June 3, 2016

JOHN DWYER. Restructuring the governance of health care in Australia. Part 1

Part One. Structural reforms for better health outcomes from a redesigned more cost-effective health care system.

The most important pre-election health care initiative has received very little publicity. Labor has committed to establishing a “Healthcare Reform Commission” if elected. While not likely to generate much discussion in one’s local pub it represents an acceptance by a major political party that we do need to explore structural changes to the way we deliver health to achieve better outcomes and fiscal sustainability. What follows is an evidence based scenario for the evolution of major structural reforms, many of which are currently being pursued internationally.

August 16, 2017

LEANNE WELLS. Health insurance: the big shift that’s left patients short

The transformation of big health funds into for-profit business enterprises sheltered by significant government subsidy and regulations has failed to prompt a complementary response from federal governments, Coalition or Labor, to even the playing field for consumers.

August 27, 2018

IAN McAULEY. We sympathise with you Malcolm, but you should have read your mail

Re-visiting an open letter sent to Turnbull just after his narrow victory in 2016. And a suggestion how he may go on contributing to the public purpose.

September 26, 2016

RICHARD WOOLCOTT. Australia’s Shambolic Policy on Syria - Up Shi’ite Creek Without a Paddle.

We must get out of Syria.

The war in Syria is extraordinarily complex. It really began in 2011 with the failures of the so-called Arab Spring.

Now the core conflict is between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and the rebel groups which oppose him. Both sides have split into several militias, which have attracted foreign fighters, including a number of Australians.

September 6, 2018

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration --- New York Times 5 September 2018

I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting process _here__._

April 4, 2017

TOM BURTON. Data rights for all.

A proposed new legal right for consumers and businesses to control and access the data created about them is set to be one of the major reforms of this decade. Not everyone is supportive.

September 5, 2016

PARIS ARISTOTLE. Rescuing people on Nauru and Manus Island.

Statement from the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture, regarding people transferred by Australia to the refugee processing centres of Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

October 14, 2015

John Menadue. The new compradors and the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement

Compradors are sometimes described as those who help a foreign country exploit their own. I was reminded of this when I read that the ALP Caucus had compromised its concerns over jobs for Australians and was prepared to waive the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement through the parliament with only a ‘diluted’ list of demands as the AFR put it.

If this agreement proceeds, Australian workers are likely to be much more vulnerable. Not surprisingly the President of the ACTU, Ged Kearney said that ‘this is about Australian jobs so we will keep fighting for those jobs’. No wonder the unions are unhappy about the attitude of Labor parliamentarians.

December 10, 2016

FRANK JOTZO. Trump and Climate - but new opportunities for China.

The Trump Presidency is a fork in the road for climate action. While it may set back global climate efforts, an inward-looking US government that ignores climate change provides new opportunities for leadership elsewhere, Frank Jotzo writes.

March 10, 2016

NBN stars collide – waiting for the Big Bang

Two stars collided in Canberra last week, but the big bang is yet to be heard.

October 11, 2024

A five-minute scroll

On World Mental Health day keep the children of Palestine in mind. US Journalist Jeremy Loffredo arrested, beaten and charged by Israel.Polish MEP speaks out on Israel and Palestinian diplomat Nada Tarbush speaks out at the UN. Greta Thunberg speaks out on the police closure of a German University encampment while the NZ defence minister speaks out against misogyny. Israel strikes in Beirut overnight. A five-minute scroll on X this morning.

July 7, 2016

Chilcot Report and the 'patsy from Down Under'.

The Chilcot Report on the UK involvement in the invasion of Iraq has just been released. In a commentary on the report, Paul McGeough in the SMH refers to John Howard as the ‘patsy from Down Under’.

The Chilcot Report concurs with the widespread view that the invasion of Iraq set in hand the awful devastation and death that we now see continuing in the Middle East. the rise of ISIS can be attributed to the dreadful mistakes of Bush, Blair and Howard.

March 22, 2017

CAMERON MURRAY. Affordable housing reform.

