September 28, 2015

David Charles. Innovation, Disruption, Growth and Jobs of the Future

What a difference a day makes to so many things including innovation. Immediately prior to the replacement of Tony Abbott by Malcolm Turnbull the Commonwealth Government barely had innovation, to say nothing of digital disruption and start ups, on its radar. Its major achievements in the area of funding for innovation were mostly notable for cutting and rebranding existing programs.

To be sure they had responded to worthy ideas from the Business Council of Australia to identify and support five industry growth centres but the level of support - $188.5 million over 4 years - is modest and expectations about their impact, outside government, is limited.

February 4, 2015

John Menadue. Is the public sick of reform?

The business sector and the media have each been asking this question. It is not surprising perhaps in view of Tony Abbotts plummeting approval rating and the election results in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.

In the Australian Financial Review on 2 February 2015, Laura Tingle said The biggest national question to flow from Queenslands historic 2015 election result is not whether the Prime Minister will survive, but whether, after 30 years, voters have had enough of political rhetoric about reform and change and whether both sides of politics back away from ambitious reform as a result.

February 22, 2017

BRIAN COYNE. The randomness and chanciness of life...

In this short essay, Brian Coyne, explores how much randomness and chance play in the outcomes we experience in life. He asks how much we are influenced by the Christian biblical mythology that an afterlife where the first will be last the last will be first helps us cope with the inherent unfairness and injustice that is the outcome of randomness and chance in life.

June 14, 2016

WARWICK ELSCHE. Shorten should play to Labor's strength.

For more than 60 years, since opinion polling became important in shaping election strategies, there has been for the Australian Labor Party one awkward but stubborn consistency.

Rightly or wrongly the Australian Electorate, with very isolated and brief exceptions, has always preferred and trusted the non Labor side of politics, the Liberal-National Party Coalition, as managers of the National economy.

Incredibly, the present Government, which came to power on the strength of a supposed debt and deficit calamity retains that favoured regard on economic issues despite the fact that it has, in just three years added more than 100 billion to the National debt and trebled the deficit the two things they claimed were threatening Australias future.

January 27, 2024

ICJ Ruling on Israel crimes "Poses the greatest political dilemma for the Biden presidency"

I only hope that Biden will, on this occasion, stand up for justice.

November 10, 2016

IAN MARSH. Trumps Victory and Australian Politics

A new anti-globalisation surge.

Trumps ascension no doubt creates new agenda challenges for Australia. But his campaign generated so many diverse and inconsistent statements that the policy landscape remains obscure. What is crystal clear is the gulf between elite worldviews and large swathes of public opinion. Remember those panegyrics to economic globalisation: The World is Flat and The Golden Straightjacket? What now of Thomas Friedmans assured analysis?

Here is one potted reading of the past half century or so. Start with the mass party world. The parties drew their power and reach from class identity. Here is Ernest Bevins description of his (British) socialisation: I had to work at ten years of age while my employers son went to the university until he was twenty. You have set out for me a different set of conditions. I was taught to bow to the squire and touch my hat to the parson; my employers son was not. All these things have produced within me an intense hatred, a hatred which has caused me to organise for my fellows and direct my mind to a policy to give to my class a power to control their own destiny and labour.At present employers and employed are too often separated by something akin to a barrier of caste The operatives are frequently regarded by employers as being of a different and inferior orderSo long as these views continue to exist they inevitably produce an intense class bitterness.

August 15, 2017

TERENCE BEED. Turnbulls postal plebiscite and the Australian Bureau of Statistics: next step in its fall from grace?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has another debacle approaching brought on by its direction to conduct the governments proposed postal plebiscite on same sex marriage. Little more than an outmoded postal survey it will be flawed from the start, plagued by biases both known and unknown. The survey will seriously erode the publics confidence in this once peerless official statistical agency. It needs to start work now to salvage what it can of its reputation for trust and integrity.

October 9, 2015

Nauru and the Philippines

Three days ago, on 6 October, I posted a story ‘Nauru and the Philippines’. That story carried an unconfirmed report that the Australian government was negotiating with the Philippines government for the transfer of 600 asylum seekers in Nauru to the Philippines.

