The Trump administration has cut funding for infectious disease research and reduced high-level staffing for global health security, leaving the nation less prepared for major outbreaks.
Both opposition leader Bill Shorten and prime minister Scott Morrison dodged the question about maintaining a surplus no matter what.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
It’s your money they’re spending in this election-eve budget. Here’s how we’re covering the story.
The Conversation5.73 MB(download)
The Conversation's editors and experts are off to Canberra for budget lockup at parliament house next Tuesday. They'll have early access to what the government plans to do with our money this year.
Canadian finance minister Bill Morneau announced funding for a new Canadian Drug Agency in the 2019 Federal Budget. Here he speaks at a press conference in Toronto, March 20, 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston
A new agency and money for drugs for rare diseases are only very partial steps on the road towards what Canada really needs: a national pharmacare plan.
President Donald Trump on the South Lawn of the White House.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
The popular opinion is that presidents win government shutdowns, but a review of polling evidence paints a different picture.
Members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., second from right, walk toward the Capitol building, Jan. 4, 2019.
AP/Andrew Harnik
Banned since 2011, pork-barrel spending may well help Congress pass bills on schedule. Now, a powerful Democratic lawmaker said she'd like to resurrect the practice to make passing budgets easier.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has proposed a separate day to celebrate Indigenous Australians.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
It was a week that saw the ABC's managing director and the chair of its board go, with many questions still to be answered; meanwhile Scott Morrison gave the ongoing controversy over Australia Day a new lease of life.
The Carr Fire tears through Shasta, California, July 26, 2018.
AP Photo/Noah Berger
Climate change, development, past forest management policies and current firefighting practices are creating conditions for large, costly wildfires.
Fighting wildfires with air tankers, like this one dropping fire retardant on the Willow Fire in California on September 2, 2015, is expensive and not always effective.
USFS
Jenni Henderson, The Conversation and Rosanna Hunt, The Conversation
The 2018-19 federal budget will be handed down to parliament on May 8. But before that, take our quiz to test out your memories of the previous budgets.
U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson is Trump’s nominee to lead the VA.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Richard Lachmann, University at Albany, State University of New York
While the White House scrambles to fill the VA's top post, the agency's deep issues of inadequate funding and low access for veterans continue to fester.
The new plan is supposed to boost the construction of new roads, bridges and other public works projects.
AP Photo/Seth Perlman
The $1.5 trillion plan he's proposing would do the most for ventures that don't really need the government's help and ignores some major obstacles to private investment.
Research dollars don't stay locked up in academia and government labs. R&D collaborations with the private sector are common – and grow the innovation economy.
AIDS activists stage a ‘die-in’ in 1992 in Houston about lack of funding for AIDS research under President George H.W. Bush.
Rick McFarland/AP
New treatments and prevention programs have inhibited the spread of HIV/AIDS since June 5, 1981, when the CDC first reported what would become HIV. Here's why it's important not to cut funding now.