keywords: Mining Tax
Winner-take-all election narrative doesn't wash
John Warhurst
We are expected to believe that all those perceived Labor failures, plus the massive anti-Labor Clive Palmer campaign and the attraction of some positive Coalition policies, only shifted a little over one Australian in every hundred, though more in some states like Queensland and some individual seats. That analysis can't be right.
Don't denigrate rational regional Queensland
Kate Galloway
Queenslanders are subjected to the imposed norms of southerners all the time. Those in central and north Queensland are imposed to the same kind of disdain from Brisbane. In the wake of the Coalition's election victory, it has been unedifying to see opposition voters seeking to explain the loss of their parties by blaming a 'stupid' electorate.
Could Labor fuel a property revolution?
The Australian economy rests on a decades-long property gamble that has disenfranchised younger generations. It is why the differing policies of the two major parties at the federal election take on an unusual significance. The voters' choice will go a long way towards determining if that generational split will get better or worse.
Budget 2019 boosts inequality
John Falzon
The much trumpeted projected budget surplus is built on the backs of people who are left out and often made to feel that they are left over, surplus to the economy: people on low pay or no pay, young people, sole parents, people experiencing homelessness, people living with a disability.
Supporting those on the margins
Frank Brennan
'We can do this better by breaking down the silos and binding together our concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace.' Opening Keynote Address by Fr Frank Brennan SJ at the Catholic Social Services Australia National Conference, Port Macquarie 19 February 2019.
The inequity of this silent killer
Cristy Clark
Airborne pollution is an issue of environmental justice, because it disproportionately affects those with the least capacity to move — the poor, the marginalised, and those, such as Indigenous peoples, with a significant relationship to place.
Research funding regime gets personal
Birmingham's intervention, and Tehan's consolidation of that ill-exercised discretion, suggests Australian Research Council funding will be politicised by executive veto. Expertise will be subordinated to the whimsy of the education minister of the day; researchers will be pondering how to shape their applications accordingly.
Consolations from the Liberal Party mess
Dutton would never have enjoyed any legitimacy as PM given the tactics he employed to get there, and such behaviour would have been repeated and rewarded yet again in the future. Even in the derelict state of Australia's contemporary politics, Dutton's perfidy augmented by Abbott's desire for revenge are no longer to be rewarded.
Australia's deadly game of mates
Murray and Frijters detail what they call Australia's 'grey corruption': the grubby nexus between 'James' (corrupt business people) and governments or regulators. The Jameses thrive at the expense of the 'Bruces': ordinary working people. The games of the corrupt elite now cost the 'Bruces' about half their wages.
School funding after Batman and Longman
The school funding battle has featured in the last two rounds of federal by-elections. Economics writer Ross Gittins has suggested the Catholics are trying to extract special deals. There are three principles of public policy at play in this ongoing saga, and the consistent and fair application of all three principles is a big political challenge.
Newstart needs a new start
The Turnbull government holds the view that tax relief for companies and middle-income earners is necessary to improve the economic prosperity of Australia, offering a financial hand up to households struggling to pay their bills. For those on Newstart, though, those same increased costs of living are being all but ignored.
Abbott spruiking coal is a win for renewables
Greg Foyster
Every time the self-appointed Ambassador for the Little Black Rock fronts up to the cameras he reinforces the message that coal power is the technology of a bygone era. The Coalition old guard's thinking hasn't changed since Abbott's 'carbon tax' sloganeering of 2012 and 2013. But the landscape has changed considerably.
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