Public Policy
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Paranoia over China, government, media, AFP collusion
The High Court’s current deliberations about the legality of warrants issued last year to the AFP to search the home of John Zhang, part-time assistant to NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane, are the tip of a massive iceberg of government abuses of power. … Continue reading »
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Are we more depressed or more diagnosed?
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5), which finds widespread use in Australia and across the world, by physicians, researchers, courts, and schools, lists more than 300 criteria for depression, which makes the meaning of a diagnosis so vague it can potentially cover every one of us. So, are we more depressed… Continue reading »
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I’ll have what Scott’s having, thanks!
It is important that all Australians be vaccinated against Covid-19, but they deserve to be able to choose the vaccine that best suits them. As the federal government’s rollout plan implodes, the good news is that it now seems likely that all Australians who want it will be able to have the higher efficacy Pfizer… Continue reading »
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War footing groupthink; subsidies and socialism; glasshouses and stones
Upside down, inside out and black is white. Journalists fall over themselves to paint Scott Morrison as a courageous leader, the Financial Review lauds the “very affordable” housing market, in defiance of just about every expert in the country, and Tax Office attacks from an employee of Murdoch’s News Australia, whose approach to tax surely… Continue reading »
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Australian Medical Association’s aged care money grab
The Australian Medical Association, a lobby group and peak body for doctors, has offered up a thinly disguised money-grab in the form of expert recommendations in response to the Aged Care Royal Commission…. Continue reading »
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The capability of the Australian Public Service
The Centre for Policy Development (CPD) welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Finance and Public Administration References Committee to assist its inquiry into the current capability of the Australian Public Service (APS). Helping to nurture and grow public service capability to support a more effective government has been one of CPD’s top… Continue reading »
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Asylum policy in UK and Australia – a tale of two nations
In these two nations, the backlog of asylum applications and that of refused asylum seekers who have not departed is remarkably similar (see Table 1). But debate on the matter in the two countries is very different…. Continue reading »
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Lobby Land. The power of the health lobby. Health ministers may be in office but they are not in power. An update.
The major barrier to health reform is the power of providers- the health lobby. A succession of Australian health ministers Liberal and Labor for three decades have failed in any serious health reform. We have been going around in circles. It is very depressing. The new shadow minister Mark Butler could succeed as Minister if… Continue reading »
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Nationhood and the deadly incarceration pandemic of our First Nations people
“For the vast bulk of our people the legal system is not a trusted instrument of justice. It is a feared and despised processing plant that propels the most vulnerable and disabled of our people towards a broken and bleak future.”… Continue reading »
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In NDIS there is a lack of genuine consultation with disability advocates.
The Morrison government is prioritising its branding as a low taxing, small government party over its obligations to the aged population and people with disabilities. It seems to have already forgotten the lesson of the COVID pandemic – that Australians are quite happy to welcome a larger role for government in a good cause…. Continue reading »
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Sunday environmental round up, 11 April 2021
Factions of the Liberal and National parties continue their coal wars in NSW. Scientists in the USA recommend solar geoengineering research but a community backlash delays experiments in Sweden. Health workers hold up the Adani’s mine development…. Continue reading »
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Rise of independent media
‘Rise of independent media’ is a panel discussion between investigative journalist Michael West, Crikey editor-in-chief Peter Fray and author and media analyst Margaret Simons and is chaired by the editor for InDaily David Washington. The panel took place at the Adelaide Writer’s Week festival on 2 March 2021…. Continue reading »
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Holidays and symbols matter and demand independent review
John Howard’s refusal to say ‘Sorry’ on the grounds that he believed in practical rather than symbolic reconciliation actually highlighted the fact that the symbolism of the ‘S-Word’ was so important to him that he just couldn’t utter it. The Anglo in him had similar difficulty with the ‘M-word’; Multiculturalism…. Continue reading »
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Australia assists Big Pharma to stall vaccine roll out.
As the Australian vaccine rollout languishes the Australian Government appears to value pharma profits over protecting people from Covid…. Continue reading »
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Group of Eight universities concede to ASIO, restrict vital research engagement with China
China is provoking every country in its region. But that is no reason to cut off all contact, including scientific engagement, especially if we want to avoid war. Brian Toohey investigates another sphere in which academic freedom is being restricted by government…. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century.
