Download a .pdf of SPC News April 2019 A budget for an election. Peter Whiting With a Federal election tipped for mid-May 2019, and an April budget to accommodate it, it is hardly surprising that – in the hope of influencing electors’ voting decisions – the budget handed down on 2 April had a number […]
Climate crisis: not so slow-burning now. Editorial Future generations will struggle to understand why key Australian politicians and sections of the media refused so long to recognise that global warming was an immediate threat to Australia and the world. January 2019 was the hottest month on record in Australia, with the nation’s mean temperature above […]
Australia Day & our ‘culture wars’ Peter Whiting Whatever your view, whether you hold firmly to the idea that Australia Day should continue to be held on 26 January, or whether some other day is preferred, there is a need soberly and openly to discuss at a national level the fact that the day which […]
Download a .pdf of SPC News. Climate change: “the most important issue we face” At the UN’s COP24 climate talks currently under way in Poland, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, described climate change as “the most important issue we face”. The address by Sir David Attenborough was unequivocal in its alarm, fearing the collapse […]
Read a .pdf of SPC News. Have we lost the ideal of the common good? Peter Whiting Editorial Regrettably, many of us have by now become inured to those frequent advertisements asking us to sponsor an animal under threat of extinction. Even more sadly, we do not respond with quite the same generosity as of […]
Amidst dark clouds, a precious silver lining Once again, we are battered by bad news of the possibility of widespread malpractice in another major sector, as Prime Minister Morrison has announced a royal commission into aged care, with allegations of price gouging by some pro-profits, chronic understaffing, appalling wages for staff, and poor nutrition for […]
Liveability for whom? Peter Whiting In our editorial this month, Peter Whiting contrasts the growing profile between government spending on physical infrastructure and initiatives on social infrastructure. None of this commentary is meant to suggest that, as a community, we do not need and will not benefit from the major transport infrastructure programs proposed by Federal […]
Download a .pdf of SPC News August 2018. The Thai cave rescue & the surge of common humanity. Chris Mulherin. The inspiration and lessons of this story go beyond riveting real-time TV and lives saved. In my view, what we saw during that gripping week in July was human community at its best: individuals finding […]
Download a .pdf of SPC News July 2018. Can we preserve our social values, & still have a prosperous economy? This issue of SPC News offers three views on inequality. John Menadue writes robustly that the class war is real and being waged by the rich. Rosalind Dixon responds to Richard Denniss, agreeing that there […]
Download a .pdf of SPC News June 2018 edition. Where are our statesmen and women? Peter Whiting John Maynard Keynes, reflecting in 1933 on the road to recovery after the Great Depression, wrote, “It is not an engineering problem or an agricultural problem. It is not even a business problem … nor is it a […]
