics like climate activism and China which are vital for the future well-being of Australia.
We agree with Prof. Brian Schmidt’s observation that in a liberal democracy like Australia it is “completely inappropriate for grants to be removed by politicians, unless the grant rules were not followed”.
Whether it be the test of “national interest” or an excessive focus on a sector like manufacturing, research funding in Australia is becoming political and short sighted. The best return comes from letting researchers focus on curiosity driven research. This has given us mRNA vaccines, the laser, and many other inventions that have lifted the quality of our lives.
We strongly recommend the following five actions be taken in light of these concerns.
1. For all ARC grants, a date is provided in the call by which time applicants will be informed of the outcome. Such dates should be at least a month before the commencement date for the grant.
2. For 2022 Discovery Projects, the ARC provide transparency into why the announcement was a month later than usual and so near to the commencement date.
3. In future, no grant decisions are announced on dates like Christmas Eve to respect the work life balance of applicants.
4. The Minister accepts and approves funding for all ARC grant applications that pass through the tried, tested and rigorous peer review process and that meet the conditions set out in the call for applications.5. The ARC be allowed to return to its core mission of funding fundamental curiosity driven research without political interference.
Yours sincerely,
Signatures
| Prof Adrienne Stone FASSA FAAL, Melbourne. | Prof Ian Small FAA, UWA. | Prof Peter Cawood, Monash. |
| Prof Alexander Haslam, UQ. | Prof John Grundy FASE FIEAust, Monash. | Prof Peter Hodgson FTSE FIEAust, Deakin. |
| Prof Andrew White FAA FAPS FOSA, UQ. | Prof John Quiggin, UQ. | Prof Peter Taylor FAustMS, Melbourne. |
| Prof Ann McGrath, AM FASSA FAHA RHS, ANU. | Prof Jolanda Jetten FASSA, UQ. | Prof Ping Koy Lam FAA, ANU. |
| Prof Belinda Medlyn, Western Sydney. | Prof Jon Barnett, Melbourne. | Prof Richard (Bert) Roberts, Wollongong. |
| Prof Ben Andrews FAA, ANU. | Prof Julian Gale FAA, Curtin. | Prof Robert G. Parton FAA, UQ. |
| Prof Brad Sherman, UQ. | Prof Justin Marshall, UQ. | Prof Rose Amal AC FAA FTSE FRNS, UNSW Sydney. |
| Prof Brian P. Schmidt FAA FRS, ANU. | Prof Katherine Demuth FAASA FRNS, Macquarie. | Prof Ross Buckley FASSA FAAL, UNSW Sydney. |
| Prof Christopher Barner-Kowollik FAA FRSC FRACI, QUT. | Prof Leann Tilley, Melbourne. | Prof Sara Dolnicar FASSA, UQ. |
| Prof Dan Li, Melbourne. | Prof Lianzhou Wang, UQ. | Prof Sharon Friel FASSA, ANU. |
| Prof David James FAA, Sydney. | Prof Lynette Russell AM FRHistS FASSA FAHA, Monash. | Prof Sharon Parker FASSA, Curtin. |
| Prof Douglas MacFarlane FAA FTSE, Monash. | Prof Maria Forsyth FAA FRACI, Deakin. | Prof Stephen Foley, Macquarie. |
| Prof Emerita Margaret Jolly AM FASSA, ANU. | Prof Mark Finnane FAHA FASSA, Griffith. | Prof Steven Sherwood, UNSW Sydney. |
| Prof Geoffrey McFadden FAA FASP FASM, Melbourne. | Prof Mark Westoby FAA FAAAS, Macquarie. | Prof Stuart Wyithe, Melbourne. |
| Prof George Willis FAA FRSN, Newcastle. | Prof Martina Stenzel FAA FRSN FRACI, UNSW Sydney. | Prof Sue O’Connor, ANU. |
| Prof George Zhao, UQ. | Prof Matthew Bailes, Swinburne. | Prof Tamara Davis AM, UQ. |
| Prof Gottfried Otting, ANU. | Prof Matthew Spriggs FSA FAHA, ANU. | Prof Toby Walsh FAA FAAAS FRSN, UNSW Sydney. |
| Prof Barry Pogson FAA, ANU. | Prof Michael Bird FRSE, James Cook. | Prof Warwick Anderson FAHA FASSA FAHMS FRSN, Sydney. |
| Prof Harvey Millar FAA, UWA. | Prof Naomi McClure-Griffiths, ANU. | Prof Yun Liu, ANU. |
| Prof Hong Hao FTSE DistFIAPS FASCE, Curtin. | Prof Paul E. Griffiths FAHA FAAAS FRNS, Sydney. | |
| Prof Huanting Wang FTSE FRSC FAICHE, Monash. | Prof Paul Mulvaney, Melbourne. | |
| Prof Ian Reid FAA FTSE, Adelaide. | Prof Paul S.C. Tacon FAHA FSA, Griffith. |
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
Why Did Australia Botch The Djokovic Case?
