The Policy Post

  A politics for a disintegrating world. The western democracies face a time of upheaval that could lead to breakdown and chaos. But only if we let it.

  Climate change, security … and Indonesia. Australia can, with difficulty, handle most of what climate change throws at us. Our biggest, nearest neighbour cannot.

  Democracy’s crisis of confidence. Autocracies are winning the trust of their people. Democracies are losing it.

  Prevention is not a substitute for cure. The better we get at preventing disease, the more we have to spend on hospitals. And life expectancy cannot improve forever.

  Australia Alone 1: The future without America. We are moving into a multipolar world  in which no single centre of power can dominate. For Australia, the time has come for independence.

  Australia alone 2: Where’s the enemy? The US wants Australia to help constrain China and preserve America’s supremacy. But what’s in it for us?

  Australia alone 3: In the national interest? As a sovereign nation, Australia should follow its national interest. But how do we do that? And what is it anyway?

  A party without a purpose. In May, federal Labor surged to power with its best result since the second world war. Eleven weeks later, Tasmanian Labor got its worst result since 1903. Why?

  One state has the worst hospital system – and the most expensive. Inefficient, neglected hospitals cost lives and waste dollars. You don’t always get what you pay for.

  Australia is now a one-party state. What price democracy? Governments need functioning oppositions to keep them in check. Australia no longer has one of those.