Confusion lies at the heart of Treasurer Wayne Swan’s sixth budget. Does he want to be a big spender or a low taxer? Is he a Keynesian who is relaxed about the budget deficit, or is he a fiscal conservative determined to rein in public spending? Who can say?

My fantasy budget would be one that attempted to match the government’s spending to the public’s priorities and one in which taxing and spending policies, otherwise known as fiscal policy, was based on a close reading of simple economic theory rather than a quick skim of what’s trending on Twitter. Australia has one of the

The Opposition has proposed a paid parental leave scheme that offers to replace a woman’s wage if she takes time off following the birth of her child. Tony Abbott expects to raise $3.5 billion with a 1.5 percentage point increase in the company tax rate. But the Australian taxation system is a complicated beast and

NOBODY could have predicted that the might of Rio Tinto would be challenged by Bulga, a tiny NSW town of 300. Certainly, nobody could have predicted that Bulga would win. But when the Land and Environment Court overturned the NSW government’s approval for the expansion of Rio Tinto’s Warkworth coal mine, citing that the project’s

In 1987 Prime Minister Bob Hawke promised that by 1990 no child would live in poverty. While those words have haunted him ever since, a new analysis by The Australia Institute reveals that his government did more to tackle poverty than all subsequent governments. Under the Hawke government, poverty rates dropped when welfare benefits rose

Passage of the Tasmanian Forest Agreement Bill in the state’s lower house effectively ended three years of negotiations between the forestry industry and environment groups. The deal is being celebrated by many as a resolution to the 30-year conflict over native forests in Tasmania and a win for the environment and economy. Nothing could be

QUEENSLAND Premier Campbell Newman has stared down former federal treasurer Peter Costello and he deserves some credit for that. A stocktake of Australia’s electricity now, compared with two decades ago, confirms that the privatisation and corporatisation of the sector has been a massive failure. An analysis of the sector since Victoria privatised power in the

Coal seam gas protesters shouldn’t be blamed for rising gas prices in Australia – for that, the gas industry can thank only itself. The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) is blaming opposition to coal seam gas for the coming rise in gas prices. APPEA’s argument is that there is a shortage of gas

The Australian native forest sector has been in decline for the past two decades and all but fallen off a cliff since the onset of the global financial crisis in late 2008. The forestry lobby has tried to lay the lion’s share of the blame for its predicament at the feet of the environmental movement,

What is the corporate equivalent of a dole bludger? For all the talk about class warfare in Australia it is interesting that the conservatives have a pejorative name for individuals who need support from the state but progressives don’t even have a term for the foreign companies that make huge profits but still have their

In New Zealand, cabinet documents are routinely released soon after cabinet has made a decision. In fact, the New Zealand guide for accessing cabinet documents states explicitly that the need for public servants to provide “frank and fearless” advice is not a reason to keep cabinet submissions secret. Where many Australian public servants might react

Labor’s problem is not so much what it stands for but what does it stand against. Tony Abbott is against the carbon tax, the Greens are against the big mining companies and Nick Xenophon is against pokies but Labor is against, drum roll please, the Liberals. I know, I know, the ALP has passed lots

Tony Abbott’s Direct Action Plan has been ridiculed by many as expensive and unworkable. One of the primary objections has been that the centrepiece of the policy, the Emissions Reduction Fund, is a baseline-and-credit scheme that will require counterfactual baselines to be set for every participating polluter. The baseline for a given polluter will be

A cabinet reshuffle provides the perfect opportunity for a prime minister to clarify the role of incoming ministers. From his deeds, it’s pretty clear Martin Ferguson interpreted his job as representing the interests of those who profit from extracting our resources rather than the citizens who own those resources. And given their praise on his

Facts Fight Back Dr Richard Denniss Foreign aid works Tim Costello Getting the research that matters to the people who matter Mark Ogge The truth about the gender pay gap Anne Summers A culture of resistance Kerrie Tucker Trouble with childcare David Baker Paid to pollute Matt Grudnoff Big business in Australia David Richardson Early

Although the new water trigger law, recently introduced by the Government was cheered by the rural independents, Greens and environmental groups, the proposal is illogical, runs counter to existing policy structures and is unlikely to improve environmental outcomes. The government has unilaterally introduced this water trigger in breach of the 1997 Council of Australian Governments

