Policy Monographs
Policy Monographs (PM) are pieces directly commenting on government policy, new programs or legislation.
Categories
A Fair Go: Fact or Fiction?
The Australian ideal of a fair go is fact rather than fiction. By offering all individuals the opportunity to capitalise on their ambition and natural ability, Australia’s dynamic and socially mobile... Read More
Panacea to Prison? Justice Reinvestment in Indigenous Communities
High Indigenous incarceration has elicited a long list of so-called solutions over the years. Yet the percentage of Aboriginal people in custody has continued to rise, and is now nearly double what it... Read More
The New Leviathan: A National Disability Insurance Scheme
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been touted as the biggest social reform since Medicare. Currently, there is only a naive understanding of the scheme. This report makes the case that... Read More
How the NSW Coalition Should Govern Health: Strategies for Microeconomic Reform
In an ever-tightening fiscal environment, the focus of NSW health policy must be the microeconomic reform of the rigid, public service monopoly model of public hospital care. The adoption of market or... Read More
Indigenous Education 2012
Indigenous Education 2012 reviews the lack of progress by states and territories in improving Indigenous literacy and numeracy. It examines causes of Indigenous students’ success and failure, and the... Read More
Charlatan Training: How Aboriginal Health Workers Are Being Short-changed
Aboriginal Health Workers (AHWs) have been short changed. They have not only been provided with charlatan training but also sold a charlatan role. The amount of training they receive does not match the... Read More
Do Not Damage and Disturb: On Child Protection Failures and the Pressure on Out-of-Home Care in Australia
This monograph shows that the rising size, cost, and complexity of the out-of-home care system in Australia is directly linked to child protection failures. Children are entering care later and more damaged,... Read More
Working Towards Self-Reliance: Three Lessons for Disability Pension Reform
To successful reduce the number of pensioners on disability support, policymakers must apply the lessons of other welfare reforms. Disability pensioners must be categorised based on their ability to work;... Read More
Hands, Mouths and Minds: Three Perspectives on Population Growth and Living Standards
The long-run relationship between population growth and living standards has been a source of controversy among economists. This monograph examines three perspectives on the issue and argues that population... Read More
Selection, Migration and Integration: Why Multiculturalism Works in Australia (And Fails in Europe)
Australia’s migrants are extremely well integrated by international standards, particularly Europe. The reason why multiculturalism works better in Australia than in Europe may be Australia’s more... Read More
Alcohol Policy and the Politics of Moral Panic
New Zealand’s proposed liquor legislation marks a return to old attitudes towards alcohol regulation that perversely believe, in part due to dubious economic analyses, that placing restrictions on access,... Read More
Alcohol Restrictions in Indigenous Communities and Frontier Towns
The double standards applied to the enforcement of liquor legislation have contributed to the alcohol problems present in many Indigenous communities. For there to be a civil society, regulation (or controls)... Read More
Droughts and Flooding Rains: Water Provision for a Growing Australia
In the 2010 federal elections, the debate over Australia’s population surfaced once again. Groups concerned with the impacts of a growing population have focused on the life source of any settlement:... Read More
How! Not How Much: Medicare Spending and Health Resource Allocation in Australia
This report traces the evolution of Australian health policy and its consequences across half a century. The public hospital 'crisis,' a political nightmare for all Australian governments, is a legacy... Read More
Private Housing on Indigenous Lands
Legislation and programs to introduce private housing and businesses on Indigenous land are flawed. Tenure of Indigenous land should be amended to 999-year head leases with the provision for sub-leases... Read More
Populate and Perish? Modelling Australia's Demographic Future
Since the publication of the 2010 Intergenerational Report, Australia has been debating its demographic future and whether it is desirable for the nation to grow to more than 35 million people by 2050.... Read More
The Rise of Religious Schools in Australia
Growth in the non-government school sector in Australia has been driven by religious schools, with the largest increases in Islamic schools and ‘fundamentalist’ Christian schools. This report examines... Read More
Indigenous Education 2010
The 2009 NAPLAN literacy and numeracy tests confirm the continued failure of Indigenous education. The government's 'closing the gap' objectives will never be achieved unless real changes to policy are... Read More
Indigenous Employment, Unemployment and Labour Force Participation: Facts for Evidence Based Policies
Professor Helen Hughes, Senior Research Fellow at the CIS and Mark Hughes highlight that Indigenous non-labour force participation is a much greater problem than unemployment. ‘Indigenous unemployment... Read More
