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 »
Public policy
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 »
Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull famously described Coalition leader Peter Dutton as a “thug”. That description appears particularly apt in Dutton’s nuclear power plans. The Coalition’s nuclear project is opposed by state Labor governments in each of the five states being targeted. Victoria, NSW and Queensland have laws banning nuclear power. The Labor governments Continue reading »
In 1969, then-Prime Minister Gough Whitlam stated, “We are all diminished when any of us are denied proper education. The nation is the poorer—a poorer economy, a poorer civilisation, because of this human and national waste.” Although Whitlam was talking about tertiary education—this was part of his policy speech when his government abolished university fees, Continue reading »