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Human slaughterhouse: mass hangings and extermination at Saydnaya prison, Syria
No full textAt Saydnaya Military Prison, the Syrian authorities have quietly and methodically organized the killing of thousands of people in their custody. Amnesty International’s research shows that the murder, torture, enforced disappearance and extermination, carried out at Saydnaya since 2011, has been perpetrated as part of an attack against the civilian population that has been widespread, as well as systematic, and carried out in furtherance of state policy. We therefore conclude that the Syrian authorities’ violations at Saydnaya amount to crimes against humanity. Amnesty International urgently calls for an independent and impartial investigation into crimes committed at Saydnaya
Three ways in which digital researchers can shed light on the information politics of the “post-truth” era
No full textDigital media played a prominent role in the recent US presidential election, with social media platforms channelling previously fringe universes of political culture, rooted in populism and post-truth politics, right into the mainstream of US political discourse. Meanwhile, traditional mechanisms, from polling to mainstream media, failed to adequately capture public sentiment around political events. Are new instruments needed to understand the socio-technical fabric of the post-truth political landscape? And what can digital researchers do to contribute? Liliana Bounegru outlines examples of approaches being developed at the Digital Methods Initiative that hope to assist digital researchers, data journalists, civil society groups and others looking to increase public understanding of these phenomena.
As Washington tradition dictates, inauguration eve saw a multitude of balls and galas where tuxedo and gown-clad Donald Trump supporters, donors, organisers and fundraisers gathered to acknowledge campaign efforts and celebrate victory. And while these events usually celebrate the efforts of those involved in raising campaign contributions, knocking on doors and organising rallies – this year saw the recognition of a different kind of political work to bring the golden-blonde billionaire to the White House. The “DeploraBall”, hosted by the National Press Club, a self-described “meeting of the trolls”, lauded mobilisations to “meme him into the presidency”. Elsewhere, the owner of a website that generated widely circulated fake news about the presidential election claimed that his site helped Trump get elected, with a BuzzFeed News investigation indicating that fake news did indeed generate more engagement than real news on Facebook.
These claims are illustrative of the prominent role that digital media has played in relation to the US presidential elections – both in practice and in the public imagination. Perhaps most distinctive are the ways in which social media platforms have acted as engines to channel previously fringe universes of political culture, rooted in right-wing populism and post-truth politics, into the mainstream of American politics.
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How has media policy responded to fake news?
No full textLast week, the UK House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee launched an inquiry into ‘fake news’ which the Committee chair describes as a “threat to democracy” that “undermines confidence in the media in general.” Since November’s US presidential election, the issue of fake news stories spreading on social media has been under the spotlight, and a YouGov survey commissioned by Channel 4 in the UK found that only 4% of people were able to correctly identify fake news. The Media Policy Project’s Emma Goodman looks at how governments and companies have responded to fake news so far.
Revelations of Macedonian teenagers making money by publishing fictional pro-Trump stories, and assertions of Russian interference in the US elections through disinformation campaigns have understandably increased fears of ‘fake news’ and its impact on politics. The CMS Committee’s inquiry focuses on the impact of fake news on public understanding, the ways that different demographics might react to it, the responsibilities that search engines and social media platforms have, what is bringing about its growth, and what is unique about the UK news media market.
There is no straightforward solution. Fake news purports to be factual, and is created by people pretending to be journalists. Nevertheless, without getting into philosophical questions about the nature of truth, it is clear that there is a fine line between curbing fake news and limiting people’s right to free speech. Whose responsibility should it be to decide which news is fake? Fake news tends to spread on social media, but the risk that Facebook and other private companies might by default become ‘arbiters’ of the truth is one that nobody wants to take.
Committee chair Damian Collins suggested that any likely solution would focus on social media, saying that major tech companies “need to help address the spreading of fake news on social media platforms” and that “consumers should also be given new tools to help them assess the origin and likely veracity of news stories they read online.” He also told Buzzfeed News that Facebook’s News Feed would be a key focus of the inquiry, and that it could “absolutely” be the case that they could ask Facebook to attach warnings to potentially inaccurate news stories in the UK.
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Company tax and foreign investment in Australia
No full textThe government’s 10-year company tax cut plan was announced in the May 2016 budget, but was always going to be difficult to sell as an urgently needed reform. Since then, the debate has effectively shown that there is nothing in it that would increase the incentive to invest. This reflects the role of dividend imputation which acts like a withholding tax for dividend recipients. That means that any cut in company tax would thereby reduce the amount withheld on behalf of dividend recipients and so increase the amount shareholders will have to ‘top up’ at tax time.
These arguments do not apply to foreigners who will unambiguously benefit from Australian company tax cuts. We contend that recognition of the role of foreign investors has caused the Treasurer to downplay any domestic considerations but instead concentrate on the role of foreign investment. Hence foreign investment is presented as a ‘must have’ and the company tax cuts become necessary to encourage foreign investment. Others such as former Prime Minister Paul Keating see it as ridiculous that Australia contemplates giving a large sum of money to foreigners.
