Opinion & Commentary
Opinion and Commentary contains media articles written by CIS researchers.
Categories
Smaller government is vital for business growth
Australia is at risk of waking up from the mining boom with nothing to show but a debt hangover and an economic headache. Read More
Moral mission of small government
Regardless of which party wins the election in September, the new government will have much more important issues to deal with than whose turn it is to be leader. Read More
Taxpayer money wasted chasing film productions
Should the Australian public be supporting Hollywood productions with only dubious benefit to Australia? Read More
It's time to put the break on corporate welfare
Corporate welfare for a favoured few - like Australia's car manufacturers - cannot be justified. Read More
Gillard Deal Risks NDIS Timebomb
In its eagerness to lock in the funding and governance arrangements for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the Gillard government seems to have created a fiscal time bomb, where future federal... Read More
Only a super-style savings system now will help Medicare survive
THE intergenerational reports have told us repeatedly that escalating government spending on health is unsustainable in an ageing Australia. But despite the warnings about the future of the health system,... Read More
It’s time for surgery: the public purse is in dire health
Reducing inefficient spending may harm vested interests, but meaningful reform cannot occur if no one is ever allowed to be worse off. Read More
The magic pudding state
Australians want government to spend more money on us, but we do not want to hand any more of our cash over to the tax office. Read More
Cure for a bloated public sector
TARGET30 is not a slash-and-burn campaign; it simply asks people to consider what they really need government to provide. Read More
Unrealistic expectations of Australian defence spending
Australian defence planners must abandon inefficient big-ticket capital purchases in favour of a more sustainable and balanced defence force structure. Read More
NDIS highlights welfare waste
It is time to end the tax-welfare churn and return the savings to taxpayers through tax cuts. Read More
Need to cut fat before we all pay the price
Governments are seemingly incapable of breaking their addiction to increasing spending. Read More
Buying votes does no one any good
There’s a danger we are blundering headlong towards the spending abyss. Read More
Time to scrap the minimum wage?
To get the unemployed back into work, the government could allow businesses a six-month exemption from the minimum award wage. Read More
Extending NDIS poses threat
The age restrictions on the NDIS are crucial in maintaining the scheme’s financial integrity and maximising its benefits. Read More
A failure of enterprise bargaining mechanics
Australia's current enterprise bargaining system makes it difficult for automotive manufacturers to improve their performance and save jobs. Read More
Increasing Newstart would be a costly failure
An increase in the base rate of Newstart Allowance will not do much to break down the barriers to employment for the long term unemployed. Read More
Car industry subsidies a waste of money
Government assistance to the automotive industry has been an expensive failure. Read More
Improving lives or just a welfare monster in the making?
There is a real danger the National Disability Insurance Scheme will be even bigger and more expensive than we imagine. Read More
The real solution to poverty: J-O-B-S, J-O-B-S, J-O-B-S
Moving people off welfare and into full-time jobs would do more to address poverty than increasing the value of welfare benefits. Read More
Australia’s Nuclear Sub Option
Australia needs the best submarines it can get, and that means the U.S. Navy’s Virginia Class nuclear-powered attack submarine. Read More
Australia’s long-term fiscal future
One of Australia’s strengths going into the global financial crisis was the condition of its public finances. We are now in danger of frittering away that strength. Read More
Stop-gap subsidies for the car industry must end
The Government needs to stop throwing money at the car industry and train these employees for other industries. Read More
Disability, injury insurance schemes need scrutiny
The National Injury Insurance Scheme is the forgotten little brother of the bigger, brighter and more popular National Disability Insurance Scheme, but that is no reason to ignore it. Read More
How to fund a disability scheme
First there was the carbon tax, then the mining tax, then the flood tax – and now calls for a national disability insurance scheme (NDIS) levy. Will the stream of new taxes and levies never end? Read More
Ability, not disability, should determine access to support
Blind people are exempt from certain income support tests, and this anomaly should stop.Blind people are exempt from certain income support tests, and this anomaly should stop Read More
Tighten the rules on welfare payments
There is more to welfare reform than amalgamating the benefits. Read More
There are better ways to ensure State's future
The WA Future Fund announced in the State Budget last week is based on two related but fundamentally flawed ideas. Read More
Carmaker triumph or GM hypocrisy?
