While most attention is focussed on the level and distribution of funds paid directly to non-government schools by the Commonwealth Government, little attention is given to the very substantial financial concessions and benefits that the private school system obtains from all levels of government in Australia. The millions of dollars of revenue foregone by local, state and Commonwealth Governments in relation to non-government schools as a result of their anachronistic status as charities are simply not taken into account when funding decisions are made. This post uses one Victorian municipality to identify the type of financial benefits provided to private schools by all levels of government in Australia and indicates the scale of such benefits. (more…)
John Menadue
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KERRY GOULSTON. A personal view on our current treatment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers.
There is growing concern across Australia about the current policy for Asylum Seekers and Refugees, particularly those on Nauru and Manus Island.
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DOUG TAYLOR. Uniting Church launches new decriminalisation campaign.
Australia’s first pill testing trial took place earlier this year in Canberra at a music festival. 128 people attending the festival provided pills for testing and two of these pills were found to contain potentially deadly substances. These pills were then disposed of and the event was fatality-free. (more…)
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JOHN WOINARSKI, CHRIS DICKMAN, RICHARD KINGSFORD and SARAH LEGGE-We must strengthen, not weaken, environmental protections during drought – or face irreversible loss.
Australian rural communities face hardships during extended drought, and it is generally appropriate that governments then provide special support for affected landholders and communities.
However, some politicians and commentators have recently claimed that such circumstances should be addressed by circumventing environmental laws or management – by, for example, reallocating environmental water to grow fodder or opening up conservation reserves for livestock grazing.
But subverting or weakening existing protective conservation management practices and policies will exacerbate the impacts of drought on natural environments and biodiversity.
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CHRISTOPHER SHEIL, FRANK STILWELL. Inequality stocktake … or snowjob by the Productivity Commission?
The Productivity Commission has issued a new report called Rising Inequality? A Stocktake of the Evidence. However, when looking at the distribution of wealth in Australia, it turns out not to be a ‘stocktake of the evidence’ at all. Rather, it creates some new evidence that is inconsistent with the established sources of inequality data. (more…)
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NILE BOWIE. Mahathir has an Islam problem.
New premier wants Malaysia’s brand of Islam to reflect mercy, justice and compassion, a stance his conservative opponents have seized on as too soft and lenient. (more…)
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AARON PATRICK. Did 41 Australian soldiers die in Afghanistan for a failed war? (AFR 27.9.2018)
Australia’s bloodiest war ended 100 years ago in melancholy victory. Australia’s most recent war may end in a delayed defeat, raising an awful question: what did 41 Australian soldiers die for? (more…)
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ANN DAVIES. ABC board members appointed by Fifield despite being rejected by merit-based panel (the Guardian, 28.09.18)
The Coalition’s much touted merits-based nominations process for ABC board appointments has been ignored or circumvented in recent years. (more…)
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ANATLOE KALETSKY. The US Will Lose Its Trade War with China.
In handicapping the US-China conflict, Keynesian demand management is a better guide than comparative advantage. In principle, China can avoid any damage at all from US tariffs simply by responding with a full-scale Keynesian stimulus.
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GRATTAN INSTITUTE Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics.
Many business sectors depend heavily on government favours and regulations. They include miners,property developers,road contractors,liquor and gambling industries. Not surprisingly they are the largest political donors who seek favourable government approvals.
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MARIE COLEMAN. Fixing the Women problems: Retirement Incomes, Parental Leave, and the Gender Pay Gap.
With a statement imminent from Minister for Women Kelly O’Dwyer, Labor has announced modest changes to improve Paid Parental Leave ( $400 million over the out years) and proposed new measures to diminish the gender pay gap. Both measures should contribute to the position of older women in retirement. The P.M. says he doesn’t oppose the gender pay gap measures while being concerned that revealing one’s wage to a co-worker could provoke bad feelings (!) (more…)
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PATRICK MAGUIRE. Why Corbyn is promising a “green jobs revolution” (New Statesman)
The Labour leader’s promise to create 400,000 new skilled jobs is a direct pitch to Brexit Britain – and an implicit criticism of Gordon Brown and New Labour. (more…)
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GRATTAN INSTITUTE. Special deals for special interests. Packer’s casino licence
How rent seekers and lobbyists work – The Casino Licence
In February 2012, James Packer proposed building a hotel-casino on the Sydney Harbour foreshore at Barangaroo. The NSW premier and opposition leader were quick to back the idea, saying it would bring jobs and tourists to Sydney. Both major parties ignored the public interest. (more…)
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BRUCE WEARNE. What can we infer from the more than four month delay in releasing the Ruddock Panel’s Report?
