Investors and speculators aren’t disrupting the water markets

All water users have a vested interest in maintaining the functionality of Australia’s water markets. Erin O'Donnell (University of Melbourne) and Adam Loch (University of Adelaide) argue that fear of water speculators is a red herring.

Government response to Infrastructure Australia offers no grounds for optimism

For as long as the government avoids rigorous, transparent processes, there is no reason to expect any real discipline in how it spends infrastructure dollars. Marion Terrill and Hugh Batrouney (Grattan Institute) expect more regional boondoggles until we can tie the government to the mast of disciplined investment.

Australia should support the US abandonment of the TPP

The primary goal of “free trade” agreements is the promotion of rent-seeking by entrenching monopoly rights. Elizabeth Thurbon (University of NSW) and Linda Weiss (University of Sydney) explain that this is why the United States should abandon the TPP – and why Australia should support its abandonment.

How effective was the Cambodia refugee deal?

Madeline Gleeson (University of NSW) fact checks whether millions of taxpayer dollars were spent and “very few lives which were changed by that”.

PRRT explained: why aren’t we benefiting from the resource tax?

John Freebairn (University of Melbourne) explains how the petroleum resource rent tax works, why it isn't generating much taxation revenue, and an alternative taxation arrangement which may work better.

More equal societies perform better

Australia is not the egalitarian nation that many people think it is. Rather, in terms of wealth inequalities, we’re mid-ranking on the international league table and we’re becoming more unequal. Frank Stilwell (University of Sydney) explains why that matters and the role that reintroduction of an inheritance tax might play.

Solutions beyond supply to the housing affordability problem

Treasurer Scott Morrison has outlined his vision for increasing home ownership at a speech to the Urban Development Institute of Australia. The Treasurer acknowledged it’s hard for first home buyers to get into the Australian housing market and suggested a number of barriers to increasing housing supply. An expert panel analyses these and suggests what other ideas they might have for easing the problem.

Spectacular cost blowouts show need to keep governments honest on transport

Marion Terrill (Grattan Institute) writes that most transport infrastructure projects come in reasonably close to their original announced cost. The problem is that when projects do run over, it can be spectacular. The main culprit for this startling finding is premature announcements by politicians.

Government needs to consider policies that boost private demand for goods and services

Reuben Finighan (University of Melbourne) argues that the Treasurer’s comments show some understanding of the challenges presented by the new low-rate era, but the policies he promotes do not. Taking money from welfare and sending it to corporations risks increasing corporate saving while reducing consumer demand – the exact opposite of what is needed. 

The superannuation myth: why it’s a mistake to increase contributions to 12% of earnings

John Daley, Brendan Coates and Hugh Parsonage (Grattan Institute) argue that powerful vested interests are pushing the idea that super equals retirement savings. Yet such a view is inconsistent with the facts. Super’s importance to retirement savings has been overblown for far too long.

Productivity Commission stance has potential for social housing gains

Hal Pawson (University of NSW) argues that the commission report’s soberly couched analysis appears focused on how to make the existing social housing system work more efficiently and effectively to deliver established obligations. Furthermore, diversifying social housing on a larger scale would call for Commonwealth government leadership in strengthening the regulatory framework and making it truly national.

Gonski model was corrupted, but Labor and Coalition are both to blame

The Gonski report was designed to clean up Australia’s opaque and complex system of school funding and address significant inequalities by establishing a new needs-based funding model, but then messy politics got in the way at the point of implementation. Glenn C. Savage (University of Melbourne) Steven Lewis (The University of Queensland) argue that the result was a perversion of the Gonski ideal – an inconsistent patchwork of approaches across the nation that protected the vested interests of non-government schools.

Turnbull announces a new refugee plan, but will it solve the crisis?

Alex Reilly (University of Adelaide) questions why the government is extending the source countries of its resettlement program and notes that the increase is merely a re-announcement of an Abbott Government pledge. While the Government will likely herald the benefits of regional co-operation, the announcement smacks more of cynical politics trumping common sense.

