politics – lightenup

Much has been written about the climate of “lies, fake news and coverups” (e.g., Joe Camilleri in The Conversation). I could find a dozen examples but will limit myself to Camilleri’s because it provides an excellent overview of the problem. This is not to dispute or try to correct Camilleri, but simply to add another perspective. Towards the end of the article, as he is wrapping it up, Camilleri says: Lies, “fake news” and cover-ups are not, of course, the preserve of politicians. They have become commonplace in so many of our institutions. He then mentions the Australian Banking Royal Commission and revelations of the cover-up of long-term sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. Having previously run through the gamut of international political tendencies, from Trump to Brexit, the rise of the populist government in Italy, and the revolving door prime ministership of Australia, he says: These various public and private arenas, where truth is regularly concealed, denied or obscured, have had a profoundly corrosive...

The Australian prime minister wants to ‘provoke the “animal spirits” in the economy by removing regulatory and bureaucratic barriers to investment.’ He says he wants to get Australians off the economic sidelines and on the field again. But beyond the first stage of the proposed tax cuts, it’s business as usual: deregulation and trickle-down-economics. Let’s leave aside for the moment the compelling evidence that trickle-down-economics is an abject failure. Let’s speak instead about deregulation. The Banking Royal Commission found that the combination of weak regulation and poor enforcement were significant contributors to the sector’s staggering misconduct. Yet it would be unsurprising if, after voting against holding the royal commission twenty-six times, the government now simply disregards its recommendations for better regulation. Meanwhile, residential buildings in Sydney and Melbourne are beginning to reveal the costs of privatising the regulation of the building industry, when inspections and compliance were taken away from government officers and handed over to private contractors. To remove the...

Tag: politics

Who let the dogs out?