Opinion & Commentary
Opinion and Commentary contains media articles written by CIS researchers.
Categories
Seizing a Sino free trade moment
Australia’s regulation of foreign direct investment is a critical stumbling block in a free trade agreement with China. Read More
Smaller government is vital for business growth
Australia is at risk of waking up from the mining boom with nothing to show but a debt hangover and an economic headache. Read More
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
Why tax-free imports are a retail red herring
Retailers would be better served lobbying government for policies other than raising inefficient taxes on low value imports. Read More
Union campaign emotive but misleading
It is misleading to assert that Australian workers are being overworked in insecure jobs. Read More
Taxpayer money wasted chasing film productions
Should the Australian public be supporting Hollywood productions with only dubious benefit to Australia? Read More
Dumping on free trade
Australia’s anti-dumping system will continue to serve the interests of a small number of Australian producers at the expense of other Australian businesses and consumers. Read More
Stamp out the anti-dumping dinosaur laws
Australia’s economic welfare is enhanced as a result of ‘dumping’ by foreign producers. 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It is possible to increase labour market flexibility, create more jobs and keep the fair go alive by abolishing the outdated industrial award system.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
It's time to put the break on corporate welfare
Corporate welfare for a favoured few - like Australia's car manufacturers - cannot be justified. Read More
Gillard Deal Risks NDIS Timebomb
In its eagerness to lock in the funding and governance arrangements for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the Gillard government seems to have created a fiscal time bomb, where future federal... Read More
Only a super-style savings system now will help Medicare survive
THE intergenerational reports have told us repeatedly that escalating government spending on health is unsustainable in an ageing Australia. But despite the warnings about the future of the health system,... Read More
It’s time for surgery: the public purse is in dire health
Reducing inefficient spending may harm vested interests, but meaningful reform cannot occur if no one is ever allowed to be worse off. Read More
The magic pudding state
Australians want government to spend more money on us, but we do not want to hand any more of our cash over to the tax office. Read More
Need to cut fat before we all pay the price
Governments are seemingly incapable of breaking their addiction to increasing spending. Read More
Buying votes does no one any good
There’s a danger we are blundering headlong towards the spending abyss. 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
Super myths
Ideally Australia would have a ‘E,E,T’ system - taxing superannuation to exempt both contributions and earnings. 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
Car industry subsidies a waste of money
Government assistance to the automotive industry has been an expensive failure. 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
Increasing the super contribution rate is a second-rate solution
It is timely to re-examine the economic case for compulsory superannuation. 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
Revitalising the China story
China faces profound challenges that will require bold action on the part of party leaders. Read More
Fairness is not equality
Income equality is not achievable, it is not desirable and it is not fair. Read More
Self-sustaining leviathan
How does Australia compare in the welfare dependency stakes? 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
Australia’s long-term fiscal future
One of Australia’s strengths going into the global financial crisis was the condition of its public finances. We are now in danger of frittering away that strength. Read More
Stop-gap subsidies for the car industry must end
The Government needs to stop throwing money at the car industry and train these employees for other industries. Read More
Disability, injury insurance schemes need scrutiny
The National Injury Insurance Scheme is the forgotten little brother of the bigger, brighter and more popular National Disability Insurance Scheme, but that is no reason to ignore it. Read More
It’s time for a free trade agreement with Tasmania
Tasmanians should not have their lifestyle subsidised because they have chosen to live in Tasmania, any more than people in the city or country should be subsidised for living in the city or country. Read More
How to fund a disability scheme
First there was the carbon tax, then the mining tax, then the flood tax – and now calls for a national disability insurance scheme (NDIS) levy. Will the stream of new taxes and levies never end? Read More
Ability, not disability, should determine access to support
Blind people are exempt from certain income support tests, and this anomaly should stop.Blind people are exempt from certain income support tests, and this anomaly should stop 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
Why the euro project must end
The most important lesson to emerge from the crisis in the eurozone has very little to do with fiscal policy. Read More
Independent body needed to preserve integrity of fiscal forecasts
Treasury has not gone wrong in its forecast for recovery, but in its expectations for the preceding downturn. Read More
There are better ways to ensure State's future
The WA Future Fund announced in the State Budget last week is based on two related but fundamentally flawed ideas. Read More
IR duplication hinders competitive federalism
Industrial relations matters should be left to the states. Read More
Greens have got us tilting at windmills
The debate on climate change has less to do with scientific rationalism and more with the dogma of religious faith. Read More
How taxing housing diminishes affordability
Australia’s under-supplied housing market and housing affordability problem is largely due to the tax burden on housing. Read More
Losing sight of the lucky country
Australia is a country that barely understands, let alone appreciates, its own luck. Read More
Carmaker triumph or GM hypocrisy?
It's a product of public relations that Australians believe every government supports its own car industry, and looking at General Motors' ruthless cost-cutting of its European brands puts even more focus... Read More
Murray's Future Fund brace is broken
David Murray's defence of the Future Fund can only inspire doubt about the ability of sovereign wealth funds to enhance Australia's prosperity. Read More
EU referendum is a bad Irish joke
Economically, whatever happens in Ireland will not be decisive for the future of the euro. That is more likely being decided in Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris, Athens and Lisbon. But to the rest of Europe watching... Read More
Minimum wage is a two-edged sword
Like New Zealand’s young workers, Australia’s apprentices are also highly vulnerable to market fluctuations. Many of them are in their first job, have fewer skills, and therefore have less to offer... Read More
Striking a French euro tinderbox
Either Sarkozy or Hollande will win France’s presidential elections, but the project of European cooperation and integration will surely lose. And the political uncertainty dominating the coming months... Read More
The hypocrisy of Europe's bankers
As the eurozone crisis has now seemingly calmed down and my friend’s updates become more ecstatic by the week, I am afraid that we are edging ever closer towards his dream scenario. To most Europeans,... Read More
Work act flaw threat to growth
Job security is a major bone of contention between unions and employers under the Fair Work Act. Read More
A zero-sum carbon game
There is no point trying to subsidise reductions in carbon emissions if the total amount of emissions is capped anyway. Read More
Returning to old European rivalries
Europeans may one day wake up in an environment of revived national rivalries, new political extremism and a continent without the open borders they once took for granted. This could be a tragedy even... Read More
Why a sovereign wealth fund won't work
Many of the desirable objectives of a sovereign wealth fund could be achieved through greater use of enforceable fiscal policy rules that would enable politicians to make long-term commitments to responsible... Read More
Gonski: less for private schools
