Jeremy Sammut
Research Fellow, Social Foundations Program
Jeremy has contributed a number of papers to the CIS Papers in Health and Ageing Series including Like the Curate’s Egg: A Market-based Response and Alternative to the Bennett Report, The Coming Crisis of Medicare and The False Promise of GP Super Clinics Parts 1 and 2.
Jeremy’s work on the federal government’s GP Super Clinics policy led the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission to commission a series of discussion papers, which confirmed his findings that Super Clinics are not an answer to the major problems confronting the Australian health system. He has written extensively about the ‘hospital crisis’ and how to fix it. In Why Public Hospitals are Overcrowded: Ten Points for Policy Makers (July 2009), Jeremy details the impact of 25 years of bed cuts following the establishment of Medicare in 1984 on the quality and quantity of hospital care. In Like the Curate’s Egg: A Market-based Response and Alternative to the Bennett Report (November 2009), he proposes a ‘person-centred’ national hospital and health voucher scheme as a cost-effective solution for the health challenges of the twenty-first century.
Jeremy has also written a ground-breaking study of Australia’s child protection system, Fatally Flawed: the Child Protection Crisis in Australia (June 2009), which found that current approaches to assisting dysfunctional welfare-dependent families are putting thousands of vulnerable children at risk of serious harm.
He has a BA (Hons.) from Macquarie University and a PhD from Monash University in Australian political and social history. He has published articles on historical subjects in The Journal of Colonial History, The Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, and Quadrant, and has written for all major newspapers on a broad range of health and social policy topics.
- Email:jsammut@cis.org.au
Publications by Author
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Saving Medicare But NOT As We Know It
| 30 Apr 2013 | TARGET30 Research PapersHigh growth in health spending is the area of public expenditure that will unsustainably increase the size of government... Read More...
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TARGET30 SNAPSHOT: Saving Medicare But NOT As We Know It
| 30 Apr 2013 | TARGET30 SnapshotsHigh growth in health spending is the area of public expenditure that will unsustainably increase the size of government... Read More...
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The Fraught Politics of Saying Sorry for Forced Adoption: Implications for Child Protection Policy in Australia
| 19 Mar 2013 | Issue AnalysisMany Australians will believe a national apology for forced adoption is overdue. But there is a danger that the apology will... Read More...
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FEATURE: Treating Health as an Economic Problem
| 22 Feb 2013 | POLICY MagazineMarket-based health reform will deliver greater equity, efficiency and sustainability
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After the Riot: the Meaning for Multicultural Australia
| 11 Oct 2012 | Issue AnalysisThe riot on 15 September in the Sydney CBD by Muslim protestors has raised questions about the health of Australian multiculturalism.... Read More...
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How the NSW Coalition Should Govern Health: Strategies for Microeconomic Reform
| 11 Jul 2012 | Policy MonographsIn an ever-tightening fiscal environment, the focus of NSW health policy must be the microeconomic reform of the rigid, public... Read More...
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Do Not Damage and Disturb: On Child Protection Failures and the Pressure on Out-of-Home Care in Australia
| 03 Nov 2011 | Policy MonographsThis monograph shows that the rising size, cost, and complexity of the out-of-home care system in Australia is directly linked... Read More...
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How! Not How Much: Medicare Spending and Health Resource Allocation in Australia
| 16 Mar 2011 | Policy MonographsThis report traces the evolution of Australian health policy and its consequences across half a century. The public hospital... Read More...
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No Quick Fix: Three Essays on the Future of the Australian Hospital System
| 21 Oct 2010 | Special PublicationsThe trilogy of essays in this collection describes the negative effects of the bureaucratisation of the public hospital system... Read More...
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The Power and the Responsibility: Child Protection in the Post-Welfare State Era
| 08 Sep 2010 | Occasional PapersGovernment-run child protection services in Australia are plagued by systemic problems, including a misguided emphasis on... Read More...
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FEATURE: The Fog of Child Protection Politics
| 17 Jun 2010 | POLICY MagazineThe federal government must see through the politics of child protection to ensure that states better protect vulnerable... Read More...
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Like the Curate’s Egg: A Market-based Response and Alternative to the Bennett Report
| 26 Nov 2009 | Policy MonographsThe National Health and Hospital Reform Commission (NHHRC) has acknowledged the need to ensure health services are responsive... Read More...
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Why Public Hospitals Are Overcrowded: Ten Points for Policymakers
| 01 Aug 2009 | Policy MonographsDespite the billions of taxpayer dollars poured into the public hospital system each year, public bed resources are only... Read More...
