A new research paper from The Australia Institute reveals that home ownership rates in Australia are falling across all age groups, most significantly for people in their 50’s. Middle income earners are experiencing the sharpest decline in ownership rates. Housing affordability issues have changed the makeup of the housing market over the last decade. Not

There were 30,775 prisoners in Australia at the end of June 2013 – an increase of five per cent on the 2012 census conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Almost six out of ten (58 per cent) prisoners had previously served a sentence as an adult. The cost of housing a prisoner in

Former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard described work/life balance as a “BBQ-stopper” in 2001. Since then, the term “work/life balance” has been part of the Australian lexicon, but just how well are Australians achieving it? National Go Home on Time Day was launched by The Australia Institute in 2009 as a light-hearted way to

Property crime in Australia declined by more than half between 2001 and 2011 – affecting 2.9 per cent of households in 2012, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Although the proportion of victims has been falling steadily, recovery from these incidents remains an important policy issue for those unfortunate Australians who fall prey to

In 2013 The Australia Institute released Trouble with childcare, which analysed the level of difficulties reported by families regarding the affordability of; access to; and quality of early childhood education and care services. The paper includes data and a number of findings relevant to the Inquiry into the delivery of quality and affordable early childhood

The Australia Institute’s submission addresses the effect of policies designed to encourage home ownership and residential property investment. More broadly this submission focuses on the theme of housing equality and examines the inequality that exists between generations and income groups. In doing so it considers the impact of not having a long-term, national affordable housing

The Australia Institute’s submission addressed the following points of the Inquiry’s terms of reference: the trend in out-of-pocket expenses; the impact of co-payments; key areas of expenditure including primary care visits, pharmaceuticals and diagnostic testing; the role of private health insurance; the effectiveness of safety nets; and other options to achieve savings for Australians and the

Contrary to public perception, the property crime rate in Australia actually declined between 2001 and 2010. There is a reality gap between declining crime rates and the popular rhetoric of ‘tough on crime’ media stories and political policies. Campaigning in the recent West Australian, New South Wales and Victorian state elections saw both sides of

Recent government approaches to childcare funding have been simple rather than innovative. Improvements in affordability have been short lived, with benefits quickly absorbed through higher costs charged to families. The result is an ongoing game of catch up between government and service providers with families stuck in the middle. Since 2001, the proportion of Australian

Australians work some of the longest hours in the developed world – substantially longer than their counterparts in Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway. For many Australians though, work stress is related not to the number of hours worked, but a mismatch between the workers’ desired and actual hours of work, and the inflexibility of these arrangements. This is true for workers across the earning spectrum.

Eight in every ten Australians are a member of a co-operatively owned, or mutually owned enterprise (co-ops and mutuals) such as a road side assistance organisation (NRMA, RACV), a member-owned superannuation fund (AustralianSuper), a mutually owned bank (such as bankmecu) or a consumer cooperative (Co-op Bookshop). Similarly, large businesses such as the dairy co-operative Murray

An analysis of the economics of duckhunting in Victoria.

Loneliness is the disconnect felt between desired interpersonal relationships and those that one perceives they currently have. While the subjective nature of this experience makes measuring loneliness difficult, understanding loneliness is important for the development of a range of social policies. The availability of longitudinal Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey data

The role of unemployment benefits is to insulate people from the severe financial hardship of going to work one day and discovering that they no longer have a job. Few people earning $60,000 per year, raising children and attempting to repay their home loan can afford to remain unemployed for more than a few months

One of the tools used by the government in pursuit of ‘welfare cheats’ is data-matching. The Data-matching Program cross-checks income and personal details held by one agency against similar data held by other agencies, primarily the Australian Taxation Office. The focus of this program is identifying overpayments amongst existing welfare assistance recipients (the difference between

Although Australia has a long tradition of providing welfare support, in recent times the promotion of available support has been at best selective. In recent years, campaigns to raise awareness have focused on promoting new forms of assistance, often those that are initiatives of the current government. The Education Tax Refund (ETR) is an example

When sick, the doctor is the first port of call for most Australians. In 2009-10 one in five visits to a GP resulted in extra fees over and above the Medicare scheduled fee. An estimated $557 million extra were paid for these visits. While the government encourages GPs to charge the scheduled fee (known as

It is often said that to retire with dignity in Australia a couple would need a retirement income of around $50,000 per year. In order to help Australians achieve such levels of retirement incomes Australian taxpayers now contribute around $27 billion per year in tax concessions to help boost the retirement savings of so called

Australian women suffer a ‘wage penalty’ when they return to work after having a child, according to new research by the Australia Institute. In the first year back at work, women can expect to earn around four per cent less per hour on average than they would if they had not had a child, the

An analysis of just four Centrelink payments, the Parenting Payment, the Carer Allowance, the Disability Support Pension and the Bereavement Allowance, revealed that in 2008, more than 168,000 Australians missed out on government assistance estimated to be worth $623.8 million. Research shows that people are excluded because of: a lack of awareness about available assistance;

The final report from the Productivity Commission into executive remuneration does not recommend any far-reaching changes that will address the excessiveness of executive pay in Australia. However, various policy options are available to rein in executive pay, including: removing the tax concession on capital gains; increasing the top marginal rate of income tax; and, establishing

Australian households are throwing out more than $5 billion worth of food each year, more than Australians spend on digital equipment, and more than it costs to run the Australian Army. In addition to the direct financial costs of this waste, the environmental impact associated with excessive greenhouse gas emissions and water use is substantial.

This report estimates that Australians spend more than $10.5 billion each year on goods and services from which they derive no benefit. The paper examines the phenomenon of wasteful consumption and explores its implications.