Crispin Hull

Fix tax, fix society’s growing inequality

Peter Costello, as Australian Treasurer, did a splendid thing when in 1998 he steered trough the Charter of Budget Honesty Act. The aim was to inform Parliament and the nation about the cost of policy proposals from politicians from left, right and centre and to produce reports which show how much various tax and spending policies cost the Budget each year.

6m have solar and will vote

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s announcement on nuclear energy last week contained a welcome development. For the first time since about 1989, the Coalition has acknowledged that only governments can do some of the really big-ticket items.

Since about 1990, the Coalition has said, Private Sector Good, Public Sector Bad. But with the program to build seven nuclear power stations, the Coalition acknowledges that only the public sector can do it.

Penalty for defending the indefensible

A big key to what has been happening in Australian politics recently is respect.

The major parties have become so hopelessly beholden to corporate interests that they have to defend the indefensible.

Unstoppable march of autocracy?

As Bob Dylan sang: “The Germans now, too, have God on their side.” More obscurely, unionist activist Florence Reece wrote the song “Which Side Are You On?” – made less obscure by Pete Seeger.

Well, yes, the people and nations on each side change from time to time, but more pertinently this century the nature of the sides themselves has changed. No longer do we have left v right; labour v capitalists; communist v the west; US v China.

Stop playing into anti-vaxxers’ hands

Ian Lees, father of Katie Lees, one of the bereaved litigants, with his daughter’s story at Hyde Park after an interlocutory hearing in the Federal Court last month. Photo courtesy Alison Bevege.

Next month the Federal Court is to hear an application to strike out a class action against the Federal Government and its health authorities that seeks compensation for injury and death caused by Covid vaccines.

Let me say at the outset, I am not an anti-vaxxer – far from it. The science is sound. Vaccinations have saved millions of lives and vaccination programs should continue as sound, scientifically proven public-health measures.

A radical credit card idea

The market value of Mastercard, Visa, and American Express totals $1,200 billion. Together, they have revenues of about $80 billion a year. They are American companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Quite a lot of their revenue comes from Australia. It is worth mentioning this as the Government flaffs around trying to respond to the shrinking role of cash in the economy and growing tendency for businesses to refuse taking cash for payments.

Power of the Misinformation Pandemic

I thought we were about to see the beginning of the end of what I call the Misinformation Pandemic. Apparently not.

Arguably the world’s largest purveyor of information (and misinformation), Elon Musk, has spent a couple of hundred million to play a pivotal role in getting Donald Trump elected. He is now to take a seat in the new Trump administration to direct “government efficiency”.

Monsters and their creator face demise

November 2024 could see the beginning of the end of two monsters and the end of the Frankenstein which created them: Donald Trump, Fox News, and News Limited.

Hopefully, we might see the end of a quarter-century trend of profits-before-truth and the relentless diversion of resources from the wider public to narrow powerful corporate interests.

Removing the policy impasses

The Independent Member for Wentworth, Allegra Spender, argued this week that the best result for Australia at the next election would be a hung Parliament.

Hear, hear. Spender argued at the National Press Club that a hung Parliament would break the paralysis that has overcome Australian politics and that a crossbench could and would demand serious attention to major problems in Australia’s society and economy that have been ignored for more than two decades.

Is politics about to tip?

Last Saturday’s election results in the ACT and in the NSW by-elections together with federal polling suggest that Australian politics is approaching a tipping point.

“The Tipping Point” is the title of a 2000 book by Malcolm Gladwell. It is replete with examples of how a few small things can cause a critical mass to build up with large consequences. He returned to the theme in a book this year called “Revenge of the Tipping Point”.

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