The democratic paradox

Brian McNair (Queensland University of Technology) explains that there is no necessary connection between liberalism and democracy. Our democracy is increasingly enabling the expression of illiberal, demagogic, populist viewpoints on key issues of our time such as migration and multiculturalism. The most accessible and easy to use communicative environment human beings have ever enjoyed is also one of political extremes in which he, or she who shouts loudest gets heard by the most people.

Liberal ideals of liberty have sometimes been confused with other less liberal ideas

Gregory Melleuish (University of Wollongong) explains that liberal ideals of liberty are sometimes confused with other less liberal ideas.

The evidence is against ‘bigger is better’ for local government

Brian Dollery (University of New England) explains that the financial performance of local authorities does not improve as advocates of amalgamation contend. On the contrary, amalgamated municipalities often perform worse than their unmerged counterparts.

Where reform is repressed on ostensibly pragmatic grounds, the result may be to inflame populist reaction

Most experts say globalisation spreads wealth, bringing people out of poverty and nations closer together. But right now some politicians and their supporters are arguing it simply increases inequality. Wesley Widmaier (Griffith University) explains why populist movements in the US have been fanned by the perceived lack of banking reform following the global financial crisis.

Offshore detention: Australians have a right to know what is done in their name

Johan Lidberg (Monash University) explains that the consequence of the Government's fortress of secrecy about offshore detention is that Australians don’t know what is being done in their name on Nauru and Manus Island. It also means the refugees are dehumanised—suffering children and families become numbers instead of human beings.

A comparison of monetary and fiscal expansion

Phil Lewis (University of Canberra) compares the options available to stimulate a sluggish economy.

Water in northern Australia: a history of Aboriginal exclusion

Liz Macpherson, Erin O'Donnell, Lee Godden, Lily O'Neill (University of Melbourne) explain that, to give Aboriginal people fair representation in northern water development, they must be accorded a fair share of the water. And experience recovering environmental water in the Murray-Darling Basin has taught us that it is much easier to set aside a share of water while resources are still plentiful than embark on a process of buyback.

China will be the winner if US backs out of the TPP

Nicholas Ross Smith (University of Auckland) writes that, if Hilary Clinton or Donald Trump make good on their pledge to torpedo the Trans-Pacific Partnership if elected, the United States will not only miss an opportunity to consolidate its position in Asia-Pacific, it will also allow China to emerge as the uncontested trade power there.

There are bright spots among the world’s coral reefs – the challenge is to learn from them

Joshua Cinner (James Cook University) argues that investments that foster local involvement and provide people with ownership rights to their marine resources can help people develop creative solutions and defy expectations that reefs will just continue to get more degraded.

High-speed rail? At $200 billion we’d better get it right

Peter Newman (Curtin University) proposes some principles to make high-speed rail and urban development happen in a way that benefits Australian cities and towns.

Policies to make cities work better

Marion Terrill (Grattan Institute) proposes new approaches to infrastructure that will improve the productivity of our cities.

Greening cities makes for safer neighbourhoods

J. Morgan Grove and Michelle Kondo (United States Forest Service) explain that when under-served neighbourhoods are made more pleasant, it can result in a healthier sense of community. In turn, it makes those neighbourhoods less hospitable to criminal activity.

States will ultimately pay for unsustainable federal fiscal promises

Richard Eccleston (University of Tasmania) and Neil Warren (University of NSW) explain that a large part of the federal budget repair will fall on the states, regardless of which party wins on July 2.

For the English, Brexit will mean economic and political pain

Stephen King (Monash University) explains that the EU leaders have a strong incentive to make the UK's ‘exit conditions’ as onerous and costly as possible – so as to deter other nations from also exiting the EU. Incentives for Scotland and Northern Ireland to stay with the EU will figure prominently and the remaining England and Wales are likely to face the highest level of default restrictions on trade with the EU (including with Scotland and Northern Ireland). Great Britain is likely to disintegrate rapidly over the next two years and the standard of living will decline, particularly in the midlands and northern parts of England.

