Tag Archive for ‘Policy’ at Larvatus Prodeo

Tag Archive for 'Policy'

Stop the press! Media narrative wrong!

Published

2 days, 16 hours ago

. 26 Comments

Ben Eltham has a neat piece in New Matilda today comprehensively detailing the reasons why the ‘Rudd quaking in his boots’ story is tosh. He makes a very good point about the relative inattention given to the Essential Research poll compared to that other poll which always makes the News:

The Essential survey polled more respondents and had a lower margin of error than Newspoll, making it a more reliable gauge of current voting intentions. But the Essential poll didn’t fit the current media narrative that Kevin Rudd is losing his shine, so most outlets ignored it.

There’s another astute observation in Eltham’s piece:

It would help if the Coalition had spent the last two years developing viable new policies. But they haven’t. So Abbott is almost required to make policy on the run in the run-up to the election. This leaves Labor all sorts of opportunities for counter-attack.

While, as I suggested the other day, the polls are reflecting both a return to partisan normality in the absence of Liberal dissension and the continued inability of the Coalition to make inroads into the centre ground, the years of Liberal leadership wars are still having an effect. The Libs could have learnt something from the oft-repeated story of state conservative oppositions, one would have thought; leadership is not the magic bullet. Changing the leader, in the absence of anyone doing the hard slog of policy work, just leaves the latest bunny in the headlights holding the magic pudding.

That’s where Abbott is now.

Reaction to Abbott’s parental leave plan

Published

Mark

1 week, 3 days ago

in Feminism, Howardia, Media, Parenting, Policy, Politics, Poverty, Sociology and Women

. 59 Comments

As noted, Abbott’s International Women’s Day announcement of a paid parental leave plan has created a lot of debate here on LP [read previous threads here]. And it’s attracted a lot of commentary in the wider blogosphere and media.

Gary Sauer-Thompson at Public Opinion has a handle on the politics:

So the Coalition’s strategy [of] messing with the system by throwing anything at the Rudd Government that comes to hand continues. It doesn’t matter about the contradictions –introducing a big tax when the promise is no new taxes—as it is about getting noticed and destabilisation with whatever-it-takes to oppose the Rudd Government on everything.

The strategy is to wedge Labor—’’supporting big business over working families” is the new talking point— and to win back female voters who have been deserting the Coalition.

Trevor Cook asks whether Abbott is really a Liberal. Meanwhile, in The Age, Leslie Cannold disputes the claim that parental leave is solely a women’s issue and Julia Perry in the SMH examines who should pay.

I’ve built on the arguments I made in a post here yesterday in a piece for The ABC’s The Drum Unleashed to nail the canard that Abbott’s plan is more ‘generous’ than Labor’s policy, and set out my reasons why it’s not something progressives should support.

Abbott’s parental leave non-policy

Published

Mark

1 week, 5 days ago

in Ethics, Industrial Relations, Media, Parenting, Policy, Politics and Women

. 46 Comments

Tony Abbott has chosen to mark International Women’s Day which is, to his mind, of course, all about “benefits… provided to families with children”, by announcing a policy for six months’ paid parental leave at actual salary levels, funded by a levy on big business.

Or has he?

That’s the impression given on the tv news tonight, but a reading of Abbott’s actual speech shows that it’s not a policy announcement.

Rather, Abbott is determined to show that a Liberal government would:

let people know what it has in mind well before positions are finalized because the job of government is to make the best decisions, not to pretend to have all the answers from the beginning.

So, what’s been reported is actually not firm, and is supposed to be some sort of example of Abbott’s idea of the policy making process, to provide a point of contrast with what he alleges the Labor government’s approach to policy to be. This is something he has in mind, rather than an announcement, and it will be subject to consultation and further reflection, and so on. It will be interesting to see if this is the way it’s reported, and whether all the qualifications, musing and speculation in his speech make it into the papers. Continue reading ‘Abbott’s parental leave non-policy’

Torquemada in Lycra

Published

Kim

3 weeks, 5 days ago

in Federal Elections and Politics

. 32 Comments

Tony Abbott, we’re told, is “real”. Able to mix with the battlers (just like Joe Hockey, another product of the North Shore Jesuit Fathers, and just like yet another, Barnaby Joyce, the accountant in the Akubra), he’s “authentic”.

