Disability has emerged as an election buzzword, with both sides pledging increased funding for support and making positive noises (although no firm commitment, pending a Productivity Commision report) on the question of a National Disability Insurance Scheme. However, there has been disappointment at Bill Shorten’s announcement of an “aspirational” target for disability-friendly design standards in all new [...]

Paul Syvret is one of the regular writers for the Courier-Mail. When he’s not writing pieces about politics and the economy – usually in a manner which tries to make economic news intelligible – he writes general opinion pieces. Maybe it’s the opportunity to sound off about something other than economics and politics, but from [...]

Given I have complained long and loud for many years about the lack of attention paid to housing issues by the previous federal government, and the current government’s previous actions in throwing extra money at the inefficient and regressive First Home Owners Grant in their first stimulus package, I have to balance the ledger given [...]

Among the many disconcerting things about the current global economic meltdown are (a) no one is sure how much worse it’s going to get locally or globally, and (b) no one seems sure about how best to respond to it.  Most political commentary about it in Australia seems to focus on how various actions will [...]

Most of the post-CAOG coverage, as was the case leading up to COAG, was focused on health and education. However, there have been some outcomes in the fundamental area of housing which deserve closer attention. A National Affordable Housing Agreement has been adopted by all the federal, state and territory governments with National Partnership areas of [...]

The economic crisis has got most of the political attention in recent months, somewhat obscuring the potential significance of the delayed COAG meeting of the federal and state governments which is taking place this weekend. Even such examination that has occurred of the COAG meetings has tended to focus on how big a pot of money will [...]