Last week Ross Fitzgerald wrote a piece here titled Time to get real on taxing cigarettes and restricting vapes. (more…)
Category: Health
-
Time to get real on taxing cigarettes and restricting vapes
Australia’s cigarettes are now the most expensive in the world. Excise has been increased cumulatively by over 340% in the past 20 years, clearly helping to depress consumption for many years. (more…)
-
Australia has 120 health workforce policies. But with no national plan, we’re missing the big picture
Australia’s health workforce is under pressure. Wait times are growing. Burnout is rising. Yet the country is awash in policy – just not the kind that solves these problems at the root. (more…)
-
Israel bars entry of specialist medical teams into Gaza
As the world leaders produce yet more words and pass yet more resolutions on the genocide on Gaza, more than 12,000 children now are severely, dangerously malnourished as Israel continues to deny sufficient food into the Strip. (more…)
-
Well-being, health and the Productivity Roundtable
In June 2025 I wrote about the National Well-being Budget and Measuring What Matters. Since then, a lot has happened that deserves attention, particularly with the government’s planned Productivity Roundtable in August. (more…)
-
How we at Physicians for Human Rights Israel decided that the Gaza war is a genocide
When examining all the factors together, we identify a clear pattern that indicates Israeli intent to kill Palestinians in Gaza. The systematic nature is the smoking gun. (more…)
-
Digital screen use by infants and toddlers risks long-term health and education outcomes
Greater public health awareness of the harms of digital screen use is needed to reclaim parents as their first and irreplaceable teacher. (more…)
-
Trump and Kennedy are destroying global science. Even Einstein questioned facts – but there’s a method to it
Eight months into Donald Trump’s second term as president of the US, truth and science are again under attack – with global consequences. (more…)
-
Call for national action to prevent ‘torture’ or death of incarcerated First Nations children
Paediatricians in the Northern Territory see the dire effects of entrenched structural racism on Aboriginal children on a daily basis. (more…)
-
Is ChatGPT making us stupid?
Back in 2008, The Atlantic sparked controversy with a provocative cover story: Is Google Making Us Stupid? (more…)
-
Australian media persists with a misguided and tragically ineffectual strategy – the way to prevent suicide is not to talk about it
Statistics are cold-hearted methods to gauge the “success” of suicide prevention strategies, yet they are the only tool available to measure the number of Australians who take their lives each year. (more…)
-
The productivity paradox
A century ago, industrialists measured economic virility by tonnes of coal hewn per shift. Today, Canberra’s spreadsheets obsess over “GDP per hour worked”. (more…)
-
‘Everything beautiful in their lives is gone’: US physicians read aloud the searing testimony of desperate doctors and patients in Gaza
“I have a cold. And in one hour, I’ll have finished a 24-hour shift, heartbroken again. I lost a cardiac patient because we had no medication. (more…)
-
The disgrace of deliberate starvation: Israel’s war of hunger in Gaza
Israel’s plan for the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip is proceeding apace, maybe even better than expected. In addition to significant achievements in systematic killing and destruction already chalked up, the last few days have seen one more critical achievement: the deliberate starvation has started to yield results. (more…)
-
Vale John Deeble – an architect of Medicare
Following John Menadue’s refection on 50 years of Medicare this week, many have raised the contribution of John Deeble. Below is an edited version of a 2018 tribute to the man without whom the scheme would not have been possible. (more…)
-
Effective philanthropy: A model partnership
Effective philanthropy is hard to achieve. It’s difficult to access money for a worthy cause but also difficult to give money away effectively with impact. (more…)
-
Failures in privatised care starkly illustrate the inevitable failure of neoliberalism
The failures of privatised child care and aged care have starkly illustrated the inability of markets to deliver quality service. The failure applies to all human services. (more…)
-
Fifty years since that little green card came into being
Gough Whitlam had to do plenty of hard yakka to introduce an universal healthcare system. Today, it is central part of Australia life, and one of our great policy achievements.
-
No simple solutions for specialist problems
A referral to a specialist doctor should set patients on a smooth path to the care they need. But it can be more like an alpine hike, with steep fees and treacherously long waiting lists. It’s putting lives at risk. (more…)
-
The Tasmanian election on 19 July won’t fix the mess
A Joint Commonwealth/State Health Commission could help address health failure. (more…)
-
Funding models for primary health: Revolution, not evolution, required
One of the authors was recently asked to be part of a panel for a discussion whose title was “Funding models for primary health: evolution not revolution” and where one of the questions asked (in advance to be fair) was “How far did I think we should go on funding alterations to optimise the scope of practice changes that have been proposed, without upsetting too many interest groups to the point where it becomes unproductive for all parties?” (more…)
-
Localise relationships of care and responsibility
Continual crises in all the health, education and human services industries are no longer “exceptions”. They are continuous chronic symptoms of what’s wrong with our neoliberalised, marketised “care economy”. (more…)
-
Gaza: There comes a time when silence is betrayal
Last week I spent a day fasting, joining medical colleagues and other healthcare workers in a rolling hunger strike to protest what is happening in Gaza. Why are we doing this? (more…)
-
‘Indefensible’: Trump budget law subsidises private jet owners while taking healthcare from millions
A provision of the budget law that President Donald Trump signed last week will leave taxpayers to “pick up the tab for the private jet industry and billionaire high flyers”. (more…)
-
The disastrous consequences of an epidemic of misinformation about the safety of vaccines
None of the “Ship of Fools” Donald Trump appointed to head his major government departments was qualified for their new roles. (more…)
-
Should Australia legalise commercial surrogacy?
“Labour of Love”; “Magic Happens”; “The Greatest Gift”. These are just some recent Australian news headlines promising good news stories about surrogacy and happy families. (more…)
-
Achieving health equity in Australia
The recently launched World Report on the Social Determinants of Health Equity, by the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2025), paints a stark picture of the differences in ill-health, poor well-being, disease and mortality within and between countries, that arise from unfair and avoidable social conditions. (more…)
-
Ocasio-Cortez calls Trump’s budget bill ‘deal with the devil’
“It explodes our national debt, it militarises our entire economy, and it strips away healthcare and basic dignity of the American people. For what? To give Elon Musk a tax break and billionaires the greedy taking of our nation.” (more…)
-
Saving the NDIS doesn’t need to cost more money
The Albanese Government has a lot hinging on the successful delivery of savings earmarked from the National Disability Insurance Scheme. (more…)
-
Research misconduct: Strengthening Australia’s research integrity system
A new book, Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer’s by Charles Piller is a deeply dispiriting story. Dispiriting in particular, as it yet again tells a story of harmful unchecked research misconduct. (more…)