Download or read book Quarterly Essay 27 Reaction Time written by Ian Lowe and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2007-09-01 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Australia is at a crossroads: if we are to halt global warming, do we need to stride resolutely into a nuclear future? In this engrossing and persuasive essay, Ian Lowe discusses his one-time belief in the benefits of nuclear power and explains why that belief has faltered. He engages with the leading environmentalists, like James Lovelock, who advocate going nuclear, as well as with the less savoury aspects of the Australian politicking. He discusses whether other countries might need to use nuclear power, even if Australia doesn't, and offers an authoritative survey of Australia's energy alternatives - from solar and wind power to clean coal. Above all, he explains why taking up the nuclear option would be a decisive step in the wrong direction - economically, environmentally, politically and socially. "Promoting nuclear power as the solution to climate change is like advocating smoking as a cure for obesity. That is, taking up the nuclear option will make it much more difficult to move to the sort of sustainable, ecologically healthy future that should be our goal." —Ian Lowe, Reaction Time
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 33 Quarry Vision written by Guy Pearse and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2009-03-01 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an essay about “quarry vision”, the mindset that sees Australia’s greatest asset as its mineral and energy resources – coal especially. How has this distorted our national politics and our response to climate change? What happens now that our coal-fired resources boom has gone bust? In this powerful essay about the national interest, Guy Pearse discusses the future of the coal industry and argues with the economic orthodoxy. He exposes the shadowy world of greenhouse lobbyists; how they think, operate and skin cats. Quarry vision, he argues, is a carbon-laced trap and a blind faith and a mentality we can no longer afford.
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 28 Exit Right written by Judith Brett and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2007-12-14 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Exit Right, Judith Brett explains why the tide turned on John Howard. This is an essay about leadership, in particular Howard’s style of strong leadership which led him to dominate his party with such ultimately catastrophic results. In this definitive account, Brett discusses how age became Howard’s Achilles heel, how he lost the youth vote, how he lost Bennelong, and how he waited too long to call the election. She looks at the government’s core failings – the policy vacuum, the blindness to climate change, the disastrous misjudgment of WorkChoices – and shows how Howard and his team came more and more to insulate themselves from reality. With drama and insight, Judith Brett traces the key moments when John Howard stared defeat in the face, and explains why, after the Keating–Howard years, the ascendancy of Kevin Rudd marks a new phase in the nation’s political life. “It is when a leader’s grip on political power starts to slip, when his threats and bribes miss their mark, when he starts to make uncharacteristic mistakes and when what had once been strengths reveal their limitations, that we can see most clearly the inner workings of that leadership. This essay is about John Howard’s leadership, seen through the prism of its failings.” —Judith Brett, Exit Right
Download or read book A Voice of Reason written by Ian Lowe and published by Univ. of Queensland Press. This book was released on 2011-04 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can civilization survive the 21st century? Professor Ian Lowe, author, pre-eminent scientist and president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, thinks we have a chance--but we have to act now, and not just on global warming. Here, collected for the first time, are Lowe's views on topics that concern all Australians--the environment, culture, science, politics, education, technology and the economy, along with new pieces on Australia's outlook this century. Written in Lowe's accessible and engaging style, this collection of essays and opinion pieces is a resource for change based on common sense rather than fear-mongering. Informative, challenging and incisive, "A Voice of Reason: Reflections on Australia" will inspire you to make a difference.
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 39 Power Shift written by Hugh White and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2010-08-30 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Power Shift, Hugh White considers Australia’s future between Beijing and Washington. As the power balance shifts, and China’s infl uence grows, what might this mean for our nation? Throughout our history, we have counted fi rst on British then on American primacy in Asia. Now the rise of China as an economic powerhouse challenges US dominance and raises questions for Australia that go well beyond diplomacy and trade – questions about our place in the world, our loyalties and our long-term security. Will China replace the US as regional leader? If so, we will be dealing with an undemocratic and vastly more powerful nation. Will China wield its power differently from the US? If so, should we continue to support America and so divide Asia between our biggest ally and our biggest trading partner? How to defi ne the national interest in the Asian century? This visionary essay considers the shape of the world to come and the implications for Australia as it seeks to carve out a place in the new world order. “This year China overtook Japan to become the world’s second-biggest economy. It is already bigger, relative to the US, than the Soviet Union ever was during the Cold War. A Chinese challenge to American power in Asia is no longer a future possibility but a current reality. Few issues are more important to Australia’s future than how this plays out. You would not know it to listen to our leaders.” —Hugh White, Power Shift
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 42 Fair Share written by Judith Brett and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once the country believed itself to be the true face of Australia: sunburnt men and capable women raising crops and children, enduring isolation and a fickle environment, carrying the nation on their sturdy backs. For almost 200 years after white settlement began, city Australia needed the country: to feed it, to earn its export income, to fill the empty land, to provide it with distinctive images of the nation being built in the great south land. But Australia no longer rides on the sheep’s back, and since the 1980s, when “economic rationalism” became the new creed, the country has felt abandoned, its contribution to the nation dismissed, its historic purpose forgotten. In Fair Share, Judith Brett argues that our federation was built on the idea of a big country and a fair share, no matter where one lived. We also looked to the bush for our legends and we still look to it for our food. These are not things we can just abandon. In late 2010, with the country independents deciding who would form federal government, it seemed that rural and regional Australia’s time had come again. But, as Murray-Darling water reform shows, the politics of dependence are complicated. The question remains: what will be the fate of the country in an era of user-pays, water cutbacks, climate change, droughts and flooding rains? What are the prospects for a new compact between country and city in Australia in the twenty-first century? ‘Once the problems of the country were problems for the country as a whole. But then government stepped back ... The problems of the country were seen as unfortunate for those affected but not likely to have much impact on the rest of Australia. The agents of neoliberalism cut the country loose from the city and left it to fend for itself.’ Judith Brett, Fair Share ‘Brett is one of our most experienced and sober commentators on currents in the conservative/rural stream, and always deserves a hearing. Fair Share gives a clear and solid account on how we have come to focus on the Big Country as a problem.’ —The Canberra Times ‘A clear and compelling account of how the country went from being a key source of the nation’s economy, pride and sense of self, to a problem that needs to be addressed.’ —The Week ‘An unalloyed expose of the plight of those who live in the countryside.’ —Ross Fitzgerald, The Australian
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 41 The Happy Life written by David Malouf and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Happy Life, David Malouf returns to one of the most fundamental questions and gives it a modern twist: what makes for a happy life? With grace and profundity, Malouf discusses new and old ways to talk about contentment and the self. In considering the happy life – what it is, and what makes it possible – he returns to the “highest wisdom” of the classics, looks at how, thanks to Thomas Jefferson’s way with words, happiness became a “right”, and examines joy in the flesh as depicted by Rubens and Rembrandt. In a world become ever larger and impersonal, he fi nds happiness in an unlikely place. This is an essay to savour and reflect upon by one of Australia’s greatest novelists. “How is it, when the chief sources of human unhappiness, of misery and wretchedness, have largely been removed from our lives ... that happiness still eludes so many of us? ... What is it in us, or in the world we have created, that continues to hold us back?” —David Malouf, The Happy Life
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 58 Blood Year written by David Kilcullen and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2015-05-20 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Last year was a “blood year” in the Middle East – massacres and beheadings, fallen cities, collapsed and collapsing states, the unravelling of a decade of Western strategy. We saw the rise of ISIS, the splintering of government in Iraq, and foreign fighters – many from Europe, Australia and Africa – flowing into Syria at a rate ten times that during the height of the Iraq War. What went wrong? In Blood Year, David Kilcullen calls on twenty-five years’ experience to answer that question. This is a vivid, urgent account of the War on Terror by someone who helped shape its strategy, as well as witnessing its evolution on the ground. Kilcullen looks to strategy and history to make sense of the crisis. What are the roots and causes of the global jihad movement? What is ISIS? What threats does it pose to Australia? What does its rise say about the effectiveness of the War on Terror since 9/11, and what does a coherent strategy look like after a disastrous year? “As things stand in mid-2015, Western countries . . . face a larger, more unified, capable, experienced and savage enemy, in a less stable, more fragmented region. It isn’t just ISIS – al-Qaeda has emerged from its eclipse and is back in the game in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Syria and Yemen. We’re dealing with not one, but two global terrorist organisations, each with its own regional branches, plus a vastly larger radicalised population at home and a massive flow of foreign fighters.” —David Kilcullen, Blood Year Winner of the 2015 Walkley Award for best long feature writing.
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 45 Us and Them written by Anna Krien and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2012-04-01 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time in history, humans sit unchallenged at the top of the food chain. As we encroach on the wild and a vast wave of extinctions gathers force, how has our relationship with animals changed? In this dazzling essay, Anna Krien investigates the world we have made and the complexity of the choices we face. From pets to the live cattle trade, from apex predators to scientific experiments, Krien shows how we should – and do – treat our fellow creatures. As she delves deeper, she finds that animals can trigger primal emotions in us, which we are often unwilling to acknowledge. This is a clear-eyed meditation on humanity and animality, us and them, that brings out the importance of animals in an unforgettable way. “I am not weighing up whether our treatment of animals is just, because it isn’t. That age-old debate is a farce – deep down we all know it. The real question is, just how much of this injustice are we prepared to live with?” —Anna Krien, Us and Them
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 68 Without America written by Hugh White and published by Quarterly Essay. This book was released on 2017-11-27 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America is fading, and China will soon be the dominant power in our region. What does this mean for Australia’s future? In this controversial and urgent essay, Hugh White shows that the contest between America and China is classic power politics of the harshest kind. He argues that we are heading for an unprecedented future, one without an English-speaking great and powerful friend to keep us secure and protect our interests. White sketches what the new Asia will look like, and how China could use its power. He also examines what has happened to the United States globally, under both Barack Obama and Donald Trump – a series of setbacks which Trump’s bluster on North Korea cannot disguise. White notes that we have got into the habit of seeing the world through Washington’s eyes, and argues that unless this changes, we will fail to navigate the biggest shift in Australia’s international circumstances since European settlement. The signs of failure are already clear, as we risk sliding straight from complacency to panic. ‘For almost a decade now, the world’s two most powerful countries have been competing. America has been trying to remain East Asia’s primary power, and China has been trying to replace it. How the contest will proceed – whether peacefully or violently, quickly or slowly – is still uncertain, but the most likely outcome is now becoming clear. America will lose, and China will win.’ —Hugh White, Without America ‘This important essay clarifies China’s brinkmanship in Asia and confronts the hard facts of what it means for Australia’ —Fiona Capp, The Sydney Morning Herald ‘In ... Without America: Australia in the New Asia, Hugh White has given us possibly his best piece of writing, and on a subject of the first importance.’ —Weekend Australian ‘Just when the foreign-policy orthodoxy seemed to be catching up with him, White [has] upend[ed] it again.’ —The Interpreter
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 66 The Long Goodbye written by Anna Krien and published by Quarterly Essay. This book was released on 2017-06-10 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 65 The White Queen written by David Marr and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2017-03-27 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most Australians despise what Pauline Hanson stands for, yet politics in this country is now orbiting around One Nation. In this timely Quarterly Essay, David Marr looks at Australia’s politics of fear, resentment and race. Who votes One Nation, and why? How much of this is due to inequality? How much to racism? How should the major parties respond to anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim voices? What damage do Australia’s new entrepreneurs of hate inflict on the nation? Written with drama and wit, this is a ground-breaking look at politics and prejudice by one of Australia’s best writers. “This woman went to prison, danced the cha-cha on national television for a couple of years, and failed so often at the ballot box she became a running joke. But the truth is she never left us. She was always knocking on the door. Most of those defeats at the polls were close-run things. For twenty years political leaders appeased Hanson’s followers while working to keep her out of office. The first strategy tainted Australian politics. The second eventually failed. So she’s with us again – the Kabuki make-up, that mop of red hair and the voice telling us what we already know: ‘I’m fed up.’” —David Marr, The White Queen
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 71 Follow the Leader written by Laura Tingle and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2018-09-17 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is true political leadership, and how do we get it? What qualities should we wish for in our leaders? And why is it killing season for prime ministers? In this wise and timely essay, Laura Tingle argues that democratic leaders build a consensus for change, rather than bludgeon the system or turn politics into a popularity contest. They mobilise and guide, more than impose a vision. Tingle offers acute portraits – profiles in courage and cunning – of leaders ranging from Merkel and Howard to Macron and Obama. She discusses the rise of the strongman, including Donald Trump, for whom there is no map, only sentiment and power. And she analyses what has gone wrong with politics in Australia, arguing that successful leaders know what they want to do, and create the space and time to do it. After the Liberal Party’s recent episode of political madness, where does this leave the nation’s new prime minister, Scott Morrison? “The Liberal Party has been ripped apart and our polity is the worse off for having one of its major political parties rendered largely ungovernable ... Malcolm Turnbull’s fate came down to a series of judgements made not just by him, but by his colleagues, who spent much of his prime ministership failing to follow the leader and also failing in their own collective responsibility for leadership.” —Laura Tingle, Follow the Leader
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 70 Dead Right written by Richard Denniss and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2018-06-04 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the big banks get away with so much for so long? Why are so many aged-care residents malnourished? And when did arms manufacturers start sponsoring the Australian War Memorial? In this passionate essay, Richard Denniss explores what neoliberalism has done to Australian society. For decades, we have been led to believe that the private sector does everything better, that governments can’t afford to provide the high-quality services they once did, but that security and prosperity for all are just around the corner. In fact, Australians are now less equal, millions of workers have no sick leave or paid holidays, and housing is unaffordable for many. Deregulation, privatisation and trickle-down economics have, we are told, delivered us twenty-seven years of growth ... but to what end? In Dead Right, Denniss looks at ways to renew our democracy and discusses everything from the fragmenting Coalition to an idea of the national interest that goes beyond economics. ‘Neoliberalism, the catch-all term for all things small government, has been the ideal cloak behind which to conceal enormous shifts in Australia’s wealth and culture ... Over the past thirty years, the language, ideas and policies of neoliberalism have transformed our economy and, more importantly, our culture’ —Richard Denniss, Dead Right
Download or read book A Big Fix written by Ian Lowe and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2009-03-02 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If civilisation is to survive, this century will have to be a time of dramatic transformation, not just in technological capacity but also in our approach to the natural world - and each other. The road we are travelling now can only end in disaster.' - Ian Lowe The warnings from scientists are unequivocal: we cannot sustain our current levels of consumption and growth. We are depleting the Earth's natural resources, damaging its environmental systems and compromising social stability by allowing the gap to widen between rich and poor. In short, we are consuming the future. Unless we radically re-think the way we live, the attitudes that fostered our development will also be the source of our downfall. In A Big Fix, eminent scientist and environmentalist Ian Lowe tackles this crisis head on and points the way to a sustainable future. Incorporating the most recent data, he proposes fundamental changes to our values and institutions, offers far-reaching solutions and a vision of a healthier society - one that is humane, informed and ecologically minded.
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 30 Last Drinks written by Paul Toohey and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2008-06-02 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Mal Brough and John Howard announced the Northern Territory intervention in mid-2007, they proclaimed a child abuse emergency. In this riveting piece of reportage and analysis, Paul Toohey unpicks the rhetoric of emergency and tracks progress. One year on, have children been saved? Will Labor continue with the intervention? What are the reasons for the social crisis - the neglect and the violence - and how might things be different? Toohey argues that the real issue is not sexual abuse, but rather a more general neglect of children. He criticises the way both white courts and black law have viewed violent crime by Aboriginal men. He examines the permit system and the quarantining of welfare money and argues that due to Labor's changes to these, the intervention is now effectively over - though the crisis persists. In Last Drinks, Paul Toohey offers the definitive account of how the Territory intervention came about and what it has achieved. ‘What if the greatest threat to a home came not from outside its walls but from within? Such was the charge levelled against Aborigines on 21 June 2007, the day the intervention was announced.’ —Paul Toohey, Last Drinks Paul Toohey is chief northern correspondent for the Australian. He won a Walkley Award for his first Quarterly Essay, Last Drinks: The Impact of the Northern Territory Intervention. He was previously a senior writer at the Bulletin and is the author of three books: God’s Little Acre, Rocky Goes West and The Killer Within. He has won the Graham Perkin journalist of the year award and a Walkley award for magazine feature writing. He lives in Darwin.
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 37 What s Right written by Waleed Aly and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2010-03-09 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where did the Right go wrong? With the departure of George W. Bush and John Howard, conservative parties in the US and Australia entered a period of turmoil. Foreign affairs, economics, the environment – all were issues to be avoided. Most profoundly, conservatives no longer seemed to have a compelling vision of the future – and arguably still don’t. How did the Right end up in this state? How might conservatism renew itself? In this illuminating essay, Waleed Aly begins by unravelling the terms “Right” and “Left,” arguing that these have become meaningless. He contends that conservative parties have backed themselves into a corner by embracing free-market extremism, and that an illiberal social politics – including prescribing who or what is Australian – is not the answer, electorally tempting though it may be. Aly discusses what a better conservatism might look like. He predicts that the key issues of the day, such as climate change and the financial crisis, mean a reactionary brand of politics is unlikely to work because public opinion is swiftly leaving it behind. He draws on the work of conservative thinkers, past and present, to sketch the kind of conservatism that seems scarce in Australia, but which would be a welcome presence here. This is a supple, clear and original argument for political change. “Our political discourse is drenched in Left and Right because it is so deeply impoverished. These terms are the hallmark of a political conversation that is obsessed with teams and uninterested in ideas.” —Waleed Aly, What's Right?