The Gonski report's model as it applies to non-government schools has several redeeming features. It provides for a minimum per student public funding entitlement for all non-government schools regardless... Read More
Future Funds or Future Eaters? The case against a Sovereign Wealth Fund for Australia
It has also been argued that Australia needs a SWF to better manage the macroeconomic consequences of the “terms of trade” boom, such as the rising Australian dollar and the so-called “Dutch disease”.... Read More
In search of a Greek hero
To escape from its current mess, Greece does not need more Sisyphus work. It needs someone to tackle the Herculean task of cutting the country loose from Europe’s monetary union. Read More
Fast rail go-slow
Long-distance passenger trains are running slower than they were in the steam engine era on some lines in New South Wales and on one line in Victoria, and interstate rail freight is steadily losing market... Read More
Give austerity a chance
Fiscal policy should focus on micro-economic issues such as promoting incentives to save, work and invest, as well as ensuring the long-term sustainability of public finances. Read More
Hallmarks of an EU power play
The tragedy of the European crisis is not that it was caused by striving for too much economic efficiency. The real tragedy is that it could have been predicted by public choice theory. Read More
Why Merkozy is destined to fail
The eurozone crisis may soon return with more bad news from bond markets. Pity Europe’s leaders are too busy to deal with it. Read More
Testing the RBA's DNA
As a practical first step towards more RBA independence, perhaps politicians of all parties could refrain from both applauding and criticising RBA decisions. It is none of their business. Read More
Testing the RBA's DNA
As a practical first step towards more RBA independence, perhaps politicians of all parties could refrain from both applauding and criticising RBA decisions. It is none of their business. Read More
Why reform worked in 1985
Unlike Gillard and Swan, Hawke and Keating knew what they wanted to do Read More
The Fightback! lesson: how politics can stymie good public policy
Twenty years ago, the Liberal-National Party coalition released Fightback!, the most comprehensive and market-oriented policy platform ever taken to an election. Read More
A wild forecast for Euro pain
You may think that all of this sounds utterly ludicrous, and perhaps you are right. But ask yourself whether only two years ago you could have imagined elected prime ministers being replaced by technocrats,... Read More
Let the online bargain hunt begin, properly
Australians are being ripped off due to Government regulations, especially when buying cars, bananas, and dvds. Read More
A British pawn in Europe's game
Perhaps it is dawning on Cameron that he had been moved like a pawn on a chessboard by his continental friends. His insistence to act in Britain’s national interest mainly served to promote the interests... Read More
Germany's blissful euro ignorance
It is only a matter of time until reality will catch up with the Germans at some stage. But don’t wake them up just yet. They won’t have their Christmas holidays spoilt just because some countries... Read More
Budget heat in a revenue drought
Governments in other countries are in deeper fiscal distress than ours, but governments at the federal and state levels in Australia are struggling with the consequences of a revenue drought after years... Read More
Who needs four uni degrees or even one for that matter?
Most jobs don't require university degrees. A key purpose of education is to give students a chance to signal their aptitude and diligence, rather to acquire knowledge for later vocational use. Fostering... Read More
Business will cop super fall-out
THE Federal Government has introduced legislation to lift the superannuation guarantee to 12 per cent by July, 2019. About 8.4 million Australians will have their superannuation savings boosted, it claims,... Read More
Europe's hidden doomsday machine
What Europe is still discussing and Germany is vehemently resisting – the transformation into a fiscal liability union – has long been achieved through the Target backdoor. Brace yourself for the day... Read More
Countdown to a US debt debacle
It says something about the depths of Europe’s economic malaise that America’s economic managers are attending international meetings and lecturing others about the need to get their fiscal houses... Read More
Avoiding conflict but quietly waving flag
Southeast Asian governments will welcome increased US involvement in the region. Read More
Spending Spree wasted decade of prosperity
NZ’s decade long spending binge was prosperity wasted. Read More
Italy defaults on debt and sends lenders broke? So be it
The federal government will need to cut spending to ensure a surplus in 2012-13. Read More
Will Mr Nobody crash Europe?
When Germany’s political Boxing Day comes on December 17, there could be some hidden surprises among the presents which may spoil a few politicians’ Christmas breaks. A hitherto obscure German backbencher... Read More
Liberals Drop Ball in Super Free-For-All
Lifting superannuation to 12% is wrong. Read More
Europe's social failure
Capital markets are not loquacious storytellers. They condense the world into simple numbers. For this reason, the surge in Greek, Italian and Spanish bond yields could be mistaken for a mere technicality,... Read More
Greece has no choice but to get out of eurozone
With the dramatic spike in Italian bond yields, the euro crisis has reached the stage everyone always wanted to avoid. Contagion has spread from Greece via Ireland and Portugal to Europe's third largest... Read More
Europe awaits a Chinese burn
The assessment of Europe’s state of affairs could have hardly been harsher: “If you look at the troubles which happened in European countries, this is purely because of the accumulated troubles of... Read More
Budget surplus fetish means more harsh spending cuts
The federal government will need to cut spending to ensure a surplus in 2012-13. Read More
Going long on European deja vu
Markets were euphoric, political leaders relieved. “Europe has taken a step forward. Europe and Greece will emerge stronger from this crisis,” Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou boasted to reporters.... Read More
Care system still abusing forgotten children.
In 2009 the federal parliament apologised to the Forgotten Australians who were physically, sexually, and emotionally abused in state and charitable-run orphanages between the 1920s and 1970s. The national... Read More
Europe’s forgotten lessons of history
The rise and fall of the Euro is just another chapter in the long history of monetary unions in Europe. The Euro was not the first attempt to unite different European economies and countries by a monetary... Read More
Is Australia shy of the Asia boom?
By internationally practising a policy of exceptionalism against its Asian neighbours, and domestically following the path of European-style governments, Australia is missing out on the greatest opportunity... Read More
Sydney misses the boat on ferry reform
Sydney’s ferry system should go private to lowers costs for tax payers. Read More
Government, not capitalism, should take blame
Capitalism is not about giant corporations being able to dump their losses on taxpayers. It is not about allowing senior employees to feast with impunity on the profits of capital supplied by others simply... Read More
Unravelling the Greek basket case
This weekend, European leaders will once more decide on how to deal with Greece. Read More
Productivity needs a shot in the arm -- why not a GST boost?
Taxing saving is not only immoral but economically damaging as well Read More
A sterling sidestep
Under more normal circumstances, we would now be discussing the coming sterling crisis. That we are not doing so does not mean that it will not happen. Read More
Should dentistry be covered by Medicare?
But the ''right'' to receive certain health services for ''free'' does not automatically produce good health. Bulk billing has been available since the 1970s, yet lower-income groups are still far more... Read More
Stepping stones to an EU inferno
Don’t read too much into last week’s vote in the German parliament to extend the European Financial Stability Facility bailout fund. Read More
A forum to demonstrate Labor has already failed on tax
Tax summit in Canberra proves Labor has failed on introducing any new tax policies Read More
Tax forum demonstrates Labor has already failed
Tax Summit in Canberra proves Labor Government have not implemented any new tax reforms. Read More
Should Australia’s population be controlled?
