Despite government subsidies, childcare is still a significant cost for many families. This paper reviews available data on expenditure and affordability, and presents new analysis of household expenditure data to understand how much Australian families are spending on early childhood education and care, as a proportion of their disposable income.

The 2021 Intergenerational Report projects an outlook for the economy and the Australian government’s budget over the next 40 years. It examines the long-term sustainability of current policies and how demographic, technological and other structural trends may affect the economy and the budget.

The broader context for this research is the significant structural changes that have taken place across the Australian economy over the past 100 years. These changes are often discussed in the context of Australia industrialising away from its agrarian base, then de-industrialising in the shift to becoming a services-based, knowledge economy.

The management of the obesity crisis in Australia is a national and economic priority, and Australia’s response to it must be commensurate with the breadth of its prevalence and and major impacts it has on individuals and society. This report outlines economic modelling of the likely effects on obesity from a tax on sugary drinks.

The research in this article compares the health and economic costs of early and delayed mandated suppression and the unmitigated spread of ‘first-wave’ COVID-19 infections in Australia in 2020.