NEW IN JUNE
	Misinformed Debate on Public Funding of Universities Brendan O'Reilly OECD educational expenditure data for Australia have been at the centre of the debate about what happened to university funding during the Howard years. Ministers of Education on both sides of politics, as well as a sitting Prime Minister, have provided Parliament with clearly misleading interpretations of these statistics, including claims that they are flawed. Is there something wrong with OECD statistics? Mortality and the Contradiction of Modernity Kim Atkins Human destiny will be determined by how we respond to our mortality, not by technology or television or dieting, still less the caprices of gods or demons. Instead of looking to the stars for the meaning of life, we need to look much closer to home: to our spotty, ageing bodies and to our flawed and funny minds.

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.

	LATEST JOURNAL ARTICLE (Vol. 9, No. 2)
	Is ‘Close the Gap’ a Useful Approach? Kerryn Pholi, Dan Black and Craig Richards There is widespread enthusiasm for the Australian government’s commitment to ‘Close the Gap’ in Indigenous disadvantage, health status and life expectancy. Yet despite the rhetoric, the pursuit of statistical equality for Indigenous Australians is not a novel or particularly promising approach. It is also an approach that reduces Indigenous Australians to a range of indicators of deficit, to be monitored and rectified towards government-set targets. This illustrates a substantial imbalance in power and control over the Indigenous affairs agenda in Australia, which is the ‘gap’ that must be addressed for the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians to improve.

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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