The vast majority of Australians support increased funding for health and education and they also support increasing the tax collected from the biggest businesses and the wealthiest Australians yet neither our major political parties nor our major newspapers take the possibility seriously.

Most Australians are concerned that our population is on track to reach 35 million people yet the national debate around population focuses almost exclusively on the tiny number of refugees who arrive here by boat.

This talk will consider why it is that our politicians and media work so hard to minimise the significance of big problems and maximise the significance of small ones.