Public Policy
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Are conservatives better economic managers?
Are conservatives better economic managers? Part 1 In my blog of 3 May 2016, I queried the claim by Malcolm Turnbull and apparently supported by many media commentators and also by the public, that conservatives are better economic managers. The evidence and the record do not show that. In last week’s budget and in the Continue reading »
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Ian Webster. Is community medicine dead?
John Menadue said in the NSW Health Council Report of 2000, “Services should be based where patients and consumers live. The autonomy and dignity of each patient is best serviced by providing services wherever possible outside hospital. So a shift to community multi-disciplinary health teams is a major issue still ahead of us.” He returned Continue reading »
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John Austen and Luke Fraser. Urbane transport policy. Part 1 of 3.
Prime Minister Turnbull made a splash on urban transport recently. He sketched a vision of ‘30 minute cities’ where residents spend on average just one hour a day travelling to regular activities like work and shopping. He also considered mass transit solutions rather than just more motorways. This article is the first of three raising Continue reading »
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Julianne Schultz. Australia must act now to preserve its culture in the face of global tech giants. Brian Johns Annual Lecture
At the first Brian Johns Annual Lecture, Julianne Schultz spoke of the challenge to Australian culture by the global tech giants. In the summary of ‘what can be done’ she said: So what can be done to join the dots in the Age of Fang? We need to become better advocates of the value Continue reading »
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Bruce Duncan. Budget ignores growing inequality
Scott Morrison’s Commonwealth budget aims to be politically balanced but, like the Hockey budgets, neglects struggle street. The budget still labours under the neoliberal belief in minimal taxes, small government and maximum freedom for private enterprise. Morrison’s mantra is that cutting taxes on businesses and the wealthy will increase investment, growth and jobs. The trouble Continue reading »
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Our better angels.
Wasim Buka was sentenced recently on two charges of people-smuggling. He came to Australia as a boat person and has settled in Australia. Unfortunately, two of his brothers were executed in Iraq and one sister, following in his footsteps to Australia, drowned along with her husband and five children in the waters between Australia and Continue reading »
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‘Refugees don’t self-harm because of me, Peter Dutton, they self-harm because of you.’
One of the many disappointments of Malcolm Turnbull’s prime ministership is that he reappointed Peter Dutton as Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. This disappointment is reinforced by his attempt to blame refugee advocates rather than his own policies for the self-harm of asylum seekers. Sarah Smith, a supporter of refugees, tells of the heartbreak Continue reading »
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Evan Williams. Will the real Malcolm Turnbull please stand up?
My friend Evan Hughes, art historian and former law student is standing for Parliament at the next election. And in many ways he’s the model of a modern Labor candidate – clean-cut good looks, easy charm, natural speaking skills and a first-rate mind vouchsafed by a Cambridge University degree. At a fund-raising dinner in Sydney Continue reading »
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Kerry Murphy. Blaming refugees.
Blaming instances of self-harm by refugees and asylum seekers on ‘refugee advocates’ or the undeserving asylum seekers is not a new political tactic. Back in 2001 then Minister Ruddock was interviewed by Four Corners about the problems of self-harm by asylum seekers in detention, especially in Curtain, Woomera and Port Hedland detention centres. Journalist Debbie Continue reading »
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John Zaw. No end in sight to Rohingya suppression in Myanmar.
The hardline Buddhist Arakan National Party (ANP) that holds a majority of seats in Myanmar’s religiously divided Rakhine State has promised to fight any attempts to grant up to 1 million stateless ethic Rohingya citizenship. For the new National League for Democracy (NLD) government in Myanmar, the first civilian administration in the country in more Continue reading »
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John Thompson. Surgeon’s report shows the ineffectiveness of private health insurers to control health costs
Private health insurer Medibank has worked with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons to produce a report that shows enormous variation in fees charged by surgeons for similar procedures. The Surgical Variance Report for General Surgery reviewed thousands of procedures performed on Medibank members in eight common operations – gallbladder removal, gastric band procedures, bowel Continue reading »
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Kim Williams. Fair use does not mean free: Copyright recommendations would crush Australian content
As someone who has spent my life running organisations that take risks, invest billions and innovate to provide the best of local and international content to Australian consumers, reading the Productivity Commission’s draft report into our intellectual property arrangements was profoundly dispiriting. I cannot think of another recent report that so seriously misses the main Continue reading »
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Michael Keating. The 2016-17 Budget. Part 1 of 2.
The Turnbull Government’s Budget for 2016-17 reflects an essentially ‘steady as she goes’ fiscal strategy. Not that that is a fault – indeed it can be a virtue, especially when matched against the give-aways in other previous pre-election budgets. Furthermore, we could not have realistically expected any other sort of Budget, given the extent to Continue reading »
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Peter Gibilisco. A Synergistic Approach to Disability
Here is my proposal for a Dictionary definition of Synergy: the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. “the synergy between artist and record company” or disability support workers and people with disabilities with high support needs. Continue reading »
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Arja Keski-Nummi. Manus – “The Worst Angels of Our Nature”
The PNG Supreme Court decision has again thrown into stark relief the bankrupt nature of Australia’s asylum policy and the disingenuous way that both sides use trite slogans such as “ saving lives” and not “starting up the people smuggling business” as justification for their cynical and inhumane policies. People working with asylum seekers and Continue reading »
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Richard Eckersley. Wellbeing and sustainability: irreconcilable differences?
