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Jessica Brown

Visiting Fellow

jessica-brown Jessica has recently left the CIS to go on a long overseas adventure.  Her research focused on population, family policy, welfare reform, disability pensions, parental leave and foreign policy. She has published widely in these areas.

Jessica has been published in major newspapers such as the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and the Herald Sun, and has appeared on television programs such as Q&A, The Drum, and Today Tonight and on radio programs around Australia.

She holds a Master of International Studies from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) from the University of Melbourne, where she majored in Political Science.

Publications by Author

  1. Southeast Asia’s American Embrace

    Jessica Brown | 29 Mar 2012 | Foreign Policy Analysis

    All Southeast Asian states want to take advantage of the benefits of a rising China, yet none wants it to be in a position... Read More...

  2. Overcoming a Culture of Low Expectations

    Jessica Brown | 28 Mar 2012 | Issue Analysis

    The most important thing we can do to encourage disadvantaged Australians into work – including people with disabilities,... Read More...

  3. BOOK REVIEW: Ghetto at the Centre of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong

    Jessica Brown | 07 Feb 2012 | POLICY Magazine

    Ghetto at the Centre of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong By Gordon Matthews (University of Chicago Press, 2011.)

  4. Working Towards Self-Reliance: Three Lessons for Disability Pension Reform

    Jessica Brown | 05 Oct 2011 | Policy Monographs

    To successful reduce the number of pensioners on disability support, policymakers must apply the lessons of other welfare... Read More...

  5. Why a Growing Australia is Nothing to Fear

    Jessica Brown, Oliver Marc Hartwich | 28 Sep 2011 | Issue Analysis

    Australia’s population is growing because our economy is booming and our society is confident about the future. Rather... Read More...

  6. FEATURE: Growing Pains

    Jessica Brown | 31 Mar 2011 | POLICY Magazine

    The Australian government has limited control over population size. The policy challenge is dealing with a larger population,... Read More...

  7. Jakarta's Juggling Act: Balancing China and America in the Asia-Pacific

    Jessica Brown | 03 Feb 2011 | Foreign Policy Analysis

    Indonesia is emerging as a significant player in Southeast Asia’s security architecture. Its prime foreign policy concern... Read More...

  8. Populate and Perish? Modelling Australia's Demographic Future

    Jessica Brown, Oliver Marc Hartwich | 07 Oct 2010 | Policy Monographs

    Since the publication of the 2010 Intergenerational Report, Australia has been debating its demographic future and whether... Read More...

  9. BOOK REVIEW: Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times

    Jessica Brown | 17 Jun 2010 | POLICY Magazine

    Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times by Barry Wain (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.)

  10. Defeating Dependency: Moving Disability Support Pensioners Into Jobs

    Jessica Brown | 30 Apr 2010 | Issue Analysis

    The focus of welfare reform efforts should be on encouraging some of the 750,000 existing disability support pensioners back... Read More...

  11. What’s Next for Welfare-to-Work?

    Jessica Brown | 15 Oct 2009 | Issue Analysis

    When jobs are hard to find, the incentive for unemployed people to move to other welfare payments such as DSP grows. There... Read More...

  12. FEATURE: Jobless Families in a Recession

    Jessica Brown | 04 Jun 2009 | POLICY Magazine

    The government should resist moves to dilute welfare to work. For the 90 percent of jobless parents who don’t participate... Read More...

  13. Breaking the Cycle of Family Joblessness

    Jessica Brown | 05 May 2009 | Policy Monographs

    Solving the problem of high family joblessness will require reform of the welfare, tax, and industrial relations systems.

  14. Million Dollar Babies: Paid Parental Leave and Family Policy Reform

    Jessica Brown | 18 Nov 2008 | Issue Analysis

    Support for the introduction of paid parental leave has been so vocal that rather than being a means to an end, paid parental... Read More...

  15. Baby Steps Toward Self-Funded Parental Leave

    Jessica Brown | 18 Sep 2008 | Issue Analysis

    The debate about increasing the aged pension highlights the fact that, once again, government handouts lead to increasing... Read More...

  16. OPINION: An Alternative Vision of Parental Leave

    Jessica Brown | 15 Sep 2008 | POLICY Magazine

    Instead of requiring more taxpayer spending, parental leave could be self-funded.

