Public Policy
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Exposing the myths of “border protection” we will see the refugees as real people; and act accordingly.
On Thursday morning of the Liberals’ week of mayhem, facing front benches empty of ministers and with the day’s sitting of Parliament about to be shut down, ALP leader Bill Shorten said: “The purpose of government is to uplift the nation’s vision”. He’s right. We all know that he’s right. But vision takes courage. And Continue reading »
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JERRY ROBERTS Media monstrosities and a fundamental political error
The two overpowering impressions remaining after last week’s political drama are an abuse of media influence correctly identified by Chris Uhlmann and a mistaken view among some Liberal MPs about the nature of their Party’s “base.” Continue reading »
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ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ A multicultural whirlwind blowing up for the next election
Turnbull’s gone and with him, hopefully, his recurrent but incorrect mantra of Australia as the most successful multicultural society in the world. With the next federal election now just over the horizon, understanding how the ethnic vote delivered the last election to the Coalition may help us to understand how Australia’s multicultural present could Continue reading »
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HENRY REYNOLDS. Henry Reynolds: Australia was founded on a hypocrisy that haunts us to this day.
US slave owners wrote and spoke about liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness. Similar hypocrisy, buried in the foundations of settler Australia, has escaped comparable scrutiny. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE & IAN McAULEY: A new “leader”, but no sight of leadership.
The Liberal Party has a new “leader”, but there is still a dearth of the leadership in the Liberal Party, which seems to be unable to deal with hard issues, such as meeting our emissions target and coping with the effects of climate change. And there are much harder problems of economic structure calling for Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE Tracking Peter Costello is not a good start for Josh Frydenberg .
After failing with his National Energy Guarantee, Josh Frydenberg rushed to Melbourne to get some tips from Peter Costello about handling his new Treasury portfolio. In fawning style over coffee, Frydenberg described Costello as ‘the greatest living Treasurer’. It is part of the Liberal Party myth that conservatives are better economic managers. But it is Continue reading »
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Morrison names leading anti-wind campaigner as energy minister
New prime minister Scott Morrison has ended the experiment of combining the energy and environment portfolios, and appointed one of the country’s most prominent anti-wind campaigners as energy minister, and a former mining industry lawyer as environment minister. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Scott Morrison’s Record on Immigration
While Scott Morrison earlier this year publicly disagreed with Tony Abbott on immigration levels, he eventually gave way to Dutton’s ruse about ‘greater scrutiny’ leading to the migration program ‘ceiling’ not being delivered in 2017-18. Will he continue to compromise with Abbott and Dutton on immigration or has he drawn a line in the sand Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Scott Morrison did not stop the boats
With the appointment of Scott Morrison as Prime Minister we will witness again the repetition of the myth that the Coalition and Operation Sovereign Borders stopped the boats. They did not. I expect that many in the media will also climb aboard again to continue the myth about the stopping of the boats. Perhaps being Continue reading »
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JANE McADAM, JOHN CHURCH. Rising seas will displace millions of people – and Australia must be ready
Sea-level rise is already threatening some communities around the world, particularly small island states, as it exacerbates disasters resulting from storm surges and flooding. Continue reading »
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JERRY ROBERTS. What was the plan?
Peter Dutton was set up to lose the next election and to lose it badly. That would have left the Liberals in an even more chaotic mess than they are in today. To whom should they turn for salvation? Why, of course, to Captain Chaos himself – Tony Abbot. That was the plan. Continue reading »
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BRUCE GUTHRIE. Hello Rupert, bye-bye Malcolm (The New Daily 23/8/2018)
Anyone who doubts Rupert Murdoch’s role in the political chaos that has played out in recent days has never worked for him at a senior level. Murdoch’s annual visits to Australia invariably trigger seismic events both in and outside News Corp, the company he’s presided over for decades. So is it any surprise that Malcolm Continue reading »
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STEPHEN DUCKETT. A hospital win-win: improving care and saving money.
Every day we hear stories about innovation in health care – new drugs, new machines and new tests that will help us live longer. We have got used to thinking that any improvements in health care will come at a price – often a big one, given the years of development and testing needed to Continue reading »
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DUNCAN GRAHAM. The Bush Drivers Lament.
Thousands of escapees from chilly southern cities are currently cruising northern Australia in search of warmth, wildflowers, new friends and a little adventure. The grey nomads prefer caravans, some so lavishly equipped they’re really villas on wheels with solar panels, family pets and air conditioning. The young and foreign go for small vans with a Continue reading »
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LESLEY RUSSELL. The dental divide – and the decay of public dental services (ABC News, 21.08.18)
The noisy public debate about patients’ out-of-pocket costs and their consequences reaches a crescendo when it comes to oral health and dental care. Continue reading »
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LESLEY BARCLAY, HANNAH DAHLEN, NIGEL LEE. Australia is breaking records for intervention in childbirth, and the costs are many.
