-
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
- Young Workers
- Climate & Energy
- Democracy & Accountability
- Environment
- International & Security Affairs
- Law, Society & Culture
September 2006
Baby Boomers and Retirement: Dreams, fears and anxieties
This new paper reports the results of an extensive study of the attitudes of baby boomers to retirement and shifting perceptions to the pension and self-funding.
August 2006
July 2006
School Vouchers: An evaluation of their impact on education outcomes
There has been a growing push for the Federal Government to introduce a universal school voucher scheme that results in government funding being provided on a per student basis to parents, which they could then use at a public or private school of their choice. This paper evaluates the available evidence on school voucher schemes
June 2006
Who Listens to Alan Jones
There is a belief that Alan Jones can make or break elections. However on any given day Jones has 187,000 listeners, compared to 552,000 viewers of Nine National News, and nearly 1 million buyers of the Sydney newspapers. Those who do listen are disproportionately older, believe that the Coalition is doing a good job, and
ABC Learning Centres: A case study of Australia’s largest child care corporation
Concerns have been raised about the quality of care provided by corporate chain child care centres (see Australia Institute Discussion Paper 84). ABC Learning Centres is the largest corporate child care chain in Australia, providing more than 20 per cent of all long day care places. This paper reports the results of interviews carried out
May 2006
Cross Media Ownership: New media or more of the same?
While there is a claim that new media is making Australia more pluralistic, there is little evidence to support this. 95% of people get there information on domestic news and current affairs from traditional media, compared to 3% from the internet. The most popular internet news sites are owned by the major traditional media outlets.
April 2006
Child Care Quality in Australia
Recent public debate about the child care system in Australia has focused primarily on the availability and affordability of child care. This paper considers an aspect of child care that has received much less attention, that of the quality of the care provided. Results from a national survey of long day care centre staff suggest
Equality of Opportunity in Australia: Myth and reality
Public policy debate about equality of opportunity in Australia currently centres around the distribution of disposable incomes and the role played by taxes and transfers. In contrast, this paper presents the available evidence on underlying structural inequalities of education, health, employment, housing and location. Based on international evidence, the paper argues that governments which address
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
This report 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