Public Policy
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Australia’s destructive housing inequality – Weekly Roundup
Housing inequality has put Australia on a destructive trajectory, how the Coalition blocks economic reform, Australia’s changing politics played out in Tasmania. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Continue reading »
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Labor is slipping in the polls – Weekly Roundup
What a flat white coffee reveals about our economy, $27 billion on the table for state governments, nothing about the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case, and Labor is slipping in the polls. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Continue reading »
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Coalition decides to re-name itself the Queensland Party – Weekly Roundup
Tasmanians show what they think of the old parties and the Coalition retreats to the deep north, inflation tumbles but the media hasn’t noticed, getting the climate change message across. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Continue reading »
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How the American left is becoming more stupid – Weekly Roundup
The ideas of Peter Dutton and Jürgen Habermas, the government shifts ground on intergenerational politics, a fact check on law’n’order fearmongers, and How the American left is becoming more stupid. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Continue reading »
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How to fix capitalism in Australia – Weekly Roundup
With fuel emission standards Toyota Land Cruisers to cost more than Lamborghinis, economic advice from a wise lady for Treasurer Chalmers, consumer advice from a Minnesota Lutheran. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Continue reading »
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Government grovels to the gambling lobby: Weekly Roundup
How scare campaigns work; the government grovels to the gambling lobby; what the media missed in the Dunkley by-election; hedgehogs, foxes and national accounts. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Continue reading »
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The bucolic stupidity of nuclear energy – Weekly Roundup
The bucolic stupidity of nuclear energy, repairing the damage after the Coalition’s war on learning, why Dutton would be a lousy baby-sitter. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Continue reading »
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Environment: The wealthy cause climate change; the poor suffer its consequences
Richest 1% produce as many greenhouse gases as the poorest 66%. Climate denialists have a new lyric: ‘sure, it’s happening – so what?’ but Australians are concerned about climate change and want action. No, it’s not OK to shoot a hippo. Continue reading »
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Taylor Swift exposed as an agent of the Deep State – Weekly Roundup
Prospects for real tax reform – if only the Coalition would behave like grownups, early signs of real wage growth, no more visas for rich spivs, the case for nationalising the insurance industry, and Taylor Swift exposed as an agent of the Deep State. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, Continue reading »
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Leading oil and gas producers plan to keep pumping
USA plans to maintain high levels of oil and gas production until at least 2050 – so it can export freedom. Healthy ecosystems require integrity, not just biodiversity. Endangered slug runs circles around arty rivals. Continue reading »
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Negative Gearing: bad policy, fastened by a wedge – Weekly Roundup
Fuel standards weaponised, to imagine a Dutton government look at the way he ran Home Affairs, if you’re struggling financially and have private health insurance drop it, re-imagining Australia, and the case for withdrawing negative gearing. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political Continue reading »
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Dutton’s vision of a zero-government Australia: Weekly Roundup
How our cost of living can be eased with a Woolworths-AGL-Qantas merger, government promises political donation reform before 2045 election, Dutton’s vision of a zero-government Australia. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Continue reading »
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The worst Australian public policy decision of the 21st century
I regard the changes made to the carve-up of GST revenues among the states and territories by the Morrison Government in 2019, with the support of the then Labor Opposition, and continued (indeed extended) by the Albanese Government, as possibly the worst Australian public policy decision of the 21st century thus far. But very few Continue reading »
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The case for an Australian king – Weekly Roundup
How the government’s tax changes plan will affect Lamborghini sales. What the CPI really means. Everything economists don’t know about productivity. The case for an Australian king. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Continue reading »
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On the tyranny of the short term
What has become very apparent in public policy over the past twenty years is the extent to which the “short-term” is given precedence over the “long-term”. Both major political parties live to win the next election, and the mainstream media joins in rapturously because it treats politics as a binary competition that is most sensationally Continue reading »
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Australia’s prison system: desperately in need of reform
We should be concerned about conditions for prisoners. Why? The obvious answer is that if the recidivism rate is high then the system is not working. Continue reading »
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Australia developing an impoverished, disconnected immigrant underclass – Weekly Roundup
