http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/andrew-laming/ Andrew is the federal Liberal member for the seat of Bowman in Queensland, and the secretary of the Coalition Parliamentary Economics Committee. After graduating in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Queensland in 1990, Andrew undertook research at the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin where he pioneered a breakthrough drug in the treatment of trachoma amongst Aboriginal children. As well as working in indigenous health, Andrew’s strong commitment to humanitarian projects has seen him travel to Afghanistan were he worked clearing landmines, and to East Timor where he worked as a health planning specialist for the East Timor Transitional Authority. His career has also included spells in finance and economic policy, including a period with the World Bank in Washington DC. As well as being a doctor and surgeon, Andrew is also an avid sportsman and a tireless local community worker who knows the importance of practical benefits for local communities. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/making-the-connections-with-labors-nbn-pork-barrel/ Queensland has been a notorious capital of gerrymander and pork-barrelling, but never anything quite like the NBN. For two elections it has delivered bacon for Labor. In 2007, it was universally lauded. By 2010 Malcolm Turnbull had excoriated the economic case, but people privately hoped their home would be next in the queue and done for free.   At some point in 2012, with Labor in its worst political shape since polling began, the NBN has shifted from nation-building to furniture saving.  NBN Co’s roll-out plan for Brisbane has been effectively traced off the AEC maps of Labor seats and the correlation is jaw-dropping. In fact you are eight times more likely to get the NBN before 2015 if you live in a Labor seat. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Andrew Laming) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/making-the-connections-with-labors-nbn-pork-barrel/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/making-the-connections-with-labors-nbn-pork-barrel/#item8178 Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:50:40 +0000 Andrew Laming | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/julian-assange-deserves-a-fair-trial-not-this-crap/ If you break the law overseas, don’t expect government to bail you out. Julian Assange hasn’t been charged under any laws for Wikileaks and that’s what makes Julia Gillard’s abandonment of an Australian citizen so disappointing. The Wikileaks founder is a divisive figure, evoking reactions of admiration, loathing, love and horror for releasing a mountain of classified US cables. But whatever picture painted of Assange you subscribe to, he deserves to be treated fairly. No matter how much you hate the release of cables, it doesn’t make it illegal. Like most major media outlets, Wikileaks operated an anonymous drop-box for information and US marine Bradley Manning is alleged to have filled it in spectacular fashion. Through a possible plea bargain, the US appear intent on establishing that far from voluntarily offering up the cables, Manning was coerced to do so by Assange. That case seems even more implausible following last year’s revelations that Manning googled Assange and Wikileaks over a hundred times on his work computer before he allegedly handed over the material to Wikileaks. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Andrew Laming) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/julian-assange-deserves-a-fair-trial-not-this-crap/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/julian-assange-deserves-a-fair-trial-not-this-crap/#item7891 Wed, 29 Feb 2012 02:30:10 +0000 Andrew Laming | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/stop-the-welfare-to-start-closing-the-gap/ Another year; another Closing the Gap Prime Minister’s report. More statistical improvements at the margins but the core issues evaded and unaddressed. For the next ten years we could deliver the same speeches with little material change on the ground. That’s because three things remain unaddressed. Australia fails to apply activity requirements for work in remote Australia like we do everywhere else. We also fail to apply state law and prosecute parents who refuse to send their children to school. Last, our welfare reforms have hobbled into the third wave of ‘trials and pilots’ because Canberra prefers talking tough over being tough on welfare. Australia has struggled for decades with Aboriginal exceptionalism; the argument finessed by John Altman which casts any move to stimulate a real economy as a western assault on the romanticised traditional life. This view insists on an impossible world of welfare without work, on the grounds that First Australians are fundamentally different to the rest of us. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Andrew Laming) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/stop-the-welfare-to-start-closing-the-gap/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/stop-the-welfare-to-start-closing-the-gap/#item7776 Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:50:16 +0000 Andrew Laming | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Cross-border-health-issues-must-be-resolved/ For three months Australia’s world-class health system refused to treat Thornlands’ Della Johnson who has a rare vascular disease of the brain called moyamoya. The reason: she’s a Queenslander. More precisely, she lives on the Southside of Brisbane, sees doctors on the north and needs an operation interstate. If she lived in New South Wales, she would now be cured; months post-operation and free of her horrible symptoms. But she comes from a smaller Australian state which lacks a surgeon trained in this ‘one in a million’ procedure. Her battle for life-saving treatment captured media attention nationwide because it exposed a flaw in our world-class federated health system. Australians are divided into eight public hospital systems and scores of hospital regions. Those boundaries can mean delayed health care and unquantifiable mental anguish for those trapped in unfortunate postcodes. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Andrew Laming) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Cross-border-health-issues-must-be-resolved/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Cross-border-health-issues-must-be-resolved/#item6483 Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:40:20 +0000 Andrew Laming | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/no-guilt-no-shame-in-rejecting-this-tax-australia/ Apologies in advance to those with fixed views on a carbon tax. It is time the majority of Australians had a say. Well over half of us have shifted from supporting carbon pricing leading into Copenhagen to now opposing. In early 2008, my seat of Bowman had the highest carbon trading scepticism of seats polled by the Climate Institute; at 16 per cent. It now runs at nearly 70 per cent and it helps to remember why. Let’s deal with the shame issue up front. Most Australians have little interest in national shame, be it border policies, the apology, shame about our live exports or the fact we mine and smelt. Most Aussies are tired of being told by the elite we should be ashamed of our per capita emissions. We don’t leave our vehicles on in the garage at night. Our emissions correlate perfectly with our wealth, our energy intense export profile and that with the world’s second lowest population density; we travel further. I see no shame in that feedback@thepunch.com.au (Andrew Laming) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/no-guilt-no-shame-in-rejecting-this-tax-australia/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/no-guilt-no-shame-in-rejecting-this-tax-australia/#item6421 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:45:00 +0000 Andrew Laming | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Unions-abandon-their-members-on-carbon/ In search of mates for their unloved climate tax, Labor phoned a friend and the ACTU answered on The Punch last week. That was predictable. But it was the shallowness of Ged Kearney’s contribution which surprised many, because it demonstrated a limited understanding of the debate and scant regard for the best interests of her members. The ACTU case is simple enough; it’s Labor’s case. Belief in the climate science and that someone must pay. The ACTU’s more nuanced perspective is that their members shouldn’t pay a cent. In the pantheon of climate hypocrisy, that places Kearney right up there next to Paul Howes. Someone must pay; so long as that someone isn’t me. Credit to Kearney for conceding she isn’t an expert in the field. Nor am I. But ignorance is no excuse for refusing to seek simple answers to fair questions on behalf of her members. It is implausible that an ACTU president could be both unaware of membership doubts around both the science and the tax. It is breathtaking that she is unwilling to address them with reasoned reflection. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Andrew Laming) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Unions-abandon-their-members-on-carbon/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Unions-abandon-their-members-on-carbon/#item5696 Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:55:27 +0000 Andrew Laming | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/doomsayers-are-doomed-to-be-proven-wrong/ Global economics rarely moves as fast as it has over the last twelve months. Inflation genie, global financial crisis and now, just eight months later, the interest rate rises are back. So was Australia’s providential passage through the economic storm the product of great economic management, a fortuitous escape or just an expensive hoax? Up until now mainstream media have almost exclusively subscribed to the first theory.  Slowly some commentators are arriving at the second. Ultimately it is likely to be proven to be the third. The “never waste a crisis” mentality of politicians means that overreaction is always rewarded. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Andrew Laming) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/doomsayers-are-doomed-to-be-proven-wrong/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/doomsayers-are-doomed-to-be-proven-wrong/#item2070 Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:45:46 +0000 Andrew Laming | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/rudds-internet-nanny-plan-targets-the-wrong-enemy/ We all want our kids to be safe online. Parents can’t be expected to monitor every click and it’s understandable that we’re looking to government for help. But Mr Rudd’s plan to assemble a government generated list of unacceptable sites then demand Internet Service Providers (ISPs) monitor each page we visit is a step in the wrong direction. ISPs direct internet traffic much like a post office delivers mail. Requiring them to examine the contents of transmitted data is like requiring the post office to read our mail before it’s delivered. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Andrew Laming) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/rudds-internet-nanny-plan-targets-the-wrong-enemy/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/rudds-internet-nanny-plan-targets-the-wrong-enemy/#item1171 Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:00:41 +0000 Andrew Laming | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-rudd-free-account-of-how-australia-dodged-the-downturn/ Australia’s momentary brush with recession is over. After less than twelve months we are now leading the world out of what was meant to be the crash of the century. For a year, we have scratched our heads at the demise of others, cowered from the collapse that never came and frolicked with hand-outs. Just as we all had our glasses out for another free drink, suddenly it’s time to clean up after the party, count the debt and pay it off. The world’s economies move like a cycling pack; uneventful until someone takes a fall. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Andrew Laming) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-rudd-free-account-of-how-australia-dodged-the-downturn/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-rudd-free-account-of-how-australia-dodged-the-downturn/#item1073 Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:30:01 +0000 Andrew Laming | Author bios | The Punch