The rest of this paper examines whether indeed a company tax cut is likely to boost foreign investment in Australia
Reframing climate change: how carbon reduction can also reduce poverty and inequality
No full textWe normally understand climate change as a collective action problem. The climate is a global public good which everyone benefits from. Therefore if one government/organisation/individual takes action everyone else benefits. But this can create an incentive for others to free ride on the efforts of others without having to incur any of the costs. Fortunately, mounting evidence about the economic, health, social and environment co-benefits of reducing carbon emissions challenges this understanding and may be one of the factors driving increased action by communities, municipalities, businesses and governments around the world
2016 Australian Capital Territory election: an overview
No full textProvides an overview of the issues and outcome for the 15 October 2016 election for the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly.
Introduction
Since the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) gained self-government in 1989 the ACT has had a unicameral Parliament (where the sole parliamentary chamber is the Legislative Assembly) which is elected every four years. The ninth election for the ACT Legislative Assembly was held on Saturday 15 October 2016.
Twenty-five Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) were elected using the Hare-Clark proportional representation system across five electorates following an electoral redistribution. The Legislative Assembly expanded from 17 MLAs in three electorates (Ginninderra and Brindabella, five MLAs; Molonglo, seven MLAs) to 25 MLAs drawn equally from five electorates (Brindabella, Ginninderra, Kurrajong, Murrumbidgee and Yerrabi).
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), in power since the 2001 election, was re-elected at the 2016 general election. Following the signing of a Parliamentary Agreement with the ACT Greens (AG) Labor formed government under Chief Minister Andrew Barr MLA (electorate of Molonglo, 2006–16; Kurrajong, 2016–). The official Opposition is the Liberal Party of Australia (LIB), under leader Alistair Coe MLA (Ginninderra, 2008–16; Yerrabi, 2016–)
Universities Australia draft 2016 national research infrastructure roadmap submission
No full textGovernment investment in first class research infrastructure is vital to the long-term sustainability of Australia’s research program, driving innovation, economic productivity and social benefits for the nation. National research facilities are built and maintained for the public good. As such there is a fundamental role for government in investing in this critical infrastructure.
Global experience suggests government investment is the most effective model for developing and maintaining national research infrastructure systems. Government investment not only leverages co-investment from other sources, including from universities and state governments, but the return on this investment through the myriad of societal benefits, such as population health, innovative agricultural methods and natural resource discoveries, is high.
Universities play a vital role in supporting the nation’s infrastructure system including through cash contributions as well as in-kind support such as staff time
Australia’s privacy laws gutted in court ruling on what is ‘personal information’
No full textIn possibly Australia’s most important privacy case to date, the Federal Court today dealt a severe blow to Australia’s information privacy laws by narrowing the definition of “personal information”.
Australia’s data privacy laws only protect “personal information”, which is defined by whether a person is identified or identifiable from data.
By reasoning that data is only “personal information” if a person is the actual subject matter of that information, the court’s decision means “personal information” does not include data that only reveals identity if linked with other data.
Read the full article on The Conversation
Using solar PV feed-in tariff policy history to inform a sustainable flexible pricing regime to enhance the diffusion of energy storage and electric vehicles
No full textThe aim of this paper is to analyses residential solar PV feed-in tariffs (FiT) policy history to inform the development of a sustainable flexible pricing regime to enhance the diffusion of energy storage, electric vehicles, solar PV installations and other distributed resources focusing on the case of ‘solar rich’ Australia. Solar PV has reached price parity at the retail level where the electricity price charged includes both transmission and distribution costs, in addition to the wholesale price. So the economic rationale for paying a FiT premium above market rates to achieve dynamic efficiency is no longer warranted. However, there is justification pay a premium to encourage dynamic innovation in energy storage. Socially, FiTs can be a problem because they can transfer wealth from poorer to richer households. Additionally, new investment in distribution and transmission, driven by peak demand spikes from air conditioners can act as a further transfer. Environmentally, FiTs can also fall short of their full potential to cut emissions if they lack ‘time of use’ price signals that reflect movements in the wholesale price. We suggest a sustainable flexible price regime that can be designed to addresses all three areas of concern: social, environmental and economic. The resultant transmission and distribution investment deferment would meet both environmental and economic objectives. We argue that the time has come to design a sustainable flexible price regime for solar PV that focusses upon allocative efficiency as an explicit goal and to introduce support for other distributed resources including energy storage to encourage dynamic efficiency
Value sharing for affordable housing
No full textThe recent inclusion of Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) in the draft district pans for metropolitan Sydney marks a turning point in the debates – and hopefully the policies – on the possibility of accessing some of the value generated by property development to generate new affordable housing in New South Wales.
Already several Sydney councils have or are actively considering adopting firm IZ targets for affordable housing in their new local planning arrangements. The Inner West Council’s draft Affordable Housing Policy, released in early December 2016, includes a well-argued 15 – 30% IZ target for new residential development. This beats the draft District Plans proposed 5 – 10% IZ target range by some margin.
IZ is, in reality, just another form of value capture – or ‘value sharing’, as the more sanitised version of the process is now being termed. The requirement for a developer to factor in a proportion of a new development as affordable housing (i.e. priced at below market) is simply another way of saying that part of the value gain achieved through rezoning should be used to support lower cost housing outcomes