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Fatally Flawed: The Child Protection Crisis in Australia
| 25 Jun 2009 | Policy MonographsIt is not underfunding or an overwhelming workload that has caused child protection services to fail the vulnerable children... Read More...
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A Streak of Hypocrisy: Reactions to the Global Financial Crisis and Generational Debt
| 15 Dec 2008 | Policy MonographsDr Jeremy Sammut says that ‘household savings have collapsed due to an unnecessary dependence on welfare handouts. A new... Read More...
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FEATURE: A High-Tax Future for Gen X and Y? Medicare and the intergenerational crisis
| 15 Sep 2008 | POLICY MagazineYounger generations will have to pay a high price for baby boomers' health care, but private health savings systems could... Read More...
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The False Promise of GP Super Clinics Part 2: Coordinated Care
| 20 Jun 2008 | Policy MonographsThe report’s author Jeremy Sammut examines the evidence for the Rudd government’s plan to use GP Super Clinics to boost... Read More...
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The False Promise of GP Super Clinics: Part 1: Preventive Care
| 06 May 2008 | Policy MonographsDr Jeremy Sammut examines the evidence for preventive care programs to help make the Medicare system sustainable, given the... Read More...
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FEATURE: Six Social Policy Myths
| 03 Mar 2008 | POLICY MagazinePolicy experts often think alike, even when the evidence contradicts them. This is how billions of dollars get spent on government... Read More...
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The Coming Crisis of Medicare: What the Intergenerational Reports should say, but doesn’t, about health and ageing
| 29 Oct 2007 | Policy MonographsThe demographic and medical realities of the twenty-first century mean that Medicare can no longer provide every citizen... Read More...
Opinion & Commentary by Author
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Our fear of adoptions is hurting vulnerable children
| 15 Jul 2013 | The DrumRather than further pursuing often futile parental rehabilitation programs, we need to get children out of harm's way through... Read More
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Only a super-style savings system now will help Medicare survive
| 30 Apr 2013 | The AustralianTHE intergenerational reports have told us repeatedly that escalating government spending on health is unsustainable in an... Read More
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The politics of apologies: Easy moralism for past sins, but ignorance about the present
| 26 Mar 2013 | ABC Religion & EthicsOfficial apologies tend to descend into simplistic condemnations of people and times past rather than criticising current... Read More
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Why adoption should, in some cases, continue
| 22 Mar 2013 | CrikeyThe "never again" approach to separating parents from children because of previous forced adoption practices has implicatons... Read More
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Apologise but allow adoption
| 19 Mar 2013 | The AustralianThe federal parliament cannot ignore the politics behind the national apology and implications for child protection policy,... Read More
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Don't mention the M-word
| 31 Jan 2013 | The DrumAustralian academics have allowed their staunch advocacy for family diversity to get in the way of reasoned analysis on how... Read More
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Coal hoax fails to dig deep without a martyr to the cause
| 15 Jan 2013 | The AgeProtesters need to face legal consequences to sway public opinion.
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Hummus, Hamas and the hopeless naive
| 18 Oct 2012 | Quadrant OnlineIn the wake of the violent Islamist riots, concerns that western governments will seek a political accommodation and try... Read More
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Applying a market screen to NSW Health
| 18 Jul 2012 | Business SpectatorHealth Minister Jillian Skinner has rebirthed the flawed health policy of the discredited former Labor Government.
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How the NSW Coalition should govern health
| 12 Jul 2012 | ON LINE OpinionThe focus of NSW health policy must be to reform the rigid public service monopoly model of public hospital care.
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Child protection: generation lost by not being 'stolen'
| 05 Jun 2012 | The DrumIt is incredibly simplistic and misleading to blame the serious problems many troubled children experience on the decision... Read More
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Mandatory reporting has not failed children
| 10 Apr 2012 | The DrumFar from the failure it is made out to be, mandatory reporting by police, education and health professionals of children... Read More
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NSW health history shows Carr's feet of clay
| 29 Mar 2012 | The DrumIf you believe the hype, Carr's entry into federal politics is a sign that the floundering incompetence which has typified... Read More
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Independent thinking for financing future
| 16 Feb 2012 | Hospital and AgedCare MagazineHealth already devours over 10 per cent of GDP each year and 70% of health funding is funnelled through federal and state... Read More
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Focus on 'prevention' abusing kids
| 09 Nov 2011 | On Line OpinionDespite increasing government spending on programs meant to prevent child abuse and entries into care, record numbers of... Read More
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Myths, lies and adoption
| 08 Nov 2011 | The Geelong AdvertiserIN 2009-10, 36,000 children were in out-of-home care in Australia and more than two-thirds had been there for at least two... Read More
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Care system still abusing forgotten children.
