FEDERAL BUDGET 2011: In recent decades, the budget surplus has become a goal in itself and an obsession for governments. In the process, we have lost some perspective on what kind of social and economic…
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If pre-budget statements by Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan are an accurate guide, this year’s Federal Budget is shaping up as marking a change in the direction of Commonwealth taxing and spending priorities…
In order to understand why the government has committed itself to a budget surplus, we must distinguish what is known as the structural budget balance from the cyclical budget balance. We also need to…
To understand the political uses of budget surpluses, we need to go back to the early 1980s when Australia and New Zealand governments self-imposed a fiscal straitjacket. They decided that running a surplus…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard returned from her visit to China last month having locked down a series of cooperation agreements between countries - including a $600 million iron ore deal - which many hope…
Children who are bottle-fed until the age of two are 30% more likely to be obese at five-and-a-half years of age, a new study has found. Of the 6750 children studied by researchers from Temple University…
As the days get shorter and we approach winter, many of us have a lowered mood, reduced energy levels and seem to need more sleep. Such seasonal changes in mood and energy are common and most of us adapt…
The latest international comparisons show there is an urgent need to improve Australian student outcomes. The OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which has measured the performance…
In the developing world, there’s often a face-off between conservation needs and the needs of the community, with neither coming out all that well. Is it possible to “save more space for nature” without…
This week two men were shot by members of Victoria Police. One on the street in St Kilda, the other in a Centrelink office in Windsor. The first was killed, the second seriously injured. Police media spokespersons…
The US military’s assassination of Osama bin Laden in North Pakistan is an important landmark in the “war on terror”. As the leader of al Qaeda he was the primary target of the military campaign to defeat…
Without a strong legal foundation, any carbon pricing scheme we come up with will be on shaky ground. And right now, the signs aren’t promising. While we don’t yet have a firm idea of what will be incorporated…
Some people have argued that Pi’s days are numbered and that other tools, such as tau, could do its job more efficiently. As someone who has studied Pi throughout his entire working life, my response to…
The world changes, but our categories fail to keep pace. We try to understand the new through the familiar, and become puzzled when things no longer make sense. Criticisms last week of the Melbourne Model…
Queensland doctors have seen a surge in the number of patients presenting with mental health problems following a spate of natural disasters earlier this year, a survey by an industry body has found. A…
You don’t have to be a monarchist to see that the Royal wedding has been a triumph of cultural diplomacy for the United Kingdom, and a powerful statement to the world about the importance of tradition…
If you look closely at the ways diseases are defined and at the panels of experts who draw the line between sickness and health, you find an extraordinary phenomenon. Many of these panels are heavily conflicted…
Osama bin Laden is dead. Or is he? The newly-deceased Saudi militant was long a central figure for the world’s conspiracy theorists. He was actually a CIA agent said some. He really died of kidney failure…
I’d like to respond to a recent article for The Conversation by Martin Sevior, an active scientist and church leader. Sevior argues that – apart from fundamentalism – science and religion are complementary…
As an environmental scientist, I am a: Biologist Geologist Ecologist Physicist Chemist Soil Scientist Sociologist Psychologist Anthropologist Economist Political Scientist Teacher Communicator and nature…
The release of surveys such as the Gallup Global Well-Being Index produce vast column inches of what are fun but largely meaningless articles on how Australians are happier than New Zealanders (they are…
At the heart of the Gillard Government’s health reform are an Independent Hospital Pricing Authority and a National Health Performance Authority. New details of how these bodies may work have been leaked…
A mismatch between the cultural make-up of schools and the suburbs in which they are located could lead to social problems in future, according to a Sydney researcher who analysed the trend. Using data…
Scientists have pinpointed a new link between a particular gene and a rare form of dwarfism, opening the door to prenatal testing and paving the way for new approaches to treating common diseases such…
Carbon farming - or biosequestration - seems to be the only climate change mitigation measure that both sides of politics can agree on. But its effectiveness may be sorely overstated. Biosequestration…