Welfare reform needs to be about improving well-being, not punishing the poor

Peter Whiteford (Australian National University) writes in The Conversation that some of the improvement in workforce participation may have been due to the impact of the benefit activation reforms, but it was also due to Australia’s experience of uninterrupted economic growth. And that is a prerequisite for successful activation strategies.

Key policy challenges facing new Ministers in the Turnbull Cabinet

Writing in The Conversation, a panel of leading academics outlines the key policy challenges facing new Ministers in the Turnbull Cabinet.

What’s really at stake if the China FTA falls through

This is an insightful analysis from Peter Dixon and Maureen Rimmer (University of Victoria) from The Conversation, explaining that using the Government's own analysis the free trade agreement with China is expected to produce very modest economic benefits for Australia, and will likely only be noticeable in a few agricultural and downstream industries. Readers might also be interested in Peter Martin's analysis in The Sydney Morning Herald on how the apparent chasm between the Government and Opposition over labour provision might be resolved with a minor legislative amendment.

High youth unemployment can’t be blamed on wages

Raja Junankar (Honorary Professor at the University of NSW) has written an excellent analysis of youth unemployment. He demonstrates that there is no evidence to support the view that youth unemployment is caused by high wages or by high unemployment benefits―in fact, inadequate aggregate demand is the principal cause. 

Consequently, the policy of the Abbott government to restrict unemployment benefits to young people (under 30 years of age) for the first six months of unemployment would have serious consequences for the young; however, it doesn’t address the root cause and therefore is unlikely to achieve its objective of reducing youth unemployment. This article was originally published in The Conversation on 16 April 2015.