Blog
Article Collection
2022 election: who is disliked the least?
As the pandemic eases, confidence in major parties and traditional politicians is returning to earlier trends of disaffection and distrust. By Simon Copland and Elizabeth Humphrys. Originally published in The Guardian on 4 May 2022. At the upcoming federal election,...
‘Zonked the hell out’
This week the first journal article based on my research with the United Workers Union, conducted with James Goodman and Freya Newman, was published in Economic and Labour Relations Review. The United Workers Union is one of the largest blue-collar...
Hot, hard and dangerous
I was recently a guest on the On the Job podcast, hosted by Francis Leach and Sally Rugg, discussing a report I cowrote with Freya Newman for the United Workers Union . From the podcast show notes… As the COP26 climate change talks in Glasgow loom...
Study reveals increased heat risks for workers
In September, Freya Newman and I launched the final report on our project investigating the impact of high heat and climate change on members or the United Workers Union (UWU). The launch was part of the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ (ACTU) Climate Safety...
Social welfare and those impacted by the West Gate disaster
My research collaborator Sarah Gregson and I recently published an article about the impact of the collapse of the West Gate Bridge on the families of those killed, focussing on how the main social welfare agency dealt with the widows. From our West Gate Project...
Anti-politics: Hypotheses, Evidence and Trends
In the Summer 2020/2021 issue of the Journal of Australian Political Economy, I published an article on anti-politics with Simon Copland and Luke Mansillo. We examine potential evidence for anti-politics in electoral fragmentation in Australia. We use the approach...
Heat stress, work and climate change
As part of a UTS research team, I have released a new report with the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work, looking at the impacts of heat stress on workers in Australia. Prepared by UTS researchers as part of the Too Hot to Work Project, the report outlines...
The bridge that fell: Melbourne’s West Gate 50 years on
For the 50th anniversary of the West Gate Bridge Disaster — on 15 October 2020 — my collaborator Sarah Gregson and I worked with comics-journalist and cartoonist Sam Wallman, and writer and editor Jacinda Woodhead. A piece based on our research and the story of the...