Public Policy
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FRANK BRENNAN. Seeking Clarity on Boat Turnbacks and the Utility of Offshore Refugee Warehousing
Erika Feller (former Assistant High Commissioner UNHCR) and Michael Pezzullo (Secretary, Dept of Immigration and Border Protection) spoke at this year’s ANU Crawford Australian Leadership Forum on borders and the movement of people. The convenor of the forum is ANU Chancellor Gareth Evans. Continue reading »
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IAN VERRENDER. Why you’re about to pay through the nose for power
It was a rare moment of triumph for a Prime Minister frustrated in his dealings with a difficult Senate. Continue reading »
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FRANK BRENNAN. The origins and incoherence of Australia’s asylum seeker policy
During Refugee Week 2017, I would like to offer a historical perspective on how we got to where we are in the hope that we might be able to convince one or both of our major political parties to reset their policy, which is needlessly destroying lives, including the lives of children who are proven Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. The Australian again supports Trump against Turnbull.
Let’s face it, it was hardly surprising to find Malcolm Turnbull taking the piss out of Donald Trump. For starters, just about everyone does it – indeed, for much of the time The Donald seems to be doing it himself. Continue reading »
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CAVAN HOGUE. Our white man’s media.
For our media, the UK and the US are more or less ‘down town’. Continue reading »
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SPENCER ZIFCAK. The Black Hearts Behind Australia’s Offshore Detention Policy
So, the Australian Government has settled a class action brought by asylum seekers detained on Manus Island for $70,000,000. Apparently, the settlement was reached because the Government was fearful of the evidence and stories of official abuse that would have emerged over some six months should the action have been litigated in court. Lawyers in Continue reading »
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David Ben-Tovim, Some private hospitals are safer than others, but we don’t know which
Our research has shown that some private hospitals are safer than others, but from the data we analysed we couldn’t tell which. Governments should balance commercial interests against the public’s right to know which hospital is providing safe, high-quality care. Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. The Finkel Report and Malcolm Turnbull – compromising at the expense of the planet.
It has little if anything to do with the real issues around climate change: it is all about satisfying Tony Abbott, Barnaby Joyce, George Christensen and Eric Abetz. Continue reading »
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GILES PARKINSON. Finkel decoded: The good, the bad, and the very disappointing
The Finkel Report on the future of the national electricity market falls short of its opportunity to redefine energy markets. It has been focused on trying to find a pathway through the toxic energy politics in Australia, and accommodating the Coalition’s modest climate targets, rather than seizing the moment and outlining what can and should Continue reading »
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JENNIFER DOGGETT. Wasting government funds in subsidising private health insurance.
In the lead up to the recent Federal Budget, the Australian Healthcare Reform Alliance (AHCRA) ran a campaign to highlight the inefficiency of using health resources to subsidise private health insurance (PHI). The campaign focussed on calling on the Government to re-direct funding for the $7 billion private health insurance (PHI) rebate to address key areas Continue reading »
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PETER OLSZEWSKI. Still banging away – Michael Kelly as a media mogul.
Bangkok-based Father Michael Kelly – Mick to his mates – is a journalist who became a Jesuit priest who became a savvy publisher and who now runs a complex global religious media empire. Continue reading »
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JULIAN CRIBB. Green China.
Capitalising on failures of US leadership, China is emerging as a potential ‘great green power’ of the 21st century. Continue reading »
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Specialists versus generalists: A commentary on John Menadue and Peter Brooks
John Menadue and Peter Brooks have mounted powerful critiques of private specialist medical practice in a series in Pearls and Irritations. The nub of their positions is the high fee structure in (private out-patient) specialist practice is out of kilter with community expectations. Continue reading »
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BERNARD KEANE. Low emissions target: a win for both Turnbull and climate denialists, a loss for everyone.
The beauty of a Low Emissions Target as a climate action policy is that, as a kind of lowest common denominator, it means everyone wins — and for that matter loses. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. The question Leigh Sales didn’t ask Senator John McCain.
In her “exclusive interview” with Senator John McCain on 7.30 Report last week, Leigh Sales was told: “The Russians tried to destroy the foundations of democracy and to change the outcome of the American election … and they have just tried to affect the outcome of the French election.” Continue reading »
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Gonski 2.0 is a Fiasco
The Turnbull Government’s Gonski 2.0 funding plan is a fiasco. Public schools will remain under-funded and there will be a massive increase in over-funding of private schools. The Education Amendment Bill before the Parliament to implement Gonski 2.0 should be rejected and an alternative Gonski PLUS model that builds on Gonski 1.0 be developed in Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. Will the forgotten people be heard at last?