| 03 Nov 2011 | The Sydney Morning HeraldIn 2009 the federal parliament apologised to the Forgotten Australians who were physically, sexually, and emotionally abused... Read More
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Should dentistry be covered by Medicare?
| 10 Oct 2011 | The Sydney Morning HeraldBut the ''right'' to receive certain health services for ''free'' does not automatically produce good health. Bulk billing... Read More
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Women's rights push dads aside
| 03 Sep 2011 | The AustralianThis is the disturbing significance of the controversial NSW birth certificate decision. That no gay spokesperson has expressed... Read More
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Hospital reform looks sickly but the blame game is fit as a fiddle
| 04 Aug 2011 | The AustralianWhile critics claimed the approach was too hospital-centric, the primary focus on the financing of public hospital care was... Read More
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OOHC not working for at-risk kids
| 19 Jul 2011 | The DrumThe causes of the OHHC crisis care are multifaceted. But the consensus among experts is that at the heart of the crisis is... Read More
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Beware pink totalitarianism
| 15 Jul 2011 | The SpectatorGay marriage dissenters deserve the same respect as advocates
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Custody for Indigenous kids more than black and white
| 01 Jun 2011 | ABC NewsWe should find better ways of combining Aboriginal child safety and the passing down of traditional lore by responsible elders.
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Our Medicare Vice
| 22 Mar 2011 | Open ForumLong waiting times for public hospital treatment in this country are almost a daily source of popular dissatisfaction. Yet... Read More
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Medicare: Australia’s very sick sacred cow
| 16 Mar 2011 | The PunchWhether Medicare actually ‘works’ for those who most need assistance to access health services is another question altogether.... Read More
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Cure Medicare mess or waste will get worse
| 16 Mar 2011 | The AustralianWe should subsidise visits to the doctor less so there is more money to spend on hospitals.
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Migration needs serious debate
| 26 Feb 2011 | The AustralianAustralia became a successful nation of immigrants because the egalitarianism that is central to its national character --... Read More
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A Politically Correct Christmas is Un-Australian
| 17 Dec 2010 | Spectator AustraliaWhy undermine the process assimilation?
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Reform must start with Medicare
| 17 Dec 2010 | Australian MedicineIf health reform is to amount to more than money shifting and rearranging the administrative deckchairs we need to address... Read More
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Ridicule the prescription to induce health reform
| 01 Dec 2010 | ABC NewsAfter three years of hot air from the Federal Government about fundamental health reform, which has only produced a plan... Read More
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Free hospital care is unsustainable
| 15 Nov 2010 | The AustralianThe elective surgery queues won't get shorter unless patients are made to pay.
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Interventionist child protection policies are right for the liberal right
| 02 Oct 2010 | The AustralianThe state has a responsibility to protect children from inadequate parents.
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Patients, doctors could pay for Super Clinics election ‘pork’
| 15 Sep 2010 | Medical ObserverThe Gillard government appears set to go ahead with the electoral pork that GP Super Clinics are.
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Child protection underbelly sells out at risk kids
| 14 Sep 2010 | ABC NewsRecent events in Victoria and NSW expose the underbelly of Australian child protection – the extent to which the system... Read More
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Hospital boards trump bureaucracy
| 28 Aug 2010 | The AustralianThere are clear differences in the way the government and opposition will organise public health administration yet health... Read More
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A dose of reality: public health problems need private solutions
| 06 Aug 2010 | The AustralianIt is imperative to acknowledge the limits of publicly funded healthcare, says Jeremy Sammut in The Australian, 6 August... Read More
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Statistics, lies and DoCS
| 12 Jul 2010 | ABC NewsOne–third of NSW children aged 12 to 17 have been reported to the Department of Community Services and this research shows... Read More
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Bandage won’t stop a haemorrhage: the government’s health shake-up
| 12 Jun 2010 | The AustralianThe final National Health and Hospitals Network plan doesn’t deliver on the promises of less bureaucracy, genuine activity-based... Read More
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Paying nurses to play doctor will make system sick
| 22 Mar 2010 | The AustralianThe Medicare reforms will only exacerbate the problems facing public hospitals.
