tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56724986444113742372024-02-08T13:03:15.570+11:00Australian ObserverPAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.comBlogger814125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-79274857874829793922017-06-16T18:34:00.000+10:002017-06-16T18:34:31.897+10:00Please consider assisting Australia21
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<br />
<div class="Bullet" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Some of you will know I chair an organisation called <a href="http://www.australia21.org.au/">Australia21</a>. We’re an independent,
not for profit think tank promoting fair, sustainable and inclusive public
policy through evidence-based research. </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"></span></div>
<div class="Bullet" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU">We tackle real-world social issues and environmental problems that
defy simple solutions (so-called “wicked problems") and we think there are
a lot of issues right now that need some evidence-based discussion, especially
in this era of fake news and spin.</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"></span></div>
<div class="Bullet" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU">That is why I am posting this end-of-financial year request for your
help.</span></div>
<div class="Bullet" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Even though we run on a very tight budget, we’re able to achieve a
great deal, thanks to our reputation as a respected non-partisan think tank,
the expertise of our high-level hands-on Board and the pro bono contributions
of the diverse networks we’re able to draw on. (All our Board members are
listed on our website: <a href="http://www.australia21.org.au/evidence-and-expertise/our-people/our-team">www.australia21.org.au/evidence-and-expertise/our-people/our-team</a>)</span></div>
<div class="Bullet" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Last financial year we mobilised around 1300 hours of pro bono work
including contributions from 45 external experts from around the country. This
year we’ll exceed that with a long list of work on complex issues. For example,
over the last 12 months we’ve:</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">finalised our <a href="http://australia21.org.au/research-archive/our-research/australians-in-society-2/drug-law-reform/#.WTyTaTclGM9"><b>third
report on illicit drugs</b></a> that <a href="http://australia21.org.au/event-archive/4049/"><b>Jeff Kennett and Bob
Carr</b> <b>launched</b></a> for us in March. This was an important step
forward, because the senior law enforcement officers who put their names to it
came to the conclusion that law reform is essential to saving lives and
minimising harm from drugs. The media follow up and discussion since has helped
to move the debate about illicit drug policy along;</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">launched a <a href="http://australia21.org.au/product/trauma-related-stress-in-australia-essays-by-leading-thinkers-and-researchers/"><b>volume
of essays on trauma-related stress in Australia</b></a> drawing out the diverse
groups of people affected and the huge cost to individuals and Australian
society PTSD poses;</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">followed up with a large <a href="http://australia21.org.au/event-archive/ptsd-groundbreaking-first-responder-collaboration/"><b>roundtable
meeting of first responders</b></a> (police, ambulance, fire and emergency
services, and experts on the issue from Defence) to talk about better ways to
respond to PTSD in our front line emergency responders – we’re writing up the
report now;</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">run a multidisciplinary <a href="http://australia21.org.au/event-archive/senator-janet-rice-hosts-australia21-algal-farming-roundtable/"><b>roundtable
on the potential for algal farming</b></a> to contribute to food and fuel security
– we had scientists, business people, government policy makers, and a
politician in the same room talking about what’s possible and how we might make
it happen. The report is due for launch by Senator Janet Rice in August;</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">run a <a href="http://australia21.org.au/product/mindfulness-empathy-and-compassion-the-building-blocks-of-a-mindful-nation/"><b>forum
on mindfulness, empathy and compassion</b></a> and <a href="http://australia21.org.au/mindfulfutures"><b>launched the Mindful Futures
Network</b></a>, a venture that will provide a national space to map and
develop the application of mindfulness, empathy and compassion at a systems
level, particularly to improve the health and proficiency of Australia’s public
and private organisations. UK MP Chris Ruane, who pioneered cross-party and
public service mindfulness training in Britain <a href="http://australia21.org.au/event-archive/chris-ruane-champion-of-mindful-decision-making-return-to-westminster-a-victory-for-cross-party-engagement/">helped
launch the Network</a> at our webinar in May;</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">run a <a href="http://australia21.org.au/young21overview/"><b>Young Australia21 group</b></a>,
feeding their ideas into our projects;</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">through our Young Australia21
group and in collaboration with the Australian Lions Drug Awareness Foundation
finalised and are about to launch a <a href="http://australia21.org.au/young21-archive/projects/2016-projects"><b>conversation
pack aimed at starting discussions with young people about drugs and drug
policy</b></a>;</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">started work on a <a href="http://australia21.org.au/young21-archive/younga21-news/the-future-of-work/"><b>project
looking at young people and the future of work</b></a> – Making our Future Work
– where we’ll seek to add to the research base by talking directly to young
people about how they feel about the future and work, to provide insight for
policy makers across a range of policy areas;</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">supported an <a href="http://us6.campaign-archive1.com/?u=d2331cf87fedd353f6dada8de&id=24d7b3c4f1"><b>Adelaide
primary school to pilot a drug awareness education program</b></a> inspired by
our 2014 Smarter about Drugs forum for young people; and</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">started discussions for a
project called ‘Imagining Equality’ canvassing possible solutions to growing
inequality in Australia, following from our <a href="http://australia21.org.au/research-archive/our-research/australians-in-society-2/inequality">2014
inequality roundtable</a> and <a href="http://australia21.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Final-InequalityinAustraliaRepor-21.pdf">report</a>.</span></div>
<div class="Bullet" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU">We need funding to support and promote these projects, and to run
our very effective small office.</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">We have the equivalent of one half
time staff member managing our office and operations, raising funds, supporting
projects and managing volunteers. Salary and organisation overheads cost us around
$70,000 a year.</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">And we’ve identified we need to
invest in expert communications help so our work is spread far and wide in the
public arena. Our collaboration with a communications expert over the last six
months has really paid off – the launch of our illicit drug report is a great
example with solid media coverage and comment lasting well beyond the day of
the launch helping to move public debate along in this area.</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">For each project that
communications expertise costs us around $13,000.</span></div>
<div class="Bullet" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU">We don’t receive any large government or corporate funding. We rely
on project specific grants, and support from our donors. We need help to
continue doing this work and this year we’re running an unusual end of
financial year donations drive. A group of very generous supporters has pledged
to multiply donations made to Australia21 in the next two weeks.</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">The first $21,000 we raise from
16-30 June will be multiplied 5 times thanks to our generous matching donors.</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">Every $1 donated will unlock
$5. And if we reach our goal of $21,000 in the next two weeks we’ll release
$105,000 for Australia21 to continue its work.</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">The drive is running for the
last fortnight of June (16-30 June) and all donations of $2 or more are tax
deductible.</span></div>
<div class="Bullet" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU">There are a few ways you can help us.</span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">We would very much appreciate any donation you could make, however
big or small. We’d love to reach our $21,000 goal so we unlock the maximum of
$105,000. Every contribution will make a difference. You can donate by going to
our website <a href="http://www.australia21.org.au/">www.australia21.org.au</a>
and clicking on the yellow donate button. Or you can go directly to our online
donation site at <a href="http://www.givenow.com.au/australia21">www.givenow.com.au/australia21</a>,
donate directly to our bank account </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">(bsb: 313 140, Account No: 2319 3882) or send a cheque to Australia21
Limited, PO Box 3244, Weston ACT 2611.</span><span lang="EN-AU"> I can send
you these details.</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">We don’t have a marketing
budget for this drive so we’re relying on networks and word of mouth. I would
be grateful if you would pass this message and the link to our short video <a href="https://youtu.be/8nRnHpS3w0g">https://youtu.be/8nRnHpS3w0g</a> on to your
own networks and help us reach out to a broader community. </span></div>
<div class="Dash" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">Do you know any philanthropists
that might be interested in our work? Would you be willing to talk to them and
put us in contact?</span></div>
<div class="Bullet" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: none; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU">We’d appreciate any help you can give us. Thanks!</span></div>
<div class="Text">
<br /></div>
<div class="Text">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Additional
information</span></b></div>
<div class="Bullet" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">Australia21 Board members work
directly on projects: running roundtables and forums; forming discussion networks
and project teams; talking to politicians, researchers, policy experts and
analysts, business leaders, young people, and people experiencing first-hand
the issues we explore; writing reports; organising logistics; working with the
media. </span></div>
<div class="Bullet" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">Running a roundtable costs
about $61,000, and mobilises around $100,000 of pro bono work.</span></div>
<div class="Bullet" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU">$127,000 would allow us to run
the whole Making our Future Work project including four workshops with young
people, a roundtable meeting, and a report. We’d mobilise about $83,000 of pro
bono work.</span></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-38674358715427828162017-03-25T19:18:00.001+11:002017-03-25T19:18:43.077+11:00March in March 2017, Armidale
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> afternoon</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> I had the honour of addressing Armidale's "March in March" community gathering, on the subjects of asylum seekers and war powers. My notes follow.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Speech notes for Armidale Rural Australians for
Refugees Vigil,</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Central Park, Armidale</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Saturday 25 May 2017</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Foreign
Minister Julie Bishop is fond of extolling the virtues of a “rules-based
international order”. She is particularly inclined to do that when other
countries do things that don’t suit us, such as China building military
installations on disputed reefs in the South China Sea and claiming sovereignty
over them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">She is
right in principle of course. We all have an interest in a rules-based
international order. It’s either that or the law of the jungle. For a country
such as Australia, the rules-based international order suits us very well. We
are not powerful enough to get our way by force of arms or through economic
power, but we are important enough to be listened to when the rules are being
made, and we have a creditable track record in the development of international
treaties and conventions that help to make the world a better and safer place.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The problem
is in recent years our governments have become very selective about the rules they
abide by. The ones I want to talk about this afternoon are those which bear on
the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, and those which bear on how we go
to war.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In our
treatment of refugees and asylum seekers we routinely ignore the provisions of
the Refugee Convention which we willingly and proudly helped to negotiate in
1951. I am sure you are all familiar with the many ways we flout the provisions
of the Convention: describing and treating those who arrive by sea as “illegal”;
mandatory detention rather than a short period of detention to conduct health
and identity checks; interminable delays in processing asylum claims; denial of
access to the Australian courts; transfers to third countries with associated
claims that the asylum seekers are not our responsibility; failing to make
adequate provision for the health, safety and welfare of people in detention; and
more recently, refoulement – returning refugees to their countries of origin
without due regard to the dangers they may face.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">You may be
less familiar with the disturbing behaviour our Government has shown in
relation to our obligations under the Convention on the Safety of Life at Sea
(SOLAS), as recounted in Tony Kevin’s excellent 2012 book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reluctant Rescuers</i>, and I would argue that our placing turned back asylum
seekers in a lifeboat under the control of someone with no seamanship or navigation
qualifications is in violation of that convention.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In addition,
some of the turn-back operations have seen Australian military vessels violate
Indonesian territorial waters, in violation of the U Convention on the Law of
the Sea, and of course our interception of boats on the high seas is highly
questionable in relation to that same Convention.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In
considering our approach to the refugee issue we must also consider the
contribution we make, through our military actions, to the fracturing of
societies and the displacement of people. We go to war too readily, and we go
to war too easily. Under the Australian Constitution the power to deploy the
Australian Defence Force into international armed conflict rests with the
Governor-General, acting on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Executive
Council. There is no requirement for Parliamentary involvement in the
decision-making process.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This means
that the power is effectively in the hands of the Prime Minister; as former
Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser wrote, strong-willed Prime Ministers always get
their way in Cabinet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In 2003
John Howard took Australia into an illegal invasion of Iraq. Under the United Nations
Convention, there are only two grounds for military action against another
state: authorisation by the UN Security Council, or an immediate threat to the
nation’s territory. Neither of those conditions was satisfied in 2003.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">To make
matters worse, the Howard Government sent the troops to war without obtaining
the authorisation of the Governor-General, the only person who has the
Constitutional power to authorise a deployment. Instead, an order was given by
the Defence Minister under Section 8 of the Defence Act, a section which merely
gives the Minister control of the administration of the Department and the
Defence Force. It is not a power to make war.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In so
doing, the Howard Government placed the soldiers, sailors and airmen and –women
at risk. In the event of a claim that any of them had committed an illegal act
under the Laws of Armed Conflict, the first question that would arise in front
of a tribunal would be whether the individuals concerned were lawfully in the
theatre of conflict, and without the Governor-General’s authorisation they
could not argue that they were.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We deserve
better than this. A decision as great as going to war - the biggest decision a
country can make, and one on which the fate of millions of people will depend -
must be subject to the most exhaustive scrutiny. Australia’s Parliament should
be a vital part of that process and not simply a rubber stamp. Governments proposing
a particular military deployment should be required to explain to Parliament
why it is proposed, what it will achieve, and how the predictable costs will be
met, including looking after its victims.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And if a
war is worth fighting, it is worth the trouble to look after the victims, as we
did after World War II, to the enormous enrichment of our society.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">So by all
means let us have a rules-based international order. But to show that we are
serious about that, let us demand of our governments that they obey all of the
rules, all of the time.</span></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-53346592508189732752017-03-20T01:00:00.000+11:002017-03-20T01:00:03.177+11:00Australia21 media release re drug law reform<style>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Senior police and prison officers stand side-by-side with drug
users to </span></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">call for law reform</i></b><br />
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">Media release</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">Embargoed until 00:01 on March 20,
2017</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Senior police and prison officers are today standing
side-by-side with drug users calling for law reform, to bring an end to killing
and criminalising young Australians.</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Drug-related deaths, diseases, injuries, crimes and
social costs continue to rise despite more than 80,000 consumer arrests in
Australia each year.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">So now four former Police Commissioners and Assistant
Commissioners, two former heads of Corrective Services, a former Supreme Court
Judge and a former Director of Public Prosecutions have made history, putting
their names to a report that says it is time for decriminalisation.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="http://australia21.org.au/product/can-australia-respond-drugs-effectively-safely/"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">‘Can Australia respond to drugs more
effectively and safely?’</span></a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;"> is being launched by Jeff Kennett, <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">founder of BeyondBlue and former Liberal
Premier of Victoria, and</span> Bob Carr, f<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">ormer Labor Minister for Foreign Affairs and former Premier of New
South Wales</span>.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">This remarkable </span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="http://australia21.org.au/"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Australia21</span></a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;"> report does something that has never been
done before: it tables solutions backed by the very people who were enforcing
