This study comprises a comprehensive assessment of public spending on education, employment, health and housing services for indigenous Australians compared with non-indigenous Australians. It shows that, contrary to claims made recently, public spending on programs for indigenous people is not excessive, and the advantages indigenous people gain from this expenditure are minuscule compared with the

This report evaluates the impact of the privatisation of ACTEW on the financial position of the ACT public sector. In so doing, it examines the structure of ACTEW and the impact of the competitive electricity market on ACTEW’s profitability. It also assesses the options for dealing with the government’s unfunded superannuation liability. It concludes that

The National Commission of Audit was established immediately after the Coalition’s 1996 election victory. It was charged with the task of reporting to the Government on the finances of the Commonwealth and measures to improve its fiscal position. The contributions to this discussion paper provide a thorough critique of the underlying assumptions of the Audit

This paper collects together some of the papers from the Australia Institute’s conference entitled Citizens in the Marketplace: The implications of competition policy for citizenship. The conference was motivated by the desire to bring together various strands of thought which are being knit into an alternative to economic rationalism. The notion of citizenship, and the

The Hon Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG, President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal and Chairman of the Executive of the International Commission of Jurists and Professor Max Neutze, Inaugural Chair, at the public launch of The Australia Institute on 4 May 1994, Brassey Hotel Canberra.