The health minister should proceed with caution and be wary of government interventions that suboptimally shift costs around an inefficient private health system.
It took a month of intransigence before Anthony Albanese finally called a royal commission into the Bondi massacre late last week. The prime minister’s stubborn refusal to support a federal inquiry into the worst terrorist atrocity on Australian soil defied the reality of the situation and the pleas for a full probe into antisemitism from citizens across the community.
The episode turned a strength into a weakness. The prime minister’s success has been based on his determination to stick to what has proved to be a winning political script. That was never more on show than during Labor’s thumping election victory in May last year.
