Weekly roundup Saturday 21 March


North Terrace

The next contest — South Australia


Weekly roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues in public policy.


Politics

South Australia’s election: Labor to win, but who comes second?

Working class consciousness for our times: A return to grass roots politics.

Robodebt’s long tail: It’s not just about individual cases of corruption; it’s about a corrupt culture.

What happens when governments are named and shamed?: Naming and shaming can work, particularly when the criticism comes from allies.

Economics

That interest rate rise: The RBA is too concerned with the CPI and too unconcerned with the drivers of price rises.

A Spender on tax reform: Restoring some neutrality between taxes on hard work and taxes on idle investment is Allegra's main message in her tax reform white paper.

Two perspectives on innovation: A government perspective and Andrew Leigh’s perspective.

Progress on the gender pay gap: It’s slowly closing, but it’s still wide in the finance sector.

Marvellous Melbourne: The dividend from public investment – in spite of its football addiction, everyone wants to live there.

From the Strait of Hormuz to Australia

Coping in a world of weaponized energy: Energy experts were warning about oil disruptions well before Trump thought about going to war with Iran.

Australians whinging at the bowser: Stop whinging – we still have some of the world’s cheapest gasoline and diesel.

Public ideas

Universities matter: Stop treating tertiary education as a private good:

Democracy’s health:: Gross indicators give Australia a good score on democracy, but we risk following the world in a slide to autocratization.

Vale Jürgen Habermas


If you have comments, corrections, or links to other relevant sources, I’d like to hear from you. Please send them to Ian McAuley — ian, at the domain name ianmcauley.com