Centre for Policy Development's Blog, page 123

Laura Eadie | Shooting Fish in a Barrel?

There is evidence to suggest marine parks may benefit recreational fishers. So why is the Shooters and Fishers party threatening to block the NSW parliament if marine parks are introduced?

Read Laura's article on how the Shooters and Fishers party wants to send green issues back into the trenches on ABC Online, here.

 

Fiona Armstrong | A Report Card for the Health Reform Commission

Fiona Armstrong gives the Health Reform Commission a 'D' for disappointing, in an article for On Line Opinion. The final report released by the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission is a serious disappointment.

Ben Eltham | It's Time for Cooperation – Not Containment

Julia Gillard's efforts to foster closer defence ties with China were a welcome corrective to bungled moves on our strategic relationship with an important ally, writes Ben Eltham.

Read Ben Eltham's piece first published in New Matilda here.

Julia Gillard's first trip to North Asia as Prime Minister has gone surprisingly well.

The trip would have been made all the more challenging by the government's difficulties at home. Labor is struggling in the polls and faces an uphill political battle ahead of what will probably be an unpopular Budget. Domestic events are also running against the Government. The optics of this week's protests in multiple immigration detention centres have been terrible. Nor has Tony Abbott been idle while the Prime Minister has been overseas.

Given Kevin Rudd's well-known love for foreign diplomacy, his replacement's visit to Japan, South Korea and China was always going to be a closely-watched affair. Together they represent three of Australia's most important bilateral relationships. China is surely our most important.

Of course, there are those, such as my colleague Dan Edwards, who point to the hypocrisy of Gillard's mealy-mouthed pronouncements on human rights. But, if we look to other aspects of her visit, Julia Gillard may just have pulled off a  substantial achievement.

In various interviews Gillard has told Australian journalists of her plans to build stronger military ties to China. "[We] indicated a preparedness to keep discussing defence co-operation," Gillard told Fairfax's veteran Beijing correspondent John Garnaut. "We have indicated we are open to ships visiting Australian ports [and] there's some prospect that there will be some visiting before the end of the year."

"It's a few small steps on a journey to better understanding each other's military perspectives."

Gillard's remarks about defence cooperation may seem minor, but in the context of Australia's future defence and national security policy, they loom very large indeed.

This is because, until this visit, it appeared as though Australia was headed towards a policy of containment with the emerging superpower.

2009's Defence White Paper quite explicitly cited China as a growing military presence in our region, and recommended a substantial naval build-up to try and counter it. Despite considerable debate within Australia's defence and intelligence communities about the future reality of the "China threat", the government went ahead with plans to develop and build 12 new submarines, at a prodigious projected cost. The White Paper was noted by the Chinese military establishment, who drew their own conclusions about it.

The submarine plan has its own problems, not least the great uncertainty hanging over the Defence Department and the Navy's ability to design, construct an operate such an ambitious new fleet. But the broader question has always been: why are we seeking to contain or deter China in the first place?

For the military strategists like the ANU's Hugh White, the issue is the coming dominance of China and the risk of a potential arms race between the People's Republic and the United States. In his recent Quarterly Essay and in many subsequent media appearances, White has argued that the emergence of China as a global superpower is Australia's most significant strategic challenge. Because of that, he thinks we need to embark on exactly the sort of arms build-up envisaged by the White Paper. "We need to start now ensuring that Australia has the kinds of capabilities that can provide us with sufficient strategic weight to look after ourselves," he told Ali Moore on Lateline in February. "To do what we'd need to do if Asia becomes more contested."

As Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd reportedly agreed. According to leaked cables obtained by Wikileaks, Rudd described himself as a "brutal realist" on China in a 2009 meeting with USSecretary of State Hillary Clinton. He apparently warned Clinton that the US should be prepared to use force against China "if everything goes wrong" and confided that the planned build-up of Australia's navy was '"a response to China's growing ability to project force."

The problem with this theory is what it entails. As Clinton is said to have responded, "how do you deal toughly with your banker?" China is not just the largest holder of US Treasury bills. The Asian giant is also Australia's largest trading partner and the strength of its economy in large part determines the health of Australia's export industries such as iron ore and coal. Quite why Australia would want to enter into a contest in East Asia under these circumstances has never adequately been outlined, even by White in his academic papers.