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Look to punks, not drunks, for good laws
| 22 Feb 2010 | The AgeMelbourne’s reputation as gloomsville and the puritanical capital of Australia has been enhanced recently by the Victorian... Read More
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Hospital overhaul is our only hope
| 13 Feb 2010 | The AustralianFederal control of hospital funding represents a big step towards ensuring care is delivered in the most appropriate and... Read More
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Whizz-bang medicine no cure for health challenges
| 02 Feb 2010 | ABC NewsThe most interesting part of the intergenerational report 2010 is what it doesn’t say about the more serious and immediate... Read More
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Neglect the champers, not the children in 2010
| 29 Dec 2009 | The AgeSuspected abuse and neglect of children living in danger should be properly investigated and at-risk children should be... Read More
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Super clinics won’t ease emergency overload
| 23 Dec 2009 | The AustralianThe revelation that most of the Rudd government’s GP super clinics will not be operating for at least another two years... Read More
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We need hospital beds, not super clinics
| 26 Nov 2009 | The AustralianThe Bennett report hopes to bring a healthcare revolution that will keep more Australians well and cure the hospital crisis.... Read More
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Some kids really need to be rescued
| 18 Nov 2009 | The AustralianAs a researcher your gut always churns when you are about to release a new report, but when the Centre for Independent Studies... Read More
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Ferguson shown the door by media and the mob
| 29 Sep 2009 | The Newcastle HeraldManaging the media takes precedence over dealing with controversial issues in an honest, open and effective manner.
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Federal Government gets casemix wrong
| 19 Sep 2009 | The AustralianA full federal hospital takeover is a political long shot regardless of whether this requires a constitutional referendum.... Read More
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Time to end silence on child abuse
| 18 Sep 2009 | Online OpinionHeightened awareness is clearly essential to educate the community about the shared responsibility for preventing harm to... Read More
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Bleed bureaucracy to restore hospital health
| 29 Jul 2009 | The Newcastle HeraldThe recent announcement that the Hunter New England Area Health Service has cut 22 hospital beds from the Calvary Mater hospital... Read More
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Super clinics are no alternative for hospital beds
| 28 Jul 2009 | ABC News OnlineThe centrepiece of the Rudd government’s plan to take pressure off public hospitals is a national network of GP Super Clinics.... Read More
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Beds not bureaucrats can ease health crisis
| 28 Jul 2009 | The AustralianIt’s a quarter of a century since Medicare was established but no one is celebrating. No wonder considering the critical... Read More
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Better protection is needed for vulnerable children
| 03 Jul 2009 | The Newcastle HeraldThe conviction of the Hawk Nest couple accused of starving their daughter to death again highlights the need for governments... Read More
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Remove endangered children from their abusive parents
| 29 Jun 2009 | The AustralianEver since the ‘starved girl’ case hit the headlines in 2007, we have struggled to comprehend the incomprehensible. How... Read More
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There’s no real reform for health and hospitals on the horizon
| 20 Jun 2009 | The AustralianDespite not many surprises being anticipated, all observers are keenly waiting for the final report of the National Health... Read More
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Rudd's NT welfare revolution
| 11 Jun 2009 | The AustralianThe Rudd government’s decision to retain and recast key aspects of the Howard government’s intervention into the Northern... Read More
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No radical departure in our mixed health system
| 19 May 2009 | The Canberra TimesFortunately, the Budget decision to means-test the private health insurance (PHI) rebate from next July appears to be driven... Read More
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One for the road
| 16 Apr 2009 | ABC UnleashedThe alcopops saga has absorbed the attention of political-watchers for the best part of the previous 12 months. It is worth... Read More
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A lesson from the real world
| 14 Mar 2009 | The AustralianAnother football season has begun and another footballer has allegedly behaved reprehensively towards women. The National... Read More
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Welfare saps will to save
| 05 Mar 2009 | The AustralianThe welfare lobby supports the push to increase the single pension by $35 a week, despite the billions this will add to the... Read More
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Tensions and cross purposes in the Bennett Report
| 25 Feb 2009 | Online OpinionAny report about a beast as complex as the Australian health system is bound to be like the Curate’s egg – good in parts.... Read More
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Bennett Report: A policy looking for an evidence-base
| 16 Feb 2009 | CrikeyDon't hold out too much hope for the future of the public health and hospital systems.
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Baby boomers' bleak future
| 03 Feb 2009 | Online OpinionIf hospital and aged care policy continues to live in the ’70s, the baby boomers face severe consequences.
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Unskilled and over-educated: A plan for worse outcomes
| 29 Jan 2009 | CrikeyForcing students who gain no benefit from additional formal education is pointless.
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Welfare killed saving
| 18 Dec 2008 | The AustralianSocial democrats should look in the mirror for who is to blame for ‘affluenza.’
