Australian taxpayers contributed $30.2 billion to the private accounts of that portion of the population with superannuation 2011-12. By 2015-16 this sum is projected by Treasury to rise to more than $45 billion by which time it will be, by far, the single largest area of government expenditure. By 2015-16 the taxpayer contribution of $45

The role of unemployment benefits is to insulate people from the severe financial hardship of going to work one day and discovering that they no longer have a job. Few people earning $60,000 per year, raising children and attempting to repay their home loan can afford to remain unemployed for more than a few months

The Australian mining boom has been driven by rapidly rising world commodity prices. Put simply, the world is now willing to pay much higher prices for our coal, iron ore, gold and other resources than they were 10 years ago. For example, gold prices have risen from about 400 $US/ounce in 2004 to about 1600

In order to receive fair treatment through the legal system, it is often necessary to seek assistance from a lawyer. This can be an expensive exercise, depending on the matter to be resolved and one’s capacity to pay for it. The financial costs of pursuing justice can be so high that a great many people

“When I began the study of economics some forty one years ago, I was struck by the incongruity between the models that I was taught and the world that I had seen growing up” – Nobel Prize Winning Economist Joseph Stiglitz. Economic modelling has, for many people involved in Australian policy debates, become synonymous with

Poker machines play a major role in redistributing income away from those with the least and towards those with the most. According to the Productivity Commission the social cost of poker machines is approximately $4.7 billion per year. Perversely, those who profit most from this most inequitable of income distribution devices often justify the existing

The proposal by Waratah Coal to build one of the world’s largest coal mines which will transport its coal through the Great Barrier Reef, in the middle of a mining boom, and at a time when the world is attempting to reduce greenhouse gasses has obviously not been without some controversy. However, despite the obvious

It is often said that to retire with dignity in Australia a couple would need a retirement income of around $50,000 per year. In order to help Australians achieve such levels of retirement incomes Australian taxpayers now contribute around $27 billion per year in tax concessions to help boost the retirement savings of so called

There has been much debate recently about the way that wine sold in Australia should be taxed. The proposal by the Henry Tax Review to move from the current ad valorem tax to a volumetric tax, bringing wine in line with other types of alcoholic drinks, has been fiercely challenged by some in the wine

“The future is in our hands, and it will be defined by the way we handle the current minerals boom. Get it wrong, and we falter. Get it right, and we set the nation up for decades to come.” Prime Minister, the Hon. Julia Gillard The Australian economy, like all modern economies, is diverse and

The recent debate about productivity trends in Australia has revolved around the reported decline in labour productivity growth. For example, the new Secretary of the Treasury, Dr Martin Parkinson recently stated: “Australia’s productivity growth, measured in terms of both labour productivity and multifactor productivity, has slowed, and there is little reason to believe it will

The internet today stands at a crossroads. Entry into the online marketplace is in theory open to virtually anyone with sufficient technological know-how and a viable business model. As a result, the World Wide Web is now the very model of diversity, with more information, more products and more opinions accessible more easily than through

The Coalition has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by five per cent on 2000 levels by 2020. It proposes to achieve this target with a “Direct Action Plan”: a competitive grant scheme that would buy greenhouse gas reductions from businesses and farmers. Over the past decade various Australian governments have announced more than seven

The Gillard Government is committed to introducing a price on carbon pollution by July 2012 however the details of the price, the sectors of the economy that will be covered by the scheme and the design features of the compensation package that is likely to accompany the carbon price are currently being negotiated by the

The online retail boom has begun and it is unlikely to abate soon. According to Southern Cross Equities (2010) domestic online retailers have doubled their market share to 4.0 per cent of 2010 annual sales up from 2.1 per cent in 2005. In addition, overseas purchases driven by a strong dollar and falling shipping prices

The introduction of a carbon price in Australia in July 2012 will raise more than $10 billion per year, help influence industrial and household decision making and, inevitably, increase the costs and reduce the profits of some businesses. Such increases in cost and the subsequent change in behaviour are, of course, the objective of introducing

Contrary to popular belief, the policies that are most effective in driving down greenhouse gas emissions actually raise revenue rather than cost the budget money. The Gillard Government has recently scrapped, or wound back, a range of policies designed to help reduce greenhouse gasses in order to ensure the budget returns quickly to surplus. These

On 28 October 2010 the Senate referred the topic of competition in the banking sector to the Senate Economics Committee for inquiry. Terms of Reference Competition within the Australian banking sector, including: (a) the current level of competition between bank and non-bank providers; (b) the products available and fees and charges payable on those products;

Time, as they say, is money. In fact, one of the most important aspects of our lives – what we do for a living – involves exchanging our time, in the form of labour, for money. Yet, millions of Australians ‘donate’ unpaid overtime to their employers on a regular basis. Like money, time is vital

Like climate change, the possibility of peak oil poses an uncomfortable challenge to citizens and governments alike in the 21st century. ‘Peak oil’ is the term used to describe the point in time at which the worldwide production of crude oil extraction will be maximised. But while it is inevitable that production will peak at

While the 2007 election was fought on a promise by the ALP to introduce a carbon price the 2010 election was fought by both the ALP and the Coalition on a promise not to do so. For the ALP the promised inaction was until at least 2013 and for the Coalition the promise was open

The Coalition has proposed to cut the size of the Commonwealth public service workforce by 12,000 over the next two years. There has been considerable debate in Canberra, which employs more Commonwealth public servants than any other city, about the likely impact of such a contraction on the local economy. In addition to the direct

The power of Australia’s big four banks is unmistakeable. Their underlying profits equate to almost three per cent of GDP, up from less than one per cent a quarter of a century ago. Of every $100 spent in Australia, nearly $3 ends up as underlying profit for the banks. Profits are so high because the

A price on carbon is widely regarded as an essential element of an efficient response to climate change, yet such an approach has been described as a ‘great big tax on everything’ by opponents. While there is no doubt that putting a price on greenhouse gas emissions will lead to an increase in the price

Despite a great deal of enthusiasm about green jobs, there has been surprisingly little interest in what the concept actually means. Given that the precise definition of a green job will ultimately determine both the environmental effectiveness of the growing body of green-collar workers and the value received in return for significant public investment, the

This paper presents the first data collected for the Measuring what Matters indicators; access to primary health care. The paper begins by presenting new data on why people say they wish to see a doctor and then reports the degree of difficulty that Australians experience as to their ability to make appointments with doctors at

As part of its ongoing research into the design of Australia’s climate-change policies, The Australia Institute recently conducted polling to better understand the relevant experiences and attitudes of Australians. Some of the questions asked related to the Australian Government’s roof insulation scheme and these results are presented below to help inform the Senate inquiry into

Energy market reform and greenhouse policy are complex areas of public policy. It is unlikely that those who designed the current RET/CPRS set out to encourage coal mines to burn their waste methane rather than use it to generate electricity, but that is precisely what is being proposed. This problem can be simply fixed by

The final report from the Productivity Commission into executive remuneration does not recommend any far-reaching changes that will address the excessiveness of executive pay in Australia. However, various policy options are available to rein in executive pay, including: removing the tax concession on capital gains; increasing the top marginal rate of income tax; and, establishing

This paper reveals that Australian workers are ‘donating’ more than their annual leave entitlement back to their employers in the form of unpaid overtime. The typical full-time employee in Australia works 70 minutes of unpaid overtime a day. This equates to 33 eight-hour days per year, or six and a half standard working weeks. Something