It's a product of public relations that Australians believe every government supports its own car industry, and looking at General Motors' ruthless cost-cutting of its European brands puts even more focus... Read More
Murray's Future Fund brace is broken
David Murray's defence of the Future Fund can only inspire doubt about the ability of sovereign wealth funds to enhance Australia's prosperity. Read More
Striking a French euro tinderbox
Either Sarkozy or Hollande will win France’s presidential elections, but the project of European cooperation and integration will surely lose. And the political uncertainty dominating the coming months... Read More
The hypocrisy of Europe's bankers
As the eurozone crisis has now seemingly calmed down and my friend’s updates become more ecstatic by the week, I am afraid that we are edging ever closer towards his dream scenario. To most Europeans,... Read More
Why a sovereign wealth fund won't work
Many of the desirable objectives of a sovereign wealth fund could be achieved through greater use of enforceable fiscal policy rules that would enable politicians to make long-term commitments to responsible... Read More
Fast rail go-slow
Long-distance passenger trains are running slower than they were in the steam engine era on some lines in New South Wales and on one line in Victoria, and interstate rail freight is steadily losing market... Read More
Give austerity a chance
Fiscal policy should focus on micro-economic issues such as promoting incentives to save, work and invest, as well as ensuring the long-term sustainability of public finances. Read More
It's time to bust open the pharmacists' closed shop
Pharmacists are vital healthcare professionals. But as Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott look to keep the nation's health budget sustainable, it's also clear that very substantive savings can be made from... Read More
Spending Spree wasted decade of prosperity
NZ’s decade long spending binge was prosperity wasted. Read More
Italy defaults on debt and sends lenders broke? So be it
The federal government will need to cut spending to ensure a surplus in 2012-13. Read More
Liberals Drop Ball in Super Free-For-All
Lifting superannuation to 12% is wrong. Read More
Budget surplus fetish means more harsh spending cuts
The federal government will need to cut spending to ensure a surplus in 2012-13. Read More
Should super contributions be raised to 12 per cent?
Four experts debate the topic in The Question. Here is Adam Creighton's contribution. Some compulsory saving is sensible. People will rationally save too little when they know taxpayers will help support... Read More
Care system still abusing forgotten children.
In 2009 the federal parliament apologised to the Forgotten Australians who were physically, sexually, and emotionally abused in state and charitable-run orphanages between the 1920s and 1970s. The national... Read More
Housing sense in short supply
While the rest of the world wonders what the next phase of the GFC will bring; and while the rest of Europe discusses the future of their common currency; the British are pondering an entirely different... Read More
Sighs of relief heard from the bankers' bunkers
Alas, the GFC showed that it is impossible for democratic governments to let large financial institutions fail, however much they should. It is a government's job to free taxpayers from unwittingly providing... Read More
Wet ink on a euro death notice
The euro has been a moribund currency for years. The remaining options to buy it more time have been blocked by the German constitutional court. To end this farcical tragedy someone needs to put the final... Read More
Same cracks, just a new coat of paint
Analysis of the NSW Budget Read More
Time to revisit RBA board
Union leaders would have you believe that the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia is beholden to the big end of town, but the current unnecessarily tight monetary policy indicates that this is not the... Read More
NSW budget: time to cut and shed Mick Dundee image
With a public service head count just shy of 390,000, NSW puts the Commonwealth government, with a mere 270,000 staff, to shame. Macquarie Street employs 10% of the NSW workforce. Read More
Don't get starry-eyed about housing
