Australia’s global performance: falling behind

Degradation of the Great Barrier Reef increased from 2014-2017, due in part to climate change driven coral bleaching. This is a major threat to Australia's tourism industry.

Unfortunately it's also bad news on social measures, including health, education, gender equality and indigenous Australians' wellbeing.

Australia has one of the world's best universal healthcare systems, thanks to the Whitlam, Hawke-Keating and Rudd- Gillard Labor Governments. This system is complemented by the availability of private health insurance coverage.

But under the Liberals, private coverage has become 36% more expensive and coverage is at its lowest rate in 15 years, putting pressure on the system.

The 2020 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey shows Australia now ranks only 8th out of 11 high-income countries for healthcare affordability, and we have been ranked just 7^th out of 11 countries for equity. Or to put it another way, under Scott Morrison, healthcare is less affordable in Australia than in the UK, Germany, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Canada. On July 1 Scott Morrison made cuts to Medicare which will force people to pay thousands more in out-of-pocket expenses for vital surgeries.

The Government's own data shows what Australians already know; the cost of seeing a doctor has never been higher. In Victoria the cost of seeing your doctor is now 37% higher than when the Liberals were elected.

First Nations Australians have the lowest life expectancy amongst First Nations people globally. This is shameful.

Outcomes for Australia's First Nations people are well behind those of non-Indigenous Australians, as demonstrated by the 2020 Closing the Gap Report. Yet The Liberal Government has failed to meet its own targets. In 2020, 5 of the 7 targets were either not met or not on track.

Rising incarceration rates of First Australians are a national and international disgrace. First Nations adults are just 2% of the population, yet comprise 27% of the prison population. We have to do better than this.

An explosion of seething anger about the treatment of women has been one of the defining national moments of 2021. Ignited by brave revelations of an alleged rape 50 metres from the Prime Minister's office, Scott Morrison's response has been tone-deaf, highlighting deep seated cultural problems in the Liberal and National parties.

Following the 2019 election only 23% of the entire Coalition party-room are women. The Labor Party has almost 50%.

Australia's global ranking for the proportion of women in the Lower house of the national parliament fell from a high of 32nd place in January 2010 under Labor, to 48th place in 2019. OECD data shows Australia fell in the global rankings for the proportion of women serving as Ministers, from 22nd in 2012 to 33rd in 2019.