Since then there have been several reports confirming the thrust of this story, even though there has been no confirmation from the Philippine or the Australian government. These reports indicate that the discussions are proceeding, but are not yet concluded. The detail of the arrangement will be very important, particularly the residential status of any asylum seekers transferred to the Philippines. See below the links to the reports in The Guardian (Daniel Hurst and Ben Doherty) and UCAnews (Michael Sainsbury). The reports have also been covered in several News Ltd publications.

October 31, 2016

JOHN MENADUE and IAN McAULEY. The future of globalisation.

Rescuing globalisation from cheer leaders and populists.

If we cannot make globalisation work for all, in the end it will work for none. Kofi Annan

Last week John Menadue raised the issue of globalisation, welcoming comment from other people in his blog community.

As he points out, the rise of Trump in the USA, the Brexit vote in the UK and the success of protectionist parties in our federal election have all elevated globalisation as a pressing issue, and there is a risk that we slide into an era of isolationism and protectionism.

February 3, 2014

Ian Webster. Cutting waste and costs in health

Waste in health care conjures up several pictures.

One picture is of community nurses, psychologists and Aboriginal health workers in the community centre I visit anchored to their computer screens, endlessly it seems, trying to fulfil the demands of data entry. They are obviously frustrated by the lack of relevance this has for solving the problems of their patients. It takes time away and it is disempowering. About one third of each day is lost in this way.

January 27, 2024

Israel accuses the ICJ of (you guessed it) antisemitism

The International Court of Justicerejected Israels requestto dismiss the genocide case brought against it by South Africa on Friday,rulingby amassive majoritythat the case shall proceed and instructing Israel to refrain from killing and harming Palestinians in the interim.

March 23, 2015

John Menadue. More problems with the Department of Health and Ageing.

On 16 March, I drew attention to a Capability Review of the Department of Health and Ageing by the Australian Public Service Commission. It set out a very worrying analysis of the overall performance of DHA.

We now have a report by the Australian National Audit Office of DHA’s administration of the Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement (5CPA). The 5CPA is the fifth agreement which the Commonwealth Government has made to provide subsidised medicines to Australians who are eligible through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). This agreement is with community pharmacies across Australia.

July 8, 2016

ROBERT MANNE. Murdoch's war.

In July 2005, Robert Manne in The Monthly Essays, outlined Rupert Murdoch’s role and that of some of his senior journalists in support of the invasion of Iraq. Robert Manne notes that ‘of the 175 Murdoch owned newspapers worldwide, all supported the invasion’. The opponents of the war were described in Murdoch’s newspapers as ’the coalition of the whining’. See transcript below of Robert’s Manne’s revelations about how monopoly press power is abused. John Menadue

July 15, 2013

Regional cooperation is the key. Guest blogger: Rt Hon Malcolm Fraser

Australias problems with asylum seekers and refugees are not unique. We are not the only point of destination. There are around 30,000 in Australia, over 160,000 in Canada, 51,000 in Austria, 22,000 in Belgium, 74,000 in Netherlands with a population much less than ours, nearly 150,000 in the United Kingdom and 589,000 in Germany. There is a massive move of a similar kind to Europe. We are not the only destination. It is a worldwide problem which requires regional and international cooperation. We cannot fix it on our own.

February 22, 2017

DAVID JAMES. Trump's pro-globalisation critics miss the key questions

The most pressing question: Is the global system there to serve people, or are people there to serve the global system?They also never address a central contradiction of globalisation: that capital is free to move, but for the most part people are not, unless they belong to the elite ranks. The inevitable backlash has begun.

November 17, 2018

KELLIE MERRITT. Stepping up to the war crease.

Unaccountable spin and double standards are the stuff of good bloke politicians. Its a skilful charade that perpetuates unchecked executive power and distances the parliament and public. Kellie Merritts husband Paul was killed whilst on operational duty in Iraq. She doesnt want to collude with the good blokes. Truth is often the first casualty of war and cricket.

August 1, 2024

Can you help Pearls and Irritations raise the bar in Australia’s media landscape?

As an independent media, Pearls and Irritations is only supported by the generous donations and monthly subscriptions from our readers. Can you help?

September 29, 2016

China's deepening engagement in Australian society: is it a concern?

