On Wednesday, 31 January 2024, Richard Denniss and Allegra Spender MP addressed the National Press Club for a debate on the Stage 3 tax reforms. **Check against delivery** [See below for transcripts] Tax is good. Tax is an investment in our society and the highest taxed countries in the world also happen to be the

Unless minimum employment standards for care and support workers using digital labour platforms are guaranteed, decades of slow progress towards proper recognition of care work and equal pay for women could be undone.

Australians right across the country are calling out for cost-of-living relief, but the government doesn’t want to risk any measures that will increase inflation—keeping interest rates higher for longer, or worse, pushing them up even further.

The industrial reforms system needs important repairs, writes Dr Fiona Macdonald – no more, no less.

With the federal government announcing a desire to double charitable donations by 2030, Stephen Long examines the potential inefficiency & inequity of relying on charities, rather than governments, to provide essential services.

For decades, the Grinch has had a terrible reputation as a Christmas-hating monster who railed against the festivities of the season and stole the townspeople’s presents, food and decorations in an attempt to stamp out the whole technicolour carnival.

It’s a bitter irony.

Labour hire workers can no longer be paid less than employees doing the same job in their workplaces as a result of industrial reforms passed by Parliament. However, other important reforms to close loopholes in employment laws and stop exploitation of workers and avoidance of standards won’t be voted on in Parliament until next year.

Australia has one of the weakest tax systems for redistribution among industrial nations, and as Dr Jim Stanford writes, the Stage 3 tax cuts will make it worse.

As the Budget outlook improves, with most of the benefits of Stage 3 tax cuts going to those earing over $120,000, over 80% of workers will be short-changed

The hydrogen dream has become widespread in the Australian climate conversation: apparently, with it, we’re going to decarbonise Japan, Korea, and the world! Is this ambitious vision a genuine step towards a greener future or merely a diversion from ongoing fossil fuel expansion?

Clive Palmer’s controversial legal strategies challenge Australia’s trade agreements and environmental laws, and have profound implications for global climate action, writes Stephen Long.

Australia’s lack of a research integrity watchdog leads to wasted funds, misdirected efforts and risks to public health.

The wage rises for low-paid workers on awards and those working in aged care helped drive the strong wage growth.

The RBA made it clear one group continues to do well, and continue to spend – and they are also the ones who are about to get a massive tax cut.

Cost of living rose by more than inflation because of interest rate rises. Another rate rise would only cause more unnecessary pain.

In the past year 3.7 million Australian households experienced moderate to severe food insecurity, meaning they were going hungry, skipping meals or going entire days without eating.

Inflation is being driven by things unaffected by interest rate, so there is no reason for the RBA to raise rates in November

On election night in 2020, President-elect Biden reassured the American people that despite everything they had endured for the past four years, “I believe at our best, America is a beacon for the globe.”

This week Professor Allan Fels, the former head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), has begun an inquiry into price gouging across a range of industries, including banks, insurance companies, supermarkets, and energy providers. The inquiry commissioned by the ACTU comes off the back of the highest inflation in 30 years and the biggest falls in real wages on record.

The best way to stop a debate about tax reform in Australia is to start a debate about increasing the GST.

While Australia’s Foreign Minister attends the UN Secretary General’s Climate Ambition Summit in New York, the nation’s Environment Minister will be in court fighting for new coal mines.

Will the resignation of CEO Alan Joyce prompt real change or will poor corporate culture continue?