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Press reports this week suggest that the Albanese Government has sought advice from Treasury about possible changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount, to be taken to the election due to be held before the end of May next year. If these reports are accurate – good. Scaling back negative gearing and Continue reading »

It is disappointing, although hardly surprising, to see the medical organisations in July of this year trotting out their opposition to anything other than GP-led primary health care in both Queensland and the ACT; and then (again in a September media release) to see that remarkably (or maybe predictably) the RACGP is restoking its outrage Continue reading »

Donald Trump’s desire for a mass deportation program for about 11 million undocumented migrants in the US (he says the number is much bigger) is well known. According to some polling, around 54% of US citizens support such a program even if they have no idea how it would be implemented, how it may affect Continue reading »

The obvious question arising from big business’ onslaught against Anthony Albanese and his government is: do Australia’s voters know which sides their bread is buttered on? Sorry, boss, I think they usually do. Last week the (Big) Business Council let fly against Albanese & Co. with both barrels. According to its chief executive Bran Black, Continue reading »

Anthony Albanese is feeling the pressure. He reminds me vividly of my biographical subject Kevin Rudd (Penguin 2008) after he lost the vote at the 2009 Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen. Instead of pressing his case at home with a double dissolution election, he went to water. Thereafter, his decision-making became so erratic that his Continue reading »

Negative gearing costs Australian taxpayers billions each year. Its defenders say abolishing it will cause a rental crisis. That’s not true. One of the great urban myths of Australian political history is that “rents went through the roof” after then-Treasurer Paul Keating abolished negative gearing for property investors in July 1985, and as a result Continue reading »

Never in its history of war, and military occupation, has Israel been so incapable of developing a coherent plan for its future, and the future of its victims. Even a quick glance at headlines in international media reveals the depth of the Israeli dilemma. While Tel Aviv continues to carry out a genocidal war against Continue reading »

Corporate culpability under law relies on a”Where’s Wally” logic to identify a natural person within a corporation to hold responsible for corporate wrongdoing but finding the “smoking gun” has proven elusive. Professor Elise Bant, Private Law and Commercial Regulation, University of Western Australia, Professorial Fellow, Law school, University of Melbourne, and author of the book Continue reading »

If you haven’t seen this in a while…

Two new anti-ESG bills would install corporate lobbyists within the SEC and hamper shareholders and local governments.

“You’re not going to be in danger any longer. You will no longer have anxiety from all of the problems our country has today. You will be protected, and I will be your protector. Women will be happy, healthy, confident, and free.”
— Donald Trump addressing women at a rally in Pennsylvania.

It’s hard to be a lady these days. There are so many things to be afraid of, like not having a husband, or getting scratched by my cats, or walking in the woods and seeing a bear. I know that all my fears will disappear once Donald Trump is president again. Because what says “female safety” more than the guy who was found liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room?

Labour Party conference has voted for the government’s cut to the winter fuel allowance to be reversed, in a strong rebuke of the Starmer leadership. The motion, submitted by Unite the Union and the Communication Workers Union (CWU), also called for taxes on the wealthy and for the party to abandon its ‘fiscal rules’ limiting […]

JD Vance and Project 2025 are all over his latest “I am your protector” rhetoric As a politician, Donald Trump has always exhibited a very creepy form of paternalism. He often says things like “No one has done as much for the Black community as I did” or “I’ve been better for Jews than anyone in history.” It’s as if he’s bestowing on the people a special gift from the king and they should be grateful to him personally. Of course his boasts are always lies so they tend to fall on deaf ears, but it reveals how he sees himself as president. Although he’s long exhibited this rhetorical tic, in recent days he’s really outdone himself. Sounding much more like a cult leader than a politician in a modern democracy, the passages in his speeches about women are downright disturbing. It started with a weird Truth Social post on September 20th: The womenfolk are depressed but Big Daddy Trump is going to fix all that and they’ll be so happy they won’t even think about abortion. “THEY WILL FINALLY BE HEALTHY, HOPEFUL, SAFE AND SECURE.

Bleeding Cool was the first to tell you that the Fifteenth Doctor Who and Ruby Sunday would be going up against the Cybermen.

The bodies meant to protect us from floods are unaccountable, self-serving and feudal in character. No wonder they keep failing. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 18th September 2024 Labour’s first stage of government resembles a vast forensic excavation. As it works through the Conservatives’ midden of horrors, it discovers an ever greater legacy […]

Ali Jadidzadeh and I recently undertook some statistical analysis on behalf of Infrastructure Canada (Canada’s lead federal government agency on homelessness). Here’s a ‘top 10’ overview of our analysis: https://nickfalvo.ca/economic-and-social-factors-associated-with-the-use-of-homeless-shelters/