Kevin Rudd is real too. He really is a wonky, nerdy bureaucrat. Perish the thought that we would want to vote for someone who knew something about policy?

But why is it assumed that the persona doesn’t mask something else? Could Tony Abbott be the one spinning a web of symbolism? Wasn’t George W. Bush the candidate we’d rather have a beer with?

[Rhetorical questions in the mode of KRudd.]

Now, I haven’t read Tony’s tome. Be interested to hear from anyone who has. But, Geoffrey Barker has, and he wrote this in the Fin Review today:

Continue reading ‘Torquemada in Lycra’

The Greens’ CPRS amendments

Published

Mark

5 months, 1 week ago

in Climate change

. 92 Comments

I haven’t had a chance to look at the amendments The Greens are putting forward to the emissions trading scheme bills. But Ben Eltham has, and his verdict has been published at New Matilda:

As the climate change debate rumbles on towards a possible denouement in Copenhagen, it’s comforting that at least one of Australia’s political parties is taking the issue seriously.

You can read the whole article here.

Turnbull one year on; Emo Man’s revenge

Published

Mark

6 months ago

in Politics

. 41 Comments

Malcolm Turnbull has been opposition leader for one year.

That anniversary has been marked, among other things, by an impassioned speech in the Coalition party room by his predecessor, Dr Brendan Nelson. Nelson argued against any compromise on emissions trading before Copenhagen, and all this has been tied in with a theme that the opposition has to stand for something – the tried and true Liberal verities of individual workplace contracts, of course, being one of those…

Nelson, however, says someone whom he diagnosed as having narcissistic personality disorder can still become PM.

Update: Nelson’s off to be ambassador to NATO (and Kim Beazley to the US).

Government 2.0 and politics 2.0

Published

Mark

6 months ago

in Activism, Blogging, Brisbane, International, Notices, Policy, Politics, Sociology and The Web

. 6 Comments

There’s been a fair bit of interesting reading about government 2.0 initiatives (the new ‘branding’ for what used to be called e-democracy or e-government) lately; probably prompted by a summit on the topic in Washington DC and the Australian government’s initiative in this area (and, no doubt, in some instances, by a confluence between the two).

Among notable articles are a somewhat sceptical take in the New York Times from Anand Giradharadas and much closer to home, a piece by Tim Watts at On Line Opinion:

It’s all too easy to get caught up in the “cool” factor of Web 2.0. The potential of the technology is so amazing that sometimes we can forget that at the end of the day, it’s still people on either end of the tubes. It’s important to remember that Web 2.0 is all about people. As Michael Wesch has said, “The Machine is Us”. The Government 2.0 Taskforce could do worse than to follow the lead of one of the great political campaigners of our time and hang a sign in the group’s (virtual) war room constantly bringing it back to this fundamental theme. It could read: It’s the Community, Stupid!

Watts’ argument, with which I would agree, might be summed up by the short paraphrase, “if you build it, they won’t necessarily come”. Or perhaps, as I’ve been arguing recently, some decisions have to be made about which populations are being incited to come, and for what purposes; I’ve previously written on some issues around the digital divide in discussing the Australian iniatives.

It seems to me, analytically, that a number of issues have to be sorted out which haven’t always been well thought through in much of the discussion of government 2.0:

Continue reading ‘Government 2.0 and politics 2.0′

BrisCulture, the CPD and Eidos Institute present ‘Creative Brisbane’ tonight at 6pm

Published

Mark

9 months, 4 weeks ago

in Blogging, Brisbane, Culture, Notices and Sociology

. 12 Comments

Folks might remember I talked a while back about the ‘Creative Brisbane’ event we’re presenting tonight as part of the Brisbane CitySmart Innovation Festival. The response to both this conversation and to the BrisCulture concept has been really exciting. I thought, therefore, I’d post a quick notice to let people know details of the event, should anyone who hasn’t already responded to our rsvp be interested in checking it out. Details are available at the BrisCulture website, and on the Facebook event page. Over the fold, I’ve posted the programme for the evening.

