SBS Cutting Edge last night carried an outstanding story "Sick Around the World" which underlined the fundamental importance of getting health system design right.

See here for the link.

As Chairperson for the Women's Electoral Lobby Australia (WELA), I've been heavily involved in preparing a submission for the Productivity Commission's inquiry into Paid Maternity, Paternity and Parental Leave.

The WELA strongly supports introducing industrial based, paid maternity leave as soon as possible with three clear arguments supporting this proposal:

1. Financial reasons for maintaining income in households around the time of birth rather than decreasing it by the loss of an income earner;

In the 18 years from 1989-90 (the base of the consumer price index) to March 2008, the “private motoring” component of the CPI has risen at an average annual rate of 2.7%. That’s happens to be exactly the same rate as the broad “all groups” index. In other words, the real (inflation adjusted) price of private motoring remains unchanged.

Should the NSW Government have more interest in the state's creative future? How are the arts related to NSW's economic fortunes? What can be done to resuscitate the arts?

I am part of a team of organisers who are asking these key questions as part of the next Fabian forum: Art Attack!

New South Wales needs investment in electricity and public transport. Whether these assets are privately or publicly owned, there will be the same requirements for labour and materials to construct them, and the same demands on financial markets for billions of dollars of debt and equity finance.

The issue of public or private ownership should be a secondary one, based on consideration of risk and market failure, rather than some illogical notion that the government cannot afford to make these investments, for, whichever way, the people of NSW will have to pay for them.

Much of my thinking on the questions listed in the governance background paper has been shaped by contributors to the Centre for Policy Development - a couple of whom, Janette Hartz-Karp and Lyn Carson, are participants in the governance stream, while others, like Marcus Westbury, have ended up elsewhere.

Along with all the other 2020 Summiteers I was given homework to complete by yesterday afternoon. We had to answer two questions:

1. Provide a 100 word description of an idea that you think will make a difference to your stream topic (in my case 'the future of Australian governance'.
2. Write 100 words on an issue on which you have changed your mind, and explain why.

So, I've been invited to attend the upcoming Australia 2020 Ideas Summit. Here's the spiel on the section that I'll be attending:
TITLE: The future of Australian governance: open government (including the role of the media), the structure of government and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.

As promised, CPD blogs have arrived. Staff and fellows will be blogging about their latest research, posting links to relevant publications and events, and discussing their ideas on key CPD issues and themes. Depending on how the blog section goes, we may also invite guest bloggers from outside the CPD community to join discussions or write posts on specific issues.