ABC television’s satire The Hollowmen introduced Australians to a type of professional unfamiliar to many citizens: the federal government policymaker.
In reality, unless reasoning is clear and ideology is jettisoned, policy making can have unintended deleterious consequences.
Take, for example, the Coalition’s Work Choices and the Rudd Government’s tax hike on ready-to-drink alcopops.
While it may be too early to definitively conclude whether the increased tax on premixed alcopops has reduced binge drinking, especially among young women and men, early evidence suggests this policy hasn’t achieved its intended goal and has possibly led …