Continue reading ‘BrisCulture, the CPD and Eidos Institute present ‘Creative Brisbane’ tonight at 6pm’

BrisCulture: Creative Brisbane

Published

Mark

10 months, 3 weeks ago

in Activism, Art, Blogging, Books, Writers & Writing, Brisbane, Culture, Media, Music, Notices, Policy, Sociology, The Web and Urbanism

. 14 Comments

A lot of my academic and consultancy work at the moment is focused on online urbanism, distributed knowledge and urban creativity. I’m loath to use the term ‘action research’ loosely, but this form of public sociology is really impossible to separate from creative practice. One of the projects I’ve been working on with some lovely and talented colleagues is about to launch itself on the world, and now has its own web presence – BrisCulture.

While literature about Creative Cities abounds, every city has its own urbanism and its own distinct culture. A ‘one size fits all’ model doesn’t map neatly onto the specificities of place. While Brisbane is now on the arts map with new cultural infrastructure capable of attracting visitors in the hundreds and thousands to major exhibitions and events, what of the sustainability of the city’s everyday lived cultural experience and production? Our town has proved its value in fostering distinctive and innovative forms of cultural practice – the germination of the music scene in the Valley or the arrival of grunge lit being notable moments in time. But much of this activity takes place ‘underground’ – it bubbles up alchemically from below; drawing energy from serendipitous connections and a sense of locale. Although we welcome the era of government support, public art and creative industries policy, we contend that embedding, celebrating and fostering emergent practice is a task still to be thought out.

That’s the task we’ve set ourselves. It sounds ambitious, but it’s realisable because we’re approaching it as an exercise in making connections and fostering the art of public conversation and collaborative policy making. You can read about the project at BrisCulture and stay tuned for our first event. As part of the 2009 Brisbane CitySmart Innovation Festival, we are hosting a joint event with The Centre for Policy Development, and in conjunction with the Eidos Institute, on the 26th of May at the Old School of Arts in Ann Street, Brisbane – Creative Brisbane: Rethinking Innovation. This will only be the beginning – we’re conceiving BrisCulture as a rolling series of events, policy interventions, performances and conversations which exists in a virtual locale as well as in the spaces of the city.

If you’re interested in all this, whether as a Brisbanite, an occasional visitor, or just curious about the town, I’d encourage you to join our Facebook group, which will be utilised to keep everyone in the loop. I’m very excited about this project, and I think it will lead to some really interesting things!

Quiggin on social democracy and the current crisis; Obama’s epic fail

Published

Mark

11 months, 1 week ago

in Disasters, Economics, International, Markets, Policy, Sociology and USA

. 84 Comments

[Via Rob Corr] John Quiggin, with his customary acuity and clarity of thought, has outlined a social democratic agenda post the Global Financial Crisis in a paper [pdf] for the Whitlam Institute.

A social democratic response to the crisis must begin by reasserting the crucial role of the state in risk management. If individuals are to have security of employment, income and wealth, governments must establish the necessary legal and economic framework and enforce its rules. The fact that government is the ultimate risk manager both justifies and necessitates action to mitigate the grotesque inequalities in both opportunities and outcomes that characterise unrestrained capitalism and were increasingly resurgent in the era of economic liberalism.

I might have some differences at the margins, but I wouldn’t dissent from Quiggin’s broad policy approach. Where I would sound a note of caution, however, is his assumption that a restructured economy will necessarily entail a shrunken financial sector. I’m not sure that’s true. As I observed with respect to the recent G20 summit meeting, a note of complacency has crept into discussions of the GFC. There is an apparent assumption that a bit of government prodding to get credit markets moving again, a little more regulation, and a bit of symbolic Wall Street bashing will do the trick. Then business can resume more or less as normal. That assumption, or assumptions like it, are colouring the recent partial revival in equity markets. It’s being driven also by the Obama administration’s actions (and inaction) – controversies over AIG bonuses aside, there’s a distinct sense that whatever Wall Street wants, it will get – including a revival of trading in credit default swaps and other derivatives.