Australia should embrace population growth Read More
Should poker machine gambling be restricted?
Reforms to make people pre commit the amount of money they are going to play on the pokies. Read More
A few home truths on people and houses
Population growth: starting acting, not discussing Read More
Change attitude rather than limit population
Population growth: starting acting, not discussing. Australia should embrace its population growth . Read More
Wanted: a friendly EU break-up
If the result of Europe’s bungled attempts of economic and political integration is a continent-wide disaster zone, the cure of this disease cannot be more integration, even if Philip Stephens thinks... Read More
Housing sense in short supply
While the rest of the world wonders what the next phase of the GFC will bring; and while the rest of Europe discusses the future of their common currency; the British are pondering an entirely different... Read More
The march of democracy in Southeast Asia
Both Malaysia and Singapore are nominally democratic. Yet both are what Fareed Zakaria calls 'illiberal democracies': "democratically elected regimes... routinely ignoring constitutional limits on their... Read More
RBA pay: why Glenn Stevens is not Elizabeth Taylor
Notwithstanding the Reserve Bank’s excellent record and deft management of Australia’s economy, especially during the GFC, its decision to jack up the pay of its most senior management by 30% during... 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
There's no such thing as a free healthcare system
But when it comes to health, Australians spurn pragmatism and tear up the laws of economics. We shackle ourselves with a government-funded and managed health system with all the hallmarks of the former... 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
A euro power play that backfired
As it turns out, the euro is not only an unworkable currency. It actually started as a French insurance policy against German power. But even as an insurance policy it has failed. Against their will, it... Read More
Value cut adrift in a sea of paper money
Abolishing the gold standard was meant to free up gold but central banks still hold about one fifth of the world’s 166,000 tonnes of gold and have bought even more since the financial crisis. Private... Read More
Setting a European time bomb
The announcement by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade US government debt may have been historic but largely inconsequential 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
Hitting pause on the eurozone crisis
Every year, the Centre for Independent Studies hosts a high-level conference in Queensland. One of the speakers this year was Thilo Sarrazin, the author of the equally controversial and successful (1.3... Read More
Hospital reform looks sickly but the blame game is fit as a fiddle
While critics claimed the approach was too hospital-centric, the primary focus on the financing of public hospital care was warranted. State governments have perennially blamed long waits for elective... 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
What our economists really think about politics
You might have expected that most economists, following Milton Friedman, view inflation as “always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.” Yet only 40% of respondents agreed with the proposition that... Read More
No reason or evidence will cure US of its debt fetish
The hysteria accompanying the scramble to lift the debt ceiling in the United States is misplaced and self-serving. 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
Greece bailout: prolonging pain for no real gain
Rescuing the country with another bailout would only prolong the pain. Greece squandered money on the Olympic Games, an over-sized bureaucracy and easy loans Read More
Paying dearly for European insanity
it would be tempting to seize the moment and rehash all the arguments for why the euro will never work and cannot be saved. Read More
Growing anger in local government
So how well are Australian local government leaders really equipped to deal with population growth? Read More
The PC empire strikes back
GERMAN banker Thilo Sarrazin is a pariah for saying things few would question here. Read More
Local councils deserve a better financial deal
Council rates surging to pay for new residents Read More
Council rates surging to pay for new residents
Local Government struggling to pay for new residents Read More
A bad time to damage our economy as the next stage of the GFC looms
WITH the US fiscal crisis nearing a dramatic finale, downgrades of European debt ratings continuing and the euro crisis deteriorating, the global financial crisis has just moved into a new phase. Read More
Learning from Europe's competitive spirit
One of the classic questions of economic history is how the West grew rich. Read More
Tax changes are just a redistribution
The carbon pricing scheme was sold by the federal government as containing taxation reform measures, but once again we have lip service from politicians and tinkering at the edges Read More
Carbon tax could have united us all
More than 3 million households will be worse off come July, about a third of Australian taxpayers. Indeed, many thousands of individuals with incomes between $67,000 and $80,000 face the prospect of their... Read More
Has the EU's stress test failed?
As the whole world worried about a potential Greek collapse, another European country experienced two actual bank failures. Read More
China’s exports don’t fuel boom
While China undoubtedly needs both for the communist party to remain in power, the dilemma for the country’s leaders is that the way China achieves rapid economic growth is increasingly the reason behind... Read More
Sending profits abroad is a good thing
It is amazing how easily people are convinced by this 'sending profits abroad' argument, when it is just a protectionist fallacy. Read More
Foreign investment will boost food security
Foreigners acquiring Australian farm land appears to unite all political parties, we shouldn’t allow commercial decisions to be overridden my populist votes. Read More
Perk Street is not as one-way as employed, childless renters think
Childless renters pay a lot of federal tax but are exempt from many state taxes Read More
US will Remain the Preeminent Player in Asia
In early May, I gave an interview to the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper arguing that China was probably ‘the loneliest rising great power in world history’ Read More
The phantom giant of Luxembourg
Under the veil of its legendary diplomatic finesse, Luxembourg hides its profiteering role in the sad state of Europe’s economy and politics. Read More
Time for Greece to be forced to live within its means
It is morally repugnant that ordinary taxpayers around the world are forced, at great cost, to keep Greece solvent in order to prevent banks from losing money. Read More
Putting Greek lessons into practice
Excessive public debt plagues most developed economies, not just small countries on the periphery of Europe. Read More
Ditch deductions to lower the tax rates
Labor’s promised set deduction in taxes is not a productive fix for the system. Read More
Is Germany saving Greece or saving itself?
The short-sighted German strategy of keeping the eurozone together at all costs is turning Greece into one big welfare recipient. Read More
Hey regulators, remember the GFC
Housing sector ignores lessons from the GFC at taxpayers’ peril. Read More
Population debate: we pretend growth is not inevitable
The longer we pretend we can stop population growth, or protest that we don’t want growth to happen, the more difficult the job will become. 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
Carbon tax cuts for all
Revenue from the government’s proposed carbon tax must be returned to taxpayers through income tax cuts or alternatively, the abolishment of the Medicare levy. Read More
Dwelling upon 'investment'
Buying a house or unit isn't the financial investment Australians believe it to be. Read More
Budget office helps pollies, not punters
The Parliamentary Budget Office should focus analysing overall fiscal strategy and long-term fiscal sustainability rather than policy costings. Read More
Europe enters a wintery spring
Europe’s debt crisis is far from over. Read More
Gillard's population policy at sea
Swan’s 16,000 new migration places aren’t really new places, just a reshuffling of the existing quota to induce more migrants to move to regional areas. Read More
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae: Guaranteed to fail?
