When Slippery Pete Slipper replaced Harry Jenkins as speaker in December, the most oft-heard observation was that it gave the PM some wiggle room to break her written agreement with Andrew Wilkie.
Jenny Macklin
Follow Crikey’s latest coverage of Jenny Macklin. Crikey’s Jenny Macklin coverage includes independent news, blogs and commentary.
Sydney heavies finally step up on pokies reform
Julia Gillard and responsible minister Jenny Macklin, the two Victorian ladies of the Left, seemed genuinely committed to pokies reform before this week’s confusing antics.
Still no evidence for Macklin’s NT intervention
The Labor government’s legislation continues to concentrate power in the hands of government and vilify Aboriginal people, write Dr Hilary Tyler and Paddy Gibson, NT indigenous workers.
‘Imbecile’ pokies activist funds full-page newspaper ad
Despite the Baillieu government’s reluctance to tackle serious pokies reform, Victoria is central to the campaign for change and Paul Bendat’s full-page ad is a sign of what is to come for Victorian Liberals.
The media release the minister should’ve written on the NT Intervention
Here is a draft alternative media release for Jenny Macklin — what she should have said as a response to the current consultation rather than harping on about truancy and grog.
Ignoring evidence may explain why the income management gap doesn’t close
Today the Productivity Commission releases its latest report on Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage, which shows only 13 of 45 measures showed any improvement and seven went backwards.
Does new evidence from NT women undermine supposed benefits of income management?
A new research report, which has sought the views of more than 180 women in the NT, raises questions about income management’s level of support or perceptions of benefit.
How the government ripped off pensioners for two years
During the last 21 months the government has left thousands of pensioners significantly worse off — while reaping millions of dollars in savings from payments. New rules right the wrong, but nobody has held the government to account says Ava Hubble.
Cox: new intervention proposals … same old, same old
A new consultation process on more intervention proposals does not please the many critics of the current version’s costly failures.
James Packer shows off his Labor Right pulling power
The James Packer ALP advisory team of Graham Richardson, Karl Bitar and former Kim Beazley chief-of-staff Gary O’Neill, today have played one of their trump cards in the campaign to head off Andrew Wilkie’s pokies reform agenda.
Should you let babies cry? Govt website at odds with experts
Training babies to sleep through the night using the popular “controlled crying” technique can be damaging to their development, according to a leading youth mental health group, directly contradicting information provided by a federal government website. Larissa Nicholson reports.
Gillard’s parents back fight against ‘unjust’ frozen UK pensions
Julia Gillard’s parents are among members of an organisation fighting to get the UK’s frozen pensions policy abolished. So will the prime minister raise the issue with her British counterpart? asks Ava Hubble.
Political snippets: Punishing the victims
It seems a rather perverse system to me when Federal funds are taken away from a State or Territory Government that does not meet some welfare spending target.
Does Macklin’s office have no shame?
Jenny Macklin’s dismissal of a review that has found income management is not making an impact on tobacco and healthy food sales in remote NT communities is an insult to the Government’s professed commitment to “evidence-based policy”, writes Melissa Sweet.
Income management evidence trivialised in a lemonade solution
Jenny Macklin’s response to the latest evidence that Income Management doesn’t work is only the latest example of anti-evidence based decisions in the welfare system, writes Eva Cox
Macklin’s twists truth on income management
Jenny Macklin has dismissed a new study revealing the government’s income management policy is not making an impact on tobacco and health food sales in indigenous communities. The study’s authors hit back.
Those waiting in the wings need to work on their lines
Tony Abbott was right to reject acting lessons, he’s already a showman, writes Peter Brent. But other pollies desperately require some professional personality jazzing. Here’s looking at you Wayne Swan and Penny Wong.
Cox: Should we base policy on opinions or evidence?
MP Jenny Macklin says that she hears positive feedback from women about income management in the NT intervention, yet all evidence shows IM doesn’t work. How do you balance personal claims against expert evidence? asks Eva Cox.
Senators, don’t use women’s needs as an excuse for bad policy
Since when did feminism condone compulsory loss of rights for categories of women? Please don’t use women’s needs as an excuse for bad policy as it sounds a bit like Phillip Ruddock wearing his Amnesty badge while persecuting asylum seekers.
Macklin’s income management a junk-food bonanza
The federal government’s NT income management scheme has been branded a nutritional failure, with indigenous communities continuing to load up on junk food despite stringent measures meant to boost fruit and veggie sales.
Failure to restore Racial Discrimination Act means double jeopardy for Aboriginal people
The Government should withdraw the proposed paternalistic social security legislation, pass the Greens’ Bill to reinstate the RDA and start a wider discussion on how to achieve real welfare reform.
McClelland, Macklin get an “F” on indigenous housing reforms
Jenny Macklin’s FaHCSIA staff have faced an absolute grilling over a new Bill that was supposed to improve housing in Indigenous communities, but fails to deliver any of the “vital” reforms it was created to address, reports Bob Gosford.
The nasty maternalistic state
Sole parents and the unemployed beware: Jenny Macklin is trying to take half your income away. It’s the most drastic change to our social security system ever — and almost nobody knows about it, reports Eva Cox.
Data without destiny: Macklin fudges evidence
Jenny Macklin’s latest effort in justifying policy is her gross over-promoting of the results of a very small and dicey survey of 76 income-managed residents in four communities in the Northern Territory.
Income management the ultimate form of nannyism
Rather than invoking nanny, let’s have an informed discussion about income management rooted in some sensible analysis of its potential benefits and costs — including the likely harms, writes Melissa Sweet.