Continue reading ‘Quiggin on social democracy and the current crisis; Obama’s epic fail’

Taxes vs. public goods Round 6737

Published

Mark

1 year ago

in Economics, Education and Policy

. 16 Comments

John Quiggin wrote an interesting op/ed in the Fin Review today, which I imagine will eventually surface on his blog.

Quiggin picked up on recent remarks by Lindsay Tanner about discipline in the budget process. “Efficiency dividends” are much in the air at the moment, and Tanner appeared to be arguing that the cause of fiscal probity required a razor to be applied to public sector spending, with the goal of eventually returning the budget to surplus.

While Quiggin agreed that the latter goal was desirable, he suggested that “waste” wasn’t a high proportion of commonwealth spending, and argued that it made more sense to scale back the next round of tax cuts. The scheduled tax cuts are highly regressive, and give little or nothing to low and middle income earners. Nor is bracket creep a huge concern at the moment, and the rivers of revenue to be distributed have receded rapidly.

The government seems to be scaling back, or delaying a number of its commitments. While pension increases are apparently electorally sacrosanct, measures like maternity leave are on hold. Julia Gillard’s response to the Bradley review is a good example of this process at work. The government has accepted most of the review’s recommendations, but pushed out the implementation dates for those requiring large additional expenditure. The higher education sector is being told to hold its horses.

There’s something like a replay of the perennial tax cuts vs. services conundrum going on here. But it’s got an interesting new inflection when the quantum of money available is much reduced – focusing in on the economic benefits of spending against permanent tax increases for the upper middle and high end of the income spectrum. I’m inclined to think that there’s some residual defensiveness about the “economic conservative” label at work here. What, one might ask Kevin Rudd, would a social democrat do?

Per capita emissions and the Europe claim: CPRS White paper

Published

Mark

1 year, 3 months ago

in Climate change and Europe

. 59 Comments

One of the arguments Kevin Rudd has used to deflect criticism of the White Paper is to seize on Ross Garnaut’s per capita calculations and to contend that we will still be cutting emissions further than the EU.

Christine Milne:

Finally there is the question ‘do we think we Australians deserve to pollute more than everybody else?’ This is the vexed ‘per capita’ issue that Professor Garnaut so cleverly inverted – taking what had been a powerful argument for change and turning it into a weapon in the hands of climate naysayers. He took the ‘contraction and convergence’ model that is the only equitable basis for a global agreement, and perverted it by talking up future population while sidelining current per capita pollution, stretching out convergence – the point where all people have the same pollution allocation – to the far future, and ignoring historical responsibility.

Writing in The Age, Tim Colebatch has had a close look at the numbers in the White Paper, and doesn’t think they sustain the Prime Minister’s claims.

But there are two things wrong with it. The smaller error is that their numbers are wrong — all of them!

The larger error is that they tell only a small part of the story, and the part they don’t tell matters more.

[Via Peter Martin.]

What if you held an IR scare and no one came?

Published

Mark

1 year, 3 months ago

in Industrial Relations and Media

. 13 Comments

I’ve noticed some wild leaps of logic, if that’s the right word, in the “analysis” of Julia Gillard’s Forward With Fairness IR bill. Apparently, everything that may have happened in the past that would scare employers (probably including a return to braces and steel capped docs among the well dressed unionists) will. In almost all cases, if you actually look at the detail of the legislation, the claims made are unsustainable. Ambit claims, presumably…

Andrew Crook had a good piece in Crikey yesterday tracing the origins of all this hoohah:

With business cosying up to Kevin, and Malcolm striving for popular relevance, a cadre of crack News Ltd hacks have been dispatched to wage an IR guerilla war by proxy. Union bashing has been the raison d’être of buttoned-up reporters like Brad Norington for years — when Norington refers to the dreaded return of the ‘IR club’ he could easily be talking about himself. But confronted with a watertight consensus after extensive consultation, the Oz has continued to push an adversarial line that attempts to revive the pitched battles of the 1890s.