Closing the Accountability Gap: The First Step Towards Better Indigenous Health
Sara Hudson argues that the untargeted nature of government spending in indigenous health means that it is difficult to know what services the money is buying and for whom. Read More
Like the Curate’s Egg: A Market-based Response and Alternative to the Bennett Report
The National Health and Hospital Reform Commission (NHHRC) has acknowledged the need to ensure health services are responsive to the needs of patients, and has recommended some very limited market-based... Read More
The Past is the Future for Public Hospitals: An Insider’s Perspective on Hospital Administration
Drawing on his vast experience, Dr Graham explains why the only future for public hospitals is to reclaim the best features of their past and reclaim their freedom from the clutches of the bureaucracies... Read More
Family on the Edge: Stability and Fertility in Prosperity and Recession
Barry Maley argues that unless family law and policies rapidly change, family stability and a buoyant birth rate will be at risk with implications for the ageing of the population in the long term. Read More
Why Public Hospitals Are Overcrowded: Ten Points for Policymakers
Despite the billions of taxpayer dollars poured into the public hospital system each year, public bed resources are only two-thirds of the OECD average and well below international par in every state. ... Read More
Fatally Flawed: The Child Protection Crisis in Australia
It is not underfunding or an overwhelming workload that has caused child protection services to fail the vulnerable children they exist to protect, it is the failure to investigate reports and remove children... Read More
Breaking the Cycle of Family Joblessness
Solving the problem of high family joblessness will require reform of the welfare, tax, and industrial relations systems. Read More
Revisiting Indigenous Education
Aboriginal and Torres Islander children in remote communities must not be viewed as ‘different’ from other Australian children. So long as cultural traits justify the removal of children from mainstream... Read More
From Rhetoric to Reality: Can 99-year Leases Lead to Homeownership for Indigenous Communities?
The lack of private property rights on communal title land has prevented Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders from becoming homeowners. Read More
Radical Surgery: The Only Cure for New South Wales Hospitals
Wolfgang Kasper argues that the hospital malaise can only be remedied by removing the central, bureaucratic control of hospitals and creating opportunities for spontaneous, decentralised and customer-oriented... Read More
A Streak of Hypocrisy: Reactions to the Global Financial Crisis and Generational Debt
Dr Jeremy Sammut says that ‘household savings have collapsed due to an unnecessary dependence on welfare handouts. A new era of thrift is overdue!’ Read More
Harmacy: The Political Economy of Community Pharmacy in Australia
The regulatory environment that governs community pharmacy has created one of Australia’s most protected industries. It is a beneficiary of government largesse and central regulation and control in state,... Read More
CDEP: Help or Hindrance? The Community Development Employment Program and its Impact on Indigenous Australians
Established more than thirty years ago, the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) program has expanded to range from substituting for local government services to offering payment for housework... Read More
The False Promise of GP Super Clinics Part 2: Coordinated Care
The report’s author Jeremy Sammut examines the evidence for the Rudd government’s plan to use GP Super Clinics to boost prevention of chronic disease and ‘take the pressure off public hospitals’... Read More
The False Promise of GP Super Clinics: Part 1: Preventive Care
Dr Jeremy Sammut examines the evidence for preventive care programs to help make the Medicare system sustainable, given the demands of the ageing of Australia’s population, the rising chronic disease... Read More
Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory
The causes of failing education—inequitable school facilities, inappropriate curriculums, and inadequate teaching—in Aboriginal schools are well known. Unfortunately, these causes have not been addressed... Read More
The Coming Crisis of Medicare: What the Intergenerational Reports should say, but doesn’t, about health and ageing
The demographic and medical realities of the twenty-first century mean that Medicare can no longer provide every citizen with ‘free’ access to all the new medicine. Without reform, healthcare in... Read More
The Organisation of Residential Aged Care for an Ageing Population
At the heart of this new paper is the re-assertion of the need for a system of accommodation bonds. Hogan reiterates that a key factor limiting the supply of extra beds is the high cost of developing new... Read More
The Government Giveth and the Government Taketh Away: Tax Welfare Churning and the Case for Welfare State Opt-Outs
Australians are more prosperous than ever before, so the number of people needing government assistance should be falling. Yet the welfare state keeps getting bigger. The book explores this paradox. It... Read More
