September 2023
Derailing Democracy: How Big Business Distorts Australia’s Tax Debate
The best way to stop a debate about tax reform in Australia is to start a debate about increasing the GST.
July 2023
Australia’s Climate of Discontent
Australia gives more aid to foreign fossil fuel companies than it does to our neighbours in the Pacific.
More work needed despite launching of National Anti-Corruption Commission
Australia may finally have a national anti-corruption watchdog, but we still have a long way to go to reach genuine accountability and transparency in our system of government.
June 2023
Profits v Wages, what’s driving inflation?
Australians have been experiencing a dramatic rise in the cost of living thanks to inflation. While the business sector was quick to blame wages for rising inflation, the Australia Institute and the Center for Future Work took a look at the data, and it told a very different story. This was recorded on Monday 5th
May 2023
Bread and Surpluses: What you need to know about the Budget
The Albanese Government has handed down its 2023-24 Federal Budget, and it contains positive measures like a 15% pay rise for aged care workers, the minimal increases to welfare, and deferral of any change to the Stage 3 tax cuts, confirm that change is going to be incremental and slow. This was recorded on Wednesday
April 2023
The Great Gas Rip-off
The PRRT, or Petroleum Resource Rent Tax, is a tax on profits of petroleum products, including crude oil and petroleum gas. But through accounting tricks and loopholes, gas corporations are avoiding paying their fair share of tax. Research mentioned: https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/reforming-the-petroleum-resource-rent-tax/ This was recorded on Monday 19th April 2023 and things may have changed since recording.
What the safeguard means for the climate wars
The climate wars are far from over. They will not be over until the fossil fuel industry stops waging them. While their progress has been slowed in recent years, the relentless bombardment of our future by the coal and gas industries continues unabated.
March 2023
The market sees the safeguard mechanism deal as a loser for mining companies
The market’s early view of the safeguard mechanism deal is bad for gas and coal mining companies
Australia is a rich country making sub-par decisions
When former Treasurer Josh Frydenberg learned of Scott Morrison’s secret plan to spend a quarter of trillion dollars on nuclear submarines that, just two years earlier, the navy said they didn’t need, he said: “Everything is affordable if it’s a priority. This is a priority.”
February 2023
Labor’s safeguard mechanism does more to save the fossil fuel industry than it does the planet
The enormous PEP-11 gas project off Sydney’s northern beaches is back in the headlines and the timing couldn’t be worse for a federal Labor government trying to rush a new climate policy through the parliament; a policy that does nothing to stop new gas and coalmines being built and doesn’t even stop major polluters increasing their emissions. Labor’s Madeline King must now remake the decision made by our undercover resources minister, Scott Morrison.
Super Tax Concessions now on par with Entire Aged Pension, Greater than NDIS: Research
New research shows the cost to the federal budget of generous superannuation tax concessions is now on par with the cost of the entire aged pension, and greater than the total cost of the entire NDIS in 2022-2023. Economists say billions could be saved if rules governing tax concessions for a minority of ultra-wealthy accounts
January 2023
Nothing to see here
If a pandemic killed 15,000 people and nobody seemed to notice, was it really a pandemic? In Australia last year, COVID-19 killed more people than lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, car accidents and drowning combined. And in addition to the 15,000 deaths directly attributed to COVID, the Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that
High time Jim Chalmers aimed reform agenda at institutions like Productivity Commission
Whether Treasurer Jim Chalmers reforms, restructures, or simply removes the Productivity Commission is, like the commission itself, largely irrelevant. The advisory body that once sat at the vanguard of Australia’s failed experiment with neoliberalism now sits impotently on the sidelines of Australian policy debate. Bizarrely, in rejecting calls for the abolition of the PC this week some
The RBA’s policy guide is wrong
The unemployment rate published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics is an incredibly stable, accurate and reliable indicator of something almost entirely irrelevant. It provides us with 63 years’ worth of raw data on the number of Australians who worked for less than one hour, were actively seeking work and, because they had no caring responsibilities, were available to start work immediately.
Summer Series – Offsetting Us Up To Fail: The myths of ‘nature markets’ explained [Webinar]
Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2022. Australian governments have committed to tackling the twin climate and biodiversity crises but continue to subsidise and approve fossil fuels and habitat destruction. While simple policy solutions exist, governments are instead relying on over-complicated market-based solutions to conceal the
As long as Australia fails to transition away from fossil fuels, its climate policy is meaningless
The Chubb review talks optimistically about ‘carbon credits’, but we wouldn’t need so many if we weren’t building so many new sources of pollution.
