Ben Eltham is a Melbourne writer and academic.
Inflation is eroding paychecks and rising interest rates are hurting people with mortgages. Anthony Albanese’s government could defend workers’ living standards by taxing the rich and controlling prices, but Labor’s neoliberal orthodoxy stands in the way.
Scott Morrison is widely disliked, and his conservative government is divided, incompetent, and mired in corruption. Despite this, the Labor opposition’s platform is one of the most timid and conservative in memory.
Scott Morrison, Australia’s conservative premier, is selling his 2021 budget as a job-creation package. But in reality, it’s a miserly budget — except when it comes to handouts for business and the wealthy.
After decades of chalking up record profits, Australian universities are now mired in a deep crisis. But if we’re going to defend — let alone rebuild — the sector, its champions have to reject the subordination of education to the bottom line.
Instead of providing sorely needed stimulus, the 2020 budget from Australia’s Coalition government transfers wealth toward millionaires and big business and away from the poor, the unemployed, women, and the government’s ideological enemies.
Australia’s response to the COVID-19 crisis should be turning its economy away from resource extraction. Instead, it’s doubling down.