This draft report was released to assist participants in preparing a submission to the public inquiry into Barriers to Effective Climate Change Adaptation. Climate change adaptation is action by households, firms, other organisations and governments to respond to the impacts of climate change that cannot be avoided through climate change mitigation efforts. An effective national...

This paper examines the sources of the decline in Australia’s productivity growth since the record highs of the 1990s, focusing on the last two complete productivity cycles (ending in 2007-08). It offers a different perspective by looking for a general or macro-economic explanation and then tracing the origins to specific industries. It identifies quite specific...

The community sector is a vital contributor to Victoria’s economic and social wellbeing. Through a combination of government and private sector funding, volunteer work, and fundraising and philanthropic support, the sector provides a vast and essential network of frontline services to our community’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged members. The diverse range of services include disability...

In Australia the body of knowledge of likely scenarios of climate change impact over the next few decades has increased significantly in both its robustness and level of detail. The Climate Commission’s (2011) report on The Critical Decade: Climate Science, Risks and Responses summarises the evidence and projection scenarios which are based on them and...

Australian governments are under constant pressure to intervene to support the economies of particular regions, particularly those that grow more slowly. The most prominent recent example is the Commonwealth Government’s “Commitment to Regional Australia” in September 2010 1 that promised $10b over eight years, partly implemented through the Investing in Australia’s Regions package in the...