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Economics
- Banking & Finance
- Employment & Unemployment
- Future of Work
- Gender at Work
- Gig Economy
- Industry & Sector Policies
- Inequality
- Infrastructure & Construction
- Insecure & Precarious Work
- Labour Standards & Workers' Rights
- Macroeconomics
- Population & Migration
- Public Sector, Procurement & Privatisation
- Retirement
- Science & Technology
- Social Security & Welfare
- Tax, Spending & the Budget
- Unions & Collective Bargaining
- Wages & Entitlements
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- International & Security Affairs
- Law, Society & Culture
March 2006
Drug Law Reform: Beyond Prohibition
Prohibition has failed to significantly reduce illicit drug markets and has caused greater harm to society than it has saved. The evidence shows that a treatment-orientated approach to drug issues would be far more effective in reducing drug-related harm.
September 2005
Why the Telstra agreement will haunt the National Party: Lessons from the Democrats’ GST Deal
The experience of the Democrats’ GST/MBE deal suggests that the Nationals’ Telstra agreement is likely to fail to protect the interests of rural and regional Australians and disappoint those in the National Party who believe it could protect them from an electoral backlash.
July 2005
Mapping Homophobia in Australia
This piece aims to map out the socio-economic, age, regional and gendered opinions on homosexuality. This piece found that 35% of Australians are homosexual, mostly older, rural, lower socio-economic males.
June 2005
Privatising Land in the Pacific: A defence of customary tenures
A response to a series of papers authored mainly by Helen Hughes whose argument that customary land tenures are the principal cause of poverty in PNG, and that Australia should make its aid contingent upon changes, is influential in Government circles. This report argues that the proposed privatisation is based on wholesale confusion about the
May 2005
How big should Canberra Be?
The belief that Canberra should grow is not supported by 72% of Canberrans. The belief that Canberra does not have culture is also false, as Canberra has the more artists and intellectuals per hectare than any other city in Australia. Due to the false perception of Canberra’s cultural impoverishment, and the wide support for no
March 2005
Who benefits from private health insurance in Australia?
The private health care rebate of 30% costs the government $2.5b per year. Only 24% of households under $25,000 per year have private health care, this increases to 69% for household over $100,000 per year. Single parents, young people and poor families are the least likely to have private health care. Due to this the
February 2005
Mapping Loneliness in Australia
Using national survey data, this paper outlines patters of loneliness, support and friendship and assesses who is most at risk of emotional and social isolation and who is socially supported and connected.
Demographic trends in private health insurance membership
The Howard government promised to rise in the private health care rebate from 30% to 35% for people over 65 and 40% for people over 70. However between 2001 and 2004 there has been a decrease in private health insurance for people under 55 by 4.8%, while people over 55 have increased 13.7%. Prices for
January 2005
Making Fines Fairer
A speeding fine of $125 represent one third of the weekly pay for those who make $20,000 per annum, while it only makes up 6% for someone making $100,000 per annum. This applies to the cost of a parking ticket or any other flat fine. The recommendation of this piece is to make the fine
September 2004
Geosequestration: What is it and how much can it contribute to a sustainable energy policy for Australia?
Examines how much emissions abatement geosequestration may be able to deliver, how soon it may be able to do so, what the cost of such abatement may be and how it compares with other energy policy options to reduce emissions. Geosequestration: Supporting on-line material
August 2004
Work and family futures: How young Australians plan to work and care
A study of the attitudes of teenagers showing that the gender wars are set to continue into the next generation with boys and girls making conflicting plans about who will do the housework and look after the children.
The Accountability of Private Schools to Public Values
Considers some of the failings of private schools to protect public values and argues that the receipt of government funding should be contingent upon upholding them.
July 2004
Overconsumption of pet food in Australia
Despite the fact that real incomes are increasing majority of Australians believe they cannot afford the necessities. This extends to pet care. 64% of Australians have pets; our total expenditure on our pets is $2.3b in 2002. Some pet products cost $800 and dog food can be $100kg. The luxury pet goods industry is emblematic
May 2004
Lost children: Condemning children to long-term disadvantage
Unpublished ABS data shows that 23,000 Australian children from low and middle income families are being priced out of child care:12,000 children from low income families and 11,000 children from middle income families miss out on child care because of cost, and they are more likely to experience developmental disabilities as a result.
Carpe Diem? The Deferred Happiness Syndrome
Deferred Happiness Syndrome affects 30% of Australians and occurs when employees are not satisfied with work but do it to achieve happiness later on, often through money and material interests. This often results in downshifters that voluntarily reduce working hours to ensure better lifestyles.
March 2004
The benefits of an ageing population
Examines the benefits that an ageing population will bring to many areas of Australian life and concludes that there is a silver lining to the fog of pessimism currently clouding the perceptions of policy makers and governments.
February 2004
Can’t Buy Me Love? Young Australians’ views on parental work, time, guilt and their own consumption
Examines the perspective of young people about their parents’ paid and unpaid work, its implications for their lives and the links between work and consumption.
Getting a Life: Understanding the downshifting phenomenon in Australia
Explores in detail the life changes and attitudes of 20 downshifters to answer the questions prompted by the first study on downshifting completed in January 2003. The in-depth interviews were augmented by four focus groups held across the country and aimed to explain why people downshift, how they change, how others react, what are their
January 2004
Buying an education: Where are the returns highest?
The Australian education system is currently experiencing rapid change at all levels. This paper considers the recent trends in private school enrolments and fees in light of the new university arrangements which allow for Australian citizens to enrol as full fee paying students rather than having to rely solely on academic merit to earn a
December 2003
Democratising excellence? Chamber music and arts policy in Australia
Analyses the conditions that facilitate access, participation and pleasure at chamber music concerts to demonstrate that cultural policy-makers and arts organisations need to engage in strategies that acknowledge more directly the audience experience.
November 2003
Downshifting in Britain: A sea-change in the pursuit of happiness
This study parallels Discussion Paper 50 and shows that 25 per cent of British adults aged between 30 and 59 have downshifted over the last ten years.
Fatherhood and fatherlessness
Shifting social and economic conditions have both intensified the obstacles to, and created new possibilities for, involved fathering and more sophisticated strategies are needed on the part of the community and government to enable men to capitalise on these recent possibilities.
September 2003
Health Spending in the Bush: an analysis of the geographic distribution of the private health insurance rebate
The coalition’s introduced a 30% private health insurance rebate, costing $2.5 billion per annum. This policy favours urban centres as rural areas have less private hospitals; less money from the rebate going to them, on a per capita bias; and will be affected by the yearly rise in prices after the age of 30. As
July 2003
Comparing Drug Prices in Australia and the USA: The implications of the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement
Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme uses economic evaluations on the price of drugs. The US equivalent, the Federal Supply Schedule does not use such pricing references. As a result the most prescribed pharmaceutical drugs in the US can be between 79% and 306% more expensive than in Australia.
June 2003
Comfortable, relaxed and drugged to the eye-balls
This piece uses three main statistics, to come to the conclusion that 1/3 of Australian adults have a drug dependency. Firstly The National Health Survey found that 18.1% of people have had medication in the past fortnight for mental health reasons; secondly that when coupled with the amount of Australians who partake in risky alcohol