On 2021-08-30 11:39, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote: > The trouble is that the government and/or the public service doen't have the > competence to properly interpret the modelling.
Exactly! When facts conflict with political ideology, ideology wins every time. So governments going back to the 80's have consistently weakened the Public Service and defunded the Universities, the CSIRO, research and other enterprises attempting to address Greenhouse Warming of this planet, the ABC, and other sources of information which might confuse the public. And it has to be said that most of them were Conservative. Think back to Johnny Howard who, if I remember correctly, also oversaw the departure of Dick Chaney and other moderates from the Liberal Party. Then there was Abbott, and now Scott Morrison who announced on election night that he "believe(s) in miracles". Defunding is subtle - the grants are increased in dollar terms but reduced in terms of actual need. One of the lesser factors driving this is a general loss of national memory. I know a teenager who recently told her father she thought she could probably imagine what life was like as far back as 1985, and of course that sets expectations which the pollies love to play up to. We're on a Road to Nowhere.... David Lochrin _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