  17. BOOK REVIEW: Love & Money: The Family and the Free Market Quarterly Essay 29

    Jessica Brown | 04 Jun 2008 | POLICY Magazine

    Love & Money: The Family and the Free Market Quarterly Essay by Anne Manne (Black Inc., 2008).

Opinion & Commentary by Author

  1. Let's start to expect greater outcomes

    Jessica Brown | 11 Apr 2012 | The Canberra Times

    Fewer than half of Australians with a disability are employed. But we know that given the right help many people, even those... Read More

  2. Faith placed in Uncle Sam as neighbourhood warily welcomes China

    Jessica Brown | 29 Mar 2012 | The Sydney Morning Herald

    Australians have become used to thinking about the rise of China, the role of America, and what the interplay between these... Read More

  3. Open up debate on welfare

    Jessica Brown | 10 Feb 2012 | The Canberra Times

    Poor people are often those who miss out on adequate health care: people who can’t afford to go to private hospitals and... Read More

  4. Capitalist ghetto is a pathway to tolerance

    Jessica Brown | 30 Dec 2011 | The Sydney Morning Herald

    In the market for 500 knock-off Tag Heuer watches? A container-load of inexpensive African style clothes? A leather-bound... Read More

  5. Avoiding conflict but quietly waving flag

    Jessica Brown | 21 Nov 2011 | Newcastle Herald

    Southeast Asian governments will welcome increased US involvement in the region.

  6. The welfare revolution that has passed disability pensioners by

    Jessica Brown | 12 Oct 2011 | Online Opinion

    Unemployment has fallen. Single parents are returning to the workforce in droves. Yet the number of people on Disability... Read More

  7. We must crack down on the Disability Support Pension

    Jessica Brown | 10 Oct 2011 | The Punch

    The number of people on the Disability Pension Scheme must be reduced.

  8. Should Australia’s population be controlled?

    Jessica Brown, Oliver Marc Hartwich | 02 Oct 2011 | Sunday Herald Sun

    Australia should embrace population growth

  9. A few home truths on people and houses

    Jessica Brown, Oliver Marc Hartwich | 28 Sep 2011 | The Age

    Population growth: starting acting, not discussing

  10. Change attitude rather than limit population

    Jessica Brown | 28 Sep 2011 | The West Australian

    Population growth: starting acting, not discussing. Australia should embrace its population growth .

  11. The march of democracy in Southeast Asia

    Jessica Brown | 20 Sep 2011 | Online Opinion

    Both Malaysia and Singapore are nominally democratic. Yet both are what Fareed Zakaria calls 'illiberal democracies': "democratically... Read More

  12. Paid leave for dads a useless, cynical waste of money

    Jessica Brown | 06 Sep 2011 | The Punch

    Getting dads more involved in parenting is a noble goal. Unfortunately, there is very little evidence that paid paternity... Read More

  13. Living together demands civility

    Jessica Brown | 19 Aug 2011 | The Canberra Times

    We should not rush to stifle public discussions on the off chance that an unhinged individual (whether politically motivated... Read More

  14. Gillard misses the chance to help the disabled and define her legacy

    Jessica Brown | 17 Aug 2011 | The Australian

    Gillard misses a chance for concrete reform and define her legacy

  15. ASEAN must include US in talks on South China Sea

    Jessica Brown | 05 Jul 2011 | The Jakarta Post

    Indonesia was positioning itself as an ‘honest broker’ in the South China Sea dispute. Now it appears much more circumspect.

  16. Helping mentally ill go back to work a win for all

    Jessica Brown | 28 Jun 2011 | The Australian

    Unless we find a better way to keep people with mental illness in the workforce, the number of disability pensioners will... Read More

  17. Population debate: we pretend growth is not inevitable

    Jessica Brown | 13 Jun 2011 | The Australian

    The longer we pretend we can stop population growth, or protest that we don’t want growth to happen, the more difficult... Read More

  18. A disability insurance scheme offers clear benefits

    Jessica Brown | 20 May 2011 | The Canberra Times

    The Productivity Commission's disability insurance scheme is promising but demands hardline decisions from the government.

