Opinion & Commentary
Opinion and Commentary contains media articles written by CIS researchers.
Categories
Should teenaged shop workers receive a pay rise?
A wages claim to pay young retail workers equally to adults may sound like a good idea, but it will be a hard sell. Read More
Union campaign emotive but misleading
It is misleading to assert that Australian workers are being overworked in insecure jobs. Read More
Politics over policy in industrial relations
Employers should be able to determine wages and conditions for new projects. It simply does not make sense that unions must be involved in every new greenfields agreements. Read More
Awards don't deliver fair go
It is possible to increase labour market flexibility, create more jobs and keep the fair go alive by abolishing the outdated industrial award system. Read More
Time to scrap the minimum wage?
To get the unemployed back into work, the government could allow businesses a six-month exemption from the minimum award wage. Read More
A failure of enterprise bargaining mechanics
Australia's current enterprise bargaining system makes it difficult for automotive manufacturers to improve their performance and save jobs. Read More
Increasing Newstart would be a costly failure
An increase in the base rate of Newstart Allowance will not do much to break down the barriers to employment for the long term unemployed. Read More
Our award system is costing too much
Reforming labour market policy must look to the award system, a key part of our flexibility and productivity problem. Read More
A war that’s building over bottles of beer
Watering down the building and construction industry watchdog has emboldened the union movement. Read More
Better ideas than raising super guarantee
Is compulsory super improving retirement incomes and reducing future demands on the budget from an ageing population? Read More
The real solution to poverty: J-O-B-S, J-O-B-S, J-O-B-S
Moving people off welfare and into full-time jobs would do more to address poverty than increasing the value of welfare benefits. Read More
Labour debate ignores status quo
Individual contracts form a pivotal part of the workplace system and have been far more important for labour market flexibility than the statutory agreements of the Howard era. Read More
Disability employment: noble cause, failed policy
The National Disability Recruitment Coordinator program is the latest in a series of policy failures from the Government. Read More
Tighten the rules on welfare payments
There is more to welfare reform than amalgamating the benefits. Read More
Only migrant workers can fill the gap
Temporary, skilled migration is the only viable solution for the resources sector. Read More
IR duplication hinders competitive federalism
Industrial relations matters should be left to the states. Read More
Liberals Drop Ball in Super Free-For-All
Lifting superannuation to 12% is wrong. Read More
Sighs of relief heard from the bankers' bunkers
Alas, the GFC showed that it is impossible for democratic governments to let large financial institutions fail, however much they should. It is a government's job to free taxpayers from unwittingly providing... Read More
Wet ink on a euro death notice
The euro has been a moribund currency for years. The remaining options to buy it more time have been blocked by the German constitutional court. To end this farcical tragedy someone needs to put the final... Read More
Same cracks, just a new coat of paint
Analysis of the NSW Budget Read More
Time to revisit RBA board
Union leaders would have you believe that the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia is beholden to the big end of town, but the current unnecessarily tight monetary policy indicates that this is not the... Read More
NSW budget: time to cut and shed Mick Dundee image
With a public service head count just shy of 390,000, NSW puts the Commonwealth government, with a mere 270,000 staff, to shame. Macquarie Street employs 10% of the NSW workforce. Read More
Don't get starry-eyed about housing
In textbook markets there is no need for price forecasts. Prices are determined by the interaction of supply and demand. If you fed a supercomputer with all the relevant information about buyer preferences,... Read More
Don't get starry-eyed about housing
In textbook markets there is no need for price forecasts. Prices are determined by the interaction of supply and demand. If you fed a supercomputer with all the relevant information about buyer preferences,... Read More
A miracle that masks a mirage
As it turns out, there is not much in the German manufacturing example that Australia should copy. We would be much better advised to make the best of our own comparative advantages of being a resource-rich... Read More
A poisoned chalice of EU power
Eurobonds had not even been on the agenda (officially, that is), and an EU-wide tax on financial transactions almost certainly will die aborning. In another way, however, the Merkel and Sarkozy show was... Read More
Who needs credit ratings? They should be optional
Banks and investors should thrive or die by the quality of their own assessments of credit risk. They have the most incentive to get it right, writes Adam Creighton, a research fellow at The Centre For... Read More
US Congress swapped a crisis yesterday for a bigger crisis tomorrow
I provoked a tirade of abuse from Crikey readers in the past fortnight when I suggested it would be preferable that the $14.3 trillion United States debt ceiling not be raised. Read More
Dollars must flow if numbers to grow
Debate about Australia's population is framed with national aggregates and ignores how local governments deal with increased population. Part of the reason Australians are averse to more people is because... Read More
Think local and give country towns the freedom to prosper or perish
FOR politicians, and especially for town planners, letting people decide where and how they want to live has never been an acceptable idea. Administrative elites have always been convinced they know better... Read More
Local councils deserve a better financial deal
Council rates surging to pay for new residents Read More
Stop pricing young workers out of the labour force
Minimum wages hurt employment prospects for the people they're intended to help. Read More
The myth of green jobs is leading to industrial decline
A German study shows that renewable energy will not boost employment. Read More
Disability payment should not be de facto dole
Our welfare system should not assume that disabled people can't be in paid employment. Read More
Equal help for home and working mums
A new parental leave scheme should not be based around the kind of work their mothers do or don't do. Instead, it should be designed around the needs of newborns. Read More
Migrants add to growth hopes
There is a mistaken view that population growth and immigration policy should be conditioned on existing capacity constraints, argues Stephen Kirchner in The Canberra Times, 26 April 2010. Read More
Research key to balancing pay equity with jobs growth
The Australian Fair Pay Commission's final decision on minimum wages needed to draw more broadly on research, consultations and submissions and rely less on formal procedures of a forensic nature. Read More
Protect us from protectionism: keep the doors open
In his recent address to the Australia China Business Council, China's Vice-Premier Li Keqiang expressed his deep desire for a Sino-Australian free trade agreement. This is an encouraging sign, as free... Read More