Labor treasury and charities spokesperson Andrew Leigh spoke to ABC Canberra this week about the government’s JobKeeper program.
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Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
What people in other forums are saying about public policy. (more…)
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The terrible effects and disastrous consequences of war. But we keep doing it.
The chaotic end to the war in Afghanistan coincides with a debate in the Senate on a bill which would curtail the unrestrained power of the executive to take the country to war.
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Blessed are the rich in securing vaccines
Australia is among the rich, western countries siding with Big Pharma to thwart the widespread manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines.
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White Man’s Media: How the Western media hegemony operates
In a formal democracy, particularly one with a global empire to uphold, public opinion is too important to be left to the people to think for themselves.
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White Man’s Media: it’s the white person’s media
The media thunders forth from its citadel of truth against the infidels. Those chosen to comment on things Chinese are seldom people who have worked in China but hawks who spout the conservative line (more…)
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Can Morrison sell his risky plan as a ‘contract with the Australian people’?
This year Morrison has not done much that will win him credit over the premiers. That’s because of his own mistakes. (more…)
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Covid-19 Infections, Vaccinations, Lockdowns, and the Economy
The Morrison Government is desperate to end lockdowns, not least because of what they see as the damage the lockdowns are doing to the economy. (more…)
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Greenhouse gas emissions: What are they and how are they measured?
The goal of the Paris agreement on climate change is to limit global warming to well below 2°C, and preferably to 1.5oC above pre-industrial temperatures of the 1700s. This requires countries to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible in order to achieve a climate-neutral world by the middle of this century. Unlike 131 other countries, Australia is yet to commit to net-zero by 2050.
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Morrison has the smell of political death about him.
It is the fate of the modern political leader that they die by their own hand. At least according to the obituarists and the historians.
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Easy lies and influence: the familiar face of corruption in Australia
We are currently witnessing widespread loss of trust in government. Not just in the rapid slide in the popularity of the federal government and the personal standing of the Prime Minister, but the growing mistrust of initiatives and policies designed to manage the crises confronting us and those that are imminent.
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The end of a ‘just transition’ on coal. There will be disruption.
Last week’s report by the IPCC (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) shows that the prospects of achieving a ‘just transition’ to a green economy have all but disappeared.
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Unsought, unnecessary and unexplained red tape aimed at silencing charities
The Morrison Government is committed to reducing red tape. Charities have more work than ever to do during this time of pandemic. The Senate is being asked to disallow a new regulation which would impact unduly on all charities, making them liable to deregistration should any of their members or volunteers commit a simple offence. Gary Johns the ACNC Commissioner has not sought the regulation; Michael Sukkar, the Assistant Treasurer cannot explain the need for it; and Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells cannot understand its scope.
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A perverse consequence of the Census in the counting of indigenous people.
Public policies can have unintended consequences. So does the Census, the data from which many of these policies are designed.
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Transparency in the dark on foreign interference.
The Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act does nothing to enlighten us on who is exerting undue influence on Australia’s political or election processes
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Afghanistan debacle exposes the limits to Empire
The chaotic scenes at Kabul airport are symbolic of a military intervention that has brought the people of Afghanistan nothing but loss and destruction. The United States and its allies, not least Australia, have a great deal to answer for. This twenty-year war has been an unmitigated disaster from beginning to end. And what an ignominious end it is, especially for the United States.
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Climate Change: will the financial system survive?
One of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal global response to the escalating climate crisis has been the preparedness of financial market regulators to force their regulated institutions to face up to the implications of climate risk.
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Why we shouldn’t race to mandate vaccination
When governments and health experts call for mandatory vaccination we should be wary. While it is potentially the optimal way to get society moving again and particularly to end the frequency and severity of harmful lockdowns, the requirement for every citizen to have their individual rights trumped by the community interest is a drastic measure in a society supposedly committed to liberal values. (more…)
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Newcastle Port decision: overreach, misunderstanding or both?
The Federal Court’s rejection of the ACCCs case against Government-imposed penalties facing Newcastle Port seemed to misunderstand transport policy matters and give more weight to the Government’s latest excuses than to logic and observed actions.
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Morrison worries real conservatives even as he pleases business
It is not in the ordinary business community — among those with whom the coalition normally measures its stocks — that a strong sense of urgency about getting rid of the Morrison government runs strong. Many of these have done well under the Morrison government– and the Turnbull and Abbott governments which preceded it. Even the pandemic has led to an explosion of public cash going into it — and without much in the nature of red tape or accountability. (more…)
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Is cleaning up government and media women’s work?
Most of those who brought us this Anthropocene age are white, grey, male, and stale. It is now the virocene, the envirocene, and the pyrocene age too, thanks to the younger and even richer men who are taking over from them.
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The mystery political staffer running government rorting.
It is now known that one person in the Prime Minister’s office drew up the spreadsheets for both the sports and car park rorts. (more…)
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Pandemic paranoia – the penal colony strikes back at those pesky Australians who left
Ever since the pandemic started, Australia has restricted the ability of its citizens to travel overseas in ways few other countries outside of North Korea have done. It is now using the biosecurity laws to also deter those who live overseas from coming back. (more…)
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Western media is destroying its own credibility
Eric Xun Li has the answer to the problem of the relentlessly negative press that China is receiving. And it’s simpler than one might expect. (more…)
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Australia’s diabolical foreign interference laws
Australian laws criminal penalties of up to 20 years in gaol on anybody who “engages in foreign interference.” But the way the law is written makes it very difficult to determine precisely what activities the prohibition extends to. (more…)
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The net zero emission illusion
With Covid, the government has shown itself manifestly incapable of leading or managing its core responsibilities, beset by corruption and secrecy. The climate challenge is far greater than Covid, and there are no vaccinations or quarantine against climate impacts, which from now on will increase inexorably in the absence of decisive leadership. (more…)
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The face of homelessness in Australia is changing
As house prices soar and wages stagnate, the housing affordability crisis is creeping towards middle Australia. Governments have left housing to the market and the market has failed. (more…)
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Nothing dollarable is safe in the Kosciuszko National Park
“Nothing dollarable is safe, however guarded” wrote the great American conservationist and protected area crusader, John Muir in 1909. He was right then, and he’s still right today: maybe more than ever.
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Why don’t farmers just raise wages to get workers?
Are powerful retailers who set farm prices the real problem in keeping wages down? (more…)
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Our Democracy Needs Serious Reform
The Australian Government may be right to express concerns about China’s recent domestic and international behaviour under President Xi Jinping. But claims of having superior democratic values might have more credibility if the Government understood and genuinely upheld them. (more…)