As many Australians munch on leftover turkey, plum pudding and Christmas cake, liberally lubri­cated with booze, this is the time of year when many people realise they cannot continue drinking ­alcohol at such high and dangerous levels and be effective citizens and members of the nation.
Thus, on or before New Year’s Eve, a lot of Aussies will pledge to cut down their drinking or abstain altogether, while many will also commit to losing weight.
But while many focus on their individual problems, representatives of business argue that the best way …

These days it is increasingly difficult to have a reasoned and thorough public debate about government policy.
So spare a thought for the members of a parliamentary committee who have to come to grips with a complex and important topic that affects all of us and is fraught with powerful emotions and deep divisions.
In Victoria, the Legal and Social Issues Committee of the Upper House is examining end-of-life choices, including voluntary euthanasia or voluntary assisted dying.
They (or their staff) have to wade through about 1000 written submissions and …

Malcolm Turnbull’s efforts to innovate our way into more employment and prosperity are to be applauded. So here’s a really innovative idea to help create more jobs. How about we let completely legal businesses that pay all their company taxes and GST share in government job creation schemes?
This week it came to my attention that the federal government bans certain legal industries from accessing job creation and wage subsidy schemes. They’re doing this simply because the moral values of the industry don’t happen to align with the moral values of …

Several young people have died recently after taking ecstasy at youth music dance events across Australia.
These tragedies attracted saturation media coverage. However it is important to point out that 15 Australians die each day from alcohol. Tellingly, one in eight deaths of Australians under 25 are caused by alcohol.
The sad reality is that illicit drugs are a helpful distraction for the liquor industry. Some commentators express astonishment that young people want to take drugs. But young people with everything to live for use drugs, including ecstasy, for …

I think most of us can agree that the standard of public debate in Australia has declined during the past few decades.
Under Liberal prime minister John Howard, we had a considered and rational response to the Port Arthur massacre. We also had considerable elements of maturity in the 1998 discussion of the GST.
Under Labor PMs Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, we had tax summits that actually meant something. Moreover, we had an informed debate about what fundamental economic and fiscal changes could mean for families, for business and for the …