Brexit: act in haste…

Mark Beeson (University of Western Australia) reflects on Brexit and argues that none of the defining problems of the 20th century can be tackled without more co-operation rather than less. The problems are difficult – some possibly irresolvable – but without mechanisms with which to tackle them, solutions are not even theoretically viable. A retreat into insularity, parochialism and nostalgia for the 19th century are plainly not the answers.

Childcare policies compared

Ben Phillips (Australian National University), writing in The Conversation, compares Labor's childcare policy with that of the Coalition. Each party seems locked into a vicious cycle of increasing subsidies only to see prices increase more and parents worse off except in the short term.

Company tax cuts are not a knight in shining armour to save the Australian economy

John Daley and Brendan Coates of the Grattan Institute (writing in The Conversation) demonstrate that the Government's signature company tax reduction policy reduces Australia's income over the short term, has a very small (almost negligible) positive impact over 25 years, and that foreigners are the overwhelming beneficiaries of the policy at the expense of Australians. None of this should be a surprise to anyone who understands how Australia's company tax system works—clearly the Government doesn't, otherwise it would have realised there are much more important reforms to focus on.

Good reform of housing taxation should encapsulate the full spectrum of housing market distortions

Danika Wright (University of Sydney) provides an excellent overview of negative gearing in The Conversation and argues that it should not be analysed in isolation from capital gains and other special treatments of housing, such as stamp duty, land taxes and first-home-buyer exemptions.

The way Australia taxes housing is manifestly unfair

Anthony Asher (University of NSW) describes in The Conversation the incoherent application of principles to housing provision and taxation in Australia.

Conditions in offshore detention centres are inhumane, degrading and pose life-threatening risks

Karen Zwi (University of NSW) and Nicholas Talley (University of Newcastle) explain in The Conversation the health ramifications of Australia's refugee policy and the disturbing litany of delays, poor judgement, ill-informed decisions and above all, the serious consequences of a detention system that neglects warnings and fails to heed clinical advice.

Company tax cut only advantages foreign investors!

Janine Dixon (Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University) writes in The Conversation that it’s easy to see why a company tax cut polarises opinion, as it generates clear winners and losers. Foreign investors will receive a windfall gain at the expense of Australian residents.

Editor's note: Finally, an economic modeller who understands how Australia's company tax system works! My only quibble is the analysis seems to ignore the effect of company tax on retained earnings and also double taxation agreements. Retained earnings complicate the imputation credit story. DTAs work a little bit like the imputation system, so foreign investors from most countries who pay their taxes will likely be worse off, similar to Australian investors. Foreign investors who avoid paying taxes through sophisticated offshore arrangements are the big winners from a company tax cut.

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.

Budget explainer: the problem with measuring productivity

Gerard de Valence (University of Technology Sydney) explains in The Conversation that Government policies can support improved productivity, if they are well designed and implemented. However, many current policy settings were put in place when we had an industrial economy and are not really suited to the emerging post-industrial economy of the 21st century.

Does ASIC already have the powers of a royal commission into banking?

Anna Olijnyk (University of Adelaide) explains in The Conversation that, if the aim is to investigate and prosecute specific instances of suspected breaches, then ASIC is well equipped to do this on its own in a way that a royal commission could not. However, if the aim is to examine the industry and system as a whole, a royal commission would have broader scope to do this.

Three ways to build innovation into your organisation

Rob Livingstone (University of Technology Sydney) writes in The Conversation that organisations should stress test their business strategies, intrapreneurship and culture.

The Very Fast Train proposal

Peter Newton (Swinburne University of Technology) explains in The Conversation the previous proposal to build a Very Fast Train.

Editor note: Back in the 1990s the Howard Government called for VFT proposals and shortlisted four—the preferred proposal was for a tilt train. None of the proposals were economic in either cost or time—that is, a VFT would be slower and more expensive than air travel. The VFT would likely still be more expensive than air travel even if all of the infrastructure was written off once constructed.

