This report describes the strategic importance of the manufacturing sector to Australia's future prosperity, and provides an inventory of policy tools that could help rebuild the sector to a size proportional to Australia's domestic needs for manufactured products.

This industry report reviews the existing literature to scope the recognised knowledge in the fields of food packaging and food waste relating to consumers’ expectations, to inform food producers, packaging designers and retailers in their strategies and educational campaigns.

This report draws together CPRC’s consolidated insights into the common experiences of older people across essential and important consumer markets. It identifies the priority approaches for policymakers to take forward, to improve consumer outcomes and better ensure markets work for people.

The focus in this report is on the consumer policy dimensions of COVID-19, including access to essential products and services – encompassing energy, housing, telecommunications and financial services; access to important consumer protections; and the potential for greater harm when living our lives so pervasively online.

In this paper, the authors develop an econometric model of consumer panic (or panic buying) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Google search data on relevant keywords, they construct a daily index of consumer panic for 54 countries from January to late April 2020.