  19. Gillard's population policy at sea

    Jessica Brown | 17 May 2011 | Business Spectator

    Swan’s 16,000 new migration places aren’t really new places, just a reshuffling of the existing quota to induce more... Read More

  20. Welfare reforms are worthwhile, but not an easy budget fix

    Jessica Brown | 12 May 2011 | Online Opinion

    The best way to get unskilled workers into work is to find them an unskilled job – not try to train them for a skilled... Read More

  21. Population growth is not all about immigration

    Jessica Brown | 31 Mar 2011 | The Punch

    Population growth is neither an impending disaster nor something we should blindly strive for—it is simply happening as... Read More

  22. Indonesia's tightrope act

    Jessica Brown | 25 Feb 2011 | The Gulf News

    Asean leadership will help Indonesia use the US as a counterweight to China in Southeast Asia without making Beijing feel... Read More

  23. Jakarta's year of leading diplomatically

    Jessica Brown | 11 Feb 2011 | The Wall Street Journal

    The Asean member states are playing a difficult game of balancing and constraining China while benefiting from the economic... Read More

  24. Washington's affair with Jakarta gets serious

    Jessica Brown | 03 Feb 2011 | ABC News

    With China flexing its muscles in the South China Sea, and Indonesia resuming its traditional leadership role in South East... Read More

  25. Paid parental leave adds to dilemma of family benefits

    Jessica Brown | 11 Jan 2011 | The Sydney Morning Herald

    Can we afford to keep expanding an ever more generous system of benefits for middle- and high-income families, or do we need... Read More

  26. Paid parental leave adds to dilemma of family benefits

    Jessica Brown | 11 Jan 2011 | The Sydney Morning Herald

    Can we afford to keep expanding an ever more generous system of benefits for middle- and high-income families, or do we need... Read More

  27. Disability payment should not be de facto dole

    Jessica Brown | 09 Nov 2010 | The Australian

    Our welfare system should not assume that disabled people can't be in paid employment.

  28. Why Europe is the wrong model for paid parental leave

    Jessica Brown | 05 Nov 2010 | Online Opinion

    If we can draw one lesson from the experience of Britain and the other European states now forced into austerity, it is that... Read More

  29. Population growth is an age-old problem, get used to it

    Jessica Brown | 07 Oct 2010 | The Sydney Morning Herald

    Population growth will bring challenges, but it will also bring opportunities. Let's hope we can harness our creative potential... Read More

  30. Taking the boom out of the population debate

    Jessica Brown | 07 Oct 2010 | ABC News

    Policymakers who think they can avoid the challenges of a growing population simply by cutting migration should think again.

  31. Australia's real challenge is population ageing

    Jessica Brown | 23 Aug 2010 | Sydney Morning Herald

    We need a mature debate on  population growth, says Jessica Brown in The Age (Business), 23 August 2010

  32. What's missing from the population debate

    Jessica Brown | 12 Aug 2010 | Business Spectator

    To seriously meet the challenges of population growth, we first need to deal with some problems with the functioning of our... Read More

  33. A bigger country is inevitable

    Jessica Brown | 04 Aug 2010 | The Australian

    We are having a false public debate about population, something we can barely control anyway, so all of the very real challenges... Read More

  34. Equal help for home and working mums

    Jessica Brown | 28 May 2010 | The Australian

    A new parental leave scheme should not be based around the kind of work their mothers do or don't do. Instead, it should... Read More

  35. Working versus stay-at-home is not the mother of all battles

    Jessica Brown | 25 May 2010 | Sydney Morning Herald

    Parental leave policy should reflect the variety of different decisions that families make about how to divide their time... Read More

  36. Woo mums and big end of town

    Jessica Brown | 10 Mar 2010 | The Australian

    The enthusiasm with which the Opposition Leader has embraced the cause of working mothers shows just how keen Tony Abbott... Read More

  37. Alternatives to a life on welfare

    Jessica Brown | 17 Feb 2010 | ABC News

    The Disability Support Pension (DSP) has become a one-way ticket. The government is trying to reduce the number of people... Read More

  38. Nanny state can’t save us from ourselves

    Jessica Brown | 27 Jan 2010 | The Age

    Is it ever appropriate for the government to legislate to protect us from ourselves?

