Jim Stanford, Director of the Centre for Future Work, was recently featured in a new video produced in collaboration with United Voice and the Flip production company.

Workforce (a labour relations bulletin published by Thomson-Reuters) recently surveyed major IR figures in Australia on what they saw as the big issues in 2018, and what they expect as the major talking points for 2019. Jim Stanford, economist and Centre for Future Work director, was one of those surveyed, and here are his remarks.  What

In this commentary, Centre for Future Work Associate Dr. Anis Chowdhury discusses the economic benefits of industry-wide collective bargaining. In addition to supporting wage growth, industry-wide wage agreements generate significant efficiency benefits, by pressuring lagging firms to improve their innovation and productivity performance. The experience of other countries (such as Germany and Singapore) suggests that

The Australia InstituteFollowDec 13, 2018   BREAKING: the government has announced it will establish a Commonwealth Integrity Commission to investigate corrupt conduct at the federal level. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Attorney General Christian Porter this morning held a press conference where they made the announcement to set up a new federal anti-corruption watchdog. Australia Institute

by Richard Denniss [This article was originally published in the Australian Financial Review] It’s easier to develop long-run visions than solve short-term problems, which presumably explains why governments facing election defeat seem to care more about what future governments should do, than what their government isn’t doing. Once upon a time treasurers were responsible for

The recent Victorian election results showed Australian voters want governments to play a pro-active role delivering public services, infrastructure, improved labour standards, and sustainability. They showed that in a time of deep cynicism with federal politics, States (and Territories) can play an important role filling the democratic void left by dysfunction and policy paralysis at

Australian wage growth has decelerated in recent years to the slowest sustained pace since the 1930s. Nominal wages have grown very slowly since 2012; average real wages (after adjusting for inflation) have not grown at all. The resulting slowdown in personal incomes has contributed to weak consumer spending, more precarious household finances, and even larger government deficits.

Wednesday 21 November is Australia’s official “Go Home On Time Day,” sponsored by the Centre for Future Work and the Australia Institute. This represents the 10th year of our initiative, to provide light-hearted encouragement to Australian workers to actually leave their jobs when they are supposed to. Instead of working late once again – and allowing your employer to “steal” even more of your time, without even paying for it – why not leave the job promptly. Spend a full evening with your family or friends, visit the gym, see a movie – do anything other than work.

Why would the IMF put dealing with inequality at the centre of their economic agenda? Professor Joseph Stiglitz explains in his National Press Club Address. The Australia InstituteFollowNov 16, 2018 Professor Joseph Stiglitz. (photo: Sasha Maslov) 1 // Progressive economics make more equal societies. “Why would an institution like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) put dealing with inequality

On average, that’s one gas & coal plant breakdown every 2.6 days. The Australia InstituteFollowOct 23, 2018   Above: Yallourn W Power Station, image used under Creative Commons license. The Australia Institute’s Gas & Coal Watch has been tracking gas and coal power plant breakdowns and gas and coal power plants have broken down 114 times this calendar

The Australia InstituteFollowOct 19, 2018  The Pacific Islands will potentially suffer the worst impacts of climate change Richie Merzian is The Australia Institute’s Climate & Energy Program Director — @RichieMerzian When the lights are on and the cameras are rolling, most government Ministers know that they must at least pretend to believe in and care about the impacts of

When it comes to meeting the Paris Target, new analysis from The Australia Institute shows the Government is way off the mark and off-message The Australia InstituteFollowOct 11, 2018  A new report from The Australia Institute debunks the government’s claims that Australia will meet the Paris target ‘in a canter’, demonstrating total emissions have been

Recent legal decisions are starting to challenge the right of employers to deploy workers in “casual” positions on an essentially permanent basis. For example, the Federal Court recently ruled that a labour-hire mine driver who worked regular shifts for years was still entitled to annual leave, even though he was supposedly hired as a “casual.” This decision has alarmed business lobbyists who reject any limit on their ability to deploy casual labour, while avoiding traditional entitlements (like sick pay, annual leave, severance rights, and more). For them, a “casual worker” is anyone who they deem to be casual; but that open door obviously violates the intent of Australia’s rules regarding casual loading.

