Progressive Ideas Worth Sharing

Australia has one of the best public health systems in the world, based on universal access through Medicare.

But we're being told that the cost of the public health system is unsustainable, with too many people visiting GPs while hospital waiting lists grow.

The Federal Government says the answer to charge a fee to visit a GP, and has cut billions of dollars from the health budget telling the States to figure out how to fund their hospitals.

Is this the beginning of the end of universal health care in Australia? Can we equitably and sustainably fund health care for all Australians? And is the private health system helping to relive the burden on the public system or undermining it?

If you're concerned about the future of healthcare in Australia than come and hear from our panel of experts and advocates.

*Gavin Jennings - Shadow Health Minister, Victorian Labor Party

*Dr. Stephen Duckett - Health Program Director, Grattan Institute

*Meredith Carter, Victorian Medicate Action Group

When: July 2, 2014

Where: Melbourne City Conference Centre

The Australian Labor Party, following its election to government in 2007, has implemented an ambitious social policy agenda with spending on hospitals, pensions and community workers, as well as programs for parental leave and disability. It has also reformed taxes, in part to finance these reforms, implementing the mining and carbon taxes in 2012. Labor, however, has difficulty avoiding deficits because tax revenues are too low to finance expanded welfare. This article explores the political constraints and opportunities involved in financing welfare by examining voter responses to the ANU Poll of September 2011. Spending on welfare is supported by low-income earners, while taxing big industries finds greater support among university-educated voters. The article advances an explanation for this mismatch and for why tax resistance has hindered Labor's efforts to finance welfare expansion.

On Tuesday 10 June, a politician, a historian, and a media and policy commentator walked into a bar....

Who is getting ahead in today's society? Why does equality matter and what does it mean? Does government have a role to play? And just how many people have claim to read Capital in the Twenty-First Century when they haven't at all?

In a frank and interesting discussion, co-sponsored by the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, the ACT Fabians asked Dr Andrew Leigh, Member for Fraser and Shadow Assistant Treasurer, noted historian Humphrey McQueen, and media and policy commentator Paula Matthewson these and other fundamental questions to explore the topic of equality in Australian society.

The ACT branch of the Australian Fabians engages in a lively discussion with Stephen Koukoulas, economic adviser to former Prime Minister Julia Gillard on economic values, policy formation, the role of evidence, and the limits of rational-decision making.

Leading ANU experts Professor Bob Costanza and Dr Ida Kubiszewski discuss what sustainability really means with the ACT Fabians. With a consideration of our finite resources, how can we restructure our notions of growth and success and measure things effectively in a new way that doesn't produce perverse outcomes?

[Note: the podcast cuts in about 2 minutes into the event.]

In Conversation with ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher, and the very first Chief Minister of the ACT, Rosemary Follett, the ACT Fabians discuss the challenges of governing a city-state: proportional representation, minority government, seeing policies through, and being a leader who happens to be a woman.

Lord Maurice Glasman visited Sydney, Australia, in July 2013. He is interviewed here by Chris Garvin, Director Young Fabians Australia.

Maurice Glasman is described as a “guru” to British Labour leader Ed Miliband, and has championed reclaiming traditions of reciprocity, mutualism and solidarity.

Maurice Glasman is a British Labour member of the House of Lords and director of the faith and citizenship programme at London Metropolitan University.

A transcript of the interview will be available shortly.

Featuring Professor Hugh White & The Hon. Kelvin Thomson MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Trade, and moderated by James Griffiths, ACT Fabians Secretary.

The topic for discussion is the Australia in the Asian Century concept. In the Asian Century, our future lies abroad... How should Australia balance the opportunity and the challenges? Will we use trade, or be driven by our defence needs? Can we balance both?

NSW Labor Senator John Faulkner in discussion with Labor historian Troy Bramston about Great Labor Speeches.

Recorded Thursday 13 December, 2012 at Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe

Book details below:

Graham Freudenberg, Australia's greatest speechwriter, says 'the

Australian Labor Party was built on speeches'. Troy Bramston’s new book,

For the True Believers: Great Labor Speeches That Shaped History, brings

together the speeches which give voice to the party's enduring values

and achievements and speeches which place the party and its principal

figures at the centre of historic events.

There are speeches that stir the imagination and inspire, speeches that

appeal to the better angels of humanity, speeches that urge moderation

and caution, speeches that call for courage in the face of adversity,

speeches that seek to mute the trumpet sound of war and others that

speak of mighty military triumphs, spirited speeches that attack the

party's fiercest opponents and speeches that celebrate and mourn the

party's fallen.

Featuring new interviews with former Labor leaders, the collection

includes speeches that are well known, some that are less well known and

some that have been excavated from the archives and presented to a new

audience.