Australia a low-tax country; the industries that cried wolf; high stakes in gambling reform

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Australia: a low-tax country

Tax The federal budget will be handed down in a fortnight’s time and the Treasurer Wayne Swan has taken to the airwaves to warn us it will be lean and “unpopular”. Predictably, the Government has decided a tougher approach to long-term welfare recipients, in particular those on the Disability Support Pension, is what’s needed to help it achieve its surplus goal.

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The industries that cried wolf

CO2 As a child, the story of the boy who cried wolf would have kept many of us from telling fibs or raising a false alarm. Yet, in the adult world of business it seems Aesop’s fable doesn’t carry much weight, or at least when it comes to discussing the impact of putting a price on carbon.

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High stakes in gambling reform

Gambling No doubt inspired by the success of the mining sector in its fight against the Government’s Resource Super Profits Tax , ClubsAustralia recently tried to flex its muscles by launching a $20 million campaign against the Government’s proposed gambling reforms instigated by Independent MP Andrew Wilkie . Yet, a recent survey by The Australia Institute, commissioned by UnitingCare Wesley Adelaide, found overwhelming support for the proposed pokies reforms which would require gamblers to set a spending limit before playing.

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Recent publications

TAIThe industries that cried wolf, R Denniss, 18 April

The price of disloyalty: Why competition has failed to lower ATM fees, J Fear, 17 February

Complementary or contradictory? An analysis of the design of climate policies in Australia, R Denniss and A Macintosh, 9 February


Recent media

newspapersThe high price of ATM promiscuity, ABC The National Interest, 8 April

Hiding $50b: down periscope, The Canberra Times, 29 April

Revealed: banks escape tough rules, The Age, 27 April


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