In textbook markets there is no need for price forecasts. Prices are determined by the interaction of supply and demand. If you fed a supercomputer with all the relevant information about buyer preferences,... Read More
Don't get starry-eyed about housing
In textbook markets there is no need for price forecasts. Prices are determined by the interaction of supply and demand. If you fed a supercomputer with all the relevant information about buyer preferences,... Read More
A miracle that masks a mirage
As it turns out, there is not much in the German manufacturing example that Australia should copy. We would be much better advised to make the best of our own comparative advantages of being a resource-rich... Read More
There's no such thing as a free healthcare system
But when it comes to health, Australians spurn pragmatism and tear up the laws of economics. We shackle ourselves with a government-funded and managed health system with all the hallmarks of the former... Read More
A poisoned chalice of EU power
Eurobonds had not even been on the agenda (officially, that is), and an EU-wide tax on financial transactions almost certainly will die aborning. In another way, however, the Merkel and Sarkozy show was... Read More
Who needs credit ratings? They should be optional
Banks and investors should thrive or die by the quality of their own assessments of credit risk. They have the most incentive to get it right, writes Adam Creighton, a research fellow at The Centre For... Read More
Value cut adrift in a sea of paper money
Abolishing the gold standard was meant to free up gold but central banks still hold about one fifth of the world’s 166,000 tonnes of gold and have bought even more since the financial crisis. Private... Read More
Setting a European time bomb
The announcement by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade US government debt may have been historic but largely inconsequential Read More
US Congress swapped a crisis yesterday for a bigger crisis tomorrow
I provoked a tirade of abuse from Crikey readers in the past fortnight when I suggested it would be preferable that the $14.3 trillion United States debt ceiling not be raised. Read More
Dollars must flow if numbers to grow
Debate about Australia's population is framed with national aggregates and ignores how local governments deal with increased population. Part of the reason Australians are averse to more people is because... Read More
What our economists really think about politics
You might have expected that most economists, following Milton Friedman, view inflation as “always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.” Yet only 40% of respondents agreed with the proposition that... Read More
No reason or evidence will cure US of its debt fetish
The hysteria accompanying the scramble to lift the debt ceiling in the United States is misplaced and self-serving. Read More
Think local and give country towns the freedom to prosper or perish
FOR politicians, and especially for town planners, letting people decide where and how they want to live has never been an acceptable idea. Administrative elites have always been convinced they know better... Read More
Greece bailout: prolonging pain for no real gain
Rescuing the country with another bailout would only prolong the pain. Greece squandered money on the Olympic Games, an over-sized bureaucracy and easy loans Read More
Growing anger in local government
So how well are Australian local government leaders really equipped to deal with population growth? Read More
Local councils deserve a better financial deal
Council rates surging to pay for new residents Read More
Council rates surging to pay for new residents
Local Government struggling to pay for new residents Read More
Tax changes are just a redistribution
The carbon pricing scheme was sold by the federal government as containing taxation reform measures, but once again we have lip service from politicians and tinkering at the edges Read More
Time for Greece to be forced to live within its means
It is morally repugnant that ordinary taxpayers around the world are forced, at great cost, to keep Greece solvent in order to prevent banks from losing money. Read More
Carbon tax cuts for all
Revenue from the government’s proposed carbon tax must be returned to taxpayers through income tax cuts or alternatively, the abolishment of the Medicare levy. Read More
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae: Guaranteed to fail?
