Public Policy
-
ANDREW GLIKSON. Climate cover-up and Orwellian newspeak.
In so far as it may have been assumed that the growing manifestations of global warming through extreme weather events will cause people to realize the reality and the implications of carbon emissions, this is only partly happening, due to ongoing attempts by large part of the mainstream media to attribute these events to natural Continue reading »
-
LESLEY RUSSELL: Time to make dental care an election issue
The Victorian Government’s election commitment to a $395.8 million program to provide free dental care to schoolchildren will be welcome in a state where affordable and timely access to dental care is increasingly difficult. It’s time for a concerted campaign to ensure that improved access to dental care and better prevention initiatives are on the Continue reading »
-
CHRISTIAN DOWNIE. Australian Energy Diplomacy.
In Australia, little attention has been given to the concept of “energy diplomacy”, including the way in which it might interact with foreign policy objectives. Continue reading »
-
ALEXANDER KAUFMAN, CHRIS D’ANGELO. Federal Climate Report Predicts At Least 3 Degrees Of Warming By 2100 (Huff Post).
The White House’s decision to release the report over the holiday weekend is likely to bury the sobering new findings. Continue reading »
-
FRANK JOTZO. Labor’s policy can smooth the energy transition, but much more will be needed to tackle emissions (The Conversation).
The Labor party’s energy policy platform, released last week, is politically clever and would likely be effective. It includes plans to underwrite renewable energy and storage, and other elements that would help the energy transition along. Its approach to the transition away from coal-fired power is likely to need more work, and it will need Continue reading »
-
Time for a long hard look at the goals and purposes of schooling.
Schools hold up the mirror to a society as well as shaping its future. There is more to education than schools, but schooling is the formal process by which we assist young people to develop their capacity to learn and to think for themselves in a democratic society. Continue reading »
-
DON EDGAR. Looking for the cuckoo in the mental health nest.
As a researcher, I have always been suspicious of statistics touted as incontrovertible truths; and of propagandists for a cause who claim to be the holders of effective remedies for complex social problems. The current ‘truths’ being touted (and winning huge increases in government funding) are that one in every five Australians has a mental Continue reading »
-
MICHAEL PASCOE. Victorian election: Tell me, Mr Drug Warrior, how many votes is a human life worth? (New Daily)
Would you be willing to kill people to win a state election, to be Premier of Victoria? Such a large price to pay for such a small prize. Continue reading »
-
CHRIS BONNOR. The ABC of school funding
Years ago the late Bernie Shepherd and I began wading through a mountain of My School data about schools. We soon discovered that the public funding of private schools was growing so rapidly that they would soon get more money from governments than was going to similar public schools. So we published our early findings Continue reading »
-
STEPHEN DUCKETT. The tooth hurts but Victoria’s public dental system is broken (Grattan Institute).
Our dental care system is not working for a lot of Victorians. More than half a million Victorians say that the cost of dental care stopped them from getting care when they needed it in the past 12 months. Continue reading »
-
ROD MITCHELL. A carbon price that curbs polluters and reduces inequality.
The federal government’s non-response to climate change has run its course and events are rapidly overtaking its startled members. And now, after years of resistance, Woodside, BHP and Rio Tinto have done an about face and are calling for a price on carbon. Continue reading »
-
HELEN CLARK. Another decade lost to the global war on drugs (The Hill, 20.11.18)
In my experience as head of my country’s government and previously a health minister, as a former senior official at the United Nations, and more recently as a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, I’ve found debates on drug policy tend to be divisive and passionately ideological. On one point, however, there is Continue reading »
-
JOHN MENADUE. Health Reform Priorities
Health costs are rising through greater use of technology, ageing, lack of coordination and waste. Doctors provide many services that should be provided by others. Mental , indigenous and dental health have serious problems. Services are being delivered less equitably. There has been very slow progress, particularly in prevention of illness and disease .Our health Continue reading »
-
ALEX WODAK. Drug law reform in the 2018 US mid term elections.The 2018 US midterm elections has important lessons for Australia regarding drug law reform. In ballot initiatives and elections for office, voters often supported drug law reform with only one major defeat. Presidential election years generally have many more ballot initiatives on drug policy.
The 2018 US midterm elections has important lessons for Australia regarding drug law reform. In ballot initiatives and elections for office, voters often supported drug law reform with only one major defeat. Presidential election years generally have many more ballot initiatives on drug policy. Continue reading »
-
ABUL RIZVI. Morrison says ‘enough’ to a problem largely of his making.
Scott Morrison says ‘enough’ to the level of migration to Sydney and Melbourne (see here). Yet he fails to mention that it was his actions that brought about the surge in migration to Sydney and Melbourne in the first place. And more knee jerk decisions won’t help, either from the Commonwealth or the states. Continue reading »
-
MICHAEL PASCOE. Fairfax joins the Murdoch sectarian beat-up brigade (The New Daily).
