The Policy Post

  Populism and the fight for democracy. Liberal democracy is facing its most perilous time since the rise of fascism a century ago. Between the GFC and now, their number has fallen by a third. Populist authoritarians thrive. What’s happening? And why?

  WA’s $40 billion fraud on the rest of us. Jim Chalmers has just added $11 billion to the cost of Western Australia’s dodgy GST deal. It’s an extraordinary case of political extortion. But is it even legal? And will WA have to give the money back?

  An unbroken record of failure. The last time the Labor party in Tasmania won a parliamentary majority was seventeen years and six leaders ago. Even against a tired, inept Liberal government, they still look unelectable.

  The cost-of-living crisis hits health care The health cost crunch has just become more savage than it’s been for decades. But it’s been developing for a long time – and governments have ignored the problem.

  These are the people we’re locking up. Prisons don’t work. When you look at the lives of people being imprisoned, it’s no wonder.

The decline and fall of the intelligent political insult. It’s not that our politics have become unexpectedly polite. It’s just that the wit has vanished.

We're spending billions on 'wellness' crap. Why? The alternative medicines industry rakes in billions, but consumer protection has gone missing. The regulator doesn't have the power or the money to do its job ... and powerful interests like it that way.

Transformation of a nation. In a little over 50 years, Australia changed from a dull, arid, insular monoculture into one of the most diverse nations on earth. It hasn’t been easy and it’s not over yet. I lived through it all, so it’s my story too.

How alien abduction explains Donald Trump. When given a choice between truth and a lie, vast millions of people unerringly choose the lie. What on earth is going on – and what does it mean?

It’s doing your head in: the hidden mental toll of all those crises. We live in a time of anguish: interest rates, cost of living, rents, mortgages, healthcare, the pandemic, the GFC, job insecurity, climate change. It’s having its consequences.

The increasingly unacceptable faces of capitalism. The corporate world has seldom been held in more contempt than right now. It goes far beyond Qantas and PWC to strike at the heart of the way global business functions.

Private health insurance: and the rort goes on. There’s a government review of health insurance. Here’s why you haven’t heard of it … and what needs to change.

What’s the Intergenerational Report really for? Projecting 40 years ahead is nonsense. The Intergenerational Reports have quite a different purpose – to justify what the government has already decided to do.

  Labor has one last chance to save public hospitals. But will they? Only the federal government has the capacity to put the hospital system back together. And a disaster unfolding in one state reveals what is already beginning in all the others.

  Neoliberalism is dead, killed by the GFC. A new, fairer era has begun. As Australia swings dramatically away from trickle-down economics, the rich are getting a smaller slice of the pie. Those in the middle are doing better – but not, yet, those right at the bottom.

  How long will you live? The promise of ever-longer lifespans is a new phenomenon that probably won’t last.

  It was the biggest health reform since Medicare. It didn’t work. In 2011, Julia Gillard introduced a new funding system to fix Australia’s troubled public hospitals. So why did it fail so badly?

  Artificial intelligence will upend our economy. We’re utterly unprepared.   The AI revolution promises a vastly more efficient economy. But who pays the price of massive job losses, soaring inequality and social dislocation?

  New laws try to kill protests. Here’s why they will fail. Governments can now send non-violent protesters to gaol but face massive backlash. These laws have been tried for centuries – and for just as long, they’ve backfired.

  Which state has the worst housing crisis? The crisis is everywhere – and it’s the result of decades of deliberate neglect and failed ideology. This analysis reveals how each state rates, from the least-bad to the worst.

  That very silly stadium in Hobart. The saga of a billion-dollar football stadium encompasses tragedy and farce – and reveals familiar folly at the core of government policy-making.

  What will replace the Liberal Party? As the country moves left, the Liberal Party moves further right. If they’re no longer a viable party of government, what comes next?

  Could climate change really end civilisation? Global warming will cause massive social and political upheaval. But despite wild claims of apocalypse, our civilisation – and our species – are not under threat.

  The debt-and-deficit scare is back, wearing Labor’s colours. It’s still a dangerous lie.   Despite what we’re told, government debt is actually benign. ‘Budget repair’ is not.

  Early childhood: the neglected frontier that impacts almost everything. Education for our youngest kids is the key to an optimal future – for them and for the country. So why does Australia do it so badly? And what is being lost?

  We’re getting submarines. So what will we lose? The navy wins. Losers will be the army, the air force, Medicare, hospitals, schools, the unemployed – and the nation’s safety.

  How much longer will dementia be out of control? The causes are intractable or unknown. Medical research has hit a wall. And we don’t even detect cases effectively.

  Are our schools really that bad? No, actually. Jason Clare teams up with the Murdoch tabloids to smear the school system. He’s playing a dangerous game.

  In the state that needs GPs most, they’re more out of reach than ever.   Tasmania is our poorest and sickest state. And that fact magnifies Medicare’s worsening failure.

  Quietly, Chalmers moves on WA’s dodgy GST deal. Nobody is going to be happy. A rather large time-bomb, bequeathed to Jim Chalmers by the previous government, is set to explode in just over three years from now.

  Crime levels sink. Prisoner numbers soar. What’s going on? In Australia’s smallest state, a natural experiment shows a humane and rational approach to crime works – and tough-on-crime strategies fail.

  Is Labor serious about health? Doesn’t look like it. Mark Butler’s Medicare “Taskforce” isn’t action on health reform. It’s a substitute for action.

  Progressive politics always (in the end) wins. Here’s why. Throughout modern history, conservatives have won battles but lost the wars. It’s the other side – the reformists or ‘progressives’ – who eventually shape the world.

  How civilised? A scorecard of the 20 richest nations.   The wealthiest countries have no excuse for neglecting their own people. Here’s an assessment of the good – and the not-so-good.

  Does gun control work? Australia’s much-praised gun laws have almost eliminated mass shootings. But they’ve done little about the homicide rate, and nothing at all about suicide.