  39. Holes in new path to reform child care

    Jessica Brown | 22 Jan 2010 | Canberra Times

    In December, the Council of Australian Governments comprising the Prime Minister, state premiers, territory chief ministers... Read More

  40. Antidote to welfare dependency

    Jessica Brown | 19 Jan 2010 | The Australian

    The federal government’s extension of income management across the country, announced late last year, reflects a new consensus... Read More

  41. Bligh's 'Green Army'

    Jessica Brown | 17 Dec 2009 | Online opinion

    Now that Keynesian pump-priming is back in vogue the old depression era adage that governments should pay people to dig holes... Read More

  42. Crash the glass floor

    Jessica Brown | 20 Nov 2009 | The Australian

    Governments throughout the Western world, including in Australia, are gradually introducing legislation aimed at making the... Read More

  43. Motivate those on hand-outs

    Jessica Brown | 15 Oct 2009 | The Australian

    The Rudd government’s approach to sole-parent families, as with that of its predecessor, is that the best form of welfare... Read More

  44. The training merry-go-round may be worse than nothing at all

    Jessica Brown | 16 Sep 2009 | The Advertiser

    Short of directly hiring more public servants, it is very difficult – impossible even – for governments to create real,... Read More

  45. Results are in and jobs come first

    Jessica Brown | 01 Sep 2009 | The Australian

    The news this week that the Federal Government’s flagship training program, the Productivity Places Program, has to date... Read More

  46. Tax and welfare as carrot and stick for jobs

    Jessica Brown | 17 Jun 2009 | The Age

    Last week’s cabinet reshuffle saw Rudd confidant Mark Arbib take over employment, signalling that job creation and protection... Read More

  47. Tough job on employment

    Jessica Brown | 29 May 2009 | Courier Mail

    The outlook for Queensland’s jobs market is bleak, with industries that the state specialises in, like tourism, set to... Read More

  48. A budget stick for sole parents

    Jessica Brown | 14 May 2009 | Brisbane Times

    While this week’s pension increase was widely though not universally welcomed, welfare groups such as the Australian Council... Read More

  49. Training is a means to the end, not the end

    Jessica Brown | 08 May 2009 | Newcastle Herald

    Last week the government announced its new ‘jobs compact’ which would guarantee a training place for all unemployed young... Read More

  50. Jobless Families

    Jessica Brown | 06 May 2009 | Open Forum

    Despite Australia coming off the back of a remarkable economic boom and enjoying historically low unemployment rates, in... Read More

  51. What to do with paid maternity leave

    Jessica Brown | 05 May 2009 | ABC News

    Avid news watchers may wonder what happened to the fever pitched debate over paid maternity leave which raged for most of... Read More

  52. Dole must not be first option

    Jessica Brown | 29 Jan 2009 | The Australian

    Welfare reform still needed despite rising unemployment.

  53. Paranoid parenting

    Jessica Brown | 28 Jan 2009 | The Herald Sun

    Paranoia-inducing advice about parenting is enough to make any potential mum reconsider.

  54. There is more to quality child care than UNICEF’s arbitrary standards

    Jessica Brown | 22 Dec 2008 | The Courier Mail

    Australia achieves similar levels of poverty reduction as the Scandinavian countries with a much lower tax burden.

  55. Families deserve a simpler method

    Jessica Brown | 18 Nov 2008 | The Australian

    The finance minister’s recent signals that tax-payer funded parental leave may be left out of next year’s budget due... Read More

  56. Who’s paying for babies?

    Jessica Brown | 18 Nov 2008

    The Productivity Commission is currently examining models for a national paid maternity leave scheme.  Current payments,... Read More

  57. Parental leave policy back-to-front

    Jessica Brown | 18 Nov 2008 | ABC News

    Paid parental leave has become an important symbolic issue for many women, and support for its introduction has been passionate... Read More

  58. Senate does away with the right to remain single

    Jessica Brown | 12 Nov 2008

    We all know how it goes.  Boy meets girl.  Dinner, movies, candlelit walks.  A little while later they  move in together. ... Read More