The failure of Lehman Brothers was a trivial event compared to the much bigger but largely ignored failure a week before, when Freddie and Fannie were put into ‘conservatorship’ by the US government. Read More
Welfare reforms are worthwhile, but not an easy budget fix
The best way to get unskilled workers into work is to find them an unskilled job – not try to train them for a skilled position they may never get. Read More
Spending pledges need to be backed with hard evidence
The government has blown its last chance to have the sort of budget we should have got in 2008. Read More
Budget cuts can be popular
With an election still more than two years away the government should seize this opportunity to make the sort of cuts it should have made in 2008. Read More
Trimming to fit budget's reduced revenue
The expenditure review process leading up to the annual budget is rarely about making cuts to existing spending programs. It has more to do with trimming ministers' wish lists to fit the revenue forecast... Read More
New Zealand is in a dangerous debt spiral
The earthquake that struck Christchurch was not only a national catastrophe for New Zealand. It is also becoming clear how devastating it is to the Kiwi economy. Read More
The myth of green jobs is leading to industrial decline
A German study shows that renewable energy will not boost employment. Read More
Levy a $750 cup of coffee
Swan has resorted to cheap tricks to spin his flood tax. Read More
Why we're in such a sorry state
A comparison of the six states' performances in fiscal management sheds light on why some states are under more pressure than others to change their spending, taxing and borrowing habits. Read More
Borrowers lose as mortgage industry takes its $4bn win
Rather than taking a hard line, the government is a soft touch. Read More
Britain's 'bold' debt detractors
The kneejerk Keynesian reactions against the British government’s plans only demonstrate that critics have not fully understood the seriousness of the UK’s long-term fiscal position. Read More
Britons brace for age of austerity
The British government is looking to the Australian model for welfare reforms. Read More
The mining tax debate highlights the terms of trade boom
Is the Future Fund the best option to manage the fiscal consequences of the trade boom? Perhaps the revenue would be better used today to provide a lower tax burden or productivity–enhancing infrastructure. Read More
Misguided government gets poor return for largesse
The Rudd government’s home insulation program demonstrates the dangers of activist fiscal policy. Read More
The seasonal satisfaction index
According to Joel Waldfogel’s book Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays, you shouldn’t have bought his book as a Christmas gift. The gifts received from family and friends... Read More
Big spending, poor results
Big government spending leads to poor results. Read More
Capital gains tax won’t make housing more affordable
Many commentators think a CGT on owner-occupied housing is good economics, but bad politics. In reality, it is bad economics too. Read More
The US deficit canary has rattled the cage in warning of dire eventualities
The US government’s finances are in such bad shape that the Congressional Budget Office sounded a public alarm about the risk of debt default, a flight of capital out of the country, an exchange rate... Read More
It’s time for a new Medicare
Thirty-five years after the Whitlam government voted for the introduction of universal health care, and following the report of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission’s report, the Rudd... Read More
Policymakers Sold Australia Short
The government has argued that GDP growth and the unemployment rate numbers demonstrate the effectiveness of its fiscal stimulus measures. In reality, they demonstrate only that policymakers sold Australia... Read More
We’re wasting billions on tax churn
By pulling the middle class into the welfare net, the government is crowding out civil society and undermining personal responsibility, self-esteem, and social capital. Ultimately, our current welfare... Read More
Making things worse
There is an ongoing debate about whether the government’s spending spree is going to work or whether it is a waste of money. Read More
Stimulus is a waste of taxpayer’s dollars
Too much is being expected of fiscal stimulus. Read More
Tax circle good for no one
In the past 40 years, our relationship with state and commonwealth governments has been revolutionised. Before the 1960s, most people lived the majority of their lives relatively autonomously of government.... Read More
We need better results from social spending
Unlike Paris Hilton though, Finance Minister Michael Cullen doesn’t have to pay for it himself. He now spends $55 billion a year of our money on our behalf, which is $20 billion higher than it was seven... Read More
Places left untouched by reform
The $5 billion Higher Education Endowment Fund announced in last week's budget gives the Government what it has long lacked: a positive symbol of its support for higher education. University leaders, whose... Read More
None of the Treasurer's budget handouts makes any economic sense
What was the overall rationale driving Peter Costello's 12th budget? What fundamental objectives was he trying to achieve? What key principles informed his decisions? His big idea this year was the $5billion... Read More
NSW Transport misses the bus by sinking the ferry
Long suffering Sydney commuters could be forgiven for thinking that the NSW government and its conglomerate of over-manned, state-owned transport bureaucracies would take any help they can get to address... Read More
Will higher funding really deliver higher education?