The PRC government’s influence in domestic Australia - long active but not altogether visible or much remarked - is now emerging as a big, contentious and potentially disruptive issue in the relationship, and a thorny one for policy-makers. In some respects, it may be more challenging and more pressing than other more prominent issues like the South China Sea. Unlike PRC actions in the South China Sea it is difficult to ascertain what precise actions the PRC is taking within Australia and what influence these actions are having.

April 30, 2025

Human rights abuses by Israel – Amnesty report

Israel is perpetrating a “live-streamed genocide” in Gaza, committing illegal acts with the “specific intent” of wiping out Palestinians, Amnesty International said in their annual report released on Monday.

July 2, 2014

Pearls and Irritations over 2,100 daily readers

This blog was launched in January 2013.

Daily figures for June 2014 were:

2,108 views/reads
5,896 pages read
12,652 daily hits

Monthly figures for June were:

63,266 views/reads
176,894 pages read
379,587 hits for the month.

There are 2,952 subscribers.

Thank you for your support.

Please spread the word.

John Menadue

September 21, 2014

Will we ever learn?

In an article in the Washington Post - see link below - Katrina vanden Heuvel says

‘Our interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan should have made one thing clear: we have neither the patience, the resources nor the willingness to wreak the violence needed to suppress the regional sectarian conflicts. For more than a decade, we have spent trillions, sacrificed lives and rained bombs on assorted targets from Pakistan to Libya. And the civil wars, tribal rivalries and sectarian violence have only increased.’

June 2, 2013

Was the 'hung parliament' all that bad? John Menadue

We have been told many times since the 2010 election that the hung parliament was an abomination, it wouldnt work and that it wouldnt last. Denied government after the last election, the Coalition tried to make the government as well as the parliament as unworkable as possible. Paul Keating put it more colourfully If Tony Abbott doesnt get his way, he sets about wrecking the joint.

But here we are almost three years later with the parliament seeing out its full term.

June 15, 2014

Walter Hamilton. Fractured News from Fukushima.

Its raining in Fukushima.

Since radioactive contamination from the crippled nuclear power plant is spread mainly by introduced water, even a routine weather bulletin has more-than-usual significance. The annual tsuyu, or rainy season, is in full swing in Japan. Fukushima prefecture normally receives 250 millimetres of rain in June-July, and every drop adds to the burden of the disaster.

More than three years after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, it is difficult to form a reliable overview of how the nuclear accident is unfolding, its long-term effects on public health, and progress in making the site and surrounding areas safe. Information is released piecemeal fashion from various sources: Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO); national government agencies; separate local authorities; regulators; and non-government monitors. There is no single, unbiased source plotting progress comprehensively against consistent terms of reference and using plain language. The mainstream media also seem incapable of addressing the information gaps and unanswered questions. What follows, therefore, is necessarily a partial impression.

November 10, 2016

ROBERT MANNE. Its Time

The Turnbull government has recently introduced new asylum seeker legislation into parliament. It has two parts. The first part aims to prevent any asylum seeker who tried to reach Australia after July 19 2013, including those who have been found to be genuine refugees, from ever being allowed to settle in Australia. The second part aims at banning the adults in this cohort settled in another country from ever visiting Australia even on a tourist or a business visa.

The first part of this proposal writes into law what has previously been a bipartisan political agreement. Turning this consensus into legislation has however three implications.

May 16, 2016

EVAN WILLIAMS. Who do you trust to speak plain English?

Who do you trust to keep the economy strong and protect family living standards? Who do you trust to keep interest rates low? Who do you trust in the fight against international terrorism?

Familiar words? Malcolm Turnbulls opening pitch for the July 2 election? Actually, no. These were John Howards words, launching his campaign against the hapless Mark Latham in 2004. By my count, Howard used the mantra Who do you trust? more than a dozen times. (An old-fashioned pedant like me might have asked: Whom do you trust to use good English grammar? But lets not quibble over trifles.)

May 8, 2015

Philip Clarke. Pharmacy sector in dire need of reform.

Among the most significant reforms proposed by recently released Harper Competition Policy Review is the removal of regulatory restrictions that greatly limit competition in the community pharmacy sector. But implementing the recommendation will require politicians who are up for a real challenge.

Any changes to how the pharmacy sector works involves taking on what has been described as the most powerful lobby group youve never heard of. The Pharmacy Guild of Australia, which represents the interest of pharmacy owners, is widely perceived as one of the most influential lobby groups in Australia.