drug laws until recently.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">It comes out of an unprecedented Roundtable convened
by </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mick Palmer, who has served as Commissioner of both the
Australian Federal Police and Northern Territory Police.</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">“What we now have is badly broken, ineffective and
even counterproductive to the harm minimisation aims of Australia</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">’s
national illicit drugs policy,” said Mr Palmer.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">“We must be courageous enough to consider a new and
different approach.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Drug users and their families have welcomed the
stand.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">“If I had been given support instead of being jailed
I would have spent 20 years as a productive member of the community instead of
succumbing to my heroin habit that repeatedly ended me up in prison,” said Kat
Armstrong, who has finally gone straight, cleaned up and founded the Women’s
Justice Network to support other offenders trying to do the same.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">“I don’t want more kids or anyone to die, or to ruin their
lives like I did – we must intervene and help them now, before it’s too late,”
she said. “I know, because I lived it.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="http://australia21.org.au/product/can-australia-respond-drugs-effectively-safely/"><span style="font-family: Arial;">‘Can Australia respond to drugs more effectively and
safely?’</span></a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;"> recognises
the weight of evidence from Australia and overseas that proves policing is
singularly unsuccessful in reducing harms or changing drug use habits.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">“The
threshold step is to redefine drugs as primarily a health and social issue
rather than one of criminal justice,” said Dr Alex Wodak, Director of the
Alcohol and Drug Service at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney from 1982 to 2012 and
current President of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
Australia21 report makes 13 key recommendations, aimed at: </span></div>
<ul>
<li><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">minimising harms for drug users and those around
them,</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">reducing the use of untested, unregulated drugs in
unsafe environments,</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">providing health and social programs to reduce
drug-related problems,</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">reducing and even eliminating criminal control of the
drug market,</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">reducing the prison population and its associated
progress to hard drug use,</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">supporting police and the judicial system to focus
law enforcement more usefully.</span></li>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Australia21 report</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;"> calls for
an approach that distinguishes between high-end production and trafficking on
the one hand, and personal use and possession on the other. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">It does not recommend open-slather legalisation of
all drugs; instead, it supports incremental, robustly evaluated steps towards a
national policy of decriminalisation, standardising the discretionary approach
to personal use and possession of cannabis and other substances that is already
being adopted by front line law enforcers at the State and Territory level. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">Advertising
of any legalised and regulated drugs would not be permitted and some harder substances
would require stringent controls, such as prescription by a doctor.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Recognition of the disconnect between harm
minimisation and arrests for use or possession has already led to
decriminalisation in many countries, including the USA (11 states),
Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Belgium,
Italy, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Ecuador, Armenia, India, Brazil,
Peru, Colombia,<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>Argentina, Mexico,
Paraguay, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Jamaica.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
Australia21 recommendations have not been made lightly. They have been
carefully considered after rigorous debate among the diverse group of
Roundtable participants and it has taken more than a year to reach consensus on
the details and sign off the text.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="http://australia21.org.au/product/can-australia-respond-drugs-effectively-safely/"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">‘Can Australia respond to drugs more
effectively and safely?’</span></a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;"> is the third in a series of Australia21 reports
examining drug law reform. The others are:</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">‘</span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="http://australia21.org.au/product/the-prohibition-of-illicit-drugs-is-killing-and-criminalising-our-children-and-we-are-all-letting-it-happen"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">The prohibition of illegal drugs is
killing and criminalising our children and we are letting it happen’</span></a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;"> (2012)</span></li>
</ul>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="http://australia21.org.au/product/alternatives-to-prohibition-illicit-drugs-how-we-can-stop-killing-and-criminalising-our-children"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">‘Alternatives to prohibition Illicit
Drugs: How we can stop killing and criminalising young Australians’</span></a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;"> (2012)</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt;">This
latest report is being launched at 10:45am Monday 20<sup>th</sup> March, in the
Jubilee Room at NSW Parliament House.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">YouTube link to social video: </span></b><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://youtu.be/cXrpNoXbQNE"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">https://youtu.be/cXrpNoXbQNE</span></b></a></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">For
further information:</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Web
</span></i><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://australia21.org.au/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">australia21.org.au/</span></i></a></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;"> Facebook
</span></i><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/australia21.org"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">@australia21.org</span></i></a></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">
Twitter </span></i><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://twitter.com/Australia_21"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">@australia_21</span></i></a></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Director
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Deborah Rice</b>: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">0414 746648</b> </span></i><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="mailto:deborah.rice@australia21.org.au"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">deborah.rice@australia21.org.au</span></i></a></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;"></span></i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Executive
Officer <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Anne Quinn: 02 62880823</b> </span></i><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="mailto:anne.quinn@australia21.org.au"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">anne.quinn@australia21.org.au</span></i></a></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;"></span></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">‘Can Australia respond to drugs more effectively and safely?’</span></u></b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;"></span></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Summary of Recommendations</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">The
overriding objective of Australia</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">’s national policy on</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;"> drugs should be the minimisation of harm
to users and those around them. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">The
policy should include substantially reducing the size of (or eliminating) the
criminal supply, by incrementally moving psychoactive drugs from the black
market.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">More
proportionate funding should be directed into harm minimisation and away from ineffective
drug law enforcement.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">It
should be recognised that criminal and antisocial behaviour resulting from drug
use is largely a result of the high costs of maintaining a drug habit and only
in some cases the specific effect of the drug.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Users
should be able to submit drugs for testing in a controlled environment to
prevent avoidable deaths and overdoses.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Current
practices to test drivers for the presence of psychoactive substances should be
to ascertain whether the driver is unsafe or unfit to drive, especially as new
laws governing use of medicinal cannabis come into effect.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs) that include arrest rates for use and possession of
psychoactive substances should be considered only partial measures of </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">‘success’,
unless they</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;"> also include harm
reduction measures.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Savings
made from cutting back unproductive law enforcement activities</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">should be
re-allocated within law enforcement to areas of greater benefit to the
community.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Opioid
Substitution Treatment (OST), including methadone and buprenorphine, should be
available for all heroin-dependent prisoners, sentenced and remanded, and
should continue to be available following release at reduced cost.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">The potential for an expanded OST service
to substantially reduce the Australian prison population and associated costs
should be explored by state and federal taskforces and warrants serious
attention by the Australian Productivity Commission and the Australian Law
Reform Commission.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">11.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">In view of the long and successful
operation of the medically supervised injecting centre in Sydney, serious
consideration should be given to the establishment of controlled drug
consumption rooms in other parts of Australia.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">12.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Australian authorities should review the effectiveness
of the 2013 New Zealand Psychoactive Substances Act.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">13.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Two pilot projects to trial and evaluate
the health and social programs recommended in this report should be conducted —
one in a remote disadvantaged community and another in an urban community with
substantial social and drug related problems.</span></div>
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">‘Can Australia respond to drugs more effectively and
safely?’</span></u></b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHY_-xvzC5mP9tnyh0DbqmFB9PxbH2BuBMLlkIHW1iQj1DfchNm8ZEvCeow5z3EK8X3ZuYyLFPZ9kNSOCtn_TLpsJvuyNHcYHLW4SPmv-lcufJ8ZZBZwGIbZ1OG811y024g7EWXuN_0ffX/s1600/A21+logo.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHY_-xvzC5mP9tnyh0DbqmFB9PxbH2BuBMLlkIHW1iQj1DfchNm8ZEvCeow5z3EK8X3ZuYyLFPZ9kNSOCtn_TLpsJvuyNHcYHLW4SPmv-lcufJ8ZZBZwGIbZ1OG811y024g7EWXuN_0ffX/s200/A21+logo.jpeg" width="200" /></a></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial;">Roundtable participants</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mr Bill
Bush</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">International Lawyer and Drug Law
Reform Advocate</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mr Nicholas
Cowdery AM</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Director of Public Prosecutions NSW
1994–2011</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mr Keith
Hamburger AM</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Former Director General Qld
Corrective Services Commission</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Superintendent
(Ret’d) Frank Hansen APM</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Former NSW Police Force</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Dr Stephen
Jiggins AM</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Professional Communicator</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mr Jack
Johnston</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Former Commissioner of Tasmania
Police</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Professor
Desmond Manderson</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Social Historian Australian National
University</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mr Denis
McDermott AM APM SIM</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Assistant Commissioner Australian
Federal Police</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mr Ken
Moroney AO APM</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Commissioner NSW Police Force
1965–2007</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Dr Anne
Marie Martin</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Assistant Commissioner Offender
Management and Policy Corrective Services NSW</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Ms Vivienne
Moxham-Hall</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Secretary Australian Drug Reform
Foundation</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mr Matt
Noffs</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">CEO of the Noffs Foundation</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mr Mick
Palmer AO APM</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Vice President Australia21 and
former Commissioner Australian Federal Police and Northern Territory Police</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Professor
Alison Ritter</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">UNSW and former President
International Society for the Study of Drug Policy</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Ret’d
Justice Hal Sperling</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Former Judge of the NSW Supreme
Court and member of NSW Law Reform Commission</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mr Gino
Vumbaca</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Former National Director of the
Australian National Council on Drugs</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Dr Alex
Wodak AM </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Director Australia21 and President
of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">The Roundtable was held under
Chatham House rules, allowing comments to be recorded but without
identification of the individuals who made them. </span></i></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-30762364653246375782017-03-15T10:47:00.000+11:002017-03-15T18:16:36.065+11:00Time for export controls on gas?<style>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Prime
Minister will be meeting with east coast gas producers this afternoon to try to
thrash out some sort of arrangement to ensure adequate gas supplies for the
domestic market.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The fact is,
the Commonwealth holds all the cards if it has the spine to play them. It could
have export controls on gas in place by the time the meeting starts, simply by
using the Customs Regulations to place gas under export controls. Gas would
become a prohibited export, unless the exporter had permission in writing from
the Minister. It would then be up to the relevant Minister to grant to each
producer permission to export part or all of its gas. Permission could be given
shipment by shipment, or yearly, or monthly, as the situation warrants. The
intent would be to grandfather most if not all current arrangements, but the
matter would be firmly and clearly under Commonwealth control.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The use of
the trade and commerce power in this way is very flexible, and it has been
thoroughly tested in the High Court (see <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Murphyores
Pty Ltd vs Commonwealth 1976</i>).</span></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-7229813882800790202017-03-14T12:20:00.000+11:002017-03-26T15:11:41.021+11:00Government abuses public servants at its peril<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The 12
March 2017 edition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Sydney Morning
Herald </i>carried an op-ed by economics writer Ross Gittins under the title <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/federal-budget/abused-public-servants-help-bring-turnbull-down-20170311-guw690">Abused
public servants help bring Turnbull down.</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In this article, about “the Centrelink robo-debt
stuff-up”, Gittings makes three points which have general validity for relationships
between the Government and the public service; points which any government
would be wise to consider:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">making the department heads fear for their jobs
should they do anything to annoy the government</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">while you can always bully the top public servants
into covering for you, when you mistreat the servants they stop warning you
about the hazards you face and, ultimately, indulge in schadenfreude when you
fall over the cliff</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">limiting the ability of their departments to pass
on unwelcome advice by interposing “a bunch of young punks and political
wannabes” between them and their senior officials</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">How the once-fine
Australian Public Service came to its current state has a long history. The
fundamental change goes back to 1984 when the Public Service reforms introduced
by John Dawkins, Minister assisting the Prime Minister in Public Service Matters
in the Hawke Labor Government. It was from that time that what had once been
known as Permanent Heads were placed on what were loosely described as 5-year
contracts but which turned out not to be contracts at all – they were term
appointments which the Government could terminate at will.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The
insecure position in which this has placed Department Secretaries has been made
abundantly clear first by John Howard and then by Tony Abbott, each of whom
sacked several Department Heads on coming to office. More subtly, John Howard
placed at least two Defence Secretaries on short term appointments (three
years), neither of which was renewed. The message is plain: do what you are
told, don’t make waves, don’t bring to light any inconvenient truths, or you
will have your appointment terminated.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This situation
has a chilling effect all the way down the command chain. A Department Secretary
who does not want to be confronting the Minister with inconvenient realities
will sideline Division Heads who they suspect will bring forward inconvenient information
and analysis which they would have a duty to take up with the Minister. If we
need yes-persons at the top, we need yes-persons all the way down the line. A
fish rots from the head, as the old Chinese proverb would have it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Read Gittins’
article in full <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/federal-budget/abused-public-servants-help-bring-turnbull-down-20170311-guw690">here</a>.
