Blogotariat

above: Australia Institute Economist, Richard Denniss

Cars aren’t going away so it’s time to stop ignoring their downsides and take action to civilise them – make private vehicles smaller, slower, quieter, cleaner, and safer What should we do to civilise driving?

Building a network of safe cycling routes in our major cities isn’t a post-pandemic ‘nice to have’; it’s a necessity. The immediate priority is putting it together very, very quickly Is this the hour of the two-wheeler?

Yet again politicians reach for the High Speed Rail elixir – this time as a prescription for national economic recovery from the pandemic. But it’s snake oil Is High Speed Rail the game-changer we need now?  

This post is written on unceded lands of the sovereign Darug people. I offer my respects to their elders and express my profound gratitude that our family may live safely here.

It has come to my attention that there are some gaps in Australian public knowledge of how Australian federalism works. While underemployed at home, I thought it might be useful to write up a bit of an explainer.

First Peoples First

The second most powerful man in Australia is hospitalised with Covid-19. In a crowded field, few men have done more to tear at the fabric of the Australian polity than Peter Dutton.

…instead of saying they want to reduce government deficits and debt, supporters of “fiscal consolidation” and other such policies should say that they want to lower growth and lower private sector net saving, since that’s what the impact of their policies is likely to be. At the very least, supporters of austerity should indicate which of the other two balances will be reduced along with the government’s budget deficit, and how they will do this. The budget deficit cannot be reduced without reducing the private sector surplus and/or the current account deficit.

Phil Coorey asked a good question at Morrison’s Press Conference Jan 5th 2020, taking the PM by surprise with his unexpected tack, when he asked the PM if, seeing that the PM belives that reducing Australia’s 1.3% world contribution of Greenhouse Gas emissions to zero would have no effect on Climate Change, then would Morrison pressure Trump to reduce the emissions of the USA. The answer from Morrison was of course no he wouldn’t.

If I was at the Press Conference I would have asked Morrison

#LibNatClimateApology

What I really think is that all Federal Liberal and National Ministers since 1995 should publicly apologise to the people of Australia for seeking to delay, undermine and prevent effective action on Climate Change.