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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
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- International & Security Affairs
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December 2016
Economic Aspects of Paid Domestic Violence Leave Provisions
Economic insecurity is one of the greatest factors inhibiting victims of domestic violence from escaping violent situations at home. To address that problem unions and employers have developed paid domestic violence leave provisions which allow victims to attend legal proceedings, medical appointments, or other events or activities related to the violence they have experienced, without
The Economic, Fiscal, and Social Importance of Aluminium Manufacturing in Portland, Victoria
The unit price of aluminium is more than 50 times greater than the unit price of bauxite. Yet Australia is growing its presence at the lower-value end of this industry – while perversely shrinking its presence in an industry whose output sells for 50 times as much. In recent years, Australia’s downstream capabilities in aluminium
November 2016
Beyond Belief: Construction Labour and the Cost of Housing in Australia
Remember when Prime Minister Turnbull and Immigration Minister Dutton blamed unionized construction workers for the high cost of housing in Australia? The idea that workers (not property speculators or bankers) are to blame for the property bubble is pretty far-fetched — in fact, it sparked a viral storm on social media, using the #blameunions hashtag.
Hard to Get Away: Is the paid holiday under threat in Australia?
The focus of this year’s Go Home on Time Day is the threat to the “Great Aussie Holiday.” Thanks to the rise of precarious work in all its forms, a growing share of Australian workers (about one-third, according to our research) have no access to something we once took for granted: a paid annual holiday.
Excessive Hours and Unpaid Overtime: An update
The focus of this year’s Go Home on Time Day is the threat to the “Great Aussie Holiday.” Thanks to the rise of precarious work in all its forms, a growing share of Australian workers (about one-third, according to our research) have no access to something we once took for granted: a paid annual holiday.
October 2016
Auto Shutdown Will Deliver Another Economic Blow
We’ve known for over two years that this day was coming. But that won’t ease its economic and social pain. The shutdown of Australia’s mass motor vehicle assembly industry is now upon us. Ford’s assembly plant in Broadmeadows, Victoria, was the first to go dark: the final Aussie-made Ford has already rolled off the assembly
September 2016
Penny Wise and Pound Foolish
The state government of New South Wales recently awarded a contract for the purchase of 512 new intercity passenger rail cars to a consortium that will manufacture the equipment in South Korea. The contract is worth $2.3 billion, including an unspecified sum to cover maintenance of the double-decker cars over an initial 15-year period. The
June 2016
Economic Management by PM
New report from the Centre for Future Work ranks Prime Ministerships by 10 key economic performance indicators.
Manufacturing (Still) Matters
The problems in Australia’s manufacturing sector are well-known, and many Australians have concluded that the decline in manufacturing is inevitable and universal: that high-wage countries like Australia must accept the loss of manufacturing as an economic reality. But international statistics disprove this pessimism. Worldwide, manufacturing is growing, not shrinking, including in many advanced high-wage countries.
May 2016
A Portrait of Employment Insecurity in Australia
The insecure nature of work in Australia today can be illustrated through the following infographic (based on 2015 data published by the ABS). Australia has over 19 million residents of working age (which the ABS defines as anyone over 15). Of those, 12.5 million “participated” in the labour market (by working or actively seeking it). Participation has declined in recent years, in large part because of poor job prospects; that’s a turnaround from earlier decades when participation (especially by women) increased steadily.
November 2015
Workin’ 9 to 5.30
This paper explores the cost of unpaid overtime, the extent to which Australian workers fail to take a break and the cost of work bleeding into everyday life.