While the decline of our economic diversity, has failed the average worker, it has been a boon for the landlord class. Those who already own land and housing benefit at the expense of those who want access to housing for their own household security. Those who own the banks benefit too. And we have seen the enormous lengths to which government will go to support the way things are. Every “affordable housing” policy, … is designed not to let housing prices fall, and housing become genuinely more affordable.

May 12, 2016

Richard Farmer. Controlling the Senate.

There a couple of reasons to take little notice of what Labor, Liberals, Nationals, Greens and other assorted politicians say between now and 2 July.

The first is that election politics is rarely about telling the truth. Normally it is about telling people things that they think people want to hear. The skilful politician monitors public opinion, determines what people believe, packages the public’s best lines and sells them back to them. It will always be thus as the primary concern of a politician is winning.

September 5, 2019

PAUL COLLINS. Ten new papal electors

Last Sunday Pope Francis unexpectedly announced that on October 5 he would appoint thirteen new members to the college of cardinals from thirteen different countries, a truly international group. Ten of the new appointments are under the age of 80 and can therefore vote in a papal election. Significantly there were no Americans, and only one from Italy. The Pope clearly intended the group to be international, continuing his policy of appointing papal electors from as broad a cross section of countries and local churches as possible.

March 12, 2016

Evan Williams. The Lady in the Van. Film Review

Alec Guinness is remembered for playing seven different roles in the classic English comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. In Nicholas Hytner’s film, The Lady in the Van, Maggie Smith goes one better. At different times she’s a crazy old woman, a street beggar, a nun, a belligerent suburban mischief-maker, a well-to-do motorist, an incarcerated lunatic, a kindly old biddy and an aspiring concert pianist – all embodied in the person of Mary Shepherd, the film’s formidable central character. It’s an acting tour de force for which Dame Maggie has received awards and much critical acclaim. It seems a pity to strike a critical note.

June 13, 2018

DENNIS ARGALL. Trump-Kim, Korea, China and the future.

The underpinnings of Australian strategic utterances are slipping away.

There will be, it is the way the world is, a flood of “yeah, but…” comment on the Trump-Kim Singapore summit. Not least because the number of experts on Korean affairs has risen multifold in the past several months much as did the number of experts on China in the then Department of Foreign Affairs go through the roof after Whitlam and Kissinger visited China in 1971. The DPRK now and the PRC then deserve comparison, both as to their political, social and economic affairs and their prospects — but that is another subject.

January 20, 2017

FRANCIS MARKHAM & MARTIN YOUNG. When it comes to election campaigns, is the gambling lobby all bark and no bite?

The gambling lobby’s influence in overriding popular opinion and the public interest in Australia is well-known. But is its electoral power exaggerated? A look at this year’s ACT election suggests that perhaps the gambling industry is less influential than it appears to be.

May 29, 2017

Manchester and terrorism, Part 1 of 3.

The swamp fights back

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 paranoia and hostility and is not conducive to social cohesion.

January 18, 2015

Chris Clohessy. Bad reading leads to destructive religion.

The recent terror attacks in France have highlighted a number of issues, all needing further discussion. One is the reality that it took an attack on European soil to provoke such a reaction – 1.6 million people marching in Paris, led by forty or more world leaders. But militant groups, under Islamic guise, have been slaughtering people for an extended period of time – in Nigeria, in Pakistan, in Syria and Iraq – in the last few weeks Boko Haram terrorists have killed over two thousand in Nigeria. The world reaction, compared to its reaction to Paris, has been negligible, suggesting an inconsistency in the way we value human life.

August 28, 2014

John Menadue. Refugees and asylum seekers..a re-think on Temporary Protection Visas.

I have long argued that Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) should be rejected on the grounds that they don’t deter asylum seekers, people are left in limbo and because TPV holders could not sponsor family which resulted in risky boat journeys by women and children.

It is time to think again about TPVs.