</span></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-13660604601662845232017-03-12T20:41:00.000+11:002017-03-26T15:13:01.168+11:00Howard's War - a continuation of politics by other means<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">For the discerning reader the Palazzo Report, the classified
internal report on how we got into Iraq and how we fared, prepared by Army
Historian Dr Albert Palazzo and now released in redacted form, is a remarkable
document. Although heavily redacted in places, it offers a rich store of
information about how the Howard Government conducted itself in the lead up to
the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Government’s intent, and the state of the
Army it sent to war.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Having been prepared for internal consumption by a
professional researcher with access to the key players and to classified
documents, it is a very difficult document to dismiss as a source. It deserves
to be taken seriously, very seriously indeed.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">What the document shows is that John Howard’s decision to
involve us in the illegal invasion of Iraq in March 2003 had very little to do
with any threat to Australia’s national security, and had as its prime intent
the winning of plaudits from the Americans. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">There was no strategy, no end-state that the Australian
Government wished the ADF to achieve – it was all about “being there”. In Dr
Palazzo’s words, “From a political policy angle Australia’s participation was
an alliance issue, not a military one”, and later, “From the Howard
Government’s perspective … the war’s effect on the domestic political situation
took precedence over the country’s international relationship with the United
States”.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This shaped the Government’s attitude to the composition of
the force, the assets it was prepared to release, the amount of money it was
prepared to spend, and the extent to which it was prepared to risk incurring
casualties.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The fact that the whole exercise was contoured around the
political interests of the Howard Government meant that the preparations were
conducted in extraordinary secrecy – presumably because the Government wanted
to keep its political options open until the last moment. In pursuing its
essentially domestic political intent the Government dealt less than honestly not
only with the Australian public and the Parliament, but also with our American
allies. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Right up to the eve of the invasion the Government
maintained not only to the Australian public but to the Americans that the
Government was not yet committed to join in the invasion – palpable nonsense
because we had a significant contingent participating in the detailed planning
at Central Command (CENTCOM) Headquarters in Tampa, Florida. Nevertheless, the
Americans had to conduct themselves throughout on the basis of the fiction that
we had yet to make a decision.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The politics of the situation meant we were unhelpful to the
Americans in more substantive ways. One of the force elements that the ADF
planners examined in the greatest depth was a reconnaissance battle group,
apparently because it was one of the ADF assets that senior US officers and
CENTCOM planners consistently expressed a keen interest in. US planners had
identified a capability gap in their force structure – the<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>security of the
western flank of the 1<sup>st</sup> Marine Division during its drive on Baghdad
– and they looked to the Australian Army to remedy the problem. This was a task
for which our light cavalry had been designed, and Army Headquarters pushed for
the deployment of an ASLAV-based contingent. This would have involved the
deployment of about 2000 personnel.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">CDF Cosgrove had formed the view, however, that in order to
receive the Government’s assent the deployed establishment the unit’s
establishment would have to be of the order of 600 soldiers. At this size the
AHQ planners had concerns over the unit’s ability to protect itself, and we
made our excuses to the Americans. We played hard ball on that, making it clear
that if the Americans wanted the cavalry unit it would have to be the subject
of a formal request from President Bush to Prime Minister Howard. We declined
other requests that we could have fulfilled.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">On the size of what we ultimately contributed to this
exercise in saving humanity from Saddam Hussein’s supposed WMD, Dr Palazzo
commented:</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In the end, due to the political requirements of the Bush
Administration, it probably did not matter what Australia brought to the table,
which allowed Howard to offer only niche capabilities and to take steps to
minimise the risk to the personnel the ADF did send to the [Middle East Area of
Operations]. There were some consequences in the Australian attitude, however.
Some US officers began to make the derisive comment that the ADF’s commitment
was ‘a series of headquarters’.</i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Perhaps the greatest deceit was the way the Government
misrepresented to the people and the Parliament the reasons for the deployment.
In announcing Australia’s commitment to the war Howard highlighted Iraq’s WMD
and the likelihood that these weapons would make their way into the hands of
international terrorists, but did not commit to the objective of regime change.
He knew, however, from a very early stage (I suspect as early as 1998 when Dick
Cheney visited Canberra) that the Bush Administration was committed to the
ouster of Saddam Hussein. Nevertheless, he committed such a small Australian
force that it had necessarily to be integrated into the US force, with regime
change a fundamental objective. As Palazzo put it:</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Once the war began, ADF forces who engaged Iraqi forces did so under US
operational command and by default in support of their ally’s desire to
overthrow Saddam, no matter the sophistry of the more limited Australian
intent.</i></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Two key conclusions stand out from Dr Pallazo’s report.
First, it strengthens the case for an independent inquiry, along the lines of
the UK’s Chilcot Inquiry, into how we came to be involved in the invasion of
Iraq. There is enough in the report to demonstrate that there were all sorts of
goings on of which the Australian public should be made aware, but not enough
to write the definitive history from which we can draw and benefit from the
lessons to be learned.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Second, that we cannot afford to have Executive Government
(Cabinet) play such games with us in the future. Going to war is a serious
business, and we must reform the way we make our decisions so that our elected
representatives in the Parliament are fully involved and fully accountable.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Note:</b> This piece
was first posted on the blog <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pearls and
Irritations </i>on 10 March 2017 – view original <a href="http://johnmenadue.com/?p=9709">here</a>. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-29515088621395524522017-03-12T20:30:00.000+11:002017-03-14T12:43:33.147+11:00ADFAS Armidale Young Arts Grants<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I have
received the following message from the Armidale Branch of the Australian
Design and Fine Arts Association, which I am posting in order to help spread
word of this opportunity for young people interested in making their way in the
arts.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Begins</span></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Dear ADFAS Armidale members,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I am writing to seek your support to spread the
word that our ADFAS Armidale Young Arts Grants are available again in 2017.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">If you know of young people or organisations that
may qualify for a grant we would be grateful if you would encourage them to
apply.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In 2016 ADFAS Armidale supported more than two
thousand young people in the New England region in art, music, drama and dance
and yarn bombing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Small grants are available from a pool of approximately
$5,000 each year, raised by membership donations and raffles to support a wide
range of programs.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Youth programs which help address the challenges of
geographic isolation, support activities which reach a wide cross section of
the community, provide opportunities for young people which have the potential
to be life-changing and have a long-term impact on the community are of
particular interest to ADFAS Armidale.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Further information, guidelines and application
forms can be found on ADFAS Armidale's website <a href="http://www.adfas.org.au/societies/new-south-wales-act/armidale/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.adfas.org.au/societies/new-south-wales-act/armidale/</span></a>
and our Facebook page <a href="http://www.facebook.com/adfasarmidale/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">www.facebook.com/adfasarmidale/</span></a>
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Please don’t hesitate to contact the ADFAS Armidale
Young Arts Co-ordinator Graeme Fordham (email: <a href="mailto:glfordham@gmail.com" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">glfordham@gmail.com</span></a>)
for further information.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Thank you for your consideration.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">With warm regards</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Graeme Fordham AM</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Young Arts Co-ordinator</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Ends</span></b></span></span></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-2729834730212203682017-03-10T17:32:00.001+11:002017-03-14T12:57:11.560+11:00Boycotting the nuclear treaty talks<style>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: large;">The 22 February edition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Sydney Morning Herald </i>published an op-ed by Dr Sue Wareham of and me under
the title <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/australias-unprecedented-decision-to-snub-nuclear-talks-is-irresponsible-20170221-gui3dd.html">Australia's
unprecedented decision to snub nuclear talks is irresponsible</a>. Full text
below.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Begins </span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: large;">Australia is about to do something unprecedented in the conduct of
our international relations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are
about to boycott major UN multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations. On 27
March in New York, negotiations will commence on a treaty to ban nuclear
weapons, following a strongly-supported <a href="http://www.icanw.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/N1646669.pdf">resolution</a>
passed in the General Assembly on 23 December - with 123 nations in favour, </span><span style="font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">38 against and 16 abstentions - </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which voted for “a legally
binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total
elimination”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: large;">The UN resolution and the forthcoming negotiations are the result of
intense government and civil society action in recent years that has
highlighted the catastrophic humanitarian impacts of these most terrifying and
destructive of all weapons, and the absolute imperative to prevent any further
use. However, Australia has consistently maintained that we must rely on US
nuclear weapons to “protect” us (“extended deterrence”), and therefore will not
rule out their use on our behalf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Exactly how or under what circumstances that protection would manifest,
or against which populations a nuclear bomb might be launched on our behalf, has
never been explained.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: large;">Australia’s boycott of the disarmament talks, a decision that was
made public just last week [on 16 February], will have grave implications,
quite apart from the unconscionable act of snubbing the most promising
disarmament initiative in decades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It calls
into question our commitment not only to the UN but also to the 1968 Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), article 6 of which obliges all member states –
not just those with the weapons – to “pursue negotiations in good faith on
effective measures relating to…. nuclear disarmament”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: large;">The key to a ban treaty’s effectiveness lies in its power to
delegitimise and stigmatise weapons that kill and maim whole populations
indiscriminately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which nation would
boast of a “smallpox deterrent” or a “nerve gas deterrent”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet despite the existence of treaties to ban these
other weapons of mass destruction, there is still no equivalent treaty to ban
the only weapons that can destroy a city in an instant and leave human
suffering and environmental devastation on a scale we can’t imagine.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: large;">The US, which has been the strongest opponent of the ban treaty
process, with Australia as our ally’s most active and vocal supporter, has
conceded behind closed doors that a ban treaty will have exactly its intended
purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A <a href="http://www.icanw.org/campaign-news/us-pressures-nato-states-to-vote-no-to-the-ban-treaty/">letter</a>
from the US Mission to NATO, to its NATO allies on October 17 last year, expressed
alarm that a nuclear weapons prohibition could, among other things, “make it
impossible to undertake nuclear planning or training”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Indeed; that’s the whole point of the thing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: large;">Australia’s boycott will also render our advocacy in other areas
less credible. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s frequent pronouncements on the
need for a rules based international system will ring very hollow if Australia
actively undermines this historic effort to strengthen international law and give
effect to the disarmament obligation written into the NPT.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: large;">How will Australia be able to condemn nuclear missile tests by, say,
North Korea, or other possible future proliferators, when we actively support a
nuclear apartheid, and oppose efforts to place all nuclear-armed nations on the
same legal footing?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: large;">And in the region, Australia will yet again stick out as merely an
appendage to the US rather than an independently-thinking nation that considers
global interests and its own interests above those of its ally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every South-East Asian nation, and all Pacific
Island nations (save Micronesia which is still very vulnerable to US pressure)
support the delegitimising of nuclear weapons via a treaty banning their development,
testing, manufacture, deployment and use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>New Zealand has, again, been a leader in the process. China is
considering attending the negotiations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: large;">Australia’s approach to nuclear disarmament was best summed up in
Senate Estimates on 26 October last year, when a Department of Foreign Affairs
and Trade representative was questioned on it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The response was that “In order to be able to effectively carry forward
disarmament, you need to have a world in which there is not a threat of nuclear
weapons and people feel safe and secure”. In other words, Australia will look
at the need to get rid of the weapons when they no longer exist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: large;">Australia’s decision is irresponsible, and unworthy of a nation that
- notwithstanding our support for extended nuclear deterrence - has had a long
history of engaging with UN disarmament initiatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whatever we have to say about this vital
issue, we should be at the table saying it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The decision should be reversed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: large;">Paul Barratt AO, former Secretary,
Department of Defence</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: large;">Sue Wareham OAM, Vice-President, ICAN
(Australia), the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Ends</span></b></span></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-62346709527096162692016-08-25T11:00:00.000+10:002017-03-14T12:50:44.286+11:00Forthcoming Report on Post Traumatic Stress Injury<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On Friday 9 September Australia21 (<a href="http://www.australia21.org.au/">www.Australia21.org.au</a>), in
collaboration with FearLess, will be launching an essay volume designed to
raise awareness of Post Traumatic Stress, and to form the basis of a future
roundtable designed to improve our understanding of this widespread problem and
help set the agenda for further work on it.
