The centrepiece of the budget is an enormous income tax cut over seven years. This is unusual because the budget papers only show the impacts of policy changes over four years. What is also unusual is that the big parts of the tax cuts start in the fifth year, just outside the budget’s forward estimates

Of the tax cuts in the 2018 Federal Budget, Australian women get half the tax cut of men. New research today by The Australia Institute shows about two thirds of the benefit of the income tax cuts proposed will flow to men, while previous spending cuts have mainly disadvantaged women.

The Community Development Program (CDP) is remote Australia’s Work for the Dole (WFD) and “job assistance” scheme. In place since 2015, it operates across almost 75 percent of Australia’s area, an area with a population of just 304,000 people. Indigenous people are over 80% of the CDP’s 34,000 participants. In other words, CDP participants are

The continuing decline of Australia’s official development assistance Reports suggest that Australia’s aid spending, already at record lows, could be cut further to 0.18% of Australia’s Gross National Income. This would make Australia’s aid contribution proportionately lower than that of Greece. 

Workers in all parts of the economy are confronting twin threats from accelerating changes in technology and automation, and the ongoing shift toward more precarious and irregular forms of work — including “gigs” on digital platforms.  The transportation sector is widely acknowledged to be one of the most susceptible to both of these trends.  The

The Minerals Council of Australia featured in 1,594 Australian news stories in the last year mentioning coal. This was three times more than iron ore, far more than any other mineral. Yet only 16 of the MCA’s 45 members mine coal at all. Just 3 are entirely focused on thermal coal. The biggest members, BHP

Governments around the world offer incentives to support electric vehicles. Australia does not. This paper examines how we can boost electric vehicle sales – in four proven, low-cost ways. There is a race to transition the world’s massive car fleet to electric vehicles and Australia is falling behind. Technological improvements make electric vehicles more affordable

What we do and don’t know about mines, closures and rehabilitation in Victoria. Little data is available to the public on the clean-up from the mining boom. State government agencies often lack basic information on how many mines are in operation, with still less published on closures and abandonments.

Australian governments have been trying to develop northern Australia for a long time, with the latest policy papers and Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility just the most recent in a long tradition of generally unsuccessful attempts to entice more people to the continent’s north with the promise of jobs and prosperity. The Ord River irrigation scheme

The Tasmanian Joint Select Committee on Future Gaming Markets is currently considering the future of poker machines in Tasmania, including a possible reduction in the number of machines and whether to retain the monopoly position of Federal Group (set to expire in 2023). The Committee has received 148 submissions and held six days of public hearings. This paper looks

A new report from The Australia Institute’s Senior Economist, Matt Grudnoff, reviews the economic impact of the South Australian government’s proposed bank levy. The research finds that the banks are not only very capable of paying the 0.0036% levy on the same liabilities that the federal government levy is based on, but also that the

The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to a submission to the Inquiry into the Major Bank Levy Bill 2017 and the Treasury Laws Amendment (Major Bank Levy) Bill 2017. This submission should be read in conjunction with some earlier submissions to Senate Inquiries. In particular we refer to our submission to the Senate Economics Committee

The Australia Institute has tested two claims made in response to the bank levy announced in the Federal Budget: that the impact of the levy will be passed onto customers, and that it will be borne by shareholders, affecting Australian superannuation savings. —For paper see PDF below— In either scenario, the research finds that the

The Labor party has announced a policy to limit the deduction that can be claimed for managing your tax affairs to $3,000. The complexity of the tax system means that some people are spending large amounts of money on accounting advice to take advantage of tax loopholes to significantly reduce their taxable income. They can then reduce their disposable

New research from The Australia Institute has found that the Prime Minister’s electorate is the biggest reaps the greatest benefit from capital gains tax discount, by a large margin. CGT discount expected to cost the budget $9.6 billion dollars this year (2016-17) $44 billion over the next four years. Historical data also shows that, in

As the mining boom winds down and the mining clean up boom begins, mine site rehabilitation and mine abandonment are emerging as major issues for Australian communities, governments and taxpayers. All stakeholders will need information on the status of mines and their rehabilitation efforts to ensure this is carried out in a way that does

Report on what we do and don’t know about mines, closures and rehabilitation in New South Wales. Little data is available to the public on the clean-up from the mining boom. State government agencies often lack basic information on how many mines are in operation, with still less published on closures and abandonments.

In the 2016 budget the government announced that it would close carbon tax compensation to new recipients of welfare payments. This would save the government $1.4 billion over the forward estimates, by reducing the income of some of the poorest Australians by around $10 per fortnight.  This cut was introduced to the Parliament in September

A full third of the benefit of a company tax cut would be enjoyed by just 15 companies in Australia. Once phased in the cut would be worth $6.7 billion per year to these companies. Most of these companies are ‘oligopolies’ that dominate their markets and have little incentive to reinvest proceeds of a tax

This paper looks at the effect that the fall in tax revenue post Global Financial Crisis (GFC) had on the Commonwealth’s budget. It does this by modelling what would have happened if revenue had instead remained at the government’s tax revenue target of 23.9 per cent of GDP. The difference between what actually happened and

Gas industry funding and direct involvement in research committees of GISERA, the research body that conducts research on social and environmental impacts of CSG, is potentially compromising the scientific independence of CSIRO. The five main Queensland gas companies provide the lion’s share of funding to the Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research Alliance (GISERA) – the Gas Industry Social

Modelling shows that Australia’s economy would be barely affected by a moratorium on approval of new coal mines and mine expansions.  As the world works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it will need to burn less coal. As a result, the world will need less coal mines. In the lead up to the Paris climate

In the 2016 budget the government announced that it would close carbon tax compensation to new recipients of government welfare benefits.  This will have the effect of reducing the amount paid to welfare recipients. This will save the government $1.3 billion over the forward estimates. The clean energy supplement was not the only part of

New research released by the Australia Institute today shows that government moves to cut unemployment benefits will put recipients at 32% below the poverty line. The research also highlights staggering inequality in Australia where the 10 richest Australian families have the same wealth as the poorest 3.9 million Australians combined.

New England is an electorate that has faced a rapidly rising unemployment rate over the last 3 years. It has seen unemployment rise 2.7% since the last election. Over the same period the national unemployment rate has risen 0.1%. The number of unemployed has increased by 2,094 since the last election. This rapid rise in

While the national unemployment rate might be 5.7% this average unemployment hides important variations. The Australia Institute has assessed unemployment by regional variation by federal electorate using Department of Employment data. While the average unemployment rate in Queensland is 6.5% the unemployment rate varies across the electorates, from 4.4% in Maranoa to 10.5% in Hinkler.

While the national unemployment rate might be 5.7% this average unemployment hides important variations. The Australia Institute has assessed unemployment by regional variation by federal electorate using Department of Employment data. The average unemployment rate in South Australia is 6.8%, but the unemployment rate varies significantly across the state, from 5.0% in Boothby to 10.6%