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Recession and reform are in the wind for health care
| 24 Nov 2008 | The Canberra TimesWhile it’s hardly polite to mention the R-word, let alone to see the good that might come of a recession, it’s an ill... Read More
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The ABC of policy failure
| 11 Nov 2008 | Business SpectatorThe federal government is suggesting that ABC’s fall illustrates how desperately the children industry needs re-regulation... Read More
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Agnostics need faith in private hospital sector
| 31 Oct 2008 | CrikeyThe Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, says she’s agnostic and it doesn't matter whether hospital services are provided... Read More
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Nanny State no substitute for parental responsibility
| 28 Oct 2008 | Online OpinionAccording to Professor Fiona Stanley’s ‘Risking our Kids’, which aired on the ABC recently, the next generation of... Read More
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Rudd’s political handout culture will be mugged by the economic reality
| 15 Oct 2008 | The Australian Financial ReviewLate last week it looked like the Prime Minister may have made the first of many tough choices ahead. In the wake of the... Read More
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The aged care industry is desperate for more of accommodation bonds
| 04 Oct 2008 | The Australian Financial ReviewThe financial crisis in the high care nursing homes is getting worse, and we are no closer to re-establishing the sector... Read More
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Welfare is killing Kiwis softly
| 18 Sep 2008 | The Dominion PostIf you believe the editorial in the most recent edition of the New Zealand Medical Journal, a toxic combination of bad social... Read More
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Imaginary costs of obesity
| 08 Sep 2008 | The Canberra TimesAnother week, another obesity scare campaign, orchestrated by another grant-seeking public health organisation. This time,... Read More
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Judge think-tanks by policy outcomes not partisan labels
| 27 Aug 2008 | The AustralianThirty-years ago, every major party supported the central pillars of the Federation-old ‘Australian Settlement’. Who... Read More
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OAP rise is doubly taxing for GEN X and Y
| 15 Aug 2008 | The AustralianThis week’s debate about the future of the old age pension provides an insight into the political realities of an ageing... Read More
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Spin won’t make “high care” aged care sector sustainable
| 17 Jul 2008 | Online OpinionThe Minister for Ageing’s attack on the Queensland Aged Care Alliance (Courier Mail, 19 June 2008) marks a new low in the... Read More
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Will Super Clinics increase the pressure on public hospitals?
| 26 Jun 2008 | ABC News OnlineIn the 2008–09 federal budget, the Rudd government allocated $275 million to the establishment of a national network of... Read More
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Funded allied health a prescription for Gen Y and
| 26 Jun 2008 | The Canberra Times‘GP Management Plans’ were introduced by the Howard Government in 2005 and established a Medicare rebate covering chronic... Read More
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Proof of the pudding: health campaigns don't work
| 09 May 2008 | ABC News OnlineThere is slim support for the belief that preventive public health policies have brought obesity and lifestyle disease under... Read More
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Super Clinics Not So Super
| 09 May 2008 | The Newcastle HeraldThe Rudd government is set to unfurl a whole new series of preventive health policies, the centrepiece of which is a commitment... Read More
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Prevention is better than cure, but only if it works
| 08 May 2008 | The AustralianAccording to the Rudd government’s preventive health care policy, ordinary Australians cannot be expected to look after... Read More
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Rudd’s preventive health plan is a policy looking for an evidence-base
| 08 May 2008 | The Canberra Times'Evidence-based policy' might be the mantra of the Rudd Government, but its Super Clinics policy is not at all evidence based.... Read More
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Forget alcohol - the binge here is on taxing drinkers
| 01 May 2008 | The Daily TelegraphThe Federal Government has used skewed figures to justify its alcopop tax hike.
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Health Minister gives a mixed message on binge drinking
| 30 Apr 2008 | The Courier MailFrom Midnight on Saturday – the hour when party people usually emerge – the Rudd Government raised the excise tax on... Read More
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Fat Tax unfair to fat and thin taxpayers alike
| 22 Apr 2008 | The AustralianWas this really the best ‘big idea’ the health panel at the 2020 Summit could come up with? A new tax - how original!... Read More
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Same old, same old in aged care policy
| 28 Mar 2008 | The Canberra TimesThere is a new government in Canberra, but there is nothing new, so far, in the politics of aged care.