  59. Paid maternity leave will not fix problem parents

    Jessica Brown | 30 Sep 2008 | The Australian

    The release of the Productivity Commission’s draft report on paid parental leave follows Fiona Stanley’s weekend comments... Read More

  60. The battle for paid maternity leave is raging

    Jessica Brown | 30 Sep 2008 | The Herald Sun

    The battle over paid maternity leave is raging. Stay-at-home versus working mums, feminism versus patriarchy, big business,... Read More

  61. Money for nothin’ and paid parental leave for free

    Jessica Brown | 23 Sep 2008 | Crikey

    Paid parental leave for a year sounds like a great idea – hey, why not make it two? Lots of time to bond with the new bundle... Read More

  62. We need a fair compromise for paid maternity leave

    Jessica Brown | 18 Sep 2008 | ABC News Online

    In the emotion charged world of social policy debate, nothing stirs up passions more than the ongoing argument over paid... Read More

  63. Feminism is about choice

    Jessica Brown | 21 Aug 2008 | The Sydney Morning Herald

    The very word "feminism" conjures up the cliched images of the 1970s: radicalised, bra-burning women marching and shouting... Read More

  64. Closing the ‘gender gap’ may undermine women

    Jessica Brown | 24 Jul 2008 | Crikey

    Yesterday, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission released its five-point plan to address gender inequality. HREOC... Read More

  65. Not all mums need handouts

    Jessica Brown | 21 May 2008 | The Australian

    Means testing of Baby Bonus undermines calls for universal Paid Maternity Leave

  66. Family tax benefits still a mass of contradictions

    Jessica Brown | 15 May 2008 | Crikey

    Well budget night is over. Anyone hosting a Working Families budget party (you know, every guest has to down a highly taxed... Read More

  67. Rudd’s baby farms are not going to be great for kids

    Jessica Brown | 18 Apr 2008 | The Australian

    Kevin Rudd’s ‘Big Idea’ for this weekend’s 2020 Summit is a plan to help ‘working families’ by setting up a national... Read More

  68. Who should pay for maternity leave – employers, unions or taxpayers?

    Jessica Brown | 14 Apr 2008 | The Age

    Elizabeth Broderick, Sharan Burrow and Heather Ridout have come together to argue in favour of the introduction of a government-funded... Read More

  69. Let's review all family benefits, not just paid maternity leave

    Jessica Brown | 10 Apr 2008 | The Canberra Times

    Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard a myriad of competing opinions about the possible introduction of a paid maternity... Read More

  70. NSW Transport misses the bus by sinking the ferry

    Jessica Brown | 07 May 2006

    Long suffering Sydney commuters could be forgiven for thinking that the NSW government and its conglomerate of over-manned,... Read More

Ideas@TheCentre by Author

  1. Lessons from Southeast Asia

    Jessica Brown | 30 Mar 2012 | Ideas@The Centre

    Bob Carr must now navigate Australia’s developing relationship with China.

  2. Finkelstein: Murdoch’s new best friend?

    Jessica Brown | 09 Mar 2012 | Ideas@The Centre

    What was Finkelstein thinking? If the traditional media can’t adapt and catch up, it shouldn’t be the taxpayer’s problem.

  3. Southeast Asia’s American Embrace

    Jessica Brown | 02 Mar 2012 | Ideas@The Centre

    In November 2011, Barack Obama made his first (and long-awaited) official visit to Australia. Australia and the United States... Read More

  4. America’s Burma thaw motivated by Southeast Asian strategy

    Jessica Brown | 03 Feb 2012 | Ideas@The Centre

    Washington has long been a fierce critic of the Burmese regime, and its recent olive branch is partly motivated by a desire... Read More

  5. How (not) to pick a nanny-state winner

    Jessica Brown | 20 Jan 2012 | Ideas@The Centre

    Government can’t control everything. People who want to gamble online will gamble online.

  6. Disability pension needs tough love

    Jessica Brown | 16 Dec 2011 | Ideas@The Centre

    With the number of people on the Disability Support Pension continuing to grow, government needs to introduce stringent reforms... Read More

  7. Indonesia cagey on US ties

    Jessica Brown | 18 Nov 2011 | Ideas@The Centre

    Obama’s visit to Australia and Indonesia ushers in a new era of engagement but with quite different foreign policy reactions.

