Michael Keating

Michael Keating is a former Secretary of the Departments of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Finance and Employment, and Industrial Relations. He is presently a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.

Michael's recent articles

Michael Keating. Part 3. An Alternative and Better Budget Structure

In two previous blogs I have argued that the Governments Budget broadly got the economics right, but it failed the test of fairness and it attacks our traditional values. In that case, however, what would the alternative Budget structure look like? Fundamentally the Budget should have relied much more on taxation and less on expenditure cutting. As I have already shown it is low revenue that created our fiscal problem and not excessive expenditure. However, increasing taxation will be easier if it can be shown that expenditure has been properly reviewed and screwed down tightly, and so I will first...

Michael Keating. Part 2. The Budget and our Values

The Budget is always the clearest guide to a governments priorities and values. In the present instance, the Coalition Government wants to define this budget as being all about contribution. Their rhetoric is that we should all make a contribution towards restoring the nations finances. Spreading the burden would be fair and therefore consistent with Australian values. But nothing could be further from the truth. Disadvantaged and low income people are being asked to make very big sacrifices, while most of us will be little troubled, and a few very rich people will be better off as a result of...

Michael Keating. Part 1 The Budget and what it means for Australia's Future

Each day this week I will be running a series of blogs by Michael Keating on the Budget and its repercussions. The posts will be Australia's Fiscal Challenge The Budget and our Values A Better Alternate Budget Structure Taxation Federalism I am sure that these five posts will make a substantial contribution to our understanding of the Budget and its implications for Australia. Mike Keating was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Perhaps more relevant to his comments on the Budget is that he was Secretary of the Department of Finance under...

More on pink batts. Guest blogger: Dr Michael Keating

I would like to add a further comment to your post on 3 January on the Pink Batts. First, I would further contest the evidence that this scheme was poorly conceived and badly implemented. On this point it should be noted that the Auditor Generals finding that 29 per cent of 13808 completed jobs had minor or serious problems was based on a departmental survey, which suggests that the government was following up. Furthermore the survey was not wholly random and as the Auditor General noted this particular finding constituted only weak evidence. Later evidence showed that of 44,300...

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