At the present time there are over 30,000 asylum seekers in detention or in the community awaiting refugee assessment. That caseload is the result of the large influx of boat arrivals following the collapse of the Malaysian Agreement and the refusal of the Coalition and the Greens to agree to changes to the Migration Act which would have helped give effect to the agreement made with Malaysia.

September 13, 2019

Roger Scott. A Response to 'Trust Me, I'm an Expert'

The podcast ‘ Trust Me, I’m An Expert’ (10 September) is one of The Conversation’s rare forays into Queensland politics. It is a podcast from a much-valued series of gatherings held regularly at the Avid Reader bookshop in Brisbane’s West End.

March 17, 2017

PHIL ROBERTSON. A new wave of atrocities is being committed against Muslims in Burma’s Rakhine state

The burned-out mosques in Sittwe, the capital of the Rakhine state in western Burma, loom as silent reminders of an atrocity, hiding behind overgrown bushes and cement walls amid the daily port city bustle.

March 28, 2016

Mike Steketee. Election 2016: Beware the (very) long road to ruin

The risk with such a long election campaign is that unanticipated events can scuttle a party’s chances. And in the 2016 campaign it’s the Coalition that has everything to lose, writes Mike Steketee.

Elections can throw up many imponderables and the longer the campaign runs the more likely they are to do so.

After Bob Hawke won in 1983 against Malcolm Fraser, his personal popularity and that of his party kept rising. The drought broke - although not even Hawke claimed credit for that - and the economy was on the way back up after the worst recession since the Great Depression.

December 13, 2024

A five-minute scroll

The world voted to support the mandate of the UNRWA in Palestine, while Israel continues to ignore international law in Syria. Syrian born British journalists advises that the media has been lying about Syria while Francesca Albanese puts Gaza back on the table as it disappears from the news.

September 18, 2015

Ian Marsh. Revolving Prime Ministers.

As has been widely noted, Malcolm Turnbull is our fifth prime minister in as many years. You have to go back to the 1901-1909 pre two-party period for a roughly similar record. Then it was six leaders in seven years. But the analogy is only superficial. The protagonists - Barton (briefly), Watson (briefly), Deakin, Reid (briefly) and finally Fisher – rose and fell based on their ability to create parliamentary majorities for particular measures. The parties – Free Traders, Protectionists and Labor – differed fiercely. They represented the two variants of nineteenth century liberalism and twentieth century collectivism – fault-lines that persist to this day.

February 12, 2019

Housing affordability and Labor’s tax proposals (Revised)

Home ownership has become much less affordable. It is a major source of inequality both between generations and within generations. Housing cannot become more affordable without bringing down house prices relative to incomes. Labor’s tax proposals are intended to do just this. But is this the right time? House prices are allegedly falling already, and will further price reductions undermine the economy?

December 8, 2016

JOHN McCARTHY. Preparing for Trump

ANZUS has morphed from an alliance to a sacrosanct ethos to which all Australians are supposed to subscribe. It is time it went back to what it was supposed to be - an alliance. … To differ with the Americans may require political courage of an order to which the Australian political class are unaccustomed.

August 1, 2015

Marcus Woolombi Waters. We all know and admire the Haka ... so why not one of our own?

The first I heard of the Adam Goodes Bumala-y Yuurrama-y (war dance) I was in Aotearoa/New Zealand. I had been watching my son play rugby. It was a carnival (under 12s) and they had just lost the grand final. After leading for the entire game, players and parents alike watched helplessly as the opposing team swept down the field from sideline to sideline, much like the legendary Mark Coyne try in State of Origin.

June 24, 2016

ARTHUR CHESTERFIELD-EVANS. Medicare- Did the Liberals try to abolish it?

This is a current question with Shorten claiming that the Liberals are trying to privatise it and Turnbull calling this a Labor lie. What is the truth? The answer is in the history of Medicare funding. Medibank was set up by the Whitlam government and the bulk billing frees were set at 85% of the AMA ‘Most Common Fee’. The 15% was a discount but saved doctors a lot of costs and all their bad debts. They got slightly less, but the clerical and hassles saved by simply sending the paperwork, and later the computer message to the Medicare computer was felt to be a good deal.

