I was interviewed about the history of unemployment in Australia and, more specifically, the history of how Australia has treated unemployed workers. We haven’t always been so punitive. For about 25 years after WW2 unemployment was seen as a collective … Continue reading
Australia
Brendel/Unsplash, CC BY-NC Warwick Smith, University of Melbourne This article was first published in The Conversation. Understandably, given we are in a crisis, the government has baulked at including superannuation contributions in the A$140 billion worth of $1,500 per … Continue reading
As I struggle with some newly discovered health problems, my attention tends to drift to different things. These are two.
The Missing Average and the two Australias.
This is a recent temperature anomaly map produced by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, reproduced today by the ABC, with Kate Doyle’s customarily excellent comments:
Clare O’Brien, writing for Working Life, the ACTU newsletter, remind us that we must check our payslips carefully:
Given the news, it’s hard for an environmentally-conscious socialist worker to focus on a single topic.
Think about it. Should I focus on the catastrophic drought, heat wave and/or wildfires afflicting Europe, north Africa and Asia? What about the megadrought that left Lake Mead dry? Should I focus on it, instead?
In 2007 the Australian Labor Party, under Kevin Rudd, inflicted a painful defeat on the COALition. From 60 MPs the ALP had before the federal election, their Lower House representation swelled to 83 (more than enough to pass legislation). And 22 of those new MPs were replacing defeated COALition MPs, whose House contingent was reduced to 65.
To make things worse for the COALition, even John Howard, until then PM, lost his safe seat of Bennelong and “moderate” Malcolm Turnbull, who soon was chosen federal Opposition Leader, was facing an extreme Right insurgency, led by Tony Abbott and Nick Minchin.
In the Senate, things were only slightly less favourable for Rudd, the new Labor PM:
Maybe my GP is right. I might be worrying too much. I shouldn’t follow the news so closely.
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