As the brilliant Michael Kinnucan points out, it's more than a bit strange that there's a debate over whether New York can afford universal childcare. New York already has universal childcare! Every single child is cared for by somebody. Small children are never left home all day by themselves.

Reducing hazards ≠ justice. Unless we tackle the inequalities that shape who suffers harms & who benefits, inequity persists. My new blog on false equity arguments and why “doing one without the other is the injustice”:
👉 edjegasothy.wordpress.com/2025/09/22/d...

Now, Australian universities.

Councils act as principals, appointing Vice-Chancellors, who direct executives, who rely on staff to teach and research. Students and the public receive the outcomes.

But councils do not rely on knowledge. They appoint their own successors.

❌ The loop is broken.

Australian universities are in a governance crisis. VC pay blowouts, scandals, mission drift — these aren’t random, they’re structural.

This new working paper with @marijataflaga.bsky.social & Keith Dowding digs into why the system is broken, and how to fix it.

doi.org/10.25911/MWW...

A thread:

Unless the structures of university governance are fixed, we will see the same failures repeated but with different personnel.

Incisive op-ed from @jack-thrower.bsky.social

I think there is a puritan streak in public health. Where these ideas that seem logical are popular even if there is no peer reviewed basis for them. The other one that frustrates me is you hear clinicians insist that only water counts towards people’s consumption of liquid

folks are really obsessed with trying to find evidence artificial sweeteners are bad. to date it's basically been a failed exercise, but that hasn't stopped spurious conclusions getting significant overage.

universal Medicare safety net - problem solved

Tapestry also reportedly near disintegration

the implication of this is there is only one method for improving low-middle incomes that is reliable, rigorous and evidence-based: redistribution. everything else is just talk.

everyone loves to quote Krugman on productivity growth being almost anything. strangely they never mention his view that productivity is a great mystery, one that is unresponsive to sweeping changes in government policy and ideology, and something that no one knows how to sustainably increase

My contribution to the welfare state debate: Pre-transfers, the Child Poverty Rate is 100%
[Link below]

Two Sydney Uni staff members are being sued in Australia's Federal Court by complainants who claim that statements opposing genocide and Zionist oppression of Palestinians are racist hate speech. Please give what you can to help @nickriemer.bsky.social & @professorjkeane.bsky.social's legal defence

Just out in @aunz.theconversation.com: #AI #Abundance and money. My reflections on #BasicIncome #BasicServices and why we need more than technical solutions to the political challenges of #poverty and #inequality
theconversation.com/if-ai-takes-...

The curve of this building in Darling Harbour is like an archimedes’ death ray

Commonwealth Ombudsman already smashed them and now not even govt's chosen auditing firm can say if the house of cards system of punitive mutual obligations is legal. Quite literally, they say, it is indefensible. Yet it persists. Even after Robodebt. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politic...

Good on you Francis. Principled as always. What a shame for ANU

Hey @sydney.edu.au - Palestinians are starving in a systematic genocide being carried out by the state of Israel. Your pulling this flag down is very clearly partisan and also very clearly not a good look.

Proud to stand with my Sociology colleagues, joined by @mehreenfaruqi.bsky.social @damiencahill.bsky.social and the mighty @nteunion.bsky.social against the devastating cuts proposed at Macquarie University

Have the police commended the discipline of the protestors anywhere? Incredible to see 100k people come together, little notice, unpleasant conditions and have no problems, despite the existential urgency of the cause

“B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel released separate reports on Monday saying they had reached the conclusion after documenting 21 months of Israeli military activity and public statements from political leaders.”

www.ft.com/content/dc1f...

This incisive excerpt from Henry Simons in 1938 is as relevant now as it ever was

"We prefer to die by airstrike. But not to watch our families die slowly from hunger."

The conclusion to The Foreign Gaze started and ended in Gaza; with hunger, malnutrition, and starvation on my mind; with famine on my mind.

It's very painful to watch my fears of Israel and its allies fulfilled.

Roy Morgan has now restored this data and analysis in full, almost three weeks after it was taken down