New research from the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work reveals the consequences of freezing public service pay, both for public sector workers and for the broader economy.

New research from The Australia Institute has found that a majority of Australians (52%) want to see Newstart boosted to the rate of the Age Pension for the course of the Coronavirus crisis, while one in three Australians (34%) oppose the idea.

The Australian government has pushed back against introducing needed measures to support workers in casual, self-employed, or gig positions during the unprecedented labour market turmoil resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Other countries, however, are moving quickly with unprecedented measures to support jobs and incomes for all workers – including those in non-standard employment – to ensure they can take necessary time away from work, and do not lose their livelihoods as a result of the virus. We have assembled a catalogue of international initiatives aimed at achieving these dual outcomes.

While women have made some progress in closing the wage gap and other dimensions of gender inequality in Australia, they still face daunting and persistent barriers to their full participation and compensation in Australia’s economy.

That’s the conclusion from a new factbook on gender economic inequality in Australia, released by the Centre for Future Work to coincide with International Women’s Day on 8 March.

Welcome to the February 2020 issue of the NEEA Report, presenting electricity related data updated to the end of January 2020. Details on data sources and methods are included in the appendix. This issue then examines the emissions associated with extracting and processing coal and gas for export from Australia. Domestic emissions caused by Australia’s large coal

Supply measure projects that purport to save water in the Yanco Creek System will lead to environmental damage and “greater diversions” for irrigation in the Murrumbidgee according to water agencies. They are likely to be unlawful, with no way of properly assessing environmental equivalence as defined in the Basin Plan.

New research from the Centre for Future Work has dramatised the lasting consequences for workers’ lifetime incomes – even after they retire – of wage freezes.

A wage freeze is often described as a “temporary sacrifice,” that supposedly ends once normal annual wage increments are restored. However, this report confirms that the legacy of even a temporary pay freeze is a permanent reduction in lifetime incomes and superannuation, which can easily ultimately result in hundreds of thousands of dollars of lost income. These long-term effects are illustrated with reference to a real-world example: an 18-month pay freeze imposed on workers at Jetstar in 2014-2016.

Victorian brown coal-fired power plants are some of the worst performing stations in the National Electricity Market. With hot and dry conditions forecast for the rest of this summer, Victoria is at risk of further breakdowns of aging coal generators, insufficient supply and blackouts.

Coal mined in NSW causes more emissions than the UK or France and nearly four times more than directly emitted from NSW itself. NSW climate policy aims for net zero emissions by 2050. Yet in the midst of a bushfire crisis, under coal lobby pressure, the NSW Government seeks to abolish the legal requirement to

Welcome to the January 2020 issue of the NEEA Report, updated to the end of October 2019, and for electricity to the end of December 2019 emissions. Details on data sources and methods are included in the appendix. This issue looks first at total energy combustion emissions to the end of October. Petroleum emissions have

The Commonwealth Government has made technology central to reducing emissions to 2030, but the Australian Renewable Energy Agency has only $200 million to allocate to new projects. With multi-party support for the Agency, legislation to extend its funding should be urgently passed.

New national survey research from The Australia Institute reveals most Australians have been personally impacted by the bushfires and smoke, including millions missing work or suffering health impacts.

Recently released documents show that the vendors in an $80 million water sale had repeatedly offered far lower prices to the Commonwealth but these offers were rejected as ‘not value for money’. The documents mention a company linked to Energy Minister Angus Taylor seven years after it says it ended work with the vendors. The

At a superficial level, Australia’s interests in the Middle East seem to be little more than providing military ballast to support the imperial or global ambitions of great powers. It is for that reason that, for 80 of the past 100 years, Australia has maintained some form of defence presence in the Middle East. As

New research from The Australia Institute has found that two thirds of Australians believe the country is facing a climate emergency and that the Government should mobilise all of society to tackle the issue, like they did during the World Wars.

New research from The Australia Institute has revealed that nearly one third of Australians (30%) are expecting to receive a gift that they will never use this Christmas.

Welcome to the December 2019 issue of the NEEA Electricity Update, with data updated to the end of November 2019. The Electricity Update presents data onelectricity demand, electricity supply, and electricity generation emissions in the National Electricity Market (NEM), plus electricity demand in the South West Interconnected System (SWIS). Since the start of 2018 we