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Keywords: Efficiency

  • AUSTRALIA

    The tweet smell of APS authoritarianism

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 12 August 2019
    5 Comments

    Should a public service have people with political, disagreeable opinions? No, according to the guidelines of employment in the Australian Public Service. The decision of the Australian High Court in the case of Comcare v Banerji is a salient warning to employees in the APS. Obedience, it seems, must be unquestionable and total.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Justice is slow in the 'fast' asylum regime

    • Stephen Lawrence
    • 15 July 2019
    6 Comments

    The defeat of Bill Shorten will impact particularly harshly on thousands of asylum seekers who arrived by sea during the Gillard and Second Rudd governments. The 'Fast Track Assessment Process' has left thousands of genuine refugees in limbo and made lawful what would otherwise be considered gross administrative misfeasance.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Australia needs its own Green New Deal

    • Osmond Chiu
    • 11 February 2019
    14 Comments

    Just as the focus of post-war reconstruction was not merely demobilisation but the maintenance of full employment, developing social security and economic development, decarbonising Australia must involve rebuilding faith that politics can deliver a better Australia. We need to ensure our response leads to a good society.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    The Darling's dead fish of late capitalism

    • Cristy Clark
    • 17 January 2019
    13 Comments

    A key benefit asserted to justify treating water as an economic good is that the market will encourage 'high-value' water use to be prioritised. But, as the fish of the Darling River and the people of Walgett are experiencing, the problem with commodifying water is its social and environment values are not naturally reflected in the market.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The myth of polarisation in modern Australia

    • Jeff Sparrow
    • 10 December 2018
    12 Comments

    Why do so many pundits decry the divisions in Canberra at a time when, objectively speaking, the parties have never been closer? The short answer is that they're responding to a genuine polarisation — not between Labor and Liberal but between both parties and the rest of society.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The cost of efficiency in Family Court merger

    • Alexandra O'Sullivan
    • 23 November 2018
    1 Comment

    It is imperative that the courts examine all the evidence thoroughly with expert analysis and allow time for perpetrators of violence to show their true colours, before any potentially life-changing decisions are made. Efficiency and cost cutting shouldn’t be the goal.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Arts funding should not be a numbers game

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 25 September 2018
    1 Comment

    As a result of existing funding regimes the value of human beings and of human creativity comes to be identified with their social function. People are valued for their economic output, and artistic works for the size of their audience or their critical reception. No space is left for recognising any inherent value that cannot be measured.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Aged care exemplifies the limits of markets

    • Kate Galloway
    • 24 September 2018
    14 Comments

    Recent airing of shocking treatment of elderly residents in Australian aged care facilities has led Scott Morrison to announce a royal commission. Sadly, the allegations of abuse and appalling conditions are not new. What has resulted in poor outcomes for vulnerable citizens, and why have we permitted such treatment to go on?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Here's Fraser Anning's final solution 'context'

    • Brian Matthews
    • 21 August 2018
    14 Comments

    The desperate, semi-literate plea that one has been taken 'out of context' is the first resort of many politicians challenged for being indelicate, stupid etc. It is its own condemnation. The latest appeal to contextual sensitivity though, that of Anning in ducking the implications of the phrase 'final solution', deserves some contextualising.

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  • RELIGION

    Libertarian case misses euthanasia complexity

    • Joel Hodge
    • 23 July 2018
    11 Comments

    Assisted suicide is not just a matter of being given a 'choice'. There is a whole system that would need to be created, with hospitals, doctors, nurses, lawyers, politicians and families all involved in facilitating this choice. Should we be enlisting the liberty of all these people to facilitate this choice?

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    All hail Queen Jacinda

    • Morgan Godfery
    • 02 July 2018
    3 Comments

    New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern is a global celebrity: a prime minister on parental leave and a social democrat who can actually win elections. But is New Zealand really the left-wing paradise the global left wants it to be?

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  • EDUCATION

    The myth of the average teacher

    • Tim Hutton
    • 22 June 2018
    12 Comments

    I have the controversial opinion among my colleagues that teachers, on average, actually get paid pretty well. Averaging, however, is the crux of debate. Yes, if a teacher's job is averaged over the year, their pay is reasonable and their workload is manageable. Alas, teachers are mere mortals; they aren't Time Lords who can redistribute their work to a time of year when they are less busy.

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