The weaknesses in Australia’s multi-layered, highly bureaucratic, and often overlapping, system of federal governance have been revealed by the pandemic.
Protections for individual rights are lacking as are clear delineations of the responsibilities of local, state and federal governments.
Emergency powers have been used to create ‘temporary’ state fiefdoms exercising powers that rightly belong at the federal level. (According to the provisions of Australia’s 1901 Constitution.)
At the same time the current federal government has demonstrated striking levels of incompetence in organizing and coordinating nation level programs.
Constitutional reform is an urgent priority.
In The Economist: How Did Australia Tie Itself Up in Knots Over Novak Djokovic?
YOUR SAY: Do you think Novak Djokovic has been treated fairly by Australia?
Despite his victory in court yesterday, it’s been reported that Immigration Minister Alex Hawke is still considering whether to cancel the Serbian tennis star’s visa for a second time. #9News pic.twitter.com/JVmyEjLdq1
— 9News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) January 11, 2022
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Australia’s Human Rights Commission has been uneasy about developments of the last two years.
Limitations to human rights must be necessary and proportionate
Australian Human Rights Commission
COVID-19 is a very serious threat to public health, and to the human rights of people in the community (such as the rights to life, and the highest achievable standard of health). There is clearly a rational link between health responses to the pandemic and the risk faced by the community. However, under international human rights law, governments also have a responsibility to demonstrate that any limitations they put on rights are proportionate to the threat.
The Constitution Education Fund has also examined some of the issues that the pandemic has raised.
“During a pandemic, when lives are at risk, we want the Government to protect us, no matter what. This raises important public policy questions. Should we still strictly apply the law, or does an emergency justify a government acting outside the law? Should Parliaments continue to scrutinise government actions, or just let Ministers get on with dealing with the crisis? Can a “national cabinet” take over and make laws outside the constitutionally prescribed law-making institutions?
During this pandemic, the rule of law continues to apply in Australia
Constitution Education Fund
Governments around Australia are having to make tough decisions to protect the people, but the rule of law means that these governments cannot act outside their powers. Nobody is above the law and this includes ministers and parliamentarians. If a minister travels to their holiday house in breach of restrictions on unnecessary travel, then they can expect to be fined just as anyone else would be.
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
$94 Trillion Global Economy
2022 could be the year when the global economy takes off.
Having expanded dramatically in the last decade and a half the underlying structure looks ready for some major realignments.
We’ve had more than a decade of no price inflation, microscopic or negative interest rates, growing inequality, and extraordinary asset price bubbles.
But now inflation is back, and fast rising prices will drive changes in how things are done.
Governments have pumped out tsunamis of money to keep businesses afloat during the pandemic, but those massive flows are going to dry up next year.
The future is uncertain and likely to be volatile. But one thing can be guaranteed. Change looms. The $94 Trillion global economy cannot remain as it is.
