Happy valentine's day ❤️

Cohesion. My @smh cartoon.

BREAKING: Researchers propose giving homeless people houses to reduce heat exposure. Critics note this lacks the cost-effectiveness and portability of existing cooling hub infrastructure. edjegasothy.wordpress.com/2026/01/28/g...

Been rather dispiriting how much ink has been spilled by the gallery on MP expenses, while the report into mutual obligations has been pretty much ignored. @amyremeikis.bsky.social is on it #ThePoint (what is The Point? It’s not news, but it SHOULD be) thepoint.com.au/opinions/251...

"Anti-poverty and human rights groups are calling on the government to abolish the Targeted Compliance Framework, following a scathing report from the Commonwealth ombud" www.themandarin.com.au/304738-targe...

Australian states want to cut tobacco taxes to fight the black market. Commonwealth says no. Meanwhile, tobacco is effectively getting cheaper.. just through criminal networks instead of policy. New blog on why the current debate is stuck: edjegasothy.wordpress.com/2025/12/10/i...

Suppose you wanted to persuade politicians that universities were just a bunch of money-hungry lobbyists, concerned more about profits than educating our young people. What would you do? The Group of 8 (lobby for "sandstone" unis) decided to join "an alliance of industry groups". #universities

Now @justiceandequity.bsky.social has added its name to the list of groups opposing this draconian and underhanded move. These are the groups @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social has dismissed. She refuses to address concerns about separation of powers, due process and unintended consequences.

For the first time in a decade the majority of British adults believe the generosity of the welfare system stops people from supporting themselves, according to the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen). on.ft.com/3X6VYbZ

A short while ago, Dr Janani Shanthosh and I had an engaging conversation about The Foreign Gaze, which she's now beautifully captured in text and audio. It's the first in her series of interviews titled On Theory. Please read, listen, and follow the series. Here goes ontheory.com/interviews/s...

New blog post: Can we really measure how many people die from heat (or cold)? edjegasothy.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/c...

On the centenary of Thatcher's birth, there have been predictable calls for a memorial to her memory. But Britain's 2300 food banks serve that purpose already.

What I think I've learned from my kids: Don't let people yuk your yum Children are real people Listen to people when they tell you what their needs are Accommodating needs seems to more often result in better outcomes than forcing adaptation to environment

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...

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

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...

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

Replication Crisis xkcd.com/3117/

Water privatisation has been a complete & utter failure. It is absurd that the government's report into the water industry didn't even consider public ownership. That's not a report. That's a political broadcast for the private sector. Put water back into public hands, now.

The curious case of the disappearing smoking data. The Roy Morgan release was unequivocal: smoking rates among young adults are up after vaping ban which had "demonstrably failed". And then it disappeared and was replaced with something more amenable. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/health/...

Great reporting from @squigglyrick.bsky.social. Australia’s approach to nicotine regulation is clearly failing. We need greater transparency and accountability in public health policy and advocacy. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/health/... via @thesaturdaypaper.com.au

Maybe this is just rage bait at this point, but I find it Interesting that heating uses 4x the energy globally as cooling does, but authors of AC-shaming articles like this never call for people to just “tough it out” through the winter without heating their homes 🤔

Segal goes the full Trump

If your name is on a paper you didn't contribute directly to, or even carefully read one time, you are a dishonest fraud, end of. If you publish as part of a cabal that puts everyone's name on every paper regardless of direct input, you are all dishonest frauds.

Australia must combat antisemitism, but not simply defer to demands of some voices www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Exclusive: Khaled Sabsabi faces fresh attacks from pro-Israel activists and accusations of "anti-semitism" as government envoy calls for arts funding crackdown www.lamestream.com.au/exclusive-kh...

Yes, it is exactly what it looks like. It always was.

I'm not saying you can't generate a hypothesis from data. I'm just saying that generating a hypothesis from the entirety of human knowledge that preceded your data is a much safer bet.

When ‘welfare’ is set at a rate that cannot be survived upon, it is a deterrence rather than an incentive to engage with education