Last week’s Grattan report, Why it’s time for congestion charging, argued that congestion charging is the most effective way to make Australia’s capital cities work better. This new report lays out a detailed, feasible, and fair congestion-charging scheme for Australia’s two biggest cities.

Everyone wants less congestion - it would make life easier for drivers and make our cities work better. This plan attempts to tackle traffic congestion, without asking Australian communities to pay billions of dollars for major new roads.

This report rates Australia’s performance against similar countries and proposes policy reforms for schools and universities, hospitals and housing, roads and railways, cities and regions, budgets and taxes, retirement incomes, and climate change.

State and territory governments can do more to improve the lives of Australians. The State Orange Book 2018 shows that outcomes vary between states across a broad range of areas. In many cases, states are different because their governments adopted better policies.

Australia’s population is growing rapidly. The major cities of Sydney and Melbourne, in particular, are booming. Many people are asking whether the growth rates of the past decade are sustainable, or whether Australia has reached a tipping point where congestion and other downsides of growth outweigh the upsides of a more dynamic economy and vibrant...