Facing record public debt and mounting spending pressures, OECD countries must look beyond traditional tools to secure fiscal sustainability: it can no longer be achieved without public buy-in. This report highlights that empowering public understanding is now an essential component of modern budgeting. It outlines a strategy based on four pillars.

Forty years after Paul Keating’s famous warning that Australia risked becoming a “banana republic”, this paper argues the country is once again drifting towards economic decline through rising government spending, protectionism and an abandonment of the reform spirit that transformed Australia in the 1980s.

This report examines how employment support for people out of work due to ill health or disability in England can be redesigned to be more effective. It critiques failed centralised models, explores the opportunities and risks of devolving support to local government, and sets out eight recommendations to deliver a renewed, locally led approach to...

Large portions of spending by national governments can be considered mandatory. Drawing on practices from eight OECD countries, this paper examines how governments define, monitor and review mandatory spending. The analysis suggests that mandatory spending should be reviewed regularly, included in fiscal rules and budget processes, and be subject to clear accountabilities to parliament.

A detailed examination of data from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and Australia’s National Accounts reveals that wage growth is not responsible for the recent uptick in inflation. It concludes that the RBA’s latest interest rate hike fails to address the bigger driver of inflation – surging company profits – but it blames the...