Crikey Articles
Article extracts from Eva's contribution to Crikey
Cox: new intervention proposals . same old, same old
A new consultation process on more intervention proposals does not please the many critics of the current version's costly failures. The government's discussion paper, Stronger futures in the NT, sets severe limits on the topics to be discussed and the issues to be raised. There is no option for discussing income management, the efficacy and roles of government business managers, the abolition of Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP), the school curriculum's relevance to local cultures; e.g. bilingualism, the problems with the new shire structures that undermine local controls or the plans to reduce the outstation populations.
Questions Gillard should ask in Alice Springs, but probably won't
Questions that require evidence-based research
NT Intervention: the divide between opinion and evidence
Opposition leader Tony Abbott appeared on The 7.30 Report, interviewed by Chris Uhlmann against the backdrop of the NT:
Gender, unemployment and unpaid work
In her paean to the virtues and benefits of paid work, Prime Minister Julia Gillard fails to acknowledge the complex intersections of paid and unpaid work in social and individual well being. Good jobs, fair pay and recognition of other responsibilities add to our community well being.
Hands up who wants a 30-hour working week
Is there one clear possible area of policy reform that would provide a good basis for making society more civil? A core issue that affects a range of social well being indicators and our life choices? Could too much to do and longer working hours be at the heart of the discontents and social inadequacies of contemporary life?
Business missing out by not appointing women to boards
What is wrong with the boards of big business? Their competence in running companies is put in question by their poor record in selecting senior line managers and new board members.
Government more ready to fund bureaucrats than welfare recipients
Income management is coming to a place near you — eventually. The whole Northern Territory is already an “experiment” as more welfare payment recipients (indigenous and not) are being included in the program, willy nilly. The extension of the program has occurred despite strong opposition from many sources and a singular lack of valid evidence of improvements in child well-being in the 72 areas already covered. The minister, Jenny Macklin, yesterday also announced that NT parents with child problems may also be income managed. To quote:
Equal pay sacrificed for the sake of the budget surplus
Equal opportunity as a policy change process doesn’t work if the failed equal-pay commitments of our first female PM are an indicator. The government has undermined its election commitment to support the ASU equal pay case to Fair Work Australia by putting in a submission that says quite clearly that it is unlikely to provide any extra funding to the services to cover any possible increase.
Put the big society (back) on the agenda
9/11/2010 Can we retrieve and renew the idea that we live in a society, and it’s the qualities of how we live with each other than makes life good? Of course the material resources to pay for what we want and need is part of the process, but we seem to have policies and politics that overly focus on economic goals and analysis — not the social ends these should serve.
Super scheme flawed … low-income workers still hit
My goodness! A new “My Something” arises into public policy. Following My School and more recently My Hospital, this one is a bit different because it recognises the fallibility of market models. In the previous My products, the basic idea is that we are consumers, rather than citizens, so even our access to publicly funded basic services is dependent on our capacities for making informed choice.
Problems with pushing new coercive employment policies
1/4/11 Beware the welfare policy areas when we get bi-partisanship. Abbott, Gillard and Swan are all singing from the same songbook, that more people needed in the workforce. Coerce those on welfare, persecute those with disabilities, induce older workers, do whatever it takes to get more than a million extra people into the job market to fill the demands of the labour market.
Push for higher super contributions using women as stalking horse
31/3/11 Look carefully at who is pushing for the rise in super contributions to 12%. The clear beneficiaries will be the finance industry, union funds and high income males -- but they're using women as their stalking horse in a cynical argument for raising the level of compulsory contributions
Children still at risk despite income management
22-10-2010 Eva Cox Does income management work to make children safer? The evidence is not clearly there in the various evaluation studies that have been done, but now the statistics from the Northern Territory suggest that reality testing is not working either. The current media fuss about the failures of the NT Government to improve the safety of children, fails to ask why these figures are not proof of the major failure of the income management program in the NT.
Whatever happened to evidence-based policy making?
12-2-2011 Eva Cox Prime Minister Gillard in parliament yesterday: Because I believe in tackling the big challenges in the national interest… I see Closing the Gap as a way of understanding the problems.
A centenary of continuous struggle for women
8-3-2011 Ev Cox If I wanted an example of the misuse of feminism, it arrived this morning in a headline from the Herald Sun: “Influential women in push for super boost”. The article shows clearly how feminism is easily co-opted by blokey economics and why inequality between men and women was increasing and also between women.
Major parties show their limits on women’s issues
At Parliament House Sydney last night — when the New South Wales government officially entered caretaker mode — a theatrette had an almost totally female audience. There were three candidates on the stage, two of whom were ex-journalists — long-term Liberal feminist Pru Goward and the member for Newcastle, the ALP’s Jodi McKay — with Greens activist Cate Faehrmann.
It’s possible to make every post (office) a winner
24-1-2011 “Australia Post is part of the fabric of Australian life. Through our people, products, services and community investment, we contribute to everyday life and business success across the nation. We are part of every day.”
Being a stamp is OK, but I’m still pushing the envelope
On the Australia Day launch of 4 stamps of Australian Legends
Put the big society (back) on the agenda
9-12-2010 Can we retrieve and renew the idea that we live in a society, and it’s the qualities of how we live with each other than makes life good? Of course the material resources to pay for what we want and need is part of the process, but we seem to have policies and politics that overly focus on economic goals and analysis — not the social ends these should serve.
Gender blindness and corporate incompetence
14-10-2010 The World Economic Forum released its latest gender-gap rankings this week, with Australia ranked 27th overall. We have fallen from 17th in 2007, despite having a female PM, G-G and two premiers. Our performance is oddly varied: first in educational attainments but 24th for opportunity and employment participation and 37th on political empowerment.
