Australia’s labour market experienced unprecedented volatility during 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting recession. In the first part of the year, employment declined faster and more deeply than in any previous economic downturn, as workplaces were closed to control the spread of infection. Then, after May, employment rebounded strongly. The subsequent recovery has

The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,018 Australians about their perceptions of the year 2020. Australians were presented with a list of 11 words or phrases and asked which best describes 2020. “Unprecedented” was the single most popular choice, chosen by 19%. “Unprecedented” was followed by “Terrible” (14%), “Tragic” (12%) and “Exhausting”

The Australia Institute surveyed a sample of 1,038 New South Wales residents about their position on whether voluntary assisted dying (VAD) should be available to people with terminal illnesses who are experiencing unrelievable suffering and who ask to die.

The Australia Institute surveyed nationally representative samples of over 1,000 Australians each month from August about what they think the most important national political issue is right now. In every month, more Australians identified the economy as the most important national political issue than any other issue (between 37% and 48%). Health was second-most likely

A comparison of the impact on employment of child care expenditure and income tax cuts of an equivalent net cost to the budget. The clear superiority of childcare expenditure in stimulating economic activity reflects the concentration of the benefit on a cohort with much greater capacity for labour supply response.

Bringing forward stage 2 of the tax cuts is ineffective stimulus. Up to 12 times as many jobs could be created if an equivalent amount of money was spent on labour intensive industries.

The Australia Institute and FearLess support the rescheduling of psilocybin and MDMA from Schedule 9 to Schedule 8 of the Poisons Standard. The potential risks from this change are small while the benefits are potentially large. Academic studies recognise the low level of harm caused by these substances. Despite researchers finding “easy to very easy”

The benefit from bringing forward personal income tax cuts would mostly go to high income men. Despite recession job losses affecting women more than men, $2.19–$2.28 of the tax cut will go to men for every $1 that goes to women.

The failure of the Commonwealth to confirm that it will maintain funding for community service organisations could threaten up to 12,000 jobs in that sector, at a moment when those services are critical to Australia’s pandemic-damaged economy. That’s the conclusion of new research on the economic importance of Commonwealth pay equity funding, conducted by the

Bringing forward personal income tax cuts would see more than 50% of benefits go to the highest 10% of income earners and 79%-91% of benefits to the top 20% of earners. Just 3%-4% of the benefit would go to the lower half of all income earners. High income earners would save some or all of

Submission to the Select Committee on the Impact of Technological Change on the Future of Work

The Australia Institute modelled the impacts that removing the coronavirus supplement would have on the number of people in poverty. The national results and an explanation of the modelling are available in Poverty in the age of coronavirus. State specific figures can be found in the following reports: Poverty in the age of coronavirus –

Removing the coronavirus supplement in September will push over 600,000 people into poverty including 120,000 children and half a million people who rent or have a mortgage. This will have a profound impact on the lives of many children for the rest of their lives and significantly impact housing and banking in Australia.

Australia’s federal parliamentarians have never been so thinly spread. Whereas at Federation there were 51,000 Australians per House of Representatives MP, there are now 170,000 Australians per MP. That leaves MPs stretched and voters disengaged. It is bad enough that there are 170,000 Australians per MP, but it is even worse that rounding the NT’s

The health response to COVID-19 has resulted in large increases in measured unemployment and underemployment as well as large falls in the total number of hours worked. While the size of these labour market effects has been widely discussed, the gender distribution of these impacts has not.

The provision of free childcare provides the rarest of economic policy opportunities – it’s both an effective form of fiscal stimulus in the short term and has the capacity to boost the long-term participation rate and, in turn, the long run rate of economic growth.

This background brief summarises Australia Institute research on the role of the sector and related polling. Key Details: The arts and entertainment sector contributes $14.7 billion per year in value added (GDP). Arts and entertainment employ 193,600 Australians. For every million dollars in turnover, arts and entertainment produce 9 jobs while the construction industry only produces around

The poker machine industry has been shut down in Tasmania since the 24th of March. The industry is set to re-open on Friday the 26th of June. Re-opening these venues will provide immediate employment to staff previously stood down. However, our research shows that, in broader terms, poker machines (“pokies”, “electronic gaming machines” or “EGMs”)