Public Policy
-
LINDA SIMON. What has happened to enrolments in the TAFE sector?-The creeping commercialisation of education.- A REPOST from October 6 2017
Enrolments in the TAFE sector have dropped in many qualifications. Tracing the reasons for this change at a time when Australia needs more skilled technicians and paraprofessionals is complex. They appear to be tied to the overall changes in funding of tertiary education, the increase in student fees as well as the status of the Continue reading »
-
JIM COOMBS. The Economics of Stop The Boats : A sense of Proportion.
Why throw away money on preventing refugees when we should see the economic benefit they might bring ? Continue reading »
-
CHRIS BONNOR AND CHRISTINA HO. Selective school decisions coming back to haunt us.
Almost alone in Australia, New South Wales has been expanding its number of selective schools, accompanied each time by arguments about the need to increase choice and cater for the gifted and talented. And each time we are left with one less school for local students, together with an ongoing trail of collateral damage to Continue reading »
-
IAN DUNLOP. Facing “Disaster Alley”, Australia shirks responsibility- A REPOST from June 27 2017
The first responsibility of a government is to safeguard the people and their future wellbeing. The ability to do so is increasingly threatened by human-induced climate change, the accelerating impacts of which are driving political instability and conflict globally. Climate change poses an existential risk to humanity which, unless addressed as an emergency, will have Continue reading »
-
IAN WEBSTER. Policy failures in mental health
Mental health problems arising out of modern despair have to be tackled with insights gained from the day-to-day lives of society’s outcasts and the social sciences. Matthew Fisher, (Australia’s policy failure on mental health, Pearls and Irritations, 14 December 2017) argues that Australian mental health policies have failed: “(We) are subject to a deafening silence Continue reading »
-
A paraplegic woman and her elderly carer.
A well-known and respected doctor has written to me about caring for his loved wife. He outlines a compelling and human story. With his permission I share with readers his account of the burdens and cost of caring. John Menadue. Continue reading »
-
ANDREW GLIKSON. Climate change, droughts and wars: is there a nexus?
According to Al Gore during 2006 and 2010 some 60 percent of farms in Syria were destroyed and abandoned and some 80 percent of the livestock were killed during the most severe drought parts of the Middle East ever recorded[i]. Subsequently more than a million Syrians migrated into cities, along with refugees from the Iraq Continue reading »
-
REBECCA PEASE. The federal Climate Policy Review: a recipe for business as usual
The federal government’s newly released Climate Policy Review is hugely disappointing, but far from surprising. It does not depart from what the Turnbull government has been saying for some time: it plans to loosen compliance obligations for emissions-intensive companies even further, reintroduce international carbon offsets, and implement the planned National Energy Guarantee. Continue reading »
-
DYLAN McCONNELL. A month in, Tesla’s SA battery is surpassing expectations.
It’s just over one month since the Hornsdale power reserve was officially opened in South Australia. The excitement surrounding the project has generated acres of media interest, both locally and abroad. The aspect that has generated the most interest is the battery’s rapid response time in smoothing out several major energy outages that have occurred since it was installed. Continue reading »
-
ANDREW GLIKSON. The ALP and global warming
When a lump of coal was presented in Parliament to the cheers of conservative MPs no doubts could remain regarding their position on global warming, covered with the thin fig leaf of the Paris agreement. One wonders whether the PM would now be willing to repeat his statement of 2010: “Now our response to climate Continue reading »
-
MICHAEL KEATING. National water reform- A REPOST from September 28,2017
According to the Productivity Commission’s draft report on National Water Reform, Australia is now viewed internationally as a world leader in water management. Nevertheless, these reforms continue to be challenged by special interests. In particular, the history of poor investment in irrigation continues, encouraged by the comfortable expectation that governments will not enforce the requirement Continue reading »
-
IAN McAULEY. Private health insurers frighten the ALP-A REPOST from June 2 2017
There was a recent flurry of media excitement about a supposed “secret hospital funding plan”, which turned out to be no more than an option under consideration by a think-tank. But the real (and overlooked) issue in health funding is a high and growing hidden subsidy to private health insurance, where, contrary to traditional political Continue reading »
-
CAVAN HOGUE. White man’a media- A REPOST from May 29 2017
That the Australian media gives us saturation coverage of Europe but much less on Asia is obvious but the question is why? Have they done market research which shows this is what the public wants or does it stem from their own beliefs and prejudices? Is this really what most Australians want? Possibly it may Continue reading »
-
IAN McAULEY. Reframing public ideas Part 4: Economy and environment
Arguments around climate change and other environmental matters tend to assume some tradeoff between “economic” and “environmental” objectives. But the overriding principle is about making the best use of scarce resources. Continue reading »
-
LESLEY RUSSELL. Who cares for the carers?
Governments have yet to create a coherent strategy to help the almost three million Australians providing informal care. Continue reading »
-
JULIAN CRIBB. Highway to an endless energy future.
