The Policy Post

  Is Labor serious about health? Doesn’t look like it. Mark Butler’s Medicare “Taskforce” isn’t action on health reform. It’s a substitute for action.

  How civilised? A scorecard of the 20 richest nations.   The wealthiest countries have no excuse for neglecting their own people. Here’s an assessment of the good – and the not-so-good.

  Inequality and the neoliberal legacy. Half a century of trickle-up economics has decreased prosperity,  overburdened the health system – and caused a vast number of premature deaths. In Australia, the Howard government did most of the damage.

You’re better off than you think. (Who knew?) All the news is bad. Power prices up, wages down, interest rates up. Poverty and doom await. Or do they?

Neoliberalism: an obituary. The ideology which ruled the world’s economies for half a century has, after a long illness, finally died. Liz Truss tripped over its decaying corpse on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street.

Census delivers a big budget windfall to the small states. Almost $900 million will be transferred this financial year from the biggest states to the smaller jurisdictions. And Victoria will lose the federal seat it recently gained.

‘The economy exists within society, not vice-versa’: Saul Eslake on the GFC, debt-and-deficit and why we need to pay more tax.

Universal health care is the cheapest option. Anything less costs more. Starving the health system of money and resources is the economics of stupidity. Any savings are soon eclipsed by the massive cost to the economy, to the society and to government budgets.

Wages from Howard to Morrison (and the $80 billion a year deficit).   Since the Howard government was elected in 1996, there has been a massive transfer of wealth from wage-earners to the owners and managers of capital.

Did a slave make your jumper?   It was naïve to believe that slavery could be ended just by changing the law.