Dear Malcolm...

State governments are guaranteed less than 20 per cent of the funding promised under the schools deal ripped up by the Abbott government, the Australian Education Union says.

The federal government said last week it would honour only one year of the school funding agreement, and allocate $230 million in 2014 to states that did not sign up to the scheme.

A temporary treaty fix - designed to unlock a huge gas field for Woodside Petroleum - has expired. This could unravel decades of Australia’s scheming both with its tiny new neighbour Timor-Leste and its largest, Indonesia.

Of Scott Morrison's fatuous lack of transparency we need say no more, except that the weekly parading of the unfortunate General Campbell for the TV cameras is a cynical political gimmick. Evidently forbidden to say anything even mildly interesting, he is there as a piece of set decoration. It is demeaning for him and an insult to the uniform.

from foreign policy

American Foreign Policy in the Age of Leaks

Inequality can be social, economic and democratic, but at its heart it is about the exercise of power, who has it and who doesn't, writes Tim Dunlop.

The education minister, Christopher Pyne, has ruled out reviving the Howard-era school funding system, two days after he said it was “a good starting point for a school funding model”.

Trade Ministers from the 12 TPP countries will meet in Singapore on December 7-9 to make decisions about the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP).

FROM THE frazzled MERDE-OCH STABLE:

You are invited to the 2013 Awards Gala Night as long as you are a Rabid Right or a Loony Liberal Lampoon (same thing) ticket holder.

Master of ceremony: George Pell — with Guest speakers Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones.

Blue tie or PRIVATE school tie de rigeur. Female tolerated should your name be "Bishop". Ticket price: $0.00 — you can charge the government for expenses under the rorts legislation.

RSVP by 14 September 1956.