Brendan Coates
Brendan is the Economic Policy Program Director at the Grattan Institute. Before joining Grattan, Brendan worked with the World Bank in Indonesia, and prior to that, he undertook a number of roles with the Australian Treasury, including as part of the Treasury’s China Policy Unit. Brendan holds a Masters of International Development Economics from the Australian National University and Bachelors of Commerce and Arts from the University of Melbourne.
Brendan is the Economic Policy Program Director at the Grattan Institute. Before joining Grattan, Brendan worked with the World Bank in Indonesia, and prior to that, he undertook a number of roles with the Australian Treasury, including as part of the Treasury’s China Policy Unit. Brendan holds a Masters of International Development Economics from the Australian National University and Bachelors of Commerce and Arts from the University of Melbourne.
Brendan's recent articles
27 August 2023
National Cabinet’s new housing plan could fix our rental crisis and save renters billions
Wednesday’s National Cabinet meeting set itself a huge task: to fix Australia’s rental crisis. Thankfully, given rents are rising at their fastest rate in decades, the plan it produced just might do the trick.
28 May 2023
Short-changed: how to stop the exploitation of migrant workers in Australia
Exploitation of migrant workers in Australia is rife, a new Grattan Institute report has found.
28 April 2023
Serious budget repair requires hard superannuation reform
The Financial Review’s political editor, Phillip Coorey, wrote last week that when it comes to superannuation policy, the Grattan Institute “increasingly resembles the financial policy arm of the Greens”. I am not exactly sure what that means – and I am Grattan’s lead on super policy – but I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean it as a compliment.
3 September 2022
Impact of increasing the permanent skilled migration intake
Businesses are crying out for more workers. But boosting permanent migration won’t fix their problem. Here’s why.
14 April 2021
Housing affordability is a problem. Here’s why super-for-housing isn’t a solution
The idea that young Australians should be able to dip into their super to help buy their first home keeps going round and round. The most recent iteration put forward by the Coalition’s Tim Wilson and a clutch of other backbenchers has the catchy slogan Home First, Super Second.
12 April 2021
Superannuation is much more than one man's legacy
No one is as quick to defend Australia’s superannuation system, and the legislated plan to increase compulsory superannuation to 12 per cent of wages by 2025, as its architect, former Prime Minister Paul Keating. But as is often the case when fundamental assumptions are questioned and legacies are at stake, the rhetoric has become more heated and the analysis less careful.
25 February 2021
The JobSeeker rise – back to 2007 payment levels
Lowering the overall level of unemployment benefits that job seekers are going to receive in the middle of a recession is likely to cost jobs.
18 February 2021
Penny wise, pound foolish: the federal government must step up on hotel quarantine
Our biggest weakness in protecting the community from Covid-19 remains a hotel quarantine system that demonstrably is not fit for purpose. Here’s how to fix our quarantine system once and for all.