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Does Australia’s health system need to get worse before it can get better?
GabeJames | January 22, 2010In 2010, governments across the world will redouble their efforts to reform healthcare.
Indeed, in most countries, they have been trying for decades. But a recent economic jolt reminded us just how tenuous our prosperity is and has given us a new sense of urgency.
But will this renewed impetus, perhaps embodied in Obama´s efforts, allow health reform to succeed in Australia, the USA and elsewhere? Will we be able to reduce costs and improve efficiency? What will the future of our health look like?
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It’s back to work but is anybody there?!
Clive Leach | January 20, 2010It’s the New Year, we are back to work and have hopefully got through the 18th January ‘Blue Monday’. Apparently the most depressing day of the year, when a combination of holiday aftermath, worry over debt, failed New Year’s resolutions and a general lack of motivation all conspire to undermine our sense of purpose and well-being!
Perhaps then, this is a good time to think about how engaged we really are at work. Looking around we see everyone at their posts, but is everybody really there?
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Australia’s enmeshment with Asia: The unseen evolution
Warren Reed | January 18, 2010The Australian, on January 15, ran a one-page feature article by Rowan Callick called “Dysfunctional diplomacy”. A balanced piece of journalism, it looked at where this country stands in the international community and at turbulence in its relations with major nations like China, India and Japan. Early on in his article, Callick highlighted the fact that,
“The government has focused its diplomacy on three multilateral goals: gaining election to the UN Security Council, an ambition that colours Australia’s approach to other foreign policy issues; nuclear disarmament; and creating a new Asia-Pacific community. All these aims remain distant.”
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Body Image Blues
alison gordon | January 15, 2010As human beings, from both genders and most age groups, we inherently have difficulty complimenting ourselves. We readily, however, jump at the chance to put ourselves down.
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Remedy Healthcare and Health Reform
Open Forum | January 14, 2010This speech was presented by John Meckiff at the GAP/ACHR Congress on Australia’s Health on Monday 30 November 2009.
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Wave and Tidal Energy R&D Exciting
foggy | January 13, 2010Over the weekend I treated myself to a perusal of articles about alternative energy. When I came to wave/tidal energy, I was amazed at the abundance and innovativeness of the devices employed. The Research and Development department is seemingly overbalanced with the number of Universities participating in the programs.
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Applications open for ACCAN Independent Grants Scheme
olgabodrova | January 11, 2010Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) is calling for applications for their new Independent Grants Scheme which will fund projects to assist ACCAN achieve its strategic goal for available, accessible and affordable communications that enhance the lives of Australian consumers.
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The market fever index
patrickcallioni | January 7, 2010In my forthcoming book, Waves of Change: Managing Global Trends in the Financial Services Industry, due out in May 2010, I suggest that it would be useful for investors, especially unsophisticated investors, to have access to a market fever index.My proposal is based on the same logic that underpins bushfire warnings: to let people know that while they are free to invest as they please, they ought to be aware of the risk that is inherent in the environment. It is almost impossible for retail investors to have any such awareness as things stand. I am hypothesising that a useful indicator of risk would be the number of items that appear on the World Wide Web that refer to activity in the global financial markets.
Sustaining Medicare: Everyone needs to be involved
Just Stoelwinder | January 3, 2010This speech was presented by Prof Johannes Stoelwinder, Chair, Health Services Management, School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Monash University, at the the GAP/ACHR Congress on Australia’s Health on Monday, 30 November 2009.
Is Medicare, as a publicly funded universal health scheme, sustainable over the next 20 plus years?
Happy New Year!!!
sally.rose | December 23, 2009In a couple of hours I’ll be jumping on a plane for a month long holiday… hooray!
Health Reform Priorities from Victoria
Fran Thorn | December 21, 2009I attend today on behalf of the Health Minister to provide some opening comments on national health reform.
I want to commence by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Koolan nation. I would also like to pay my respects to their elders past and present.
The subject of health reform is one of undoubted national and state significance. Indeed this congress, including its location and the breadth and seniority of the attendance today bears testament to the importance being placed on it.
Climate change: a post-COP15 diagnosis
Will Steffen | December 21, 2009Not surprisingly, interpretations of the outcome from COP15 range from an outstanding success to an utter disaster, and everything in between. Political leaders claim a big step forward towards climate protection, while the vast majority of the NGOs who flocked to Copenhagen blast the outcome as, at best, a wasted opportunity.
In many ways, views on the outcome of COP15 were strongly conditioned by expectations, especially for those who thought that the Copenhagen conference would ‘seal the deal’ for limiting anthropogenic climate change to a temperature rise of no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. But a comprehensive, final agreement was never really in the cards, even months before the meeting itself. The real question was whether COP15 would make enough progress to build unstoppable momentum towards a much tougher, legally binding agreement sometime in the next 6 to 12 months.
