Paul Laris

Paul Laris is a semi-retired health and human services policy tragic, health care users advocate, medical regulator, community activist, gardener and sailor.

Paul's recent articles

How Australian education was captured by arms dealers

How Australian education was captured by arms dealers

Australian universities, technical institutes and schools are becoming militarised. The power of defence industry money combined with government policy and public underfunding of education have created an avalanche of defence funding and profound influence over our education system and the people who emerge from it.

Call them Hospital Departments... and reclaim peoples health

Call them Hospital Departments... and reclaim peoples health

The overall capture of the meaning of health by the medical industrial complex and its hospital systems and departments has helped to hide the absence of policy and structures to specifically address the health of the public. Its time we named our health departments to describe what they actually do provide illness care -and time to make health and equity explicit central goals of the whole system of government.

SAs populist punishment law to chill climate dissent

SAs populist punishment law to chill climate dissent

A new Bill to silence climate protest has provoked a broad chorus of alarm in South Australia. Despite opposition, it seems likely the Bill will pass and South Australia will join the ranks of governments determined to suppress opposition to the fossil fuel industry.

Cracks form a year out from South Australian election

Cracks form a year out from South Australian election

One year out from the next South Australian state election and Steven Marshalls Liberal government is starting to lose its mildly progressive safe covid manager gloss as old and new scandals and blunders start to bite.

Universities at the crossroads - will town trump gown?

University mergers proposed for SA may be the wrong answer to the wrong question. We have let universities become captured by commercial interests and corporate culture. Now Covid has wrecked their business model. It is time to reclaim them for the public?

For whom the bell polls in South Australia.

At the half way point in a four year term the SA Marshall Liberal government is surprisingly looking a little lost and its pretty much all their own work.

Marshall's SA Government Just like a duck

Moderate Marshall is calm on the surface but paddling like mad underneath...

Marshall's SA Government - just like a duck

Moderate Marshall is calm on the surface but paddling like mad underneath...

Death of the critical friend in South Australia

Organisations advocating on behalf of those who otherwise have little say in the decisions which effect their lives can be seen as critical friends of government. They appear to be a threatened species - and we should be alarmed.

PAUL LARIS. Making a virtue out of a renewables neccessity

How a transition to renewable power in SA also transited a change of government.

PAUL LARIS. SAs Planning Code Consistency, democracy, or centralised chaos?

The SA governments attempts to streamline and centralise urban planning are shaping up as an electoral liability and may also fail to address the problems of urban infill development.

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