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Better Work? Low Pay, Trade
Unions and Regulation Tim Ayres (May
2009)
There were many parallels between the Australian
union movement’s Your Rights At Work campaign in
the lead up to the election of the Rudd Government in 2007 and
the Obama campaign juggernaut in 2008. Both mobilised and engaged
an unprecedented number of campaign workers, donors and activists.
But it’s what happens after the election that counts, for
low paid workers in both countries.
What Would Michael Do? Dennis
Phillips (May 2009)
In Francis Ford Coppola’s film, ‘The
Godfather’, Don Vito Corleone’s sons argue over how
the Corleone dynasty should respond after the Don is wounded in
a ‘hit’ arranged by a rival crime boss. For two heavyweights
of the American foreign policy debate, the ageing and severely
wounded Don represents Cold War American power and his sons approximate
the three schools of thought on American foreign policy. Foreign
policy advice by parable: acute analysis or a cute gimmick?
‘We call them pirates
out here’, and in Mt Druitt Tony Smith (May
2009)
It has always been risky for academics to
study Indigenous issues. These risks increased when the so-called
culture and history wars intensified during the late 1990s and
early 2000s. There are encouraging signs, however, that scholars
are approaching the field with renewed confidence that their work
can make important contributions to historical knowledge and cross-cultural
understanding.
Marketing Opportunities from
the Global Financial Crisis Dick Bryan (Apr
2009)
So much has been written about ‘the
global financial crisis’ in the recent past. Anyone with
a view about anything is in print, collectively generating a massive
growth of speculative positions on the crisis. Most readers will
have trouble telling quality from the junk. Two towering figures,
George Soros and Robert Shiller, weighed in last year, and this
essay looks at what they do—and do not—offer.
Forget Population Control – All
You Need is Love Diana Wyndham (Apr
2009)
Family planning methods have been used by
authoritarian governments in inhumane ways, and dangerous contraceptives
have been dumped on the third world by unscrupulous companies.
But does this mean anything that enables control of reproduction
is iniquitous? There have been medical disasters, but doctors provide
useful services and it would be foolish to boycott the profession
because of mistakes or malpractice. The same applies to family
planning.
What Job, Which House?: Simple
Solutions to Complex Problems in Indigenous Affairs Mark
Moran (Mar 2009)
In a recent paper, former Keating Government
minister Gary Johns advocates a ‘no job, no house’ policy
for remote Indigenous communities. Johns’ proposal is the
latest in a line of offerings from conservative politicians and
commentators on Aboriginal affairs. What arguments and evidence
support such proposals? What do they say about the state of Indigenous
politics in Australia? Will they work?
Back Room Religion Marion
Maddox (Mar 2009)
In recent years, a secretive Christian sect
of non-voters has spent more than two million dollars supporting
political conservatives in elections in Australia, New Zealand,
the United States and elsewhere. Who are these people, what do
they believe, and what are they trying to achieve?
Is Democratic Gambling
Reform Possible? Jan McMillen (Mar
2009)
Ten years ago the Productivity Commission
inquired into commercial gambling in Australia. A second inquiry
will report in November 2009. There has been some reform since
the last inquiry, and some moves towards co-operation in policy
development around the country. Yet researchers continue to identify
unacceptable levels of problem gambling and policy deficiencies.
What does it take to get real reform?
Political Parties Need to
Differ – Within Reasonable Limits Riccardo Pelizzo (Feb
2009)
When the main parties in a democracy agree
too much, they can fail to represent the range of issues the electorate
cares about and create the conditions for anti-system parties,
such as the Northern League in Italy or One Nation in Australia,
to emerge. When parties over-emphasise their political differences,
they can endanger the democratic regime by turning disagreement
on policy into disagreement over fundamentals. So how much disagreement
is too much?
