Australia’s richest seven people have more wealth than the bottom 1.73 million households combined. Most people think that’s a problem. Amanda Vanstone, on the other hand, seems to think the bottom 1.73 million should be thankful. “The politics of envy”. This is Amanda Vanstone’s condescending dismissal of concerns over Australia’s rapidly growing gap between its richest and poorest

For American presidents, the ‘State of the Union’ address provides a once in a year opportunity to set out a plan for the direction the country needs to take and the policies required to get it there. The closest Australian governments get is the annual budget speech, and that is provided by the treasurer, not

The hypocrisy of Joe Hockey’s call for big business to make the case for his economic reforms is breathtaking. His government’s signature economic ”reform” was to rip up a perfectly good carbon tax. The Prime Minister and Treasurer rightly bet that business groups would sit silently by while this populist policy destruction took place. But

Tony Abbott’s problems with the Senate are only just beginning. The black eye the Palmer United Party gave him on his carbon and mining tax repeal is nothing compared to the body blow he will receive when the major policy initiatives announced in the budget, initiatives that weren’t mentioned during the election campaign, hit the

The Liberals will tell you that they don’t like telling people how to live their lives. Indeed they regularly tell us that individuals, not governments, are best placed to make decisions about what is in their own best interest. But, like successive ALP and Coalition governments, Tony Abbott and his team are big fans for

Charging sick people $7 to go to the doctor will hurt ordinary Australians far more than the carbon price ever did. While, admittedly, the ALP did a poor job of explaining it, the reality was that most Australians received more in compensation than they paid in higher electricity prices. Of course there is no compensation

If Paul Keating’s pet shop galahs are still alive I suspect they are talking about tax reform these days. And no doubt all right-thinking galahs know that tax reform and increasing the GST is one and the same thing. The Commonwealth government will collect $363 billion in taxes this year, with state and local governments

John Howard is the Ronald Reagan of Australian politics. While Reagan is deified by modern Republicans for his fiscal conservatism, in reality he oversaw big increases in government spending. But because he took from the poor to deliver to the rich they love him all the same. 

Despite the skill of individual musicians, orchestras still need a conductor to bring the whole performance together. It is one thing to know how to play the horn, but someone needs to decide when the best time to honk it is. This week the Abbott government sounded like an orchestra without a conductor – there

A new report released today by The Australia Institute outlines how the age pension could be strengthened by tackling overly generous and unfair superannuation tax concessions.  Sustaining us all in retirement: The case for a universal age pension, by David Ingles and Dr Richard Denniss, shows super tax concessions will soon cost more than the

You only get one chance to make a first impression and, if you are treasurer, you only get one chance to deliver your first budget. Joe Hockey has been talking up his determination to make savage cuts and “end the age of entitlement” for months but, with public support for the Abbott government continuing to

Like his decision to spend $5 billion a year on a new paid parental leave scheme, Tony Abbott didn’t seek cabinet approval to restore knights and dames to Australian society. While Joe Hockey might want to end “the age of entitlement”, the Prime Minister certainly seems to feel pretty entitled to do as he pleases.

Like Qantas, the problem with the Commonwealth’s budget is a lack of revenue. If Qantas were to increase fares by about 3 per cent they would be back in the black, but for the time being at least, Alan Joyce has his eyes set on maintaining market share rather than maximising profits. Similarly, the Commonwealth budget

Class war, it seems, can only be declared on those who have the least. When laws are reshaped to pour money into the pockets of those with the most, however, it is more polite to call it tax reform.

The gap between the retirement incomes of men and women will never be solved by information campaigns, decision-making tools or new websites. Women earn around 17% less than men who perform similar work. Women are far more likely than men to take time out of the workforce early in their lives to raise children. Women

If Barry O’Farrell was serious about reducing alcohol-fuelled violence on Sydney streets there are solutions. He could regulate opening hours, increase the price of alcohol sold late at night or even set a maximum blood alcohol level for people in public places and empower the police to undertake random breath testing on our streets and

Sooner or later, the Abbott government will have to stimulate the economy using fiscal policy – just like the Rudd government did in response to the global financial crisis and the Howard government did in 2001. That was the key message to come from the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO), released by treasurer Joe

Children who use the “but everyone else was doing it” defence don’t usually get very far. I remember my mother retorting: “If everyone else was sticking their head in an oven, would you do that too?” But while sharing risks may not be a great idea for kids, it is, it seems, the most popular way

I think that politicians work hard. I still think that even after Tony Abbott announced that the House of Representatives will sit for only 72 days next year. But the issue isn’t whether they work hard, it’s what they work hard on. Click below to read more of this article published in The Canberra Times.

National Party constituents will be hardest hit by the federal Coalition’s plans to repeal the low income superannuation contribution, according to new analysis by The Australia Institute. The Australia Institute examined 2011 census data to estimate the number of workers earning $37,000 or less who will to be affected by the cut. The findings show

Health and climate impacts suggest unconventional gas is not the best option for Australia’s energy future, according to research released today. The research paper Is fracking good for your health? is co-published by The Australia Institute and The Social Justice Initiative. It examines existing research to analyse the impacts of unconventional gas – coal seam gas (CSG),

The idea that more flexible workplaces promise advantages to all is not new. For decades, Australians have been told that with the aid of new technologies, we can “work smarter, not harder” to achieve a better work-life balance and greater productivity. Goodbye to rigid nine-to-five office-based regimes. Employees will be able to negotiate working arrangements that

Today is the fifth annual Go Home on Time Day, an initiative of The Australia Institute and beyondblue which aims to promote work-life balance and mentally healthy workplaces. Executive Director of The Australia Institute Dr Richard Denniss said it was exciting that more than 350 businesses and organisations have registered to participate and will be

Social policy and conservative debt management policy do not always go well together and a good example is the question of what to do with outstanding student debt. Why would private interests want to buy it? It only increases by the CPI and would perform poorly as a financial investment. A term account with a

Peter Reith, Paul Howes and Innes Willox think lifting the ban on fracking in Victoria will stop gas prices from rising. Sorry guys, but you’re wrong. To think that more gas is going to stop the price going up misunderstands why the gas price is rising.

While capitalism was built on the notion that new companies and industries would destroy old ones, the modern version of capitalism is far more clubby, far more polite and far less innovative. Innovative branding and marketing strategies are okay, but it seems the emergence of whole new industries would be going a bit too far.

Taking a lunch break has become a thing of the past for millions of Aussie bosses and their employees, a new survey has revealed. The survey, conducted by The Australia Institute and beyondblue for this year’s national Go Home on Time Day initiative, found that 3.8 million people routinely don’t take a lunch break, with

Go Home on Time Day – 20 November 2013 – is an annual initiative of The Australia Institute and beyondblue aimed at promoting mentally healthy workplaces and the importance of work/life balance.  beyondblue CEO Kate Carnell AO said something is very wrong in Australia’s workplaces because people are working longer and longer hours, but productivity

Mark and then sync all your calendars – Wednesday 20 November is this year’s national Go Home on Time Day (www.gohomeontimeday.org.au).  Go Home on Time Day is an annual initiative of The Australia Institute, in partnership with beyondblue. The Day is a light-hearted way to start a serious conversation about work-life balance.  Businesses of all

If tax is the price we pay to live in a civilised society it seems that neither of the major parties have high hopes for the communities they say they want to build in northern Australia. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is suggesting that companies based in the Northern Territory should face a reduced company tax