Public Policy
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Ken Henry on our intergenerational obligations – Weekly Roundup
At our present rate we won’t make our 2030 emissions reduction target; Opinion polls are still weak for the Coalition; and Ken Henry on our intergenerational obligations. Read on for the Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy. Continue reading »
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Reconstructing Australia’s economy from the wreckage left by the Coalition – Weekly Roundup
Beyond rent controls: can we have a market where tenants are treated with respect?; Reconstructing Australia’s economy from the wreckage left by the Coalition; and, Vale Mary-Louise McLaws, a voice of reason when reason was in short supply. Read on for the Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current Continue reading »
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Environment: Biodiversity is decreasing but damaged ecosystems can be restored
Agricultural intensification is killing European birds. Europeans are killing Australia’s native rodents. Getting rid of invasive species and reintroducing native species can re-establish natural ecosystems. Continue reading »
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Dutton leading the Liberal Party to pyrrhic victory: Weekly Roundup
Dutton may be leading the Liberal Party to a pyrrhic victory; Our future manufacturing sector – dispel Holdens and Bonds underwear from your mind; and how the “small government” idea is stifling the nation. Read on for our Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues Continue reading »
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Surely Albanese isn’t crazy enough to call a double-dissolution: Weekly Roundup
The RBA holds interest rates; Pollsters stunned to learn that most Aboriginal Australians support the Voice; and Surely Albanese isn’t crazy enough to call a double-dissolution. Read on for the Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy. Continue reading »
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Environment: Palaszczuk – mining coal is good for your health
The Queensland government is vigorously promoting coal’s social licence. Heat waves are clearly linked to global warming. The war in Ukraine is destroying the environment as well as people. Continue reading »
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The RBA is transferring wealth to baby boomers: Weekly Roundup
The Reserve Bank is transferring wealth from working Australians to retired baby boomers; Liddell Power Station has closed; and, apart from Sussan Ley, who wants the Commonwealth Games? Read on for the Weekly roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy. Continue reading »
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Unemployment kills Australians: Weekly roundup
The Voice “Yes” campaign is actually supported by parliamentarians from all main parties; Unemployment kills Australians; The Fadden by-election – no winners, but a strange electorate. Read on for the Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy. Continue reading »
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50 years of Civil Celebrants in Australia
On July 19, 2023, Australia celebrated the 50th anniversary of civil celebrancy. In her captivating book on Lionel Murphy’s life, Dr. Jennifer Hocking recounts how Murphy, almost single-handedly, persisted for several years to achieve the groundbreaking reform of no-fault divorce. It was an arduous and contentious struggle. As a corollary to no-fault divorce Murphy was Continue reading »
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Worldwide, workers’ rights are taking a battering – Weekly Roundup
The Public service grapples with Commissioner Holmes’ Robodebt report; Capitalism is at war with democracy; and why are our hospitals overstressed? Read on for the Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy. Continue reading »
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Weekly Roundup: Linda Burney asks us to take the next step in reconciliation
Alan Finkel guides us on our national path to green energy; Linda Burney asks us to take the next step in reconciliation; and an introduction to our newly-minted National Anti-Corruption Commission. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy. Continue reading »
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Weekly Roundup: $1 too much for PwC’s government consultancy business?