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Below is the text of the Foreword I wrote for this
forthcoming report.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Begins</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Australia21 is an independent public policy think tank.
Inspired by the Canadian Institute of Advance Research (CIAR), it was founded
in 2001 to develop new frameworks of understanding about complex problems that
are important to Australia’s future. For fifteen years we have been bringing
together multidisciplinary groups of leading thinkers, researchers and
policymakers to consider issues about our future, ranging from climate and the
landscape, our society and our economy to Australia’s place in the world.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Typically the issues we deal with are those which social
scientists call “wicked problems”. They are difficult to define clearly:
different stakeholders have different versions if what the problem is, and
there is usually an element of truth in each of those versions. They have many
interdependencies and are often multi-causal. They hardly ever sit conveniently
within the responsibilities of one organisation, and the organisations that
need to be parties to the solution often have conflicting responsibilities and
goals, which necessitates trade-offs between conflicting goals.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">modus operandi </i>is
to work in collaboration rather than competition with those who have insights
into the issues we tackle. It is rarely the case that any of the stakeholders lack
state of the art awareness, or access to it, of the parts of the issue that
fall within their responsibilities. Australia21 finds that its best value add
comes from bringing together in the one room as broad a range of stakeholders
and relevant subject matter experts as possible, to compare notes, in a
systematic way, on what we think we know about the issue, and even more
importantly, what we do not know, but need to know, in order manage the issue
more effectively.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In the case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), or as
I would prefer to call it Post-Traumatic Stress Injury (PTSI), we have an issue
which affects not only the current wellbeing of an enormous number of
Australians and permanent residents, but through that, their capacity to
realise their full potential over the course of their lives. Often identified
in the public mind as a problem arising from traumatic experiences in the
course of military service, we find that PTSI in fact arises in a variety of
segments of society. Sometimes it is the result of situations that people will
inevitably encounter in certain occupations: among first responder
organisations (police, fire-fighters, ambulance and other paramedics) trauma
surgeons and nurses, for example. For others it is the consequence of sexual
assault including sexual abuse of children, or other forms of social
dysfunction: domestic violence, or drug or alcohol-fuelled violence within the
community within which a person is trapped, or the circumstances which have
forced people to flee their countries of origin and seek refuge in Australia.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Estimates put the numbers of Australians who live with PTSI
(those directly affected plus their immediate families) as high as 3-4 million.
This is an enormous proportion of our population living lives that range from
tragic and/or dangerous, to “lives of quiet despair”, to lives that are simply
not as productive and enjoyable as they could and should be. Clearly this comes
at a very large cost: the economic and social costs of people being unable to
rise to their full potential, and the costs in terms of overall societal
wellbeing.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It also entails societal risk, where PTSI sufferers reach
the point where they cannot perform their duties safely and effectively and
become a risk to themselves and to members of the wider society.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Clearly the aims in dealing with such a major and important
problem must be find ways to manage the risks that are inherent in certain
occupations, to identify individuals’ emerging problems in sufficient time to
allow a full recovery, and to address organisation cultural issues that make
people reluctant to acknowledge that they are struggling. In order to achieve
that, we need to put solid flesh on the bones of these aspirations.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Our aim in bringing together this collection of essays to
gather together in one place a set of short readable essays by some of the most
expert people in the country, covering every aspect of the problem: the nature
and extent of the problem of trauma-associated stress in Australia; hazards in
specific groups; societal and economic costs, and what is done and needs to be
done. This collection will be used as the basis for a roundtable in which we
ask as many as practicable of the contributors to view the subject as a whole
and make their expert contribution to considering where we go from here. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If by so doing we can contribute to the identification of
gaps in our knowledge and our procedures, we will consider that as time well
spent.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ends</b></span></span></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-11245817873430847632016-05-02T17:51:00.000+10:002016-05-02T17:51:00.497+10:00Election prioritiesIt is amazing what we do and don’t discuss these days in the course of election campaigns, or the "phony war" that precedes them. At the present time we seem to be endlessly fascinated by what is to happen to the threshold for the second highest personal income tax scale to cut in, a matter which will leave 75% of taxpayers unaffected and will have a trivial effect on most of the rest.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, we have young Australians in Iraq, without, as far as I can tell, the form of authorisation required by our Constitution, and without the protection of a Status of Forces Agreement with the Government of Iraq. The effect of this is that they do not have the appropriate authorisation from either government to kill or capture people or destroy their property, and would find it difficult if brought before a tribunal to plead the defence that they were obeying lawful orders. Then on Saturday night ABC TV News revealed that these people are not simply training the Iraqi Army “behind the wire” at Camp Taji, they are following close behind them as they go into combat. Meanwhile, the Government of Iraq is collapsing in a heap. Is anyone talking about this? Not as far as I can tell. There was a time when matters of war and peace captured some attention during election campaigns, but no longer, it seems.PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-81037255633597618422015-08-15T16:57:00.000+10:002015-08-15T16:59:02.704+10:00Seventieth Anniversary of the end of the Pacific WarToday is the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II in the Pacific.<br />
<br />
On this day in 1945 my father was on board the MV Duntroon, as head of a
Prisoner of War Relief Unit, together with a contingent of Australian
General Hospital (Army) nurses. The vessel was bound for India, the
mission of those on board being to aid the POWs being liberated from the
Japanese in Burma.<br />
<br />
When news of the Japanese surrender came through, the vessel was diverted to Singapore, arriving <span class="text_exposed_show">there
on the day Lord Louis Mountbatten accepted the formal surrender from
the Japanese commander. They set up headquarters in Changi Gaol, and
began the dreadful business of assessing the physical and psychological
state of the prisoners in Changi and those coming down from the
Burma-Thailand Railway and the outlying camps.</span><br />
<br />
The matron in charge of the AGH contingent was the remarkable Madge
Brown, whom I got to know well in my school days as she took up a
position straight after the war as administrator of student
accommodation at the New England University College/University of New
England, a position she still held when I left Armidale in 1966. Madge
had an eventful war: among her other claims to fame was the fact that
she had been in Tobruk during the siege. It was a privilege to have
known her.<br />
<br />
For more on Madge Brown, see <a href="http://aussieobserver.blogspot.com.au/2009/12/ida-madge-brown-1904-2009.html">Ida Madge Brown (1904-2009)</a>.PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-66092367757728732612015-06-09T17:17:00.002+10:002015-06-09T17:17:43.668+10:00What a mess
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In
a series of announcements in August-September 2014 the Prime Minister committed
us to a steadily escalating role in northern Iraq: first humanitarian supplies
for Yezidi civilians trapped on Mount Sinjar, then air strikes by RAAF FA/18s
and airborne support for the missions of other members of the latest US-led
Coalition, then an “advise and assist” training role for several hundred soldiers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This
is presented as an operation by a US-led Coalition to degrade and destroy IS,
and in early June Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said with some pride in a
morning interview on Radio National that the size of Australia’s training
contingent is second only to that of the US.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
fact is the principal backers of the Iraqi Government in the fight against IS
are the Iranians, so the Americans find themselves de facto allies of a country
with which they have no diplomatic relationship, against which they have
maintained strong economic sanctions for decades, and against which they have
expended considerable diplomatic energy to ensure that they are diplomatically
isolated and play no significant role in the settlement of the many problems of
the Middle East.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In
the minds of the Iraqi Government, however, the Iranians were seen as so
central to success that when the Iraqis launched an assault to recover Tikrit,
Saddam’s birthplace, they reportedly </span><a href="http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/politics/2015/3/5/battle-for-tikrit-tests-irans-abilities-"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">neglected
even to inform the Americans ahead of the event</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. This might have had something to do with the fact that several
months after thousands of American advisers turned up to train the Iraqi Army
on which they and various allies had already spent a reported $25 billion, the
Iraqi Army </span><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/iraqi-army-fight-against-isis-312105"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">still wasn't ready for combat</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. Most of the hard work would be done by Iran-backed Shi’ite
militias, who reportedly made up about two-thirds of the force which the Iraqis
assembled outside Tikrit for the operation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As
we now know, things didn’t go according to plan, and the ground forces were
forced to call upon US air strikes, which led to <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/tikrit-isis-iran-312719">American expostulation </a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that </span><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">as
a matter of policy, the United States does not coordinate...anything with Iran,
and that <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"The Iraqis have some
homework to do on this before we are able to assist them in the area they've
asked for."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> US air support was provided in due
course, but the “liberation” of Tikrit was followed by </span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/03/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-tikrit-special-re-idUSKBN0MU1DP20150403"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">a
wave of looting and lynching</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Further
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/01/trial-swedish-man-accused-terrorism-offences-collapse-bherlin-gildo">evidence
of the confusion emerged</a> on 1 June when it was reported that </span><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">the prosecution of a Swedish national accused of terrorist
activities in Syria had collapsed at the Old Bailey, after it became clear
Britain’s security and intelligence agencies would have been deeply embarrassed
had a trial gone ahead. It seems that British intelligence agencies were
supporting the same Syrian opposition groups the accused man was.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This
whole operation against IS puts one more in mind of a dog’s breakfast than a
well-organised military campaign. It seems neither to be militarily effective
nor calculated to win the hearts and minds of the Sunni people living under the
dominion of the Islamic State.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Nicholas
Stuart summed it up well in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Canberra
Times</i> on 26 May (see <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/ramadis-fall-signals-a-strategy-in-tatters-20150526-gh9o83?skin=dumb-phone">Ramadi's
fall signals a strategy in tatters</a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Of our Prime Minister’s approach Stuart says:</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Abbott's
theological background hasn't served him well in the real world. He instinctively
divides forces into black and white, and that's why he's finding himself out of
his depth in a Middle East where there are multiple loyalties and conflicts.
Should we really be surprised that the simplistic answers he advocated have
failed to solve anything?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">… Abbott needs to
understand that the world is not engaged in some kind of Manichean struggle
between good and evil: the Middle East is a complicated situation where
subtlety is needed to succeed. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It's fine to label
people, or insist on particular courses of action, but unless you've got the
power to enforce your desires you're wasting everyone's time. There's a rule
that suggests if you don't understand something you shouldn't get involved lest
you make the problem worse. Our PM should consider taking this advice</span></i><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And
in a letter to The Age published on 27 May, CIAW/AWPR Treasurer Andrew Farran
summed it up in a few lines – see <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-age-letters/the-catholic-church-returning-to-ritual-a-way-of-avoiding-issues-20150526-gh9ws5.html">Blindly
following the US</a>, seventh letter from the top. Andrew’s letter reads:</span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Tony Abbott would
have us follow the US any and every where. So which country in the Middle East
does the US most fear? Iran. Which force in the region does Iran most fear?
Islamic State. So why is the US so opposed to IS when it could provide the
required balance against Iran? Why is it so concerned with the fate of Iraq
when it has become irretrievably a pawn of Iran? The region is full of contradictions.