- Hamas’ ‘success’ may Signal its Doom
- (no title)https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/07/05/1075865/eric-schmidt-ai-will-transform-science/ “Nevertheless, this is a profoundly optimistic moment. Previous paradigm shifts in science, like the… Read more: (no title)
- China Holds Debtor Country Toes To The FireBono could pressure Western lenders to forgive debt back in the day. But he won’t… Read more: China Holds Debtor Country Toes To The Fire
- Putin’s Defeats Mount Up – As Do The BodiesMax Boot in the Washington Post. “One of Vladimir Putin’s pseudo-justifications for his war of… Read more: Putin’s Defeats Mount Up – As Do The Bodies
- Malthus LiteRobert Bailey: “The most notoriously wrong modern prophet of Malthusian doom is Stanford biologist Paul… Read more: Malthus Lite
- Russia Is Losing Its Future<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Russia is losing its future – Aleksandr Auzan, dean of Economics at… Read more: Russia Is Losing Its Future
- Diversity Builds Economic ResilienceThe idea that making everything domestically builds resiliency is what @AdamPosen calls “the fallacy of… Read more: Diversity Builds Economic Resilience
- US Needs Institute To Strengthen ASEAN TiesFollowing in the footsteps of Japan and India, the U.S. should establish a dedicated institution… Read more: US Needs Institute To Strengthen ASEAN Ties
- Solar panels handle heat better when combined with cropsSun-harvesting solar panels function better when they’re not too hot. But luckily researchers have now… Read more: Solar panels handle heat better when combined with crops
- Smartphone Era – Bankers Take Note!Bankers finally waking up to the reality that we live in a smartphone era! Just… Read more: Smartphone Era – Bankers Take Note!
- America …Continued“The case for a renewed Sino-Russian axis is equally unfounded. Although Putin recently hosted his… Read more: America …Continued
- Disgraceful!The IOC is siding with Putin’s fascism. By deciding to let Russian and Belorussian athletes… Read more: Disgraceful!
Singapore, NZ, Australia Lead Economic Freedom Index
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
Tech Giants, Richest Countries
In the last decade and a half the world has witnessed the greatest surge of wealth creation in human history.
Not only have we created more wealth than ever before, we have created different kinds of wealth.
Physical wealth, stuff made out of molecules, still makes up most of our economic output.
But knowledge and data wealth – digital assets – have grown faster than physical assets and now constitute the most part of the economy.
We are leaving physical shortages and scarcity behind, Today’s challenges are those of abundance – of a cornucopia.
Differences Between the Economies of Scarcity and Abundance
digitalreality.ieee.org
The Scarcity Economy
The theory of scarcity refers to a mismatch between limited resources and consumer demand. If a resource is scarce, but demand is high, not everyone can get what they want. There is a mismatch between the desired goods and the supply.
Scarcity keeps prices high and helps drive profitability.
The Economy of Abundance Unlike the economy of scarcity, the economy of abundance is built on the availability of near unlimited resources.
The economy of abundance is almost always present in the digital world—digital products and content are easy and cheap to copy, store, and transfer to millions. Digital products do not rely on scarce resources.
This can be incredibly disruptive to a traditional scarcity economy.
Covid Lessons Learned
In times of crisis lies opportunity. Recovery shows us how we can build back better after COVID-19. Read an edited extract.
What we’ve learnt during the pandemic
The pandemic has provided us with many insights, and it’s important we remember these as and when we enter our recovery. Many of the insights are not new. We have learnt – and subsequently forgotten – these lessons before, as we’ve recovered from past crises. The fact that these are old truths should make them more powerful, as if we’ve been able to tap into some long-lost wisdom. But it is extra important that we don’t lose sight of the lessons this time around.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us – again – that we’re all connected. Health is a not just a private matter, of concern only to an individual and their family. Health is a public concern. What happens in the community impacts all of us. All the private health insurance in the world can’t protect us if the public health system is not up to the task of containing the virus, or if significant numbers of people fail to comply with public health directions.
The importance of public health was revealed starkly during the Spanish flu. Yet it was soon forgotten, as medicine became obsessed with a focus on individualised treatments. When we move on from COVID-19, our challenge will be to remember that health is a public concern, not just a matter for individuals, and that investment in a strong healthcare system needs to be sustained. We’ve also learnt that what happens around the world impacts us at home. The virus might have originated in China, but the extent to which the virus was allowed to grow exponentially and spread around the world was a function of how other countries responded. It’s likely that only when most of the world’s population is vaccinated will we be able to truly say that the pandemic is over.
- Hamas’ ‘success’ may Signal its Doom
- (no title)
- China Holds Debtor Country Toes To The Fire
- Putin’s Defeats Mount Up – As Do The Bodies
- Malthus Lite
How well we cooperate at a global level is critically important – whether through the sharing of early intelligence on emerging infectious diseases, developed nations lending support for global vaccination or even sharing approaches to post-conflict reconstruction in places such as Syria. Getting it right at the global scale benefits us all.
