The Policy Post

  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.