Does Mr Abbott comprehend this when he speaks of IS simply as a "death
cult"?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Syria and Iraq are
destroyed states. A new balance of forces is emerging based on centuries-old,
pre-colonial historical and religious rivalries, in which other regional states
like Saudi Arabia and Turkey are also involved.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This is not where
Australia has direct interests nor should it be involved. The terrorist
repercussions from there to here are greatly exaggerated.</span></i></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-24635537607960995052015-04-30T21:49:00.002+10:002015-04-30T21:49:26.900+10:00Official Opening of Wright College, Mark II
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifMi0uc0u9_8_w-XoBGVrvZTAKGzGjwgJfMTlh2Uyf9c3e6N9fsThWHSWN9ShOcZISfV_HGgtT-3Rojmt-SOognHQ7cL2kcuCmhMTXpV34IyKLFWXmOC8_TmyzPlUUrF99CrR4Wl-la2xJ/s1600/1967.04+image13+cc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifMi0uc0u9_8_w-XoBGVrvZTAKGzGjwgJfMTlh2Uyf9c3e6N9fsThWHSWN9ShOcZISfV_HGgtT-3Rojmt-SOognHQ7cL2kcuCmhMTXpV34IyKLFWXmOC8_TmyzPlUUrF99CrR4Wl-la2xJ/s1600/1967.04+image13+cc.jpg" height="218" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wright College was the first men’s college to be opened at
the University of New England. It was established in 1958, in temporary
buildings, and I was a member of the College throughout my university days,
from 1961-65. When the original wooden structures reached the end of their
lives in 1996, there was no money to replace them and they were bulldozed, to the
grief of large numbers of alumni.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There has now been a miraculous resurrection, and I had the
honour of speaking on behalf of the alumni at the official opening ceremony this
morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thius is what I said:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Chancellor</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Vice Chancellor</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Mr Colin Ahoy representing the local Aboriginal
community</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Staff and students past and present</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Members of the Wright family</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As an alumnus of the original Wright College and a graduate
of the University of New England it gives me great pleasure to have the
opportunity to say a few words on this auspicious occasion.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I will use this opportunity to pay a couple of tributes and
to address a couple of remarks to the current residents, students and staff.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My first tribute is to the man that this College honours,
Phillip Arundell Wright, known affectionately to all as “P.A.” This remarkable
man played an important role in the University’s creation, and was one of its
great benefactors: when the White family donated Booloominbah and about 70
acres of land, P.A. donated land around the University, including Laureldale on
the other side of Booloominbah, which became the University Farm, land along
the creek flats, which became the Consett Davis Playing Fields, and the land
upon which we stand. He also donated that magnificent mace which the Esquire
Bedell carries before the Vice-Chancellor on academic occasions. I would urge
all of you to Google him; right at the top of the list you will see the
Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, which will enable you to get the
measure of the man in a very few minutes. For those who want more, Judith
Wright’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Generations of Men</i> would be
a good place to start, and there is a fine portrait of him by Archibald
Prize-winning artist W.E. Pidgeon over in the Wright Centre. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My second tribute is to my father, and to his generation of
staff and students who worked so hard to build the university we know and love.
My father was one of that first group of 24 students who enrolled in the New
England University College in its commencement year. He returned as a staff
member immediately after World War II, and when the University became an
autonomous institution in 1954 he was elected to the University Council. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the big things he had taken out of his time at NEUC
was the value of the personal relationship between staff and students that has
become the hallmark of this university and is one of its great strengths.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So when he and his colleagues of that time had the
opportunity to shape the new institution, my father, like many others, was a
committed believer in the idea that the new University of New England should be
a residential university. So committed was he to this idea that on his modest
academic’s salary he offered me the opportunity to live in Wright College,
about 400 metres from our home over the way in Handel Street. This was an
opportunity that I gladly took up and for which I have been forever grateful.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My third tribute is to the many staff who over the years
have laboured successfully to keep our college system going, no easy task when
the higher education authorities have never exhibited much warmth toward those
trying to do something new or different, nor any understanding of the particular
circumstances of regional universities. I especially thank those who have
surmounted all the obstacles to breathing new life into our beloved Wright
College.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To the current residents, staff and students, I would say
only that this is your Wright College now, and you must make of it what you
will. It will not be the same as Wright College Mark I, nor does it need to be
– times are different now. I guess for the many of us watching sympathetically
and perhaps anxiously from the sidelines, our measure of your success will be
the extent to which members of the student body decide that Wright College is
to be your home while you are at UNE, and becomes a central feature of your
memories of your time here.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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In closing, I would just say that while it is your Wright
College, I hope you will manage to feel that you are part of something which in
a very direct sense began in the 1950s, and which draws a straight line back to
the 1930s when an enlightened group of prominent citizens, many of them without
much formal education, succeeded against extraordinary odds in establishing the
first university in regional Australia. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thank you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeT48y_ZryfVwHpONvJUxJvhSaG968ev7IyAlmdBBg-v7cirTbzKXsUOpW5MuVUJlv0rQVrjG5cItCSPdLUMglY-dcYl2MH9J7FXC7LCbQxitS8HbBbjP-3UaXTvfHGt2cgSTUd5-bqGAF/s1600/IMG_2433.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeT48y_ZryfVwHpONvJUxJvhSaG968ev7IyAlmdBBg-v7cirTbzKXsUOpW5MuVUJlv0rQVrjG5cItCSPdLUMglY-dcYl2MH9J7FXC7LCbQxitS8HbBbjP-3UaXTvfHGt2cgSTUd5-bqGAF/s1600/IMG_2433.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Before the ceremony</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi902xV0g1GDFvLKMgwPF9_dpyOqXn5AkdSi9_MeHXiJ5xfi3CzhHIi8w46MkdgNB_PMQih5AYSWeA4eDp4oRVkdOZYh6WxekXHM68vlEmdOBR2ZMxseiTjHx5VNoOrbjR_VpMkq3M-4Q9N/s1600/IMG_2437.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi902xV0g1GDFvLKMgwPF9_dpyOqXn5AkdSi9_MeHXiJ5xfi3CzhHIi8w46MkdgNB_PMQih5AYSWeA4eDp4oRVkdOZYh6WxekXHM68vlEmdOBR2ZMxseiTjHx5VNoOrbjR_VpMkq3M-4Q9N/s1600/IMG_2437.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Chancellor James Harris and </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Vice-Chancellor Annabel Duncan unveil
the plaque</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3t288oWG-na7GxsgpgBwQIGLpgPv9P4ETGRXBDLhOvbibUTa95azUeAuovWHFhhOWqaoNfID8X1e6nMI-E1zwpO92Q0Czh_aY7_x82mZVA0jUfu2IoNVk_mkCi7HjASlxesWvpCxwUKSe/s1600/IMG_2438.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3t288oWG-na7GxsgpgBwQIGLpgPv9P4ETGRXBDLhOvbibUTa95azUeAuovWHFhhOWqaoNfID8X1e6nMI-E1zwpO92Q0Czh_aY7_x82mZVA0jUfu2IoNVk_mkCi7HjASlxesWvpCxwUKSe/s1600/IMG_2438.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">A view of one of the buildings –</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">in the colours of the original Wright
College crest</span></b></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-68249387192589579552015-03-23T15:11:00.000+11:002015-03-23T15:11:04.586+11:00Death of Malcom Fraser
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Below is the text of a media release I put out on Friday 20
March on behalf of the Campaign for for an Iraw War Inquiry/Australians for War
Powers Reform following the news of the death of former Prime Minister Malcolm
Fraser.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Death of Rt. Hon. Malcolm
Fraser AC CH</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">On this 12<sup>th</sup>
anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, Campaign for an Iraq War
Inquiry/Australians for War Powers Reform expresses its deep sorrow at the news
of the passing of Australia’s 22<sup>nd</sup> Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Malcolm
Fraser AC CH.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Mr Fraser was a
foundation member of our movement, having attended in early 2012 a meeting in
Melbourne which convened to consider how we might best campaign for the
establishment of an independent inquiry into the decision-making process that
led to Australia’s participation in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the
relocation of the so-called “war powers” from the Executive to the Parliament.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">From that time
forward he was effectively the movement’s Patron. Later in 2012, in Parliament
House, Canberra, he launched our publication <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Why Did We Go To War In Iraq?: A call for an Australian Inquiry”</i>.
He was a strong supporter of our movement and a ready source of guidance and
wise counsel.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">“His support for
this cause was of a piece with his staunch opposition to apartheid as Prime
Minister, his humane approach to Indo-Chinese asylum seekers during his time in
office, his calls for a more humane approach to asylum seekers in the
contemporary era and his respect for international institutions and
international law”, said Paul Barratt, President of CIWI/AWPR.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">At this time of
faltering foreign policy and a too-ready willingness to commit the Australian
Defence Force to overseas conflicts his wisdom and ideas will be missed more
than ever. His stature will undoubtedly grow in coming decades.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Many of our members
and longstanding supporters have known Mr Fraser both professionally and
personally over a long period of time. We shall miss him both as a friend and
as a colleague, and extend our condolences to Mrs Fraser and the family. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Paul Barratt</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">President</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">20 March 2015</span></div>
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<br /></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-36180393810037016552015-03-10T17:01:00.000+11:002015-03-10T17:01:02.832+11:00Honorary AppointmentI am very happy to be able to advise that offer and acceptance formalities have now been completed for me to take up an honorary appointment as an Adjunct Professor in the School of Humanities at the University of New England. <br /><br />I am pleased to be strengthening in this way a family connection with this fine institution which goes way back beyond my doing a Science degree here in the early 1960s, to a day in early 1938 when my father became the first student to enrol at the fledgling New England University College (of the University of Sydney). With the exception of the war years and sabbaticals, he spent his entire working life here, retiring as the third Professor of Psychology in 1978, forty years after his first undergraduate year here.<br />PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-71418169193298028342015-02-22T20:24:00.001+11:002015-02-22T20:24:59.846+11:00New England Ensemble 40th AnniversaryThis afternoon I had the pleasure of attending, in the Madgwick Hall at the University of New England, a concert given by the members of the former New England Ensemble to mark the fortieth anniversary of the first concert they gave on campus in 1975.<br />
<br />
The Ensemble (Andrew Lorenz, violin; Robert Harris, viola; Janis Laurs, cello; and Wendy Lorenz, piano) was ensemble-in-residence in the University's Music Department from 1975-82 and by all accounts made a lasting contribution to the musical life of the city and the region. In returning from studies abroad to take up their appointments they became the first full time professional ensemble based outside a capital city. They achieved national and international recognition.<br />
<br />
At this afternoon's concert they played three works that had particular significance for them:<br />
<ul>
<li>Beethoven's Piano Quartet in E-flat Major Opus 16 was their first commercial recording, with the Cherry Pie label in Sydney. It went to three pressings in the first twelve months of its release.</li>
<li>Peter Sculthorpe's Landscape II was commissioned by Musica Viva for the New England Ensemble.</li>
<li>Dvorak's Piano Quartet in E-flat Major Opus 87 was the first work they performed, in the same hall, almost forty years ago to the day.</li>
</ul>
It was a great occasion, well attended by an enthusiastic audience, and it is a great pity that it had to be a one-off.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4kVWOuP_70JkBqND5cnseNkQKsnonmDj84UNB01fLcurF65LTdWXSK5AuxRXfN8iKMBaPrA_WNHmVkI5xogZfF_bB7098eCDHH_swLEYEjz8Yc7av9TOQU-Je0yy4nB-D8mNTCoXYgVWT/s1600/15.02.22+New+England+Ensemble.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4kVWOuP_70JkBqND5cnseNkQKsnonmDj84UNB01fLcurF65LTdWXSK5AuxRXfN8iKMBaPrA_WNHmVkI5xogZfF_bB7098eCDHH_swLEYEjz8Yc7av9TOQU-Je0yy4nB-D8mNTCoXYgVWT/s1600/15.02.22+New+England+Ensemble.jpg" height="640" width="446" /></a></div>
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<br />PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-83401923030670049392015-02-11T18:45:00.003+11:002015-02-11T18:45:56.631+11:00Here we go again: Tony Abbott's Iraq adventure
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The following is the text of a presentation I delivered to
the Sydney Chapter of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, on the
evening of Tuesday 10 February 2015.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">BEGINS</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here we go again.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Australia is once more embarked upon military operations in
the Middle East, again at the behest of the United States, and again without a
clear definition of what the aims are or what we might hope to achieve. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Australia’s stance in relation to this conflict shifted so
rapidly – from air-dropping humanitarian supplies to delivering arms
and then positioning Special Forces on the ground in a training and advisory
role – that it is difficult to imagine that the decision-making
was accompanied by the kind of sober decision-making and considered analysis
that ought to accompany any decision to deploy the Australian Defence Force
(ADF) into international armed conflict.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This evening I want to talk to you about three things:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>How Australia goes to war. This has changed over
the century and a bit since Federation.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>The risks to which the current system exposes
us. </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>My proposed solution, and why the arguments
against that solution don’t in my view stand up to scrutiny.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How Australia goes to
war</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Needless to say Australian practice in relation to the power
to declare war has its roots in British practice. In Britain, as legislative
and judicial powers were detached from the sovereign over the centuries and
given to Parliaments, the power to make war remained clearly within the
executive power of the English sovereigns. Today’s practice is a residue of the
once theoretically absolute power of the sovereign, but in modern times would
only be exercised on the advice of the Government of the day.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is our starting point, but since Federation there has
been 114 years of evolution of Australian practice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Commonwealth Constitution does not say expressly who is
responsible for declaring war or deploying troops, and for many years after
Federation it was uncertain whether Australia even had the power to declare
war. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At Federation Australia did not gain full independence.
