February 2024
Extract: Consent Laid Bare by Chanel Contos
This is an extract from Consent Laid Bare by Chanel Contos, published by Pan Macmillan.
5 key takeaways from Richard Denniss’ National Press Club Address
Enjoy five key takeaways from Richard Denniss’ address to the National Press Club, 31 January 2024.
January 2024
We Cannot Truly Value ‘Care’ Until Workers Using Digital Labour Platforms Get Fair Pay and Conditions
Unless minimum employment standards for care and support workers using digital labour platforms are guaranteed, decades of slow progress towards proper recognition of care work and equal pay for women could be undone.
Extract: Killing For Country by David Marr
This is an extract from Killing for Country: A Family Story by David Marr, published by Black Inc Books.
The Pink Test is a feel-good story, but does it help where it’s really needed?
With the federal government announcing a desire to double charitable donations by 2030, Stephen Long examines the potential inefficiency & inequity of relying on charities, rather than governments, to provide essential services.
November 2023
A Matter of Trust – Research Misconduct in Australia
Australia’s lack of a research integrity watchdog leads to wasted funds, misdirected efforts and risks to public health.
Making Stealthing a Crime
On November 1, 2023, Chanel Contos gave a National Press Club address, speaking on sexual violence prevention and the importance of consent education. In her address, the founder of Teach Us Consent and former director of the Australia Institute’s Sex and Gender Equality program highlighted the progress made on criminalising stealthing nation-wide, and reflected on
October 2023
Indigenous Voice to Parliament: still hope for ‘yes’ campaign on polling day
The Voice is a proposal from Indigenous people, not politicians.
A YES vote for the Voice can deliver major financial benefits to all Australians
In June 2007 the Federal government put in place perhaps the most radical piece of rushed and poorly thought-through public policy ever seen in Australia, the so-called “Northern Territory Intervention” (NTI).
September 2023
Voice to Parliament: If you don’t know, just ask
There are just a few weeks until Australia holds its first Referendum since 1999, on whether we should establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament.
August 2023
The Voice Will Help Us Discover a Rich History
As Aussies, we can get pretty riled up at the prospect of the destruction of public monuments, historic sites and places we consider important to the fabric of our national culture and identity.
The Voice to Parliament would enhance Australian governance
An Open Letter to the Australian Public
June 2023
ABC redundancies could harm the public’s trust in the reliable broadcaster
The latest redundancies at the ABC are a cruel blow to public interest journalism and its role in holding the powerful to account.
Bolstered by a biased tax system, house prices keep rising
As interest rates rise, the gains from negative gearing increase.
The Australian War Memorial must remove Ben Roberts-Smith display
The Australian War Memorial is currently displaying the uniform of a soldier found by the federal court, on the balance of probabilities, to be a murderer, war criminal, a bully and a liar.
The level of public housing needs to return to previous levels
Australia needs more housing, and we definitely need more public housing
May 2023
Ending Nazi Symbols: Let’s Get It Right
Australia needs legislation outlawing the public display of Nazi symbols in the service of white supremacist ideology, but it is critical that we get the free speech balance right.
Affordability of a Liveable Jobseeker Payment is a Non-Issue
Commonwealth on Track for Diminutive Deficit or Surplus in 2022-2023 In the lead-up to its 2023-24 budget, the Labor Government finds itself in an awkward position, accepting that the Jobseeker payment is “seriously inadequate” and an impediment to regaining work, yet professing that it lacks the financial capacity to afford a meaningful increase anytime soon.
April 2023
Can a stockmarket gamble pay for the housing crisis?
Australia is in the midst of a housing crisis. Record numbers of Australians are in severe housing stress and it’s not just people with rising interest rates on their mortgages. Fewer and fewer people can afford a roof over their head and more and more people are sleeping rough on the streets or in their car.
January 2023
Nothing to see here
If a pandemic killed 15,000 people and nobody seemed to notice, was it really a pandemic? In Australia last year, COVID-19 killed more people than lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, car accidents and drowning combined. And in addition to the 15,000 deaths directly attributed to COVID, the Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that
December 2022
Inequality and poverty is a policy choice – and the Stage 3 tax cuts will make both worse
When you reduce the revenue available to fund government services, you inevitably increase inequality
Jailing climate protestor Violet Coco shows anti-protest laws have gone too far
The anti-protest laws that have swept the country are a threat to us all, even if you’ve never attended a protest in your life. Governments are writing and passing laws which authorise companies to legally cause harm to our community and environment, while jailing individuals seeking to stop such harm through non-violent protest. The draconian
October 2022
Australia’s housing crisis is self-inflicted. We need four reforms to reverse it
How is it that in Australia, one of the richest countries in the world, we have a housing crisis where hundreds of thousands of renters can’t afford a roof over their head? To figure out why rents are soaring, we need to look at the broader political disease: we have spent about two decades trying
Families change but the same problems remain
The latest data from the Bureau of Statistics on families shows that more than ever before couples with dependants are both working.
The pandemic is yet another wake-up call that all of Australia’s workers must have sick leave
The ending of mandatory Covid isolation periods has also ended disaster payments for workers who don’t have access to sick leave. It’s time we faced up to the fact that the industrial relations rules have been creating the wrong kinds of work. That’s the bad news. The good news is we can change them if we want
August 2022
The latest taxation statistics reveal the massive gender pay gap across the whole economy
The 2019-20 taxation statistics released this week by the ATO provide a plethora of data that reveals with precision the salaries of people by location, occupation age and importantly, gender.
July 2022
Stealthing: Most people don’t know it’s rape
When it happens to you, it can be devastating. Violating. Traumatising. But did you know it’s also rape? I’m talking about stealthing – the non-consensual removal of a condom during sex. Elena, who was 24 when she experienced stealthing says: “If stealthing was criminalised at the time of my incident, it would have provided me
June 2022
The Impact of Tech on the Future of Work: Opening Remarks to Select Committee
Opening Statement to the NSW Parliament Select Committee on the impact of technological and other change on the future of work and workers in New South Wales Thank you for the invitation to appear today. I do apologise for not appearing in person, but I currently have Covid. I also apologise in advance if I
April 2022
Canberra is increasingly outsourcing its national role. That needs to stop
In the final days before the federal election was called, the new South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas came to Canberra to deliver a blistering National Press Club address. One seasoned journalist described the speech as Obama-esque. While Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese criss-crossed the country visiting the states to make local announcements in the then
February 2022
Josh Frydenberg’s ‘Great Reshuffle’ another sign Coalition is out of touch with reality
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s recent declaration – that wage-restrained workers need simply participate in the so-called “Great Reshuffle” to find better-paid jobs – underscores just how disconnected the federal government is from the harsh realities facing many Australian workers. With shades of former treasurer Joe Hockey advising youth priced out of housing to “get a good job that pays good
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