Roger Beale
Roger was the longest-serving disabled Departmental Secretary (of Environment and Heritage) in the history of the APS – there have only been two since 1901. He contracted polio in 1948 and uses a wheelchair, leg braces and crutches.
Roger's recent articles
3 January 2025
A (very) personal theology of disability
Who am I? I am an old man. I use a wheelchair. I had polio in 1948. I cannot remember a time when I could walk and run like other people, or when I wasn’t obviously and visibly different. I have lived with pain. But I have had a good and conventionally successful life – a long and loving marriage, two wonderful adult children, grandchildren and a rewarding career.
2 January 2025
Seasons: Telling stories of God and life through landscape painting
Dedicated to the memory of Susie Menadue “Beale’s art has always combined lyricism with a marked technical competence. There is a close observation of the moods of nature, the patterns of light and a celebration of the miracle of life that pervades against the forces of darkness. In these late works, a quiet spiritualism creeps into his art like a flickering candle that continues to shine despite the gusts of wind. Posterity eventually sorts out the standing of artists, and I suspect that, in retrospect, Roger Beale will be remembered as an artist who possessed his own unique voice...
16 July 2024
The Trump assassination attempt: An inevitable result of toxic polarisation?
It is ironic that a past and would be President who has been a strong supporter of 2nd Amendment freedoms to own assault rifles was nearly killed by one.
15 July 2024
A descent into violence? Political polarisation in the US
Can the United States avoid a descent into political violence? Of the 52 cases where countries reached the levels of polarisation which now exist in the US, half had their status as democracies downgraded. The US is the only Western democracy to have sustained such intense polarisation over such an extended period. It really is in uncharted territory.
28 June 2024
Dutton’s nuclear pitch: Dog whistles and a crock of s**t
It has been demonstrated by the CSIRO, the International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol and the former Chief Scientist (Finkel) that even allowing for additional expenditure on transmission and storage (battery, pumped hydro, thermal) renewables are cheaper and available in a shorter time frame than nuclear in the Australian context.
19 April 2024
NDIS and Aged Care; from rights first to budget first
When she introduced the first NDIS legislation to the House of Representatives in 2012 Prime Minister Julia Gillard said it was to replace “A system that metes out support rationed by arbitrary budget allocations, not real human needs”. It was a radical break with other forms of welfare assistance because it put the human rights of people with disabilities first and foremost – not the budget. It was not subject to asset or income tests. It was effectively unique. It was intended to meet Australia’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
17 January 2024
Failure after failure: the first chapter in the sad history of the attempts to introduce a broad-based carbon price in Australia
The January release of the Cabinet papers for 2003 reminds us of the failure of the second attempt to introduce an economy wide carbon price in Australia through an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). It marks the ascendancy of the energy and resource sectors in influencing the Coalitions climate change policies. This decision to reject emission trading set the pattern for the failure to develop a bipartisan consensus on the best way to manage climate change.
5 January 2024
Political polarisation in the United States: The series
America is Australia's great and powerful friend so it matters a great deal how reliable our firmest strategic partner is. Is the US heading for a degree of political dysfunction that could blow back into its steadfastness as a leading player and an Australian ally in a multipolar Indo-Pacific? In this series, Roger Beale explores the issues underlying the polarisation that has been building in the US political landscape and, as the Presidential election ramps up, is showing deeper cracks that could impact the country's internal stability. How will this impact the United States' foreign policy and how will Australia...
22 November 2023
Has Labor abandoned workers?
The traditional parties of compassion - Labor in Australia, Labour in Britain, Liberals in Canada and the Democrats in the US - have come under attack from the left and the right for abandoning workers.
30 July 2023
Political Polarisation in the United States: The series
America is Australia's great and powerful friend so it matters a great deal how reliable our firmest strategic partner is. Is the US heading for a degree of political dysfunction that could blow back into its steadfastness as a leading player and an Australian ally in a multipolar Indo-Pacific? In this series, Roger Beale explores the issues underlying the polarisation that has been building in the US political landscape and, as the Presidential election ramps up, is showing deeper cracks that could impact the country's internal stability. How will this impact the United States' foreign policy and how will Australia...
29 July 2023
Avoiding the same fate: Political Polarisation in the US Part 5
Australia must carefully monitor US domestic developments as a barometer of longer term risks to the reliability of our great and powerful friend, and to avoid being drawn into a US war against China. But the biggest lesson from the political polarisation in the US is that it is better to have lower overall economic growth but sustain a fairer society, than to go for broke while impoverishing ordinary citizens. The price of failing to do that is the risk of bitter polarisation, political violence, and democratic tensions.
28 July 2023
A descent into violence? Political polarisation in the US- Part 4
Can the United States avoid a descent into political violence? Of the 52 cases where countries reached the levels of polarisation which now exist in the US, half had their status as democracies downgraded. The US is the only Western democracy to have sustained such intense polarisation over such an extended period. It really is in uncharted territory.
27 July 2023
Political Polarisation in the US- Part 3: Causes
One of the great claims for representative democracy and federations is that they provide a uniquely successful way of dynamically negotiating, rather than suppressing, social differences and tensions. So, when it appears to be failing to do that in one of the worlds oldest and most successful democracies it is worth asking why has this happened?