The Government released it’s Quarterly Greenhouse Gas Inventory last Friday, but don’t be shocked if you missed it. The Government released its Quarterly Greenhouse Gas Inventory late last Friday afternoon, before a long weekend and the football finals, at the same time as the interim report into the banking royal commission and it was a month late. A more

by Richard Denniss, Chief Economist at The Australia Institute. [Originally published in the Guardian Australia 03.10.18] Greed is good. Or so said Michael Douglas’ character Gordon Gekko in the 1980s hit film Wall Street. Gekko went further, stating “Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward

by Richard Denniss, Chief Economist at The Australia Institute. [Published in the Australian Financial Review 02.10.18] Was the campaign by the banks to prevent a royal commission into their behaviour “political” in nature? Was the campaign by the Catholic Church to oppose same-sex marriage “political” in nature? And was the campaign by the mining industry to repeal

The crisis currently engulfing the ABC demonstrates clearly that the process for ABC Board appointments, including the appointment of the Chair, is in urgent need of reform in order to depoliticise future appointments and protect the ABC’s independence. “Revelations that many directors of the ABC’s eight-member board were directly appointed by the minister rather than

The Australia Institute, Total Environment Centre, and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre have submitted a rule change request to AEMC, with support from Energy Consumers Australia. One of the largely unknown features of our national electricity system is that anyone is entitled to submit a request to reform the market rules. The Australia Institute has

Bad for the environment, bad for irrigators’ rights, not helpful for the farmers it is supposed to help — in a competitive field, this is truly one of the worst water policy ideas of recent times. Much of Australia is experiencing drought, so why don’t we give farmers water that would just be ‘wasted’ on the environment? That’s the

by Richard Denniss. [This article originally appeared on The Guardian Australia 19.09.2018] The royal commission Australia really needs is one into the spectacular – almost complete – failure of our regulators to protect the vulnerable from the greedy. While it is clear that many of our so-called watchdogs are little more than lap dogs, what

by Richard Denniss [This article originally appeared in the Australian Financial Review 18.09.18] As the Wentworth byelection will show, the desire of Coalition MPs to micro-target their “base” is a terrible way to develop national policy or win federal elections. Take energy policy: should the Coalition compete with Pauline Hanson for the climate sceptic vote in

PDF of Open Letter can be downloaded in full here. Full text of open letter and list of signatories below. Dear Premier and Ministers of the Government of Western Australia — Unconventional oil and gas development in Western Australia should not go ahead under any circumstances. The consequences of global warming are already extremely serious;

by Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director of The Australia Institute. [This article originally appeared in the Canberra Times 08.09.18] Watching Brazil’s National Museum burn this week was a tragic reminder that, if we don’t take care, we can snap the threads that bind us to our history forever. Over a matter of hours, tens of millions

On average, that’s one gas & coal plant breakdown every 2.4 days. Above: Yallourn W Power Station, image used under Creative Commons license. The Australia Institute’s Gas & Coal Watch has been tracking gas and coal power plant breakdowns, and as of 2 September 2018, has recorded 100 such breakdowns this calendar year. So we crunched the

The Centre for Future Work recently published a symposium of research investigating the long-term decline in the share of Australian GDP paid to workers (including wages, salaries, and superannuation contributions). The four articles, published in a special issue of the Journal of Australian Political Economy, documented the erosion of workers’ share of national income, its causes, and consequences.

by Ben Oquist, Executive Director of The Australia Institute. [This article originally appeared in the Australian Financial Review 28.08.18] Scott Morrison is set to make the same mistake as the Business Council of Australia on energy and climate policy. Equating emission reductions with higher prices gets the politics and economics wrong. Australia’s climate and energy debates

Dr Richard Denniss, Chief Economist of The Australia Institute, joins JOY radio to discuss: What happens if… we rebuild the economy? “I think we’re at a really interesting point in Australian politics,” says Dr Richard Denniss, Chief Economist of the Australia Institute. Deniss has joined JOY radio’s Dan Roberts & Jan Di Pietro to talk about the economy. He highlights,

by Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director of The Australia Institute. [This article originally appeard in The Canberra Times 24.08.18] I really enjoy the blood sport of Australian federal politics but I consider it a benign vice on my part, to be discussed only among consenting adults, mostly fellow Canberrans and people on Twitter. I confess I