December 20, 2013

New Vatican Committee on Sexual Abuse - What the Pope and the Bishops should do. Guest blogger: Bishop Geoffrey Robinson

Pope Francis has announced that he is setting up a committee to advise him on how to respond to sexual abuse within the Church. There is a large amount of scepticism in many quarters about such a move, for there have been so many other meetings before this and they have produced so little. So why should one more committee make any difference?

I am more hopeful than the sceptics because I think there is a new factor here, and that new factor is Pope Francis himself. He has shown a willingness to face unpleasant aspects of the Church and a determination to change what needs to be changed that I have not seen since Pope John XXIII. So I am more than happy to work with his initiative and to support him in any way I can. Under his leadership I would far rather give wholehearted support to an initiative that may produce nothing than not give support to a movement that might seriously and genuinely confront all aspects of abuse.

July 31, 2014

John Menadue. Overplaying ones hand.

With the benefits that governments get with incumbency, presidents and prime ministers need to be careful not to overstate their case or overplay their hands. The temptation is great, particularly when there are national outpourings of grief and when a global stage awaits.

Tony Abbott was certainly on the world stage over MH370. On 21 March in PNG he announced that satellite footage showed what could be debris from the missing airlines flight MH370. Then he added, now it could just be a container that fell off a ship we just dont know we owe it to [families and friends] to give them information as soon as it is to hand.

July 18, 2014

Bugger the planet, ignore our children and trash our reputation.

The repeal of the carbon tax is a political victory for Tony Abbott but it is hard to imagine a worse combination of poor reasoning and bad policy making. It shows little appreciation of economics. It will increase the budget deficit. It shows a mistrust of the market. Tony Abbotts political legacy will be defined by the repeal of the carbon tax. It is one of the worst examples of policy vandalism in our history.

November 17, 2018

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 Santas sleigh is finite. The university system as a whole does not rank high enough politically to get a bigger slice of the Christmas pie so the elves need to help the Minister make do with what he has.

February 3, 2014

John Dwyer. Cutting waste and costs in health.

Tactics and strategies for a six year journey to sustainable, equitable excellence

(1) Move to a single funder for our national health scheme (The Commonwealth). The funder would contract with States and other potential providers to deliver integrated patient focused care. The health bureaucracy would be reduced by 80% with greater efficiency, better outcomes and less duplication saving at least $ 4 billion per year. (2) Remove Tax-payer support for Private Health insurance. Health Insurers are making large profits. Australians will retain their PHI as other sticks make that a certainty. The introduction of the subsidy saw PHI increase by only 2%. (3) Introduce peer and craft approved critical pathways to see more evidence based decision making re tests and procedures . Savings $20 billion per year. (4) Focus on reducing avoidable expensive hospital admissions ( more than 600,000 per year) through cheaper and better timely community interventions. Requires the introduction of Integrated Primary Care teams. Will need to broaden Medicare funding to cover health professionals other than doctors but net savings anticipated at least $7 billon per year.(5) Introduce slowly but steadily capitated funding for the management of"chronic and complex"diseases with mandatory reporting of health outcomes.

February 1, 2015

Clive Kessler. A rage against history.

The Ottawa parliament, Caf Lindt, Charlie Hebdo and so many others too: these are all separate incidents. But they are all part of the same global phenomenon.

They are all expressions of a rage against history that lurks within modern Islam and animates Muslim militants worldwide today.

It is a rage that has its source within the wounded soul of contemporary Islamic civilisation, of the modern Muslim world generally.

**The Islamic religion and its social world**are an intensely political tradition.

April 30, 2025

Firefighters fight Dutton’s nuclear plan

The United Firefighters Union of Australia has launched a last-minute campaign warning Australians of the risks associated with the Coalition’s plan to build seven nuclear power plants in five states.

March 20, 2013

Does Australia care about what happens on its doorstep in Sabah? Guest blogger: El Tee Kay

Almost a month ago two hundred of the self styled Royal Sulu Army, some heavily armed, landed in a small coastal village in Sabah, Malaysia. They came from the nearby Tawi Tawi islands in the southern Philippines. Their objective was to persuade the Malaysian Government to recognize their hereditary claim to Sabah for the Sulu Sultanate.

