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Our success as a species? How can we judge? Introduction Philosophers have considered the nature of existence (metaphysics), whether god exists (religious philosophy), how we can know things (epistemology), how we can lead a good, just or happy life (moral philosophy or ethics) and how societies can best be organised (political philosophy). Scientists, biologists in particular, have considered how species, including our own, are successful in ...
Mossack Fonseca the Tip of a Very Nasty Iceberg Money laundering and tax evasion on a massive scale has been revealed in the leak of more than 11 million documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. The documents show how Mossack Fonseca has helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and avoid tax. The documents reveal activities by multi-nationals, current or former heads of state, high ...
Market Failure, Inequality and Inefficiency The ALP national platform says the following about markets and market failure: “Markets have fostered abundance and growth that would be inconceivable to previous generations. All markets are structured by legal frameworks, as well as underwritten by public investments in physical and human capital. Markets exist to serve communities and government can and should shape markets ...
Something has shifted in politics in the USA For fifty years, throughout the ‘Cold War’ and even during its aftermath, the word “socialism” was completely taboo in the USA. Those tending towards the left of the political spectrum were typically referred to as ‘liberals’. You might get away with describing yourself as a socialist in Europe. But not in the USA. Now however US ...
Australian Unions- Why is their membership declining? What does it mean for the ALP? There are multiple causes of the decline in the proportion of the Australian workforce that is unionised. These include casualization of the workforce, increase in the proportion of the workforce that is engaged as sub-contractors, manufacturing and services moving offshore, trade exposure of unionised enterprises to non-unionised enterprises both abroad and within Australia, increased restrictions ...
Our Shame- Why is Federal Labor Supporting Indefinite Detention of Asylum Seekers? Let’s be intellectually honest: Federal Labor is now effectively coalescing with the indefinite detention of asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island. This is occurring despite the lead given by Victoria’s Labor Premier Daniel Andrews (followed by most other Australian premiers) that 267 asylum seekers brought to Australia from Nauru, ought to be permitted to stay here. In ...
Public Health: USA v Australia The Federal Government has announced that it will list new hepatitis C drugs on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). The move means that 230,000 hep C sufferers will get access to the new treatment which has a success rate of over 90% with few side effects. Access in Australia will be obtained for the standard PBS co-payment of ...
The Misleading Mals In all likelihood Mal Brough has misled parliament. Just as significantly Mal Turnbull must know this. Mal Brough has made two directly contradictory statements. When Brough was asked on ’60 Minutes’ whether he had requested James Ashby to procure Peter Slipper’s diary for him, he answered “Yes I did”. When Mark Dreyfus asked Brough the same question in parliament, Brough answered simply “No”. In the ’60 ...
Paris Climate Conference, Progess Traps and Easter Island The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Paris, from November 30 to December 11. It will be the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The ...
Moral Contradictions- Alberici Pins Dutton Both major parties now routinely argue that off-shore processing is morally justified on the basis of the need to create disincentives for asylum seekers risking death at sea. Others argue that it should be up to asylum seekers themselves to decide whether the risks of sea travel with people smugglers outweigh the risks, of staying put, either ...
Bowen opposes GST on fresh food but does not support excise on unhealthy foods Addressing the AFR Tax Reform summit Chris Bowen has cited the diabetes and obesity epidemic as a reason for not broadening the base of the GST to include fresh food. “We’ve got a diabetes and obesity epidemic in Australia. My electorate is the epicentre of it, we have the highest diabetes rates I metropolitan Australia. I ...
Abbott Wrong That Nazis Tried To Hide Their evil Abbott says that, unlike Islamic State, the Nazi’s tried to cover up their evil. But this is not historically accurate. The best research indicates that the mass of ordinary Germans knew of the evolving terror of the Holocaust. They knew concentration camps were full of Jews. They knew Jews and other minorities were being put to death ...
National Reform Priorities- SL Policy Development Group of the Victorian Branch of the ALP National Reform Priorities SL Policy Development Group of the Victorian Branch of the ALP Executive Summary Introduction The paper ‘A Third Wave of National Reform’ was publicly released by the Premier of Victoria in August 2005. The paper had not been the subject of consultation with constituent units of the party including relevant policy committees, the state parliamentary caucus ...
Catch and Kill- The Third Wave of National Reform and its Criticism Former Bracks- Brumby speechwriter, Joel Deane has written a very lively, entertaining and insightful book on the history of the Bracks-Brumby Governments. Joel’s book sets out the story of how Victorian Labor was able to come back from the crushing defeat by Jeff Kennett in 1992 to be returned to government in just seven years. It focuses closely on ...
What Were We Thinking? (Updated and abridged version) Labor has very badly misread the politics on the Border Force Act (BFA). The BFA gags workers in detention centres from speaking out about conditions there. It provides that public servants, as well as consultants and contractors to the immigration department, face a penalty of up to two years imprisonment for recording or disclosing “protected information”. Protected information is ...