The Bloated Myth: Why Public Servants are Lean

James Whelan joined Peter Mares on ABC Radio National’s The National Interest to discuss CPD’s State of the Public Service: An Alternative Report. To hear the full interview, click here. They’re a favourite object of ridicule: cardigan-wearing, pen-pushing mandarins who generate work by holding pointless meetings, only to clock off at 4.47 PM on the dot. And, of course, there’s the oft-repeated view that bureaucracies are self-perpetuating organisms that grow, fungus-like, sucking up state resources wherever they … more

Ben Eltham | There Is A Plot To Destroy The Gillard Government

To win office, the Government will have to perform a Herculean feat – and now the Thomson affair has given the Opposition an extra set of cudgels writes Ben Eltham. The Australian Financial Review’s Geoff Kitney had an article this week about Labor’s fortunes. According to the unnamed “seniorALP figures” he interviewed, the anger towards the Labor government is now at levels comparable to the dying days of the Whitlam and Keating governments. Things may not … more

John Menadue | Asylum seeker facts lost in hysteria

Does our island mentality and concern about securing our physical border help explain  our obsession with “boat people”? John Menadue explores the causes of Australia’s obsession with asylum seekers and boat people. As we seem to have lost all sense of proportion in this debate, we should adopt the metrics the UNHCR does. That is, what should matter is the total number of refugees, regardless of how they arrive. As we’ve entered a post-truth politics … more

 

Ben Eltham | Mining Boom Blasts Jobs

First Qantas, now BlueScope. These big job losses have nothing to do with the carbon tax and everything to do with high commodity prices. Ben Eltham on the other consequences of the mining boom. First published in New Matilda here. It was a devastating blow for the Illawarra. The closing of blast furnace 6 at BlueScope Steel’s iconic Port Kembla steel works brings to end steel exports from Wollongong and means 1,100 job losses. Last … more

Prominent Australians urge political leaders to break the stalemate on refugees and asylum seekers

Australia needs a circuit-breaker in our treatment of people seeking asylum from war and persecution. On the tenth anniversary of the MV Tampa’s rescue of 438 asylum seekers from their distressed vessel Palapa 1, Australia’s asylum and refugee policy is still sadly characterised by human tragedy, political opportunism, policy failure and great cost. People seek asylum here have been the subject of an increasingly contentious public and political discussion. A toxic debate has polarised large … more

Kerry Murphy | Improving the Refugee Debate

During the week of the tenth anniversary of the Tampa, and following the release of A New Approach, Breaking the Stalemate on Refugees and Asylum Seekers,  Kerry Murphy comments on the pressing need to move the asylum seeker debate ‘from one aimed at the lowest common denominator, to one based on the ‘better angels of our nature’. With the High Court inquiry into Prime Minister Gillard’s Malaysian Solution and the parliamentary inquiry into self-harm and … more

 

ABC The Drum | ‘Breaking the stalemate on refugees and asylum seekers’

Professor Frank Brennan writes for ABC’s The Drum online reflecting on what he thinks about the vexed state of policy debate on refugees and asylum seekers. We Australians are still all at sea seeking to find an asylum policy which is workable, economic, legal, politically saleable and above an agreed moral bottom line. The contested issues are offshore processing and onshore detention. This week the High Court will have a look at the legality of … more

Sky News | ‘Report suggests new approach to refugees’

Sky News Online reports on the findings in A New Approach, our suggested policies on refugees & asylum seekers: The report – A New Approach: Breaking the Stalemate on Refugees and Asylum Seekers – has been endorsed by 34 prominent Australians, including former Liberal Party leader John Hewson, author Thomas Keneally and former immigration minister Ian Macphee. Among its 13 recommendations, the paper says mandatory detention should be phased out within two years and Australia’s … more

AAP | ‘Report seeks new approach to refugees’

AAP News journalist Belinda Merhab covered CPD’s report on refugees and asylum seekers, featuring prominent Australian Tuong Quang Luu’s story of fleeing Vietnam. “It was an extremely hazardous and horrible experience,” he said. “It’s very difficult for people living in ordinary society, a peaceful society like Australia, to understand because asylum seekers and refugees do not have choices. You have to take risks to survive.” The report – A New Approach: Breaking the Stalemate on … more