Although section 61 of the Constitution vested executive power in the monarch,
exercisable by the monarch, this did not include the power to make war. In both
world wars, when the king declared war on the advice of his UK advisers,
Australia was automatically at war as well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1942 Australia adopted the 1931 Statute of Westminster,
became independent and hence transferred the war power to the governor-general.
The operation of the statute was made retrospective to the start of the War. Acting
on the advice of the Australian Cabinet, the Governor-General declared war
against four belligerents.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To put the matter beyond doubt, Attorney-General HV Evatt
arranged for a formal delegation of war-making power from the King to the
Governor-General under Section 2 of the Constitution.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The point of all this detail is to illustrate that we were
very meticulous in those days. We formally declared war, and were scrupulously
careful to ensure that the declaration would be legally effective.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We have not declared war since World War II, but until the
start of the 21<sup>st</sup> Century the understanding had been that the formal
power to authorise the deployment of the Australian Defence Force into warlike
activity lay with the Governor-General, who under our constitution is not only
the monarch’s delegate but the commander-in-chief of the ADF. In 2003, most
constitutional lawyers expected that the political decision to invade Iraq
would be taken by Cabinet as a whole or its National Security Committee, but
legally authorised by the Governor-General on advice from the Prime Minister,
either exercising the royal prerogative or through the Federal Executive
Council.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
People with that expectation (and they included the
Governor-General himself, Peter Hollingsworth) were not taking into account the
trickiness of John Winston Howard. Asked by Hollingsworth the direct question
what instruments were required to “invoke such an action or ratify the
decisions of the Government”, Howard advised him in relation to Afghanistan
that no order from the Governor-General was required, that the ANZUS Treaty was
the basis for action by the Government.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Howard got away with advising an archbishop in such terms;
he wouldn’t have got away with it with anyone with a substantial legal
background.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Regarding the legal basis for the invasion of Iraq, it
appears that the decision was effected through a statutory power vested in the
Defence Minister under a 1975 amendment to the Defence Act, which vests “the
general control and administration of the Defence Force” in the hands of the
Minister for Defence and requires the military to exercise its powers “in
accordance with any directions of the Minister”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This does not sound to me like a delegation to the Defence
Minister of the power to make war. There is no hint of such an intention in the
Tange Report which recommended the amendment, and in the Parliamentary debate
that accompanied it there were assurances that the Governor-General’s powers
would be unaffected.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Australian Labor Party opposed the deployment to Iraq,
but not, apparently, the process by which the decision was made. On 26 February
2008 Mr Gary Quinlan, the Prime Minister’s Senior Adviser (Foreign Affairs,
National Security, Defence and Trade) responded to representations from Dr
Kristine Klugman, President, Civil Liberties Australia, in the following terms:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Government takes its responsibility in committing to any military
operation extremely seriously. The process is legally valid and has been
followed by successive Australian Governments. Any decision to commit
Australian Defence Force personnel into a conflict involves extensive
consultation with various organisations and agencies. The emphasis of all
parties in this robust and enduring process is to safeguard Australia’s
national interest. The government is satisfied with the existing procedure and
has no intention of revising it.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is no sign that Tony Abbott went anywhere near the
Governor-General in relation to the latest deployment to Iraq, so it seems
settled bipartisan policy that all that is required to exercise the executive’s
power to deploy the ADF into international armed conflict is resort to the
Minister for Defence’s power of “general control and administration of the
Defence Force” under s.8 of the Defence Act.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fact that the power to deploy rests with the executive,
with or without reference to the Governor-General, exposes the nation and
especially the members of the ADF to extraordinary risks of capricious and/or
ill-considered decision-making, which I think has been evident on several
occasions: Vietnam, Afghanistan (twice) and Iraq (twice).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The citizen in the street probably takes at face value Gary
Quinlan’s statement on behalf of Kevin Rudd that the Government would take its
responsibility in committing to any military operation extremely seriously.
Pursuant to that, they would I think assume that any such decision would be the
outcome of a robust and thorough debate in Cabinet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On that I would have to say:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Debates in Cabinet are rarely if ever robust or
careful, and whatever care or passion is on display is usually directed to the
politics and how any decision is to be presented, rarely to the content.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>No national security matter would come to full
Cabinet other than for pro-forma ratification. Such deliberations as take place
would be in the National Security Committee, which is attended by the CDF and
Service Chiefs and relevant officials. In my experience NSC debates under John
Howard’s chairmanship were in fact fairly careful and thorough, on the aspects
he wished to discuss.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>It needs to be borne in mind, however, that
Cabinet has neither constitutional status nor legal power. Political decisions
reached there are legally executed by Ministers, officials, the
Governor-General or the Federal Executive Council.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>This means that there is no need to take a
matter to Cabinet or a Cabinet Sub-Committee at all if a strong or wilful Prime
Minister does not wish to do so, and cabinet discussion can be limited by the
Prime Minister to matters which he/she wishes to discuss. </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>The evidence in relation to the 2003 Iraq
invasion indicates that the threshold question – is it a good idea to invade
Iraq? – was never put to Cabinet at any level. Former Defence Secretary Hugh
White wrote later words to the effect “They didn’t ask us and we didn’t tell
them”, a position which was confirmed to Paul Kelly by three departmental heads
he interviewed for his 2009 book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
March of the Patriots. </i>The discussions started from the position that we
would be participating in the invasion, and were directed to modalities and
intelligence.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So whatever the citizen in the street might think,
deployment of the ADF into international armed conflict can be initiated on the
basis of a “captain’s call” by Tony Abbott followed by a formal direction from
Kevin Andrews to the CDF. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The current
deployment to Iraq</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To go back to the current deployment to Iraq, the timelines
are as follows:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>At a press conference on 9 August 2014 the Prime
Minister foreshadowed assistance to a US humanitarian mission, based on the
fact that we had two C-130 aircraft based at Al Minhad in the UAE.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>In response to a question about whether he might
be considering the despatch of peacekeepers Mr Abbott said that this was about
joining our international partners in doing what we could to render
humanitarian assistance.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Prime Ministerial Media Release of 14 August
announced that an RAAF C-130J aircraft had been brought into action for the
purpose of dropping ten pallets of supplies, mainly in the form of high-energy
biscuits and bottled water, to ‘Yezidi civilians trapped on Mount Sinjar by
encircling ISIL forces’.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>At a Prime Ministerial press conference on 15
August it emerged that the ADF assets used in this operation had amounted to
more than just the assets that happened to be on hand in the UAE:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 72.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 72.0pt;">
“We didn’t just deploy a C-130
Hercules aircraft, but we also had a very large team – a support team – that
made humanitarian work possible. The fact that this team was assembled from
many parts of Australia and deployed to the Middle East within about 72 hours
is a sign of the capability of our armed forces at need”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 72.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Prime Minister
went on to say:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 72.0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The situation in
Mount Sinjar itself has somewhat eased, but the overall security situation in
Iraq remains perilous and while I certainly don't envisage Australian combat
troops in Iraq, we are consulting with our allies and partners on what
Australia can usefully contribute to try to ensure that the situation in the
Middle East improves rather than deteriorates.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By 31 August, however, all that had
changed. On that day (a Sunday), in an announcement that startlingly stretched
the definition of humanitarian assistance, the Prime Minister announced that
“Australia will join international partners to help the anti-ISIL forces in
Iraq”:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Following the
successful international humanitarian relief effort air-dropping supplies to
the thousands of people stranded on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq, the Royal
Australian Air Force will now conduct further humanitarian missions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The United States
Government has requested that Australia help to transport stores of military
equipment, including arms and munitions, as part of a multi-nation effort.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Royal Australian Air
Force C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globemaster aircraft will join aircraft from
other nations including Canada, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and the
United States to conduct this important task.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So within the space of three weeks we
had gone from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dropping</i> biscuits and
bottled water to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">landing </i>arms and
munitions for one party to the conflict – under the rubric of alleviating “the
humanitarian situation in Iraq”. Remarkably, these deliveries of arms and
munitions to unnamed forces were at the request of the United States, not at
that stage the Government of Iraq – not surprising as they were bound for
Kurdish Peshmerga forces which, when the day comes that the current insurgency
dies down, will no doubt be very keen to protect Kurdish independence <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">from </i>the Government of Iraq.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It emerged almost immediately that
there would be SAS soldiers on the RAAF transport aircraft, to provide
protection to the crew when they land and to assist in the event that an
emergency exit became necessary. Fairfax media also reported that the SAS could
in future be stationed on the ground in Iraq if Australia joins any air strike
campaign against the Islamic State militants. They would be there to find and
rescue pilots and crews in the event that a RAAF plane is shot down, rather
than for combat missions. This is a nice distinction to draw. Certainly the
preferred position in crew rescue would be to avoid combat, but there is a very
good reason that this role is assigned to the SAS.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Prime Minister’s media releases to
this point make no mention of Australian forces operating other than as a
participant in the “humanitarian” operations in Iraq. By the time President
Obama addressed the people of the US on the evening of 10 September, however,
it became explicit that this conflict could not and would not be confined to
“humanitarian operations”, nor would it be confined to Iraq. President Obama
announced that the US would extend its efforts “beyond protecting our own
people and humanitarian missions” and would start hitting ISIL targets “as the
Iraqis go on offense”, and that he would not hesitate to take action in Syria
as well as in Iraq. Further, the US had ramped up its military assistance to
the Syrian opposition. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On 14 September the Prime Minister disclosed
to the Australian public what we would really be up for, as a contribution to “an
international coalition to counter the ISIL terrorist threat”: we would deploy
up to eight F/A18 combat aircraft; an E-7A Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and
Control aircraft; and a KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker and Transport aircraft. We
would also send a Special Operations Task Group as military advisers that could
assist Iraqi and other security forces.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The situation escalated dramatically
when on Monday 21 September the US conducted its first air strikes against ISIL
targets in Syria, both in collaboration with Gulf Sunni Arab States and in
US-only missions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This turn of events creates a situation
of amazing complexity. The US has had an attitude of profound hostility towards
Iran for decades, and has worked assiduously throughout that time to isolate
that country from any role in negotiating an overall solution to the problems
of the region. Since the Assad regime in Syria began cracking down on its rebel
movements three years ago the US has insisted that it has lost legitimacy and
Assad must stand down, and has been flirting with the idea of arming and
assisting “moderate” rebel movements, whoever they might be. Iran is, of
course, a key supporter of the Assad regime.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ISIL, a breakaway group from Al Qaeda
in Iraq, is not only a threat to the Government of Iraq, and to the effectively
autonomous Kurdistan region of Northern Iraq, but is the toughest nut the Assad
regime has to crack. It will be a profound relief to Bashar al-Assad and his
Iranian helpmates to know that the United States and its new Coalition of the
Willing are going to degrade and destroy ISIL, because that leaves them free to
concentrate on crushing the other, more moderate elements of the uprising. Spin
clever words as you may, you cannot crush ISIL without helping Assad and
reducing the cost to Iran of its support for him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ISIL is a critical threat to the
Kurdish region of Iraq, and we are already engaged in delivering arms and
ammunition to its Peshmerga forces – initially at the request of the Kurdish
Regional Government but then at the request of the Government of Iraq.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Assuming ISIL can be removed as a threat to
the geographical integrity of Iraq, those same arms might be used by the newly
strengthened and seasoned Peshmerga fighters to protect the Kurdish region’s
autonomy or even to support a declaration of independence.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The legalities are also complex. The
war against ISIL is a war that straddles borders – at this stage the border
between Syria and Iraq, although some ISIL shells are landing in Turkish
territory. Remarkably, the Prime Minister announced at first that we were
joining the coalition at the request of the United States, which has no licence
to invite anyone to conduct operations inside the territory of another
sovereign state. The legality of the operations inside Iraq to which the
Australian Government says it intends to confine itself were subsequently
retrofitted with a request from the Government of Iraq.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Short of a UN Security Council
resolution there can be no such legality for the operations the US and some of
its allies are conducting inside Syria: they will receive no invitation from
Bashir al-Assad. And while we can maintain for a while the fiction that we are
only participating in half a war, the fact is that whatever we do in Iraq will
free up resources for other countries to conduct operations in Syria which,
except for the case of Iraq which is under direct attack, are of very dubious
legality under international law. And I wonder how particular the Government
will be about ensuring that the RAAF KC-30A Tanker, already on operations in
support of Coalition missions, will only refuel aircraft operating against
targets in Iraq.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One is left wondering to what extent
the rapid shifts of Australian policy reflected equally rapidly shifts in US
policy, a policy which <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Time </i>magazine
– hardly a journal renowned for leftish sentiments – described on 23 September
as a piecemeal approach that suggests an improvised mission, and one whose
objectives and justifications have repeatedly shifted over the past six weeks.