Slow progress in cleaning up the mess after decades of Coalition neglect and economic mismanagement in immigration, labour relations, school education and economic structure, opinion polls reveal a restive electorate. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Continue reading »
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ABC gives selected politicians licence to spread fear – Weekly Roundup
Why the RBA Board should enjoy the break on a houseboat ride, the ABC gives selected politicians licence to spread fear, bullshit, lies and division just because they are called “the opposition”, sex and the cost of living, immigrants’ kids do better at school than Australian-born kids, cleaning up the mess of another failed privatisation. Continue reading »
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Australians disappointed because they thought they elected a Labor government – Weekly Roundup
The grand housing cartel, a couple from Point Piper resurrect Gough Whitlam’s ideas on urban development, CPI data confirms that the RBA can declare itself redundant, Australians disappointed because they thought they elected a Labor government. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and Continue reading »
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Publish or Perish: Escaping the hamster wheel of academic research pursuits
Recently, the issue of “Publish-or-Perish” has come back onto the Australian science policy agenda, with the Chief Scientist, Dr Cathy Foley, saying that existing narrow research metrics are creating a “Publish-or-Perish” culture, perversely incentivising researchers to “publish iteratively”, chasing publication volume and citations rather than quality research. Continue reading »
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Supporting independent public interest media
Government media funding supports the failing mainstream media (MSM) and right-wing advocacy groups like the Institute of Public Affairs. Continue reading »
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Coral catastrophe signals our own undoing
Five times in the history of life on Earth the corals have perished, swept from the board by conditions hostile to nearly all life. Each time, it has taken them millions of years to evolve anew. Each mass death of corals has been accompanied by the mass deaths of most other species, on land and Continue reading »
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NDIS and Aged Care; from rights first to budget first
When she introduced the first NDIS legislation to the House of Representatives in 2012 Prime Minister Julia Gillard said it was to replace “A system that metes out support rationed by arbitrary budget allocations, not real human needs”. It was a radical break with other forms of welfare assistance because it put the human rights Continue reading »
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Terra nullius 2.0 – what AUKUS means for First Nations peoples
Australia will essentially become America’s military launch-pad into Asia. However, Ben Abbatangelo writes, little has been said or written about the drastic and disproportionate impacts it will have on First Nations communities in Australia. Continue reading »
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Knowledge and understanding deficit: The dire state of China Studies
Disgraceful gaps have emerged in our knowledge and understanding of Asian countries. This capability is essential to successful navigation of the future, as Peter Varghese and Joseph Lo Bianco have noted. Continue reading »
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Intervention to stop genocide: From investigative reporting to freedom flotillas
The leader of South Africa’s Palestine Solidarity Alliance insists that the ruling of the International Court of Justice ‘requires the whole world to play their part to stop genocide unfolding in Gaza.’ Continue reading »
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Responding to tragedy
Much has already been said and written about the recent tragic stabbings at Bondi Junction. Daily, we are also exposed to stories about the ravages of war, hopefully neither suppressing nor being overwhelmed by them. As a funeral celebrant, I am familiar with, but never complacent about death and suffering – indeed, it is a Continue reading »
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A new 60-day prescription policy may halve your visits to the GP and pharmacy
The changes will be particularly helpful for women living with conditions including epilepsy, breast cancer, type 2 diabetes, inflammatory bowel diseases and more. Continue reading »
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How many more tragedies? Sydney siders in disbelief as they lay flowers
Our society is failing the seriously mentally ill. Continue reading »
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TAFE shutting the door on the battlers
Recent figures show that around 30% of Australian school children do not have adequate reading skills. This 30% of Australian school children need vocational knowledge and skills to find a productive place in Australian life, but some will have their reading tested by TAFE then told, without a hint of irony, “You need to go Continue reading »
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Environment: Oil and gas producers underreport methane emissions
How accurately are methane emissions reported and whose estimates can you believe? Who should be the last producers of oil and gas? What are Australia’s commonest birds? Continue reading »
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UK media shouldn’t be ‘impartial’ – but fearless and truthful
We need journalism that is committed to accurate and uncompromising investigation and not a spurious “impartiality” that hides brutal facts of occupation and genocide. Continue reading »
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‘Worst I have seen’: 75% of Great Barrier Reef suffers coral bleaching
“We are really running out of time. We need to reduce our emissions immediately,” one expert warned. “We cannot expect to save the Great Barrier Reef and be opening new fossil fuel developments.” Continue reading »