Australia is spoiled for choice among the array of energies we have to power our future, for centuries to come. Concentrated sunlight, huge reserves of coal, gas, hot rocks, wind, wave and tidal energy, not to mention uranium, thorium, biomass, hydro and other possibilities – thousands of years’ worth of energy in sundry forms. Continue reading »
-
JOHN DWYER. The devastating effects of Trumpism on science and medicine.
While the “Fire and the Fury” surrounding the chaos at the White House dominates media reporting on the Trump presidency, the power of the office is being utilised to implement a myriad of bad decisions that will have very long-lasting effects. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the plans Trump has to slash funding Continue reading »
-
MARK HARRIS. Sugar tax to tackle obesity: an update.
In 2016 I wrote about the call for a sugar tax, especially on sugar sweetened drinks, to address Australia’s obesity problem. What has happened since then? Continue reading »
-
ANNE HURLEY. Bad advice: why Mr Turnbull’s NBN is such a failure
These days you can’t buy a new car without airbags and ABS brakes. The Internet of Things is transforming the way we live our lives, run our businesses and grow the crops that feed the world. We’re developing autonomous vehicles and there’s talk about travelling to Mars. Yet millions of Australians are being sold broadband Continue reading »
-
DAVID BLOWERS. A high price for policy failure: the ten-year story of spiralling electricity bills.
Politicians are told never to waste a good crisis. Australia’s electricity sector is in crisis, or something close to it. The nation’s first-ever state-wide blackout, in South Australia in September 2016, was followed by electricity shortages in several states last summer. More shortages are anticipated over coming summers. But for most Australians, the most visible impact of this crisis Continue reading »
-
STEPHEN LEEDER. Alcohol and sport. A REPOST
Queensland’s victory over NSW in the 1 June game lin 2016 was reported as the highest rating State of Origin match ever and ‘the top TV event of 2016.’ Both teams carried alcohol advertising on their clothing into the match. The association of alcohol with sport is deep, complex and profitable. Sport provides a lucrative Continue reading »
-
ROGER SCOTT. 1987 and the “Dawkins Revolution”.
This is part 2 of my response to an invitation to share my memories linked to the release of Cabinet papers from 1987. Here I will focus on the tertiary education reforms instituted by federal Education Minister John Dawkins. Continue reading »
-
BRUCE LINDSAY. “Anti-corruption”, water and the Basin plan. A repost from October 8, 2017
Water management and decision-making is vulnerable to lobbying by powerful commercial interests, as was illustrated recently by the ABC Four Corners investigation into NSW water management. Even where such conduct cannot be categorised as corrupt in the criminal sense, it can compromise the integrity of public governance of natural resources. Excessive private interest in the Continue reading »
-
GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND …
A journey through a land of extreme poverty: welcome to America – the Guardian. Australia’s least competitive industries are earning super-profits Ross Gittins – Canberra Times. Michael Lewis writes on Trump’s campaign against Department of Agriculture scientists in Vanity Fair. Americans can spot election meddling because they’ve been doing it for years – the Guardian Continue reading »
-
JOHN QUIGGIN. Why 2017 was a good year for climate
On the face of it, there was plenty of bad news for the climate in 2017. Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the 2105 Paris agreement and promised to reverse the decline of the coal industry. The Turnbull government rejected proposals for an efficient transition to a low-carbon energy sector, instead Continue reading »
-
MICHAEL LAMBERT. Overweight and Obesity Part 2: The indigenous Australians Impact
Part 1 of this two-part post provided a global and broad Australian perspective on the pandemic of overweight and obesity. This part sets out the position for indigenous Australians and argues that this pandemic is a significant part of the health gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians and that the way forward must involve interventions Continue reading »
-
STEPHEN LEEDER: A little bit of sugar may (or may not) make the weight go down.
The statistics do not support the view that there are big differences in sugar consumption between the fat and the thin. We need to define our enemy clearly in the battle against obesity. Continue reading »
-
MICHAEL LAMBERT. Overweight and Obesity Part 1: A Global and Australian Perspective
In part 1 of this two-part post Michael Lambert sets out the broad position on overweight and obesity as both a global development and the Australian situation, the costs involved and the case for national action . The second part of this post will focus on the position with indigenous Australians, its contribution to the Continue reading »
-
STEPHEN LEEDER. Social causes of illness are not immutable: they are amenable to change.
Modifying our own behaviour in health-promoting directions is sensible but for sustainable, nation-wide change we need to take action of a different kind. Continue reading »
-
HELEN CLARK. The health of future generations is at risk.
The health of future generations is being mortgaged as a result of environmental degradation that threatens to reverse the health gains achieved over the past century, according to Dr Helen Clark, a global health advocate. Clark, formerly Administrator of the UN Development Programme and Prime Minister of New Zealand, told the recent launch of the Continue reading »