Media
October 2022
Rental prices are going up fast across Australia
People around Australia have been seeing the advertised prices of rents increasing, now the inflation figures are catching up.
Inflation is soaring and real wages are plummeting
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 Budget shows the big hole in Real Wages
The Government acknowledges the need to get wages growing again, but the budget reveals just how big the task is
Bread & Butter Budget Defers Meat & Potatoes Revenue Reform to May ‘23
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
Fixing Broken PRRT Loopholes Would Raise Budget Billions: Research
New research shows multinational gas corporations are using sophisticated accounting tricks and loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of tax, despite making windfall profits. The new report Reforming the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax shows how billions could be raised in the Budget by fixing loopholes and cracking down on multi-national tax avoidance in the
Majority Agree with Banning Fossil Fuel Sponsorship in Sport: Research Polling
New polling reveals the majority of Australians (53%) support a ban on fossil fuel companies sponsoring national sporting teams, with only 32% opposed. The polling also shows three in five Australians (60%) agree fossil fuel sponsorship ‘is the new cigarette advertising’. Key Points: Three in five Australians (60%) agree that fossil fuel sponsorship is the new cigarette sponsorship, more than double
Worrying signs of weak wages growth
Job Opening: Carmichael Distinguished Research Fellow
The Carmichael Centre at the Centre for Future Work invites applications for the Laurie Carmichael Distinguished Research Fellow position. It’s a three-year posting, with awesome potential to explore a range of progressive issues related to unions, collective bargaining, industrial policy, and workers’ education.
The Reserve Bank needs to acknowledge the failures of the inflation target
A comprehensive review of inflation released today by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work reveals that the inflation targeting in place since the early 1990s is not the neutral policy many assume it is. In that time inflation has missed the target more from below than above, and has coincided with a shift of national income away from workers to profits as wages have stagnated.
Australia’s housing crisis is self-inflicted. We need four reforms to reverse it
How is it that in Australia, one of the richest countries in the world, we have a housing crisis where hundreds of thousands of renters can’t afford a roof over their head? To figure out why rents are soaring, we need to look at the broader political disease: we have spent about two decades trying
Australia’s tax system is failing to deliver the benefits of the gas boom
Norway shows how Australia can get a fair return from oil and gas
Australia’s and Norway’s economies both have massively profitable resource industries, but Norwegians receive a much larger and fairer share
Families change but the same problems remain
The latest data from the Bureau of Statistics on families shows that more than ever before couples with dependants are both working.
It’s a No-Brainer!
Gas companies in Australia made up to $40 billion in windfall profits in the last year due to the war in Ukraine, and global price spikes. There are growing calls for a windfall profits tax to claw back some of these war profits, to fund essential services in Australia. This was recorded on Tuesday 18th
Gas Giants Reap $40 Billion in Windfall War Profits: Report
New analysis shows Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) producers reaped up to $40 billion of windfall profits in FY 2021-22 thanks to soaring global gas prices due to the war in Ukraine. The research comes following a damning report from the ACCC into the gas industry around price-fixing and subsequent condemnation of cartel-like behaviour on the
The Australian Political Book of the Year Award 2022 longlist: No Enemies No Friends
We are delighted to announce that No Enemies No Friends: Restoring Australia’s Global Relevance has been longlisted for the inaugural Australian Political Book of the Year Award.
Gattaca
In our third episode, Duncan and Mark dive into the 1997 sci-fi noir, Gattaca. Duncan skips out on the squirmy bits, but both our podcasters ultimately complete the viewing of this underrated film with a sense that the eugenicist strive to perfection that so often infiltrates the thinking of tech companies is perhaps not a
NACC Exceptional Circumstances Restriction Should be Lifted: Retired Judges
The respected National Integrity Committee of former judges has welcomed the Government’s NACC legislation but warned that the exceptional circumstances prerequisite for public hearings would undermine the public interest without further amendments to the Bill, in their submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the Bill. Integrity Committee member and former Supreme Court Judge the Hon.
Chubb Carbon Offsets Inquiry – Conflicted, Too Late & Missing the Point
The Chubb Review into Australia’s scandal-plagued carbon offsets system might not provide the reset needed for the carbon market given the potential conflicts of its members, its timing in relation to other climate reforms and by distracting from more effective emissions reduction policies, according to a submission by The Australia Institute.
Webinar on Wages, Prices, and Power
The Australian Council of Trade Unions is sponsoring a series of webinars for union members, delegates, officials, and leaders on the current crisis in the cost of living in Australia. The surge in inflation since economic re-opening after COVID lockdowns has obviously intensified that crisis. But the seeds for it were planted long ago: by a decade of historically weak wage growth, a speculative property price bubble, and a systematic efforts to weaken collective bargaining and unionisation.
Even if you were a neoclassical ideolouge, Stage 3 ain’t it
In the past twelve months low-income earners have seen their real wages fall faster than ever before, their mortgage interest rates rise faster than ever before and, here’s the real kicker: their average tax rates actually increase. To be clear, someone working on the minimum wage has seen the amount of tax they pay rise
Push for Nationally Consistent Laws to Prevent Stealthing: Research Report
New research published by the Australia Institute, in partnership with RMIT, shows there is legal ambiguity surrounding the non-consensual removal of a condom during sex, also known as stealthing, that could be fixed through nationally consistent laws. The report Stealthing: Legislating for Change finds that while an overwhelming majority of Australians support criminalisation, many Australians do not
Where’s the middle (income)?
As pressure builds for the Albanese government to scrap the promised Stage Three tax cuts, discussion has shifted around who would lose out. The Australian said it would mean “2.5 million middle income Australians will pay thousands of dollars in additional tax,” but describes middle income Australians as individuals earning between $120,000 and $160,000 a
With a global recession looming the cure of inflation looks to be worse than the disease
This week the IMF released its latest World Economic Outlook. And the outlook is dire. Economic growth around the world was downgraded with recession-like conditions being predicted for many advanced economies including the USA, UK and much of the EU.
After the Stage 3 tax cuts only the top 10% highest paying occupations will be better off
The Stage 3 tax cuts will only balance out the tax increase from the end of the low-middle income tax offset for those earning above $97,000
Only 1 in 5 Support ‘Exceptional Circumstances’ Restriction on NACC Public Hearings
The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,003 Australians about the circumstances under which the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) should be allowed to hold public hearings. The results show that most Australians support the NACC being permitted to hold public hearings under more circumstances than in the currently tabled legislation. Key Results: More
Low and middle income earners about to be hit with a massive tax increase
The end of the Low-Middle Income Tax Offset will deliver a tax increase of up to $1,500 for people earning under $90,000 – a 3% tax rise for someone on $50,000
Gen Z Receive Only 2.8% of “Cooked” Stage 3 Tax Cuts in First Year: Research
New research has revealed that Gen Z would receive only 2.8% of the first year of the Stage 3 Tax Cuts legislated by the Morrison Government. The newly released age-based data break down reveals that in financial year 2024-2025, those under 25 years old would receive only 2.8% of the billions in tax cuts which
Members of Parliament among those who benefit the most from the Stage 3 cuts
Taxation data shows which occupations will get the biggest cuts – and how few people work in them
Jim Chalmers has a unique chance to remake Australia – or to squander $243bn on the rich
Jim Chalmers has a once in century opportunity to spend a quarter of a trillion dollars on nation building without going into a cent of debt. In fact, if he chooses his public investments well he could drive growth up, cost of living down, and pay down the Morrison Government’s debt faster than currently expected.
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