Economy
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John Menadue. Rent-seekers in the motor industry.
We see it almost every day in the media; rent-seekers extracting benefits for themselves through political influence and lobbying at the expense of a broader community. It has very little to do with markets. It is about political favours for the powerful. We have just learned that the Australian Motor Industry Federation and the Federal Continue reading »
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Rod Tucker. What will the NBN really cost?
Cost is a central issue in the ongoing debate about the best approach to building Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN). In 2013, the Coalition argued that Labor’s original all-fibre to the premises (FTTP) network could cost as much as A$94 billion. In the 2016 NBN Corporate plan the figure was revised down to A$74 billion Continue reading »
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Luke Fraser. What the Australian Treasurer can do for roads.
or – How to stop pissing taxpayer money up against the wall! Australia’s Treasurer Scott Morrison has signalled his reform priority: “I’m interested in talking to people who have ideas how we can get spending under control. We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.” There is plenty of money to be saved Continue reading »
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Travers McLeod. Unusual suspects challenging usual thinking on climate change.
“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Twenty years ago Kevin Spacey uttered this famous line about his alter ego, Keyser Söz, in The Usual Suspects. Keyser Söz isn’t climate change, but he might as well be. Since the film was released an inordinate amount of money has Continue reading »
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John Thompson. The costly abolition of Medicare Locals
Despite promising to keep Medicare Locals, the Abbott government abolished the fledgling organisations after it took office. Even when it had no clear policies or plans to replace them, the Abbott government seemed determined to undo many of the initiatives of the previous Labor government. This was certainly the case in relation to primary health Continue reading »
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Rob Nicholls. Ziggy’s stardust: The NBN, net neutrality and competitive neutrality
The sound of an incumbent lobbying has the grating element of petulant mewling. When the incumbent is a state owned enterprise that is evoking arguments about net neutrality, then it’s time to ask the “cui bono?” or “to whose profit?” question. After all, the term “network neutrality” can be best summed up as a line Continue reading »
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An Open Letter to the Minister for Health concerning Private Health Insurance.
19 November 2015 Hon Sussan Ley M.P., Minister for Health, Parliament House, ACT 2600 Dear Minister (I have signed this letter on my behalf and also on behalf of the people listed below. I will be posting this ‘open letter’ on my blog early next week.) We are pleased to see that you are canvassing Continue reading »
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Royal Commissions for some.
The Abbott government established a Royal Commission to harass trade unions and in the process to damage the ALP. But what we are hearing in this Royal Commission is really small beer by some union hacks. It is small scale compared with the massive tax avoidance by multinational companies in Australia that is being revealed. Continue reading »
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Lesley Russell Too high: the impact of specialists’ fees on patients’ health
In today’s health care debates around the centrality of primary care, moving towards patient-centred medical homes, improving care coordination for people with chronic illnesses and whether private health insurance provides value for money, there is one element that is almost always missing – the role and the costs of specialist services. In 2014 over 28 Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Why Cayman Islands?
I must confess I was surprised to learn that Malcolm Turnbull uses a hedge fund domiciled in the Cayman Islands. The story has come and gone without much examination. Conflicts of interest In the SMH of 24/25 October 2015, the veteran journalist Alan Ramsey highlighted what Malcolm Turnbull told the parliament about his hedge fund Continue reading »
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Jon Stanford. The Pathway to Two Degrees: Should we ban New Coal Mines?
Leading up to this month’s major climate change conference in Paris, there has been a welcome increase worldwide in the commitment to address climate change generally and, in particular, to restrict global warming to two degrees Celsius. Although they are still insufficient to meet the two degree target, the initial national commitments to be taken Continue reading »
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Greg Smith- Tax Reform and Change Leadership
If we look at the tax reforms of the past we can observe a few clear problems that are accumulating from design compromises. We replaced narrow indirect taxes with a broader GST, but the GST base is narrower than consumption and the trend over the past 15 years is for a relative decline in GST Continue reading »
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Ian Richards. Australia’s new submarine.
Jon Stanford’s article ‘Australia’s new submarine: what is its mission?’ is spot on. The trouble with Defence planning and White Papers is that they all start off with what in my early days in the Navy was called a “Staff Requirement”. This thing, this equipment or ship is what we “require”. The first chapter of Continue reading »
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Ian Marsh. Will privatised schools and hospital drive public sector efficiency?
One of the first substantive announcements of Treasurer Scott Morrison concerned the privatisation of schools, hospitals and community services that are provided by State governments. He enthusiastically endorsed this 2012 Commission of Audit recommendation: ‘Given the size of the human services sector (which is set to increase further as Australia’s population ages), even small improvements Continue reading »
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Malcolm Turnbull’s NBN is off the rails.
Paul Budde comments in his BuddeBlog on 6 November 2015 ‘If you abandon national FttH (fibre to the home) you also undermine the infrastructure required by the new economy. … The MTM [multi technology mix] leads to the Balkanisation of infrastructure in Australia and will favour companies such as Telstra and TPG. … The NBN Co Continue reading »
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John Taylor. Investing in Hedge Funds in Tax Havens: Legal? Ethical?
