It’s always a bit sad watching someone torn between what they said they wanted and what they really wanted. Choosing can be hard at the best of times, but having an audience can make it excruciating, so spare a thought for the good folk of the Business Tax Working Group. Corporate Australia has told us

The Canberra Liberals are hoping to win the upcoming election on a promise of lower rates. If you vote Liberal, the ads blare, your rates will be lower. But what is not clear is whether they plan to collect less tax overall. The ads are strangely silent on this issue but the simple fact is

This edition of The Australia Institute’s newsletter features: Productivity – lazy workers or lazy analysis? David Richardson Gina’s call a bit rich Dr Richard Denniss Exposing the great sunscreen cover-up Dr Gregory Crocetti Measuring fugitive emissions Matt Grudnoff Could you live on $245 per week? Ben Irvine Infographics The economy and social justice Senator Doug

Listening to the mining industry complaining about the high exchange rate is like listening to a three-year-old complaining about the noise of their own tantrum. It simply adds insult to injury. The surge in world demand for our resources and the flood of foreign money into Australia to buy or build mining assets has been

The Nationals are worried about Chinese farm ownership yet it’s European mine ownership that’s harmed farmers Australians, it seems, don’t like selling off the farm. And the National Party really doesn’t seem to like selling them to the Chinese. But while the Nationals have a long, if not always proud, history in Australia it is

Why we do what we do Gina: another reason we do what we do Media highlights for August TAI research on super tax concessions Events Why we do what we do Democracy is all about getting the numbers. Put simply, if you don’t have them in the parliament, you won’t be able to turn your

If you haven’t heard Gina Rinehart’s latest foray into the political debate around Australia’s productivity, here is an extract we found particularly shocking: “… Business as usual will not do. Not when West African competitors can offer our biggest customers an average capital cost for a tonne of iron ore that’s $100 under the price

There are two fiscal elephants in the Gillard government’s cabinet room. The first and better known elephant is the fact that the government’s wafer-thin surplus has been crushed under the weight of a slowdown in revenue forecasts and a speed-up in new spending announcements. The second elephant is that the cost of so-called “self-funded” retirement

Carbon price floor scrapping raises questions of cost, 7:30, 29 August Time to clear the haze of carbon price charges, The Canberra Times, 22 August How our courts are pricing justice out of public reach, Crikey, 22 August Tasmania’s forestry sector akin to ‘work for the dole’, Crikey, 21 August Calls for more reporting of

Research papers Can the taxpayer afford ‘self-funded retirement’?, R Denniss and D Richardson, 15 August 2012 What price dignity?, R Denniss and D Baker, 1 October 2011 The great superannuation tax concession rort, D Ingles, 24 February 2009 Recent op-eds Political cowardice on ‘self-funded’ super, Australian Financial Review, 4 September 2012 Super subsidies: a budget

TAI

Democracy is all about getting the numbers. Put simply, if you don’t have them in the parliament, you won’t be able to turn your ideas into laws.  With the Prime Minister announcing a raft of new spending measures, the numbers she has on the floor of parliament and amongst her COAG colleagues are going to

With the PM announcing a raft of new spending initiatives people are asking ‘how will she fund it?’ The cost of super tax concessions is set to blow out from $30 billion per year to $45 billion per year. This blowout alone is enough to fund Gonski, NDIS and Denticare and still have change left

It’s obscene for someone with inherited wealth, whose business is subsidised by government, to criticise low-paid workers. Two numbers pretty much sum up all that is wrong with political debate in Australia: Gina Rinehart earns the annual full-time minimum wage every 53 seconds and, at the peak of the mining boom, the industry contributed only

Saturday 8 September 5pm Canberra premiere screening of the documentary Bimblebox. For details click here. Monday 10 September 5.30pm Sydney Richard Denniss will participate in a panel discussion Austerity and Growth.  For details click here.  Wednesday 19 September 7.15pm  Canberra Politics in the Pub with Australian Greens Senator Richard Di Natale.  For details click here. Thursday