The failure of Lehman Brothers was a trivial event compared to the much bigger but largely ignored failure a week before, when Freddie and Fannie were put into ‘conservatorship’ by the US government. Read More
Eurovision notes EU disharmony
European integration is moving backwards and old nationalisms are returning, as seen in the Eurovision Song Contest as well as in monetary and industrial policy. Read More
Welfare reforms are worthwhile, but not an easy budget fix
The best way to get unskilled workers into work is to find them an unskilled job – not try to train them for a skilled position they may never get. Read More
Spending pledges need to be backed with hard evidence
The government has blown its last chance to have the sort of budget we should have got in 2008. Read More
Budget cuts can be popular
With an election still more than two years away the government should seize this opportunity to make the sort of cuts it should have made in 2008. Read More
Reform a boon to all in the money game
Advisers will now offer dispassionate and useful financial counsel. Read More
Australia’s Norwegian doppelganger
The IMF is calling for Australia to follow Norway and divert profits from the mining boom to a new sovereign wealth fund. Read More
Population growth makes us smarter, richer
The economic significance of more people is not in the contribution made by their hands or their mouths but their minds. Read More
Brash’s ‘extremist’ policies seen as sensible in Australia
Don Brash’s economic policies are closer to Julia Gillard’s in Australia, a country whose standard of living is significantly higher than New Zealand’s. Read More
A dangerous euro enchantment
Instead of bringing Europe’s peoples closer together, the struggling euro currency is driving them further apart. Read More
Look to Britain and hold the champagne
The UK property bust provides worrying parallels for our self-congratulatory local economy. Read More
Sad songs from Portugal
Although EU loans are keeping the Portuguese government liquid for now, the austerity measures will be demanding – not least to satisfy voters and taxpayers in other countries guaranteeing the rescue... Read More
Trimming to fit budget's reduced revenue
The expenditure review process leading up to the annual budget is rarely about making cuts to existing spending programs. It has more to do with trimming ministers' wish lists to fit the revenue forecast... Read More
Smokers already being ripped off -- plain packaging is just insulting
Smokers are being already being ripped off. The push for plain packaging is just insulting. Read More
A failure of political leadership
Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan's rejection of Singapore Exchange's (SGX) bid for the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) represents a failure of political leadership. Read More
Home is where the money is
Today country hopping has become a mass phenomenon. Global migration flows have increased, but the migrants themselves have become far less permanent. Read More
We're all working for the man and it seems we have to do it for longer
Tax Freedom Day is later every year. Read More
GDP no real guide to wealth or welfare
The confusion about what makes a country prosper arises from our fixation with GDP, which is a misleading metric of economic performance that no entity would pay to calculate itself. Read More
A plan that will damage Europe
It is astonishing how little Europe has learnt from previous mistakes. The belief in grand strategies with ambitious targets is alive and well. As is the wish to solve economic problems by ignoring them. Read More
A forgotten financial failure
The regulatory responses to the global financial crisis have for the most part been conditioned on a false narrative about the causes and consequences of the crisis. Read More
New Zealand is in a dangerous debt spiral
The earthquake that struck Christchurch was not only a national catastrophe for New Zealand. It is also becoming clear how devastating it is to the Kiwi economy. 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
Dump anti-dumping rules to protect consumers
Anti-dumping laws produce the outcome they are meant to prevent. Read More
Levy a $750 cup of coffee
Swan has resorted to cheap tricks to spin his flood tax. Read More
Why we're in such a sorry state
A comparison of the six states' performances in fiscal management sheds light on why some states are under more pressure than others to change their spending, taxing and borrowing habits. Read More
How the Germans keep a lid on prices
You get a lot more house for your money in Germany and there's a simple explanation for the stability in the housing market — steady growth in supply. Read More
A housing market whodunit
Economics, so the saying goes, can be summed up in one word: incentives. If we want to find out why house prices are flat in Germany, we need to understand the driving force behind the high supply of housing. Read More
The cult of Australian property
It is time to deflate one of the great myths of the housing market. It is the myth that restricted supply is a guarantee for ever-rising house prices. Read More
Belgium's debt bomb is ticking
Belgians are now chasing a veritable world record: they want to be the country with the longest post-election negotiations. Read More
Estonia should have listened to Marx
With its entry into the Eurozone, Estonia is more likely to be punished for its enviable public finances. Read More
The iPad app upper hand
Given the poor track record of forecasting the way people inform themselves, the impact of the latest wave of new technologies is not a foregone conclusion. Read More
Why consumers should resist the enemies of choice
Behaviourists are wrong to say people should be protected from irrational financial decisions. Read More
Don't believe this forecast
As always in Europe, the continent’s politicians know much better what is needed than their often hapless and ungrateful peoples. Read More
EU fails to grasp nettle of a continent in crisis
It's time for fresh thinking in Brussels about the debt threat. Read More
A fundamental Euro flaw
There are good economic reasons for Europe’s economic crisis. The fiscal catastrophe across the continent is the result of decades of reckless spending policies. Read More
Borrowers lose as mortgage industry takes its $4bn win
Rather than taking a hard line, the government is a soft touch. Read More
Trichet's prize for shredding Europe
Life in Euroland is full of ironies but they don’t come much more bitter than Sunday’s announcement to award the prestigious Charlemagne Prize 2011 to Jean-Claude Trichet, the head of the European... Read More
German polemic has resonance for West
He’s blunt, but Thilo Sarrazin makes a lot of sense. Read More
The Euro monster
Under their self-chosen monetary corset the Europeans now have the choice between the mother of all banking crises, hyperinflation à la Weimar Republic, or painful and unpopular financial transfers in... Read More
Increasing Australia's GST would add little value
Those pushing for a higher rate of GST should be careful what they wish for they may get it, along with a lot of other things they didn't bargain for. Read More
Europe's growth-killing cult
Originating from the green movement, a culture of risk-aversion has become firmly entrenched in the European mindset. This jeopardises the continent’s future economic development. Read More
Britain's phoney pursuit of happiness
The new ‘happiness’ cult is no substitute for hard-headed economic policies. Read More
Attacks on banks are misdirected
Australia's interest rates are high because the nation has strong growth prospects. Read More
Aussie banker bashing
This time Australian bankers are being bashed for taking responsibly to manage their excess demand. Read More
G20 should tend to their own backyards
The principal flaw of the G20 is the assumption that the group as a whole can somehow be more than the sum of its parts. Read More
Europe's most dangerous man
Ahead of the G20 summit in Seoul this week, the mood music between member countries is markedly different from previous conferences as the political differences between the main players are far more visible... Read More
Population bomb still a fizzer 40 years on
Anti-population growth campaigners like Paul Ehrlich claim to be fighting for the environment and sustainability. In effect, they are actually promoting a new, green version of misanthropy. It is time... Read More
