Summary From an economic perspective, traffic fines serve to provide an incentive to drivers to obey road rules. But the incentives provided are different for different people. For a driver earning a million dollars per year a $150 traffic fine is of little consequence. For a low income earner it can be a serious setback...

Summary: The Australian government has recently approved Adani’s Carmichael coal project. If built, it would be the biggest coal mine in Australia. This briefing note puts the vast scale of Carmichael into context. The mine pits themselves would be 40km long and 10km wide, bigger than many capital cities. At peak capacity the mine would...

Outlines the potential impact of the fuel excise on the environment and on lower income Australians. Summary Treasury anticipates that the reindexation of the fuel excise will collect $2.2 billion over the forward estimates. From 2001 when the excise was deindexed from inflation by the Howard Government to today, the budget has lost more than...

Executive Summary A tax on financial transactions, or 'Tobin' tax, could protect superannuation investors, improve the operation of Australia’s capital markets and provide a source of tax revenue worth over $1 billion per year. Protecting investors

This paper argues that coal companies are not, in general, major contributors to energy poverty alleviation efforts. Overview The term "energy poverty" refers to people who do not have access to electricity and clean cooking facilities. Globally, 1.3 billion people do not have access to electricity in their houses and 2.6 billion people cook by...