If the aim of Labor’s attack on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife Lucy for using hedge funds domiciled in the Cayman Islands was to damage his credibility with the public, it appears to have missed the political mark. This article considers whether investing in hedge funds in tax havens is both legal and Continue reading »
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Bob Kinnaird. The high price of Labor’s capitulation on ChAFTA
Labor’s capitulation in supporting the treaty-status ChAFTA has profound ramifications that go far beyond the China deal. Labor’s support for ChAFTA has all but guaranteed the permanent surrender of Australian sovereignty over key parts of our migration program and laws, and the permanent loss of rights of Australian citizens and permanent residents to jobs in Continue reading »
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Ross Gittins. Launch of book by Menadue and Keating.
Sydney, Thursday, November 5, 2015 Paul Samuelson, the famous American economist, is said to have remarked that the stockmarket has predicted nine of the past five recessions. I thought of that this week and decided the Canberra press gallery could top it: the gallery has predicted nine of the past two early elections. They Continue reading »
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Allan Patience. Now is the Time for All Good Men and Women to Come to the Aid of the Party
Richard Di Natale has called on the Greens to get ready for government. Well and good. The direction in which he is prodding his party is a rare glimmer of hope in an otherwise bleak Australian political landscape. Whether in a coalition (likely with Labor), or in its own right (unlikely), what sort of public Continue reading »
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Climate, Economy, Health, Human Rights, Immigration, refugees, Infrastructure, Media, SERIES: Freedom, opportunity and security, World Affairs
Michael Keating. The role of government in policy renewal.
In thanking Ross Gittins for launching ‘Freedom, Opportunity and Security’, Mike Keating explains the reasons why he and I decided to launch this series, first online and now in a book. Mike Keating’s book launch notes follow. I will also be posting Ross Gittins’ comments. John Menadue. Thank you Ross Gittins and thanks to you all Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The new squatters are taking over more public land.
On a wide front developers and other commercial interests are moving into our public parks, gardens and beaches. They are our new squatters and the community is feeling powerless in the face of this invasion. In earlier blogs I outlined the historic encroachment of private interests on our ‘public commons’ – the land and facilities Continue reading »
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Quigley, former CEO of NBN, attributes $15 b. cost blow out to Turnbull’s Multi Technology Mix.
For comment by Renai LeMay, see link to his blog delimiter.com.au below: https://delimiter.com.au/2015/11/05/quigley-releases-detailed-evidence-showing-mtm-nbn-cost-blowout/ John Menadue. Continue reading »
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Steve Hatfield-Dodds. Australians can be sustainable without sacrificing lifestyle or economy.
A sustainable Australia is possible – but we have to choose it. That’s the finding of a paperpublished today in Nature. The paper is the result of a larger project to deliver the first Australian National Outlook report, more than two years in the making, which CSIRO is also releasing today. As part of this Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The unfairness and waste in health. Private Health Insurance is the real culprit.
Medibank Pte has been in dispute with the Calvary Hospital Group and now with UnitingCare over performance in their hospitals. At last our largest private health insurance company, MBP has come to understand that the private providers, hospitals and doctors, are really in control. These private providers determine the quality of care and its cost. Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Malcolm Turnbull and the NBN mess
As Minister for Communications Malcolm Turnbull had two major responsibilities. They were the public broadcasters, ABC and SBS, and the NBN. As I pointed out in an earlier post, the ABC needs rebuilding after the harsh budget cuts and termination of the Australian Network contract while Malcolm Turnbull was the minister. The plight of the Continue reading »
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Mark Gregory. The new PM and the NBN. ‘An expensive lemon’
The National Broadband Network (NBN) is now delayed by between five and ten years and will cost significantly more over a 20 year lifetime due to the government’s decision to shift from a Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) fixed access network to the Multi-Technology Mix (MTM) approach that includes Fibre to the Node (FTTN) and Continue reading »
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Michael Keating. The Turnbull Government’s Response to the Financial System Inquiry
The Government has adopted 43 of the 44 recommendations of the Financial System Inquiry (FSI). These recommendations had received wide support, and as I said in an earlier blog (21 January), ‘they should be relatively easy for the Government to adopt’. Indeed, the surprise would have been if the Government had not been supportive (whoever Continue reading »
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Chris Bonnor. Educational opportunity in Australia.
Educational opportunity in Australia – who succeeds and who misses out? This critical question about our schools is the title of a new report commissioned by the Mitchell Institute. It is a thorough, timely and outstanding contribution to our understanding of disadvantage in schooling. The report, produced by Victoria University’s Centre for International Research Continue reading »
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Marie Coleman. The FTB cuts have been softened, but they’re still a con
The Turnbull Government might be trying to scale back the size of its planned Family Tax Benefit cuts, but the fact is they still hit the poor hardest and ask them to foot the budget repair bill, writes Marie Coleman. After a year of the Senate blocking its radical changes to parental benefits, the Government Continue reading »
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Robert Brown Two concerns about the government’s response to the financial system inquiry.
It’s been a big week for the Australian financial services industry. Firstly, there was the unusual decision by the big banks to raise mortgage interest rates in an economic environment which would normally result in no change or even a drop in rates, claiming with some justification that new capital adequacy requirements ‘forced’ them to Continue reading »