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Lack of GPs and other great health debate myths
| 29 Feb 2008 | CrikeyThe prime minister and his health minister must now realise how hard is the task of ending the "blame game" over public hospitals.... Read More
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No dignity for the individual in the war against the obese
| 20 Feb 2008 | The Newcastle HeraldLiberals champion limited government because they cherish the dignity of the individual. With every expansion of the role... Read More
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It takes a lot more than preventive care to resolve hospital crisis
| 24 Nov 2007 | The AustralianThe principal reason public hospitals are under severe strain is the number of elderly patients presenting for treatment,... Read More
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Not voting is a vote against the electoral system
| 22 Nov 2007 | The AustralianThe old joke is that no matter whom you vote for, a politician wins. In the era of "me too" elections this is truer than... Read More
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Are Medicare's days numbered?
| 01 Nov 2007 | The Sydney Morning HeraldTaxpayer-funded 'free and universal' health systems are a 20th century policy. When governments had to provide cheap and... Read More
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Hospital ‘crisis’ signals health challenges ahead
| 25 Oct 2007 | The Newcastle HeraldPre-election promises to ‘fix’ the public hospital system count for little when politicians lack the courage to implement... Read More
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The answer is real health reform, not more money
| 05 Oct 2007 | Online OpinionLast week’s announcement by the Treasurer of a $2.5 billion ‘Health and Medical Investment Fund’ to purchase cutting-edge... Read More
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‘Sit-up money’ the wrong incentive.
| 21 Sep 2007 | Online OpinionAs the era of ‘sit-down money’ for Aborigines ends, the Australian General Practice Network has proposed a new scheme... Read More
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Labor focus is on the wrong health problem
| 08 Sep 2007 | The Newcastle HeraldA Rudd Labor government will spend $220 million to establish "GP super clinics" in regional and outer metropolitan regions.... Read More
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Future medicine only for those who help themselves
| 07 Sep 2007 | The AdvertiserThis not only points to ever-greater capacity constraints in public hospitals. It also points to modern medicine's ability... Read More
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Health policy fails to target problem
| 03 Sep 2007 | The Canberra TimesThe sound and fury accompanying Kevin Rudd's hospital reform plan means you might have missed the primary care initiative... Read More
Ideas@TheCentre by Author
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Gender quotas un-egalitarian
| 07 Jun 2013 | Ideas@The CentreIt is legitimate to question the role affirmative action may have played in the government’s fate.
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How to save the health system
| 03 May 2013 | Ideas@The CentreCreating a health savings-based system would go a long way in solving the affordability problems facing Medicare.
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Bottom up and entrepreneurial, not top down bureaucratic health reform
| 05 Apr 2013 | Ideas@The CentreCost-effective ways to deliver health care are essential to addressing the financial burdens associated with an ageing population.
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Easy moralism on forced adoption ‘sorry’
| 22 Mar 2013 | Ideas@The CentreThe apology on forced adoption condemned the sins of the past, while ignoring the current day sins of ‘enlightened’ social... Read More
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Health savings a super idea
| 08 Mar 2013 | Ideas@The CentreTARGET30 seems to promote better and more sustainable ways to deliver high-quality health services for all Australians.
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Victorian revival highlights lost ground on child welfare
| 15 Feb 2013 | Ideas@The CentreFailure to regularly send children to school symbolises the breakdown of behavioural standards.
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Multiculturalists bury heads in sand
| 08 Feb 2013 | Ideas@The CentreLegitimate concerns about immigration leading to ethnic or religious-based social division need to be addressed.
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Privatising public health services - sleeping giant of IR debate
| 18 Jan 2013 | Ideas@The CentreMicroeconomic reform is essential in the public health sector to get more and better services for each health dollar spent.
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Civil disobedience demands courage of convictions
| 11 Jan 2013 | Ideas@The CentreCivil disobedience should be followed by a willingness to pay the penalty.
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Research to Practice: Child Protection and Adoption
| 23 Nov 2012 | Ideas@The CentreThat greater use will be made of adoption in NSW is a welcome development.
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Adoption: Proof think tanks CAN DO
| 02 Nov 2012 | Ideas@The CentreThere is still a long way to go to lift the official ‘taboo’ on adoption.
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After the riot: A civil discussion of multiculturalism
| 05 Oct 2012 | Ideas@The CentreWhat does the recent riot mean for Australia’s status as a peaceful and harmonious multicultural society?
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Indigenous benefits need disadvantage test
| 09 Aug 2012 | Ideas@The CentreIdentity alone can no longer be the basis for awarding Indigenous benefits.
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Reform NSW health
| 13 Jul 2012 | Ideas@The CentreThe NSW Government must embrace privatisation in the NSW public hospital system.