Last week, CSR closed a Sydney factory and made 150 people redundant. This was not caused by the carbon price, the mining tax or our industrial relations laws. The simple fact is that the high exchange rate that accompanies our mining boom has made many manufacturers uncompetitive. How much income support should they receive? How

This presentation provides a summary of key findings from research by The Australia Institute into the economic impacts of the mining boom. It gives an overview of the Australian mining sector, including levels of employment, foreign ownership and subsidies, and looks at the consequences of the boom for non-mining industries like agriculture, tourism, manufacturing and

Over the past century thousands of generous Australians have died and left some or all of their estate in a “perpetual trust” to be used for philanthropic goals. But most of the “perpetual trustees” have not been as long-lived as the funds they were managing and many funds were bought up by larger financial institutions

The fact that Gina Rinehart inherited billions of dollars apparently means that people earning $150,000 a year are entitled to feel average. The average income for an employed person in Australia is $58,375.20 a year. The median is $50,076. $150,000 a year is a lot of money. It is not average, it is not middle,

Hockey’s war on entitlements Government inaction on antibiotic resistance exposed Mining’s not so special Events Recent Publications Recent Media Hockey’s war on entitlements “They are barely bigger than a toilet cubicle. Yet these depressingly cramped spaces serve as a kitchen, living room, dining room, bedroom, pantry and everything in between for their cooped-up inhabitants.Those unfortunate enough

Hockey’s war on entitlements “They are barely bigger than a toilet cubicle. Yet these depressingly cramped spaces serve as a kitchen, living room, dining room, bedroom, pantry and everything in between for their cooped-up inhabitants.Those unfortunate enough to live in these urban slums range from the elderly and unemployed to low-income families and singletons.Their location? Hong Kong. One

Government inaction on antibiotic resistance exposed “Unless we solve the problem of antimicrobial resistance to drugs, we will be facing a post-antibiotic era where things as common as a strep throat infection or a child’s scratched knee could once again kill.”  Margaret Chan, Director-General of World Health Organization (WHO), 2012 The discovery of antibiotics was

“They are barely bigger than a toilet cubicle. Yet these depressingly cramped spaces serve as a kitchen, living room, dining room, bedroom, pantry and everything in between for their cooped-up inhabitants.Those unfortunate enough to live in these urban slums range from the elderly and unemployed to low-income families and singletons.Their location? Hong Kong. One of the richest cities

  Politics in the Pub – Andrew Leigh MP – 27 March Andrew Leigh is the federal member for Fraser, an economist and an author. Andrew’s latest book ‘Disconnected’ highlights that political parties and unions are struggling to keep their members; sporting participation and cultural attendance is down; we are less likely to attend church

Last week the RBA released a paper showing that, surprise surprise, the mining industry has spill over benefits for industries such as construction and business services. Amongst all of the hype released by the mining industry in response there was no mention of the fact that the RBA found that these spill overs were much

“Unless we solve the problem of antimicrobial resistance to drugs, we will be facing a post-antibiotic era where things as common as a strep throat infection or a child’s scratched knee could once again kill.”  Margaret Chan, Director-General of World Health Organization (WHO), 2012 The discovery of antibiotics was one of the defining events in

Still beating around the bush, M Grudnoff, 25 February Culture of resistance, K Tucker, 15 February Corporate power in Australia, R Denniss & D Richardson, 6 February For a full list of our publications, click here. All papers can be downloaded for free. Go back to Between the Lines

Age of the worried well-off, The Canberra Times, 2 March  Economics and Ethics: Rationality and choice,  ABC666 Canberra, 27 February Mining boom continues to hurt rural sector, ABC ‘PM’, 25 February Why can’t the government stand up to big polluters, ABC Radio National, 24 February Economics and Ethics: How much do we need to live on?, ABC666

The government’s obsession with speeding up the mining boom has delivered an exchange rate and a shortage of skilled labour that is devastating the manufacturing industry. Rather than take its foot off the mining boom accelerator or admit that the miners’ boom means a bust for manufacturers, the government is trying to buy itself some