THE big banks are creaming off almost $100,000 in profit from struggling home owners in our major capital cities, data shows. The banks’ profit levels on the average 25-year mortgage more than doubled in the past 12 years as property prices rose. The numbers raise questions about claims from the banks that higher funding costs

The question perplexing many ActewAGL green power customers is a simple one: if my bill says I am responsible for no carbon emissions why did my bill go up when the carbon price came in? Unfortunately, the answer from ActewAGL has been anything but simple. Since my first article about this in The Canberra Times

The court system in Australia is of little use to most Australians who might wish to resolve a commercial or civil dispute. While the courts provide a check on executive government and can, as was the case with the Mabo decision, deliver landmark rights to vulnerable groups, their cost makes first class flights to Europe

Late last week, the details of an interim agreement between the forestry industry and green groups on the future of Tasmania’s native forests was released, showing the distance between the two parties has narrowed considerably. Both sides now support the creation of additional reserves and a permanent native forest timber production area, and want governments

Imagine if a company lost money selling something that it never paid for. Now imagine that company was owned by a state government. In an environment in which state governments and oppositions are either crying poor or crying waste you might imagine that such expensive mismanagement would create a bit of political heat. But the

Canberrans pay more for petrol than residents in other capital cities. In fact, we pay more for petrol than people in nearby regional towns like Albury. While I don’t have too much sympathy for the oil companies, we shouldn’t single them out for too much criticism as the simple truth is that Canberrans pay more

Will WA’s giant gas hub really be good for the economy? Productivity – lazy workers or lazy analysis? Research that matters Perception versus reality in Tassie forestry debate Date announced for national Go Home On Time Day 2012 Events Recent Publications Recent Media Will WA’s giant gas hub really be good for the economy? The

Will WA’s giant gas hub really be good for the economy? Productivity – lazy workers or lazy analysis? Date announced for national Go Home On Time Day 2012 Research that matters Perception versus reality in Tassie forestry debate Events Recent Publications Recent Media Will WA’s giant gas hub really be good for the economy? The

The Australia Institute has commenced a research project looking at how structural changes in the wider economy are affecting regional economies, using forestry in Tasmania and manufacturing in North-West Melbourne as our case studies. While our research paper will not be released for another month or so, the survey conducted for this project has revealed

Super subsidies: a budget spending secret, The Canberra Times, 7 August The rise of the climate sceptics, Crikey, 6 August Hurting the community, The Canberra Times, 4 August Time to untangle the web of renewable energy policies, Crikey, 3 August What we don’t know can hinder us, Australian Financial Review, 25 July Lower cost, lower

Inquiry into the allowance payment system for jobseekers and others, D Richardson, 9 August James Price Point: An economic analysis of the Browse LNG project, M Grudnoff, 9 August All the lonely people: Loneliness in Australia, 2001-2009, D Baker, 29 June Submission on Arrow Energy’s Gladstone LNG Plant proposal, M Grudnoff, 29 May For a

The end of growth: Richard Heinberg The Post Carbon Institute’s Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg will be in Australia in September conducting a speaking tour about peak oil and the economy of the future. Author of ten books, including The End of Growth, Richard will discuss the need to transition away from fossil fuels. His tour

Australia’s productivity is back in the news, this time a survey ranking us second worst of 51 countries for productivity growth. But productivity means lots of things to different people and often the discussion is very confused, not least amongst business people. On a recent visit to Australia the chief executive officer of Royal Dutch

It’s always gratifying when our back catalogue of research is given a new lease on life and in the past fortnight we’ve had reason to be extra pleased. Our research on nanotechnology, legal aid, dog-whistling in politics and the adequacy of unemployment benefits have all had another airing. Nanotechnology – The Australia Institute is supporting

The Western Australian Government together with Woodside is proposing to build the Browse LNG precinct on James Price Point in the Kimberley region of WA. Recently you may have heard a lot about the environmental consequences of doing so – the area is a known whale migration path – but there has been very little