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Is preventing ‘another stolen generation’ racist?
| 06 Jul 2012 | Ideas@The CentreAboriginal children are placed in inappropriate and dangerous situations because the suitability of kinship carers is overlooked... Read More
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Bad or sad is not mad
| 08 Jun 2012 | Ideas@The CentreThe mental illness card is again being played to curry sympathy and deflect scrutiny from public figures whose behaviour... Read More
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Scrap the National Children’s Commissioner for children’s sake
| 25 May 2012 | Ideas@The CentreAppointing a National Children’s Commissioner will only add to the bureaucratic maze and do no good to children.
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Culturally deaf to causes of child abuse
| 20 Apr 2012 | Ideas@The CentreSingle-mother households are over-represented in cases of child abuse and neglect.
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From tragedy to farce
| 05 Apr 2012 | Ideas@The CentreHealth policy needs to combine genuine local management with real financial accountability.
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Demos deals with Green trendies
| 30 Mar 2012 | Ideas@The CentreQueensland state elections proved that politicians who give in to the Pro Green trendies are likely to have short political... Read More
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Crowding of the welfare state is detrimental to everyone
| 02 Mar 2012 | Ideas@The CentrePrime Minister Gillard’s victory speech after defeating Kevin Rudd for the leadership of the Labor Party on Monday raised... Read More
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Hardly fair to vulnerable children
| 03 Feb 2012 | Ideas@The CentreRestore citizen-control over the child protection services or watch it fail.
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The great Medicare swindle
| 20 Jan 2012 | Ideas@The CentreBasic market disciplines are needed to control the cost of Medicare and prevent over-servicing.
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Paternalist not punitive management of underclass
| 09 Dec 2011 | Ideas@The CentreGovernment should intervene in highly dysfunctional families to ensure children are given every opportunity to fulfil the... Read More
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No end to certainty of state paternalism in Australia
| 18 Nov 2011 | Ideas@The CentreThe insidious reliance on government paternalism is hobbling the responsible growth of the Australian nation and its people.
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Myths, lies and adoption
| 04 Nov 2011 | Ideas@The CentreThe family preservation policies of child protection agencies are responsible for our lagging adoption performance, not the... Read More
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Plus ça change: O’Farrell government and NSW Health
| 09 Sep 2011 | Ideas@The CentreThe NSW government’s focus on management issues in health care ignores more complex, deep-set, and politically sensitive... Read More
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NSW health problems 100 years in the making
| 08 Jul 2011 | Ideas@The CentreGovernments lack political will to impose the tough structural hospital reforms needed for this century.
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Principled politics and populist plebiscites
| 24 Jun 2011 | Ideas@The CentrePlebiscites and other forms of direct democracy result in worse, not better, politics.
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Canberra kickers kick own goals
| 13 May 2011 | Ideas@The CentreCoalition state governments have no excuse for stymieing the publication of transparent information about public hospital... Read More
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A ‘Royal Wedding’ the Victorians might approve of?
| 29 Apr 2011 | Ideas@The CentreThe ‘Royal Wedding’ is the last chance at shoring up the shaky foundations of the British monarchy.
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Reconsidering compulsory voting
| 01 Apr 2011 | Ideas@The CentreThe case against compulsory voting is that people with little interest in public affairs are driven into the polling booths. ... Read More
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Our Medicare vice
| 18 Mar 2011 | Ideas@The CentreProblems in hospitals stem from the problems with Medicare, which stem from the faulty principles behind the ‘reverse insurance’... Read More
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Disintegration of Sydney: A legitimate topic for 'M&M' debate
| 25 Feb 2011 | Ideas@The CentreCommunity concerns about Multiculturalism and Muslims are based on the dis-integration of parts of Sydney from the mainstream... Read More
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Short cut to public hospital efficiency
| 11 Feb 2011 | Ideas@The CentreIf federal funding for hospital is only delivered at a national efficient price state governments will either have to cut... Read More
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A successful 'Australian' film
| 14 Jan 2011 | Ideas@The CentreThe Australian film industry should produce movies that Australian's want to see and are willing to pay for.
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The discussion we have to have
| 26 Nov 2010 | Ideas@The CentreIf health reform is to amount to more than money shifting and rearranging the administrative deckchairs we need to address... Read More
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Quo Vadis? Australia’s hospital system
| 22 Oct 2010 | Ideas@The CentreGenuine reform of the public hospital system requires genuinely responsible federalism and genuine local autonomy and accountability.