August 27, 2018

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Abbott will find another patsy in his endless search for revenge.

In the end, a vestige of sanity prevailed.

The Liberal lemmings baulked on the brink and decided the final step into the chasm of a Peter Dutton prime ministership was just too crazy, and drew back. At least a bare majority of them did; they were happy to lurch well to the right, but not to launch themselves into the abyss.

December 3, 2014

John Menadue. The smoko continues.

In April 2012 Greg Dodds and I posted an article on this blog ‘The Australian Century and the Australian smoko’. We argued that while we responded well to the opportunities in Asia for over a decade in the 1980s, we went on ‘smoko’ from the mid-1990s. There was widespread complacency and fear of Asia was promoted. The result has been two decades of failure by business, universities, schools and the media in equipping ourselves for the region. That complacency is still with us and the fear of Asia is promoted by ministers like Scott Morrison.

May 7, 2014

A last hurrah from Graham Freudenberg on his 80th birthday

May Day 2014 – fittingly the day of Neville Wran’s memorial service at Sydney Town Hall – may well turn out to be the day when the Labor Party began to see its way ahead. Not because of the event itself, although it certainly was a marvellous celebration of a great Labor era. But it was the day of the Shepherd Audit Report. It also happened to be the day when News Ltd bared its fangs and reminded the Abbott Government just who was calling the tune. I invite students of history to file away the Sydney Daily Telegraph on 1 May 2014 and its coverage of the Shepherd Audit next day. All its hatred of Labor was as feral as ever, but in page after page, the message to Abbott and Co was clear:

January 20, 2016

Evan Williams. Film Review: Carol.

I’m not alone in rating her the best actress in the world. Or as some would prefer to say, the best female actor in the world. Or more precisely, the best female English-speaking screen actor working in mainstream cinema. And yes, I’m talking about our Cate – up there with Garbo, Hepburn, Streep, destined for legendhood (if I may use that word) – and currently starring in Carol, an absorbing romantic drama directed by Todd Haynes.

April 5, 2017

ALLAN PATIENCE. Where do we go from here?

“Why do we experience such difficulty even imagining a different sort of society? Why is it beyond us to conceive of a different set of arrangements to our common advantage? Are we doomed indefinitely to lurch between a dysfunctional ‘free market’ and the much advertised horrors of ‘socialism’?” – Tony Judt, Ill Fares the Land

January 27, 2015

John Menadue. Health Policy Reform: Part 1 – Why reform is needed.

I will be posting three articles on health policy.

This article outlines the priority areas where reform is necessary.

Part 2 will explain why reform is so difficult but not impossible. The key issue is power and how it is exercised

Part 3 will be about processes and governance issues that are necessary to move us beyond the present inertia, incrementalism and tinkering, with suggestions for policy directions. I will not be proposing specific policies.

August 16, 2017

STEPHEN DUCKETT. Why it costs you so much to see a specialist – and what the government should do about it

Australians pay too much when they go to medical specialists. The government can and should do more to drive prices down. A current Senate Inquiry on out-of-pocket costs will hopefully lead to some policy action.

October 12, 2018

JOHN HANNON. Complexities of Catholic marriage.

As Brendan Byrne SJ, scripture scholar, comments on today’s Gospel( 7 October 2018): **“**Any pastor would be aware that no Sunday Gospel read throughout the year… will require more careful handling than this one… To simply read out the rulings of Jesus in the Gospel without comment or nuance would be to turn Gospel into Law, and simply add to a burden of guilt that may already be oppressive” So, here goes, for my take!

June 3, 2016

JOHN DWYER. Restructuring the governance of health care in Australia. Part 2

Part Two. Structural reforms for better health outcomes from a redesigned more cost-effective health care system.

