Economic challenges ahead for the government
The re-elected federal government faces a long list of economic challenges, some of them created or exacerbated in its first …
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How to vandalise savings: the new superannuation tax
Introduction The Albanese Labor government’s new tax geared to individuals’ total superannuation balances was unveiled in March 2023, failed to …
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CIS Newsletter – EOFY
Count on CIS to bring early numeracy screening to Australia Australia has a maths problem — and it’s not just …
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Riches from Royalties: How Australia’s states and territories depend on mining
Royalty payments by mining companies for extracting resources, including large volumes of fossil fuels, are major revenue streams for state governments.
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Submission to Victorian Legislative Council Select Committee Inquiry
Victoria Planning Provisions Amendments VC257, VC267 and VC274: Submission to Victorian Legislative Council Select Committee Inquiry 1. Introduction Housing in Victoria, …
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Super for Housing
1. Summary and Introduction This paper discusses a proposal that home buyers be enabled to access their superannuation (hereafter, …
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Interest, Usury and the Common Good
Introduction: Is there a problem with interest? Making money out of lending money has generated moral controversy since ancient times. …
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Less Crowded Houses. NZ’s housing policy success and implications for Australia
Introduction Many Australians are increasingly concerned by deteriorating housing affordability and its implications for socio-economic outcomes. In a recent survey, …
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CIS Impact Report
Publications reached a record this year, with the release of 37 research papers plus 20 submissions to government and official …
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Gorillas In The Mist. How government obscures its spending
Executive Summary Government overreach: The federal government’s planned $78 billion of off-budget measures over the next four years reflects an …
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Productivity stakes couldn’t be higher at roundtable
Productivity must trump politics in Labor’s second term
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Arbitrarily increasing defence spending would be a waste of money
Both sides of politics have allowed industry concerns and state government parochialism to dominate defence needs when it comes to procurement.
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NSW budget must be adult in the room on sensible spending
The state’s debt levels remain high, with net debt currently around $110 billion and projected to grow to $137 billion by June 2028. Without stronger spending restraint, it will only grow.
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Any time someone tries to get ahead in Australia, the govt taxes them to the hilt
It must have been a surreal experience for some this week. The Prime Minister was at the Press Club bemoaning …
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Why the Liberal Party struggles to regain ground
The Liberals need to learn some political lessons from the result, but a lot of the proffered advice has been nakedly self-serving.
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Why Libs and Nats will get the Coalition band back together
The parties have been riven by very real personal and ideological tensions before, and still have joined forces when moments of truth have arrived.
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Australian states reap billions from mining. This revenue is already at risk
As the pressure to rapidly phase out fossil fuels increases, the states will face an unexpected fiscal risk.
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This is not as much about Trump as it is about the failure of modern politics
The simple reality is that major parties across the world need to start measuring their success or failure by more than just whether they won the last election.
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Donald Trump can’t bully Adam Smith
Nearly 40 years ago, during her transformative and market-driven prime ministership of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher famously said: “You …
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‘More affordable housing’ actually makes a large cohort of voters very angry
Actual solutions would involve negotiating with state and local government to change the policy settings and overcome NIMBY opposition.
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Free Trade vs Tariffs: Jobs, Security, and the Cost of Living
Leading economists, historians, and policy experts delve into the complex world of tariffs, free trade, and their impact on global …
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The Answer is Productivity | Tom Switzer
To avoid a crisis, Australia should embrace sound market economics.
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Less Crowded Houses. NZ’s housing policy success and implications for Australia
While house prices in Australia went up by more than 8% in 2023, prices in New Zealand fell by more …
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Solving the housing crisis | Stuart Donovan
How can Australia tackle its housing affordability crisis? What lessons can we learn from New Zealand’s successful upzoning policies? In …
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Government spending and inflation explained | Emilie Dye
Government is shooting itself in the foot when it comes to inflation. While the RBA works to lower inflation by …
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The simple solution to FIX the housing crisis | Emilie Dye
What is behind the housing crisis in Australia and across the world? Research Analyst Emilie Dye, drawing on the work …
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How to tackle Australia’s housing crisis one state at a time | NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey
Sydney is home to some of the least affordable housing in the world, placing immense pressure particularly on young people …
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Has Easy Money Destroyed the Free Market? | Ruchir Sharma
Watch as Tom Switzer sits down with renowned financial analyst, commentator, and investor Ruchir Sharma for a thought-provoking discussion on …
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Support CIS Research in 2024
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The NDIS is out of control | John Kehoe
The Australian economy has performed better than most economists predicted a year ago. However, probe deeper and things look disturbing. …
Frequently Asked Questions
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) structure makes mistakes likely. It concentrates responsibility on one fallible individual, the Governor, answerable to a Board of non-experts, with little requirement to explain or defend decisions in detail. Arguments are subject to little scrutiny, either internally or externally. More fundamentally, the RBA has a culture that places a low priority on getting the answers right. As a result, mistakes are frequent, persistent and costly. Among several examples, the RBA recently placed higher priority on stabilising household debt than on its conventional goals of unemployment and inflation. Previously, it targeted the current account deficit. Read more ...
Inflation is rising around the world, the sting in the tail of the pandemic economic stimulus packages unleashed by governments in 2020. The narrative thus far is that this inflation spike is transitory, even if a little more persistent than first thought. It is expected to moderate as consumer price pressures ease and markets rebalance after the large positive demand shock and surge in consumer spending of the past 18 months. Read more ...