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Fat chance scare tactics will trim us
In yesterday's Courier-Mail, a senior Queensland health bureaucrat proposed graphic health warning labels be put on sugary, fatty and salty foods...
An assault on diet
When the National Health and Medical Research Council released its official new dietary guidelines this week, they helpfully included a sample...
The puritanical public health movement
For eight weeks in 2011, four public health researchers - three from the Cancer Council, one from the University of Western Australia - watched 792...
Finding a focus for disability policy reform efforts
Over the past 12 months the Gillard government has attempted to improve its opinion poll ratings, in part by advocating policies to appeal to core...
Should packaged alcohol display health warnings?
Mandated alcohol warning labels don't work and perpetuate the government-sponsored drift away from individual choice and responsibility that fuels...
Private v public health care: no simple policy cure
Last week the ALP government achieved one of its goals - the private health insurance rebate will be means tested from July 1, 2012. For many this...
Market lessons from the financial crisis
The lesson of the global financial crisis is that freer markets work and are vital to address our current local challenges. At the heart of the...
Private health accounts may solve looming health crisis
In a society as wealthy as ours it's understandable that Australians support universal access to healthcare. But accepting this principle and the...
Medicare needs a shot in the arm
Structural reform of Australian healthcare financing can cut inequity and promote universal choice as well as universal service delivery. In a...
Plain packs pointless when smoke gets in our eyes
When the Rudd government's National Preventative Health Taskforce released a position paper on anti-tobacco measures, they titled it "Making...