June 2019

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Jun152019

ECONOMICS AND SOCIETY Health policy is not immune from neoliberal infection

ECONOMICSJune 15, 2019

Is there a connection between neoliberalism and health policy? Certainly. One of the most comforting, and fallacious, assumptions of modern life is that a desired change can be effected and yet leave all our other desired outcomes undisturbed. Neoliberalism and health policy is no exception. Without neoliberalism we had a fairly satisfactory public health system – at least for its time and place. Going back to 1975, our system has maintained the delicate balance of private and public health care. One way or another, it managed to cover the needs of all Australians. Public hospital treatment was, and is, still…

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Jun152019

HUMAN RIGHTS Canada accepts Asia Bibi and family as refugees

HUMAN RIGHTS & FREEDOMS, RELIGIONJune 15, 2019

Asia Bibi, the Pakistani woman sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2010, but freed after an appeal to Pakistan’s Supreme Court was upheld in 2018, has left Pakistan to live in Canada, after Islamist extremists threatened to murder her. Asia Bibi Apart from international pressure, Asia Bibi owes her freedom to her courageous lawyer, who himself has faced death threats for defending the Christian woman, the judges of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, who also faced death threats, and the Pakistan Government, which assisted her to leave Pakistan. The case arose in the Punjab, in eastern Pakistan in 2009. Asia Bibi, a…

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LETTERS

POETRY LETTERS & HUMOURJune 15, 2019

Welfare of children In this age of disregard for truth in argument, the winning card to brandish in political or social policy dispute is “the welfare of children”, regardless of whether it is the real issue or will actually be served if the espoused policy is implemented. An early example was the argument for easy, no-fault divorce: better loss of the intact family than exposure to squabbling parents (no suggestion that parents should exercise self-control). And the priority of the welfare of the children was written into the legislation. In fact this priority was scarcely a starter, having no weight…

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NATIONAL AFFAIRS The trial of Cardinal Pell … an injustice

JUSTICE LAW & CRIME, NATIONAL AFFAIRSJune 1, 2019

Much has been written and spoken about the trial of George Cardinal Pell on charges of historical sexual abuse. The media (especially the ABC), filled with indignation at the ban on reporting throughout Australia during the trial, showed their displeasure when this ban was lifted. The gates of rage broke open and the biased reporting went into overdrive. Cardinal Pell had been charged and finally found guilty of five sexual abuse offences purportedly committed in 1996–97. Finally, on Wednesday, March 13, 2019, he was sentenced to six years jail with a non-parole period of 3.8 years. The first trial resulted…

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