Today we’re asking: what Queensland seats are the ones to watch on election night? How to give Indigenous Australians a true voice in politics? And how can we improve trust in the political system?
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The myth of ‘the Queensland voter’, Australia’s trust deficit, and the path to Indigenous recognition
The Conversation122 Mo(download)
Today, an election-themed episode about some of the biggest policy questions Australia faces, featuring Indigenous academic lawyer Eddie Synot and political scientist Anne Tiernan.
How do we advance Australia? Grab your tickets to hear Australia’s top experts answer just that.
Future Australian governments need to work harder at making foreign affairs more accessible to the public, such as better explaining the “Pacific pivot”.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
Whoever forms the next government should increase investment in foreign affairs and trade, finding ways to make Australia more prominent in global dispute resolution.
On racist dog-whistling and on climate change, the “right” now finds itself on the wrong side of public opinion – so the acrimonious public debates on ideological lines may be coming to an end.
Since the Whitlam government in 1972, the major parties have taken a similar approach to managing relations with China, albeit with a few key differences.
AAP/EPA/Roman Pilipey
No matter who forms government after the next election, managing Australia’s relationship with China will continue to be a major challenge, and vitally important in a region remaking itself.
Despite some improvements in recent years, the facts on gender-based violence in Australia still paint a grim picture.
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Despite some progress in recent years in addressing gender-based violence, there is still a long way to go. A concerted and holistic approach is needed.
This coming election, look closely at what positions the Coalition and Labor take on needs-based school funding.
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Peter Whiteford, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Budgets will increasingly acknowledge that welfare is about us, rather than us versus them.
Just as gaining the right to vote did not end the women’s rights movement, so, too, will marriage equality not end the LGBTI+ rights movement.
George Groves/Midsumma
Marriage equality was an important step for LGBTI+ rights in Australia, but there are many other areas in which LGBTI+ people in Australia still face discrimination.
The funding gap between the most and least well-off schools has grown over the last ten years.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Schools funding doesn’t pass the playground test of fairness: state schools get less government funding than governments themselves say the schools need.
John Gerrard Keulemans. Published by Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (France)
Australia is losing mammals faster than any other country, as well as plenty more plants and animals besides. Extinction is theft from future generations – it’s time to treat it as such.
Crossbenchers Kerryn Phelps, Julia Banks and Rebekah Sharkie celebrate the passing of the “Medivac” law through the House of Representatives.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Since the Tampa affair in 2001, successive governments have been anxious to be seen as “hard-line” on asylum seekers, but the cost – to people and the country – has been too high.
The challenge on Indigenous rights is to achieve reform that goes beyond limited understandings of these issues as being symbolic or practical.
AAP/Dan Peled
Instead of paying lip service to promoting Indigenous Australians’ rights as First Nations, the next federal government should be guided by the Uluru Statement from the Heart to make real progress.
As prime minister, republican Malcolm Turnbull said there would be no more moves towards an Australian head of state while Queen Elizabeth remained on the throne.
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Bill Shorten is committed to an Australian head of state, but it will likely take lost priority to constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians.
Scott Morrison’s claim that Operation Sovereign Borders is the country’s great national security achievement overlooks all that has been achieved in a complex area.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Australia’s current greenhouse emissions target is not ambitious enough, and we’re not on track to hit even this modest goal. But the potential is there to hit zero emissions by mid-century if we try.
The number of Medicare claims Australians make in a year doubled between 1984 and 2018.
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Jane Hall, University of Technology Sydney et Kees Van Gool, University of Technology Sydney
Paying doctors a fee for each service they provide isn’t delivering optimal value for the health dollar. Instead, we should pay doctors a lump sum to care for a patient’s medical problem over time.
No-one would ask low earners to pay the same as high earners.
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Subsidies for private health insurance premiums cost the government over A$6 billion a year. Is it time to scrap the rebate and redirect these funds elsewhere in the health system?
We need a cyber safety equivalent to the Slip! Slop! Slap! campaign to nudge behavioural change in the community.
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If the next government is serious about protecting Australian businesses and families, here are seven concrete actions it should take immediately upon taking office.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne
