Switching from a failed vape and tobacco policy to a successful one
Australia’s health policy in relation to vapes is in disarray. Yet this deeply flawed approach is currently supported by all state, federal and territory governments.
Recent articles in Health
29 June 2025
Environment: Australia declared climate change ‘rogue actor’
A new water economics needed to safeguard supplies of domestic water and make it a common good. Australia’s fossil fuels make it a rich Climate Wrecker. Carbon capture technologies fail to deliver.
28 June 2025
RFK Jr slammed for halting US support for global child vaccine program
Kennedy is either misinformed or lying, said one critical physician, but either way, children will die as a result.
26 June 2025
Israel's 'weaponisation' of food is a 'war crime': UN
It is weaponised hunger. It is forced displacement, said one UN human rights official. All combined, it appears to be the erasure of Palestinian life from Gaza.
23 June 2025
Pregnancy as a death sentence
Genuine good news stories involving government initiatives are rare. Here’s an exception.
6 June 2025
Inequality in an age of weather extremes
In tropical climes there are certain times of day When all the citizens retire to tear their clothes off and perspire. It’s one of the rules that the greatest fools obey, Because the sun is much too sultry And one must avoid its ultry-violet ray…
6 June 2025
Mental health of workers undermined in New South Wales
The NSW Government is seeking to pursue legislative changes that would ultimately worsen mental health outcomes for working people.
5 June 2025
Thames Water disaster drags on
The Macquarie Thames Water saga may be coming to an end albeit at great cost – but not, of course, to Macquarie which has reinvested the billions it took out into other things.
4 June 2025
Why psychologists can't clearly say what they’re trained to do
I am a registered psychologist with extensive additional training in advanced trauma modalities. But under Australia’s current advertising guidelines for health practitioners, I am unable to say that clearly in public-facing communication.
30 May 2025
Three ways to support young people with mental ill-health
The social and economic cost of youth mental ill-health in Australia is a burning issue that will persist unless we urgently and actively change the way the system interacts with young people and their families.
27 May 2025
Inaction also speaks louder than words
The focus of my work, over more than half a century, has been on getting good things to happen and/or preventing harm from happening. It has been a mixed history that includes both successes and failures; victories and defeats.
26 May 2025
Dangers and conveniences of combining great power with egomania
To take just one possible indicator, if the worldwide stampede to safe haven investments is anything to go by, there is a general sense of foreboding out there regarding President Trump’s election to a second term in office and the deleterious effects of this on the global economy, the stability of international relations and the likelihood of war with China, the genocide in Gaza, the gathering pace of global warming, authoritarian rule, and the suppression of dissent.
16 May 2025
Support at Home: Immediate risks and urgent issues
Australia’s aged care system is gearing up for one of its biggest shake-ups yet. The Support at Home program, set to launch on 1 July, aims to merge existing in-home care arrangements into a single, streamlined, person-centred reform. Or at least, that’s the theory.
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