CPI data shows that Australia has gone from inflation to deflation; We’re not allowing immigrants to put their skills to best use; and, was $1 too much to pay for PwC’s government consultancy business? Read on for the Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues Continue reading »
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Who are our Ministers meeting with? We deserve to know
The public deserves to know who our Ministers are meeting with. Continue reading »
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Weekly Roundup: Signs of an impending recession
Reforming political donations – will Labor and the Coalition do a sweetheart deal to thwart independents?; Ten questions about the Voice answered; and Signs of an impending recession. Read on for the Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy. Continue reading »
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Gambling and tobacco a tale of two ‘poisons’. The lessons we must learn to tame ‘big gambling’
Gambling is normalised and celebrated which has led to the highest levels of gambling losses per capita in the world – 40 per cent higher for poker machines and 20 per cent higher for online gambling – well ahead of any other country. Continue reading »
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Weekly Roundup: It’s corporate power, not wages, driving inflation
Another 60,000 houses needed; It’s corporate power, not wages, driving inflation; and, Why would anyone want to migrate to Australia? Read on for the Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy. Continue reading »
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Are human rights abuses of the Chinese judicial system worse than that of the land of the free? A difficult call
Doing the rounds on YouTube is the case of a black American Tyshon Booker arrested when he was 16 for being present (with a gun) at a murder which he did not commit (the murderer confessed). He was given a 51 year minimum sentence. This case is, of course, is only the disgraceful tip of Continue reading »
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The Reserve Bank still hasn’t damaged the economy enough: Weekly Roundup
The Reserve Bank still hasn’t damaged the economy enough; The Ben Roberts-Smith case is about more than one person’s behaviour; and how South Australia has borrowed Putin’s laws on political protests. Read on for the Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy. Continue reading »
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The politics of inclusion and division – Weekly roundup
Inflation is coming down quickly; Prime Minister Albanese appeals to our best selves on the Voice; and Chinese-Australians – a quiet immigration success. Read on for the Weekly Roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy. Continue reading »
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Albo comes out as a Burkean conservative: The Weekly Roundup
Stan Grant’s ordeal; The public service has been enfeebled by Coalition governments; and Albo comes out as a Burkean conservative. Read on for the Weekly roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy. Continue reading »
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The despotism of Mike Pezzullo
Journalists from The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and Sixty Minutes have at last exposed the efforts by Mike Pezzullo, Secretary of Home Affairs, to influence government in favour of conservative politicians and by insisting that press freedom be stifled. Continue reading »
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What the forthcoming migration strategy won’t address
The Government has foreshadowed that it will soon release its new migration strategy. Most of what has been leaked to date is sensible fine tuning of employer sponsored visas which will have little impact on net migration levels. But I fear the migration strategy will be largely silent on the big issue of net migration Continue reading »
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The Voice reveals the urgent need for truth reforms
The knowledge that the official AEC Yes and No campaign pamphlet sent to every home in Australia was not obliged to be factual is shocking. Continue reading »
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The Constitution, sovereignty and The Voice
One question relating to the upcoming referendum on ‘The Voice’ that has recently come to prominence concerns the question of sovereignty. Who or what is ‘sovereign’ as the term is applied to the governance of Australia? Is there any such thing as Indigenous sovereignty? Might it be said that in Australia sovereignty is or could Continue reading »
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Amidst the shattered remnants of an impartial public service
Will the Mike Pezzullo case be a line in the sand? Continue reading »
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Karla Grant explores Norway’s 34-year Indigenous Voice to Parliament
As Australia nears its referendum, Karla Grant takes a closer look at Norway’s Voice To Parliament. Continue reading »
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Leadership from Paul Keating on recognition of Aboriginal dispossession -1992
“Nowhere in the world, I would venture, is the message more stark than it is in Australia. We simply cannot sweep injustice aside. … the starting point might be to recognise that the problem starts with us non-Aboriginal Australians. It begins, I think, with that act of recognition. … Down the years, there has been Continue reading »
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Let’s avoid more Covid disasters. The public already knows who to blame
During Australia’s Covid-19 pandemic response, some companies received billions in contracts made without tender, sometimes by ministerial intervention. It would be too much, of course, to hope that anything the inquiry into the pandemic response does to address this issue will be taken up with any enthusiasm by the Albanese government. It seems to have Continue reading »
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Federal Court weighs antisemitism and free speech in Australian schools
The recently concluded Federal Court case brought against Brighton Secondary College in Victoria, resulting in a distressing confirmation of antisemitism during 2013-2020 is a case study in institutional bias against members of a minority group. Continue reading »
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Why Rupert Murdoch came to New York
With the announcement that Rupert Murdoch is stepping down from the board of FoxNews and Newscorp, I thought was it an apt moment to reprint one of the most detailed portraits ever written of the press mogul: Alexander Cockburn’s 1976 profile and interview with Murdoch published in the Village Voice in 1976, shortly after Murdoch had acquired Continue reading »
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Anti-China rhetoric threatens thriving technology partnerships with China
Australia’s existing relationships and collaborations with China give Australian Industry and consumers a head start in the cost-effective use of some of the most important technologies of the future, including those vital to achieving net zero emissions. Most countries would give anything to be at the forefront of such developments, but Australian University researchers are Continue reading »
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Health impacts of sanctions deleted from UN declaration on universal health coverage (with Australian support)
In the lead up to the high-level UN meeting on universal health coverage (UHC) Australia has joined the US, UK and the EU in blocking any acknowledgement that ‘unilateral coercive measures’ (sanctions) can have negative impacts on the achievement of universal health coverage. Continue reading »
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Environment: Rich countries must do more to advance Africa’s economic and climate transition
African leaders and communities call for action to tackle the social and economic damage done by climate change. Warmer oceans lead to warmer conditions over land. UNESCO still looking for more government action to protect the Great Barrier Reef. Continue reading »
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In the chorus of Yes, why aren’t the bishops joining in?
