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Economics
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July 2020
Poverty in the age of coronavirus: The impact of the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement on poverty
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.
June 2020
Participating in growth: Free childcare and increased participation
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.
May 2020
‘Snap back’ or slide down: The impact of a 10 percent recession on the growth path for Australian GDP
If the Australian economy shrinks by 10 percent in the first half of 2020 it will likely take at least 21 months before Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reaches the levels achieved in the December quarter of 2019. Australia has never experienced such a deep and long-lasting reduction in the level of its national income. In
Tasmanian Design Principles for Fiscal Policy in the Pandemic
The economic crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic requires fast, large, effective and well targeted fiscal stimulus. While the size of the federal government’s initial three spending packages is appropriate as an initial response, both the shape of that response and the design of future spending measures need to be carefully evaluated. While the
April 2020
Design Principles for Fiscal Policy in a Pandemic
The economic crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic requires fast, large, effective and well targeted fiscal stimulus. While the size of the government’s initial three spending packages is appropriate as an initial response, both the shape of that response and the design of future spending measures need to be carefully evaluated. This paper argues
February 2020
Super expensive
December 2019
June 2019
$33 billion delivered to those earning more than $180k from unlegislated income tax cuts: new research
The final stage of the Morrison Government’s unlegislated income tax plan, stage 3(a) will, over the five years after it is introduced in 2024-25, deliver a $33 billion benefit to those earning more than $180,000, according to a new distributional analysis from The Australia Institute’s senior economist Matt Grudnoff. The Morrison Government is yet to
May 2019
April 2019
Regressing on tax
The tax cuts announced in the budget will make Australia’s income tax system less progressive, hand billions to high income earners and for every dollar in tax cuts to females, males will get two dollars
February 2019
January 2019
What’s a Million, Anyway?
In the lead-up to the 2013 federal election, then-Opposition Leader Tony Abbott made a high-profile pledge that a Coalition government, if elected, would create 1 million new jobs over the next five years. Abbott was elected (although later ousted by his own party), and total employment in Australia did indeed grow by over 1 million positions between 2013 and 2018. Current Prime Minister Scott Morrison hopes that this success can resuscitate his party’s flagging fortunes: he has pledged, if elected, to create even more jobs (1.25 million) over the next five years.
November 2018
Submission to Department of Environment and Energy: Underwriting New Generation Investments
The Australia Institute has considerable concerns about the proposed program tounderwrite new generation investments. In particular, the proposal seems to confusetwo separate issues. The first is that the reliability standard in the NEM is met. This ishighlighted in the consultation paper by reference to AEMO’s latest ElectricityStatement of Opportunities that the NEM will need an
Who really benefits from negative gearing?
Key Findings: High-income households and Liberal held electorates are the biggest beneficiaries of negative gearing. Key Findings:Negative gearing primarily benefits high income households Young are the biggest losers from negative gearing Liberal held electorates the biggest winners fromnegative gearing [READ REPORT]
October 2018
Australia, we need to talk about revenue
Introduction The debate in Australia about the Federal Government’s Budget has too often focused on what spending will get cut to fund what tax cuts. Australia has also obsessed which Treasurer will deliver a budget surplus in which year. What has been lost in this simplistic debate is that tax is the price we pay
The Future of Transportation Work: Special Series, WA Transport
A special 6-part series of short articles from WA Transport Magazine: Researchers have identified the transportation industry as one of the sectors likely to be most affected by the coming implementation of new technologies: such as self-driving vehicles, artificial intelligence, and automated logistics systems. How will transportation workers fare as these technologies are rolled out, and
September 2018
Stay on Target: Australia set to miss Paris Target
Australia is off-track and looks set to miss its Paris emission reduction target. National emissions are rising and the government seems unwilling or unable to agree on credible policies to reduce emissions. The Commonwealth Government has shelved its centrepiece new climate and energy policy, the National Energy Guarantee (NEG). The Large-Scale Renewable Energy Target (RET)
July 2018
Harming Farming: The cost to agriculture from the government’s emissions reduction plan
Australia’s commitment under the Paris climate agreement is to reduce carbon emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. With the announcement of the National Energy Guarantee the government has required the electricity sector to reduce its emissions by 26 per cent. This implies other sectors such as agriculture will also
June 2018
Bracket Creep: The Imaginary Monster
Australian taxpayers have been overcompensated for bracket creep and there is no need for further income tax cuts to reduce its effects. The government uses bracket creep to justify the income tax plan outlined in the 2018 Budget. The government claims that bracket creep is having a negative impact on the economy and income tax
Gini out of the bottle – inequality in Australia is getting worse
Inequality is getting worse in Australia with the income share of the top 10% growing at the expense of everyone else. On Monday 18 June, The Australia Institute, Australia21 and the former Treasurer, the Hon Wayne Swan MP, jointly hosted a roundtable discussion in Parliament House on dealing with economic inequality in Australia. The report was
Submission: Personal Income Tax
This paper examines the government’s 2018 personal income tax proposals by presenting a distributional analysis of the tax cuts and then looking at some general tax principles and considerations that we can use to assess the present proposals. We begin in the next section by outlining exactly how the government intends the tax cuts to
Which electorates benefit from the 2018 income tax cuts?
The analysis looks at the average change in disposable household income compared to the average change for the whole of Australia in 2024–25, which is the first year the income tax cuts would be fully implemented. The biggest winners from the tax cut are wealthy electorates in Sydney and Melbourne. As shown in Table 1,
May 2018
High income earners the big winners from scrapping 37% tax bracket
In the 2018 Budget, the government announced a radical plan to reshape the income tax system over the next seven years. While the first stage of the plan largely involves tax refunds for low and middle income earners, stage two and three would remove the 37 per cent tax bracket – and, as a consequence,