Might we take this lesson and draw parallels with other global crises, such as climate change? We all breathe the same air; a warming earth impacts us all. No matter what action we take at home, in the absence of a global response climate change will continue to worsen. It’s in everyone’s interest that each country makes a bold and constructive contribution to the global response. As we scoured the supermarket shelves searching for toilet paper that wasn’t there, it no doubt occurred to many us that some parts of our existence are more fragile than we thought, more vulnerable to shocks. While globalisation has contributed to enormous economic growth and price reductions, it has been accompanied by long and complex supply chains, with components being shipped back and forth across the globe. A ‘just in time’ approach means that only small quantities of stock are stored in warehouses. Consequently, disruption to air and sea freight movements means that shortages in even one component can disrupt supply. In many countries, stockpiles of essential medical equipment were inadequate, and there were shortages of masks.
In Australia, there was no shortage of food, but disruptions to imported packaging meant many products could not be supplied to consumers. At times, it was hard to find a bag of rice or a jar of pasta sauce.
We’ve also experienced the consequences of the inequality that pervades our society. Precarious and underpaid work served only to exacerbate the pandemic. Lacking sick leave and needing to feed their families, some attended work while sick. Factory labourers took second jobs as Uber drivers. Multiple generations of the same family could not keep their distance in overcrowded housing. All of these factors create opportunities for the virus to spread to vulnerable groups. All crises expose the fault lines in society, and this pandemic has been no different.
We’ve learnt that at times like this, it’s actually quite important to have a competent government. Competent government is perhaps a boring concept and is largely invisible much of the time.
We understand its value most clearly when it is absent. Countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States have been characterised by flip-flops in public health advice, botched test and trace regimes, and chaotic and ever-changing lockdown arrangements. Furthermore, certain US leaders catered to populist sentiment and opposed the mask mandates recommended by experts.
Competent governments rely on the existence of institutions that have the capacity and authority to do things properly. These institutions need to have the staff, expertise, resources and powers to respond to complex situations. To be effective, they also need to be supported with a legal and political culture that is committed to public administration. Political leaders that value public administration have been critical during our most recent crisis.
Smaller units of government have proven to be particularly important during the crisis. Many smaller jurisdictions – such as New Zealand, Taiwan, Iceland and Australia – have been remarkably successful in containing the virus. In federations, state and provincial governments have played an important leadership role.
Small nations and state governments have often been more agile than their larger counterparts, better equipped to develop a rapid policy response. New Zealand, for example, moved quickly to close its borders in March 2020 and implemented snap lockdowns when cases were detected. Iceland has used science to contain the virus. From the first days of the pandemic, it has tracked the health of every person who tested positive for COVID-19 and sequenced the genetic material of each positive test. Governments and citizens have a symbiotic relationship.
During a crisis, people need to trust experts, governments and one another. In the absence of trust, governments find it much more challenging to respond competently. But the incompetence of government is likely to further undermine trust, leading to a downward spiral of declining trust and poorly functioning government. Trust and capable public sectors are national assets that need to be nurtured over many years.
The pandemic has shown us what can happen when they are left to wither.
Recovery: How we can create a better, brighter future after a crisis is out now.
Andrew Wear is a senior Australian public servant with degrees in politics, law, economics and public policy. A graduate of the Senior Executive Fellows Program at Harvard Kennedy School and a Victorian Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia, he is also a director of Ardoch Ltd, a children’s education charity. His first book, Solved! How other countries have cracked the world’s biggest problems and we can too, was published in countries across the world.
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
The bigger picture: Australian books respond to climate change
Andrea Hanke, Editor of Think Australian, writes that it’s hard to find a theme more urgent in publishing today—and one that unites fiction and nonfiction—than climate change.
Australian independent publisher Black Inc. has been particularly active in publishing books about the environment and climate change—and its titles have been picked up by numerous publishers around the world. ‘Books about the environment—particularly books about human–nature connections and climate change—have been dominating the big-picture nonfiction sector for a couple of years,’ says Black Inc.’s rights and contracts manager Erin Sandiford. ‘Everyone wants the definitive book on the climate emergency.’
