An unnecessarily conservative budget from the government and a pathetic response from the opposition, how we are so generous to Western Australia, the Coalition and nukes, the disgrace of McBride’s jail sentence. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Because of Continue reading »
politics
At last weekend’s Victorian Writers Festival three authors – two of them also bookshop owners and one of them an author and enthusiastic supporter of bookshops – talked about books and the threat to reading. Ann Patchett and her husband own Parnassus Books in Nashville Tennessee. Lauren Groff, another novelist and her husband Clay Kallman, Continue reading »
Doubling down is a term used to describe a high-risk manoeuvre that blackjack players make when they decide to double their potential losses to receive just one card from the deck. In conservative politics it’s a move typically made to send a signal to political associates and supporters that despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Continue reading »
This past Budget week had the most intense focus on immigration levels that I can remember (and I’ve been watching immigration policy in Budget week for over 35 years). It confirms that immigration levels will be a dominant issue at the next Election. But debates about immigration levels can be a mixture of substance as Continue reading »
Western leaders like to talk about values, shared values, common values. They talk about this a lot. America itself is obsessed with two things: conflict resolution through violence and moral preening. Nowhere is this contradiction more glaringly on display than in the genocide being committed in Gaza. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) says Continue reading »
In the movie Apocalypse Now, Robert Duval’s character, Colonel Bill Kilgore, reflectively observes that, despite the smell of victory, ‘Someday this war’s gonna end’. So too, the war in Gaza is going to end. The only questions are how and when. Despite growing external pressure, the current Israeli cabinet is only inclined to end the Continue reading »
“[T]here was the man in his 50s, forgotten in a room, having had both legs amputated. He had lost his kids, his grandkids, his home . . . and he’s alone in the corner of this dark hospital, maggots going out of his wounds and he was screaming: ‘The worms are eating me alive please Continue reading »
After considering Opposition criticisms, this article concludes that this Budget reflects Labor’s competent economic management. However, a more ambitious tax reform agenda is needed to adequately provide all the services that Australians expect. Labor’s macroeconomic strategy Essentially Labor faced a difficult balancing act with this budget. The challenge was to improve the cost of living Continue reading »
Opposition leader (as of publishing), Peter Dutton, has released his terrifying vision for the country, should he take the throne from current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. With the alternative Government planning to put a nuclear reactor in every backyard, have... Read More ›
Under-funding is not the main reason for the crisis in Australia’s public hospitals. A far bigger problem is systemic stupidity. Before the pandemic, Tasmania’s public hospital system was the nation’s standout basket case. But the malaise, rather like a virulent infectious disease, has spread. Now every state has the same scandals: critically ill patients waiting Continue reading »