A curious feature of the current higher education debate is that very little of it is about education as such. A few brief arguments about teaching quality and how it can be improved aside, most discussion... Read More
Leave off, tax breaks can redress child costs
Three fundamental issues underlie the maternity leave debate. First is the form and level of assistance governments should provide to help meet the costs of having children. Read More
Give choice a chance: Market phobia sees universities clinging to the stable penury of government funding
Five years ago, like today, there were signs that commonwealth higher education policy might be changing. On that occasion, the review of higher education financing and policy, chaired by Roderick West,... Read More
A tax credit system should be the basis for funding education
There is not much for parents or schools to get excited about in the education policies of either of the major parties. As usual, both have taken the middle road, with one leaning slightly toward facilitating... Read More
Equity and the costs of learning
Once again the knives have come out over school funding. But what is the real basis of the opposition to public funding of non-government schools? Is it about the proper use of taxpayers’ money? Or is... Read More
Knowledge is a costly affair
The Knowledge Nation Taskforce's comprehensive agenda for upskilling Australia was widely welcomed yesterday. But the ultimate fate of the task force's report depends on a short passage near the end of... Read More
Stop Subsidising a Failure
John Quiggin is a well- known microeconomic reform sceptic, and in these pages last week questioned whether competition was a practical policy for improving investment in human capital. Read More
Publications
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TARGET30: Reducing the burden for future generations
| 01 Jul 2013 | Policy ForumTARGET30 is a campaign promoting smaller government and cutting government spending to less than 30% of GDP in the next 10... Read More...
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Saving Medicare But NOT As We Know It
| 30 Apr 2013 | TARGET30 Research PapersHigh growth in health spending is the area of public expenditure that will unsustainably increase the size of government... Read More...
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TARGET30 SNAPSHOT: Saving Medicare But NOT As We Know It
| 30 Apr 2013 | TARGET30 SnapshotsHigh growth in health spending is the area of public expenditure that will unsustainably increase the size of government... Read More...
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After the Welfare State: Politicians Stole Your Future … You Can Get It Back
| 08 Apr 2013 | Occasional PapersHistory, economics, sociology, political science, and mathematics are the tools to understand and evaluate welfare states,... Read More...
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Tax Welfare Churn and the Australian Welfare State
| 27 Mar 2013 | TARGET30 Research PapersThe welfare state currently consumes $316 billion a year; however, much of this spending is not targeted at those who need... Read More...
Opinion & Commentary
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Smaller government is vital for business growth
| 16 Jul 2013 | The West AustralianAustralia is at risk of waking up from the mining boom with nothing to show but a debt hangover and an economic headache.... Read More
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Moral mission of small government
| 27 Jun 2013 | The Australian Financial ReviewRegardless of which party wins the election in September, the new government will have much more important issues to deal ... Read More
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Taxpayer money wasted chasing film productions
| 20 Jun 2013 | The DrumShould the Australian public be supporting Hollywood productions with only dubious benefit to Australia?... Read More
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It's time to put the break on corporate welfare
| 23 May 2013 | The DrumCorporate welfare for a favoured few - like Australia's car manufacturers - cannot be justified.... Read More
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Gillard Deal Risks NDIS Timebomb
| 13 May 2013 | The Australian Financial ReviewIn its eagerness to lock in the funding and governance arrangements for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), ... Read More
Ideas@TheCentre
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Why we should support car workers (find new jobs)
| 12 Jul 2013Government should support workers transition to competitive industries and abolish corporate welfare....
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Freedom and smaller government
| 28 Jun 2013The issues that we as a society face have only arisen because government has moved away from its core roles....
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Ignoring the writing on the wall
| 28 Jun 2013The ACTU is oblivious to the fact that wage cuts in the automotive industry are a necessary part of the drive to become competitive....
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Corporate welfare still milking government cash cows
| 14 Jun 2013Industry assistance doesn’t achieve the goals it’s supposed to, and should be reduced....
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The elusive budget surplus
| 17 May 2013The idea that we will have a balanced budget by 2015-16 should be met with healthy scepticism....
