Off the Charts
A picture tells a thousand words and Off the Charts is where you’ll find the charts and graphs that tell the most interesting stories. Across all the areas the Australia Institute covers, we give you the pictures that help you understand what is really going on in the world.
Authors and publishers need urgent assistance to keep Australia’s literary culture thriving
Book prices haven’t increased with inflation – good for readers; terrible for writers and publishers.
Tasmanian salmon: more revenue, more pollution, but always less tax
The Tasmanian salmon industry is one where the revenue earned keeps going up while the tax paid falls to zero.
Retail trade figures show RBA failed when it did not cut rates in April
Retail trade in the first 3 months of this year makes it clear the RBA should have cut rates in April.
When studying is so expensive, it’s no surprise that disadvantaged households aren’t enrolling
University is expensive and many are falling behind.
This election, Peter Dutton has been repeatedly very, very clear
Over the course of an election campaign punctuated by about-faces and flip flops, one constant has been Peter Dutton’s use of “clear” and “very clear” in his press conferences. Based just on the transcripts on his website, he says he’s been clear or very clear on average 3 times per day. But on April 24
Same costs, less pay: Australia pays young workers less and makes renting harder
Junior rates make life harder for young Australians than it should be.
April 2025
Australia already spends a huge amount on defence
The debate on defence ignores that Australia already spends more than it should.
At Australian unis, do you get what you pay for?
35 years after the HECS/HELP system began, university students now pay much more for much less.
It’s impossible to be single and save for a deposit in Sydney – no matter how good your job is
For most people in Sydney – if you had started saving for a house a decade ago, you would be further away from your goal.
Migration is not out of control and the figures show it is not to blame for the housing crisis
Migration is not to blame for house prices rising. And neither are Australia’s borders out of control.
The talk about domestic and family violence prevention is big, the funding less so
The amount committed by both political parties to preventing domestic and family violence suggests they believe there are other, more important, priorities.
Demonstrating Australia’s gas export problem: INPEX vs Aus states
When one company exports more than is consumed in NSW, Victoria and South Australia combined, there is clearly no gas shortage.
The Liberal Party’s proposed funds are just boondoggles of budgetary make believe
The announced funds are an exercise in dodgy budgeting and do nothing to properly tax Australia’s mining and gas companies.
Uni Canberra is spending big on things not needed, while cutting staff to save money
Australia’s beleaguered university sector is never far from the headlines these days. Former Labor leader and current University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Bill Shorten probably doesn’t envy his former ministerial colleagues who are currently on the campaign trail, but nonetheless, he’s in the news today. The Canberra Times reports that Shorten is announcing a new voluntary
If business groups had their way, workers on the minimum wage would now be $160 a week worse off
Had the Fair Work Commission taken the advice of business groups, Australia lowest paid would now earn $160 less a week.
Now that there are no safe seats – the ‘bellwether seat’ is no more.
Media analysis shows that the decade from 2007 was the bellwether era, but that era has now passed
Australia does not need an increase in spending on the military
Right now, the government and the opposition are moving to increase the amount the government spends on its military aka its defence budget, and this is happening without the public having any say – nor any great choice in the upcoming election.
March 2025
Migrants are not to blame for soaring house prices
The problem of housing affordability is not too many migrants, but too many tax breaks for investors.
Fuel excise cut: bad policy and not worth as much as advertised
Halving the fuel excise is bad for the environment and for most Australians won’t deliver the cost-of-living benefits that are being spruiked.
Increased enterprise agreements and wages show the government’s IR policy is working
The changes to industrial relations show that bold policy delivers good outcomes.
The big stink of Tasmanian Salmon farms – six times more pollution than Tasmanian sewage
Tasmanian salmon farms produce 6 times more pollution each year than Tasmania’s entire sewage
In 2023-24 Australians paid more than 4 times on HECS/HELP than gas companies did on PRRT
In 2023-24 tax from the PRRT was less than an quarter the amount raised by HECS/HELP debts repayments.
Housing affordability crisis – Saving for a deposit forever
The dream of saving for a deposit on a house is now so far beyond most poeple that even if you have a high paying job, you still can never save enough.
One million Australians are now working 2 or more jobs
In the last three months of 2024 a record number of Australians were working multiple jobs
Nurses pay more tax than the oil and gas companies
Over the 10 years to 2023-24 nurses paid $7bn more in tax than did the oil and gas companies.
Big private health insurers make huge profits… but they want you to pay more
Despite huge profit margins, the big three private health insurers keep higher and higher premiums.
February 2025
Housing affordability is on a very dangerous path
If housing affordability keeps going the way it has over the past 20 years, an average house in Sydney will be worth 24 years of an average salary.
The major parties, not the independents are the big spenders at election time
The government says the electoral laws changes are about limiting big spending by independents, but community independents spent less per seat than the major parties at the 2022 federal election.
While Uni Vice-Chancellors rake in millions, young researchers struggle to survive
Australia’s university Vice-Chancellors are among the highest paid in the world, while Australia’s PhD students are some of the lowest paid. That is not a sign of a healthy education system.
Uni Vice-Chancellors keep getting richer while those who teach and research are left behind
The pay of university Vice-Chancellors has soared well beyond that of the teaching staff for no improvement in management.
Curated by
Off the Charts is curated by Greg Jericho, Chief Economist at the Australia Institute and the Centre for Future Work.
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