Not to put too fine a point on it, a cold war between China and America — let alone a hot war in the Taiwan Straits — is Australia's worst strategic nightmare. The role of a sane Australian strategy should be to do everything possible to engage China and America with each other, rather than tooling up for a containment strategy that we can't afford and wouldn't win.

This is why Gillard's sign-posting of greater defence ties with Beijing is so important. It signals the retreat from a potentially disastrous commitment to a foreign policy Australia can ill afford.

We shouldn't read too much into the defence announcements. The reporting of Gillard's vist on Chinese news agency Xinhua hasn't mentioned it all — covering the cultural and economicaspects of the relationship instead. But in Canberra's defence establishment at Russell Hill and in the classified cables of foreign offices across Asia, the Prime Minister's remarks are likely to ring loudly.

 

Miriam Lyons | The Tao of Politics at TEDx Canberra

In her speech at TEDx Canberra 2010, CPD's Director, Miriam Lyons asks why society and human nature are out of balance? Her search for an answer takes on the ambitious task of looking at the current state of our society, the inherent contradictions of our nature, and what we can do about living better lives in the future.

"I think we are getting closer to an Einstein moment in our understanding of human nature", she muses. "We've been through a phase in which the economics of self-interest has dominated our worldview.

"Our bakers and butchers may be bastards, but that doesn't matter if they still swap bread for dough. Greed was good, society didn't exist. Everywhere we looked we looked for selfish behaviour, and we found a whole global financial crisis full of it.

"We are now at a point where we're rediscovering our caring, sharing, interconnected side – and we're also learning more about how the Madoffs and the Mother Theresas of the world are made."

WATCH the video of Miriam's presentation on ABC TV's Big Ideas here.

Eva Cox | Stop Bullying Jobseekers

There might be plenty of jobs advertised but they're not available to unskilled long-term unemployed people. The welfare debate is currently focused on the supply-side of employment; there is a labor shortage so to fix the problem we must "get the slackers off their asses". What about demand though? Employers don't want unskilled labor.

Eva Cox's examines the skills mismatch in the workforce in New Matilda here

Eva Cox | Taxation: When Tax Sends a Powerful Message of Official Values

Is Timothy Hawkes' proposal to penalise more affluent parents for using the public schooling system serious policy or a bizarre and problematic proposition? Eva Cox suggests that the lack of coverage on the faults of Hawkes' proposal indicates a major shift on how Australian's see themselves as customers and more to the point, citizens.

Read Eva's thoughtful article on tax and society first published in Crikey here

Miriam Lyons | The Drum

CPD Director Miriam Lyons was a panelist on ABC's The Drum on Thursday along with ABC News Radio's John Barron and SR7 social media consultant Thomas Tudehope. Julia Gillard's recent tough talk on welfare, the government's tenuous progress on implementing a carbon tax and America's struggles with debt, tax-cuts and an upcoming presidential election all featured on the agenda.

The panel also considered the consequences of the much publicised Marrickville boy-cot of Israel and the new legal issues posed by the emergence of social media.

Watch Miriam Lyons and the panel on The Drum here

Ben Eltham | The Chain of Command

It might seem like the ADFA Skype scandal is one of the worst defence cover-ups but it is only the latest in an extensive list of bungles. Stephen Smith's decision to stare down the defence establishment is long overdue but what will the outcome be?

Read Ben Eltham's article on the failures of Defence and the need at last for a little accountability in New Matilda here

James Arvanitakis | To Manufacture Fortunes We need Contentious 'Taxes'

Australia's manufacturing industry is getting squeezed. The mining boom, record high exchange rates and the rise of China's economy are all big factors. James Arvanitakis argues that if the Federal Opposition were interested in Australia's manufacturing industry rather than political opportunism, they would embrace a super-profit tax on miners and a carbon price.

Read James' article  in The Punch here

Ben Eltham | The Standover Lobbyist Club

The high-profile anti-government campaigns by Big Tobacco and the gambling lobby mark a new low in public debate for Australia, writes Ben Eltham.

The Productivity Commission's comprehensive 2010 report outlines the scale of misery caused by poker machine addiction in our community and demonstrates why reform is well overdue. Yet, like the tobacco industry who continue to fight hard against government changes to packaging and the mining industry's hugely successful campaign against the Mining Super Profits Tax, Clubs Australia have realised that reform can be fought and defeated in the media.

Sectional groups meddling with democracy is nothing new, but will the government be prepared to stare down the standover tactics of big industry lobby groups?

Read Ben Eltham's article in New Matilda here.