Australia’s native forest sector has experienced a significant contraction over the past five years. This is reflected in log production from native forests: roundwood removals over the period 2009-2011 were 30 per cent below the average from the previous 18 years. Similarly, woodchip exports, a mainstay of the hardwood sector, fell by 33 per cent

The government would have had an additional $38 billion for last year’s federal government budget and would have collected an extra $169 billion over the past seven years had it not been for unsustainable income tax cuts that were made in the lead up to the GFC. Had the income tax cuts not been made,

Electricity prices are a major contributor to cost of living pressures and a major cause of concern for Australian consumers. While the carbon tax has recently been depicted as the main culprit in electricity price increases, electricity prices have been increasing rapidly for the past two decades. The cost of electricity increased by 170 per

Superannuation is unlike any other product in Australia. There is no other product that all employees are forced to spend nine per cent of their income buying. In fact, the proportion of income spent on compulsory superannuation is to rise to 12 per cent by 2020. But it is not just individuals that spend a

Recent government approaches to childcare funding have been simple rather than innovative. Improvements in affordability have been short lived, with benefits quickly absorbed through higher costs charged to families. The result is an ongoing game of catch up between government and service providers with families stuck in the middle. Since 2001, the proportion of Australian

Australians spend more money each week on superannuation fees than they do on electricity, yet only a small portion of those with superannuation pay close, if any, attention to the decisions made on their behalf by their superannuation ‘trustees’. Similarly, while Australian households now hold nearly $1 trillion in institutional superannuation funds few, if any,

Since the beginning of the mining boom Australia’s rural sector has lost $61.5 billion in export income. This includes $18.9 billion in 2011-12 alone. These losses have occurred because the mining boom has forced the Australian dollar to historic highs. The damage the mining boom is doing to other sectors has created what has been

This paper looks at how Australian governments have responded to anti-microbial resistance (AMR) since the problem became evident in the 1980s. Of particular importance in Australia’s response was the 1999 establishment of the Joint Expert Technical Advisory Committee on Antibiotic Resistance (JETACAR), which was set up to provide independent expert scientific advice on the threat

Some industries have far more political influence than others, and some political systems are more susceptible to the influence of industries than others. In Australia, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is currently investigating evidence of the links between the previous NSW Labor Government and the mining industry. In the words of Geoffrey Watson, QC,

It is often argued that reductions in the corporate tax rate are necessary to create employment, increase investment and deliver a range of other benefits to the Australian community. However, despite the widespread support for this view, particularly among the business community, the theoretical and empirical case for such an expensive change in policy is

On 22 November 2012, the timber industry and environmental non-government organisations released the Tasmanian Forest Agreement 2012 (TFA). The agreement includes a number of components, the most significant of which are the support for the creation of an additional 504,012 ha of forest reserves, a reduction in the high quality sawlog guarantee from 300,000 m3

The Australian banking industry is the most concentrated in the world and also the most profitable. In fact the ‘big four’ Australian banks make up four of the eight most profitable banks in the world. The big banks have conceded that they are not highly competitive but have argued that their market power provides benefits

The object of this report was to analyse the carbon credits that could be generated by stopping all harvesting in the public native forests covered by the Conservation Commission of Western Australia’s Draft Forest Management Plan 2014-2023 (FMP forests). These forests cover an area of ~850,000 ha and have produced 300,000-500,000 m3 yr-1 of logs

Australians work some of the longest hours in the developed world – substantially longer than their counterparts in Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway. For many Australians though, work stress is related not to the number of hours worked, but a mismatch between the workers’ desired and actual hours of work, and the inflexibility of these arrangements. This is true for workers across the earning spectrum.

Summary Since the beginning of the mining boom Australia’s rural sector has lost $43.5 billion in export income. This includes $14.9 billion in 2010-11 alone. These losses have occurred because the mining boom has forced the Australian dollar to historic highs. The damage the mining boom is doing to other sectors has created what has

Eight in every ten Australians are a member of a co-operatively owned, or mutually owned enterprise (co-ops and mutuals) such as a road side assistance organisation (NRMA, RACV), a member-owned superannuation fund (AustralianSuper), a mutually owned bank (such as bankmecu) or a consumer cooperative (Co-op Bookshop). Similarly, large businesses such as the dairy co-operative Murray

The introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in July 2000 by the Howard Government was, we were told, likely to lead to a significant reduction in the size of the ‘cash’ or ‘black’ economy. The 2003 report to the then Tax Commissioner from the Cash Economy Task Force stated: The new tax system

An analysis of the economics of duckhunting in Victoria.

With increasing awareness of the dangers of climate change, the world is hunting for other forms of power generation that produce lower emissions of greenhouse gas. While gas is not a zero emissions energy source, it has come to be seen by some as a ‘bridging fuel’. In Australia an increasingly important source of gas

The purpose of this brief is to estimate the profit earned on mortgages by the ANZ Bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the National Australia Bank and the Westpac Banking Corporation known as big four banks. The method here is to estimate the average profit margin on bank home loans and then to apply that

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

This study aims to present a broad outline of the liquor industry in Australia and the influences on it.

On 26 June 2012 the Senate referred the following matter to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committees for inquiry and report”” The adequacy of the allowance payment system for jobseekers and others, the appropriateness of the allowance payment system as a support into work and the impact of the changing nature of the

The Western Australian government together with Woodside proposes to build the Browse LNG precinct on James Price Point in the Kimberley region of Western Australia (WA). The evidence to support the state government’s claim that the precinct will deliver economic benefits is virtually non-existent. Indeed, a close reading of the scant evidence that is available