Economy
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John Menadue. The squandered mining boom.
We are now paying a heavy price for our failure to manage the mining boom. The consequences are all too clear, particularly in the manufacturing sector. The mining boom drove up our exchange rate and wage costs. A Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) and the Resource Super Profits Tax (RSPT) would have minimised the problems. However, Continue reading »
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Mark Gregory. NBN – ageing copper network and structural separation.
The Australian telecommunication industry is in crisis and centre stage is an ageing copper network that some would have you believe is good for another hundred years and others argue it is time to move to an all fibre access network. But the problems extend far beyond copper versus fibre and go to the heart Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Cutting back government spending – does it include middle-class and corporate welfare?
Tony Abbott told his listeners recently at Davos that small government was the best form of government. The Minister for Health, Peter Dutton, has said that waste must be reduced in our health sector. The Minister for Social Services, Kevin Andrews, has told us that our welfare system is unsustainable and has appointed Patrick McClure Continue reading »
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Jennifer Doggett. Cutting waste and costs in health.
Cut expensive and low-value services: Health funding is not allocated to areas which deliver maximum output. We spend too much on expensive low-value services and not enough on preventive, high –value care. Recent research shows that a number of routine tests performed in the Australian health system do not improve clinical outcomes. These include x-rays for lower Continue reading »
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Ian Webster. Cutting waste and costs in health
Waste in health care conjures up several pictures. One picture is of community nurses, psychologists and Aboriginal health workers in the community centre I visit anchored to their computer screens, endlessly it seems, trying to fulfil the demands of data entry. They are obviously frustrated by the lack of relevance this has for solving the Continue reading »
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John Dwyer. Cutting waste and costs in health.
Tactics and strategies for a six year journey to sustainable, equitable excellence (1) Move to a single funder for our national health scheme (The Commonwealth). The funder would contract with States and other potential providers to deliver integrated patient focused care. The health bureaucracy would be reduced by 80% with greater efficiency, better outcomes Continue reading »
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Ian McAuley. Cutting waste and costs in health.
There are three areas of saving to be made in health care – real savings rather than movement of costs from public budgets to consumers. There can be savings in technical efficiency — savings any engineer or cost-conscious manager seeks in a workplace. A strong example is making better use of information technology. There can Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Our lack of business and political skills in Asia.
The Business Council of Australia and business executives keep reminding us of the need to increase our productivity by up-skilling and better use of our labour resources. Unfortunately the business sector is spectacularly lagging in equipping itself for opportunities in Asia. Last week The Australian Financial Review surveyed the schools and educational backgrounds of the Continue reading »
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The power of vested interests and why drugs cost so much in Australia. John Menadue
Why does the widely used cholesterol reducing drug Atorvastatin cost $A19 in Australia and $A2 for the same package in NZ? Why does the widely used cancer drug Anastrozole cost $A92 in Australia when the equivalent drug in the UK costs $A3.30. The answer is the political power of Medicines Australia and how it twists Continue reading »
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Is Pope Francis a Marxist?
On 16 December last year, Eureka Street carried an article by Neil Ormerod about Pope Francis and his economic, social and political message. That article can be found on the link below. John Menadue http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=38645#.Us8a9j0XBt8.email Continue reading »
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A 100 billion dollar tale of piracy in the Timor Sea. Michael Sainsbury
Although it sits on a vast undersea gas reserve, Timor-Leste remains deeply impoverished. Deep under the Timor Sea, there is a huge reserve of gas. Geologists now believe it is worth upwards of US$100 billion; a figure more than twice the amount estimated by Australia as recently as 2006. It is perhaps ironic that the Continue reading »
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The mooted $6 fee for GP visits trivialises the problem. Guest blogger: John Dwyer
There is a lot that is disturbing about the federal government’s flirtation with a $6 co-payment for a service from a GP. Most commentators have rejected this approach as poor public policy as it will act as a deterrent for poorer Australians to seek the care they need to provide paltry savings in a 120 Continue reading »
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More on pink batts. Guest blogger: Dr Michael Keating
I would like to add a further comment to your post on 3 January on the Pink Batts. First, I would further contest the evidence that this scheme was poorly conceived and badly implemented. On this point it should be noted that the Auditor General’s finding that 29 per cent of 13808 completed jobs had Continue reading »
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Repost: We all see our doctor too much; and it’s not just the aged. John Menadue
The media have been discussing a proposal to impose a $5 or $6 levy for GP visits. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of times we each see our GP. It needs addressing, but not with a simplistic GP levy. See also piece below by Ian McAuley. Following the Grattan Institute’s recent Continue reading »
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Repost: The Asian Century and the Australian Smoko. John Menadue and Greg Dodds
The Asian Century and the Australian Smoko was first published in April 2012. This repost might be interesting holiday reading. The Gillard Government has commissioned Ken Henry to report on Australia and the Asian Century. Our trade with China, Japan, India and other Asian countries is booming. Our luck is still holding. But our key Continue reading »
