Michael Lester in conversation with Professor Ian Chubb AC—policy adviser at the Australian Academy of Science (AAS), former Chief Scientist of Australia, and former Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of several universities—now appointed to lead a once-in-a-generation review of Australia’s faltering research and development funding and efforts. The recently announced national science and research priorities are Continue reading »
Public policy
The death of cricketer Phillip Hughes ten years ago to-day (November 27) was one of several hundred workplace fatalities in 2014. The manner of his death raises a key concern for occupational health and safety. Best practice is to remove the source of danger. Second or third best is to minimise its ill-effects. School cricket Continue reading »
Reports of malfeasance involving staff at the Alexander Maconochie Centre, the ACT’s supposedly human-rights-compliant prison, are now too numerous and too frequent to lack substantial veracity. Yet, even in the very teeth of the ACT election campaign, it seems they can be virtually ignored. There’s no votes, it seems, in the treatment of our most Continue reading »
The federal government recently released a Productivity Commission’s Report on children’s services. It found too many changes were needed for the government to say more than that they were “looking at it”. The report is significant and was passed to the Government to guide possible reforms to its role in funding of services to deliver 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 »
If the well-off paid their fair share of tax no one would be talking about a cost of living crisis; Dutton weeps as his beloved Home Affairs Department, modelled on the Soviet KGB, is dismantled; how the gambling lobby has become Australia’s equivalent to America’s National Rifle Association. Read on for the weekly roundup of Continue reading »
Coalition plans to join hands with North Korea and fast-track nuclear power, how Melbourne is stretching to the South Australian border, a bipartisan board of censors to purge dirty books from public libraries. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Australia’s Continue reading »
Europeans cast a vote for sanity, the Liberal Party attacks Labor from the left, Malcolm Turnbull shares his ideas on protecting democracy from authoritarian demagogues. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Europe’s elections It’s more complex than a straight rejection Continue reading »
Australia’s drug budget heavily focuses on law enforcement over harm reduction and prevention, underscoring the need for more balanced, effective spending. How much do Australian governments spend on illicit drug issues? Australia’s drug policy spending remains heavily skewed towards law enforcement, raising concerns about priorities and effectiveness. According to a 2021/2022 drug budget report by Continue reading »
Details of Coalition’s rooftop nuclear initiative revealed, Australia to close borders to all immigrants other than brickies and nuclear scientists, ACCC considering a Coles-Woolworths merger application. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. The Coalition’s nuclear fantasies Dutton couldn’t have picked Continue reading »