Here at The Australia Institute we’re a big fan of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Irvine Index. Each week, economist Jessica Irvine condenses topical issues into salient numbers. After such a busy year at the Institute we thought it might be fun to create our own index which reflects our achievements. Here is The Australia Institute

Are you a slave to your smartphone? Just because technology has made work easier in certain respects does not mean that its effects have been consistently beneficial. While the marketing and advertising of IT products tends to focus on the working utopia that their purchase will usher in, in reality the use of smartphones, mobile

Are you a slave to your smartphone? Just because technology has made work easier in certain respects does not mean that its effects have been consistently beneficial. While the marketing and advertising of IT products tends to focus on the working utopia that their purchase will usher in, in reality the use of smartphones, mobile

 The gifts that turn you into a workaholic, The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 November Industry straddles both sides of ‘free trade’ debate, The Canberra Times, 28 September Executive and worker wages out of step, ABC Lateline Business, 16 November Nation brainwashed by cult of boom, The Age, 5 November Go back to Between the Lines

Polluted time: Blurring the boundaries between work and life, J Fear, 19 November Bulky Billing: Missing out on fair and affordable healthcare, D Baker, 28 October The Australian wine tax regime: Assessing industry claims, D Richardson and R Denniss, 28 September Mining the truth: The rhetoric and reality of the commodities boom, D Richardson and

Does this put pressure on their family life? A researcher at UNSW is interested in these issues and is hoping to talk to fathers with young children about their experiences balancing work and life. If this sounds like you or someone you know, please get in contact with George Argyrous at g.argyrous@unsw.edu.au or on 0432

Do you find yourself working back late? Never enough hours in the day to do all the things you need or want to do? Are work calls or emails getting in the way of enjoying free time? Or are you a manager who values your staff? Do you want to show them how important they

In theory, technology is supposed to make workers more efficient and productive. In practice, it may in fact do precisely the opposite. Rather than workers using these new tools to do their jobs more effectively, they are now increasingly beholden to those very tools. Just because technology has made work easier in certain respects does

Abbott takes a punt on repealing legislation Tony Abbott is making a habit of making promises he knows will be very difficult to deliver on. First, he promised to rescind the carbon price legislation if the Coalition takes government at the next election. As The Australia Institute pointed out, doing so would involve a protracted

Bulky billing: Is Medicare working? Abbott takes a punt on repealing legislation Social stigma costs the unemployed Events Recent publications Recent media Bulky billing: Is Medicare working?  New research by The Australia Institute released today reveals that Australians are paying more than $1 billion each year in out-of-pocket expenses for medical care. Despite Medicare being introduced

Industry straddles both sides of ‘free trade’ debate, The Canberra Times, 28 October Patients $900 a year out of pocket, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 October Think tank questions value of resources sector, Lateline Business, 8 September Mining offers less than people think, The Age, 8 September You can catch Richard Denniss on The Bolt Report

Bulky Billing: Missing out on fair and affordable health care, D Baker, 28 October The Australian wine tax regime: Assessing industry claims, D Richardson and R Denniss, 28 September Mining the truth: The rhetoric and reality of the commodities boom, D Richardson and R Denniss, 8 September Mining Australia’s productivity, D Richardson and R Denniss,

Politics in the Pub – In conversation with ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher The Australia Institute will host its final Politics in the Pub for the year in Canberra on the evening of Wednesday 23 November. We are pleased to annouce that our guest will be the ACT’s Chief Minister Katy Gallagher. Ms Gallagher became

Last week was Anti-Poverty Week, an initiative designed to draw attention to the millions of Australians and billions of people around the world who live in poverty and the enormous disparity between their plight and the lives of the super-wealthy. One of the principle causes of poverty is unemployment. In many developed countries, the negative

Tony Abbott is making a habit of making promises he knows will be very difficult to deliver on. First, he promised to rescind the carbon price legislation if the Coalition takes government at the next election. As The Australia Institute pointed out, doing so would involve a protracted process which depends on many contingencies going