The EU's win-win losers
The problems around last weekend’s summit are thus the problems of the Euro as a currency – Europe is too diverse to agree on sensible rules and too diverse to have a common currency in the first place. Read More
Britain's 'bold' debt detractors
The kneejerk Keynesian reactions against the British government’s plans only demonstrate that critics have not fully understood the seriousness of the UK’s long-term fiscal position. Read More
America's warpath to Depression
The early Mont Pelerin Society members knew that a free and stable global economic order was not just vital for creating prosperity. It is also a necessary condition for peace. In today’s environment... Read More
World debt crisis needs strong action, now
Australia has a vital interest in how the global debt crisis plays out. Read More
Why world must take interest in our boom
Discussion of Hayek's ideas and the Austrian school of economics have had a lot of attention recently and this week Sydney is hosting this year's general meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society, founded by... Read More
Game on in the states of Monopoly
Parker Brothers' Monopoly has been around for 75 years, and needs an update. To make the game more reflective of reality, perhaps rules such as gaining a real estate licence, toll payments at each corner... Read More
Economists should learn some history
The inability of economists to see beyond their own models left them unprepared when the global economy hit trouble. Read More
The failure of German banking
The involvement of German state and federal governments in banking precedes the financial crisis; in fact it has long been one of the defining features of the country’s financial sector. Read More
Fiscal authority the way to go
We need a fiscal commission to strengthen the entire budget process. Read More
Tax policy devised by party that is green with envy
Redistributing wealth rather than creating it seems to be the Greens' approach, says Robert Carling in The Australian, 3 September 2010. Read More
Australia's real challenge is population ageing
We need a mature debate on population growth, says Jessica Brown in The Age (Business), 23 August 2010 Read More
Grave euro doubts remain
Experts have now shifted their attention to the US dollar. However, this does not mean that the euro is off the hook, says Oliver Marc Hartwich in Business Spectator, 19 August 2010. Read More
The mining tax debate highlights the terms of trade boom
Is the Future Fund the best option to manage the fiscal consequences of the trade boom? Perhaps the revenue would be better used today to provide a lower tax burden or productivity–enhancing infrastructure. Read More
Red-tape trading scheme
Red tape should be treated like pollution and perhaps a ‘cap and trade’ scheme should be considered to minimise regulatory burdens. Read More
Europe’s not-so common market
The European common market does not work properly, says Oliver Marc Hartwich in Business Spectator, 1 July 2010. Read More
PM Rudd’s demise signals more modest Australian foreign policy
Prime Minister Gillard’s diplomacy will be much more cautious compared to Kevin Rudd, says John Lee in the Straits Times , New Straits Times and Jakarta Post 25 June 2010. Read More
Where Europe's smart money hides
Some currencies suffer in uncertain times, and there are other currencies that thrive on uncertainty , says Oliver Marc Hartwich in Business Spectator, 3 June 2010. 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
The economic curse of populism
If the Germans continue to pretend that the current crisis was caused by speculation and not by inherent flaws of the European project, this crisis will not pass, says Oliver Marc Hartwich in Business... Read More
The economic curse of populism
If the Germans continue to pretend that the current crisis was caused by speculation and not by inherent flaws of the European project, this crisis will not pass. Read More
A European triumph amid the chaos
Amid the current EU financial crisis there still some positive policy ideas, such as the Netherland’s innovative way of cutting red tape. Read More
Cap and trade our way out of red-tape pollution
Red tape should be treated like pollution and perhaps a ‘cap and trade’ scheme should be considered to minimise regulatory burdens. Read More
The fantasy of European integration is over
It has become clear that the problems in Europe are not just isolated to Greece, in fact, what we are really witnessing is the end of the decades–long project of European integration. Read More
The Henry Report, state taxes and the Commonwealth-state divide
The Henry tax review could change Commonwealth/state fiscal relations. Read More
A bailout that hurts the Germans but doesn’t help the Greeks
As long as countries such as Greece are joined with Germany in a monetary union, this monetary union will not work, argues Oliver Marc Hartwich for the Institute of Economic Affairs, 5 May 2010 Read More
The Next Fall of Rome
Demographic change in Europe could have disastrous consequences for the future, says Oliver Marc Hartwich in Business Spectator, 15 April 2010 Read More
Bond market vigilantes should also weigh the risks of continued inactivity
Stagnation could be worse than a fiscal crisis. Read More
Let’s ignore snobs of Old Europe
Proudly plebeian, Australia has no need to apologise for its egalitarianism and should celebrate its achievements more self-consciously. Read More
The 'postmodern economy' was a con
The ‘postmodern economy’ in Britain was a con. Read More
The home ownership nightmare
There is a dark side to Britain’s property mania. The stampede into home ownership has created at least as many problems as it has solved. Read More
The flawed giant of Europe
Australians worried about their productivity performance in international rankings may relax a little, as Germany shows productivity performance is not the only measure of a successful economy. Read More
Misguided government gets poor return for largesse
The Rudd government’s home insulation program demonstrates the dangers of activist fiscal policy. Read More
Tax reform should include cuts to marginal rates
Cutting personal income tax would help to expand the economy’s productive capacity. Read More
Benefits grow in monthly CPI data
Australia should adopt a monthly consumer price index. Read More
Mr Swan’s preoccupation with superannuation
The government needs to examine how to treat saving within the tax system and whether super should continue to be more lightly taxed than other forms of saving. Read More
More inscrutable than the Chinese
Why are foreign investment criteria a secret? Read More
Europe’s slow, painful death
The potential Greek bankruptcy is only the beginning of Europe’s inevitable decline. Read More
The euro is a failed experiment that should be cashed in
Europe was never ready for a common and the recent global financial crisis highlights this. Read More
Ripped off and overcharged? Not necessarily
Why should consumers believe that they have a right to pay the same price wherever they go? And can a market economy really exist and function without the ability to vary prices? Read More
Imbalances essential to global economic system
The federal Treasury’s David Gruen recently told a conference at the University of Western Australia that global imbalances were implicated in the global financial crisis and it was desirable that they... Read More
Economic policy must re-earn our respect
Policymakers sacrificed a lot of their credibility due to their responses to the global financial crisis and this can be seen in the fundamental uncertainty about the inflation outlook. 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
The seasonal satisfaction index
According to Joel Waldfogel’s book Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays, you shouldn’t have bought his book as a Christmas gift. The gifts received from family and friends... Read More
We aren't just larrikins
Too many Australians take for granted that they live in a prosperous and vibrant nation with a fantastic quality of life and is a good place in which to do business. Read More
Activists should stop talking about global warming and start acting
If climate activists had spent the past 10 years acting instead of wasting time at talkfests such as the one at Copenhagen, we would already have a price signal on greenhouse gas emissions. Read More