There is broad agreement that in the near future our General Practitioners and their teams will earn the majority of their income from capitation payments that will require, for the first time in our Primary Care system, the documentation of health outcomes. Many doctors are concerned about this direction and argue that they may have neither the time nor the necessary kills to fulfil such requirements. International experience informs us that these doubts can be reversed with the creation of Primary Health Care Organisations to assist with these and many other issues.

April 25, 2017

The Australian War Memorial and weapons manufacturers

The peace of the world for future generations is anathema to the interests of those who profit from warfare. As we commemorate again the “war to end all wars”, and every war since, one can only wonder what the diggers would have thought, as we allow the industry that profits from the cruelty of wars to bask in the reflected glory of those who suffer it.

March 14, 2016

Peter Gibilisco. Disability support services - effectiveness and efficiency.

Let me be frank. There are many stringencies that have to be faced in the provision of disability support services. We all know this whether we are recipients of in-home one-on-one support, residents, workers or management of disability support services, or even as officials of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). We all are under the pump in an economic climate where there is widespread political anxiety about budget blow-outs and a possible collapse of our financial and economic system. We all know this. So when I make my professional contribution, as a resident of such a health-care facility, my recommendations and pleas are complex.

July 9, 2016

KEN HILLMAN. Ageing and end of life issues.

It is well known that our population is living longer. But has our health system adapted to this ageing population? Do the elderly fit into the construct of a single diagnosis? Can we identify those who are coming to the end of their life? Do we ask them if they would prefer to spend the last few months of life in hospitals? What is the impact of the increasing number of medications that they are taking? What is the impact of modern medicine on age related deterioration?

February 17, 2017

SUSAN RYAN, OLIVER FRANKEL, JOHN MENADUE. Upcoming series on Making Housing Affordable.

After Easter, Pearls and Irritations plans to publish a series ‘Making Housing Affordable’ addressing key aspects of the housing crisis and recommending solutions, with contributions from a range of experts and other key stakeholders, including economists, planners, demographers, housing providers and policy makers.

January 10, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Turnbull on Indonesia and Israel.

The theory remains that Indonesians are all right to visit, but we still don’t regard them as full allies or equals.

August 22, 2016

EMMA CAMPBELL. Is South Korea still interested in unification?

It is not easy being a young person in globalised South Korea. The intense competition that defines South Korea’s education system and the irregular employment market that awaits graduates has led to rising inequality, falling birth rates, insecure employment and high numbers of youth suicide.Beyond South Korea’s domestic wellbeing, globalisation and its accompanying economic insecurity also have implications for foreign affairs, particularly attitudes towards North Korea.

January 21, 2019

BREXIT AND PHILLIP

June 16, 2017

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 the case estimated that more than 70 witnesses would have been called and 200,000 documents examined. Afraid of the findings, the Government caved in at the door of the Court.

January 17, 2015

John Menadue. Postcard from Denmark on the Nordic Success

For holiday reading, you may be interested in this repost.

I have been interested for many years in the economic and social success of the Nordic countries, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway. Together they have a population of about 26 million.

But what triggered my recent interest and decision to visit Denmark was the sheer pleasure of watching several Danish TV series –Borgen, The Killing, The Bridge. They are the best TV series that I have seen in years and far superior to the tosh that we often get from the US and sometimes from the UK. The Danish film industry receives government finance, but more importantly the Danes have invested heavily in human capital and the talent shows in these TV series. Portrayal of a country’s cultural life is important for the country to understand itself better. But in the case of Danish films, I have found them attractive enough to come and visit Copenhagen and spend some tourist dollars. Although I should say that Copenhagen is expensive.

September 30, 2024

A five-minute scroll

We start the week with British journalist James Oliver giving his views on Rupert Murdoch, Jim Chalmers brings a back-to-back surplus and a picture of media reporting in the Middle East. Jordan’s Foreign minister speaks about a peace plan supported by 57 Arab and Muslim countries, Australia takes to the streets in our capital cities, while in Iran protests have broken out against the President. Dilma Rousseff, receives China’s highest honour for non-citizens.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal