Read the full report: 2018 tax cuts by electorate. Table of electorates Rank Electorate Percentage  of average Party 1 Wentworth 192% LIB 2 North Sydney 180% LIB 3 Warringah 172% LIB 4 Sydney 167% ALP 5 Melbourne Ports 160% ALP 6 Higgins 159% LIB 7 Bradfield 158% LIB 8 Kooyong 156% LIB 9 Grayndler 154% ALP

Less than half of employed Australians now hold a “standard” job: that is, a permanent full-time paid job with leave entitlements. That’s the startling finding of a new report on the growing insecurity of work published by the Centre for Future Work.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions has released a major policy paper outlining an ambitious, multi-faceted program to address the chronic shortage of work, and the steady erosion of job quality, in Australia. The full paper, Jobs You Can Count On, is available on the ACTU’s website.  It contains specific proposals to stimulate much stronger job-creation, reduce unemployment and underemployment, improve job quality (including through repairs to Australia’s industrial relations system), and ensure that all communities (including traditionally marginalised populations like indigenous peoples, women, youth, and people with disability) have full access to the decent work opportunities that the plan would generate.

4 May 2018 Dear Auditor-General, Supply measure projects  We refer to the proposed amendment to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. That amendment is based on 36 ‘supply measure’ projects. Supply measures aim to achieve the same environmental outcome as under the original Basin Plan, but using less water. The Commonwealth has committed $1.6 billion to implement these supply measures. The

The Auditor-General has received correspondence from Senators Patrick, Griff, Hanson-Young and Bernardi, Ms Rebekha Sharkie MP and the Hon. Tony Burke MP dated 24 April 2018, requesting that the Auditor-General conduct an investigation to examine the purchases of water for environmental flows in the Murray-Darling Basin. This request is under consideration and the response will

The company tax cuts represents a choice. $65 billion dollars to business means billions less investment in community services, nation-building infrastructure, R&D or jobs training. What we know is that the Government has had to put this legislation on hold when they could not find enough support to pass the legislation in the Senate. The

Victoria’s brown coal power plants are a liability for the National Electricity Market, and they’re just going to get worse. Victoria’s brown coal power plants are a liability for the National Electricity Market. Over the 2017–18 summer, The Australia Institute Climate & Energy Program’s Gas & Coal Watch found 16 major breakdowns at Victoria’s three brown

WTF2050 asks its guest to pick an idea they would like to see come to life by 2050. In Series 1 we spotlighted Tasmanian change makers and gave a platform for the future ideas that can transform this State. Tasmanians of the Year Rosalie Martin and Scott Rankin shared their ambitious goals, a prison free

The Coalition’s company tax cuts represent one of the largest hits to our revenue in recent times, so it comes as a surprise that the legislation has not even been subject to an inquiry. For those keen to point out that this legislation represents ‘just’ the company tax cuts for big business, and that the

1/ Giving business a $65 billion dollar tax cut means billions of dollars less for schools, hospitals and other services. Giving business a $65 billion dollar tax cut means billions of dollars less for services like schools and hospitals. Treasury modelling even assumes these company tax cuts will be matched by cuts to services and

The Australia Institute and others have made the point that company tax cuts can only benefit foreign shareholders. Australia’s system of dividend imputation means that Australian shareholders will not benefit from reductions in the company tax rate. Australian shareholders would notice any increase in company after-tax profit being matched by a loss in franking credits

It’s not an accident that understanding how it all works is boring. The detail of tax is a lot like superannuation. It’s complicated and most people find it boring. The thing is, understanding how franking credits can work as a tax loophole is boring on purpose. It’s important to some people that you think tax

Dr. Jim Stanford, Director of The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work, spoke with the ABC’s Nick Grimm about how changes in technology, along with more flexible yet less secure jobs, will affect the way we work. Okay, the robots aren’t actually coming, but automation and self-driving vehicle technology has many forecasters predicting that workers

Read a pdf version here

To Premier Will Hodgman and Opposition Leader Rebecca White, Public trust in government is at an all-time low around Australia. We are working together to improve accountability and trust in public administration at a state and federal level. After the long-standing allegations about the role of the gambling industry in the fall of the Tasmanian

