The big banks now dominate the Australian financial system in the same way that the Melbourne Storm dominated the rugby league. They take the profits they made last year and they use them to fend off new competitors next year. They take the profits they earn in one part of their business and cross subsidise

Between the lines is the Institute’s selective analysis of the policies and politics affecting the wellbeing of Australians. This edition looks at a carbon tax; reforming the financial services industry and measuring what matters.

Another mining boom will be a mixed blessing for Australia unless the government heeds the lessons from the previous boom and sets up a resources fund, according to The Australia Institute.

Back before the CPRS took the wind out of the community it was common sense to believe that early action was cheaper than delayed action. And back before anyone had heard of ’emission intensive trade exposed industries’ it was patriotic to believe that Australia should lead the world, not lag it. If we are to

The retirement savings of millions of Australians could be boosted by up to $100,000 if the Government adopts the Cooper Review’s MySuper proposal, according to an analysis by The Australia Institute.

The market power enjoyed by Australia’s big four banks is allowing them to increase profits when official interest rates rise. This is the case even when banks pass on only the official rate rise to their mortgage customers.

Between the lines is the Institute’s selective analysis of the policies and politics affecting the wellbeing of Australians. This edition looks at subsidising Lycra at the expense of knee surgery””private health insurance premiums rise again; is Barnaby right? Is there too much government debt?; measuring what matters; shaking up the super industry.

This edition of the Institute’s newsletter looks at bank profits, loyalty cards, the government’s My School website, barriers to women’s employment, population policy and the role of carers.

A lot of people in the superannuation industry are very worried at the moment. This is not because they see another market crash on the horizon; things are generally back on track in that sense. They’re worried because things are about to get much better for millions of ordinary working Australians at the expense of

Banking is an essential part of the Australian economy – almost an essential service. So why should it be “extremely profitable” to use the former RBA’s Governor’s words? Why do bankers have to be exceedingly privileged? What does that mean to those of us who need to use the banking system? And what can we

Between the lines is the Institute’s selective analysis of the policies and politics affecting the wellbeing of Australians. This edition looks at insulation: the wrong kind of price signal; Telstra profits at the expense of low-income earners; and, banks and financial literacy programs.

The Australia Institute and Sustainable Population Australia will host a speech by Dick Smith on Wednesday, 10 March. Dick will discuss ‘Population: the elephant in the room we have ignored for too long’. 5.30 for 6pm start Molonglo Room Canberra Club 45 West Row Canberra City More details are provided in the attached flyer.

Australia’s banks are exploiting official interest rate rises to gouge ever increasing profits from customers, according to The Australia Institute. A new Institute study, A licence to print money: bank profits in Australia, reveals that since deregulation in 1983 banks have increased their share of the lending market from 50 to 90 per cent. In

Originally printed in The Age.  Nearly 800 years after celebrated rogue Robin Hood and his entourage of bandits launched raids from their Sherwood Forest hide-out – redistributing wealth from a greedy and corrupt aristocracy to the starving peasantry – he has been recruited to a new campaign. This month, 350 prominent economists, including Nobel Prize-winner

Low income households already bearing the brunt of Telstra’s market power would be worse off if price caps were removed, according to The Australia Institute’s submission to an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s review. The ACCC is considering whether competition in telecommunications is sufficient to grant Telstra’s call for price controls to be dropped. The

The Greens and government should at least be able to agree that some carbon price is better than none, writes Richard Denniss.

According to the spin doctors, governments should never let a crisis go to waste. And of course the best crises are the ones you invent yourself. Done well, they ensure others spend a lot of time worrying about the wrong things. Of course the latest intergenerational report, like its predecessors, is full of doom and

The Commission’s final report reveals little inclination to seriously address excessive executive remuneration. While its recommendations aimed at reassuring shareholders have been watered down, there is a distinct lack of recommendations aimed at addressing the equity issue which the report so starkly highlights.

This edition of the Institute’s newsletter looks at the CPRS, indigenous affairs, food waste, the Disability Discrimination Act, homelessness, congestion charging, superannuation, unpaid overtime and national Go Home On Time Day, and emerging issues for Australia’s youth.

Between the lines is the Institute’s selective analysis of the policies and politics affecting the wellbeing of Australians. This edition looks at the Cooper Review into superannuation; the ‘quarantining’ of income support; the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme; bank profits and food waste.

The scientific consensus is that climate change is an urgent problem; the economic evidence says that the costs of tackling climate change are trivially small compared to the costs of inaction; and polling shows that the vast majority of the Australian public wants to see real action. So why has the CPRS stalled and why

Emission reduction targets are so weak as to be useless, Richard Denniss argues.

Are your working hours ‘flexible’? Thank goodness for your annual leave, when you can recover from all that flexibility. Unfortunately, your annual leave might be eaten away by the extra hours you work throughout the year.

Greater transparency and public engagement about the potential opportunities and risks presented by nanotechnology is required, according to a new report by The Australia Institute. While still an emerging field, nanoscale sciences and technologies (nanoST) are already present in our daily lives, with more than 1000 consumer products identified as containing nanomaterials.

The CPRS is perhaps the most poorly understood piece of legislation to dominate Australia’s public debate in modern times. While there have been acres of press about whether climate change exists or not, and acres more about how clever the Rudd Government has been in splitting the Coalition, there has been much less analysis of

Between the lines is the Institute’s selective analysis of the policies and politics affecting the wellbeing of Australians. This edition looks at national Go Home On Time Day; compares the government’s climate change rhetoric to that on purchasing new submarines; and, how the Do Not Call Register could be strengthened to better protect us from

Australian workers are ‘donating’ more than their annual leave entitlement back to their employers in the form of unpaid overtime, a new survey by The Australia Institute has found.

The slight jump in the official unemployment rate to 5.8 per cent is just the tip of the iceberg, with the true figure likely to be around 12 per cent when the ‘hidden unemployed’ are taken into account.

Australian households are throwing out $5.2 billion worth of food each year, which exceeds the amount they spend on digital equipment such as flat screen TVs, according to new research by The Australia Institute. “To put this into context, the $5.2 billion worth of food that Australians throw out each year is enough money to

Each year, Australians work more than two billion hours of unpaid overtime, a new survey by The Australia Institute has found. Around half of all employees work more hours than they are paid for and international comparisons show that Australians work the longest hours in the developed world. In recognition of the extent of unpaid