Variation in rates of obstetric intervention, including caesarean section, were recently cited by the Grattan Institute’s Dr Stephen Duckett when suggesting that a new Code of Conduct for doctors should include a focus on over-intervention. In the article below, Emeritus Professor Lesley Barclay AO, Professor Hannah Dahlen and Dr Nigel Lee argue that concerted efforts Continue reading »
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Turnbull survives as puppet of right wing, as Australia burns (RenewEconomy, 21.08.18)
At least in 2009, Turnbull left his job as then Opposition leader with his dignity intact.But not now. Continue reading »
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DAVID SPRATT & IAN DUNLOP. In the climate end-game, humanity has a big decision to make
Humanity has a big decision to make very soon about its future on warming planet, but the Federal Coalition is still in denial that human-induced climate change even exists, let alone that the climate end-game is upon us. Continue reading »
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PAUL BUDDE. National Party has failed regional Australia on broadband — Repost from 1 September 2018
It is still a battle to extend the perception of the importance of high-speed broadband beyond fast access to the internet or to Netflix. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Drug policy reform series
Attached is a collection of articles on drug policy reform, which were published as a series on Pearls and Irritations between 6 and 11 August 2018.This series is designed to draw attention to this important issue, and to the failure of our current policies. Continue reading »
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TONY BERG. To Close the Gaps, Deal with Alcohol Abuse.
For ten years our political leaders have talked about closing the gap. The harsh reality is that the gap in disadvantage suffered by indigenous Australians fails to close. Worse, there has been little discussion about why the gaps do not close despite all the money, the effort, the programs and the goodwill over the decade. Continue reading »
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WILL STEFFEN. A Fundamental Re-think of the Climate Change Challenge
Using a complex systems framework, we argue that a set of feedback processes intrinsic to the Earth System could form a planetary threshold which, if crossed, would not only speed up climate change, but also take the trajectory out of human control and propel the system irreversibly to a Hothouse Earth state. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Refugees and asylum seekers. ‘The only unforgivable sin is despair’
We can be proud of what we have done for refugees in the past but like many others I am ashamed that we have now had a succession of leaders who have appealed to our most selfish instincts. When I feel discouraged about our national failure, I am reminded of Graham Greene’s challenge that ‘the Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. The failure of the National Party on rural poverty and rural health. Repost from 23 February 2018
Country electorates have the most disadvantaged people, the poorest health and inferior health services. But the National Party does very little about it. Does it care? The National Party record on climate change,NBN and irrigation is appalling.I have written previously on these subjects Today I refer to its failure to address rural poverty and poor rural Continue reading »
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KOFI ANNAN. Stop ‘war on drugs’ (05.11.13, CNN)
Each year, hundreds of thousands of people around the world die from preventable drug-related disease and violence. Millions of users are arrested and thrown in jail. Globally, communities are blighted by drug-related crime. Citizens see huge amounts of their taxes spent on harsh policies that are not working… .(In memory and honour of Kofi Annan Continue reading »
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JERRY ROBERTS. West Australian white ants move into interesting territory.
Putting aside the anonymous gutlessness of the West Australian Parliamentary Liberals and the colossal arrogance of The West Australian Newspaper, the campaign against Opposition Leader Mike Nahan has raised a useful question. Which is more influential in election campaigning – conventional newspaper and television or the brave new world of Facebook and Twitter? Continue reading »
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WANNING SUN. New Model of Public Diplomacy Is Needed in the Digital Era.
The Department of Communications is now reviewing submissions on the issue of Australian Broadcasting Services in the Asia-Pacific region. In my submission, I argue that public diplomacy in the digital era requires not simply a rejigging of the current broadcast transmission model; it also requires a complete paradigm shift. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. If we can’t kill the NEG can we at least shape it into something useful?
The National Energy Guarantee can possibly be made to work – to improve the reliability of power supplies, to reduce emissions, and to reduce people’s power bills – but not in its present form. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Will the number of temporary entrants continue to grow?
Apart from Senator Anning’s appalling speech, the other big immigration news this week was that the stock of temporary entrants in Australia was over 2 million as at 30 June 2018. Since 2012, the stock has grown by over 400,000. This has been a long-term trend since the recession of the early 1990s. But is Continue reading »
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LYNDSAY CONNORS. Tempora mutantur…
Times change, but the Australian system of planning and funding schools is in a time warp, being held back by vested interests from keeping pace with the demands upon it. Continue reading »