Labour should not take its eyes off the target
Twenty years after introducing inflation targeting in 1989 and revolutionising central bank governance that was to sweep the world during the 1990s, Labour is back in opposition and rejected the monetary... Read More
Big spending, poor results
Big government spending leads to poor results. Read More
Property bias
Newspapers have a big heart for heavily indebted homeowners. Perhaps occasionally they should show equal compassion for tenants and savers. Read More
Let internet replace journals
International publishers are ripping off taxpayers, who are paying for scientific research and pay again to read the results. Read More
Capital gains tax won’t make housing more affordable
Many commentators think a CGT on owner-occupied housing is good economics, but bad politics. In reality, it is bad economics too. Read More
Doomsayer does his dough
Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows capital city house prices up 6.2% for the year ended in September, University of Western Sydney academic Steve Keen conceded defeat and will be donning hiking... Read More
End of trend is nigh for central bank sales of gold
It may seem odd that simply transferring ownership of existing above-ground stocks should make a difference to the gold price. But the Reserve Bank of India's recent purchase of 200 tonnes of gold from... Read More
More houses, not taxes
Many commentators think a CGT on owner-occupied housing is good economics but bad politics. In reality, it is bad economics too. 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
US dollar down but not out as kingpin of global finance
The broad US dollar index has been trending lower since its last major cyclical peak in 2001. This has led many observers to question whether the US dollar will retain its status as a so-called ‘reserve... Read More
Return to Flyer times with business class
Train travel was not only more pleasant early in the last century, it was also faster. In 1937, the ‘Newcastle Flyer’ travelled to Sydney in two hours 26 minutes – seven minutes faster than the current... Read More
It's time to bring back a bit of class to rail travel
For a city that wants to play in the first league of the world’s great cities, our dated intercity train connections are not good enough. Read More
We're Not So Healthy
According to a new study from the Legatum Institute, an international development think tank based in London, these kinds of inefficiencies are hurting Australia’s prosperity. Read More
The US deficit canary has rattled the cage in warning of dire eventualities
The US government’s finances are in such bad shape that the Congressional Budget Office sounded a public alarm about the risk of debt default, a flight of capital out of the country, an exchange rate... Read More
It’s time for a new Medicare
Thirty-five years after the Whitlam government voted for the introduction of universal health care, and following the report of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission’s report, the Rudd... Read More
Life’s joys get a little lost down holes of health-cost analyses
Any time we make a decision that lets us enjoy a bit of fun but with some risk to our health, that decision is considered irrational and cannot generate any real enjoyment. Read More
‘Healthist’ doomsayers are spoiling all our fun
The hidden cost of healthist cost reports is the slow erosion of liberty that ensues when we take them at face value. By conflating the costs that risk-takers impose on themselves with the costs they impose... Read More
Policymakers Sold Australia Short
The government has argued that GDP growth and the unemployment rate numbers demonstrate the effectiveness of its fiscal stimulus measures. In reality, they demonstrate only that policymakers sold Australia... Read More
The many crises of Nouriel Roubini
It is not only banks’ balance sheets that have suffered in the global financial crisis. Many professional reputations have also taken a battering. While former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan... Read More
We’re wasting billions on tax churn
By pulling the middle class into the welfare net, the government is crowding out civil society and undermining personal responsibility, self-esteem, and social capital. Ultimately, our current welfare... Read More
Canberra's Investment Confusion
Chinese companies are increasingly looking to invest overseas, and foreign capitals are calibrating their policy responses. Australia, which has been the destination for several high-profile attempted... Read More
For Merkel, it’s now or never to get serious
The strong showing of the pro-market Free Democrats is one of the greatest shifts in Germany’s political tectonics that the country has ever experienced. The tremors will be felt for years to come, affecting... Read More
Hewson manifesto was ahead of its time
Revelations in Paul Kelly’s The March of the Patriots that then Reserve Bank Governor Bernie Fraser planned to invoke provisions of the Reserve Bank Act to frustrate a Hewson government’s reforms to... Read More
FDI Liberalisation Falls Short
The federal Treasurer has announced measures to liberalise Australia’s regulatory regime for foreign direct investment (FDI). While a step in the right direction, the reforms do nothing to address the... Read More
Taxing the poor to pay for teeth
In the middle of a global recession, the government is considering a regressive increase in income tax. Specifically, they want to increase the marginal tax rate by 8.5 percent for low-income workers and... Read More
End the budget sideshow
The federal government’s taxing and spending powers have far-reaching consequences for our economic prosperity. Read More
Standard and Poor’s has given NSW the benefit of some major doubts
The NSW government, in its 2009–10 budget announced last week, claims to have charted a course back to a budget surplus by 2011–12. Read More
Workers on low incomes are losing out
The Australian Fair Pay Commission decided last July to increase the minimum wage by $1126 per year, from $27,150 to $28,276. Read More
Short-term fixes are a fiscal fallacy
Policymakers in Australia have instinctively reached for the Keynesian playbook in the context of the current global economic downturn, rolling out discretionary fiscal stimulus measures of unprecedented... Read More
Australia’s recession in perspective
A few weeks ago I suggested that we should be relatively optimistic about the Australian economy. Given the national accounts yesterday showed that the economy grew by 0.4% in the last quarter, I could... Read More
Big government not so smart
Treasurer Wayne Swan’s second budget speech will not be remembered for long. It was probably one of the most boring presentations we have ever heard from any politician. At times, even the Treasurer’s... Read More
The madding crowding out
Treasurer Wayne Swan didn’t feel the need to mention the size of the deficit on budget night. The number had already been strategically leaked. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also had problems enunciating... Read More
Independent is the wrong word for Treasury
The Treasury’s ‘independence’ has featured in the post-budget commentary. As a former Commonwealth and state treasury official I find this surprising, because I can recall very few moments of independence... Read More
Making things worse
There is an ongoing debate about whether the government’s spending spree is going to work or whether it is a waste of money. Read More
Australian libertarians revealed
It seems left-wing economic journalist Ross Gittins has just discovered the word ‘libertarian,’ and the revelation seems to have him spooked. Read More
It's all down to the market
An email debate on the budget, stimulus packages, and what the Treasurer should drink on budget night, between Oliver Hartwich and David Hetherington, in The Australian 2 May Read More
Oh joy, the rest of the year is in our pockets
Happy Tax Freedom Day! A tax is ‘a compulsory exaction of money by a public authority for public purposes, enforceable by law, and is not a payment for services rendered.’ Read More
Don’t let the lynch mob loose on executive pay and private investment
No financial institution has lost more in the current crisis, or drawn more on taxpayer support, than AIG – the American insurance giant that also gorged on more exotic financial instruments. Read More
