Disability funding ‘aspirational’ for Tony Abbott
John Howard invented ‘core’ and ‘non-core promises’. Now Tony Abbott has gone one up on his mentor. In a speech to the National Press Club yesterday, the Opposition Leader included Medicare dental funding and the National Disability Insurance Scheme under [...]
The great Julia Gillard Disability Support Pension lie
I write this post as someone with a disability that isn’t going to go away. (A missing leg isn’t gonna grow back). I also write this post as someone who works. And I write this post as someone who would [...]
A disability support scheme (provisionally) gets out the chequebook
In contrast to the general rancour in politics this week, the release of the Productivity Commission’s draft report on a National Disability Insurance Scheme was welcomed by just about everybody. Even the Opposition Organ joined the chorus, which encompassed both [...]
“Big Society” to take choice to its ludicrous extreme
Tony Blair’s big idea about public services was to “empower” the user, rebadged of course as a customer rather than as a citizen. Perhaps fortunately, the combination of Gordon Brown as an immovable object at the Treasury and the Labour [...]
Roundtable: post-election politics and what the broad left and progressive movements can do about it.
I have for some time meant to create an open thread for discussion about how the broad left and progressive movements can most effectively intervene in Australian political life after the election. However people’s thinking on that question would obviously [...]
Doctor enrolments
It seems that a proposal to reward doctors for “enrolling” patients with higher care needs, such as young children and those with chronic diseases, has caused a bit of debate amongst the community of general practitioner community. The idea first [...]
Melody Gardot: music and disability
I’ve just discovered a new artist – Melody Gardot, an American jazz singer. For anyone interested in music and disability, her story is really interesting.
The spirit of the Paralympics: Beijing 2008
I’m sorry that I didn’t get a chance to do as much Paralympics blogging as I intended. But I wanted to endorse all the sentiments on the last open thread. And – in an illustration of how much photography can [...]
Beijing Paralympics 2008 open thread
Just a reminder that there are all sorts of avenues for following the Paralympics – links in my previous post. I’m really quite a busy person at the moment, and I’ll try to find the time to do a wrap-up [...]
Beijing Paralympics 2008
I stayed up late to watch the Paralympics Opening Ceremony on the telly last night. A tad schmaltzy (to put it mildly), but it certainly pushed the spectacular spectacle buttons. To my mind, at least, the Paralympics represent something a [...]
Pension review paper prompts calls for immediate increase
Unsurprisingly, the release of the government’s discussion paper on the pension system has prompted calls for immediate action. Perhaps the opposition were all waiting for Godot Costello somewhere because The Greens appear to have been first out of the starting [...]
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