26 July 2023
The long hand of history: Political Polarisation in the US- Part 2
We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government, everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrats traitorous America Last policies, we are done. So said Marjorie Taylor Greene in a tweet in February this year. Greene is a Republican Member of Congress and could be running mate for Donald Trump.
25 July 2023
Political polarisation in the US - Part 1: How real is the problem?
America is our great and powerful friend so it matters a great deal how reliable our firmest strategic partner is. Is the US heading for a degree of political dysfunction that could blow back into its steadfastness as a leading player and an Australian ally in a multipolar Indo-Pacific?
15 March 2023
Canberra has a revenue problem - with no obvious solutions
Before the election I wrote our leaders were dancing on the edge of calamity shutting their eyes to the obvious gap between the Commonwealths revenue stream and its growing spending commitments. Decades of giving long term tax reductions funded by short term spurts of revenue, usually from mining, had come home to roost. Albanese, spooked by the 2019 Shorten election loss, had wiped anything resembling tax reform from the platform and backed the Coalition initiated Stage 3 tax cuts which will primarily advantage the wealthy.
3 January 2023
Labors environmental denialism? Should we limit population and economic growth?
The call for a steady state global and national economy and even degrowth is a distraction unhelpful to the environmental cause. The challenge is to inspire and sustain ingenious strategies to decouple economic growth from environmental harm. The sorts of programs championed by Environment Minister Plibersek are heading in the right direction.
2 November 2022
NDIS: What do soaring costs tell us?
The budget has seen shock headlines about the increase in NDIS costs. The AFR screamed in its headline the NDIS will blow out to $50 billion. It didnt mention that this was in nominal terms - but the real increase of 17% over the next four years is serious enough.
20 October 2022
A mighty challenge: The national energy market and net zero greenhouse emissions
The Commonwealth should use its clear Constitutional capacity to seize sole control of the national energy market.
19 September 2022
NDIS Justice for over 65s
The Australian government is about to be involved in its biggest, and most morally embarrassing, class action since the Robodebt scandal. Thousands of seriously disabled people excluded from the services provided by NDIS if they were over 65 when the scheme was introduced or who became disabled after they were 65, will be eligible to join the class action. And the damages could be huge.
5 May 2022
Dancing on the edge of calamity
Our leaders are blindly dancing on the edge of calamity sternly refusing to look at the quagmire opening below them. The blindfold that Morrison has firmly tied around his own eyes, and which Albanese has failed to pull from his, is our obsession with a long term cap on tax at 23.9% of GDP the third lowest in the OECD just after the US and Ireland, and less than half that of Europe and Scandinavia.
5 February 2022
We're all equal, at least until 65: Morrison and Albaneses inheritance tax
If the government believes that access to disability support should be wealth tested then it should make that a condition for all age groups.
28 July 2021
What goes around comes around: carbon tariffs bite our exports
In his excellent opinion piece, Ross Gittins points out that those posturing against the proposed EU carbon tariffs on our exports are the very people who struck down own effective national greenhouse action. They argued then that that unfair competition from countries who were not acting would impact our industries so its a bit rich now to call out the EU for a tariff designed to protect their emissions intensive trade exposed sectors from unfair competition.
1 July 2021
The Intergenerational Report: helpful, but so much less than it could be
Since the 2021 Intergenerational Report (IGR) was released the media has been bombarding us with its predictions and forecasts. Just take The Australian's front-page headline 'Economic snapshot warns of disaster if we dont act now', with the first line reading, Australians average incomes will be $32,000 lower. Or think of Paul Kellys header, 'Australia sleeping through its alarm'.
27 May 2021
Climate Change and 'The Australians' Graham Lloyd
For years I have marvelled at the way The Australians Graham Lloyd has spun climate science research to boost scepticism about global warming and the need for action.
11 April 2021
In NDIS there is a lack of genuine consultation with disability advocates.
The Morrison government is prioritising its branding as a low taxing, small government party over its obligations to the aged population and people with disabilities. It seems to have already forgotten the lesson of the COVID pandemic that Australians are quite happy to welcome a larger role for government in a good cause.
10 March 2021
Climate war's Catch 22: We need targets before we can deploy technology
There is a terrible circularity about saying we will only commit to a target when we know the technological path to reaching it. This is because the development of new technologies and their actual deployment, depends on governments having goals (aka targets) and signalling their firm intention to stick to them.
15 October 2020
No shortage of options to pay for rights-based care for the elderly with a disability. Part 2
A rights-based system for aged care to support those who are unable to participate fully in society will not be cheap. To bring us into line with the standards adopted by high performing countries with similar living standards will likely require a doubling of expenditure.
14 October 2020
Gillard's discrimination against people with a disability aged over 65 must be put right - Part 1
It is a truth universally acknowledged our aged care system is in a tragic mess. It has become a badly regulated, provider-centric system focused more on limiting Commonwealth budget exposure than supporting the dignity and independence of older Australians.
19 August 2020
Being old and disabled in the time of COVID
The Prime Minister has apologised for the number of deaths in residential aged care during the COVID disaster. But he hasnt apologised for the large number of people in residential aged care who dont need to be there.
27 July 2020
Do We Need Reaganomics Now?
The Treasurer has suggested that we should look to the supply side of the economy as we climb out of the COVID recession. He has raised increasing workplace flexibility, reducing green tape and bringing forward tax cuts as fruitful strategies. He has suggested we look back to the Reagan and Thatcher legacies for inspiration.