Paul Smyth. Paul Smyth examines the recent UK report, outlining a ‘Plan for the New Economy’. One of the UK’s leading non-party think tanks, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), established a Commission on Economic Justice in 2016, after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, to examine the challenges facing the UK economy […]
Sven Teske University of Technology Sydney. The world can limit global warming to 1.5℃ and move to 100% renewable energy while still preserving a role for the gas industry, and without relying on technological fixes such as carbon capture and storage, according to our new analysis. The One Earth Climate Model – a collaboration between […]
Julie Lawson RMIT University, Hal Pawson UNSW, Laurence Troy UNSW, Ryan van den Nouwelant Western Sydney University. Australia needs to triple its small stock of social housing over the next 20 years to cover the existing backlog and newly emerging need. That is the central finding of our new research report on the housing infrastructure needs of low-income […]
Editorial Peter Whiting. Regrettably, many of us have by now become inured to those frequent advertisements asking us to sponsor an animal under threat of extinction. Even more sadly, we do not respond with quite the same generosity as of old to similar requests to support children in distress in countries torn apart by war, […]
Editorial. Australia has made little progress in recent decades to alleviate childhood poverty, according to Brian Lawrence, speaking on 17 October at an Anti-Poverty Week event, sponsored by Catholic Social Services Victoria. He said wages for many people were too low to lift children out of poverty. Mr Lawrence has drafted submissions and appeared at […]
Once again, we are battered by bad news of the possibility of widespread malpractice in another major sector, as Prime Minister Morrison has announced a royal commission into aged care, with allegations of price gouging by some pro-profits, chronic understaffing, appalling wages for staff, and poor nutrition for many of those in aged care. Coming […]
Michael Yore. It’s time for Australia to reassert the value of housing as a basic human right”, proclaims the 2018-2019 Social Justice Statement from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. And quite rightly! A strong human rights perspective correctly guides and colours the entire statement on housing and homelessness in Australia with the statement basing the […]
Richard Holden UNSW, & Rosalind Dixon UNSW. Richard Denniss’s Quarterly Essay, Dead Right: How Neoliberalism Ate Itself and What Comes Next, is a thought-provoking call to arms against an array of perceived ills – economic rationalism, market forces, small government, tax cuts, incentives, even corporate sponsorship. Denniss provides a useful provocation for a much-needed debate in Australia […]
John Menadue. Pauline Hanson usually votes for the wealthy end of town. She’s done it again. Upper income earners will be the biggest beneficiaries over the next seven years with the recent tax cuts. Average total earnings for employees are about $62,000 a year. Moving to a flat marginal tax rate of 32.5% for incomes […]
Jason Davies-Kildea (Captain). While the 2018 Federal Budget contains some positive initiatives, it fails to deliver on one of the biggest drivers of poverty and disadvantage in the country – the cost of housing. Every day, organisations like The Salvation Army see thousands of Australians struggling to keep up with everyday living expenses. A recent […]
John Menadue. A revealing heading appeared in an article a while back by Ross Gittins, the economics editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, Faster growth demands better chief executives. He concluded his article by pointing to the need for business leadership to seize the economic opportunities. “Our overpaid and underperforming chief executive officers are getting […]