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Is trench warfare the answer? John Menadue
Sensing concern about the government’s performance in the first 100 days, Tony Abbott reportedly told the Liberal Party caucus to ‘prepare for trench warfare’ when parliament resumes in 2014. I would have thought that the last thing that Australia needs is for the government to embark on trench warfare. I sense that the public is Continue reading »
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Budget deficits – how did they happen and what can be done. John Menadue
The government is announcing today an update of this year’s budget. This is the government’s first major economic statement since the election. It will focus particularly on the budget deficit. It will attempt to blame the previous government as much as possible. I addressed this issue of the budget deficit and how it has come Continue reading »
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Well-paid jobs or welfare? John Menadue
The Abbott Government’s confusion over Holden’s withdrawal from Australia reflects a much deeper hostility to the car industry. The main reason for this is that the car industry is highly unionised, pays good wages and has a high degree of alignment of interests between labour and capital. The right-wing finds that all quite offensive. Yet Continue reading »
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The Holden mess gets worse. John Menadue
Yesterday I posted a blog ‘Taunting Holden to Leave’. Let me add to the continuing story of this major stuff-up. The Abbott Government, through Industry Minister Macfarlane asked the Productivity Commission to advise on assistance to the car industry. He asked for a report by March next year. On Monday this week, Minister Macfarlane was Continue reading »
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Taunting Holden to leave. John Menadue
It has been quite remarkable to see Joe Hockey daring and taunting Holden to close. He apparently chose to take advantage of Tony Abbott’s absence in South Africa to show off his “dry” credentials and burnish his leadership aspirations. Having lost the argument over Graincorp, Joe Hockey talked tough on Holden. He dared Holden to Continue reading »
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Does Tony Abbott believe in markets? John Menadue
We are already seeing a division opening up in the Abbott Government between ‘wets’ and ‘dries’ and a lot of confusion. The Liberal Party and conservatives generally espouse the value of markets – that governments should not interfere unless there is clear market failure or overwhelming reasons of public interest. This belief in markets is Continue reading »
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The cost of healthcare in Australia and remuneration of doctors. Guest blogger: Professor Kerry Goulston
The cost of healthcare is unsustainable here and in many other countries. In Australia it is 9.5% of GDP, estimated to rise to 16-25% by 2025. There are obvious reasons for this—population ageing, end of life heroics, increased technology and increased use of procedures. A rapidly increasing contributor to the cost of healthcare in Australia comes from Continue reading »
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Tony Abbott and his very close confidante, Mark Textor. John Menadue
To refuse to apologise to President Yudhoyono would be entirely consistent with the type of advice that Mark Textor has given to a succession of Liberal leaders in Australia, including Tony Abbott. In his texting Mark Textor has made the point, according to Laurie Tingle in the AFR today “that (Australian) voters don’t give rats Continue reading »
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A mega industry subsidy to private health insurance companies. John Menadue
Many business economists continue to criticise the previous government and possibly the current one over the government subsidy of $10 billion over seven years for the auto industry. But that subsidy is small beer. The government subsidy to the private health insurance industry (PHI) has been $30 billion plus, over seven years. This year Continue reading »
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Cooking the books. John Menadue
Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey have decided that there wasn’t really a budget emergency or a debt crisis that they have warned us about for many years. Perhaps they may have also privately conceded, as they should, that the Australian economy was one of the best performing and best managed economies in the world during Continue reading »
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Lagging the field on climate change. John Menadue
Across the world there are clear signs that the tide is turning with acceptance of the reality of climate change, that humans are the cause and that we need to address the problem. But not in Australia. We keep acting like King Canute against the tide. The Abbott Government is proposing to abolish the carbon Continue reading »
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Honest Joe Hockey. John Menadue
At the G20 Summit in Washington a week ago Joe Hockey said ‘People find it refreshing to hear that Aussie honesty’. It is nice to think that other people see us that way but I wonder what Treasurers at the G20 would make of it if they had been listening to what Joe Hockey had Continue reading »
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What’s in it for me? John Menadue
Last year in London Joe Hockey said that we had to break free of our culture of entitlement. He said. “The problem arises…when there is a belief that one person has a right to a good or service that someone else will pay for. It is this sense of entitlement that affects not just individuals Continue reading »
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Is it class warfare or an appeal for fairness? John Menadue
It depends on your point of view. Conservatives and the wealthy often see attacks on their privileged position as class war. Others see it as the pursuit of justice and fairness. Let’s look at some who have recently spoken about class warfare. Andrew Forrest said that the Mining Super Profits Tax was class warfare. Christopher Continue reading »
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Julie Bishop fails Economics I. Guest blogger Ian McAuley
In justifying the Coalition’s cuts in foreign aid, Julie Bishop said that borrowing from overseas only to hand it back overseas was unsustainable in light of our mounting debt. That statement has glib appeal, but it’s a serious misrepresentation. For a start the Government does not borrow from overseas. Rather, almost all the Commonwealth’s revenue Continue reading »
