Centre for Policy Development's Blog, page 124

Miriam Lyons | It's Time for Change: Communities in Control Conference 2011

Miriam Lyons will be joining a long list of forward thinkers, dedicated community workers and agents for social change at this year's Our Communities in Control Conference.

It's the one big conference of the year for anyone who works in, works for, or care about community. And this year's topic is Our Changing Communities and Community Organisations. And the theme is Hope: Change Now!

It promises to be a thought-provoking and energising conference. Hear from some of Australia's best thinkers and speakers (and doers) – people like Simon McKeon, 2011 Australian of the Year, Elizabeth Broderick, Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination, social researcher Hugh Mackay,  and Mark Scott, who presides over over one of the largest and most influential media empires in Australia as Managing Director of the ABC – great speakers and great minds creating new agendas.

The dates for your diaries: May 30 & 31 2011

Venue: Moonee Valley Racing Club

Members Gate 1, McPherson Street, Moonee Ponds, Melbourne VIC

Click here to register and find out more.

Ben Eltham | The political economy of Australian cultural policy

CPD Fellow, Ben Eltham will be joining Professor Nikolas Kompirdis at the University of Sydney this Thursday to deliver a paper on the political economy of Australian cultural policy as part of the Centre for Cultural Research Seminar Series.

Here's a little more on what you can expect to hear about from Ben Eltham:

Drawing on the work of Vincent Mosco and other members of the political economy of communication school, this seminar examines some of the current issues in Australian cultural policy from the perspective of political economy. The author will give a thumbnail sketch of the various researchers and research programs that study Australian cultural policy. Why have public and media discourses about Australian cultural policy continued to be dominated by discussions of funding for performing arts institutions, while largely ignoring broader questions about media concentration, innovation policy, copyright law and the National Broadband Network? It will be argued that a political economy approach allows a number of disparate policy concerns to be examined synthetically and coherently from a position outside of the typical neoclassical position adopted by Australian public policymak-ers. Finally, in the spirit of political economy, the author's own social and cultural activism will be briefly detailed, in particular his call to abolish the Australia Council for the Arts.

Ben Eltham is a researcher, writer, journalist and creative producer. His most recent publication was a chapter for the Centre for Policy Development's book More Than Luck: Ideas Australia needs now. This chapter, "Cultural policy in Australia", co-written with Marcus Westbury, argues that Australia's frag-mented cultural policy needs to move beyond its 'funding paradigm'. Ben is currently completing his PhD at the University of West-ern Sydney's Centre for Cultural Research.

Thursday April 14, 2011, 2pm – 4:30pm

Building EB, level 2, Room 21 (EB.2.21)

Parramatta Campus

Contact Greg Noble: g.noble(at)uws.edu.au

Click here to RSVP

Ben Eltham | Strike! Home Buyers Say No!

Now is not the time to buy a house. Or at least that's what Karl Fitzgerald, a member of the tax reform group Prosper Australia, says. Decreasing housing affordability is a issue looming in everyone's mind, especially young people.

But what's driving costs up? The answer is not as easy as a lack of supply. It's got more to do with mortgage financing and the risks imposed by unscrupulous lending. Our situation is not quite as bad as in the US, but there are some frightening parallels.

Read Ben Eltham's analysis of Australia's overvalued housing market in New Matilda here.

Ray Moynihan cites John Menadue's health ideas | British Journal of Medicine

John Menadue's recent calls for reforms to rural health policy have received attention in the British Journal of Medicine.

Health journalist, Ray Moynihan writes:

John Menadue, from the Centre for Policy Development in Sydney, told the same conference in March that it's time that an educated and informed community challenged the power of vested interests in medicine, notably doctors' associations, private health insurers, and drug companies. Formerly an ambassador to Japan, a manager within Rupert Murdoch's empire, a chief executive of Qantas, and at one time the top public servant in the nation, Menadue, like many others, is disturbed by the misallocation of so many resources to clinical medicine at the expense of genuine prevention and work on inequity and the social determinants of health.

