Writer
Andrew Podger
Andrew Stuart Podger, AO is a retired Australian senior public servant. He is currently Professor of Public Policy at the Australian National University.
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Response to Brendan Coates on Retirement Income System
While Brendan Coates makes some valid criticisms of Paul Keating’s recent claims about Australia’s retirement income system, his own claims and assumptions (and those of the Retirement Income Review) are also open to question…. Continue reading »
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Is Australia’s retirement income system delivering on its potential?
‘The Australian retirement income system is effective, sound and its costs are broadly sustainable’ according to the Retirement Income Review chaired by Mike Callaghan…. Continue reading »
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Addressing politicians’ and political staff behaviour
The depressing stories coming out of Parliament House reinforce the need to review the Members of Parliament (Staffing) Act and the processes for overseeing the behaviour of ministers and other MPs as well as MOPS staff…. Continue reading »
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Risky business: The act governing treatment of parliamentary staff (MOPS) needs overhaul
Is it asking too much to expect parliamentary staff, who are paid by taxpayers and exercise privileged influence if not direct public power, to behave with high ethical standards? The absence of clear lines of accountability and clear behavioural expectations is no longer acceptable…. Continue reading »
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Responding to Callaghan: completing Australia’s retirement income system
The Retirement Income Review (Callaghan) Report concluded that the Australian retirement income system is effective, sound and its costs are broadly sustainable…. Continue reading »
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Where are the true, small-l liberal conservatives?
Australian conservatives seem to have lost some of their traditional commitment to institutions and the liberalism they protect…. Continue reading »
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Academic engagement with China is not a security risk: it is an investment in a shared more liberal world
The Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Bill 2020 currently before the Parliament would require State and Territory entities to seek the approval of the Minister for Foreign Affairs for any proposed ‘arrangement’ with a ‘core foreign entity’; existing ‘arrangements’ would also be subject to approval. The bill may be presented as ‘country agnostic’ but… Continue reading »
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Let’s have a proper review of public sector remuneration
In calling for a review of Australia Post in light of its decision to reward some executives with Cartier watches, the PM stated that ‘there wouldn’t be a board member of a government agency or a CEO of a government agency that didn’t get my message’…. Continue reading »
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Getting Coherence into the Equity Debate – Part 3
In Parts 1 and 2, I used three desirable attributes (equity, efficiency and simplicity) of a coherent tax and transfer system to assess the 2020-21 personal income tax changes and the lack of a rate increase for JobSeeker recipients. In Part 3, I examine family assistance and child care…. Continue reading »
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Getting Coherence into the Equity Debate – Part 2
In Part 1, I used three desirable attributes (equity, efficiency and simplicity) of a coherent tax and transfer system to assess the 2020-21 personal income tax changes. In Part 2, I examine JobSeeker payments…. Continue reading »
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Adding complexity, taxes the issue of equity – Part 1
More sensible than the Government’s Stage 3 tax cuts would be the approach put forward by the Henry Tax Review of an explicit and high tax threshold and no means-tested ‘tax offsets’…. Continue reading »
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Superannuation and the Guarantee.
Public debate on superannuation is currently focused primarily on the level of the guarantee. This is a legitimate debate, but the guarantee is not the most important issue for ensuring Australians have adequate and secure retirement incomes…. Continue reading »
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Engaging with China about public administration reform
As some politicians and commentators call for containment of China, it is time to put forward the case for engagement instead. It can only assist with our understanding of China’s huge challenges, and maybe help encourages continuing reform…. Continue reading »
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We Need a Royal Commission into Robodebt
A Royal Commission into Robodebt could shed light on future policy and administration issues, some going beyond social security writes Whiteford, Podger and Stanton from ANU’s Crawford School of Public Policy…. Continue reading »
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Federalism does not need an ongoing ‘National Cabinet’
Australia has so far been successful in its response to the COVID 19 pandemic, a major reason being the constructive role of the ‘National Cabinet’. But there is good reason to be highly sceptical about the ongoing role for the ‘National Cabinet’ announced by the Prime Minister…. Continue reading »
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Book Review: “Hidden Hand” – Exposing how the Chinese communist party is reshaping the world (The Conversation 10.7.20)
In Hidden Hand, China scholars Clive Hamilton and Marieke Ohlberg examine the Chinese Communist Party’s influence in Europe and North America in a similar way to how Hamilton dissected the CCP’s influence in Australia in his 2018 book, Silent Invasion…. Continue reading »
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ANDREW PODGER. New Normals: Likely, Unlikely and to aim for. Part 2