  8. Overcoming a culture of low expectations

    Jessica Brown | 11 Nov 2011 | Ideas@The Centre

    Given the right help, many people with very serious disabilities can work.

  9. The holy grail of welfare reform

    Jessica Brown | 07 Oct 2011 | Ideas@The Centre

    We must reduce the number of people on the Disability Pension Scheme by helping them to find work.

  10. A growing opportunity for Australia

    Jessica Brown, Oliver Marc Hartwich | 30 Sep 2011 | Ideas@The Centre

    Instead of being afraid of population growth, Australians should embrace it, and government must focus on build infrastructure... Read More

  11. Will development lead to democracy in Southeast Asia?

    Jessica Brown | 16 Sep 2011 | Ideas@The Centre

    Malaysians and Singaporeans, now well accustomed to economic growth and development, are slowly beginning to demand political... Read More

  12. Media force for democracy

    Jessica Brown | 12 Aug 2011 | Ideas@The Centre

    The Government should release reports without the media having to request FOI.

  13. Back to 1643? Bob Brown and the press freedom time machine

    Jessica Brown | 22 Jul 2011 | Ideas@The Centre

    What agenda did Greens leader Bob Brown have for calling for greater media regulations? Surely, by now, we understand free... Read More

  14. Go West? 'Get out of Sydney’ grants an expensive distraction

    Jessica Brown | 01 Jul 2011 | Ideas@The Centre

    Paying people to move to regional areas will not improve economic growth.

  15. Tough on welfare but light on detail

    Jessica Brown | 21 Apr 2011 | Ideas@The Centre

    Gillard’s pronouncements on welfare reform have so far been largely rhetorical.

  16. Can Indonesia's recent past become Egypt's near future?

    Jessica Brown | 04 Mar 2011 | Ideas@The Centre

    Around the world, commentators are hoping that Egypt in 2011 will come to resemble Indonesia in 1998.

  17. DSP the wrong target for budget savings

    Jessica Brown | 18 Feb 2011 | Ideas@The Centre

    Welfare reform, especially of Disability Support Pension, must continue to be a policy priority but is unlikely to help us... Read More

  18. Indonesia juggles China and America

    Jessica Brown | 04 Feb 2011 | Ideas@The Centre

    Like Australia, Indonesia looks to China for its economic growth and to America for security. How Jakarta handles this will... Read More

  19. Women's work, or just another day in the office?

    Jessica Brown | 14 Jan 2011 | Ideas@The Centre

    Women now have more choices than men, having the opportunity to either work or parent, or some combination of both, says... Read More

  20. It’s all about the city

    Jessica Brown | 10 Dec 2010 | Ideas@The Centre

    Cities, especially big ones like Melbourne and Sydney, provide us with endless opportunities that simply are not available... Read More

  21. Pollies' porkies over small Australia skill shortages

    Jessica Brown | 19 Nov 2010 | Ideas@The Centre

    ‘Small Australia’ was always a bit of a beat up. Now it appears it is economic folly too.

  22. Why Europe is the wrong model for paid parental leave

    Jessica Brown | 29 Oct 2010 | Ideas@The Centre

    The cost of new entitlements and promises gradually add up until suddenly the bill is simply too big to manage.

  23. That fabled ‘Big Australia’

    Jessica Brown | 08 Oct 2010 | Ideas@The Centre

    Population increases are inevitable, and government should start planning for infrastructure bottlenecks.

  24. No logic for liberals in Malthus

    Jessica Brown | 17 Sep 2010 | Ideas@The Centre

    Thomas Malthus, the eighteenth century British thinker who predicted that over-population would lead to global famine, has... Read More

  25. $36 billion ways to make a media splash

    Jessica Brown | 27 Aug 2010 | Ideas@The Centre

    The first lesson for anyone wanting to make a big splash in the media is to have a big, scary, shocking number. It’s practically... Read More

  26. If population is power, then what are we worried about?

    Jessica Brown | 06 Aug 2010 | Ideas@The Centre

    Thinking big is currently out of fashion in Australia. That is, if you’re thinking about a 'Big Australia.' But what if,... Read More

