5 April 2022 Article by Francis Sullivan, as published in the Daily Telegraph Last week’s budget speaks loud and clear to where the Coalition government sees itself and who it needs to talk to in the lead-up to the May general election.It is a budget that puts politics before fairness and the “comfortable middle” before the...
28 March 2022 Article by Francis Sullivan, as published in Pearls and Irritations In a civilized country, where we pride ourselves on a fair go for all, a very significant part of our community is missing out. As Josh Frydenberg puts the final touches on next week’s Budget it is fair to say that the millions of...
16 March 2022 Article by Marilyn Rodrigues, as published in The Catholic Weekly A number of Catholic charities are bracing for the impact of a barrage of petrol and other price hikes on essentials on their services. Financial experts expect inflation to rise dramatically due to soaring energy prices and the ongoing supply chain woes caused by...
1 April 2021 Article by Ursula Stephens, as published in Eureka Street At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government reassured Australia ‘We’re all in this together’ but the truth is that the end of JobKeeper and the Coronavirus supplement payments will leave more than 2.6 million people in poverty. The end of the $90 billion...
25 February 2021 Article by Ursula Stephens, as published in Eureka Street 'It's the value of the work, not the worker.' So said a government backbencher to me last week while I was speaking to him about the omnibus industrial relations (IR) Bill that has just passed the House of Representatives. He went on to argue that his...
25 September 2020 Article by Joe Zabar, as published in Eureka Street The latest National Accounts figures show that Australia is officially in recession, with a massive 7 per cent decline in GDP for the June quarter. While not exactly surprising, it has the Morrison Government rightly concerned. The havoc COVID-19 has wreaked on our economy has...
16 July 2020 Article by Joe Zabar, as published in Pro Bono News Australia Failing to address the unemployment and underemployment challenges facing the nation will have significant impacts on the social and economic wellbeing of hundreds of thousands of people for many years, writes Joe Zabar. The recent spike in COVID-19 cases that has led to...
14 July 2020 As published in CathNews New research on disadvantage in Australia has found that it’s not just income that matters when calculating disadvantage, but other factors such as health and education. The research, conducted by the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods and commissioned by Catholic Social Services Australia, (CSSA), found the gap...
13 July 2020 Article by Brenton Prosser and Ben Phillips, as published in The Conversation New research on disadvantage in Australia has found the gap between rich and poor is very wide in Sydney, while much of Queensland struggles with educational disadvantage and regional NSW and Victoria are both more disadvantaged when it comes to health. Previous...
15 May 2020 Article by Joe Zabar, as published in Eureka Street When a global pandemic cast a mighty shadow across Australia, the Prime Minister, premiers and chief ministers rightly recognised that their duty was to prioritise the health and safety of their people. But as some of the health concerns ease and our national, state and...