The first law of journalism is that bad news is good news – bad news sells. On Monday, Fairfax’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers had a choice between a “good news” story and twisting the facts to make a “bad news” story. No prize for guessing which way the decision went. Continue reading »
-
ROGER SCOTT. All creatures great and small: parity or esteem?
The festive campaigning season is upon us and the federal Minister for Education wishes to bring gifts to those small tertiary institutions located in sensitive rural constituencies. Unfortunately for those who live in the greater (ie research-intensive) metropolitan institutions the Minister seems to have been told that the load capacity of Santa’s sleigh is finite. Continue reading »
-
Australia’s education system is nearly the most unequal in the developed world.
Australia prides itself on its egalitarian ethos, but it is a myth in education. Not only do we have one of the most segregated school systems in the OECD and the world, but a report just published by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) shows that Australia’s education system is nearly the most Continue reading »
-
JOHN MENADUE. How the politically urgent pushes the important health issues aside.
Australians have some of the best health outcomes in the world measured for example by high life expectancy and low death rates, although that is not the case with Indigenous Australians. Continue reading »
-
ANDREW GLIKSON. Which planet is the media living on?
While extreme weather events are being reported almost daily on news bulletins, only rarely is it conveyed that these events constitute the manifestation of advanced global warming and a fundamental shift in the state of the atmosphere. Rarely do major ABC TV forums, such as The Drum, The Insiders, Q and A, Four-Corners, the 7.30 Continue reading »
-
Lazard hails “inflection point” as wind, solar costs beat new and old fossils (Renew Economy)
Lazard hails “inflection point” as wind, solar costs beat new and old fossils. Continue reading »
-
PAUL COLLINS. ABC -Shenanigans at Ultimo’s Level Fourteen.
Monday’s Four Corners on the ABC’s management shenanigans—the Guthrie-Milne, she said-he said fiasco—and the failure of the rest of the ABC Board to own-up and answer publicly for their performance tells you everything about what’s wrong at the top of the national broadcaster. Its not imagined left-wing bias, or ‘inaccurate and unbalanced reporting’, or Emma Continue reading »
-
JIEH-YUNG LO. Ross Cameron sacking shows we won’t tolerate racism any further.
In typical fashion, Andrew Bolt through his blog at the Herald Sun mounted a defence of Ross Cameron’s sacking from Sky News Australia. Instead of recognising its racist connotations directed towards Chinese people (and people of Chinese origin for that matter) Bolt went on by saying Ross Cameron’s intentions, while recognising his poor choice of Continue reading »
-
PETER SAINSBURY. IPCC’s 1.5oC report makes Paris Agreement redundant.
The report ‘Global Warming of 1.5oC’ was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in October 2018. Although the report does not say so, the evidence it presents renders the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change redundant. It asks the wrong question, and its goals and strategies are now revealed to be completely Continue reading »
-
An agricultural visa would change Australian society – for the worse
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has, for the time being, rejected creation of an agricultural visa in favour of changes to the existing working holiday maker program and the seasonal worker visa (see here). These are unlikely to satisfy demands of the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) for an agricultural visa. While most Australians would see this Continue reading »
-
MARGARET SIMONS. Good riddance to Guthrie and Milne. The ABC needs grown-ups in charge (the Guardian 12.11.18)
The most powerful message to emerge from Four Corners’ sad story about the tumult at the top of the ABC is that neither the former chairman Justin Milne nor the former managing director Michelle Guthrie appeared to be friends of the public broadcaster. Continue reading »
-
AMANDA MEADE. ‘It was magic’: Kerry O’Brien on ABC bosses, battles and why it’s no bed of lefties (The Guardian)
‘It was magic’: Kerry O’Brien on ABC bosses, battles and why it’s no bed of lefties. Continue reading »
-
Australia has one of the most socially segregated schools systems in the world.
A new OECD report shows that Australia has one of the most segregated school systems in the OECD and in the world. It also shows that Australia had the equal largest increase in social segregation in the OECD and the world since 2006. Government education and funding policies are major factors behind the increase in Continue reading »
-
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Mass media power plays and the death of Fairfax
The competition regulator ACCC has now green-lighted the death of Fairfax Media Ltd., the governance entity what has been a foundational influence on public interest journalism in Australia since 1831. Continue reading »
-
ISABELLE LANE. ‘Misleading and disingenuous’: Treasurer’s negative gearing claims slammed.
Experts have rubbished Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s claims that a proposed rollback of negative gearing will decimate the property market and send rents soaring. This article was published by The New Daily on the 8th of November 2018. Continue reading »