This report provides results of a preliminary analysis of the direct and indirect employment and economic impact of the South Australian Budget 2010-11. An input-output model developed by EconSearch Pty Ltd has been utilised to identify the employment and economic output impacts of stated employment reductions and expansions in the State Budget. This model is...

The author argues that an “unfair and dysfunctional” funding system put in place by the Howard government that should be scrapped. The report also finds that: • by the end of the current schools funding agreement in 2012/13, private schools will have received $47 billion and public schools $35 billion from the Rudd Government for...

This ASPI Special Report examines defence funding as of late 2008 taking account of the government’s mid-year budget revisions, the latest Defence Annual Report, and the Global Financial Crisis. For eight years now, Australia has been pursuing its largest military build-up since the Vietnam conflict. Underpinned by 3% real growth in funding guaranteed to 2017...

The Rudd Government has announced its intention to introduce an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), now being referred to as a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), by 2010. Central to the scheme will be the sale by the Federal Government of permits to industrial interests which emit carbon pollution as part of their commercial activities. Businesses...

Calculating the cost of Australian Defence Forces (ADF) operations in Afghanistan is not straight forward. Defence portfolio budget papers and Department of Defence Annual Reports provide data on actual, estimated and planned expenditures on defence activities, including current operations. Defence department practice for discrete activities such as Operation Slipper is to provide data for "Net...