Since Australia’s Black Summer bushfires in 2019–20, Sandiford has noticed a surge in international interest in Australia’s experience of the climate emergency. ‘Those photographs of koalas caught in burning trees went global and really did come to reflect solastalgia,’ says Sandiford. ‘As Bronwyn Adcock, author of Currowan: The story of a fire and a community during Australia’s worst summer, which we’ve just sold to the UK, says, “Australia is (unfortunately) a poster child for what happens in a climate-changed world.”’
Black Inc. has three new titles that tackle climate change from different perspectives. Witnessing the Unthinkable: Notes from the front line of the climate crisis (September 2022) by Joëlle Gergis, the lead author of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, is pitched as ‘an insider’s account of what it’s like to be among a group of the world’s elite climate scientists trying to avert disaster at humanity’s eleventh hour’. Full Circle: A search for the world that comes next by former Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam offers ideas for a more humane and sustainable world, collected from the author’s years of activism, study and travel. And designer Lucianne Tonti’s Sundressed: Natural fibres and dressing consciously in a world on fire (July 2022) taps into the growing trend for sustainable fashion—and offers an important contribution to climate change literature, with clothing responsible for almost 10 percent of global emissions.
Sandiford also reports that Black Inc. has had ‘great rights success’ with Andrew Wear’s ‘big-picture environment books’, Solved: How other countries have cracked the world’s biggest problems and we can too and Recovery: How we can create a better, brighter future after a crisis.
Scribe is well known for its incisive literary nonfiction (‘We publish books that matter’ is the company’s motto). In November it will publish Jeff Sparrow’s Crimes Against Nature: Capitalism and global heating, ‘a polemic about global warming and the environmental crisis’, which argues that ‘ordinary people have consistently opposed the destruction of nature and so provide an untapped constituency for climate action’. With examples from Australia and around the world, this title is bound to have international appeal.
Other recent and wide-ranging nonfiction titles that explore climate change include Summertime by philosopher Danielle Celermajer (PRH Australia), a collection of essays written in the shadow of Australia’s recent bushfires, which looks at our relationship with the planet’s living beings; Living with the Anthropocene (ed by Cameron Muir, Kirsten Wehner & Jenny Newell, NewSouth), in which some of Australia’s best-known writers and thinkers ‘reflect on what it is like to be alive during an ecological crisis’; Windfall: Unlocking a fossil-free future by Ketan Joshi (NewSouth), which investigates why Australia’s climate change efforts have failed—and how the rest of the world can learn from our mistakes; and Fire Country: How Indigenous fire management could help save Australia (Hardie Grant), a ‘powerful account from Indigenous land management expert Victor Steffensen’, with lessons for other countries.
New in fiction
While climate fiction has been around for many years (the term ‘cli-fi’ first gained popularity in the early 2010s), 2020 saw a surge in new Australian titles—a trend that has continued in 2021.
One of the cli-fi titles that kicked things off last year was Chris Flynn’s cult novel Mammoth (UQP)—a history of earth narrated by a 13,000-year-old extinct mammoth, which ‘scrutinises humanity’s role in the destruction of the natural world’. The buzz was considerable, with a cover quote from Elizabeth Gilbert.
Several impressive titles followed: Kate Mildenhall’s The Mother Fault (S&S), a literary thriller set in a climate crisis, which was nominated for several awards, and Robbie Arnott’s ‘eco fable’ The Rain Heron (Text), which has sold into North America, UK, France and Norway. The latter recently won the Age Book of the Year Award, with judge Gay Alcorn describing it as ‘hugely imaginative and lyrical, but also grounded in some deeper issues about the climate and what human beings do to [it]’.
This year, two of Australia’s most promising new writers—Miles Allinson and Briohny Doyle—have set their second novels against a backdrop of climate change. Allinson’s In Moonland (Scribe) offers a portrait of three generations grappling with their own mortality, from the wild idealism of the 70s to a climate-ravaged near future; Doyle’s Echolalia (Vintage Australia), meanwhile, concerns a family on the verge of disintegration in a time of climate crisis. ‘While Briohny Doyle’s second novel Echolalia is less overtly end-of-days than her first (The Island Will Sink, Brow Books), it still carries a sense of desolation that speaks to Doyle’s preoccupations with domestic unrest and climate catastrophe,’ writes reviewer Bec Kavanagh.
Also exploring the fallout from climate change is Clare Moleta’s debut Unsheltered (Scribner), which follows a woman’s search for her daughter against a background of social breakdown and destructive weather.