Better concepts and measures of quality of life and wellbeing make sustainable development more achievable. The debate about progress and development is converging and merging with that about sustainable development. My analysis of the flaws in equating progress with modernisation, discussed in my previous article, contributes to this debate because it shows the equation counts Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. Manus Island proposal.
Asylum seekers on Manus Island should be brought to Australia and processed. Those who are refugees should be permitted to stay in Australia. Neither the Liberal Party nor the Labor Party agree. The race to the bottom and the race against time is now on as the country prepares to go into election mode on or about 12 Continue reading »
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Ray Cassin. No moral mystery to 60 Minutes child snatch disaster.
The mystery of the 60 Minutes child snatch that went so disastrously wrong is that there is no mystery, although some people want to contrive one. Ethically there are no shades of grey here. We know what happened, and we know that what 60 Minutes and TCN Nine agreed to do by helping Sally Faulkner Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan. Cheque book solution on asylum is unconstitutional
A bench of five justices of the Supreme Court of Justice, the highest court in Papua New Guinea, has unanimously ruled that the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island is unconstitutional. The successful applicant in the case was Belden Norman Namah, the PNG Leader of the Opposition. Unlike the Australian Constitution, the PNG Constitution Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Slogans or advocacy.
At the last election, Tony Abbott gave us a long list of slogans. One of them was to ‘axe the tax’. And he did axe the carbon tax. But it was a serious mistake. With the continuing strong evidence of global warming, we badly need a carbon tax or an ETS to reduce carbon pollution. Continue reading »
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Richard Eckersley. The mismeasure of progress: Is the West really the best?
Western liberal democracies dominate the top rankings of progress indices. But are they the best models of development when their quality of life is, arguably, declining and unsustainable. The measures of human progress and development that we employ matter. Good measures are a prerequisite for good governance because they are how we judge its success. Continue reading »
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Adrian Bauman & William Bellew. Does a spoonful of sugar help the medicine go down?
“A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”, according to Mary Poppins. Many more spoonfuls of sugar currently pervade our lifestyles and unconscious food choices. The recent media focus on sugar has been remarkable, but the media frenzy has sought a single solution, a quick fix, to what is in reality a complex problem: Continue reading »
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David Stephens. How did Canberra get its memorial to Kemal Atatürk?
The Atatürk Memorial in Anzac Parade, Canberra, was unveiled on Anzac Day 1985. Over the signature ‘Kemal Atatürk’, the memorial bears an inscription which commences like this: Those heroes that shed their blood And lost their lives … You are now lying in the soil of a friendly Country. Therefore rest in peace. There is Continue reading »
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Mark Gregory. What the government doesn’t want you to know about the NBN
The Coalition’s National Broadband Network (NBN) plan is in trouble and the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should heed the mounting calls for Coalition NBN plan to be dropped before the nation’s digital future is harmed irreparably. In June it will be three years since Turnbull, as Minister for Communications, launched the Coalition’s NBN plan, extolled Continue reading »
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Tony Broe. Coordinating Community Aged Care & Hospital Aged Health Care
Getting Australian Health Services right depends on delivering both Aged Care & Health Care effectively for frail ‘high risk’ older-old people. Reducing inappropriate hospital admissions, shortening length of stay, returning frail people to their homes rather than Residential Care, all depend on accessible, locally based, Community Aged Care assessment support and management systems. For around Continue reading »
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Richard Woolcott. A modern Australia for the 21st century.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said it is a great and exciting time for Australia. Indeed, it is a time of great opportunity for the Australian Government elected later this year to take bold action which will transform Australia into an updated, modern member of the Asian and South West Pacific Region. After World War II the Continue reading »
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Jon Stanford and Michael Keating. A more efficient submarine solution.
This week the Melbourne Age, SMH and the Canberra Times carried the following article written by Jon Stanford and Michael Keating on the $50 b. submarine project. This article is based on a three part article written by Jon Stanford and posted in Pearls and irritations. See link to three articles below. John Menadue Continue reading »
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Evan Williams. The seven sacred cows of Australian politics
We are indebted to the Hindu religion for that useful term sacred cow. As every schoolboy knows, Hindus venerate the cow and forbid its slaughter or abuse. Our political landscape abounds in sacred cows – institutions or practices that are considered beyond criticism, immune to scrutiny and supported by politicians of all parties. Some sacred Continue reading »
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Mark Harris. Obesity: it is time to tax sugar sweetened beverages?
Obesity rates are increasing in the Australian population (Figure 1). There is a widening socioeconomic gap with low socioeconomic groups having the highest rates. There is some evidence that obesity rates in children may be levelling off but not in low socioeconomic status children. Overweight and obesity contributes significantly to the burden of disease (about Continue reading »
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‘We are the forgotten people’; the anguish of Australia’s invisible asylum seekers.
Nearly 29,000 asylum seekers are in Australia on temporary ‘bridging visas’. These people may be free from detention but – with many denied education, healthcare and the right to work – they remain locked in desperate poverty and with no idea what their future holds. See link below to an article in The Guardian Australia. Continue reading »