If Defence is going to be Peter Dutton’s springboard to greater power, he has a like mind in the United States in Mike Pompeo who is hoping to rally the defeated Republicans towards victory in 2024…. Continue reading »
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The importance of environmental water: is the national water initiative up to the job?
Momentous decisions are needed on water policy to ensure that life in Australia is sustainable when climate change is advancing and the natural environment is deteriorating rapidly. Is the National Water Initiative (NWI) capable of reform to ensure a sustainable future? … Continue reading »
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Hit jobs from the inside and News Corp attacks free speech of citizens
Coordinated attacks on the Reserve Bank, free speech for the Courier Mail … but not for citizens, and digging up dirt on Josh Bornstein. … Continue reading »
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This one will blow up on Scotty: Christine Holgate’s unfair dismissal
For thirty years I have believed that, when it wants to, Australian public culture defaults to its misogynistic normal in justifying a woman be disciplined or punished for an event or outcome with which they may have absolutely nothing to do at all…. Continue reading »
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Aged care – where sexism and ageism walk hand in hand
Double jeopardy: being female and being old…. Continue reading »
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USYD’s war on peace in education
The University of Sydney looks set to close its Department of Peace and Conflict Studies. What is the broader significance of this? Does it matter?… Continue reading »
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The ‘levee paradox’: why has development in floodplains exploded?
In March we were reminded that flooding is a problem in Australia. It is a problem partly because of the way we accommodate our growing population on floodplains…. Continue reading »
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The illiberal moment: ASPI’s ‘The Influence Environment’
Last year’s report from ASPI (the Australian Strategy Policy Institute) on Chinese-language media in Australia is a doubly unfortunate manifestation of the profoundly illiberal moment that has now become a worldwide phenomenon and which now clearly infects Australia’s relations with China…. Continue reading »
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The unfolding Covid disaster in PNG
Helping New Guinea with its disastrous Covid outbreak is not pure altruism on our part. The unbridled, indeed raging pandemic, known to have infected 100,000 already and likely to have infected a million more within a week or so, provides a perfect ‘incubator’ for wild type more infectious variants of the Covid to develop. We… Continue reading »
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Sunday environmental round up, 4 April 2021
Colonialism and racism’s longstanding and ongoing links to climate change. Six principles for decarbonising industry, VW on Tesla’s tail, and a new, free, online course on climate change…. Continue reading »
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Should pleasure from illicit drugs be included in consideration of drug policy?
In recent decades, the notion that law enforcement approaches to illicit drugs has failed, moved from heresy to orthodoxy. But drug policy till now has only been considered as the prevention of harm. It’s time for policymakers and the community to accept that the pursuit of pleasure should also be a consideration. A distinguished US… Continue reading »
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Experts warn failure to rapidly ‘Vaccinate the World’ creates dangerous opening for Covid-19 mutations
Epidemiologists from dozens of countries around the world issued a loud warning Tuesday that failure to ensure global administration of Covid-19 vaccines within the next year—at the very latest—could allow vaccine-resistant variants to spread among unprotected populations to such an extent that current shots are rendered ineffective…. Continue reading »
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ALP climate policy: from the “great moral challenge” to conservative-lite
Deputy ALP leader Richard Marles, seem to studiously avoid any mention of the need for massive action order to avoid a rise towards +4 degree climate warming despite promoting science…. Continue reading »
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Government refuses to address Australia’s future liquid fuel risks
$90 billion for submarines that may never be used in conflict. Only $200 million for Future Fuels that every Australian depends upon every day. There is something seriously awry with the Government’s priorities…. Continue reading »
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Seriously ugly: here’s how Australia will look if the world heats by 3℃ this century
Imagine, for a moment, a different kind of Australia. One where bushfires on the catastrophic scale of Black Summer happen almost every year. One where 50℃ days in Sydney and Melbourne are common. Where storms and flooding have violently reshaped our coastlines, and unique ecosystems have been damaged beyond recognition – including the Great Barrier… Continue reading »
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