Tag: Crispin Hull

Why did it take a pandemic to implement a change of heart for so many of our vital government policies?
When the pandemic ends, we’ll be demanding a fairer system…what went wrong?
And what will the future look like?

Referring to the US he said: “We cannot successfully cooperate with the rest of the world in establishing a reign of law unless we are prepared to have that law sometimes operate against what would be our national advantage.”

Should we worry as citizens about our “share” of the debt and if it can ever be repaid?
Should we worry about the Australian Government running up huge deficits during the Covid pandemic?

Should we worry that the debt may get so large that it can never be repaid?
The short answer is No, No, No, but only up to a point.

Lessons from the 1975 correspondence…

Look at the US now. Its President is so psychiatrically disordered with narcissism that he is incapable of dealing with the COVID crisis in a coherent, empathetic way. Everything he says and does is through a prism of himself. He has now turned his whole re-election campaign into one of race hate, law and order and a bizarre invention of a threat from “left-wing fascists”.

When the Government announced this week its $80 billion increase in military spending over the next decade to $270 billion, there was no chorus of “Where is the money coming from?” that usually accompanies pre-election promises of, say, increased dental services or childcare subsidies.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s admission that “the Commonwealth has no line of sight” on vocational training spending and that “where targets do exist, they are aspirational. If not met, there are no consequences” applies equally to all spending on education at all levels by all levels of government.

President Donald Trump’s assertion this week that the US having the world’s most COVID-19 cases should be seen as a “badge of honour” epitomised all the failings of irrational, autocratic decision-making.

People, quite reasonably are drafting wishlists for a post-COVID world – such as action on climate, energy, tax, water, industrial relations and so on – but that risks a return to politics as usual. Rather we should be asking: what sort of economy do we want; what is the economy for; what role should government play and who should decide how government acts?

This week’s report on ABC funding should alarm Australians.
The death by a thousand cuts of the ABC and the slow strangulation of Medicare has become woven into in Liberal Party’s DNA since John Howard turned Robert Menzies’ broad church of a liberal-conservative Liberal Party into a purely conservative one by shutting out almost everyone left of the nave.