‘Q 1.1 In considering the community’s aspirations for the type of society that Australia should become over the next two decades and beyond, which key features should inform or drive the future design of the Australian tax‑transfer system?’
In the last issue of Thinking Points, John Menadue urged our leaders to listen to their own ‘better angels’ when dealing with the contentious issues of asylum seekers and strangers. I want to extend this – we should not just aim to adopt this attitude to outsiders but design social and economic systems that assume the likelihood of goodwill in most of us.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has apologised to the Stolen Generation, signed Kyoto and fixed some of the worst conditions for asylum seekers. These actions seemed to suggest a serious change in political directions, but other signs show he is leading a government designed to avoid scaring off the Howard voters.
Eva Cox AO outlines her response to the Rudd Government’s announcement of a $4.8 billion dollar pension relief package which was announced as part of the October 14 2008 recession bailout. The
As Chairperson for the Women’s Electoral Lobby Australia (WELA), I’ve been heavily involved in preparing a submission for the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into Paid Maternity, Paternity and Parental Leave.
There is a current pre-budget flurry of name calling about certain types of payments which
involves elements of gender bias and of moral panic. The term ‘middle class
welfare’ is being hurled at a comparatively small range of payments such as the
baby bonus and some family payments
This question is asked in the Benchmarks for Work and
Family Policies produced for the coming Federal election by a group of feminist academics, including myself. It raises the wider question of why existing policies are so weak in this area that we still need to construct tests against which to assess the parties’ proposals.
Something went wrong between the dreams of post-war workers and our modern working lives. I remember the push for the 35 hour week and the dreams of new technologies that would see workers replaced by robots and more leisure for all. That dream has stayed in the realms of science fiction.
