Terrence O'Brien
Terrence is a retired public servant who has worked for some 40 years in the Commonwealth
Treasury, Office of National Assessments, Productivity Commission and at the OECD and World Bank. He receives a super pension from a fund he joined at age 19. His pension would be more heavily taxed by one of the changes proposed by both Labor and Liberal.
Featured Publication
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Implications of the Retirement Income Review: Public advocacy of private profligacy? 17 March 2021 | AP19The recent Retirement Income Review (RIR) implies policies that would reduce after-tax returns to super saving, encourage faster spending of life savings and of equity in the family home, and minimise bequests. Its approach would incline each generation towards consuming…READ MORE
Media & Commentary
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Superannuation policies must not crimp saving 21 March 2021 | Canberra TimesThe Morrison government is close to deciding whether to pick another political fight by cancelling, or again deferring, the increase in the minimum superannuation contribution rate. Any change to the increase already set in legislation – from 9.5 per cent…read more -
Retirement review’s misleading figures 19 March 2021 | IDEAS@THECENTREThe Retirement Income Review (RIR) conclusions are based heavily on the assertion of a $40 billion a year cost to taxpayers from the way superannuation is taxed; however this is selective and misleading. In Implications of the Retirement Income Review:…read more -
Managing Covid-19 without lockdowns 28 July 2020 | SpectatorThe fight against COVID-19 is a conundrum replete with knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns — as Donald Rumsfeld might have said — but policymakers don’t have the luxury of waiting for greater certainty and have to make choices here…read more -
Managing Covid-19 without lockdowns 23 July 2020The fight against Covid-19 is a conundrum replete with knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns — as Donald Rumsfeld might have said — but policymakers don’t have the luxury of waiting for greater certainty and have to make choices here…read more -
Is the Proportion of Net Benefit Recipients a Concern? A Reply to Peter Whiteford 29 November 2018 | austaxpolicy.comIn his 5 October comment on Austaxpolicy, Relax. The Divide Between the Taxed and the Taxed -Nots Isn’t New and Doesn’t Buy Elections, Peter Whiteford makes four observations on our September 2018 paper for the Centre of Independent Studies, Voting for a…read more
Publications
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Voting for a living: A shift in Australian politics from selling policies to buying votes? 05 September 2018 | PP9This paper explores the hypothesis that growth of government has become self-sustaining through the emergence of a segment of the population that both enjoys sufficient direct support from government and is large enough that political parties shape policies to curry its favour. The researchers use the Australian Bureau of Statistics’…READ MORE