SERIES: Freedom, opportunity and security
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GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. The ASEAN Summit in Sydney this weekend.
The meeting this weekend will highlight for Australia the importance of our relations with regional countries. It will also highlight the importance of our relationship with the US and China, and how that rivalry can best be managed in association with regional countries. As background to this weekend’s Summit meeting, I provide links to five Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Democratic Renewal; Vested interests and the subversion of the public interest?
This is a repost from May 13, 2015. There are many key public issues that we must address such as climate change, growing inequality, tax avoidance, budget repair, an ageing population, lifting our productivity and our treatment of asylum seekers. But our capacity to address these and other important issues is becoming very difficult because Continue reading »
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Christmas gift idea – Pearls and Irritations in print
Orders are now open for Fairness, Opportunity and Security: Filling the Policy Vacuum, edited by John Menadue and Michael Keating, and published by ATF Press. The book is a collection of the special policy series of blogs that was published earlier this year. At last week’s launch, Fairfax economics columnist Ross Gittins said of series: 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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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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Next week’s launch of the Blog’s book ‘Fairness, Opportunity and Security’
You are invited to the launch of Fairness, Opportunity and Security: Filling the Policy Vacuum, edited by John Menadue and Michael Keating, and published by ATF Press. The book is a collection of the special policy series of blogs that was published earlier this year. Topics include Democratic Renewal, the Role of Government, Foreign Policy, Continue reading »
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Pearls and Irritations Policy Series
Link to Fairness, Opportunity and Security. Policy Series edited by Michael Keating and John Menadue. https://johnmenadue.com/blog/?p=3719 Continue reading »
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David Charles. Innovation in Australia.
Policy Series. Australia is currently facing a challenging situation in which the economy needs to transform from one very largely driven by investments in the minerals and energy sector to one which has a wider spread of investment drivers. The overall economic growth rate, while still reasonably strong by OECD standards, is below the long Continue reading »
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Michael Wesley. The Dangerous Politics of National Security.
Policy Series In January 2013, as she launched her government’s National Security Strategy, then Prime Minister Julia Gillard proclaimed that Australia’s decade of terrorism was over. Her argument was that al Qaeda had failed to regenerate after being degraded in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and that there were other more conventional security Continue reading »
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Andrew Podger. Australia’s ‘welfare system’: Family assistance and tax elements.
Policy Series While it is important to consider our tax and transfer arrangements as a single integrated system, there are various (overlapping) parts to it: retirement incomes (including superannuation tax arrangements and the age pension), the core welfare system (pensions and benefits for people not able or not expected to work, including the aged, disabled Continue reading »
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Andrew Podger and Peter Whiteford. Inequality and Australia’s Welfare System
Policy Series Inequality is a complex issue. It is affected by many factors, so that it can increase as a result of beneficial changes as well as socially undesirable ones, and can decrease because of changes that reduce overall social wellbeing as well as a result of socially desirable changes. A particular level of inequality Continue reading »
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Ian McAuley. Inequality matters
Policy Series Australia has a reputation for egalitarianism, as a country where, in comparison with Old World countries, wages were good and, to quote Lawson, where people “call no reason to call no biped lord or sir”. Up to around 1980, Australia’s distribution of income was becoming more equal, but since then inequality has been Continue reading »
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Michael Gracey . What’s needed to fix aboriginal health?
Policy Series By most of the usually accepted markers the health of Australia’s indigenous people compares unfavourably with that of other Australians. This has been known for decades and numerous strategies and programs have been developed to correct this inequity. Despite the best of intentions and expenditure of billions of taxpayers’ dollars over the past Continue reading »
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Fred Chaney. The challenge of providing fairness, opportunity and security for Indigenous Australians.
