The signals are that fundamental health reform is seen as too complex, wrapped in too many uncertainties and too likely to upset powerful interests in difficult times, writes Ian Hickie.
Rudd government
Whoops, how did that budget leak get there?
Next time the Government cops a bad break, or you think the press is being unfair to it, keep in mind just how tightly-controlled it has been in the last week.
Budget to RBA: you complete me
Today’s Reserve Bank forecasts complete the likely picture that will emerge on Budget night next Tuesday.
How will Wayne’s Budget be received?
Early in the GFC Labor had maximum political cover. But now the government has made choices about how to respond, including the size of stimulus packages, it carries a heavier political burden, writes Michelle Grattan.
Labor spineless on emissions
The Howard-Costello Government displayed much greater political backbone with GST than Labor has over the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, writes Clive Hamilton.
Defence blueprint could fuel arms race
Analysts are warning that Rudd’s new defence white-paper could encourage other countries in the region to stockpile weapons.
Rudd to delay ETS by a year
The government are likely to announce later today that the ETS will be delayed until 2011, according to ABC reports.
Budget countdown: Tax revenue, recession, deficit, oops
There are worrying signs that the collapse in government revenue will reveal a budget in structural deficit.
Australia’s $18m bid to keep asylum seekers in Indonesia
The sound bites may have shifted, but the policy around interception of asylum seekers in Indonesia never changed.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Memo to Opposition: demonising boat people won’t work anymore
There is a risk for the current opposition that in taking too old-school a line on boat people they will be seen as Howardite relics.
Asia will be China’s. Will we be prepared?
The Government’s looming defence White Paper will need to address the challenges of power shifts in Asia, writes Hugh White in a new Lowy Institute paper.
Unions trade member interests for seats and influence
The revelations over the ABCC do little to explain the broader labour movement’s continuing counter-productive closeness to its lackeys in the ALP.
Government advertising falls from Howard high of $180 mil
The precipitate fall in Government advertising under the Rudd Government has been confirmed by the first of the Government’s reports on advertising expenditure, writes Bernard Keane.
Mungo: On climate change and the Liberal party frog
The frog is well and truly in the pot and the water is getting steadily hotter. If we want to stop it from coming to the boil we have to act now. It’s Time, writes Mungo MacCallum.
Murdoch’s Boyer lecture a let down
Murdoch’s warnings against too many handouts would make a little more sense if his newspapers weren’t such dogged advocates of the handout mentality, writes Bernard Keane.
NT intervention: Aboriginal Australians take their case to the UN
It is not surprising that Aboriginal Australians who have been denied justice in Australia will now embark upon a complaint to the United Nations in order to achieve change, writes George Newhouse.
Rudd spends the surplus, kills the dream
The Rudd dream of nation-building is over, for the rest of this term at least and probably for a while after that, writes Bernard Keane.
Rudd’s money back guarantee is panicky policy
Yesterday the Government started to panic – but given everyone else is in full “I’m a teapot” mode, they looked relatively rational in doing so, writes Bernard Keane.
A prime time flop from Kerry and Kevin
How could a 10-minute exchange between Kerry O’Brien and Kevin Rudd not once bring in the key issue of Australia’s free-falling currency, asks Stephen Mayne.
Killing CDEP softly? Reforming workfare in remote Australia
The harsh reality masked by a complex proposed reform package of Indigenous employment programs is that from 31 March 2010 the CDEP program will disappear, writes John Altman.
Keating nails it – except for the problem of financial churn
Australia’s public sector is in overall deficit and will only cease to be a net foreign borrower in this environment if projected infrastructure spending is slashed, writes Stephen Mayne.
Big Bang reform v Rudd, Mr 5%
The Rudd Government is a 5% government, focussed on the unglamorous world of regulatory harmonisation, better consumer information and greater efficiency of administration, writes Bernard Keane.
Garnaut focuses on stuff that might work
For Garnaut, the case for addressing climate change remains a conservative, economically cautious one, writes Bernard Keane.
Good one: the Productivity Commission proposes a feminist gain!
For an economics driven institution this is a rare recognition that it is okay for paid workers to mix paid work and care, writes Eva Cox.
Now we’ve got reffos coming out our collective date…
What were we thinking?
