Monthly Archives:: March 2006

Why do we need a bill of rights?

Sir Anthony Mason explains why he favours the adoption of a statutory Bill of Rights and rejects the constitutional United States model. The statutory model, which NewMatilda.com has followed in its draft Human Rights Act, allows parliament to limit rights but requires it to do so in specific and clear language. Iit cannot simply sweep the question under the carpet or exclude or qualify the rights by vague and general words’.  more

What makes a public — not ‘national commercial’ — broadcaster

Emma Dawson considers the recent attacks on the ABC and what they might mean for the future of the public broadcaster. Dawson believes that the Minister’s adoption of ‘national’ rather than ‘public’ broadcaster reflects an attempt to distance the Government from the need to provide public funding and warns against the introduction of commercial advertising because of its impact at SBS. Dawson believes that defining what a public broadcaster is, is the first step towards protecting this important institution. more

The challenge of mental health care in general practice

Stephen Leeder calls for a more collaborative approach to the treatment of mental health. Drawing on the success of a recent federally-funded trial, Leeder calls for Medicare to be expanded to cover care provided by psychologists to mentally ill patients. Leeder estimates the policy would cost $100 million annually but warns about over-servicing. He predicts benefits for rural areas
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Child Care funding – policy proposals for discussion

Eva Cox cuts through the confusion surrounding the child care debate and puts forward a comprehensive set of proposals for funding accessible, affordable, quality child care. By introducing direct funding of child care centres to complement fee relief for parents, governments can help to break the profit-driven cycle of fee hikes and supply shortages in the current system.
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Why we need to get the early years right

In Why we need to get the early years right Professor Graham Vimpani reports on the latest developments in the push for investment in early childhood intervention. The social, medical, and economic case for early childhood education and care is compelling. With an ambitious agenda for cooperation on human capital development floated at the most recent Council of Australian Governments meeting, Vimpani argues that the time is right to shift the balance of policy effort from downstream remediation to upstream prevention.
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Child Care funding – policy proposals for discussion

Suddenly there is interest in child care. A couple of proposals have surfaced from the back bench; one is to increase general family payments so parents ostensibly have more choice; the other is a vaguer set of claims from backbenchers that something must be done. There has been some general huffing and puffing from various female politicians, and a string of articles on poor standards in child care centres has put the issue in the media spotlight. All agree on one thing – that there are problems with the current system.

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Policy by degrees

In his speech introducing the ALP's new climate Blueprint, Kim Beazley made a claim against which he obviously wishes to be judged – that climate change policy is one of the biggest differences between the ALP and the Government. The new Blueprint, Protecting Australia From The Threat Of Climate Change, is much like Labor's policy for the last election, with important advances on a couple of fronts. But in aspirations and means it is still fairly close to Coalition policies. more