Peter Whiteford Crawford School of Public Policy Australian National University 1 December 2020. The Robodebt class action bought by Gordon Legal has been settled at a cost to the government of around $1.2 billion. According to federal Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten, this is the biggest class action in Australian legal history. This comprised refunds of […]
1 December 2020. The government has targeted its JobMaker Hiring Credit too narrowly. The scheme to go before the Senate this week will give employers who take on someone aged 16 to 29 years who has been on JobSeeker or a related benefit a bonus of A$200 per week, and a bonus of $100 per […]
John Hawkins University of Canberra. The International Monetary Fund this week delivered a somewhat surprising message. It warned Earth was on course for “potentially catastrophic” damage under climate change, and called for green investment and carbon prices to put the global economy on a stronger, more sustainable footing. Of course, the message itself makes a […]
Hal Pawson UNSW & Cameron Parsell University of Queensland COVID-19 triggered multimillion-dollar commitments by state governments to tackle homelessness. Our research for the Australian Homelessness Monitor 2020, released today, reveals at least 33,000 rough sleepers and other homeless people have been booked into hotels and other temporary accommodation during the crisis. Beyond this, several states […]
1 November 2020. Too often, the public debate is about whether regulation should be decreased. Regulation typically exists for a reason, however, and the issue should be how to regulate effectively. The Prime Minister has embraced deregulation as a prominent feature of his reform agenda. But what does that mean? For businesses, the catchcry of […]
1 November 2020. The new social encyclical of Pope Francis is a cry for those oppressed by poverty, hunger, and exclusion, protesting against the injustice of a world with so much wealth failing to do enough for everyone to have the opportunity for a reasonably good life. Not surprisingly, Francis drew from the parable of […]
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 […]
