The proportion of Australia’s population aged 15 to 64 receiving income support payments reached record lows in 2023 and 2024. This was driven by a strong labour market and pre-COVID-19 policy changes. This paper outlines the Australian context for working-age welfare recipients, the impact of COVID-19 policies, and trends in students and people with disability...

Australia’s long-term economic prosperity is under threat due to a sustained slowdown in productivity growth. Structural challenges have exacerbated this and the policy responses to COVID-19 may have hindered longer-term productivity growth. Renewed reform and innovation could reverse this trend. This paper outlines the issue and explores how Australia can improve its labour productivity.

Parliamentary scrutiny of proposals, including their consequences and trade-offs, is an important contributor to better policy outcomes. Australia’s Impact Analysis (IA) framework is designed to support this process. This policy brief outlines what an IA is, the standard process for an IA, determining if it's needed and the Office of Impact Analysis quality assessment.

Strengthening society’s resilience to the dissemination of harmful misinformation is a key strategy in strengthening democracy’s resilience. While the Federal Government has proposed various legislative approaches, few actions have progressed and Australians remain highly concerned about the prevalence of online misinformation. This paper outlines the issue, recent government approaches and possible actions.

Increasing tension and uncertainty in the strategic environment and the changing nature of alliances and global conflict has triggered a rapid and significant increase in national defence spending worldwide. This paper outlines global defence spending and Australia’s defence spending. Despite a dire strategic outlook, there appears to be little public appetite for greater defence spending.