…

On Saturday, Norington re-entered the fray, clearly miffed by the lack of love from the Australian Industry Group’s Heather Ridout. In an excruciating piece, Norington gets close to accusing the business lobby of false consciousness — a charge usually leveled at the Oz’s enemies on the Left. What looks like an off-hand comment about the “weird” direction the IR debate is taken as evidence of a looming stoush. Of course, Ridout’s overall backing of the bill remains strong, subject to qualifications.

Continue reading ‘What if you held an IR scare and no one came?’

Rudd one year on

Published

Mark

1 year, 3 months ago

in Government, Howardia, Policy and Politics

. 111 Comments

Well, having opened a thread that perhaps proves that Ute Man is still out there but not actually supporting Emo Man, it behoves me, I guess, to have a bit of a say about the tenure of the Rudd government to date. To some degree all these sorts of anniversaries are somewhat artificial, as you can easily see in the United States with the fetish of the “first hundred days”. Governments will eventually be judged by the electorate in due season, as Kevin Rudd would say, and as almost all politicians intone (particularly those who are dissatisfied with their contemporary popularity), in the end they will be judged by history – whose verdict is perhaps as mythical as the Judgement of Paris, but never mind that. However, as I was suggesting, if politics and public discussion is cruelled by the vagaries and obsessions of an ever shorter media cycle, a year really is a long time in government, and it is worth taking stock.

It can also be interesting to compare first term governments at this stage of the electoral cycle, and here the obvious contrast – despite all the media beatups – is the absence of major scandal and ministerial resignations compared to both the Hawke and Howard governments. That doesn’t, of course, imply that all the Labor ministers are fabulous, but it is worth observing.

One of the things that’s interested me in the discussion that had already began quite a while before we reached the actual milestone is that in both comments on this blog and in conversations with some friends I’ve seen the sentiment expressed that simply avoiding hearing a daily litany of horrors from the Howard crew is Rudd’s greatest achievement. It might, and no doubt will, be objected that – “lefties would say that, wouldn’t they?” But I think there are a couple of points here. First, there is no doubt that a government with a more humanitarian tinge and an appreciation of propriety and ethics is to be welcomed, and that sentiment – along with the promise keeping – will be a contributor to Labor’s continuing lead in the polls. Secondly, I think The Howard Years has been interestingly timed to stimulate some comparison and to reinforce the whole sense of relief that we don’t have that turgid mob to kick around any more.

But, again, one thing that wore out the Coalition’s welcome with the electorate was the constant “rabbits out of the hat” and the whole bag of divisive tricks, along with the internal ructions and the cockiness of ministers. I agree that the Liberals are still playing at the same game in many ways. John Howard was elected in 1996 as a safe pair of hands and the Libs were “the party of order”, if you like. By the end of their fourth term, they looked like the risky and unsafe proposition and Kevin Rudd’s calm demeanour undoubtedly contributed much to Labor’s victory. WorkChoices was also probably the biggest single mistake the Coalition made, and the related apprehension that worse would follow and more leadership instability also condemned the Howard government to defeat.

But what of policy, and that shibboleth beloved of the punditariat, “the narrative”? Continue reading ‘Rudd one year on’

Liveblogging Emissions Trading Allocation Challenges Forum

Published

dk.au

1 year, 6 months ago

in Activism, Climate change, Economics, Government, Markets, Policy and Technology

. 5 Comments

UNSW is hosting a forum today on how to allocate the emissions permit auction revenue pie. As a central plank of climate mitigation policy, the value in the first 10 years is expected to exceed the total value of government bonds on issue (~$100bn+ TCI reckons more), so every vested interest is lobbying to get a piece of that under the guise of ‘national interest’. (The forum will run until around 1pm. Jack Pezzey has just delivered an excellent paper on ‘who wins with free permits’)

Update: I’ll be clarifying things below and providing links to presentations as they become available.

Update: PDFs of presentations available here
Continue reading ‘Liveblogging Emissions Trading Allocation Challenges Forum’

Larvatus Prodeo