Issue 101: 4 August – 10 August  2022

## Economy 

Australia’s economy is set to grow slower than it ever has outside of recession. This is bad news for our standard of living
Greg Jericho | The Guardian
The Reserve Bank of Australia has slammed on the brakes harder than it has for 28 years, and now anticipates over the next two years the economy will grow slower than it ever has in a non-recessionary period

On debilitation and the political economy of the accident
Faisal Al-Assad | Overland
As a global pandemic joins a long list of catastrophes that have simply become a fact of ordinary life, it seems more urgent than ever to revisit and reimagine the fictions governing the accident. Conditions of debilitation, and the bodies that suffer them, deserve nothing less.

It’s time to tax mining and energy giants properly. Struggling Australians should share in their record profits
Richard Denniss | The Guardian
The idea that an energy exporter like Australia is having a tough time when the prices of our energy exports are sky high shows just how broken and detached from reality our political debate has become.

Budgets pushed to the brink as fixed interest loans roll off
Jessica Irvine | SMHAge

Pubs are buying facial recognition technology to track and record you
Cam Wilson | Crikey

Labor the new party of capital as Coalition opposition crumbles
Guy Rundle | Crikey
Labor may present itself as progressive and socially conscious, but it has a commitment to capital, and that will drive its actions.

Private schools win millions in disability funding
Rick Morton | The Saturday Paper

Does Australia actually need nuclear submarines?
Brian Toohey | The Saturday Paper
As experts question the diplomatic, strategic and economic rationale behind Australia’s purchase of nuclear-powered submarines, the gaps in the country’s defensive fleet could be filled by conventional subs.

Fixing inflation isn’t hard. Returning to healthy growth is
Ross Gittins | SMHAge
The day-at-a-time brigade has long forgotten that, before the pandemic arrived, the big problem was what the Americans called “secular stagnation” and I preferred calling a low-growth trap

Be progressive, Albo, don’t implement Stage 3 tax cuts
David Donovan | Independent Australia

## Climate

Booming contributions by First Nations to address Australia’s Environmental Crisis Must Be Recognised
Heidi Norman, Jon Altman, Bhiamie Williamson, Francis Markham  | Arena
As the SOE report highlights, Indigenous peoples are on the front line in terms of climate-change impacts and mitigation. These impacts are manifest across Australia—present in all landscapes, seascapes and ecosystems.

The Greens’ Surrender Over Labor’s Climate Bill Is a Mistake 
Chris Dite | Jacobin

Victorian Labor passes anti-protest law despite opposition from human rights activists and trade unions
Sarah Hathway | Green Left

## Fairness and protest

New South Wales public sector workers on strike 
Chloe Rafferty | Red Flag

The cashless welfare card looks to be phased out, but the BasicsCard remains 
Alex Salmon | Green Left

Transmisogyny: what it is and why we need to talk about it
Natalie Feliks | Overland

Sri Lanka: Repression and arrests, but struggle continues 
Janaka Biyanwila | Green Left

The Rajapaksas – rotten to the core 
Bruce Haigh | Pearls and Irritations
Australian foreign policy and morality sunk to a very low point over its dealings with the Rajapaksa regime and demonisation of Tamil asylum seekers.

Ukraine: The state of the war 
Renfry Clarke | Green Left

Britain’s summer of industrial discontent
Ruby Healer | Red Flag

The President Decides Who Should Die: Another Assassination in the Forever War
Paul James | Arena

For a critical history of poverty finance: Placing neoliberalism in colonial capitalism
Nick Bernards | Progress in Political Economy

Childhood: the new frontier of economic rationalism (with some help from Twiggy)
Mark Sawyer | Michael West Media