New research by The Australia Institute released today reveals that Australians are paying more than $1 billion each year in out-of-pocket expenses for medical care. Despite Medicare being introduced in 1984 to provide ‘fair and affordable’ health care to all Australians, many are now faced with extra costs for visits to the doctor, having prescriptions filled

Mining boom hits BlueScope workers while Abbott manufactures concern Can farmers afford the mining boom? Making the boom pay … if not now, when? The direct costs of waiting for direct action on climate change Events Recent publications Recent media As the significantly smaller than expected Convoy of No Confidence reaches Canberra, those protesting about

The Australia Institute now has a YouTube channel. View our recent Politics in the Pub event with OzHarvest’s Founding Director Ronni Khan. Dumping carbon tax ‘could take five years’, The Age, 11 August Paying to top your search results, ABC Radio National Breakfast, 16 August Paying for time out with the kids, BTalk, 4 August

The direct costs of waiting for direct action, M Grudnoff, 22 August What you don’t know can hurt you: How market concentration threatens online diversity, J Fear and R Denniss, 16 August The wage-penalty effect: The hidden cost of maternity leave, D Baker, 18 July The real cost of direct action: An analysis of the

How increasing population is making the task of government harder – Kelvin Thomson MP The Australia Institute and Sustainable Population Australia will host a talk by Kelvin Thomson MP on the evening of Thursday 25 August. Kelvin will discuss the topic ‘The witches’ hats theory of government: How increasing population is making the task of

A rather small convoy of constitutional confusion today rolled into Canberra calling for a double-dissolution election. The impending carbon price, the ban on live exports and the imminent threat of one world government were all cited by participants as motivating their demands. But no matter how sincere their confused calls for a double-dissolution election, they

“The future is in our hands, and it will be defined by the way we handle the current minerals boom. Get it wrong, and we falter. Get it right and we set the nation up for decades to come.” Prime Minister, the Hon. Julia Gillard, The Australian, 4 February 2011. So, with the news of

BlueScope Steel has led the tantrum against the introduction of a carbon price and today it, or more precisely its employees, have fallen victim to an entirely different problem. The rising dollar has been placing obvious pressure on the competitiveness of the Australian steel industry but the company seems to prefer playing politics than proposing

The past week has delivered some of the clearest evidence yet that both sides of politics are utterly in thrall to the mining sector. When asked about the escalating battle between farmers and coal seam gas miners by radio broadcaster Alan Jones, Tony Abbott made the apparently uncontroversial observation that ‘if you don’t want something

Yesterday I met my first Lord and, like the debate itself, the experience was not quite what I expected. Lord Monckton has made a career out of not listening to people. He doesn’t listen to scientists, he doesn’t listen to journal editors and yesterday he repeated that he would not listen to the House of

Joint Academies Statement 1.       Climate change is real. There will always be uncertainty in understanding a system as complex as the world’s climate. However there is now strong evidence that significant global warming is occurring. 2.       We urge all nations, in the line with the UNFCCC principles, to take prompt action to reduce the causes

The Australia Institute was established to inform public debate, so in that spirit Executive Director Dr Richard Denniss agreed to take the opportunity to argue the case for action on climate change at the National Press Club on Tuesday, 19 July 2011. Richard’s opponent was professional climate change sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton. Read Richard’s speech

Has the PM “knocked the brick wall down”? A win for voluntary action Is climate change a left wing issue? Events Recent publications Recent media Has the PM “knocked the brick wall down”? ”I’ve knocked the brick wall down; this is going through, this is done, full stop.” Prime Minister Julia Gillard, 10 July 2011.

The Australia Institute now has a YouTube channel. View our recent ‘In conversation with Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown’ Politics in the Pub event. Economic road map failure, The Canberra Times, 8 July Satisfaction guaranteed: money makes us happy, The Australian, 29 June Walking both sides of the street, The Canberra Times, 24 June Mining

How many jobs is 23,510, really? Recasting the mining job loss debate, B Chapman and K Lounkaew, 6 June On the wrong track: The case for abandoning the promised $7 billion subsidies to Australia’s dirtiest coal-fired power stations, R Denniss, 25 May The rise and rise of online retail, B Irvine, D Richardson, J Fear