Sue Bradford

Brazil is going through a profound political crisis, probably more serious than the military coup in 1964 that ushered in 25 years of authoritarian rule, writes Sue Bradford.

After his election as president in October, the neo-fascist Jair Bolsonaro began selecting his ministers. His most important decision 鈥 and one that will probably change the destiny of Brazil for many decades 鈥 was to choose Paulo Guedes, an advocate of extreme free-market economics, as a super-minister, responsible for a hugely-expanded finance ministry.

I was dismayed to discover that Australia鈥檚 Minister for Social Services is turning to New Zealand for inspiration in his latest approach to welfare.

On September 20 Christian Porter announced the 鈥楢ustralian Priority Investment Approach鈥. This draws on work New Zealand鈥檚 right-wing National government has done since 2011 on using actuarial estimates of fiscal liability to underpin an extensive program of punitive and pauperising reforms.

Green capitalism is on a roll at the moment. On July 8, a group of New Zealand business leaders their campaign with full-page ads in the daily papers headed: 鈥淓ven if you don鈥檛 believe in climate change, there鈥檚 money to be made doing something about it.鈥 This was followed by the classic: 鈥淭here鈥檚 money in being green and we need to start turning Green Growth into wealth.鈥 That says it all, really.