To explore community attitudes to telemarketing and to measure the impact of the Do Not Call Register since its introduction, The Australia Institute conducted an online survey of 1,000 Australians. The findings show that: ? Australians on average receive 8.5 unsolicited telemarketing calls per month. ? The average telemarketing call lasts for 1.45 minutes....

The Commonwealth Government could start injecting tens of millions of dollar into the economy each week by simply increasing the size of a payment such as the age pension. The current slowing in the world economy has raised a number of important issues about the way that the Australian government, and governments in all developed...

Australia's love affair with easy credit has turned on itself. In early 2008, the price of credit reached its highest point in 14 years, following 12 successive interest rate rises since 2001. With the domestic economy overheating, and home buyers feeling the economic pain associated with higher interest rates and inflation, consumer debt has become...

This report investigates the increasing complexity of financial decisions. It finds that many Australians believe that financial investments and superannuation are too confusing. The paper surveys Australian attitudes to personal finance and makes several recommendations for government, industry and individuals. The report recommends that governments should: • provide consumers with simple, independent information to compare...

This study is about the extent to which Australian homes are cluttered with things that are rarely or never used. A nationally representative online survey of 1,002 respondents was carried out in December 2007, and was followed up with a series of telephone interviews with people who identified themselves as having problems with clutter. Our...