  27. Overcoming poverty of ambition

    Jessica Brown | 16 Jul 2010 | Ideas@The Centre

    Study shows that children of the poorest parents – both in terms of income and education – can go on to become tomorrow’s... Read More

  28. Humdinger of a political argument

    Jessica Brown | 18 Jun 2010 | Ideas@The Centre

    A storm is brewing in New Zealand, casting a frostier-than-usual shroud over the nation’s capital. Last week in Wellington,... Read More

  29. Don’t trust Google, trust the government

    Jessica Brown | 28 May 2010 | Ideas@The Centre

    Thank goodness for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and his tireless campaign to protect us from the nasty World Wide... Read More

  30. NSW Transport misses the bus by sinking the ferry

    Jessica Brown | 07 May 2010 | Ideas@The Centre

    Long suffering Sydney commuters could be forgiven for thinking that the NSW government and its conglomerate of over-manned,... Read More

  31. Bipartisan agreement to defeat dependency

    Jessica Brown | 30 Apr 2010 | Ideas@The Centre

    True bipartisan agreement is rare. But it seems we have just that over the issue of Disability Support Pension (DSP). Both... Read More

  32. A vibrant street food culture is as simple as ABC

    Jessica Brown | 09 Apr 2010 | Ideas@The Centre

    The NSW government’s announcement this week that it will introduce a new ‘scores on doors’ restaurant hygiene rating... Read More

  33. Just say no!

    Jessica Brown | 19 Mar 2010 | Ideas@The Centre

    Maternity leave, health reform, the Henry review, climate reports ... These are all the stories we should have been talking... Read More

  34. Don’t drop in ... or jump off

    Jessica Brown | 15 Jan 2010 | Ideas@The Centre

    It’s not only road cops and highway sign-writers who have been busy over Christmas. Despite the lure of the banana lounge... Read More

  35. Macklin shows her steel

    Jessica Brown | 27 Nov 2009 | Ideas@The Centre

    The front pages of our newspapers have been plastered with the ETS and the internal ructions of the Liberal party all week,... Read More

  36. Through the glass ceiling back to the glass floor

    Jessica Brown | 13 Nov 2009 | Ideas@The Centre

    There’s nothing like an old-fashioned battle between working mums and their stay-at-home sisters, especially when a glamorous... Read More

  37. Welfare reforms show glimmer of hope

    Jessica Brown | 16 Oct 2009 | Ideas@The Centre

    Over the past few decades, a bipartisan consensus has emerged about the need to reduce the number of working age Australians... Read More

  38. Long-term welfare detrimental to kids, says new report

    Jessica Brown | 02 Oct 2009 | Ideas@The Centre

    Welfare campaigners this week lobbied the government to lift unemployment benefits, after the OECD revealed that more than... Read More

  39. Child Care Reforms Fail Flexibility Test

    Jessica Brown | 04 Sep 2009 | Ideas@The Centre

    By boosting child-to-staff ratios and lifting the qualifications of staff, a federal government proposal to change child... Read More

  40. Are pensioners really impoverished?

    Jessica Brown | 03 Jul 2009 | Ideas@The Centre

    The OECD this week released a report that claimed that one in four Australian pensioners live in poverty. According to the... Read More

  41. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Gets It Right?

    Jessica Brown | 19 Jun 2009 | Ideas@The Centre

    The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) this week released it s 2009 report card on Australian children’s... Read More

  42. Tax cuts, mutual obligation and labour force flexibility could make or break jobless

    Jessica Brown | 01 May 2009 | Ideas@The Centre

    With a nightmare budget looming in view, it’s tempting to take the fatalistic view that all we can do is batten down the... Read More

  43. Paid Maternity Leave and the Global Financial Crisis

    Jessica Brown | 10 Apr 2009 | Ideas@The Centre

    Paid maternity leave was a high profile election promise of the Rudd government, but with an impending recession, the big... Read More

  44. Paid Maternity Leave and the Global Financial Crisis

    Jessica Brown | 27 Mar 2009 | Ideas@The Centre

    Paid maternity leave was a high profile election promise of the Rudd government, but with an impending recession, the big... Read More

  45. Recession Chic

    Jessica Brown | 27 Feb 2009 | Ideas@The Centre

    What do women’s skirts have to do with the prevailing economic climate?