Was Tony Abbott deliberately taking the Australian public a slice at a time,
getting us used to each step before creating “new facts on the ground”, or was
he himself struggling to keep up with the play, and always finding himself
unable to say “No”?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Either way, it is a very poor way to
conduct the business of one of the oldest continuing democracies on the planet.
</span><span class="textexposedshow">In this desperately complex situation, the
nature and extent of Australian involvement is effectively in the hands of just
three people – Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, and
Defence Minister Kevin Andrews. As two of these are appointed on the
recommendation of the third, it is reasonable to suppose that the Prime
Minister will always get his way, so effectively whatever we do will come down
to what one man decides.</span><span class="textexposedshow"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="textexposedshow">This is a precarious way of
making such an important decision, and as such is a problem for the Australian
body politic and especially for the members of the Australian Defence Force who
might be put in harm’s way.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The solution</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An important part of the solution to this problem is to
involve the Parliament in any future decision to deploy the Australian Defence
Force into international armed conflict. This is something that both the
Coalition and the ALP will resist, as each likes when in office to have in its
back pocket the right to make and announce decisions on war and peace. Indeed,
on 1 September, following the Prime Minister’s 31 August announcement that we
would be transporting military stores to Iraq, the two parties combined in both
the House of Representatives and the Senate to prevent moves by The Greens and
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie to have the matter debated in Parliament.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This insistence on the status quo is driven by
considerations of party political advantage, not the national interest. A Prime
Minister who had to put a motion to the Parliament would be in a much stronger
position to demand answers from the United States about what the aims and
objectives are, what end-state is to be achieved, and what are the prospects
for success.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A Private Member’s Bill to relocate the so-called “war
powers” in the Parliament, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Defence
Amendment (Parliamentary Approval of Overseas Service) Bill 2008 [No. 2]</i>,
was introduced into the Senate in 2009 by Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, but it
was treated with scant respect by the major parties.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Four principal arguments against Parliamentary involvement
are raised by those who wish to preserve the status quo.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first of these is the argument that minor parties might
block the necessary resolution in the Senate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For the negative vote of a minor party to be effective, however, it
would be necessary that there also be a negative vote from the major Opposition
party: the combined votes of Government and Opposition would make the views of
the minor parties irrelevant (see above). As it is difficult to conceive of a
major (or indeed a minor) party voting against deployment of the ADF at a time
that the nation is genuinely under threat, this sounds more like a concern that
the involvement of the Parliament would make it more difficult for the
Government of the day to inject the ADF into wars of choice – which is of
course the whole point of the exercise.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another argument is that the Parliamentary process will take
too long. This reveals a lack of understanding of the readiness levels at which
most of the Australian Defence Force is held. Apart from the Ready Reaction
Force at Townsville most combat elements of the ADF are held at a low state of
readiness. Quite properly, most units are not maintained in a battle-ready
state, and before they can be deployed a major investment in both personnel
training and materiel is required in order to bring them up to the required
standard.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A third argument – one often regarded as the supreme card to
play – is that the Government might have access to information or intelligence
which it cannot reveal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is an argument that simply cannot be accepted within
the framework of a Westminster-style Parliamentary system. While it is
certainly true that a government may be in possession of information that
cannot be used in Parliamentary debate, it is fundamental to our system that
today’s Opposition Leader could be tomorrow’s Prime Minister – even without an
election. All that is required for the government to fall is for it to fail to
win a confidence motion on the floor of the House of Representatives, at which
point the Prime Minister of the day will normally advise the Governor-General
to prorogue Parliament and call a general election, but the Governor-General
would have the alternative of giving the Opposition Leader an opportunity to
test the confidence of the House – as happened in 1975.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This being the case, it is fundamental to our national
security that at the very least relevant leading members of the opposition not
only be cleared to deal with national security classified information, but that
at times of looming threat they be made privy to the available intelligence so
that both government and opposition can conduct themselves in relation to the matter
in an informed way.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That this is normal procedure is borne out by the fact that,
in its uncritical support of the Government’s stance, the Opposition has made
much of the fact that it has received briefings from Government.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a more subtle point to be made here. While secret
intelligence can be very valuable in giving early warning of and filling out
the detail of an emerging threat, situations will be rare in which a direct
threat to Australia would emerge without any warning signs being discernible
from open sources. Thus whatever secret intelligence the government might
possess which confirms its suspicions about an emerging threat, it is safe to
assume that for Parliamentary purposes it will be able to follow the
commonplace practice of presenting a rationale which derives from open sources,
and perhaps simply stating that this picture is confirmed by classified
information in the government’s possession, which information has been shared
with the Opposition leadership.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally, there is the argument that the process would be
nugatory because everyone would simply vote on party lines. This may be so, but
cannot be assumed to be so. Certainly the history shows that on the occasions
when deployments have been debated in Parliament, members have voted on party
lines. Historically, however, these debates have taken place against the
backdrop of a decision already taken. This brings into play two dynamics.
First, there is the feeling of obligation towards the members of the ADF who
are being put into harm’s way, the feeling that we should not undermine the
morale of the troops by suggesting that they should not be participating in the
conflict.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Second, there is the defensive shield: “It doesn’t matter
what I think, the decision has already been taken by Cabinet and my job now is
to support it and to support the young men and women of the ADF”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I believe, however, that if Parliament itself were to be the
place where the matter is decided, quite a different dynamic would come into
play. If the matter is to be put to a vote in both houses, each and every
member of Parliament would have to participate in that process knowing that
their vote would be recorded and would be a matter of history for all time, no
matter how the matter turned out. People who felt strongly about it could not
absolve their consciences with the thought that the matter had been taken out
of their hands; the matter is very much in their hands, and we may see what
looks very much like a conscience vote.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If it turns out that the matter is decided on party lines
and the government of the day wins the day, one can hardly complain that there
has been a failure of the democratic process.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we persist with the current system in which the Executive
clings to the ancient prerogative of the sovereign, we will continue to face
the risks of this small group decision making set out so eloquently by
distinguished military historian Robert O’Neill in the final paragraph of his
submission to the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Defence Amendment (Parliamentary Approval of
Overseas Service) Bill 2008 [No. 2]</i>:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 35.7pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
In the past, especially in the
cases of the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the decision to commit forces
was taken by a small group of ministers, in which the Prime Minister played a
dominant role. In such a small group, inhibitions based on concerns about the
major ally’s capacity to fight effectively and win within a period of a year or
two (if perceived at all) can be easily swept aside by the desire of the Prime
Minister, Foreign Minister or the Cabinet at large to remain close to whoever
is the US President at the time of deciding. Also in this system of
decision-making, broader issues such as the morality of the commitment, which
was clearly a major public issue in the cases of Vietnam and Iraq, are
relatively easy for the Government to ignore or set to one side. The small
group setting also makes it easier to believe faulty intelligence reports, or
even to dismiss them where they are inconvenient for the government’s preferred
policy. Australia’s decisions on commitment to any of these three conflicts
would almost certainly have been improved had the proposal been debated in both
Houses of the Parliament.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Australian public needs to be much more vigilant about
the circumstances in which the Australian Government deploys the Australian
Defence Force and for what purpose. This vigilance is unlikely to become
habitual while a decision to send troops remains the prerogative of the
executive — that is, Cabinet, meaning in practice the Prime Minister and a very
small group of key ministers — an arrangement which means that a decision, once
taken, can be acted upon without significant debate. Vigilance is much more
likely to develop if we embrace the republican notion, one which seems fitting
also for a constitutional monarchy, that the power to make war should be vested
in the legislature. In any polity founded on the principle that power flows
from the people to the state, rather than from the state to the people, the
spectacle of the executive clinging to the ancient privileges of the sovereign
is both an anachronism and an anomaly.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the UK, Prime Minister Cameron submitted the matter for
debate in the House of Commons, which both authorised the deployment of UK
forces and restricted its geographical scope – no authorisation for operations
in Syria. We are increasingly out of step with countries to which we like to
compare ourselves, and it is high time we made the change to requiring
Parliamentary approval for deployment of the ADF into international armed
conflict.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">ENDS</b></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-38357968681039885992015-02-01T17:36:00.001+11:002015-02-01T17:36:19.661+11:00Jane McAdam on the High Court decision re Tamil refugees
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In “Our
obligations still apply despite High Court win”, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sydney Morning Herald</i>, 30 January 2015, Professor Jane McAdam
writes that </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the High Court decision on the detention of Tamil asylum
seekers at sea turned on a technical reading of statutory provisions, not an
assessment of Australia's international refugee and human rights obligations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Professor McAdam is Scientia Professor of Law and <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Director of the Andrew & Renata Kaldor
Centre for International Refugee Law at the University of New South Wales.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Her article begins:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 17.85pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The High Court has decided that the month-long detention of 157 Tamil
asylum seekers at sea was legal under Australian law.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 17.85pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 17.85pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It was a narrow win for the government – three of the seven judges
dissented. The decision turned on a technical reading of statutory provisions,
not an assessment of Australia's international refugee and human rights
obligations. It is important to understand the outcome within this context.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 17.85pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 17.85pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The decision has no bearing on the lawfulness or otherwise under
international law of Australia's interception, detention and removal of asylum
seekers. Australia's international law obligations have not disappeared, but
current policy leaves us wide open to breaches.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 17.85pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She writes that Australian naval,
customs and immigration officials remain bound by the principle of non-refoulement even
when they act outside Australian territory or waters, because governments are
responsible for the actions of their officials wherever they assert effective
control, and concludes:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 17.85pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">International law is binding on Australia. But in our legal system,
courts cannot make decisions about Australia's international legal obligations
unless they are also reflected in domestic law. As Justice Keane
explained in the High Court: "Australian courts are bound to apply
Australian statute law 'even if that law should violate a rule of international
law'." </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 17.85pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 17.85pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Australia's international law obligations to refugees and asylum
seekers remain unchanged. The principle of non-refoulement continues
to bind Australian naval, customs and immigration officials wherever they
act. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 17.85pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 17.85pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The fact remains that Australia is accountable internationally for its
actions. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 17.85pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Read Professor MacAdam’s full piece <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/our-obligations-still-apply-despite-high-court-win-20150129-1316fm.html">here</a>.</span></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-77337342984114302902014-11-03T17:07:00.002+11:002014-11-03T17:07:24.617+11:00Kellie Merritt on the 'War Powers'
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">One of my
valued colleagues on the Committee of the Campaign for an Iraq War Inquiry,
which is also seeking reform of the so-called ‘war powers’, is Iraq War widow
Kellie Merritt, whose husband Paul Pardoel was killed in 2005 when a RAF C-130
Hercules crashed north of Baghdad.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Visiting
Canberra where she will speak at a symposium at the Australian Centre for
Christianity and Culture, she spoke to senior <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Canberra Times</i> reporter Ross Peake:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 17.85pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I end up with the conclusion that we invaded
Iraq for no reason, that the fall-back reason has backfired (especially for the
Iraqi people) and that my husband did not die for any tangible purpose.</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 17.85pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 17.85pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This leads me to question the nature of the
contract between the military and our government.</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 17.85pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 17.85pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Conventional democratic wisdom holds that it
is disastrous for the military to second guess our democratically elected
government's decisions.</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 17.85pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 17.85pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This makes it all the more important that our
government exercises its decision-making processes with caution, transparency
and a sense of accountability.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Read Ross Peake’s
full account of the interview, as published in today’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Canberra Times</i>, <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/war-widow-kellie-merritt-renews-campaign-for-iraq-war-inquiry-after-death-of-husband-paul-pardoel-20141102-11dh6e.html">here</a>.</span></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-75629273736304502512014-10-31T17:01:00.000+11:002014-10-31T17:01:25.695+11:00The case for an Iraq War inquiry in Australia
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In May this
year I had an article with the above title published in the journal Global
Peace, Change and Security (formerly Pacifica), Volume 26, Issue 3, 2014. It
was posted by Taylor and Francis Online on 27 May 2014 (see <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14781158.2014.916668#preview">here</a>).
