If you thought the prime minister was slow to respond to the bushfire crisis, take a look at his response to Australia’s ailing economy. Morrison is currently trying to pivot away from the government’s economic inaction using the coronavirus outbreak as cover, but the only reason the coronavirus might push Australia into recession is because the economy has been languishing since the Coalition took office in 2013.

by Richard Denniss[Originally published in the Australian Financial Review, 02 March 2020] In the summer of 2010, devastating floods hit Queensland killing 33 people, causing billions of dollars in damage, shutting coal mines, and knocking an estimated $30 billion off GDP. The then Labor Government’s promise of a budget surplus was washed away too. Fast

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in the Canberra Times, 07 March 2020] It might be time to panic. Not about running out of toilet paper, the real danger is that the Morrison government will undercook its mooted fiscal stimulus package and risk sending Australia into recession to prove an ideological point. The economy has been weak

There has been much discussion in recent months about the apparent slowdown in Australian productivity growth. Rather than dredging up the usual wish-list of the business community (more deregulation, more privatisation, and more deunionisation), it’s time to look at the deeper, structural factors behind stagnant productivity. In this commentary, Dr. Anis Chowdhury, Associate of the Centre for Future Work, looks to the perverse role of our overdeveloped financial sector in slowing down productivity-enhancing investment and innovation.

A part-time cleaner earning $18,000 a year will receive zero tax concessions for their compulsory superannuation contribution; meanwhile, a chief executive of a big bank can get tens of thousands of dollars every year in taxpayer support for their “retirement nest egg”. This is the strange world of Australia’s retirement income system: a world in

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in The Canberra Times, 22 February 2020] I’m not a revhead, but I come from a Holden family. Not a Holden worker family, but the type of Holden family that used to get up before sparrow’s fart to catch the bus five hours to Bathurst to watch Peter Brock race (my

In a new guest commentary for the journal Canadian Dimension, Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford argues that existing power relationships in the labour market are being reinforced, more than disrupted, by the process of technological change.

by Richard Denniss[Originally published in the Australian Financial Review, 07 Jan 2020] If Australia and other countries meet their current emission reduction targets bushfires are still going to get much, much worse. Over the past century, humans have caused the world to warm by one degree, but if Australia and the rest of the world

by Richard Denniss[Originally published on Guardian Australia, 30 October 2019] The Government’s top two economic advisers are in stark disagreement about something straight forward: whether the Australian economy would benefit from a bigger budget deficit or not. The Governor of the Reserve Bank says he is running out of room to cut interest rates any

by Richard Denniss[Originally published in the Australian Financial Review, 30 October 2019] After decades of pursuing free trade at the expense of local jobs, the conservatives in the Coalition — aping Donald Trump and Boris Johnson — have decided to pivot to populism. Gone is the rhetoric of Alexander Downer and Julie Bishop about how

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in the Canberra Times, 21 October 2019] As the black sheep in a family of car enthusiasts, I know that if you brake and put your foot on the accelerator at the same time there’s a lot of noise and smoke, but you end up spinning your wheels. For some time

by Richard Denniss[Originally published in the Australian Financial Review, 16 October 2019] When Barnaby Joyce starts making more sense about inequality than Scott Morrison, you know the Coalition is heading for choppy waters. In July, the former Nationals leader suggested that the unemployment benefit needed to rise significantly. “Certainly $555 or thereabouts a fortnight is difficult, especially

by Richard Denniss[Originally published on The Guardian Australia, 02 October 2019] Teams full of similar people underperform. While sameness can create cohesion, cookie-cutter teams can’t successfully compete with diverse teams that can draw on a broad range of talents, perspectives and insights. At least that’s what empirical data from lefty organisations including McKinsey, Credit Suisse and the IMF have to

by Richard Denniss[Originally Published in the Australian Financial Review, 17 September 2019] The Prime Minister has called on business groups to stop “virtue signalling” and to focus on the main game. Hear, hear! And not before time. For too long business peak bodies have concerned themselves with symbolism and ignored economics. It’s time to get

by Richard Denniss[Originally Published on Guardian Australia, 18 September 2019] In the same week that the prime minister told chief executives not to get “distracted” by issues like climate change, his National Party colleagues declared war on almond milk. Talk about focusing on the big issues. Needless to say, most business leaders paid as much attention to

by Richard Denniss[Originally published in the Australian Financial Review, 02 September 2019] Neoliberalism has made Australia more fragile, fractious and open to foreign influence. We talk a lot about the rise of Chinese influence but there’s less discussion about the decline in our national self-confidence. Despite living in the world’s 14th largest economy with some