The Suluk or Tausag tribes have traversed this narrow stretch of water as traders and pirates for centuries and many settled along the East coast of Sabah. The influx increased during the Moro uprising in the southern Philippines. This most recent invasion, it seems, has all to do with the Philippine claim to Sabah and reminiscent of President Marcoss Operation Merdeka which was an attempt to launch 160 army trained Muslim youth from Sulu and Tawi Tawi to foment an uprising in Sabah in 1967. This plot went horribly wrong when this commando unit called the Jabidah found out they were to kill fellow Suluks. They mutinied and were apparently eliminated by their handlers. Coincidentally, Benigno Aquino Jr the father of the current Philippines President blew the cover of this covert operation and massacre.

March 13, 2024

Labor must freeze all AUKUS payments underwriting US Navy shipyards with taxpayer money

ALP rank-and-file activist group, Labor Against War, has called on the Albanese government to immediately freeze all planned AUKUS payments earmarked to underwrite the US Navy industrial shipyards.

July 8, 2016

ALISON BROINOWSKI. Bush s poodles

There is a sense in Britain that its very foundations are shaking. Just weeks sincethe Brexit decision, the prospect of recession is real, the value of the pound and the price of real estate have dropped out of sight, credible leaders are lacking, and uncertainty threatens the future of Great Britain itself. Piled on top, now, is the Chilcot report on the war in Iraq. Its revelations about the moral failures of government in the UK are so serious that some feel they could bring the whole edifice crashing down.

How has it come to this and what does Chilcot mean for Australia?

November 30, 2015

Travers McLeod. Unusual suspects challenging usual thinking on climate change.

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

Twenty years ago Kevin Spacey uttered this famous line about his alter ego, Keyser Sz, in The Usual Suspects. Keyser Sz isn’t climate change, but he might as well be.

Since the film was released an inordinate amount of money has been spent to trick the world that human-induced climate change doesn’t exist.

Recent data from the CSIRO suggests the ’trick’ is yet to be completely foiled in Australia. Although almost 80 percent of people believe climate change is occurring, every second person routinely changes their mind and there is considerable divergence on whether human activity is a causal factor.

January 11, 2016

John Menadue. Australians who fight in overseas wars.

Repost from 02/03/2015

The government has been concerned, as many of us are, about Australians fighting for IS in Syria and Iraq. The government is threatening to revoke the Australian citizenship of dual nationals who involve themselves in this war.

Whether this will be successful is a very moot point. It is asserted by many that prosecution under our existing laws would be much more effective. But a government in trouble about its own security has to be seen to be doing something, e.g. revoking citizenship.

February 18, 2016

John Menadue. Regional cooperation on refugees, Bali and a Track II Dialogue.

I attended a Track II Dialogue in Bangkok recently to try to help develop a framework of shared responsibility to manage in a humane and efficient manner, displaced people movements in the region.

There is concern that the Track I Regional Dialogue at government level has not been particularly fruitful. So much of the response to asylum seekers, refugees and displaced people in the region has been ad hoc, fragmented and political.

December 15, 2014

Helena Britt. General Practice and value for money.

Last year taxpayers spent A$6.3 billion on GP services through Medicare, about 6% of the total government health expenditure. This was a 50% increase (A$2.1 billion) in todays dollars over the past decade and equates to about A$60 more per person in real terms.

Health Minister Peter Dutton says this growth is unsustainable. He plans to introduce a GP co-payment in hope of reducing the number of times Australians visit a GP and to ensure users foot some of the bill.

August 23, 2014

Richard Woolcott. Indonesia under President Widodo.

Australia will be dealing with a new Indonesian government in just two months. This will involve challenges and opportunities for both countries.

The Constitutional Court in Jakarta has now confirmed the election of Joko Widodo as President-elect with 53.15% of the eligible vote. The Courts decision is not appealable and he will be sworn in as President on the 20th of October.

All Australians, especially our political leaders and senior officials, should be in no doubt that no bilateral relationship will be more important in the future than that with Indonesia.

February 22, 2017

HAROLD LEVIEN. Solving our Housing Problem.

Housing investors have largely crowded out first-home-buyers from the Sydney and Melbourne housing markets. The Coalition Government has not simply failed to address this problem; its policies have been the principal cause.

March 2, 2015

Stephen Leeder. Telling the story of mental health.

