This pamphlet aims to provide detailed coverage of where Australian tax dollars are spent. Overview Taxation is imposed through the coercive power of the state. Politicians often speak of “asking” taxpayers to pay more of this or that tax, but in reality they can and do tell citizens what to pay. It is vital to...

Australia spends just under $1.4 billion (2012–13) on statutory Paid Parental Leave (PPL) to provide more than 130,000 parents with up to 18 weeks of parental leave paid at the full-time minimum wage. The Abbott government proposes to pay primary carers at their pre-birth wages up to a cap of $100,000 for up to 26...

Many religious believers are concerned that aggressive secularism is driving religion from the public sphere where it is practised, argues this report. Overview The campaign for what has been dubbed ‘marriage equality’ is gaining ground in many Western countries, including Australia, despite religious and secular people not always sharing a common point of view on...

Throughout the 2000s, agency running costs grew 23% in real terms (adjusted for inflation) despite an efficiency dividend of at least 1% throughout the decade. The dividend has also failed to curb costly changes in the size and makeup of the public service. Since the early 1990s the Australian Public Service (APS) has grown top...

This report analyses school funding growth trends and proposes eight ideas for reducing spending and improving productivity. Summary Government expenditure on schools has more than doubled in real terms in the last 25 years, while student numbers have only grown by 18%. Funding for school education was 3.1% of GDP in 2012–13, and is projected...