Join Jordan Shopov and I for a casual post-election wrap up. From franking credits to betting odds, and inner-city politics to Q-exit, we unpack the Labor leadership, the background noise of the ‘culture wars’, and talk next steps for ScoMo. We even find time briefly to talk Izzy, and hypothesize about a world where millennials possess the same enthusiasm for debt as carbon reduction. Show highlights How harbourside politics did not quite work in mainstream Australia Australia’s egalitarian streak The general appeal of lower taxes How franking credits and property ownership were leading indicators and thus issues for voters Why […]
Continue readingAuthor Archive: Sean Jacobs
What could have been: a monarchist’s primer on the republican debate
With the Labor loss the hovering threat of a republic has subsided. But I thought it important to share some background and personal thoughts on this issue – the debate in the 1990s, the arguments and, ultimately, where I think it is a bad idea. My points below are based on a discussion I had on my podcast with Whig Capital’s Jordan Shopov. What do you think? Did this issue have anything to do the election outcome? Please drop in a comment below. This would be the second referendum Australia’s had on the issue. Sean, can you give a brief […]
Continue readingNotes on Leadership
I thought it sensible to throw together some brief notes on leadership for two reasons. First, because of the Australian federal election, leadership is clearly in the public spotlight. But second, and for more long-term reasons, leadership is a trait that will never go out of fashion. We will always need more leadership, as many people lament, and more genuine leaders. All shapes and sizes The first thing I learnt about effective leaders is that they come in all shapes and sizes. By the time I hit 30 I had worked for the Australian aid program in Fiji, the UN […]
Continue reading12 Self-Leadership Lessons from a US Supreme Court Justice
As very much a non-lawyer, and non-American, I’ve always admired Clarence Thomas – the United States Supreme Court Associate – from afar. Thomas, now 70 years of age, has spent almost three decades in the Supreme Court. His ascension to this position, despite a bitter early-1990s confirmation hearing, reveals very little flamboyance but a strong commitment to humility, discipline and building skills. Indeed, there were many less public times, early in Thomas’s career, where things amounted to make or break. Rising from genuine poverty and segregation he committed to finishing a formal education, and shedding his enchantment with activism before […]
Continue readingEpisode 31 – A primer on the coming republican debate
In any national election the stakes are high. But if Labor wins they have committed to holding a referendum on an Australian republic. This issue was put to the Australian people in 1999 but lost. Yet, as I explain, it is an issue that will always be with us. For this episode, we flip things around and Whig Capital’s Jordan Shopov interviews me on the republican versus monarchy debate. Full disclosure – I am a spokesman for the Australian Monarchist League (and a member of the Australians for Constitutional Monarchy). But I hope I can give this important issue the […]
Continue readingAsia is hardly confused by Australia’s Monarchy
It’s often said that Australia needs to become a republic because of our lagging reputation in Asia. Many republicans lament that our institutional attachment to the British Monarchy puzzles northern neighbours, implying an old-world ‘Anglophile’ attachment that tugs on our standing in the region. “With the economic and political balance now shifting to our part of the world,” writes Wayne Swan in Project Republic, “the idea of an Australian head of state who resides in London seems anachronistic in the extreme”. Swan, to be fair, wrote these words in 2013 – a climactic time for the Gillard government’s Asian Century White Paper. […]
Continue readingEpisode 30 – How to avoid consumer politics and be a good citizen
For this episode I’m joined by Sam Rebecchi – a Melbourne-based communications adviser and part-time writer for the Spectator Blog. I saw his recent Spectator article – ‘Shock News: politics and consumer goods are two different things‘ – as a good opportunity to talk about the elevation of consumption politics, the evacuation of values from public life, and the perceived lack of distinction between the two major Australian political parties. Politics, he concludes, has sadly been reduced to nothing more than the goods on our shelves. Tune in to hear how we can turn this around, the path to good […]
Continue readingWhat can international aid learn from sport?
With this year’s upcoming Australian federal election, the Australian Government’s recently released Sports Diplomacy Strategy – Sports Diplomacy 2030 – will no doubt very soon fade into the background. The Strategy, released in February 2019, received a modest but commendable amount of public attention, positively highlighting the contribution of sport to aid and diplomacy. It builds on a 2015 document – a “pioneer in the field” according to Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne – that used sport to maximise Australia’s linkages with the region, enhance economic opportunities and strengthen the communities of near neighbours. As a former Australian Youth Ambassador […]
Continue readingPolitical risk: what it is and how to deal with it
It’s reasonable to think that, with the ascendance of free market capitalism and growth in the number of democracies, political risks to cross-border business investments or exports would have abated. Indeed, since the early 1990s, many governments – even the undesirable ones – have worked hard to attract international investment, pursue pro-growth policies and seek workable environments for businesses to operate within their borders. But the reality is that firms of all sizes, whether exporting or setting up operations abroad, continue to face significant challenges from the political arenas they’re exposed to. Typically these ‘political risks’ fall into categories of […]
Continue readingVale Jack Bogle: a reminder of values and capitalism
Given the recent passing of investment legend Jack Bogle, I thought I’d share some notes I’ve taken from his work over the years. Bogle founded the Vanguard Group but, much more importantly, invented the ‘index fund’ – a way for everyday low key investors (like myself) to invest in the stock market as a whole versus trying to pick individual stocks. “I rank this Bogle invention along with the invention of the wheel,” said Nobel Prize winner Paul Samuelson, “the alphabet, Gutenberg printing, and wine and cheese: a mutual fund that never made Bogle rich, but elevated the long-term returns […]
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