Industrial Relations Reform Sets Stage for Significant Acceleration of Wage Growth.

Stronger climate action and better resource sector governance are two ways in which Australia can partner with countries in our region to promote stability according to a research submission by the Australia Institute to the Inquiry into supporting democracy in our region. Key Points: Climate action has languished for the last decade and fossil fuel

The latest economic outlook from the OECD highlights the precarious path for Australia over the next few years.

New research shows Australian workers are on average working 6 weeks unpaid overtime per year, costing over $92 billion dollars in unpaid wages across the economy. The average worker is losing over $8,000 per year or $315 per fortnight due to what researchers have branded “time theft”. 23 November 2022 marks Go Home on Time

The latest wage rises from enterprise agreements show good improvement, but overall, workers continue to see their wages lag behind inflation

The latest wages price index figures show that for the first time since 2013 wages grew by more than 3% in the past year.

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Business groups like the ACCI and AI Group say they want higher wages, but their recommendations for minimum wage rises show they rarely want real wages to rise

Proposed reforms to Australia’s industrial relations laws are likely to support higher coverage for collective bargaining in the national labour market, and provide a boost to stagnant wage growth according to new research from the Centre for Future Work. The report reviews historical data on the erosion of collective bargaining in Australia, and its close

Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine caused a massive surge in gas and LNG prices that have enabled gas companies around the world, including Australia to make record-level profits.

Proposed reforms to Commonwealth industrial relations laws would create more opportunities for collective bargaining to occur on a multi-employer basis, rather than being limited solely to individual workplaces or enterprises. Business groups have attacked this proposal as a dramatic change that would supposedly spark widespread work stoppages and industrial chaos.

New research from the Centre for Future Work quantifies the dramatic risks faced by workers whose employers unilaterally terminate enterprise agreements during the course of renegotiations. This aggressive employer strategy, which became common after a precedent-setting 2015 court decision, would be curtailed by new industrial relations legislation proposed by the Commonwealth Government.

New polling research reveals an overwhelming majority of Australians (86%) support a government intervention in the gas industry, either through export controls, a windfall profits tax, or both. Key Findings: An overwhelming majority of Australians (86%) support a government intervention in the gas industry, either through export controls or a windfall profits tax or both.

The current tightening of monetary policy is undoubtedly having an impact. While it may take some time for the slowing of inflation to flow through to the official CPI figures – especially given the level of inflation that is being imported – the economy is set to slow drastically.

In defending the Stage 3 tax cuts in parliament, Angus Taylor inadvertently highlighted the real benefits for low-middle income earners comes from Stages 1 and 2.

The latest enterprise agreements figures show small signs of wage growth and once again the benefits of being in a union

In 2020-21 the biggest companies in Australia were able to reduce their taxable income to just 12% of their total income

In the past 7 months, the Reserve Bank has increased the cash rate by 275 basis points. That is as fast as any time since the RBA became independent. Given the pace of inflation growth, the rises are not wholly without cause, but as policy director, Greg Jericho notes in his Guardian Australia column the main drivers of inflation are now easing, and wages are yet to take off. In that case, should the RBA continue to raise rates given it will only slow the economy further?

Wages are rising within the RBA’s target band of inflation but profits are soaring 7 times that rate. And yet the RBA is more concerned with rising wages than profits

Talk is cheap, the saying goes, but decades of neoliberalism and failed trickle-down economics means Australia needs to begin some new and more meaningful conversations about the kind of country we want to be.

The Stage 3 tax cuts are not just unfair, they create a massive hole in the budget

Right now the gas industry is booming, but the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax is not.

People around Australia have been seeing the advertised prices of rents increasing, now the inflation figures are catching up.

On Wednesday the latest inflation figures showed that in the 12 months to September prices across Australia grew by 7.3% – the fastest rate since 1990.

The Government acknowledges the need to get wages growing again, but the budget reveals just how big the task is

The October Budget delivers on a range of welcome bread & butter commitments, but has deferred solving Australia’s meat and potatoes revenue problems until at least May 2023, according to independent think-tank the Australia Institute. “The meat and potatoes revenue reforms Australia needs, like scrapping stage 3, a windfall profits tax, or fixing the PRRT