The crusaders of the far right have already delivered their sentence: the Uluru statement is to be dead, buried and cremated before it can infect the fairness and decency of the ignorant masses. Continue reading »
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CHRISTIAN DOWNIE. Time for China and Europe to lead, as Trump dumps the Paris climate deal
President Donald Trump’s announcement overnight that he will withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement comes as no surprise. Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. The Uluru Statement.
It is fitting that the Uluru Statement from the Heart celebrated the triumphant referendum of 1967: “In 1967 we were counted; in 2017 we seek to be heard,” the statement declared. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN: The Commonwealth is ‘meddling’ in NSW rail – at last!
There are indications the Prime Minister wishes to modernise infrastructure policy. Reports regarding rail to Badgerys Creek highlight the discomfort this causes to the NSW Government- and enormous benefits if the Prime Minister gets Commonwealth involvement right. Continue reading »
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PAUL COLLINS. There’s Movement at the (Radio) Station
It is not only ABC management that don’t take religion and specialist broadcasting seriously. What can you expect from a board that is made up of business people and technocrats. The fault here lies with the federal government that has appointed these people. Continue reading »
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BASTIAN SEIDEL. Patients want health not necessarily treatment.
Achieving recognition of general practitioners as medical specialists in our own right has been an uphill battle for decades. We only achieved vocational recognition as specialists in the 1990s. For many years we were seen as #JustaGP, a term that symbolises the academic and professional discrimination our members are still subjected to today. Continue reading »
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JOHN DWYER. Punishing and jailing the mentally ill.
A 37-year-old Sudanese woman has been sentenced to 26 years in jail for murdering three of her children by deliberately driving her car into a lake. The story is a tragic one and has nothing to do with criminal behaviour. It raises, yet again, the appalling way in which we treat those with a seriously Continue reading »
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JAMES O’NEILL. More to the Manchester Attack than the Media Would Have us Believe
The terrorist attack in Manchester where 22 people, including children, were killed and scores were injured, many critically, provoked an understandable sense of outrage into how and why this could happen. The answer to that question unfortunately has been to repeat the half-truths and stereotypes that have followed each of the terrorist attacks in western Continue reading »
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Manchester and terrorism. Part 3 of 3.
In this three-part article, Ramesh Thakur argues that the scale of the terrorist threat to Western societies must be kept in perspective, that Western actions in the Middle East may have fomented more terrorism than they have defeated, and that an attitude of denial regarding the potential for problems of large-scale Muslim immigration feeds mutual Continue reading »
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Drug policy and why Victoria deserves better from Premier Daniel Andrews. Part 3 of 3.
Bad drug policy has been good politics for several decades. We can thank US President Richard Nixon for this discovery. Continue reading »
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CHRISTIAN DOWNIE. If the US can’t make coal clean, what hope is there for Australia?
The Prime Minister’s recent decision to back coal rests on the assumption that it can somehow be made “clean”, or more precisely, that carbon, capture and storage (CCS) technologies can be made to work for coal plants. The problem is that they can’t and the US experience shows why. Continue reading »
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FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Uluru: Take Time to Get This Right
Fifty years on from the successful 1967 referendum, we have all heard the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Aboriginal and Torres Strait representatives have told us that ‘in 1967 we were counted, in 2007 we seek to be heard’. Australians of good will acknowledge that sovereignty is a spiritual notion for Indigenous Australians and that Continue reading »
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LYNDSAY CONNORS. Schools Funding: unearthing the facts
The objections raised by Catholic leaders to the Turnbull Government’s Gonski 2.0 funding model raise as many questions about the governance and operation of the Catholic school system as about Gonski 2.0. One of these questions is: who pays for the teachers in Catholic schools? Continue reading »
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ALEX WODAK. How can making drugs easier to access save lives? 10 FAQs about drug law reform. Part 2 of 3.
Police, prison officers and politicians are standing side-by-side with drug users to call for law reform. They say the current practice of jailing people for personal use and possession instead of focusing on their health and safety leads to unacceptable outcomes: lives lost and lives ruined. But it’s hard to get your head around the idea Continue reading »