Introduction The proponents of the company tax cut for big business suggest that logic is on the side of the company-tax-cutters and not the critics. We at The Australia Institute take issue with that view. There is an assumption that cutting taxes produce economic benefits as a matter of economic logic. For example often you hear

Chief Economist Richard Denniss talks econobabble with Dr. Karl on his podcast Shirtloads of Science. Most Australians are not economists and neither are our politicians. Despite this, public debate is saturated with econobabble — opaque economic terminology used deliberately to obscure what you think a word means. Subsidies, markets, tax concessions and dividend imputation are all examples of the

Clean energy technology is becoming competitive with fossil fuels, globally. This provides the basis for a new strategic approach to solving the political aspect of the climate threat.This is a speech given at ‘Imagining a Different Future Conference’, Hobart, on 8 February 2018, hosted by the University of Tasmania, the University of Utrecht Ethics Institute,

In this week’s Follow The Money podcast Deputy Director at The Australia Institute Ebony Bennett, speaks with Principal Advisor Mark Ogge, about Australia’s ageing Gas and Coal fleet and why they can’t hack the heat. This summer alone we’ve seen extreme heat waves, bush fires and we’ve just smashed the record for the hottest 5 year period globally — for Australia’s

The Fair Work Commission’s ruling to pre-emptively block industrial action (including restrictions on overtime and a one-day work stoppage) by Sydney-area train workers has brought renewed attention to the legal and administrative barriers which limit collective action by Australian workers. The Sydney trains experience is a high-profile example of a much larger trend. Across the

In the wake of the Trump Administration’s success in pushing a major company tax cut through the U.S. Congress, the Australian Treasurer has stepped up his calls for reduced company taxes here. He claims Australia will bypass the growth-inducing benefits of these tax cuts, but Dr. Anis Chowdhury, Associate of the Centre for Future Work, has compiled the economic evidence.  The U.S. experience shows no statistical evidence of any “trickle-down” growth dividend from company tax cuts.

1/ Giving business a $65 billion dollar tax cut means billions of dollars less for schools, hospitals and other government services. Giving business a $65 billion dollar tax cut means billions of dollars less for government services like schools and hospitals. Treasury modelling even assumes these company tax cuts will be matched by cuts to government

A world tackling climate change needs fewer coal mines, not more. Australian governments still refuse to put a moratorium on new coal mines, and our emissions are climbing. However, we’re going into 2018 with a sense of optimism, because 2017 is ending with a rush of good news for #nonewcoalmines. Here are some highlights we

The Australia Institute is one of the country’s most influential think tanks. Based in Canberra, we conduct research on a broad range of economic, social, transparency and environmental issues in order to inform public debate and bring greater accountability to the democratic process. The Australia Institute provides intellectual and policy leadership. We conduct research that

The Centre for Future Work invites applications for an economist to join our research team in labour market research and policy analysis, working from our offices in Sydney or Canberra.

1/ Giving business a $65 billion dollar tax cut means billions of dollars less for schools, hospitals and other government services. Giving business a $65 billion dollar tax cut means billions of dollars less for government services like schools and hospitals. Treasury modelling even assumes these company tax cuts will be matched by cuts to government

An open letter, published as a full-page advertisement in today’s Australian Financial Review, calls for a higher emission reduction target for the electricity sector – well above the 26% proposed by the government’s National Energy Guarantee (NEG). — See full letter in pdf below — Signatories to the letter comprise high-profile business leaders, CEOs, academics,

The simple the truth is, we have enough cheap easy-to-extract gas in Australia to last 100 years. So we at the Australia Institute have been hard at work debunking the gas lies and econobabble. The simple the truth is, we have enough cheap easy-to-extract gas in Australia to last 100 years. As Australia Institute advisor, Mark Ogge,

Australia has plenty of cheap gas. The problem is private companies are selling it all overseas, writes principal adviser at the Australia Institute Mark Ogge. Hard to believe, isn’t it? But it’s true: in the last decade, tens of thousands of square kilometers of Queensland farmland has been covered in gas fields. The export gas rush in