Policy Series It is unlikely that at any time since 1788 a sample of Indigenous Australians would agree they have enjoyed fairness opportunity and security. It is similarly unlikely that any Minister responsible for Indigenous Affairs, past or present, would claim as much progress in achieving those objectives as hoped for. The now obligatory annual Continue reading »
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Peter Hughes. The War on Australian Citizenship
Current Affairs It’s hard to be sure when the “War on Terror” became the war on Australian citizenship. I think it started in March 2014 when the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor was persuaded to recommend in his report[1] that the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection be given the power to revoke the Australian Continue reading »
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Brendan Mackey. Green vision for a brown country
Policy Series Introduction Like we do in many areas, such as sport and financial services, Australian conservation punches above its weight in the international arena. Australia is signatory to all major multilateral environmental agreements including the Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, we have environmental law in all three Continue reading »
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Jon Stanford. Policy Approach to Climate Change
Policy Series Given that the substantial threat brought about by anthropogenic climate change has been recognised for a quarter of a century, it is remarkable that global policy makers have been so dilatory in responding to it. Voluminous scientific and economic studies have been produced, Ministers have met annually to discuss and negotiate a global Continue reading »
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Peter Cosier. A Healthy Environment and a Productive Economy
Policy Series Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists[*] When faced with significant environmental challenges in the past, Australian governments, businesses, communities and individuals have shown their capacity for responding creatively and energetically to environmental challenges, with positive outcomes for the health of the environment and economic productivity. While there are thousands of examples across Australia every Continue reading »
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Ross Garnaut. Australian Climate Change Policy
Policy Series I once called climate change policy diabolical, but with a saving grace (Garnaut 2008). It is diabolical because of the overlapping of four complex issues. While there is high scientific confidence that human action causes warming and that, beyond some limit, warming damages many aspects of human life, perhaps catastrophically, there is uncertainty Continue reading »
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Chris Bonnor. Eroding human capital in our schools
Policy Series There are a number of givens about schools and their students. Both are critical to economy and society. The level of collective student achievement can create future dividends – or deficits. The quality of school education not only matters but the extent to which this quality is distributed around schools also matters. Even Continue reading »
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Glenn Withers. A Smarter Australia
Policy Series Knowledge capital is the real wealth of nations. If you stop to think about it, what matters more for opportunity, fairness and security than the skills, talents and ideas of the people? Yes, other things matter, but in the long haul they are way back in second place. And, yes, we do a Continue reading »
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Pearls and Irritations – Policy Series and Current Affairs.
Fairness, Opportunity and Security. Policy Series edited by Michael Keating and John Menadue. With many other people, we are concerned about the policy vacuum and the poor level of public debate on important policy issues. We began a series of articles on policy issues in Pearls and Irritations on 11 May. They have now all been posted. There Continue reading »
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Jennifer Doggett. Co-payments in the Australian Health System
Policy Series. The growing problem of out-of-pocket health care costs in health care is undermining the benefits of Medicare and creating a barrier to increasing fairness, opportunity and security throughout our health system. Out-of-pocket costs are the direct payments made by consumers for their health care which are not subsidized by any form of public Continue reading »
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Australia’s Health Workforce – what needs to be done.
Policy Series. With a federal election due in 13 months and the Coalition Government not travelling well enough to be confident of re-election, what should an incoming Health Minister focus on to ensure we have a highly skilled, professional and sustainable health workforce to care for the nation’s future health needs? The answer is simple. Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Health Policy Reform: Part 3 – Principles for reform
Policy Series In Part 1 of this series I described the areas in our health sector that need reform. In Part 2 I spoke of the obstacles, particularly those imposed by vested interests in the health sector to protect their own interests by delaying or stopping reform. In this article, I will be suggesting ways Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Health Policy Reform: Part 2 – Why reform is difficult. Health ministers are in office but not in power.
Policy Series. In Part 1 on health policy reform I outlined the main areas where health reform is necessary. In Part 2 I examine the reasons why I think health reform is so hard. In part 3 I will consider ways in which the necessary path of health reform can be quickened. The major barrier Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Health Policy Reform: Part 1 – Why reform is needed
Policy Series I will be posting three articles on health policy. This article outlines the priority areas where reform is necessary. Part 2 will explain why reform is so difficult but not impossible. Part 3 will be about processes and governance issues that are necessary to move us beyond the present inertia, incrementalism and tinkering, Continue reading »
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Spencer Zifcak. Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights.
Fairness, Opportunity and Security. Policy series edited by Michael Keating and John Menadue. Do Human Rights Fit or Should We Just Forget About Them? Hard upon the ascent of violent terrorism in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere, and Australia’s first experience of terrorist crime in Martin Place, the Australian Government has been active in Continue reading »
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Rob Nicholls. NBN
Fairness, Opportunity and Security Policy series edited by Michael Keating and John Menadue. The policy rationale behind a national broadband network would appear to be a simple one. The objective would be to part subsidise the construction of a national network that ensures two policy elements would be achieved. The first is a broadband infrastructure Continue reading »