The Budget needs discipline and fiscal sustainability to put ensure the economy recovers
As the Commonwealth budget plunges into deficit, it would be reassuring to know that those in charge have a medium-term plan in mind to restore fiscal balance and are not just throwing caution to the wind... Read More
Stop this highway robbery
The future of Australia’s iconic carmaker Holden is linked to its American parent General Motors. When Kevin Rudd goes to Washington later this month, he should make a detour to Detroit with a simple... Read More
Still no life on Mars
With much fanfare Channel Ten has just started screening the new series of Life on Mars, in which a policeman is thrown back into the 1970s and struggles to understand what’s going on. His new environment... Read More
We need to start emissions debate
The climate change policy debate should not be based on popularity but careful analysis of the benefits and costs of various options. Read More
Rushing to spend like Britain could leave us out in the cold
If Rudd continues his New Labour-like policies, Australia may well become another Britain. Read More
Stimulus is a waste of taxpayer’s dollars
Too much is being expected of fiscal stimulus. Read More
Plan delivers little bang for very big bucks
The government’s fiscal stimulus packages represent discretionary policy actions that add to cyclical deterioration in the budget balance. Read More
Best way to help a warming planet is to tax carbon and let the market decide
It’s time to re-open the debate about carbon taxes. Read More
Taxation rhetoric and reality
Instead of adjusting LITO, the government should cut tax in a more meaningful way. Read More
'Rudd Bank' puts taxpayers last
In propping up politically-favoured firms and industries deemed most in need, the government will only prolong the necessary adjustment to weaker economic conditions. Read More
Accepting the recession
The government cannot fix our economic problems and it shouldn’t be trying. Read More
Keynes was wrong about the evils of thrift
Consumers and businesses should moderate their spending in the context of an economic downturn. Read More
Defining greed is an indulgence of its own
Greed as a moral category is hardly apt to describe the business world. Read More
Flinging wads of dosh about won't work
As $8.7 billion in federal government payments land in the bank accounts of families and pensioners, the government has been urging the recipients to spend rather than save the extra money. The government... Read More
Bubble, toil and trouble
In December 1996, then US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan famously mused 'how do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values?' Read More
Car subsidies blow good money out the exhaust
The only good thing to come out of the government’s New Car Plan is the commitment to maintaining the current schedule of tariff reductions to five per cent by 2010, resisting pressure from the car industry... Read More
Student Bus Subsidy Has Phantom Menace
The NSW state government’s free student transport scheme is yet again under the gun. Previous inquiries into the School Student Transport Scheme by the Public Accounts Committee in 1993 and 2002 resulted... Read More
The ABC of policy failure
The federal government is suggesting that ABC’s fall illustrates how desperately the children industry needs re-regulation and is yet another example of excessively greedy capitalism and the free-market... Read More
NSW needs more bang for the bucks it spends
It is well known by now that New South Wales state finances are at a crunch point and that the Rees government’s solution is to be unveiled in a mini-budget this week. It is less clear that the forces... Read More
Beware political saviours
According to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the global financial crisis is the outcome of ‘a culture of greed.' In the world according to Rudd, ‘this culture was never challenged by a political and economic... Read More
Bailing-Out or Crowding-Out?
Losses on subprime-related debt instruments have resulted in a liquidity crisis becoming a solvency crisis for many financial institutions, as impaired assets leave them chronically short of capital. The... Read More
Fiscal stimulus plan has missed opportunities for long term reform
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has just unveiled a fiscal stimulus plan worth 10.4 billion Australian dollars ($7.4 billion). At around 1% of GDP, it's bold. Will it work? Probably not as intended. Read More
Don’t Shoot the Messenger
Authorities in the US and the UK have placed temporary restrictions on short selling financial stocks in response to recent market volatility. In Australia, regulators have gone even further, banning... Read More
AussieMac Won’t Work
The commencement of a new easing cycle by the Reserve Bank of Australia has put the spotlight on mortgage interest rates and their relationship with the official cash rate. Read More
$4billion government subsidy will not promote competition
The federal government’s decision to purchase $4 billion in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) has been justified on the basis that it will promote the efficient operation of financial markets,... Read More
OAP rise is doubly taxing for GEN X and Y
This week’s debate about the future of the old age pension provides an insight into the political realities of an ageing Australia. Australia’s expanding and influential elderly population have flexed... Read More
The case for corporate tax reform
Australia’s corporate tax is said to be very successful, raising substantial revenue, and there has been little debate about it over the past few years. The most obvious starting point in any tax debate... Read More
Reserve Did Not Go Far or Fast Enough
Turning points in the official interest rate cycle are usually accompanied by claims that monetary policy has gone too far. But if there is any criticism to be made of the Reserve Bank’s most recent... Read More
Back to work in Brown's Britain
It is ironic that the Rudd Government is considering weakening the federal Job Network of employment agencies and its background ethos of meeting conditions for welfare, just as Britain is belatedly starting... Read More
There’s no such thing as a free parking space
Housing affordability, cutting greenhouse emissions and easing the rising cost burden on low income families are the issues of the day across the country. Congestion in our cities is a problem, and encouraging... Read More
Cut wages and create jobs
The best way to move people off welfare and into jobs is to require them to work. Not everybody can or should be expected to work but many of the 1.7 million working-age adults claiming income support... Read More
The Budget is not what it seems
The Rudd government wants us to believe that it has laboured mightily to bring forth a budget that increases the surplus by being tougher on government expenditure than on taxpayers. Read More
The Future Fund - why they can't just give it back
Announcing in his budget speech that $40 billion was to be shovelled into three new government investment funds, Wayne Swan admitted: "This money is not ours -- it belongs to the Australian people." To... Read More
Family tax benefits still a mass of contradictions
Well budget night is over. Anyone hosting a Working Families budget party (you know, every guest has to down a highly taxed alcopop whenever Swan mentions "that phrase") would have had a lot of mess to... Read More
Budget boredom for schools but watch this space
One word encapsulates the 2008-09 federal budget as it relates to schools - boring. It simply makes official the funding announcements made before the election last year. Read More
Still no freedom from higher taxes
The call by the 2020 Summit for a big review of the tax system coincides, by chance, with the arrival of this year's Tax Freedom Day - the point in the (calendar) year to which the economy has been working... Read More
Fat Tax unfair to fat and thin taxpayers alike
Was this really the best ‘big idea’ the health panel at the 2020 Summit could come up with? A new tax - how original! – on beer and cigarettes, which will also be imposed on fast food, so that the... Read More
Who should pay for maternity leave – employers, unions or taxpayers?