Removing negative gearing on property would hurt low income renters

Ross Guest (Griffith University) explains in The Conversation that if we restricted the tax advantages of negative gearing we would dampen investor demand for housing which would slow house price growth in Sydney and everywhere else. But at what cost? It would be tougher to rent a property, hurting low income households. We need to be clear about what problem we are trying to fix and consider whether there are better ways of doing it.

Rural R&D Corporations provide a model for innovation

Elizabeth Webster (Swinburne University of Technology) explains in The Conversation that Australia can use our innovative rural industries as a model for innovation in other parts of the economy.

Turnbull government continues the traditional erratic approach of the Commonwealth to hospital funding

Stephen Duckett (Grattan Institute) explains in The Conversation the erratic behaviour of the Commonwealth over several decades in funding the state hospital system.

Untangling the debate on bracket creep, corporate tax rates and negative gearing

Kevin Davis (Australian Centre for Financial Studies) does an excellent job in The Conversation of explaining simply some of the key issues in the very poor quality public tax debate.

Ruling, not governing – our politicians have little time or respect for policy

Peter van Onselen (University of Western Australia) and Wayne Errington (University of Adelaide) write in The Conversation that the present generation of leaders has expert knowledge about communicating, campaigning and focus groups but little time or respect for the best traditions of government: the patient development of policy formulated with the assistance of a professional public service. The pursuit of government for the sake of power outweighs the purpose for achieving it.

The ‘will of the people’ is the bastardisation of democracy

Jean-Paul Gagnon (Australian Catholic University) and Mark Chou (Australian Catholic University) explain in The Conversation that, if politicians are serious about acting on the “will of the people”, then reforming Australia’s electoral system should be on the agenda. Otherwise, phrases which invoke "the will of the people" are simply hubris designed to delegitimise their opponents both within parliament and more broadly, and to shut down debate. For democracy to work properly, it requires voters and their representatives to work together to achieve the most palatable ends for Australians.

Political Amnesia – How We Forgot How To Govern

Nicholas Barry (La Trobe University) reviews Laura Tingle's essay in The Conversation. He highlights that debate, serious discussion and deliberation are valued highly in a democracy not just for their own sake, but because they are considered essential to testing the quality of ideas and arguments. Increasingly, decision-makers in Canberra and beyond seem to have forgotten this age-old lesson of democratic politics. The quality of policymaking in Australia may be strengthened if they begin to remember it.

International criticism of Australia will not cease while current policy settings are maintained

Amy Maguire (University of Newcastle) writes in The Conversation that Australia faces a constant tide of international criticism which will not cease while current policy settings are maintained, but all Australians need to contribute to shape the country’s attitudes towards, and practice of, human rights.

Can we remain a functioning democracy without a strong public education system?

David Zyngier (Monash University) writes in The Conversation that the opposition’s “school funding reform” announcement has, in fact, merely maintained the status quo. Over the past decade, the performance of Australian students in international assessments has declined at all levels of achievement compared to international benchmarks. At the same time we have witnessed a massive shift in federal and state funds to the private sector of schooling.

China’s 6.9% GDP growth rate is not the hard landing feared

James Laurenceson (University of Technology Sydney) writes in The Conversation that economic data point to a Chinese economy that is following the same path towards high income status travelled earlier by neighbours such as Korea. And, while the resources price boom may be over, the rise of China’s middle class (expected to grow by 850 million by 2030) is still the best news that the Australian economy has.

Poor traffic modelling drives policy madness

Peter Newman (Curtin University) writes in The Conversation that traffic and congestion modelling demonstrates a lack of understanding about how cities work.

Mandatory sentencing leads to unjust, unfair outcomes – and it doesn’t make us safe

Hilde Tubex (University of Western Australia) writes in The Conversation that the public is largely misinformed about crime and justice matters. Most people think that crime rates are rising, although this is not the case. Responding to public pressure, politicians are attracted to mandatory sentencing laws, which lead to disproportional and anomalous outcomes - in particular, a system can’t be fair or just if the marginalised and vulnerable are the first to be affected by it. However, the most important principle objection against mandatory sentences is the strength of, and belief in, judicial discretion and independence.