The Rudd Government is at odds with a majority of Australians in prioritising the needs of business in its climate-change policy, according to this paper by The Australia Institute. In order to address climate change adequately, what is needed is an approach that incorporates the best of both worlds: the certainty and universality of a...

While the Commonwealth will receive a windfall of more than $10 billion per year in revenue from auctioning pollution permits, state and local governments will transfer more than $2 billion a year to the Commonwealth Government. In addition, the states will be liable for tens of billions of dollars-worth of expenditure associated with adapting to...

Everyone knows that the mining boom led to record growth rates, enormous budget surpluses and historically low levels of unemployment — but was that really the case? The evidence suggests not according to David Richardson.

This paper examines the question of whether Australia should continue to provide tax concessions amounting to well over $10 billion a year and concludes that it should not. The paper includes a number of suggestions for reform, principally: eliminating the 50 per cent discount; incorporating all pre-1986 assets; deemed realisation of assets on death; and...

Australia is experiencing a negative terms of trade shock with the price of exports falling relative to the price of imports. This shock is estimated to be minus 13 per cent in 2009–10 (Treasury 2009), which means that real incomes will either need to fall or, at best, rise less quickly than they otherwise might...