Should we be moving away from private health insurance? Ian McAuley makes the case for a single national insurer.
Government funding
Rural doctors sprung on push for more cash
Rural doctors are arguing for yet more financial incentives to work in the bush. But the report they rely on doesn’t exactly back them up, writes Dr Sue Page.
Why the private health insurance changes won’t break the system
The evidence does not support claims that the budget’s private health insurance changes will break the public health system, writes Jennifer Doggett.
What will drive change in health?
Two forces are visible that will drive change in the health system and in the health debate even though both, to a fair extent, have to do with money, writes Stephen Leeder.
Eva Cox: How the Budget demonises rich women
The two minor income tests to Family Tax Benefit B and the Baby Bonus have been puffed and discussed as though the recipient were Cruella de Ville, writes Eva Cox.
Family tax benefits still a mass of contradictions
Tinkering around the edges of the existing layer cake system of family benefits will not fix the problem of middle class welfare, writes Jessica Brown of the CIS.
Budget boredom for schools but watch this space
The budget may have held only boring news for schools, but the new quadrennial funding agreement due later this year will have a far greater impact, writes Jennifer Buckingham.
Adler: Quality arts require government protection
If the arts sector needed reminding of its lowly status in the free market arcadia the response to my suggestion that the arts need more secure funding should confirm it, writes Louise Adler.
IPA’s WiMax report is a double edged political sword
Labor is trying to make political capital out of an IPA paper that bags the Government’s plans for using WiMax technology for rural broadband. But they will be hoping said that no one reads the whole report, because there is plenty there to give Labor grief as well, writes Margaret Simons.