Rising pressure on individuals and families to meet their caring needs is the “human face” of decline in workplace protections and bargaining power that has gathered pace since 2013. Meanwhile, the need for fathers and male spouses to take on more caring and household labour is routinely discussed in the public domain. But how have Australia’s work/care policies worked to support a redistribution of caring and household labour to males and fathers?

by Richard Denniss[Originally published on Guardian Australia, 08 August 2019] Australia needs more regulation of the banks, more regulation of the aged care sector, more regulation of property developers, more regulation of the mining industry and more regulation of the way we use the water in our rivers. But conservatives are still calling for a

The Commonwealth Treasury raised eyebrows recently with a new research report that seemed to pin the blame for record-weak wage increases on workers’ reluctance to quit their jobs in search of better-paying alternatives. The report was presented to the recent conference of the Economic Society of Australia, and elicited gleeful headlines in conservative newspapers blaming “stubborn” workers for their own poor wage results.

by Richard Denniss[Originally published on The Guardian Australia, 10 July 2019] The only time the business community pretends to take economics seriously is when they want to slash their taxes – or other people’s wages. The economic evidence to support the case for multimillion CEO bonuses is as weak as the economic evidence that cutting

by Richard Denniss[Originally publioshed in the Australian Financial Review, 09 July 2019] We need to reform the way we talk about reform. Unless we urgently implement “reform reform”, it’s likely that hard-working mums and dads will lose their jobs and life savings and, obviously, that would be the fault of the Labor Party. And the unions. And

by Ebony Bennett[Originally Published in The Canberra Times, 29 June 2019] You have to hand it to the Coalition. It says it hates Labor’s style of “class war” politics, but the reality is the conservative side of politics is just better at it. The Coalition has so radically reshaped our tax debate that earlier this

by Richard Denniss[Originally Published in the Australian Financial Review, 26 June 2019]Imagine if the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) conducted monetary policy the way the Morrison government conducted fiscal policy. Step one: publish optimistic forecasts of GDP and wage growth to create “confidence”. Step two: set interest rates five years down the track, based on

by Richard Denniss[Originally published in the Australian Financial Review, 11 June 2019] How good is the Australian economy? Not very. It’s as if months of prime ministerial promises that the economy was strong had absolutely no impact on employers’ desire to boost wages or consumers’ ability to spend. GDP growth is at its lowest levels

The unexpected results of the 2019 Commonwealth election have sparked many commentaries regarding what happened, and why. This article, reprinted with permission from Workplace Express, considers the role of the major #ChangeTheRules campaign mobilised by Australian unions in the lead-up to the election – and ponders the movement’s next steps in the continuing debate over labour market policies and industrial relations. It cites both our Economist Alison Pennington, and our Director Jim Stanford, as well as our previous research on the erosion of collective bargaining in Australia.

The Fair Work Commission has announced a 3% hike in Australia’s national Minimum Wage, effective July 1, taking it to $19.49 per hour. That increase is lower than the 3.5% increase implemented last year.

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in the Canberra Times, 17 May 2019] Bob Hawke is perhaps credited most often for his economic reforms, but he also leaves a tremendous legacy of protecting Earth’s wilderness. Without Bob Hawke, Antarctica would be a quarry, Tasmania’s iconic Franklin River would be flooded and Queensland’s Daintree rainforest would be a

by Richard Denniss[Originally published in the Australian Financial Review, 16 May 2019] The political debate about tax has become unmoored from the economics of tax. The idea that cutting taxes is good for the economy and collecting more revenue is bad for the economy is not just simplistic, it’s wrong. But it should be no

As the great novelist Isaac Asimov wrote, “The easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists.” Business leaders and sympathetic commentators have adopted that advice with gusto, during current public debates over the unprecedented weakness of Australian wages.

The Coalition is spruiking local pork barrel projects because its poorest supporters won’t benefit from its massive tax cuts. by Richard Denniss[Originally published in the Australian Financial Review, 29 April 2019] For a man with a marketing background, it’s surprising that Prime Minister Scott Morrison has ignored the credo that ”all politics is local” when selling his