Read the rest of Think Australian, a Books And Publishing newsletter, here.
Beijing Reacts to AUKUS
Writing in the South China Morning Post, Mark Magnier argues Beijing will likely step up efforts to avoid ‘encirclement’.
“In response to a new Anglo-Saxon military alliance and more US-designed nuclear-powered submarines in the Indo-Pacific, Beijing will likely step up efforts to avoid encirclement and expand its own nuclear submarine fleet, according to current and former officials and military experts.
“The defence build-up on both sides comes amid louder, if still relatively faint, drums of war around Taiwan, lending greater immediacy to the new alliance and spotlighting broader Chinese, US and allied regional defence strategies.”
Read further on The South China Morning Post.
Mark Magnier is a US correspondent based in Washington. Before joining the South China Morning Post, he worked for the Wall Street Journal in China and for the Los Angeles Times in India, China and Japan. He’s covered the Chinese economy, China and India’s explosive rise and conflicts in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Canberra Data Grab: Without Warrants
Vanessa Teague writes that everyone agrees that the threat of cyberattack is serious, the results could be devastating, and Australia is woefully underprepared.
The question is whether forced “assistance” from the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), under orders from Home Affairs, will make us more or less secure.
Critical infrastructure is not just dams and power plants — the new Critical Infrastructure Bill also includes financial services, health care, higher education, communications and “data storage or processing” (i.e. almost anything). There are two risks for government intervention: incompetence and abuse. Neither is adequately managed in this bill.
In recent years the Australian government’s IT specialists have brought us COVIDSafe, myGovID, Robodebt and CensusFail. They were unable to put a digital signature on domestic vaccine certificates, and remain unwilling to include encryption among their essential eight mitigation strategies. Even well-intentioned “assistance” may introduce or exacerbate vulnerabilities and problems instead of correcting them. Nothing in the bill requires that they consult anyone with relevant technical knowledge.
Then there is the risk of deliberate abuse of power, which is increased by the decision to include systems that contain ordinary people’s personal data.
Sometimes law enforcement agencies have to break into places for the good of everyone. When it is a home or office, the police need a warrant — this restrains their power and deters abuse, ensuring that invasive powers are used for good. Most democracies impose some similar restraints on access to electronic personal data. Recent Australian legislation (notably the TOLA and ‘Identify and Disrupt’ 2021 Act) already moves Australia away from this principle.
Read more on Electronic Frontiers Australia
Vanessa Teague is a cryptographer with a longstanding interest in the security of systems of interest to public processes, such as elections and open data. She is the CEO of Thinking Cybersecurity Pty Ltd and Associate Prof (Adj.) in the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the Australian National University.
Experts Weigh In On Digital Rights
Digital policy is a sticky web of disjointed laws, privacy concerns and violations of our civil liberties. Most of us are concerned about mass surveillance, targeted advertising and government hacking but when it comes to improving and protecting our digital rights, where to begin?
Digital rights are fundamental to living in an open and free society.
I’d pass privacy legislation that stops private companies and governments from collecting information about us for one purpose and then using it for another purpose without our permission, including selling access to it or sharing it with third parties. The current notice-and-consent approach is fundamentally broken.
If we combined that with a private right of action (like the tort of serious breach of privacy, as recommended by the ALRC in 2014) I think we’d starve bad actors of the fuel they need to abuse their power. Constant surveillance of everything we do shouldn’t be this profitable, so let’s fix the market failure with regulation.
We need a right to be left alone.
We need a right to be left alone.
Justin Warren
Statements about digital rights — which are simply human rights in the digital realm — are meaningless unless those rights are enshrined in law and enforceable.
However Australia is missing a necessary precondition for that being possible: a bill of rights outlining exactly what rights we have.
A necessary precondition for a bill of rights is a parliament that’s willing to give it priority across the political spectrum. A necessary precondition for that is for human rights to be an election issue — up there with the current top five of the economy, health, tax rates, the environment, and global warming.
For politicians to care, voters need to care. All voters, not just those willing to wave placards or tweet an ephemeral hashtag. Shifting political focus is a long-term goal, and that surely requires a strategic plan. That’s where I’d start.
Australia is missing a necessary precondition … a bill of rights outlining exactly what rights we have.
Stilgherrian
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
Aussie Arts & Letters 
You must be logged in to post a comment.