This report provides an industry perspective on AUKUS Pillar 2 – the security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States focussed on joint development of advanced capabilities. It recommends that AUKUS Pillar 2 must shift from a policy development to capability execution focus through capability development and acquisition pathways.

Australian manufacturing has undergone significant transformation over the past few decades. This report on manufacturing explores the industry’s unique strengths and challenges with analysis of key performance factors such as economic and demand conditions, cost pressures, trade exposure, workforce needs and investment. It identifies key performance factors for 2024 and outlook themes for 2025.

This report highlights the experiences of employers in the apprenticeships and traineeship system in Australia. It finds the cost and complexity of employing apprentices and trainees is increasing, and employer satisfaction with the system is decreasing. The report highlights employer case studies, and identifies six areas of priority against which ten evidence-based recommendations are made.

This report contributes to debates over tax reform by examining the system of business taxation in Australia. It identifies five challenges, illustrating that the problems with Australia’s system of business taxes are complex and multifaceted. The report presents five reform steps which would deliver a simpler, lower and more productive system.

This report examines how macrotrends impact jobs and skills, and the workforce transformation strategies employers plan to embark on in response, across the 2025 to 2030 timeframe. More than one in five jobs are expected to be fundamentally changed by 2030 as a result of technology change, the green transition, geoeconomic fragmentation, economic uncertainty and...