A desirable new normal in economic and social policy will require a new normal in Australian politics. For a decade or more we have suffered from hyper-partisanship and the constant campaign. Good policy is no longer recognised as good politics. Arguably, Scott Morrison is the supreme example, being until now the most ‘transactional’ of political… Continue reading »
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ANDREW PODGER. New Normals: Likely, Unlikely and to aim for. Part 1
As governments transition out of the current restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19 and help the economy towards recovery, it is worth exploring what the future might or should look like…. Continue reading »
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ANDREW PODGER. COVID-19 crisis shows a strong public service is vital
The convid-19 epidemic has shown how much Australia relies on an effective public service, free from politics. This, however, is in spite of the over-politicisation and under-resourcing of the service over recent years…. Continue reading »
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ANDREW PODGER. In defence of an apolitical, professional public service( The Mandarin 24.2.2020)
I cannot let Laurie Patton’s opinion piece go unchallenged. It is a recipe of despair in its dismissal of fundamental principles of responsible government…. Continue reading »
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ANDREW PODGER.The ‘sports rorts’ affair shows the government misunderstands the role of the public service.(The Conversation 30.1.2020)
The government’s defence of Bridget McKenzie and the prime minister’s call for advice from the head of his department reveal a remarkable misunderstanding (or, less surprisingly, a remarkable misrepresentation) of the respective roles of ministers and administrators…. Continue reading »
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ANDREW PODGER.-Trying to make sense of the Thodey Report and Morrison’s Response:(The Conversation 19.12.2019)
The final report of the Independent Review of the APS is much more substantial than its Interim Report. That is hardly a high hurdle, but its 18 page bibliography suggests considerable reflection beyond the (mostly disappointing) submissions and commissioned papers…. Continue reading »
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ANDREW PODGER.- Grattan Ducks its own Push for a Sensible Discussion of Private Health Insurance.
In their first ‘Saving Private Insurance’ report in August, Stephen Duckett and Kristina Nemet from the Grattan Institute presented a most helpful framework for assessing the future role of private health insurance in Australia in the context of our universal public insurance scheme, Medicare…. Continue reading »
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ANDREW PODGER. Politics and Administration under the Second Morrison Government: Making the Partnership Work.
The relationship between politics and administration has been likened to the Chinese Yin and Yang: a dichotomy of almost opposites but simultaneously a complementary partnership in which neither can survive without the other. That is the challenge the new Morrison Government needs to understand as it sets out what it expects from the Australian Public… Continue reading »
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ANDREW PODGER. More Carefully Designed, a Stage Three Tax Measure Could Be a Responsible and Genuine Reform
At the time of last year’s budget, I wrote a [1] revealing how neither the Government’s nor the Labor Party’s then proposed tax changes would simplify the personal income tax system or offer genuine long-term reform. This was largely because of continuing misrepresentation of the tax scale and failure to take into account how the… Continue reading »
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Andrew Podger. Australia’s ‘welfare system’: Family assistance and tax elements.
Policy Series While it is important to consider our tax and transfer arrangements as a single integrated system, there are various (overlapping) parts to it: retirement incomes (including superannuation tax arrangements and the age pension), the core welfare system (pensions and benefits for people not able or not expected to work, including the aged, disabled… Continue reading »
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Andrew Podger and Peter Whiteford. Inequality and Australia’s Welfare System
Policy Series Inequality is a complex issue. It is affected by many factors, so that it can increase as a result of beneficial changes as well as socially undesirable ones, and can decrease because of changes that reduce overall social wellbeing as well as a result of socially desirable changes. A particular level of inequality… Continue reading »
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Andrew Podger. A fair, effective and sustainable retirement incomes system.
Fairness, Opportunity and Security Policy series edited by Michael Keating and John Menadue. In his introduction to this series, Ken Henry said he could not recall a poorer quality debate, on almost any issue, than what we have had in Australia in recent times. Ian Marsh, in his contribution, advocated pursuing bi(multi)partisanship opportunities as far… Continue reading »
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Andrew Podger. Integrating aged pensions and superannuation.
Just as the Abbott government sorely needs a coherent health policy, welfare policy and family assistance policy, it should also put time and effort in 2015 into investing in a coherent approach to retirement incomes instead of focusing narrowly on the age pension. The budget measures are being stymied by the Senate, not because of… Continue reading »
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Andrew Podger – Health reform, co-payments, fee for service and doctor contracts.
The recent suggestion of a modest user charge on patients of bulk-billing doctors, and the immediate reaction in the media, suggests the need for a more careful study of the appropriate role of co-payments in our health insurance system, and of other measures to contain costs while delivering an effective insurance product. Ensuring everyone has… Continue reading »
