By Grahame McCulloch. Australian politics and culture has not yet seen a rightward shift akin to Donald Trump’s Republican nomination, the rise of Marine Le Pen, the Brexit vote or the proliferation of right wing nationalist parties and governments in Central and Eastern Europe. But many of the same underlying tensions driving these European forces can be seen at play in the big swing against the major parties in the 2016 Senate. More...

By Andrew MacDonald. The report prepared for the ASMR by Deloitte Access Economics entitled Australia’s health and medical research workforce: Expert people providing exceptional returns, concludes that five years of static investment into the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has resulted in “falling grant funding rates and a decline in the NHMRC-funded workforce”. More...

By Andrew MacDonald. Under the plan, all adults sent to offshore immigration centres on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island would be prevented from ever entering Australia, even as tourists or on business, regardless of whether they’re found to be refugees or not. Concerns have been raised the ban may contravene article 31 of the international refugee convention, which states signatory nations shall not penalise refugees for illegal entry when they have come directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened.  Amnesty International says the outrageous and unnecessary law discriminates against people seeking safety based on their mode of arrival, a clear breach of Australia’s obligations. More...

By Andrew MacDonald. The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has questioned Monash University’s commitment to the mental health and wellbeing of students and staff, in response to management plans to cut in-house counsellor jobs. More...

By Jeannie Rea. Since we sent this edition of Advocate to the printer, Donald Trump has been elected the next President of the United States. A lot can happen in a few days. But rather than be superseded, the theme and features of this Advocate are even more relevant as writers address the issues in our local industrial and political climate, focusing upon the attacks on secure decent work and the poor government and university responses. More...

By Paul Kniest. A recently released LH Martin Institute paper entitled Resourcing Australia’s tertiary education sector authored by Mark Warburton (October 2016) provides a comprehensive analysis of funding of tertiary education (both higher education and VET) over the last decade or so.  It concludes that there has not been a blowout in higher education funding as is being argued by the government and that the government’s vision of a deregulated market with the provision of income contingent loans is destined to certain failure. More...