For a while it was available for free download but accessing it now requires
the payment of $US 39.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This is the
abstract:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 17.85pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This article examines the background to
the March 2003 invasion of Iraq with a view to identifying when and by what
process Australia committed itself to the invasion. It provides evidence and
assessments from a variety of sources that the Australian Government was effectively
committed long before it announced a decision on 18 March 2003, the eve of the
invasion. Many questions about the decision making process remain; in the
absence of a properly constituted inquiry there is little solid evidence that
the Government considered the matter of entering into armed hostilities with
the diligence that the Australian public might expect. It is the thesis of this
paper that one of the key lessons from the Iraq War is that the current system
of decision making in relation to the deployment of the Australian Defence
Force (ADF) into international armed conflict contains insufficient checks and
balances, and needs to be changed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 17.85pt;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14781158.2014.916668">View full
text</a> ($US 39 fee)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 17.85pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14781158.2014.916668">Download
full text</a> ($US39 fee)</span></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-79764755017673475412014-10-25T13:30:00.000+11:002014-10-25T13:30:11.110+11:00What on earth was he thinking?
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In the wake
of the murder of a soldier on guard at the War memorial in Ottawa, on Friday
Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Melbourne radio station 3AW that the piper playing
the Last Post at the War Memorial in Canberra could be a terrorist target. According
to a 24 October report by national political reporter Latika Bourke, in the
online edition of The Age (see <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australian-war-memorials-last-post-a-potential-terror-target-tony-abbott-20141024-11ayte.html">here</a>):</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Mr Abbott said while the attack abroad had not
"furthered the risk" for Australia's Parliament he warned
"there's a copycat tendency amongst these people".</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">He said authorities has not considered
Canberra's War Memorial a target "prior to yesterday" but now would
because it serves as a "symbol of our nation".</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">"I suppose to extremist fanatics it could
therefore be a target. There's the Last Post at our War Memorial every day and
I guess if someone wanted to do something gruesome that's the kind of thing
that could be looked at…”</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Why
anyone would want to plant that seed in the mind of a potential terrorist or a
disturbed loner is an unfathomable mystery to me. The thought is father to the
deed, as the saying goes. What on earth was he thinking?</span></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-78349539460131989272014-10-24T16:44:00.000+11:002014-10-24T16:44:25.895+11:00Treasures of modern physics
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Last
Saturday morning I dropped into Boobooks, Armidale's wonderful second-hand
bookshop, and came away with two classics of modern physics: Louis de Broglie's
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wave Mechanics</i> (1930 - translated
from the French original) and Paul Dirac's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Principles of Quantum Mechanics</i> (3rd edition 1947, first published<span class="textexposedshow"> 1930). These two authors made fundamental contributions
to their respective branches of physics, de Broglie winning the Nobel Prize for
Physics in 1929, and Dirac sharing the prize with Erwin Schrödinger in 1933.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
flyleaf of de Broglie’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wave Mechanics </i>showed
it to have been the property of “R.H. Healey B.Sc., Physics IV 1932”.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Imagine
my delight on subsequently discovering on another flyleaf that it once belonged
to my physics professor, J.M. (Jack) Somerville, who was also my first year
tutor (those were the days!). Jack Somerville was one of the four original
staff members of the New England University College, teaching the full
University of Sydney Physics and Mathematics curriculum, and became the first
Professor of Physics at UNE. Sadly, he died suddenly in 1964, while I was
working as a research assistant in the Department, a great shock to the
University community as a whole.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
already have a copy of a more modern text on quantum mechanics (David Beard’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quantum Mechanics</i>), sent to him by a
publisher, which he gave to me in 1963, inviting me as he did so me to give him
my opinion of it (which was highly favourable). I am very happy to have
fortuitously acquired this additional link with such an admirable man.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">On looking
to see who R.H. Healey might be, I find that he was a student at Sydney
University who shared with physicist, radio astronomer and school teacher <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/payne-scott-ruby-violet-15036">Ruby
Payne-Scott (1912-1981)</a> t</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">he
Deas Thomson and Walter Burfitt scholarships for physics.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">As for
Dirac’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quantum Mechanics, </i>that
belonged to one N.W. Taylor. That will be Nathaniel Wesley Taylor, an
outstanding mathematician who was one of the first two recipients of a
University of New England Ph.D., at the Graduation Ceremony in 1958, and who
was in the Mathematics Department when I was a student.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
think I will go back to Boobooks and see what other treasures I can find
amongst the mathematics and physics texts.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-8907667988602417532014-09-13T07:36:00.001+10:002014-09-13T07:37:15.611+10:00Parliament should decide on the deployment of armed force<style>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Malcolm Fraser
and Paul Barratt</span></b>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
“Parliamentary Vote Would Dangerously Restrict Executive in War” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Australian, </i>2 September) Russell
Trood and Anthony Bergin assert that the idea of Parliament voting on decisions
to go to war is poor public policy. None of the arguments they advance in
support of this claim hold water.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The point is
made that Governments need the capacity to react quickly to events. Quite so,
but the occasions would be rare when the capacity of the ADF to deploy would be
held up by Parliamentary process. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Apart from the Ready Reaction Force
at Townsville, most combat elements of the ADF are held at a low state of
readiness. Quite properly, most units are not maintained in a battle-ready
state, and before they can be deployed a major investment in both personnel
training and materiel is required in order to bring them up to the required
standard. Preparation of a brigade group for deployment to East Timor took six
months and hundreds of millions of dollars.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Regarding the high readiness forces, it would be quite easy
to draft into legislation requiring Parliamentary authorisation a provision for
an emergency response, with a requirement for a statement setting out the nature
and purpose to be tabled within three or four sitting days.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A second argument – one often regarded
as the supreme card to play – is that the Government might have access to
information or intelligence which it cannot reveal.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is an argument that simply cannot
be accepted within the framework of a Westminster-style Parliamentary system.
While it is certainly true that a government may be in possession of
information that cannot be used in Parliamentary debate, it is fundamental to
our system that today’s Opposition Leader could be tomorrow’s Prime Minister –
even without an election. All that is required for the government to fall is
for it to fail to win a confidence motion on the floor of the House of
Representatives, at which point the Prime Minister of the day will normally
advise the Governor-General to prorogue Parliament and call a general election,
but the Governor-General would have the alternative of giving the Opposition
Leader an opportunity to test the confidence of the House. It is clear that in
recent days the Government has been giving the Opposition leadership briefings
which the Opposition feels unable to share with the public.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For purposes of Parliamentary debate, situations
will be rare in which a direct threat to Australia would emerge without any
warning signs being discernible from open sources. Thus whatever secret
intelligence the government might possess which confirms its suspicions about
an emerging threat, it is safe to assume that for Parliamentary purposes it
will be able to follow the commonplace practice of presenting a rationale which
derives from open sources, and perhaps simply stating that this picture is
confirmed by classified information in the government’s possession, which
information has been shared with the Opposition leadership.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A third argument is the old canard that a Parliamentary vote
would “simply hamstring the government of the day to the whim of minor
parties”. For the negative vote of a minor party to be effective, however, it
would be necessary that there also be a negative vote from the major Opposition
party: the combined votes of Government and Opposition would make the views of
the minor parties irrelevant. As it is difficult to conceive of a major (or
indeed a minor) party voting against deployment of the ADF at a time that the
nation is genuinely under threat, this sounds more like a concern that the
involvement of the Parliament would make it more difficult for the Government
of the day to inject the ADF into wars of choice – which is of course the whole
point of the exercise.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Trood and Bergin
also advance the extraordinary argument against Parliamentary authorisation
that “in a complicated world the occasions and circumstances in which force in
its various manifestations is required is becoming more difficult to describe
and define”. This is in fact one of the strongest reasons in support of mature
Parliamentary debate and resolution: to guard against the future possibility of
the leadership of the day rushing us off into ill-thought out military
adventures, with no clear definition of the aims, duration, prospects of
success or exit strategy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It needs to be
clearly understood that we are not advocating that Parliament be involved at
every step in the management of our involvement in an armed conflict, simply
that it be the body that authorises our entry into any particular occasion
requiring or likely to require the use of armed force. Authorisation could be
given prior to it becoming certain that conflict is inevitable, but it would
need to address a defined situation in a particular geographical region. Once
the authorisation is given, it would last for a defined period, say 60 days,
beyond the cessation of hostilities and within that period it would be left to
the Government of the day to determine how to react to circumstances as they
evolve.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Those who would
rule out any role for the legislature other than post hoc debate would have us
increasingly out of step with the practice of other representative democracies.
As recently as last year the question of UK participation in air strikes
against Syria was put to the House of Commons and was resoundingly defeated –
an outcome which rapidly came to be seen as wise.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the end of
the day it all comes down to whether we trust the Parliament, or trust a single
individual, no matter how clever he/she might be. A strong Prime Minister
will be able to convince the Cabinet, and that is a one person decision as was
the case in the Iraq War. We most certainly should have Parliamentary
approval before Australia can be taken to war.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Malcolm Fraser was Prime Minister of
Australia, 1975-83. Paul Barratt is a former Secretary to the Department of
Defence and is President of the </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><a href="http://www.iraqwarinquiry.org.au/">Campaign for an Iraq War Inquiry</a></span></i>
.</span></i></div>
PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-71368607929148998452014-09-07T20:01:00.000+10:002014-09-07T20:01:03.688+10:00Genevieve Lacey and James CrabbLate this afternoon I went to a wonderful Musica Viva performance in Armidale Town Hall: Genevieve Lacey (recorders) and James Crabb (classical accordion). No I didn't know there was such a thing as a classical accordion either, and was wondering what to expect, but there is, and it's a pretty serious instrument - a lot of intricate mechanisms to enable all the required chords to be played in both major and minor keys. About $50,000 worth and weighing in at 20 kg. In the hands of a master it makes a wonderful sound - or rather, a wonderful range of sounds: best thought of as a kind of portable organ.
They played a very diverse program, from 16th century music (Diego Ortiz, Palestrina, Matthew Locke, Jacob van Eyck) to Bach, children's songs by Chick Corea, an extraordinary solo piece for classical accordion by John Zorn - a representation of the musical score for a Road Runner cartoon - some commissioned pieces written by composer friends, finishing with renditions of two folk songs from Crabb's native Scotland.
Don't miss them if you have the chance to hear them. Well worth it, and their enthusiasm for what they are doing is infectious.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEnGvfeiaB6w18Q-CWwJUAvS466e3P4ifRoq-AG1UFPYnAw2toG9hvOXGXyxjpK7krVq2IPh3DlzmBBhbHm7cMKG_-ixvwB8i2JRLK5vHgV3osnQC_0q32OUKy9zIa8edY0rZghQ0gGV5G/s1600/14.09.07+Lacey-Crabb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEnGvfeiaB6w18Q-CWwJUAvS466e3P4ifRoq-AG1UFPYnAw2toG9hvOXGXyxjpK7krVq2IPh3DlzmBBhbHm7cMKG_-ixvwB8i2JRLK5vHgV3osnQC_0q32OUKy9zIa8edY0rZghQ0gGV5G/s400/14.09.07+Lacey-Crabb.jpg" /></a></div>PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5672498644411374237.post-54934873475305139662014-09-07T19:58:00.001+10:002014-09-07T19:58:23.355+10:00Resuming normal transmissionsMy apologies to my readers for a two-month silence, the reason being that in that time I have moved from Melbourne to Armidale, and with the exigencies of selling a house, packing up a lifetime's possessions, finding and purchasing a new place in which to live, and settling in, something had to give.
Happily life is returning to something more like normal, so normal transmissions can resume.PAUL BARRATThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447792285944889375noreply@blogger.com0