Ray concludes …

The confluence of interest between advocacy groups, those who sell treatments, and those who prescribe them makes for a potent cocktail of influence, almost always pushing policy makers in one direction: more tests, more procedures, more beds, more pills. Few groups take a bird's eye view, which would make it painfully clear that overdiagnosis and iatrogenic harm are an increasingly serious threat to human health and the rational use of public resources.

Read the rest of Ray Moynihan's article 'Power to the People' in the British Journal of Medicine here.

Ben Eltham | Relax. Prices Aren't Skyrocketing

The rising cost of living is one of Tony Abbott's key arguments against the carbon tax. But are prices really shooting up so fast? For most of us, it's not nearly as bad as they say, writes Ben Eltham.

Ben writes:

"The rising cost of living has become the key plank in the conservative argument against action on climate change. While the costs and benefits of introducing a price on carbon pollution have fiercely divided the nation, the inexorable increase in the prices of everyday goods and services is something we can apparently all agree on."

And it's a position being pushed by both the major parties with many in the media joining in. But are prices really be going the roof? Ben takes a look at just where prices are rising and where we are seeing some amazing deflation.

Read Ben's article in New Matilda here.

Ben Eltham| Why Your Electricity Bills Are Gold-Plated

It's easy for politicians to rail about rising power prices. Ross Garnaut's latest on electricity generation delivers some stern truths to politicians and to Big Carbon, writes Ben Eltham

Read Ben's incisive article in New Matilda

James Arvanitakis| GetUp! And Then What?

GetUp! has successfully mobilised hundreds of thousands of Australians – to sign online petitions. Progressive causes need members who'll do more than tick a box, says James Arvanitakis

Read James' article about how online activism threatens progressive politics in New Matilda here

Ben Eltham | Where's The Silver Lining?

The bar was set low for Labor on the weekend – but high hopes for the Greens were disappointed. Ben Eltham trawls through the wreckage of the NSW election.

What does Ben make of the Coalition's agenda now that they are in office with a huge authority and massive electoral mandate? Read Ben's article in New Matilda here.

Talk. Think. Drink. | Our Debt to Nature

The Centre for Policy Development and Essential Media Communications presents:

Our debt to nature - We need what nature provides, but do we really know how much we're using & how much is left to use?

Pati Poblete | Global Footprint Network

Join us upstairs at The Norfolk Hotel on Thursday, 7 April at 5.30pm to hear Pati Poblete from the international think tank Global Footprint Network discuss how governments are measuring their country's ecological footprint to design and deliver a sustainable economy.

Even though Australia is one the most biologically diverse countries on the planet, we're at risk of falling behind the rest of the world in understanding how to arrest the decline in the health of our natural environment.

Pati will also reveal Global Footprint Network's latest research about Australia's ecological challenges and opportunities.

Global Footprint Network's visit to Australia coincides with the development of our Sustainable Economy program, which aims to highlight options for Australia to make a rapid transition to an environmentally sustainable economy.

Thursday 7th April, 5:30pm to 7pm

The Norfolk Hotel, 305 Cleveland St, Redfern

RSVP to stuartg@essentialmedia.com.au or call (02) 8280 9100

About Pati Poblete

Director, World Outreach and Media

Pati is charged with developing Global Footprint Network's Communications strategy, communicating our activities to the public and helping to raise global awareness about the Ecological Footprint and our work. Prior to joining Global Footprint Network, Pati was a journalist for 15 years, working as a columnist and editorial writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, deputy editorial page editor for the Honolulu Advertiser and staff editor at numerous Bay Area daily newspapers. Her yearlong editorial series on foster care reform in California for the San Francisco Chronicle helped lead to numerous changes in the state law, and won her numerous national awards, including first place in the National Headliners Award, Scripps Howard National Journalism Award, Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Chi Award and the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. Pati was also the Chronicle's nominee for Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing in 2006 and 2007. She is the author of "The Oracles: My Filipino Grandparents in America".