December 2022
Summer Series – Joseph Stiglitz: The Role of Government in the Modern Economy [Webinar]
Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2022. Earlier in the year the Australia Institute hosted Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz for a speaking tour of Australia. In this episode he, Richard, and Ebony discussed the need to expand the role of governments, unions, and civil society.
100+ Economists, Tax Experts Call for Stage 3 Overhaul in Full-Page Adverts
More than 100 economists and tax experts have published an open letter calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to reconsider the Stage 3 tax cuts for high income earners, labelling the tax cuts as economically unaffordable and unfair. The open letter appears as a full-page advert in the SMH & The Age today. High profile
Power Politics: All the best Policies we’re not Allowed to Talk About
Just as a fish can’t taste the water it swims in, it is hard for Australians to notice how bizarre our climate and energy policy debates have become. We have seemingly abandoned economics, climate science and even opinion polling when it comes to identifying options for reform. The only way forward is what the fossil
October 2022
October Budget Wrap
The October Budget delivers on a range of welcome bread & butter commitments, but has deferred solving Australia’s meat and potatoes revenue problems. So who are the winners and losers, and what are the missed opportunities? This was recorded on Thursday 27th October 2022 and things may have changed since recording. The Australia Institute //
It’s a No-Brainer!
Gas companies in Australia made up to $40 billion in windfall profits in the last year due to the war in Ukraine, and global price spikes. There are growing calls for a windfall profits tax to claw back some of these war profits, to fund essential services in Australia. This was recorded on Tuesday 18th
Even if you were a neoclassical ideologue, Stage 3 ain’t it
In the past twelve months low-income earners have seen their real wages fall faster than ever before, their mortgage interest rates rise faster than ever before and, here’s the real kicker: their average tax rates actually increase. To be clear, someone working on the minimum wage has seen the amount of tax they pay rise
Jim Chalmers has a unique chance to remake Australia – or to squander $243bn on the rich
Jim Chalmers has a once in century opportunity to spend a quarter of a trillion dollars on nation building without going into a cent of debt. In fact, if he chooses his public investments well he could drive growth up, cost of living down, and pay down the Morrison Government’s debt faster than currently expected.
Liz Truss’ spectacular tax backflip gives Albanese a chance to do the same
UK Prime Minister Liz Truss’ remarkable decision to scrap her own tax cuts offers an incredible opportunity for the Albanese government. After weeks of outrage from voters, her own backbench and even the financial markets that once trumpeted the benefits of tax cuts, common sense and economic sense combined to deliver a timely, if humiliating, backflip. Here
September 2022
We pay billions to subsidise Australia’s fossil fuel industry. This makes absolutely no economic sense
Fossil fuel subsidies from major economies including Australia reached close to US$700 billion in 2021, almost doubling from 2020, according to new analysis by the International Energy Agency and OECD. These subsidies are expected to keep rising in 2022 as governments worldwide attempt to use fossil fuel subsidies to shield customers from the high energy prices caused
Breaking promises isn’t easy. Keeping the wrong ones is just as painful
The truth hurts, which is why it will be painful for Anthony Albanese to come clean with Australians about how wrong it would be to spend $240 billion on tax cuts, the bulk of which will go to very high-income earners, mainly older men. Breaking promises is never easy, but keeping the wrong promises is just
August 2022
Us versus Them
When you think about Australia’s entire economy, what share of that pie do you think goes to workers (via wages) compared to business (via profits)? The Business Council of Australia is making some bold claims that the profit share of income has fallen, but does the data back that up? In this episode we unpack
It’s time to tax mining and energy giants properly
It’s never too late to fix a problem. It doesn’t matter if it’s you who has been putting off a trip to the doctor or your country that has been putting off properly taxing its natural resources, it really is better late than never.
Coalition on path to national irrelevance as they are in the ACT
The Australian parliament is more representative of the Australian population than it has ever been. It has more women, indigenous people and first generation Australians than any before it. And just as importantly it has less climate sceptics, less religious zealots and less bigots. To be sure there are plenty of homophobes, science deniers and
July 2022
What’s really driving inflation?
Why is everything so expensive? And will a wage increase just make it worse? New research shows that only a trivial portion of Australia’s inflation has come from wages this year, while rising prices continue to drive not just inflation, but profits to record highs. This was recorded on Tuesday 26th July 2022 and things
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