This August, The Australia Institute will be launching our latest initiative: Revenue Watch. 

Trade unionists are gathering this week at the ACTU’s triennial Congress in Brisbane.  Jim Stanford, Director of the Centre for Future Work, participated in a panel on the Future of Work (an apt title!) at the Congress.

Trade unionists from across Australia are gathering in Brisbane this week for the 2018 Congress of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. And the Centre for Future Work will be there!

Below you will find all research papers on company tax cuts produced by The Australia Institute to date [updated 25.06.18] The big four banks get an extra $7.4 billion dollars: Australia’s big four banks are some of the most profitable banks in the world and are the big winners here, getting an extra $7.4 billion dollars in the first 10

Read the full report: 2018 tax cuts by electorate. Table of electorates Rank Electorate Percentage  of average Party 1 Wentworth 192% LIB 2 North Sydney 180% LIB 3 Warringah 172% LIB 4 Sydney 167% ALP 5 Melbourne Ports 160% ALP 6 Higgins 159% LIB 7 Bradfield 158% LIB 8 Kooyong 156% LIB 9 Grayndler 154% ALP

Less than half of employed Australians now hold a “standard” job: that is, a permanent full-time paid job with leave entitlements. That’s the startling finding of a new report on the growing insecurity of work published by the Centre for Future Work.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions has released a major policy paper outlining an ambitious, multi-faceted program to address the chronic shortage of work, and the steady erosion of job quality, in Australia. The full paper, Jobs You Can Count On, is available on the ACTU’s website.  It contains specific proposals to stimulate much stronger job-creation, reduce unemployment and underemployment, improve job quality (including through repairs to Australia’s industrial relations system), and ensure that all communities (including traditionally marginalised populations like indigenous peoples, women, youth, and people with disability) have full access to the decent work opportunities that the plan would generate.

In the wake of the Trump Administration’s success in pushing a major company tax cut through the U.S. Congress, the Australian Treasurer has stepped up his calls for reduced company taxes here. He claims Australia will bypass the growth-inducing benefits of these tax cuts, but Dr. Anis Chowdhury, Associate of the Centre for Future Work, has compiled the economic evidence.  The U.S. experience shows no statistical evidence of any “trickle-down” growth dividend from company tax cuts.

Progressives everywhere are grappling with developing policy proposals to improve the quantity and quality of work in our economy, as part of their broader vision for building more successful and inclusive societies. To this end, the Fabians Society in NSW recently published an interesting booklet of policy proposals, to inject into debate within the Labor Party and other fora. One chapter written by Sarah Kaine (Associate Professor at UTS and a member of the Centre for Future Work’s Advisory Committee) and Jim Stanford (Economist and Director of the Centre) deals head-on with the challenges facing work, and what can be done to make it better; it is reprinted below.

Paradoxically, underemployment and number of hours actually worked are both on the rise in Australia.

Commonwealth Treasurer Scott Morrison tabled his 2017-18 budget in Parliament House on May 9, and the Centre for Future Work’s Director Jim Stanford was there in the lock-up to analyse its likely impacts. Here are some of our main impressions and comments:

The Fair Work Commission has ruled that penalty rates for Sunday and public holiday work in the retail and hospitality sectors should be reduced, which would reduce hourly wages on those days by up to $10 per hour. Business lobbyists predict this will spark a hiring surge in stores and restaurants, as employers take advantage of lower wages to extend hours and ramp up operations. The economic logic of this claim is highly suspect, however – especially in light of the fundamental factors which truly limit employment in these sectors (namely, the sluggish growth of personal incomes). 78 Australian economists have signed a public letter debunking these job-creation claims, arguing that the FWC’s decision will lead to more inequality, not more employment.

The Centre for Future Work is proud to host this year’s Go Home on Time Day. It’s the eighth annual edition of this event, which draws light-hearted attention to a serious issue: the economic, social, and health consequences of excess working hours.

You know that the tides of public opinion are starting to turn, when even the head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Mr. Rod Sims, will come out in public and criticize the usual claims that privatization is good for efficiency and national well-being.

We have prepared six shareable infographics based on material in our research paper, “Jobs and Growth… and a Few Hard Numbers,” which compared Australia’s economic performance under the respective postwar Prime Ministers.

There have been a lot of big claims made about cutting company tax cuts.

Voters typically rank economic issues among their top concerns. And campaigning politicians regularly make bold (but vague) pronouncements regarding their competence and credibility as “economic managers.”  In popular discourse, economic “competence” is commonly equated with being “business-friendly.”

New costings from the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) show the government could help retirees boost their own incomes at nearly no cost to the budget by making the Pension Loans Scheme to available to all who wish to use it to have a comfortable retirement while living in their own homes. Costings requested by Senator

Between the lines is the Institute’s selective analysis of the policies and politics affecting the wellbeing of Australians. This edition looks at the Resource Super Profits Tax, government advertising and missing out on government assistance.

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

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