About Global Footprint Network

Global Footprint Network is an international think tank working to advance sustainability through use of the Ecological Footprint, a resource accounting tool that measures how much nature we have, how much we use and who uses what. By making ecological limits central to decision-making, we are working to end overshoot and create a society where all people can live well, within the means of one planet. Global Footprint Network defines overshoot as a systemic problem, of which climate change and water shortage are symptoms, as are collapsed fisheries, deforestation, soil degradation and species loss. It is a problem that threatens all societies and economies and, at the same time, disproportionately and most gravely threatens the world's poor. In 2003, Global Footprint Network was launched, using a bold and breakthrough notion: that the problem of overshoot could begin to be addressed through a resource accounting system. As of today, the Ecological Footprint is the only resource accounting tool that can measure both the availability of the planet's ecological resources as well as our use of them. Since its foundation, Global Footprint Network has been a key player in advancing the science and use of the Footprint, supporting a world-wide effort to make the Footprint an ever more robust and credible measure of human demand on the biosphere. As ecological pressures deepen, it is becoming increasingly risky for governments to maintain resource- and carbon-intensive economies, and increasingly advantageous for them to lead the way in sustainability policy and innovation.

Talk. Think. Drink. | A Price On Nature

The Centre for Policy Development and Essential Media Communications presents:

A Price On Nature - We need what nature provides, but do we really know how to value it or even how much we're using?

Pati Poblete | Global Footprint Network

Join us upstairs at The Norfolk Hotel on Thursday, 7 April at 5.30pm to hear Pati Poblete from the international think tank Global Footprint Network discuss how governments are measuring their country's ecological footprint to design and deliver a sustainable economy.

Even though Australia is one the most biologically diverse countries on the planet, we're at risk of falling behind the rest of the world in understanding how to arrest the decline in the health of our natural environment.

Pati will also reveal Global Footprint Network's latest research about Australia's ecological challenges and opportunities.

Global Footprint Network's visit to Australia coincides with the development of our Sustainable Economy program, which aims to highlight options for Australia to make a rapid transition to an environmentally sustainable economy.

Thursday 7th April, 5:30pm to 7pm

The Norfolk Hotel, 305 Cleveland St, Redfern

RSVP to stuartg@essentialmedia.com.au or call (02) 8280 9100

About Pati Poblete

Director, World Outreach and Media

Pati is charged with developing Global Footprint Network's Communications strategy, communicating our activities to the public and helping to raise global awareness about the Ecological Footprint and our work. Prior to joining Global Footprint Network, Pati was a journalist for 15 years, working as a columnist and editorial writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, deputy editorial page editor for the Honolulu Advertiser and staff editor at numerous Bay Area daily newspapers. Her yearlong editorial series on foster care reform in California for the San Francisco Chronicle helped lead to numerous changes in the state law, and won her numerous national awards, including first place in the National Headliners Award, Scripps Howard National Journalism Award, Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Chi Award and the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. Pati was also the Chronicle's nominee for Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing in 2006 and 2007. She is the author of "The Oracles: My Filipino Grandparents in America".

About Global Footprint Network

Global Footprint Network is an international think tank working to advance sustainability through use of the Ecological Footprint, a resource accounting tool that measures how much nature we have, how much we use and who uses what. By making ecological limits central to decision-making, we are working to end overshoot and create a society where all people can live well, within the means of one planet. Global Footprint Network defines overshoot as a systemic problem, of which climate change and water shortage are symptoms, as are collapsed fisheries, deforestation, soil degradation and species loss. It is a problem that threatens all societies and economies and, at the same time, disproportionately and most gravely threatens the world's poor. In 2003, Global Footprint Network was launched, using a bold and breakthrough notion: that the problem of overshoot could begin to be addressed through a resource accounting system. As of today, the Ecological Footprint is the only resource accounting tool that can measure both the availability of the planet's ecological resources as well as our use of them. Since its foundation, Global Footprint Network has been a key player in advancing the science and use of the Footprint, supporting a world-wide effort to make the Footprint an ever more robust and credible measure of human demand on the biosphere. As ecological pressures deepen, it is becoming increasingly risky for governments to maintain resource- and carbon-intensive economies, and increasingly advantageous for them to lead the way in sustainability policy and innovation.