Elizabeth Broderick, Sharan Burrow and Heather Ridout have come together to argue in favour of the introduction of a government-funded paid maternity leave scheme of 14 weeks at the minimum wage. At first,... Read More
Add State Tax Reform to COAG’s agenda
Judging from what has so far been revealed of Kevin Rudd’s vision of cooperative federalism, state tax reform is not a part of it. Business groups now want it to be. Read More
The RBA is at another arm's length, but what about transparency.
One of the Rudd Government's first acts in office was to announce a "new era of independence" for the Reserve Bank, with revised arrangements for appointing senior officers and external RBA board members. Read More
Beware Canberra's power bid
Today's Council of Australian Governments meeting is the latest step in the Rudd Government's drive to reshape commonwealth-state relations in the mould of co-operative federalism. This has been well received... Read More
Throwing the baby bonus out with the bathwater
As the Rudd 'razor gang' searches for wasteful items of expenditure to cut, a number of commentators have targeted the baby bonus as a prime candidate. Read More
Laugh or cry - you've lost your subsidy Queensland
The supercharged Queensland economy passed another milestone this week, although it’s one that Queenslanders may not want to celebrate. For the first time ever, the sunshine state will join New South... Read More
The politics of the big number
True or false? The Commonwealth budget surplus is $62 billion. The Prime Minister’s salary is $1,321,000. Read More
Cut the minimum wage to expand low skilled employment
The Rudd government has set up a new board, Skills Australia, to spend a billion dollars in four years creating half a million new vocational education training (VET) places. Young people are being encouraged... Read More
Saving the long term jobless
It is ten years since the federal government shut down the Commonwealth Employment Service and replaced it with Centrelink and the Job Network. Centrelink was given responsibility for registering job seekers... Read More
Use tax cuts to boost super
The Rudd government’s commitment to personal income tax cuts from July 2008 is being questioned by the OECD and some local economists on the grounds that the cuts will be inflationary. Read More
Put budget surplus to good use
The Howard government’s fiscal strategy, as reiterated in the 2007-08 budget papers, has been to keep the budget in balance on average over the economic cycle, while keeping the forward estimates in... Read More
Conditional welfare makes sense
Following its dramatic intervention in 60 Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, it is reported that the federal cabinet now wants to extend the principle of conditional welfare to all Australian... Read More
Budget should deliver us a break
Income tax reform should be tackled in the federal budget. Read More
Tax reform: we have barely scratched the surface
As preparation of the 2007-08 Commonwealth budget moves into top gear, it is timely to remind policymakers of the taxpayer’s stake in the outcome. There are real grounds to fear that the taxpayer will... Read More
Sit in the corner while we rob you
IT has recently come to my attention that some of you are still smacking your children when they are naughty. I do not approve of this. I admit that I've changed my mind on this issue. I didn't used to... Read More
Costello holds aces in tax deal
In the lead-up to their annual conference tomorrow, federal and state treasurers are again at loggerheads over state taxes. Federal Treasurer Peter Costello wants the states to remove the stamp duty on... Read More
The real priorities
A Mayor has a $10million surplus, which he wants to allocate to a good cause. Ten groups clamour for the cash. One wants to buy new computers for an inner-city high school. Another hopes to beautify a... Read More
Structural problems unresolved
It was a strange budget. The Treasurer addressed almost every concern that critics had expressed about our tax and benefits system – but resolved virtually none of them. Read More
NSW Transport misses the bus by sinking the ferry
Long suffering Sydney commuters could be forgiven for thinking that the NSW government and its conglomerate of over-manned, state-owned transport bureaucracies would take any help they can get to address... Read More
System not in the finest health
As the welfare-to-work proposals are made public, Peter Saunders looks at the question of self-funding. Read More
Parties in a state of voluntary confusion
`The Liberals are spending political capital to abolish a near redundant fee' Read More
Fix policies to make housing affordable
The house price bubble has finally burst. While it lasted, the boom added substantially to the wealth of existing home owners, but it has made home ownership more expensive for aspiring new buyers. Read More
The Price of Crime Without Doing Time
The Australian crime rate has escalated over the past 40 years. According to the International Crime Victim Survey of 17 countries, Australia now ranks second highest overall (behind England and Wales)... Read More
The Price of Crime Without Doing Time
The Australian crime rate has escalated over the past 40 years. According to the International Crime Victim Survey of 17 countries, Australia now ranks second highest overall (behind England and Wales)... Read More
Outdated laws create problems for universities
Gloom and Australia's universities are longtime companions. The National Library's catalogue records half a dozen publications on the 'crisis' in universities, published in 1952, 1965, 1970, 1980, 1994,... Read More
Lies and statistics
Surjit Bhalla's book Imagine There's No Country has created a furore in Washington by convincingly demonstrating that the World Bank's poverty count of 1.15 billion poor people in developing countries... Read More
Be a realist, not a lap dog: A cooling off period will improve ties with indonesia
Ours is an age that believes in action. Faced with a problem, virtually any problem, the demand is that someone—and these days it is invariably the state—should act immediately. Action is evidence... Read More
Modern perils in a lucky country
What is the state of our nation? For the most part, Australians are better off than they have ever been before. On average, the people of Australia are healthier, wealthier, more educated and more active... Read More
GDP stands the test of time
Ed Mishan, a leading English economist, writing when Simon Kuznets was complaining about the shortcomings of GDP as an indicator of growth, bewailed that growth meant that the Riviera, art galleries and... Read More
Time to fit the crime
The first duty of government is to protect the citizen’s person and property, and to do so consistently, humanely and effectively. Balancing these requirements is not easy. Rising crime rates in Queensland,... Read More
Commercialising highways
Most people consider the modern auto-highway system a great success. In the United States, automobiles provide 95% of all individual surface trips, and trucks transport an ever-larger majority of all freight.... Read More
Trading Phobias: Governments, NGOs and Globalisation
Almost any dispassionate analysis of the evolution of the world economy will find that the past few years have seen better economic performance by almost all measures; that the past fifty years have witnessed... Read More
Staying in the Dark on School Performance
There is a movement in Australian education for increased assessment and accountability. Assessment and reporting strategies are being developed in most States, and testing has been implemented to develop... Read More
Stop Subsidising a Failure
John Quiggin is a well- known microeconomic reform sceptic, and in these pages last week questioned whether competition was a practical policy for improving investment in human capital. Read More
Threshold issues for a tax system that creates jobs
An important debate is taking place in Australia about the future of welfare, taxation and award wages. The outcome of this debate will influence the shape of social policy for years to come. Read More
Building Prosperity
From protected backwater on the global periphery to outward-looking player, Australia has come a long way since the closed economy settings of the Menzies to Fraser era. Considerable progress towards greater... Read More