In the lead-up to tomorrow’s pre-election Commonwealth budget, much has been written about the need to quickly eliminate the government’s deficit, and reduce its accumulated debt.  The standard shibboleths are being liberally invoked: government must face hard truths and learn to live within its means; government must balance its budget (just like households do); debt-raters will punish us for our profligacy; and more.  Pumping up fear of government debt is always an essential step in preparing the public to accept cutbacks in essential public services.   And with Australians heading to the polls, the tough-love imagery serves another function: instilling fear that a change in government, at such a fragile time, would threaten the “stability” of Australia’s economy.

A new report models a progressive traffic fine system, based on the Finnish model, for South Australia.  Progressive traffic fines, based on income, rather than flat fees, have been successfully implemented in Scandinavia. The Australia Institute has released a report looking specifically at how the policy could be adopted in South Australia. The report, From

When other people get pay rises, do you feel discouraged from working? If the Australian Taxation Office stopped BHP or Google from using tax havens, would your firm be less likely to invest in its own expansion? In a bizarre twist on behavioural economics, Treasurer Scott Morrison seems to think individuals and companies are motivated

Top economists and community leaders have signed an open letter calling on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to not to cut taxes at this time – especially not on company profits. The letter, published as a full-page newspaper advertisement, is signed by Former Reserve Bank Governor Bernie Fraser, ACTU National President Ged Kearney, Former WA Premier

The latest “big idea” on tax policy from the Coalition government is to grant independent income tax powers to the states.  This would be accompanied by a devolution of funding responsibility for big-ticket services like health care, hospitals, and schools.  Prime Minister Turnbull argues that forcing state governments to raise the money they spend will

New state-wide ReachTEL polling in South Australia and in the seats of New England and Indi on refugee policy shows most voters do not support the current policy to send all boat arrivals to Nauru and Manus Island. The polling also shows majority support for the resettlement in Australia of those assessed as refugees who

The ruling mantra once was user pays, but now laws requiring mining companies to clean up their mess are derided. Where have all the economic rationalists gone? Back in the 1980s and ’90s most conservative politicians and businesspeople were obsessed with expanding the “user pays principle” to all areas of government service, but these days you

A ReachTEL poll of 1217 Queenslanders and 1077 South Australians shows respondents resoundingly rejected conventional political wisdom – that income tax cuts are even more popular than government investment in health, education and infrastructure. (See full results below)  Just over half (53.0%) of voters in South Australia and half (49.2%) of Queenslanders would prefer to

Polling reveals public support for civil disobedience and other protest in support of farmer’s rights against gas fracking operations. The Australia Institute commissioned polling, undertaken by Research Now, about communities conducting civil disobedience in opposition to coal and gas projects in their area.  84% of Australians said farmers should be able to say no to

First published by the Australian Financial Review – here Economic modelling is like a meth lab, it can make you rich or blow up in your face. And like cooking meth, economic modelling gets more dangerous when it is done fast by those new to the industry. But despite the dangers, and the fact he

New Catalyst research, released for International Women’s Day, reveals the best and worst points of women’s participation in corporate Australia.  The report covers female participation on boards and in management as well as assessing policies to help women in the workplace.  While some companies in the ASX have real equality on their boards, overall the

Was it really the Treasury’s economic modeling that convinced Prime Minister Turnbull to abandon his plan to raise the GST and cut income taxes? Treasury simulations indicated the trade-off would have no significant impact on growth. Or perhaps it was another kind of calculation – electoral – that convinced the Coalition to drop the idea, and the economic numbers just provided political cover.

The Australia Institute has released data from modelling commissioned from NATSEM together with ATO statistics which show that young Australians are receiving little benefit from three of the budget’s most expensive tax concessions.  “Australians under 30 years of age receive only 6.4% of the combined tax concessions on superannuation, the capital gains tax discount and

Today, The Australia Institute has released a new paper Surprise Me When I’m Dead: Revisiting the Case for Estate Duties, which adds further analysis of the role estate taxes could play in Australia to raise revenue to and address inequality. “Congratulations to Tim Costello and the Community Council for Australia for bringing estate duties into

First published in the Australian Financial Review – here.  The only thing that Paul Keating likes about conservative economic policy is implementing it. Last week, with trade mark cut-through, he was back to his favourite trick of visibly attacking the right while strategically undermining the left. For decades Keating has stood tall in the crowd by taking the

Adopting a proportional traffic fine system would be fairer and offer modest increases in revenue for most states, according to a new report from The Australia Institute. Several countries have proportional fines. In its report Finland’s fine example The Australia Institute has researched how Finland’s system could be implemented in Australia, seeing lower income drivers

First published by the Australian Financial Review – here.  Economic models are like skin care products: the magic is all in the marketing. Just as honest dermatologists regularly remind consumers that expensive face creams are just “hope in a jar”, honest economists regularly remind politicians and journalists that the “results” of macroeconomic modelling are no more reliable than

A ReachTEL poll of 1,139 Tasmanians showed 61% of residents were opposed to an increase in the GST rate and just 26% supportive. (See Question 1 below) Respondents also indicated where they would like additional revenue from a GST increase to go. 52.2% wanted more money for health, education and government services. Only 3.4% wanted

No tax concession does less to stimulate innovation or employment than the capital gains tax exemption on luxury homes. Indeed, by encouraging the most wealthy Australians to park billions of dollars in spare bedrooms that gather dust and detritus from Christmases past, the exemption simply diverts capital away from productive uses. A government that is

The single largest tax concession in the revenue strapped Australian Federal Budget is the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) exemption on the primary residence. The exemption forgoes $46 billion annually – a greater sum than the government spends on the Age Pension, Defence or Medicare.  A new report by The Australia Institute, with modelling commissioned from

Polling in key Liberal and National Party seats shows strong opposition to reducing Sunday penalty rates for retail workers, according to new ReachTEL polling commissioned by The Australia Institute. Polling conducted across the electorates of Page, New England, Warringah and Dickson on 17th December shows that between 65% and 79% of people in these electorates

Most voters in former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s electorate want him to retire at the next election, according to new polling conducted by ReachTEL for The Australia Institute as part of research about tax and climate change issues. “The polling indicates that the electorate is quickly moving on from the Tony Abbott era,” said Ben Oquist,

First published by The Australian Financial Review – here. The mining boom tax cuts have left the Australian budget unable to collect the revenue needed to fund the services that Australians expect from their government. The Treasurer’s insistence that there is no revenue problem, combined with the received political wisdom that the family home is

In the lead-up to the 2013 election both the Coalition and the ALP pledged to make no changes to the superannuation system in the coming term of government. Stability, we were told, was what the system needed. Less than three years later both major parties are promising to change the superannuation system. Reform, we are

New research by The Australia Institute examines proposals to cut company tax rates.  A report from The Australia’s Institute’s senior research fellow David Richardson analyses the effect of cutting the company tax rate from 30% to 25% and finds that:  Federal Government revenue would be down almost $27 billion over the next decade Australia’s four