The official position of the church on the Voice referendum is curious, because, despite overwhelming support for a YES vote from an extraordinary range of Catholic agencies, religious orders and congregations, and voluntary Catholic organisations, the highest national church authority, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, has not followed suit. This is surprising because the whole Continue reading »
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Murdoch stepping down – Don’t believe it!
Rupert Murdoch is addicted to media and politics. He will be continually looking over Lachlan’s shoulder. Continue reading »
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The mass-media memory hole: Ukraine, Libya and war crimes
A key function of state-corporate media is to keep the public pacified, ignorant and ill-equipped to disrupt establishment power. Continue reading »
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Freedom of the press barons?
The ‘disinformation’ (read: lies and bullshit) being propagated about the indigenous Voice to Parliament by the Murdoch media, among others, harms our society. It promotes division, celebrates and cultivates ignorance and bigotry, oppresses a minority and diminishes us all. Why do we tolerate such behaviour? Continue reading »
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Trudeau ruins India’s global triumph – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Canada, India tensions have sorry history. Plus: BRI shows most countries shun ‘decoupling’; Myanmar rebels ‘will never give up’; China to dominate green car market; Putin and Kim lead ‘axis of outcasts’; China decline the fashionable chatter in Washington. Continue reading »
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The Great Australian Silence
Voice proponents flood the streets of major cities as Australian media battles its ‘cult of forgetfulness.’ Continue reading »
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Humanitarian imperialism created the Libyan nightmare
NATO’s military intervention in Libya in 2011, which overthrew the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, resulted in a chaotic and murderous failed state. Libyans pay a horrific price for this catastrophe. Continue reading »
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Rights are necessary but insufficient for the achievement of the full inclusion of people with disabilities
Two significant reports concerning people with disabilities are due be released. First will be the Independent Review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and second, the findings of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. Underpinning both inquiries is Australia’s commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights Continue reading »
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Conjuring up panic about teaching reading
Magicians regularly use distraction to trick us into perceiving one thing while another is happening. Politicians use similar tricks to signal concern about public policy problems. Recently there has been an organised campaign to get us to believe that NAPLAN literacy results can all be explained by differences in the methods used to teach reading. Continue reading »
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War profiteers are a sign of a profoundly sick society
“War is good for business.” So reads a quote from an arms industry executive in a recent Reuters article titled “At London arms fair, global war fears are good for business” about Europe’s biggest arms show, the biennial Defence and Security Equipment International. You will probably be unsurprised to learn that Reuters does not name Continue reading »
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There is more to the Xinjiang story than meets Western media eyes
According to independent observers who visited the region, Beijing has implemented policies to help Uygurs after crushing terrorist threat. Continue reading »
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Shadow boxing in the Universal Health Coverage debate
Shadow boxing around “universal health coverage” instead of “universal access to healthcare” in the UN General Assembly reflects deeper tensions around the direction of the world economy. Continue reading »
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Remember Brexit? Australians will regret voting No on the Indigenous Voice
Australians have been able to witness the voter remorse that can arise when a nation votes on a specific question of policy in a referendum that has the potential to set their country on a new course. Referendum questions with that level of significance don’t come along very often for democratic nations but when they Continue reading »
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64 Australian parliamentarians endorse diplomatic trip to free Assange
We believe the right and best course of action would be for the United States’ Department of Justice to cease its pursuit and prosecution of Julian Assange.” Continue reading »
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Assimilation re-emerges
In her recent address to the National Press Club, Jacinta Price resuscitated the seventy years old policy of assimilation constructed by Minister for Territories Paul Hasluck. Continue reading »
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Singapore censors ANU’s East Asia Forum website
Growing touchiness as scandals mount. Continue reading »
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Asylum seekers from Pacific Island Nations
In August 2023, there was another sharp increase in asylum applications from Pacific Island nationals (including Timor-Leste) to over 390. That is more asylum applications in August than from Chinese nationals (215) and Indian nationals (214) despite there being far more Chinese and Indian temporary entrants in Australia. Continue reading »
