Economy
-
Michael Keating. Federalism (repost)
The Government’s Commission of Audit, which preceded this Budget, recommended that policy and service delivery should as far as practicable be the responsibility of the level of government closest to the people receiving those services, and that each level of government should be sovereign in its own sphere, with minimal duplication between the Commonwealth and Continue reading »
-
Ian Verrender. Turnbull will have a tough sell on economic policy
Malcolm Turnbull is hardly going to win votes by spruiking the economic record of his predecessor. And yet he hasn’t exactly made any headway on his own tax reform or budget repair agenda, writes Ian Verrender. History, they say, is written by the victor. Try telling that to vanquished former prime minister Tony Abbott, who Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Budget repair and private health insurance.
Readers of this blog will be aware that I have been expressing concern about the serious consequences of the government subsidy costing $11 b. p.a. for the private health insurance industry. This subsidy has serious budget consequences: it is skewed in favour of high income earners; it has not taken pressure off public hospitals; it Continue reading »
-
Ian McAuley. The government says that tax cuts are good for workers!
Arthur Sinodinos’ suggestion of a cut to the corporate tax rate doesn’t seem to be the smartest way to start an election campaign. For a start, it’s not clear how such generosity would be funded. Earlier this month there was a flurry of excitement when iron ore prices rose. For a few days the idea Continue reading »
-
Michael Keating. The Outlook for Housing and Labor’s Tax Proposals
Since the collapse of the mining boom, housing investment has been an important driver of the Australian economic performance. Furthermore, notwithstanding the rapid growth in superannuation balances, housing still accounts for over half of the wealth of Australian households. In these circumstances it is important to have an accurate appreciation of the likely outlook for Continue reading »
-
Brian Toohey. The $50 b. submarine purchase.
Jon Stanford’s three-part series on the Turnbull government’s determination to spend $50 billion on big new submarines is a welcome contribution to understanding what’s at stake at a time of cuts elsewhere. The decision risks repeating the Hawke government’s disastrous mistake of rejecting a proven design in favour of the bespoke Collins class subs. Stanford’s Continue reading »
-
Jon Stanford. Technology, economics and Australia’s future submarine. Part 1 of 3
Part 1: Technology risk Introduction The most important acquisition included in the government’s Defence White Paper, released in February 2016, is the decision to procure twelve new submarines for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). With an acquisition cost of at least $50 billion (and with a much higher through life sustainment cost), this is Continue reading »
-
NBN stars collide – waiting for the Big Bang
Two stars collided in Canberra last week, but the big bang is yet to be heard. Continue reading »
-
Carol Richards, Bree Devin. Supermarkets and food waste.
In this blog on 25 February, I noted that the French parliament has voted to ban large food stores from throwing food away. In the story below, Carol Richards and Bree Devin highlight the way powerful supermarkets in Australia push the cost of food waste onto suppliers and charities. John Menadue At a time when Continue reading »
-
What has gone wrong with Malcolm Turnbull’s NBN?
In a column in The Drum on the ABC, Paddy Manning comments that ‘Malcolm Turnbull’s version of the NBN is proving to be much more expensive to deliver than was originally hoped. Remember that the only merit of Turnbull’s “multi-technology mix” (MTM) was that it would be cheaper to build …’ See link to article Continue reading »
-
Building Australia’s white elephant – cheap buy for white knight Telstra
Tony Abbott gave Malcolm Turnbull instructions to undermine the NBN. As Minister for Communications it is apparent that that is what Turnbull did. As Prime Minister he could have reversed the damage to NBN. But he chose not to. In the following blog published by Paul Budde, he points out that both Infrastructure Australia and Continue reading »
-
Jeffrey Knapp. Big four accounting firms avoid scrutiny in multinational tax avoidance.
The Senate Inquiry into corporate tax avoidance is due to hand down its final report by April. One of the lesser-mentioned groups appearing before 2015’s Senate hearings are Australia’s big four accounting firms. Multinational companies like Apple, Chevron, Google, Microsoft, and News Corp have dominated headlines, but little has been said of the role of Continue reading »
-
Peter Hughes, Arja Keski-Nummi, John Menadue. Part 3: Settlement Policy and Services.
This is a repost from 27/5/2015. 3.1 Overview The migration process starts in earnest after a visa is given to a migrant. Its success or otherwise is determined after the person arrives in Australia and becomes part of the workforce and community. Australia, along with the other great traditional migration countries, has sought to smoothly Continue reading »
-
Peter Hughes, Arja Keski-Nummi and John Menadue. Part 2. Refugee Policy
A repost from 26/05/15 Part 2: Refugee Policy 2.1 Overview The current and future global environment for irregular migration is extremely challenging. Many more people are on the move globally to gain protection from persecution, security from conflict or greater economic opportunity – or a mixture of these things. The movement of people is being Continue reading »
-
Ian McAuley. Chris Bowen and ‘The Money Men’.
