1 November 2020. As this newsletter is published, voting in the US elections is under way, with commentators speculating from the polls that Biden will win. Given the unexpected outcome of 2016, they prefer, nonetheless, to call the result uncertain. Whatever the outcome of this election, these last Trump years have seen increased international tensions, and […]
1 November 2020. With the Taiwan dilemma deepening, Australia might be forced to take a stand As the United States gets closer to an unusually divisive election potentially followed by months of distracting disputation, will China take the immense gamble of trying to invade Taiwan, or at least strangle it into submission? If so, Australia […]
1 November 2020. Too often, the public debate is about whether regulation should be decreased. Regulation typically exists for a reason, however, and the issue should be how to regulate effectively. The Prime Minister has embraced deregulation as a prominent feature of his reform agenda. But what does that mean? For businesses, the catchcry of […]
1 November 2020 A major reason for the loss of trust in governments and parliaments is the way powerful special interests with their lobbyists have come to dominate the public debate and skew decisions in their favour. The fossil fuel sector is the most obvious and recent example. Lobbyists are using their destructive influence more […]
1 November 2020 So, unless you’ve been off the grid or in a bunker since January, the 2020 Budget has been offered up by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg (five months late), with the historic backdrop of the cold hard economic reality of living with a global pandemic. In May last year, the Treasurer guaranteed a surplus. […]
1 November 2020. The new social encyclical of Pope Francis is a cry for those oppressed by poverty, hunger, and exclusion, protesting against the injustice of a world with so much wealth failing to do enough for everyone to have the opportunity for a reasonably good life. Not surprisingly, Francis drew from the parable of […]
1 November 2020. Many of us working in the criminal justice sector were dreading, but not surprised by, the arrival of positive cases of Covid-19 in prisons in mid-July. Covid was already a reason we were using for people to be released on bail and for having sentences reflect the increasingly harsh prison environment brought […]
Peter Whiting. With the Federal Budget to be brought down on 6 October, the economic impact of the pandemic and the appropriate fiscal response are attracting serious commentary. Always high on the list of responses is change to income tax; others argue for delay of increases in the superannuation levy, increases in investment incentives, and […]
Bruce Duncan. Pope Francis is challenging powerful sectional interests sharply in his new social manifesto to be released on 4 October. The new encyclical, Fratelli Tutti (All Brothers and Sisters), will outline his vision of a just, peaceful, and sustainable world, and call vigorously for renewed commitment to universal wellbeing and solidarity. We already have […]
Frank Jotzo. The Morrison government on 17 September announced A$1.9 billion over ten years to develop clean technology in industry, agriculture and transport. In some ways it’s a step in the right direction, but a far cry from what’s needed to drive Australia’s shift to a low emissions economy. The big change involves what the […]
Mark Diesendorf UNSW. The Morrison government in late September revealed the five low-emissions technologies it will prioritise for investment. The so called ‘technology roadmap‘ offers scant support for renewable energy, for reasons which do not stand up to scrutiny. The technologies at the centre of the roadmap are: clean hydrogen energy storage low-carbon steel and […]
