The announcement today that the Gillard Government and the Greens have agreed on the broad architecture of a carbon price mechanism for Australia is a welcome sign of progress on what has been a long march towards a comprehensive approach to tackling climate change in Australia, according to The Australia Institute. The Australia Institute’s Executive

Australian consumers are still spending more than $750 million per year on ATM fees despite attempts by the Reserve Bank to reform the ATM system, a new paper by The Australia Institute reveals. The price of disloyalty: Why competition has failed to lower ATM fees finds that while an overwhelming majority (82%) of Australians believe

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s half year report released today shows that interest expenses have increased but by substantially less than official interest rates, an analysis by The Australia Institute has found. This is in contrast to evidence the bank provided to the Senate Economics Committee in December that their interest expenses were increasing by

Confirmation today that Treasury has considered a banking super profits tax is further evidence of the need to discuss such a proposal at the Tax Summit to be held later this year, according to The Australia Institute. Recent polling by the Institute found 81 per cent of Australians want the idea of a bank super

In October 2010 the Australia Institute conducted an online survey of 1294 Australians. Survey respondents were asked questions about a range of social issues, including their views on the labelling of products made in Australia. A media release commenting on these findings is also available.

Three in four Australians are confused about the meaning of the term ‘Made in Australia’, despite a new advertising campaign to encourage people to buy locally-produced goods. Survey results released by The Australia Institute show that people’s desire to buy Australian made is often not matched by their understanding of how to do so.

The Australia Institute today welcomed the Government’s shake up of the superannuation system. “Common sense has finally prevailed,” said the Institute’s Deputy Director Josh Fear. “The overwhelming majority of super fund members want more simplicity not more choice. Since the Howard Government introduced Choice of Fund in 2005, many people have been forced to make

Eighty-one per cent (81%) of Australians believe that the idea of a banking super profits tax should be discussed at next year’s Tax Summit, according to a new opinion poll conducted by The Australia Institute.

Last year six million, or one in three, Australians received one or more Christmas presents that they never used or later gave away, a new survey by The Australia Institute reveals. Asked about their Christmas gift habits, more than one in four respondents also expect that some of the presents they give this Christmas will

The Government’s announcement of its much anticipated banking reform package is only a small step on the long journey towards a better deal for the customers of Australia’s banks, according to The Australia Institute.

Today is national Go Home On Time Day – the day Australia bucks the trend of working the longest hours in the western world and says no to last-minute meetings and unpaid overtime.

The Australia Institute today welcomed the admission by the Australian Bankers Association that our analysis of banks’ funding costs and how they affect interest rates is accurate. An analysis by The Australia Institute of Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) data shows that despite claims from the banks that their funding costs have been rising faster

The latest round of interest rate rises beyond the Reserve Bank has added $1.2 billion to the big four banks’ profits, according to analysis by The Australia Institute.

Only one in five Australians are working the hours they want to work, according to new research by The Australia Institute. A survey conducted for national Go Home On Time Day found that half of all survey respondents wanted to work fewer hours than they had worked in the previous week. For those working overtime,

Half of all Australians are suffering from time pressure, with overwork preventing us from keeping healthy and spending time with family, according to new research by The Australia Institute. The research was conducted for this year’s national Go Home On Time Day, which will be held on November 24. Go Home On Time Day is

The Australia Institute welcomes the Federal Opposition’s recent statements about the behaviour of Australia’s banks. “This is a healthy debate to have about the super profits of the big banks and what we should do about them,” said Senior Research Fellow David Richardson.

Today’s class action filed against ANZ is a welcome shot across the bow of the banking industry, which has been gouging customers through exorbitant fees for too long, according to The Australia Institute. Reserve Bank figures show banks charged $1.2 billion in penalty fees alone in 2009, at a cost of approximately $150 per household.

The Coalition’s plan to cut 12,000 jobs from the Commonwealth public service will have a significant impact on regional economies, according to a new analysis released by The Australia Institute today. “Cutting the public service by 12,000 jobs as Tony Abbott has proposed to do via a hiring freeze will have a major impact on

Today’s announcement by the National Australia Bank that it made a cash profit for the June quarter of $1.1 billion, up from $0.9 billion in the same quarter of 2009, shows that the big banks were able to exploit the global financial crisis to increase their profits, according to The Australia Institute. “A 22 per

Australian banks are aggressively encouraging customers to take on more debt regardless of their ability to pay it back, a new survey by The Australia Institute has found. The survey results, published in Money and Power: The case for better regulation in banking, reveal the extraordinary extent to which Australian banks promote consumer debt through

Australian families could be more than $2,100 better off if the government introduced a carbon tax, according to a new proposal by The Australia Institute.

Prime Minister Gillard’s vision of a sustainable Australia must incorporate an infrastructure strategy for our major cities, not just regional Australia, according to The Australia Institute.

The recommendations of the Cooper Review into Australia’s Superannuation System could boost super payouts by as much as $100,000, according to analysis by The Australia Institute. This is even higher than the government’s estimate of an additional $40,000 in extra retirement income for an average wage earner.

Thousands of Australians, including carers and the recently bereaved, are missing out on assistance worth $623 million because the government does not actively promote awareness of such entitlements.

A group of leading Australian academic, policy and business economists has issued a statement supporting the replacement of royalties on mineral outputs by a resource rent tax.

Another mining boom will be a mixed blessing for Australia unless the government heeds the lessons from the previous boom and sets up a resources fund, according to The Australia Institute.

The retirement savings of millions of Australians could be boosted by up to $100,000 if the Government adopts the Cooper Review’s MySuper proposal, according to an analysis by The Australia Institute.

The market power enjoyed by Australia’s big four banks is allowing them to increase profits when official interest rates rise. This is the case even when banks pass on only the official rate rise to their mortgage customers.

Australia’s banks are exploiting official interest rate rises to gouge ever increasing profits from customers, according to The Australia Institute. A new Institute study, A licence to print money: bank profits in Australia, reveals that since deregulation in 1983 banks have increased their share of the lending market from 50 to 90 per cent. In

Low income households already bearing the brunt of Telstra’s market power would be worse off if price caps were removed, according to The Australia Institute’s submission to an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s review. The ACCC is considering whether competition in telecommunications is sufficient to grant Telstra’s call for price controls to be dropped. The