A New Deal for Local Government? Stephen
Jones (Feb 2009)
In December 2008, the Australian Local Government
Association conducted a three day summit in Melbourne. The summit
agreed that the solution to the problems of local government lies
in a more direct relationship with the federal government and that
nothing less than reform of the Constitution is required. However,
current circumstances suggest achieving their objective will be
like winning the Olympic marathon without training. There are,
fortunately, other possibilities …
Recalling the Past with
a Laugh Haydon Manning (Feb 2009)
It’s ten years from now and a friend
asks, ‘Do you remember the main political events of Kevin
Rudd’s first year in office?’ One tries to conjure
an intelligent response on the spot, but the reality is that any
thorough answer requires serious research. Unless one has to hand
an anthology of political cartoons from 2008 …
Policy Re-born? The Productivity
Commission's Paid Maternity Leave Proposal Marian Baird (Dec
2008)
There is no provision for paid maternity,
paid paternity or paid parental leave in either the current Workplace
Relations Act or the forthcoming National Employment Standards.
Conservative estimates suggest that about half of the female workforce
does not have access to any paid maternity leave at all and that
approximately one-third of women actually use the entitlement.
This may be about to change …
Academic Freedom in Australia Katharine
Gelber (Dec 2008)
In the dying days of Coalition control,
the Senate established an Inquiry into Academic Freedom. The Inquiry
heard evidence of left wing bias in schools and universities, especially
in the social sciences and humanities. According to advocates for ‘Intellectual
Diversity’, the dominance of these left wing views has systemically
marginalised, even penalised, students with conservative views.
The Inquiry recently released its assessment of the evidence put
before it.
The Ends of Howard and Costello? Mark
Rolfe (Nov 2008)
Observers typically claim that a political
leader succeeded or failed because he (less often she) was charismatic,
strong, principled, arrogant, ideological, popular, in touch with
the people, or an out and out bastard. Such judgments usually ignore
the more interesting dilemma of how leaders must be all of those
things at different times, carefully managing public perceptions
of their character as they go. After the Coalition’s crushing
loss in 2007, what sense can we make of Howard and Costello as
political characters?
New Reproductive Technologies
and Limits to Procreative Liberty Mianna Lotz (Nov
2008)
In September this year, Sydney IVF became
the first Australian fertility clinic to be issued with a licence
to produce human cloned embryos exclusively for research purposes.
Stem cell scientists and patient advocacy groups are delighted,
but many religious leaders are profoundly disturbed. Should science
stop if not everyone agrees?
What’s Going On, Then? Jenny
Stewart (Nov 2008)
The recent turmoil on world financial markets
had led many to wonder whether, this time, capitalism as we know
it might really be finished. Whatever form the new capitalism takes,
it will be different from the old. For the foreseeable future,
the ideology of the free market, at least in its fundamentalist
forms, will have run its course. Some form of regulatory renaissance
seems inevitable. But regulation of what kind?
Language, Culture and Education
in Remote Indigenous Communities David P. Wilkins (Oct
2008)
NT Minister for Education, Marion Scrymgour,
recently announced that the first four hours of every school day
in the Territory will be taught in English. The policy is an imposition
that threatens the linguistic and cultural viability of remote
communities running active bilingual education programs. In this
one decision we find a microcosm that reflects the macrocosm of
issues relating to the future of language, culture, and education
in remote Indigenous communities.
Distributing Responsibility
For Decision Making In Medical Ethics Paul Jewell (Oct
2008)
Doctors, patients and the wider community
do not agree on what constitutes acceptable outcomes, who should
decide, and how power, responsibility, obligation and authority
should be allocated between the state, the profession and the patient.
Indeed, the medical profession itself is seriously confused
and conflicted on these issues …
A Paean to the Keating Legacy Evan
Jones (Oct 2008)
A growing literature, albeit unrecognised
as a genre, is concerned with two grand themes in debate about
Australian economic policy over the last 25 years—the relative
merits of the current ‘neoliberal’ regime compared
to the policy structures in place until the 1970s, and which side
of politics should be given the most kudos for engineering the
presumed successes of the neoliberal era. So which side does the
latest addition take?
‘Partnerships’:
Potentials and Pitfalls for Not-for-Profits Leanne Cutcher (Oct
2008)
Management of not-for-profit organisations
was once seen as irrelevant and esoteric. Because these organisations
now receive so much government funding, interest in understanding
how they ought to be managed and organised is now keen. With public
funding comes increased scrutiny and policies to encourage ‘partnerships’ between
not-for-profits and governments and businesses. In this environment,
not-for-profits face challenges—perhaps threats—they
have not encountered before.
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