Economy
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CHRISTINE DUFFIELD & MARY CHIARELLA. The predicted nursing shortage: strategies and solutions
The nursing workforce The nursing workforce comprises 3 regulated groups: Nurse Practitioners (NPs), Registered Nurses (RNs) and Enrolled Nurses (ENs). Nurses recognise that other unregulated groups of healthcare workers (for example Assistants in Nursing (AINs)) perform nursing care, and the research is clear that they require support from registered nurses (Duffield et al, 2014). Continue reading »
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LYNDON MEGARRITY. Rex Patterson and the Whitlam Government
Dr Rex Patterson entered politics in 1966 by winning a by-election for the seat of Dawson as an ALP candidate on the platform of Northern Development. During Whitlam’s time as Opposition leader (1967-72), Patterson and Whitlam worked closely together on Northern Australia policies; Patterson also developed a media and parliamentary profile as Labor’s spokesman Continue reading »
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JOHN CARMODY. More on Brexit
Dr John Carmody reflects on the historical journey of the European Union. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. High speed rail – here we go again.
Another proposal involving high speed rail Sydney-Melbourne recently surfaced; from CLARA (Consolidated Land and Rail Australia). Extensive media reports noted an advisory board including former Trade Minister the Hon. Andrew Robb, ex Premiers the Hon. Barry O’Farrell and the Hon. Steve Bracks , and former US Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood. A figure of $200billion was Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Road pricing rather than more road funding must be the priority.
Road pricing is a hot topic for policy advisers although less popular with the public and elected representatives. This article attempts a (overly) simple explanation of what, why and whereto of road pricing. Continue reading »
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TIM HARCOURT. Three reasons free trade has become a political football.
Surveying democratic election results around the world, it’s clear the high water mark for globalisation has been met. Free trade, always questionable economics, is no longer good politics and in many ways has jumped the shark. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Road funding – what is going on.
Road funding is becoming a mess with quite serious misunderstandings of what is being spent and how much is being wasted. The benefits are of increasing doubt. In this blog I carried a post by John Austen ‘Road spending incurs billion dollar new debts annually‘. He pointed out that in 2013-14, we spent $5 billion Continue reading »
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The election campaign’s other big lie: the Coalition hasn’t delivered ‘export agreements’.
Pearls and Irritations has carried many articles about the exaggerated claims for free trade agreements. That exaggeration continued during the election campaign. One of the five pillars of Malcolm Turnbull’s ‘plan for jobs and growth’ was the alleged benefits of recently negotiated FTAs. An increasing feature of the most recently negotiated FTAs is that Continue reading »
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MARK TRIFFITT & TRAVERS McCLEOD. Stability will only be found through ideas and democratic renewal
On Saturday, Australia’s political system crossed a line. From the normal messiness of democracy into fragmented incoherence. From voter unrest to potential revolt. The implications are clear for anyone who wants to see. Instability is no longer a one-off in Australian politics but a pattern. Out-of-touch political leadership is no longer an individual failing Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. What the major parties ignored in the election?
The election seemed more about avoiding some key issues than a contest of values and ideas. Because so many key issues such as refugees were avoided, it is not surprising that so many voters, about one third, turned their backs on the major parties. Some issues like the NBN were widely canvassed in social Continue reading »
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LAURIE PATTON. NBN: The Internet is for everyone
According to Twitter, #NBN ranked fifth out of the ten issues most mentioned on the #ausvotes hashtag. Ahead of immigration, marriage equality, super, jobs and tax cuts. So it is timely that we look at how we are going when it comes to providing access to fast, reliable broadband. Last week the widely quoted Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE: ‘Plan for a strong new economy’
As a voter in the prime minister’s electorate of Wentworth, I have received two letterbox drops from Malcolm Turnbull on a 5-point plan for economic growth and jobs. This 5 point plan is the centre piece of Malcolm Turnbull’s national campaign. It is a very flimsy plan which the media has not seriously examined. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Brexit – retreat to isolationism and discontent of those left behind.
The Brexit vote has given the media a cornucopia of stories – dissent in the British Conservative and Labour Parties, the possible breakup of the “United” Kingdom and turmoil on financial markets. These, however, are distractions from two serious issues that go beyond the events in one European country and in the rarefied world of Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Infrastructure summit – reported highlights
Is there such a thing as bad or wasteful infrastructure or is it like motherhood, all noble and good? Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. High speed rail – where to? Competing with airlines or cars?
This article proposes a change in focus for the high speed rail debate. Rather than seeking to compete with airlines, rail should contribute to settlement that eases pressures on capital cities. This change of focus does not require ego stoking thousand kilometre distances at 350kph plus speeds, but trains for comfortable commuting between second tier Continue reading »
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GREG WOOD. FTA’s and Australian democracy and future governance.
