In recent years, the Federal Government has made an art form of undermining the autonomy of independent statutory offices established to hold it to account. One by one, statutory offices have been subject to forceful governmental and media assaults. (more…)
Category: Politics
-
CHRIS BONNOR & BERNIE SHEPHERD. Australia’s test scores: what lies beneath?
The big lesson for Australia in education is that we can ‘reform’ schools to the hilt, hammer the maths and science – but nothing will change unless we address structural and equity problems as well. (more…)
-
LUKE FRASER. Good, bad and ugly of congestion charging in Melbourne.
Attention to Stockholm’s congestion charging system should be seriously studied in Australian cities. … In roads, we have a pricing crisis rather than an infrastructure crisis. (more…)
-
JON STANFORD. Australia’s climate change policy mess: quo vadis?
Make no mistake: Malcolm Turnbull’s pusillanimous refusal even to consider the option of an emissions intensity scheme (EIS) for electricity generation represents a massive abdication of responsibility to the Australian community. (more…)
-
RICHARD WOOLCOTT. Julie Bishop – supporting bad policies.
The Foreign Minister’s outrage was highly selective … her speech was indeed strong on talk, but weak on effective action. (more…)
-
JAMES CURRAN. New series. We can say ‘no’ to the Americans.
James Curran spoke to the National Press Club, Canberra, at the launch of his new book ‘Fighting with America’ on 8 December 2016.
The alliance is stronger and healthier for its disagreements. (more…)
-
MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull blaming everyone but himself.
The constant refrain of economists who get it wrong is that we should never rely on just one set of figures. (more…)
-
MUNGO MacCALLUM. Saving democracy.
Protests are all very well, but only if they are seen to be ineffective. … It is yet another indication that serious dissent cannot and will not be tolerated. (more…)
-
RICHARD BUTLER. Australian Foreign Policy and the United States
A review of Australian foreign policy is long overdue, not simply because of the election of Donald Trump. This should include redefinition of our conduct under the Alliance. (more…)
-
TIM WOODRUFF. How universal healthcare is being undermined.
The Medicare rebate freeze is one strategy in that agenda. Reducing the Federal Government’s share of public hospital funding is another. Reducing the support for public dental care is another. Promoting private health insurance in primary health care is another.
-
BRUCE ARNOLD. Open Government, Open to interpretation
If we are indeed open to Open Government a salient demonstration would be facilitating Australian Human Rights Commission access to what is happening on Australia’s behalf in offshore detention centres. That would be a fine national Christmas present from Turnbull, Dutton and Brandis, with or without tinsel.
(more…) -
FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Will the refugee deal with the US come off?
IF United States President-elect Donald Trump decides not to honour an agreement to accept refugees from Nauru and Manus Island then they should be settled permanently in Australia, Jesuit theologian and lawyer Fr Frank Brennan says. (more…)
-
We need a transformational foreign policy.
The following submission to the Hon. Julie Bishop for the White Paper on Foreign Affairs and Trade has also been sent to the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and Senator Wong, as well as selected MPs and Senators.
(more…) -
JOHN THOMPSON. Privatising Medicare by stealth.
Like the frog in hot water, Medicare’s privatisation by stealth can only result in an unfortunate end – despite the current government’s protestations of innocence. (more…)
-
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. (more…)
-
SAM HURLEY. Outsourcing doesn’t help our neediest citizens.
Outsourcing of employment services has failed to make significant headway on better outcomes for the most disadvantaged clients.
-
CHRIS BONNOR. Time for some ghost-busting in school funding by ALP.
The ALP seems to have missed many points about school funding, especially the need to establish Gonski’s schools resourcing body, a proposal which has been strongly supported by the Grattan Institute.
(more…) -
REG LITTLE. Understanding cultural differences between Australia and China.
Australia’s most urgent challenge today is overcoming two centuries of ‘false education’ about China. Western thought culture tends to be characterised by assumptions, abstractions, rationalities, theories and belief. In contrast, Chinese thought culture tends to be holistic, fluid, intuitive, reflective, strategic and practical. (more…)
-
WALTER HAMILTON. When all else fails, try Pearl Harbor
Prime Minister Abe of Japan is running out of tricks, but there is no viable alternative.
(more…) -
GILES PARKINSON. Turnbull leads attack on wind as Coalition readies carbon price backflip.
A rebadged carbon tax!
In its review of its climate change policies, the government will try to dance its way through internal politics, the demands of the fossil fuel lobby and comparisons with Labor’s proposals. Turnbull and Frydenberg appear to have concluded that the best way to appease the far right rump of the Coalition is to abandon direct support for renewables, help open up the Galilee coal resource and push for more coal seam gas. (more…)
-
MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull will do anything to secure an outcome.
Malcolm Turnbull’s experience in negotiation has been in the boardroom of Goldman Sachs, but the atmosphere of the Senate crossbench is more akin to that of the Istanbul Souk.
(more…) -
HAZEL MOIR. Evergreening of patents and the cost of pharmaceuticals.
A low standard for granting patents can mean lengthy delays generic medicine availability. In one case this is shown to have cost taxpayers almost $A3 billion extra in Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme outlays. A solution is to grant patents only for inventions that embody a significant increase in what is known. (more…)
-
MUNGO MacCALLUM. George Brandis is a dead man walking.
What is not clear is whether George Brandis was genuinely ignorant of the implications of the tax case or whether he deliberately ignored them. In either case, he should immediately have resigned.
(more…) -
JOHN MENADUE. The National Party is silent on rural poverty and poor rural health.
Country electorates have the most disadvantaged people, the poorest health and inferior health services. But the National Party does very little about it.
(more…) -
Castro’s legacy. Cuba’s achievements in health have been remarkable.
In the article from The Lancet, Arjun Suri points out that despite spending one tenth per capita of what the US spends on health, Cuba’s infant mortality rate is better than the US and that the two countries have equivalent life expectancy. (more…)
-
JOHN TULLOH: Fidel’s ghost teases Washington.
John Tulloh argues that for Trump to renege on Obama’s changes, would be fraught with legal problems, specially for those businesses which have already invested tens of millions in infrastructure in anticipation of Cuba becoming more accessible. (more…)
-
JOHN AUSTEN. Sydney, metro again: $10billion more to ‘build something later’?
John Austen suggests that the NSW government’s approach to railways is at least back-to-front and probably misconceived. (more…)
-
MUNGO MacCALLUM. the National Party is ‘feeling its oats’.
Mungo MacCallum writes that the National Party may not yet be out of control but it represents a far more frightening prospect to Turnbull and the Liberals than the cross-benchers ever will. (more…)
-
IAN McAULEY. Holden cars, AWA TVs, Chesty Bonds underwear: Manufacturing and globalisation
Ian McAuley argues that it has not been globalisation and trade that has been the biggest factor displacing jobs in manufacturing. It has been automation.
(more…) -
JENNY HOCKING. The Palace Letters Case: ‘A Matter of our National History’
Professor Jenny Hocking writes that the release of the palace letters will now be determined by an Australian Court and according to Australian Law – not by the Queen ‘a foreign monarch’ in the words of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. (more…)