Reform 30/30: Rebuilding Australia’s Tax and Welfare Systems
John Humphreys has a vision of how the tax and welfare systems could be refashioned to break through the dispiriting problems that currently bedevil them. It is for those who reject this vision to put... Read More
The Taxation of Shared Family Incomes
Terry Dwyer’s paper makes a compelling case for recognising family income sharing for tax purposes, and his arguments and proposals should be central to any future discussion of how to achieve a fairer... Read More
Schools in the Spotlight. School Performance Reporting and Public Accountability
Buckingham calls for a consistent, fair and meaningful system of reporting and publishing comparative school performance, making schools accountable not only to government, but also to the public who pays... Read More
Divorce Law and the Future of Marriage
No-fault divorce law has precipitated marital instability in Australia, discouraging people from marrying, staying together, acting to support their spouses and having children. According to respected... Read More
Poverty in Australia: Beyond the Rhetoric
This report challenges prevailing definitions and measurements of poverty, and calls for an alternative strategy for poverty alleviation based on American-style welfare reform, lower taxation and job creation. Read More
The Unchained University
Australia's universities are not preparing students adequately for their futures. Report author and higher education expert Andrew Norton argues that universities are failing students in several ways. Read More
Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers : A Global View
A worldwide excess of demand for immigration means that Western countries cannot accommodate more than a small proportion of immigrants without severe social dislocation, says Helen Hughes. The world has... Read More
Family and Marriage in Australia
The growing instability of the nuclear family is a fundamental cause behind a great deal of juvenile crime, youth suicide and poor school performance. The report - Family and Marriage in Australia -... Read More
Families Freedom and Education: Why School Choice Makes Sense
Parents have been demonstrating their increasing lack of faith in the public education system for decades, as reflected in the steady drift in student enrolments away from the state school sector toward... Read More
The Art of Corporate Governance: a return to first principles
Calls for big business to be more ‘ethical’ and ‘socially responsible’ have never been louder, nor more misguided. Samuel Gregg argues these calls come at a time ‘when the public understanding... Read More
Taxing the family : Australia's forgotten people in the income spectrum
Over the last two decades, the tax burden has shifted from taxpayers without to taxpayers with dependent children. While social security expenditure on welfare dependency has risen, spending on family... Read More
Beyond the Classroom : how parents influence their children's education
Parents are crucial to the academic success of their children. The report, Beyond the Classroom: How Parents Influence Their Children’s Education, argues that factors ranging from parents’ educational... Read More
Boy Troubles: Understanding Rising Suicide, Rising Crime and Educational Failure
Australian boys are at greater risk of doing badly at school, participating in juvenile crime, and committing suicide. The root of these problems are cultural and institutional,' says report author Jennifer... Read More
Behavioural Poverty
The welfare debate is bedeviled by the failure to distinguish behavioural from financial poverty. The minimum income available to families on welfare are commensurate with those of families on average... Read More
Children's Rights : Where the Law is Heading and What it Means for Families
Barry Maley cautions that while children are citizens entitled to the protection of the state, he believes that some recent moves to secure this protection may actually be counterproductive. Read More
Social Capital Stories: How 12 Australian Households Live their Lives
Social capital - the network of informal social connections that helps to hold communities together - is often reported to be in decline. But is it? Read More
Rising Crime in Australia
Rising Crime in Australia provides a long-term perspective on crime. For much of the twentieth century crime rates were in decline or stable, but have risen alarmingly since the 1970's. Read More
Taking Education Seriously - A Reform Program for Australia's Schools
Australia's schools are much criticised by students, parents and employers. Despite significant increases in educational expenditure, satisfaction with performance has declined. Read More
Working Youth:Tackling Australian Youth Unemployment
Working Youth proposes reforms to the labour market and educationthat would begin the task of creating jobs for Australia's young people. Read More
Affirmative Action: The New Discrimination
Gabriel Moens finds that the philosophical and practical ramifications of such 'affirmative action' may be worse than the original complaint. Read More
Free to Shop
Shopping hours and standards in Australia are far behind those of other countries. The trend of Governments in other countries has been to deregulate trading hours, not to control them further as in Australia."There... Read More
