Advocates of higher taxation often point to OECD figures suggesting Australia enjoys lower than average tax levels. But in this paper Peter Burn argues these claims are misleading. He says that a careful reading of OECD statistics shows our tax levels are on a par with the OECD average. He also finds that Australian taxes...

A new report from ACOSS accepts that welfare dependency among working age Australians has reached 18 per cent, but denies this is a problem. It says that Australia still spends less on welfare than many other developed countries, and argues we should be expanding welfare rather than worrying about it. Peter Saunders says that the...

Thirty years after enjoying the world's second highest per capita GDP after Saudi Arabia, Nauru is on the verge of bankruptcy and was declared one of the first states listed under the US Patriot Act. Professor Hughes shows that Nauru's parlous state has been brought about by a complete disregard for basic economics and inappropriate...

After months of wrangling, arrangements to deploy over 260 Australian police and officials to Papua New Guinea have finally been made. Helen Hughes argues that Papua New Guinea, in addition to restoring law and order, needs to implement economic reforms to put it on a growth path of 7 per cent a year. This report...

We have grown accustomed to the idea that so-called 'progressive taxation' is 'fair', but a proportional tax system (in which everybody pays the same proportiion of their income in tax) would be much fairer. Sinclair Davidson argues not only that income tax in Australia is high by international standards, but also that higher rate taxpayers...