It is unusual for Foreign Affairs, a magazine published by the United States Council on Foreign Relations in New York, to contain articles on health, but the first issue of 2015 carries an essay (Darkness invisible: the hidden global costs of mental illness) by three distinguished scientists from the National Institute of Mental Health about the hidden costs of mental health.1 Based on evidence from a 2010 Harvard University study on the current and future burden of disease,2 they state that the direct economic effects of mental illness (such as spending on care) and the indirect effects (such as lost productivity) already cost the global economy around $2.5 trillion a year, an amount projected to rise by 2030 to around $6 trillion, in constant dollars more than heart disease and more than cancer, diabetes, and respiratory diseases combined.1

June 15, 2014

Frank Brennan SJ. Homily for Trinity Sunday with the Royal Commission in town.

On Fridayafternoon, I called into the Canberra Magistrates Court to watch an hour or two of proceedings at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The court was packed with lawyers. These are shameful times for us Australians as we realise how great has been the problem of child sexual abuse in our society, and presumably still is. They have been especially shameful times for us Catholics as we realise what a problem this has been in our schools, welfare institutions and parishes. Thank God, we have the help of the State to investigate matters thoroughly and transparently. We know that no royal commission can solve all the problems. No royal commission ever has. Think just of the royal commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody which promised so much. The Aboriginal imprisonment rate is higher now than it was before the Commission was held. But hopefully with this royal commission, there can be new laws, new rules, and new protocols which can help to reduce the incidence of child abuse in all our social institutions, especially those which work most closely with vulnerable children. These new laws, new rules, and new protocols will apply just as much to our church organisations as to any other social organisations.

February 20, 2015

Tony Kevin, Tony Abbotts crassness could cost the Bali duo their lives.

Let me first declare my biases. I believe that I honour and respect Indonesias values and culture. I oppose the death penalty in general. In this case, I would welcome an outcome that saved the lives of the last two members of the Bali Nine who now face execution In Indonesia, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, for the offence of smuggling drugs out of Indonesia in 2005. I believe every life saved from deliberate violent death affirms and enriches our collective humanity; and that the quest for consistency of action is the enemy of mercy. I also believe the murky AFP role in the history of the Bali Nines arrest as they were leaving Indonesia imposes a special moral obligation on Australia to do everything possible to try to save these two mens lives now.

March 12, 2013

Asylum Seekers and Paedophiles. John Menadue

In my blog of March 5 I spoke about the demonization of asylum seekers by Scott Morrison. He has variously alleged that they bring disease, wads of cash and jewellery. He has also called for the registration of asylum seekers moving into a residential area.

But Senator Abetz has gone even further.

He made it very clear that we should draw the inference that just as the public wanted paedophiles registered when they moved into a community, so there should be registration of asylum seekers. He was not rebuked by Tony Abbott.

February 10, 2015

Michael Sainsbury. FIRB credibility shot with execution of Chinese gangster.

Liu Han, the Chinese criminal whose billion dollar bidfor Australian mining company Sundance Resources sailed through the Foreign Investment Review Board with barely the bat of an eyelid has been executed along with his brother, Liu Wei once one of Chinas ten most wanted murderers.

So endeth one of the most embarrassing episodes in recent Australian corporate history that exposed the incompetence not just of FIRB but of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission as well.

July 28, 2014

Michael Kelly SJ. Todays Totalitarianisms Powerful Forms.

Australian eyes are focused on the unspeakable brutality and pointlessness of the downing of MH 17. But alongside this event, Australian minds and hearts are assailed daily by barbarism across the Middle East and in different parts of Asia.

Its the paradox of liberalism that pluralistic secular democracies like Australia afford citizens far greater freedoms than some of its citizens would be ready to concede if they were in charge. Australian authorities readily approve the right of Muslims to build mosques, get government subsidies for their schools and dress as they wish.

February 3, 2014

Ian McAuley. Cutting waste and costs in health.

There are three areas of saving to be made in health care real savings rather than movement of costs from public budgets to consumers.

There can be savings in technical efficiency – savings any engineer or cost-conscious manager seeks in a workplace. A strong example is making better use of information technology.

There can be savings in purchasing. Australia used to negotiate some of the worlds lowest pharmaceutical prices. We now pay high prices.

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