Rear Vision — How History Shaped Today

Dozens of political parties have come and gone since Federation, although the three major parties of the post-war period are still with us today. One of those parties—the Liberal Party—is  struggling for support and some see its future in doubt. How do political parties emerge and why do they sometimes disappear?

Former Soviet republic Belarus is a key Moscow ally in the war against Ukraine, facilitating the initial invasion and more recently agreeing to host Russian tactical nuclear weapons. Yet there is little support among Belarusians for the war against their neighbour.  Instead, dictator Alexander Lukashenko is engaged in a high stakes game of cat and mouse with Russia. Has Vladimir Putin silently achieved in Belarus what he seeks to do in Ukraine as part of his grand vision of a Russian Empire?

None of us need to be told that prices are going up or that interest rates are following. We are clearly now in a period of inflation which may or may not lead to a recession. But what exactly is inflation, why does it occur, how does it relate to interest rates and what if anything can we learn from past inflationary periods?

While the newly crowned King Charles has certainly been the focus of attention this weekend, his younger son, Harry, has also been in the media spotlight. Prince Harry’s decision to renounce his royal role was not the first time a member of the British monarchy decided to opt out. Almost a century ago, King Edward VIII gave up the crown to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcée. These two decisions, several generations apart, engulfed the monarchy in turmoil and sent the media into meltdown. What do these two stories tell us about the British monarchy?

They say there are only two certainties in life – death and taxes. While we can’t do much about the former, the latter has been the focus of much attention in the lead-up to the Federal Budget. The Henry Review of Australia’s tax system in 2008 made over one hundred recommendations. What were they and what happened to them?

In Australia we haven’t developed a modern recycling industry and we’re still relying on dumping waste into landfill. But other nations do recycle successfully – countries like Germany and South Korea, to name just two. How do they succeed where we have failed?

The storage of radioactive waste has proved incredibly difficult. None of the high-level waste produced in more than half a century of nuclear power (including submarines) has yet been successfully permanently stored. Last month, Australia signed off on a security pact with the US and the UK – known as AUKUS – which gives Australia nuclear-powered submarines and, for the first time, we will have to manage high-level nuclear waste on Australian soil.

For 40 years Medicare has been the foundation of Australia’s primary health care system. But with GPs hard to find, bulk billing rates declining and long waits at hospital emergency departments, just how well is Medicare serving us today? Does Medicare need fundamental reform and if so, what that reform might look like?

Since the referendum of 1967, federal governments have tried to establish representative Indigenous advisory bodies but none of these lasted. Each one was sidelined and eventually shut down by a subsequent government. Why have these bodies failed?

Until the 1967 referendum, First Nations people were not included in the census and so weren’t considered members of the Australian population. This referendum was the most successful in Australia’s history, with over 90 per cent voting in favour of changing the Constitution. It empowered federal governments for the first time to make laws that might improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.