Australia could save $1.5 billion a year on health spending by improving the safety of patient care in hospitals. Safer hospital care doesn’t just reduce harm to patients, it also saves money for taxpayers.

This report exposes the flaws in Australian hospitals’ safety and quality monitoring regime, and recommends reforms that could result in an extra 250,000 patients leaving hospital each year free of complications.

Competition in electricity retailing hasn’t delivered what was promised: lower prices for consumers. The failure is worst in Victoria, the state with the most retailers and the longest experience of deregulation. Profit margins appear to be higher than in other retail sectors – and more than double the margin that regulators considered fair when they...