According to the Government’s web-site, the Religious Freedom Review received over 15,500 submissions. In political terms the review was established so that Parliament and the citizens of this country could have qualified juridical advice about the prevailing situation across this Commonwealth and thus how subsequent public debate should proceed, particularly in terms of the consequences that will follow on from the change to the Marriage Act’s definition of lawful marriage as enacted in legislation last December. It is now over 9 months since that legislation was passed and now it is over 4 months since the Review’s report was handed to the Prime Minister. (more…)
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PETER SMALL. National Party and Climate Change, Part 2.
If we accept the premise that humans are rational beings and have a reason for doing what they do, then in my first article I tried to throw some light on what motivated the National Party, and the Coalition, to have the policies they have or don’t have on climate. In summary I suggested this was a result of the decline of membership and branch structure and the resultant decline of influence by the rank and file on policy. The belief in there being votes in differentiating their brand from the Greens and city lefties. The power of Canberra lobbyists and those who fund MPs’ re-election campaigns. And the social conservatives simplistic faith in their God and His capacity to “fix” planet Earth. Essentially policy is driven by money, power and a job. It is interesting to observe how National MHRs go soft on coal when they have new investment of renewables in their electorate! (more…)
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BRUCE KAYE. The Prime Minister’s Pentecostal Christianity and neo liberalism.
Will Scott Morrison really be able to exercise the office of Prime Minister properly while belonging to a Pentecostal church that is said to have a prosperity gospel that promises wealth and health to believers? Guilt by association is always a bad place to start. Nothing is wrong with facts that are relevant. Actually, this is an issue for us all about the freedoms and constraints by which we live in this nation. (more…)
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BRIONY DOW. Do we need a Royal Commission into Aged Care?
With the recent announcement of a Royal Commission into Aged Care, debate is raging in the aged care sector and beyond as to whether it is really needed. (more…)
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DANIELLE WOOD. ScoMo can get a quick win by cleaning up Canberra’s murky dealings (Australian Financial Review, 204.09.18)S9
Scott Morrison needs to pull a policy rabbit out of a hat and he needs to do it quickly. At best, he has eight months to convince a sceptical public the Coalition can be trusted to run the country. But fortunately for the new PM, there is a bunny in plain sight. Policies to improve our political institutions are popular with the public, cost next to nothing and would enhance the quality of Australian government. (more…)
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GRATTAN INSTITUTE Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics.
On almost any measure Australia lags behind other comparable countries in managing the lobbying scourge
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PAUL DALEY. ‘Wholesale massacre’: Carl Feilberg exposed the ugly truth of the Australian frontier.
The real ‘settler’ and pioneering stories of Feilberg’s Queensland were confronting and frightening.
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MICHAEL SAVAGE. Ministers warn harder EU exit risks breaking up Britain (the Guardian, 23.09.18)
Theresa May is being warned by cabinet colleagues that a shift towards a harder Brexit will hasten the break-up of the UK, amid a renewed attempt by Brexiters to secure a clean split from the European Union. (more…)
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JOHN FALZON.Morrison’s mantra is ‘choice’. But what real choice do the poor and homeless have?
Everyone was walking past, refusing to meet her eyes. She wasn’t asking for somewhere to live. She wasn’t even asking for something to live on. All she was asking for was just enough to buy some breakfast. But everyone just kept walking past and the angrier she got the wider the berth they gave her and the faster they moved past her. (more…)
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GRATTAN INSTITUTE Special deals for special interests -Catholic School funding
How lobbyists work to advantage Catholic schools at the expense of state schools . (more…)
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KATE GRIFFITHS, CARMEL CHIVERS, DANIELLE WOOD. Influence in Australian politics needs an urgent overhaul – here’s how to do it (The Conversation, 23.09.18)
Public policy should be made for all Australians – not just those with the resources or connections to lobby and influence politicians. And mostly it is. But sometimes bad policy is made or good policy is dropped because powerful groups have more say and sway than they should. (more…)
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ROBERT MANNE. This pains me, but it’s time to compromise on Australia’s cruel asylum seeker policy (the Guardian, 23.09.18)
In the past 30 years Australia has crafted an almost uniquely cruel asylum seeker policy. Our only competitor is the proudly illiberal Hungary. When Malcolm Turnbull outlined our current policy to Donald Trump in their notorious telephone conversation, the US president was mightily impressed. “You are worse than I am.” No more evidence about the character of Australia’s asylum seeker policy is required. (more…)
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TREVOR KENNEDY. Consultants are a blight on government and business.
It is, at the very least, arguable that consultants have become toxic weeds in business and government in Australia. (more…)
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LAURA TINGLE. People grumble about political leaders, but there’s a deeper malaise afoot (ABC News, 17.09.18)
People always grumble about political leaders. But there is a deeper malaise afoot now. (more…)
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RICHARD DENNISS. The big con: how neoliberals convinced us there wasn’t enough to go around
Australia just experienced one of the biggest mining booms in world history. But even at the peak of that boom, there was no talk of the wonderful opportunity we finally had to invest in world-class mental health or domestic violence crisis services.