Politics

Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra After the COVID crisis, what will be the “new normal” in Australia’s relations with China? The short answer is, probably both worse and more complicated than pre-COVID. This week has seen a fresh low point, with the Chinese government threatening economic retribution in response to the Morrison government’s call for an independent international inquiry into …

Infrastructure NZ’s Paul Blair tells Tim McCready that infrastructure investment and construction will play a major role in New Zealand’s economic recovery programme – but central and local government collaboration is required to make it happen. Infrastructure NZ – New Zealand’s peak infrastructure body representing 140 public and private sector industry members – says the Government’s response for the infrastructure …

Urban geographer and spatial planner Ben Ross looks at whether a department of public works has merit in the 21st century. Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones was recently quoted (Newsroom, April 2020) that New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) will no longer be just managing contracts. He also said that NZTA and KiwiRail should be allowed to self-consent projects under $20m. This …

Tony Walker, La Trobe University Australia’s relationship with China is fractured. Arguably, this is the worst moment in Sino-Australian relations since Gough Whitlam normalised ties on his election in December 1972. The Chinese saying “kill the chicken to frighten the monkey” would seem applicable in Beijing’s reaction to Australia’s push for an investigation into the operations of the World Health …

As the human and economic cost of the COVID-19 epidemic continues to reveal itself across the globe, in some quarters the blame game has already begun. Liam Finnigan suggests now is not the time to beat any drum demanding China take responsibility for the pandemic.  In what initially appeared to be a casual interview on TV3’s  AM Show, the US …

Chris Tyler, UCL and Peter Gluckman Most people think or at least hope their government is doing a good job in the face of COVID-19, according to the polls. But there can be no doubt that governments around the world were ill-prepared for this pandemic. Country after country has been locking their citizens in their homes to slow the spread …

Steven Hamilton, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University; Bruce Preston, University of Melbourne; Chris Edmond, University of Melbourne, and Richard Holden, UNSW In recent weeks a growing chorus of Australian commentators has called for social distancing measures to be eased or radically curtailed. Some have claimed the lives saved by the lockdowns are not worth the damage they …

Katherine Gibney, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and Jodie McVernon, University of Melbourne The unprecedented restrictions Australians are living with are working, so far, to curb the rise in new COVID-19 cases. Nationally, on average around 50 new COVID-19 cases were reported each day in the week leading up to April 15, compared with a peak of …

Martin Berka, Massey University New Zealand has the most stringent COVID-19 policy restrictions in the world, matched only by Israel and India, according to Oxford University’s coronavirus government response tracker. The current level 4 restrictions have brought the number of cases down, and I am delighted the government acted quickly and strongly. But the newly announced level 3 conditions remain …

Brendan Coates, Grattan Institute and Jonathan Nolan, Grattan Institute Less than a month after restrictions first took effect, Australia appears to have contained the spread of COVID-19 more successfully than we could have possibly imagined. But we’ve done so at unimaginable cost: large swathes of the economy have been shut down, leaving the livelihoods of millions of Australians on hold …