Political disunity comes in two forms. One, which we witnessed in the Rudd-Gillard years, is the subtle attack on the authority of the party leader. The other and more serious form is a conflict about policy. Once Tony Abbott announced his intention to hang around it was clear that the Turnbull Government would suffer the Continue reading »
-
Peter Hughes, Arja Keski-Nummi and John Menadue. Part 1: Immigration Policy and Administration.
This article and the two following articles were part of a policy series that was posted in May/June last year and subsequently published in book form ‘Fairness, Opportunity and Security’. This is a repost from 25/5/2015. Overview This paper sets out a broad design for Australia’s immigration, refugee and settlement policies for the coming decades. Continue reading »
-
The benefits of migration.
In this article in fivebooks.com, Ian Goldin speaks about the benefits of migration although those economic benefits are often widely and differently dispersed. He points to the disconnect between the benefits of immigration and often the political downsides where some communities feel disadvantaged. He notes that the business community often calls for more migrants and Continue reading »
-
Measuring the misery of those forced to flee.
Robert Shiller, a 2013 Nobel Laureate in Economics says ‘Under today’s haphazard and archaic asylum rules, refugees must take enormous risks to reach safety and the costs and benefits of helping them are distributed capriciously . It does not have to be this way. Economists can help by testing which international rules and institutions are Continue reading »
-
Which country has the world’s best healthcare system?
On 9 February, the Guardian published a report on health systems around the world. It drew particularly on analysis of ratings by the Commonwealth Fund and its correspondents around the world. The UK’s national health service was ranked number one in the world. Australia was ranked number four. For Guardian article, see link below: http://gu.com/p/4f6vb/sbl Continue reading »
-
Business can take lead on refugees to end ‘execution by indifference’.
In this article, Tony Shepherd, former President of the Business Council of Australia, urges Australia to be more generous in helping asylum seekers from Syria. He says: ‘As I stare out the window on the plane ride home (from the refugee camps in the Middle East) I think that if history has taught us nothing Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Wasting food in France is now illegal.
The Australian edition of Huffington Post carried a very encouraging story on 4 February this year that it is now illegal for supermarkets in France to waste food. Both Chambers of the French Parliament have unanimously voted to ban large foodstores from throwing food away. Supermarkets must either compost or donate unsold and nearly expired Continue reading »
-
Mark Gregory. Stone-walling on a second rate NBN network.
In responding to questions at the Senate Estimates hearing held on 9 February 2016, NBN Co CEO Bill Morrow admitted he did not know the number of nodes being built during the Fibre to the Node (FTTN) rollout and he went on to say that any information about what is being rolled out by NBN Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Making the Federation work better.
The Abbott Government decided that over the next decade commencing in 2017 the Commonwealth Government would reduce grants to the states for education and health by $80 b. This is likely to produce a major and concerted campaign by the states to protect their hospitals and schools. It does provide an opportunity for more effective Continue reading »
-
John Nieuwenhuysen. Multiculturalism Today and the Little Evil
According to the ABS, the proportion of Australians born overseas has reached its highest point in 120 years. At about 6.6 million people, the overseas born represent 28 per cent of the country’s total, and, since 2005, migration has contributed half of total population growth. Some 47 per cent of Australians in 2015 were either Continue reading »
-
What’s holding back the world economy.
In this article from The Guardian, Joseph Stiglitz points to the slow growth rates in the developed world and the reasons for them. He says that ‘In the US, quantitative easing did not boost consumption and investment partly because most of additional liquidity returned to central banks’ coffers in the form of excess reserves. … Continue reading »
-
Trevor Boucher. Tax principles and negative gearing.
I just wish that current comment about negative gearing would pay some attention to tax principles. Tax principles? Yes, they do exist. A person who negatively gears a rental property has two objectives in mind: getting a rental return and reaping a capital gain on disposal. The interest paid out is in pursuit of both Continue reading »
-
Paul Budde. Building Australia’s white elephant – cheap buy for white knight Telstra.
The following piece by Paul Budde foreshadows a ‘white knight’ role for Telstra when NBN fails. He says: We are now getting a second-rate network and the first signs from customers, as we heard in a recent Senate Hearing, are not good. This is in line with our assessment. An MtM network, by its very Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Hoist with their own petard
Private health insurance funds like NIB are complaining about high specialist fees. But these very same funds are major contributors to the problem. And it is a problem. In the last 30 years we have seen a dramatic increase in specialist fees. A major contributor to this increase in specialist fees is the ‘gap insurance’ Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Part 2. How we deliver healthcare is as important as the funding of healthcare. Medicare has degenerated into a payments system.
In Part 1 I focussed on the importance of improving the delivery of health care and not just funding. In Part 2 I will focus on specific areas where costs should be reduced. Part 2 Getting costs down The government should abolish the subsidy for private health insurance which costs all up about $11 Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Privatising Medicare’s payments system and the erosion of Commonwealth Public Service capability.
The government has apparently accepted the advice of the Commission of Audit that Medicare’s payments system should be reviewed with the possibility of privatisation. The payments system includes Medicare, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, Aged Care Services and Veterans’ Affairs. It sounds like another expression of neo liberalism, that only the private sector can be efficient Continue reading »