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The week at MPS: Pondering Smith, Ferguson, and national defence
| 15 Oct 2010 | Ideas@The CentreThe Mont Pelerin Society in Sydney demonstrated liberalism’s boundless spirit of inquiry into the human condition and the... Read More
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Liberalism and child protection
| 10 Sep 2010 | Ideas@The CentreChild protection reform that upholds the independent rights of children needs to be on the policy agenda of liberals because... Read More
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Living victims to drive child protection change
| 13 Aug 2010 | Ideas@The CentreThe unexplained disappearance of Kiesha Abrahams from her mother’s Mount Druitt home has once more put the spotlight on... Read More
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One rule for all: free speech and integration
| 30 Jul 2010 | Ideas@The CentreAt the Centre’s ‘Freedom of Speech’ forum on Thursday, July 29, writer-activist Ayan Hirsi Ali and The Australian’s... Read More
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Potheads and Headspace
| 09 Jul 2010 | Ideas@The CentreThe second wave of ‘community-based’ mental health reform within 30 years has broader policy significance.
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Policy short-terminalism
| 02 Jul 2010 | Ideas@The CentreEvery commentator in the land has had their say about the unprecedented dismissal of a first-term Prime Minister. The consensus... Read More
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A pox on the liberal house
| 28 May 2010 | Ideas@The CentreMalcolm Fraser’s resignation came as a shock – he was still a member, right? – given his long track record of commenting... Read More
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Tax and the City
| 21 May 2010 | Ideas@The CentreTo borrow a line, I want to tell you about a girl.
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Does an Australian culture need an Australian Game?
| 16 Apr 2010 | Ideas@The CentreThe national identity debate had a resurgence this week.
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FASD: where angels fear to tread ...
| 01 Apr 2010 | Ideas@The CentreLobby groups in the United States claim that Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) – permanent brain damage and life-long... Read More
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The hard part: an alternative plan for hospitals
| 12 Mar 2010 | Ideas@The CentreThe dust has settled from the release of the federal government’s public hospital plan, and most commentators agree that... Read More
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Irrational Medicare system delivers inverse health care
| 19 Feb 2010 | Ideas@The CentreThis week, two health stories from different states point to some fundamental problems with Medicare.
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Indigenous people need less not more discrimination
| 12 Feb 2010 | Ideas@The CentreThe shocking state of child protection services in the Northern Territory has been revealed by a leaked 2007 report by Dr... Read More
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Men of my appearance the usual suspects
| 15 Jan 2010 | Ideas@The CentreUS authorities have introduced a range of tighter security measures in response to the ‘underpants bomb’ attack thwarted... Read More
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Only the market can make health system person-centred
| 27 Nov 2009 | Ideas@The CentreAccording to the NHHRC, the most important health reform recommendations in the Bennett Report will make the health system... Read More
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Rudd’s non-solution to hospital crisis a wasteful threat to private practice
| 20 Nov 2009 | Ideas@The CentreUnder the $275 million Super Clinics program, the Rudd government is funding the start-up costs involved in bringing together... Read More
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Counting the costs of the GFC and the revenge of the political economy nerds
| 23 Oct 2009 | Ideas@The CentreFrom the outset, the social democrats said they would not waste the financial crisis. The Prime Minister has always wanted... Read More
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‘Progressive’ patriots barking up wrong tree
| 14 Aug 2009 | Ideas@The CentreBy all accounts, the message of Tim Soutphommasane’s forthcoming book (Seizing the Sauce Bottle, ‘Australian Literary... Read More
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More spending on prevention is no solution for hospital crisis
| 31 Jul 2009 | Ideas@The CentrePublic health experts have long claimed the problems in Australia’s public hospital system are due to government policy... Read More
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The road to Hawks Nest started back in the Seventies
| 03 Jul 2009 | Ideas@The CentreThe establishment of government-run child protection authorities staffed by university-trained social workers in the 1970s... Read More
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Using taxpayers' money to save obese people from themselves is futile nanny statism
| 26 Jun 2009 | Ideas@The CentreThe Rudd government’s National Preventive Health Taskforce will next week call for obese people to be given tax breaks... Read More
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More Government Means Less Healthcare
| 05 Jun 2009 | Ideas@The CentreThis week the headlines announced that Australia’s ‘free’ health system was in danger of being replaced with a ‘US-style’... Read More
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No evidence-base state is effective health nanny
| 01 May 2009 | Ideas@The CentreA golden thread runs through modern civilisation – a hypothesis remains a hypothesis unless the evidence proves it is science.
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No evidence-base State is effective health nanny
| 24 Apr 2009 | Ideas@The CentreA golden thread runs through modern civilisation—a hypothesis remains a hypothesis unless the evidence proves it is science.
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There is a Jekyll and Hyde quality to the Bennett Report released by the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission this week
| 20 Feb 2009 | Ideas@The CentreThe problem with the Bennett report is that the left hand wants to plan the future of Australian health care from the top-down... Read More
