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.

  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.

  Inequality and the neoliberal legacy. Half a century of trickle-up economics has decreased prosperity,  overburdened the health system – and caused a vast number of premature deaths. In Australia, the Howard government did most of the damage.

  The pandemic has caused hospital chaos. It didn’t have to be this way. Health systems should be built to withstand shocks like this. Ours wasn’t.