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The Voice and Australia’s democracy crisis
The dire state of truth in Australia’s civic space crystallised in 2023. We had seen the waning influence of News Corp’s impact on our elections and assumed it meant that enough of us were becoming inoculated against the propaganda. The defeat of the notoriously mendacious Coalition government might have signalled a ceasefire, a moment for Continue reading »
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Aged care funding: On the road to entrenched inequity
UK Health Minister Aneurin Bevan introduced the National Health Service (NHS) pointing out that “Illness is neither an indulgence for which people have to pay, nor an offence for which they should be penalised, but a misfortune the cost of which should be shared by the community.” Continue reading »
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There is no simple fix to residential aged care
Aged care staff are unhappy and many older people in residential aged care are unhappy. Certainly, the NSW Health Minister and the hospitals are unhappy because there are 600 people sitting in acute hospital beds who could be in aged care facilities. Continue reading »
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The crimson thread of racism festers in the darker interstices of Australian culture
In 1890 Henry Parkes spoke of “The crimson thread of kinship running through us all.” He believed this “crimson thread” – evocative of blood – united all white people in the Australian colonies and bound them to Britain. The federation he was advocating for Australia was to be exclusively white and eternally British. Continue reading »
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Peter Dutton’s nuclear power policy is a ‘suicide note’
Peter Dutton thinks the Coalition is on a winner by promoting nuclear power but unbiased opinion polls find that support for nuclear power in Australia falls short of a majority, that Australians much prefer renewables, and most do not want nuclear reactors built near where they live. Continue reading »
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Environment: Australia publishes its first climate risk assessment
Australia is conducting its first climate risk assessment and developing an adaptation plan. Not only humans experience heat stress, so do other animals and plants. If you must feed wild birds, listen to the experts’ tips. Continue reading »
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China’s quiet energy revolution: the switch from nuclear to renewable energy
There is now a policy dispute about the roles of nuclear and renewable energy in future Australian low emission energy systems. The experience of China over more than a decade provides compelling evidence on how this debate will be resolved. In December 2011 China’s National Energy Administration announced that China would make nuclear energy the Continue reading »
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The Commonwealth should get out of schooling
There is no government or agency or combination of them capable of conceiving and driving the kind and scale of change Australian schooling now requires. The ‘national approach’ installed by the Rudd and Gillard governments fifteen years ago has not worked and cannot. Its sponsor, the Commonwealth, should move or be moved to the margins or Continue reading »
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Commonwealth-State health reform: It’s time for a conversation about national priorities
The prospects for significant health reform looked good at the end of 2023. A mid-term review of the main Commonwealth-state agreement – the National Health Reform Agreement (NHRA) – had recommended that the focus of a new agreement, due mid-2025, should be broader than public hospital funding. States seemed to be on board and the Continue reading »
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The pigeon and the socks
In February PETA sprang into action to rescue a pigeon held in India which had been accused of spying for China. They secured its release. Continue reading »
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Why are Chinese backpackers required to sit an English Test while Taiwanese backpackers are not?
It’s well past time that Australia’s English language requirements for working holiday visas was addressed and applied consistently for young people in all countries. Continue reading »
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Managerialism is crushing the human connection: The care economy series
Unpacking the care economy, Dr Robbie Lloyd investigates some of the key issues impacting our communities in a series of articles that explore ageing, disability, mental health reform, the challenges of health policy and reform, drugs and alcohol and domestic family violence. (A repost from 2023). Continue reading »
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Environment: Fossil fuel company profits are delaying grid decarbonisation
Securing a liveable planet and the retail price of electricity are important but current fossil fuel profit margins are slowing grid decarbonisation. Water temperature in the Pacific is influencing methane emissions in the sub-Arctic. Enjoy nature this Easter. Continue reading »
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A vibrant media landscape will ease fears over Hong Kong’s Article 23 law
People in Hong Kong, particularly the media, should still be allowed to voice diverse opinions and criticism without fear of retribution – as long as it is fair and fact-based. This will help mitigate the concern of people considering a move to the city and show ‘one country, two systems’ is still alive and well. Continue reading »
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Japan’s fighter-sales plan ‘betrays pacifist tradition’ – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Tokyo ready to export ‘lethal weapons par excellence’. Plus: Failed Evergrande in massive accounting fraud; Thailand leads ASEAN on same-sex marriage; American naval dominance is waning; Big-brand carmakers planning EV utes; Not-so-Huggie – low birth rate ends baby-nappy production. Continue reading »