Opinion

Australia is supposed to be the land of the fair go. When someone wants to take on a new challenge, most of us cheer them on. This spirit is one of the things that makes Australia so great. But the decision by the Baird government on Wednesday to retain red-tape barriers to becoming a hairdresser is the latest example of

The politically effective Mediscare campaign is a powerful reminder of Australia’s growing reluctance to pursue health sector reform. With the 2016 federal election result favouring the Turnbull government, the policy wonks are now busily absorbing the ramifications of a long, exhausting campaign for political supremacy. But one thing was made crystal clear even before election night: reforming healthcare is difficult,

Allegations of potential rorting of the Victorian Labor government’s ‘Back to Work’ scheme is a warning shot across the bow of the re-elected Federal Coalition government’s own wage subsidy program. Getting people into work is a laudable aim, but governments of all persuasions need to be careful of rent-seekers lining up to line their own pockets. The announcement of a

In 2009 as the leader of the opposition Malcolm Turnbull supported the introduction of an emissions trading scheme. He maintained his support for an ETS in the face of overwhelming opposition from the grassroots members of his own party, and against the grave concerns of many of his parliamentary colleagues. It did not end well for Turnbull. Seven years later,

Theresa May is Britain’s new prime minister. Should we “Keep Calm and Carry On” or hit the panic button? The initial reaction from markets and the British political establishment has been a collective sigh of relief. Markets and institutions value certainty of political leadership and they reacted positively when May became PM. May triumphed when the other candidate for the

A new app is doing what years of nanny state programs and millions of wasted taxpayer dollars failed to do – get people outside, on their feet and living healthier lifestyles. Pokemon GO was released only last Wednesday and is already the most popular mobile application on iPhone and Android. The game puts players in aug-mented reality, based on real

The concept of a treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is illogical and divisive. The current push for such a document is misguided, and should be abandoned. It’s difficult to think of another policy idea that has taken hold with so many people with so little thought. Bill Shorten backed the idea on national television. University academics have

The political news right now is Malcolm Turnbull’s tenuous hold on government. But tight elections aren’t unusual. The real significance of the 2016 election is how it reveals the growing dissatisfaction with the political class and mainstream parties. This is a thread that links the support for Nick Xenophon and Pauline Hanson in Australia with the support for Donald Trump

The federal Parliament is now stacked with politicians peddling anti-globalisation agendas contrary to Australia’s interests. The underlying motivations for the Turnbull government to call the 2016 election, refilling the upper house with compliant legislators but maintaining a stable working majority in the lower house, have backfired spectacularly. At the time of writing the government believes it will scrape back into

It is not enough to say you have a plan for a strong new economy. You actually have to have one. And it has to be simple enough to sell to the average voter. That means cutting taxes, not increasing them; cutting government spending, not increasing it. This is the clear message voters have sent to the Coalition following the