Framing the drug law debate
For anyone who’s paid any attention whatsoever to expert opinion on the issue, the Australia 21 report on illicit drug policy is profoundly unsurprising. Prohibition has failed, and imposes massive human and financial costs on all of us.
Pinkwashing cancer – Pink Ribbons, Inc. looks at capitalising on hope
Doco examines how devastating disease became shiny pink marketing dream diverting donations away from organisations doing most of the work towards organisations with better PR. Is this the best use of donors’ money? And what about all the non-pinkified cancers?
Directing cancer research
Medical research, and cancer research in particular, is the recipient of charitable funding in a way that few other areas of research are.
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 [...]
Disease eradication: polio and guinea worm
The world continues to inch towards the eradication of two more diseases. The number of Guinea worm cases continues to decline. According to the latest WHO bulletin, in January through September 2011, there were 1,008 cases of dracunculasis reported, compared [...]
Anna Bligh abolishes Queensland Health
Yesterday saw one of the boldest moves in Queensland politics for quite some time; Premier Anna Bligh announced that Queensland Health would cease to exist as from July next year, to be replaced by two smaller agencies, one for corporate [...]
An effective malaria vaccine!
This is amazing – a (partially) effective vaccine for malaria. The full scholarly article on the Phase 3 clinical trial is here. In short, the vaccine reduced the incidence of malaria amongst vaccinated children by about half. It’s not a [...]
What’s next?
By the time Parliament rises for the end-of-year break, two things will most likely have happened: the Clean Energy Future package will have passed into law, and the amendments to the Migration Act to enable offshore processing will have been [...]
Amy Winehouse and the tragedy of myths
Winehouse’s struggles will have been compounded by the world she found herself in. Her death should stimulate reflection on how myths surrounding mental illness have a cruel hold over real lives.
Inequality and social well-being
From Understanding Society authors Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, income inequalities as such are a source of a variety of social problems in any society. They find that there is a strong negative relationship between income inequalities and social well-being, [...]
Health and hospital reform: just “cute sounding schemes?”
We’re often told that there are massive shortages of health professionals. But since the increase in medical places, we have more graduate doctors than health departments know what to do with. The actual problems go to how and where health professionals work.
