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Category Archives: social issues

Economically Rationalise this? Yes we can…

The future getting in the way of the economy?

This month’s New Internationalist cartoon:

carbon price LR pic

Young People in Nursing Homes?

There are many young people with disabilities living in nursing homes.  The new National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) promises a great step forward for supporting people with disabilities getting on with their lives.  However, as  this Pro Bono News post explains, it will not help those young people in aged care nursing homes as there is already a lack of suitable and affordable housing for all young people with disabilities. Research has found that ’53 per cent of young people in residential aged care received a visit from a friend less than once a year’.

Here is my cartoon for the Pro Bono website:

Young in aged care pic

Over the top…

Here is today’s Pro Bono News cartoon.

The not-for-profit sector is set to do it tough under our new conservative government. The government has said it will abolish the charities regulator (ACNC), and the minister in charge of the new Disability Care (NDIS) is not in the cabinet. Read more here.

On the bright side, the UN World Happiness Report has ranked Australia in 10th place. Read the Pro Bono article here.

Happiness Top Ten pic

 

Politics of Envy ….?

The new Australian government will be writing all it’s own punchlines…

Manning Up LR pic

There’s asylum … and there’s something else

This month’s New Internationalist cartoon:

asylum redefined pic

 

Taxing Options

Issues cover Winter 2013

Support alternative media – become a member of Australian Options – and get to download copies of the journal. The Winter issue features articles on taxation, climate change and more – including an interview with Frank Stillwell, political economist.

If you thought that Governments reducing taxes, but spending on health, education and the things governments should invest in (not to forget saving the planet), doesn’t add up … you were right.

Here are a few cartoons from the issue:

 

Mug pic  more tax pic privatisation Stillwell pic sorcerers apprentice pic

 

 

 

 

 

 

Asylum?!

The plight of asylum seekers being trafficked in boats from coastal villages in Indonesia to Australian shores, mainly Christmas Island, is a major political issue – and certainly a  major humanitarian one. How to handle it, and just how to think about it , are complex. A bottom line however, is provided in an article posted on the Pro Bono news website: Salvos Staff Condemn Nauru’s ‘Cruel & Degrading Conditions’. To quote the opening lines,

‘A Public Statement by past and present Salvation Army Staff Members about asylum seeker conditions on Nauru claims that recent rioting there is an inevitable outcome from a cruel and degrading policy.

‘The strongly worded statement comes from a collection of former and current Salvation Army staff who have spent the last ten months working with asylum seekers at the Regional Processing Centres in Nauru and Manus Island’.

Here is today’s Pro Bono News cartoon:

Nauru situation LR pic

… on the same planet?

Invisible stuff LRpic

Australian Politics gets Shakeup, well, maybe…

Important reforms languish as the sitting days of parliament peter out, as some sort of compensation the political soap opera has taken an exciting (and distracting) twist.

Pro Bono is the online hub for people involved in Australia’s Not-for-Profit organisations. Here is today’s Pro Bono website NFP Kneebone cartoon.

Hello-NFP Reforms

Make a difference!

The role that philanthropists play, in partnership with the not-for-profit sector, is highlighted in a number of posts on the Pro Bono News website.  In particular, a call to young Aussie philanthropists from the Founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Tipping Point Community, Daniel Lurie.

As Philanthropy Australia’s New Generation of Giving Manager, Caroline Vu says: “This generation of young philanthropists isn’t content just writing cheques. They want to be engaged in the giving process, using their skills, resources and networks to maximise return on investment.”

Here’s the cartoon the article inspired:

Make a difference pic