Peter Whiting. With the Federal Budget to be brought down on 6 October, the economic impact of the pandemic and the appropriate fiscal response are attracting serious commentary. Always high on the list of responses is change to income tax; others argue for delay of increases in the superannuation levy, increases in investment incentives, and […]
Mark Diesendorf UNSW. The Morrison government in late September revealed the five low-emissions technologies it will prioritise for investment. The so called ‘technology roadmap‘ offers scant support for renewable energy, for reasons which do not stand up to scrutiny. The technologies at the centre of the roadmap are: clean hydrogen energy storage low-carbon steel and […]
Vivienne Skinner University of Technology Sydney.Phillippa Carnemolla University of Technology Sydney. Australia’s six-month moratorium on evictions is due to end soon. Some states have extended the moratorium, but when it ends it’s likely to force even more Australians than ever into housing insecurity and outright homelessness. The moral and health arguments for housing people are […]
Hal Pawson UNSW, Bill Randolph UNSW, Chris Leishman, Duncan Maclennan University of Glasgow. A new report from the New South Wales Productivity Commission (NSWPC) announces that “[higher] housing costs […] impose broader economic costs”. That chimes with our own newly published research. The implication is that Australia’s heavily capitalised housing market will weigh down economic […]
A report released in early September summarises the extent and effects of income and wealth inequality before Covid-19, and provides a lens through which to assess the affects of Covid-19, as it continues and governments and businesses respond. The third 2020 publication from the five-year Poverty & Inequality Partnership between the Australian Council of Social […]
Michael Keating. This article discusses the extra stimulus which should be incorporated in the October Budget, and what form that stimulus should take. In the lead-up to the forthcoming October Budget, the government has encouraged speculation that its future support for economic recovery will mainly rely on: The already-announced extension of JobKeeper and JobSeeker assistance. […]
Australia’s youth has been hit hardest by the unemployment crisis, and is bankrolling the financial advantages enjoyed by older generations. Yet, they are told the pandemic is a good opportunity to grow and develop coping mechanisms. Michael Tanner reports on a new form of victim blaming. The mental health of young people – already teetering […]
Reaganomics and Thatcherism were characterised by huge transfers of income and wealth from the poor to the rich, writes Roger Beale. Even such august institutions as the Productivity Commission argue that there’s little to be gained by going down the road of labour market flexibility. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has suggested we look to the Reagan […]
An alliance of Australia’s leading industry groups has called on governments to commit to reaching zero net emissions by 2050, warning that without a “coherent national response to climate change the future prosperity of the nation will be at risk”. The Australian Climate Roundtable, whose members represent the main business lobby groups including the BCA […]
The Covid-19 crisis has deepened sharply in Australia, with Victoria going into Stage 4 lockdown, and other states on edge. The situation in many other countries is far worse than this, and the prospects immediately ahead fill one with dread. Last month, our editorial noted that various of our articles were ‘urging policy makers to […]
Covid-19 presents us with an opportunity: increased equality in society, resilient to the challenges ahead, or a society ruled by power imbalances, struggling to cope with natural and man-made disasters. Pre-Covid Thirty years ago, it was demonstrated that, in an environment in which access to health care was equitable, health outcomes were determined by position […]