Andrew Robb’s response to concerns that Australia’s recent spate of free trade agreements were being negotiated in secret was to claim that trade negotiations have always been conducted that way. That comment contains a splinter of truth but a plank of misinformation. Once, not lately, trade ministers routinely informed Parliament on Australia’s aims, progress, and Continue reading »
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LAURIE PATTON. Broadband: It’s buggered in the bush
Last week’s Broadband for the Bush conference held in the rarefied atmosphere of Brisbane’s State Library revealed just how disillusioned people living in rural, regional and remote Australia have become with the state of their telecommunications services. Chief among the concerns expressed by farmers, welfare agencies, government officials and Indigenous leaders was the limitations of Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. A Royal Commission into banking and the private health insurance industry.
In this election campaign the issue that triggered a double dissolution – restoration of the Australian Building and Construction Commission – has hardly scored a mention. That contrasts with the 1974 double dissolution election, called by the Whitlam Government in response to the Coalition’s use of its Senate power to thwart the government’s most important Continue reading »
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MARK GREGORY. Labor’s NBN plan shows it listened to critics of the current broadband rollout.
Labor’s broadband plan includes few surprises and fulfils Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s commitment to responsibly increase the construction of fibre to the premises (FTTP). At the same time, it would ensure the completion of the National Broadband Network (NBN) is not delayed further. It shifts the focus back to providing Australia with broadband infrastructure that Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. The difference in the economic policies of the major parties.
In the din of distractions about political trivia, many in the media have lost sight of, or fail to understand, fundamental differences in the economic policies of the two main parties. That is their approach to distribution, or redistribution. Although politicians may accuse one another of heartlessness or of ignoring the poor, almost all politicians Continue reading »
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FAZAL RIZVI. Migration Ain’t What It Used to Be
That Asian-Australians are making a substantial contribution to the Australian economy is a fact that can no longer be contested. This contribution is of enormous significance, especially as Australia seeks to become integrated into the regional economy. The issues of how this contribution might be mapped and enhanced are examined in a report released by Continue reading »
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PAUL BUDDE. The more fibre the better.
You can’t turn the clock back and in the case of the NBN that means you can’t undo those parts of the Multi-Technology-Mix (MtM) without immediately destructing billion of dollars. While it is a pity that the original plan – providing fibre-to-the-home to 93% of the population – can’t be continued the next best thing Continue reading »
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WARWICK ELSCHE. Shorten should play to Labor’s strength.
For more than 60 years, since opinion polling became important in shaping election strategies, there has been for the Australian Labor Party one awkward but stubborn consistency. Rightly or wrongly the Australian Electorate, with very isolated and brief exceptions, has always preferred and trusted the non Labor side of politics, the Liberal-National Party Coalition, Continue reading »
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PETER WHITEFORD. Where is social welfare in the election campaign.
The federal government’s largest single ticket spending item – welfare – has failed to rate a mention in the election campaign. It is the $152 billion elephant in the room. It accounts for around 35 per cent of total government spending. And it affects – in one way or another – most Australian adults’ Continue reading »
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ROD TUCKER. How do Labor and the Coalition differ on NBN policy?
As hinted in earlier announcements by Shadow Communications Minister, Jason Clare, Labor’s much-anticipated policy for the National Broadband Network released Monday commits the party – if elected – to move away from the Coalition’s fibre to the node (FTTN) network and transition back to a roll-out of fibre to the premises (FTTP). This was the Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Free Trade Agreements. The Abbott and Turnbull Governments were told but wouldn’t listen. They went further and attacked those who expressed concerns.
The ink was hardly dry on the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) before we learned about labour market exploitation under the agreement. Continue reading »
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PAUL BUDDE. Can we please cut out the political NBN noise?
With all the kafuffle around the NBN it is very difficult for most people to see the big picture in all of this. The issue has been so incredibly politicised that it is almost impossible to cut through all the noise. I will stick to what I believe is at the heart of the Continue reading »
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ANDREW LEIGH. Why the government’s company tax cut is a carnival sideshow.
In the 1890s, Texan cowboy Clark Stanley began marketing a new product at medicine shows. A man who could kill rattlesnakes with his bare hands, Stanley promised people that his rattlesnake extract would bring relief from rheumatism, sprains, swelling, back pain and toothache. It wasn’t until 1917 that Stanley’s operation was finally shut down, with Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN and LUKE FRASER. Urbane transport policy. Part 3 of 3
This article is the third in a series about transport. The first two dealt with topics raised by the Prime Minister; mass transit, 30-minute cities etc and noted some challenges for the Commonwealth.[i] Urbane Transport policy. Part 1 of 3 Urbane transport policy. Part 2 of 3 The articles draw on public information – Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. A jaded slogan: economic plan for jobs and growth.
Malcolm Turnbull’s supporters have been praising him for keeping on his message, which at least has the virtue of simplicity: my government has a national economic plan for jobs and growth. Beauty is truth, truth beauty, and this is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know, as John Keats more elegantly Continue reading »