News, media releases, opinions and articles from the Centre for Future Work.
The election campaign needs to be more than a quiz show
The election campaign thus far has been dominated with gotcha questions that unfortunately have missed the vital need to examine the different policies on offer at a time when Australia’s economy is in a state of extreme flux. Labour market and fiscal policy director, Greg Jericho writes in his Guardian Australia column that the recovery…
Universal Public Early Child Education in Australia Would Pay For Itself: Research Report
Making Early Child Education and Care (ECEC) universal in Australia would pay for itself by unlocking women’s labour supply, boosting GDP and growing government revenues by billions, according to new research from the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work.
Key Findings:
ECEC funding is lo…
House prices means interest rates do not need to rise much to inflict great costs
The more than a decade long period of the Reserve Bank going without raising interest rates looks set to end. Rising inflation and the unwinding of the pandemic restrictions and border closures means that the emergency cash rate of 0.1% will soon go up. But at the moment the market expects before the end of…
A slap-dash budget revealing a government with no idea why it is in power
This year’s budget was transparently targeted towards the May election. But as Fiscal and Labour Market Policy Director, Greg Jericho notes in his Guardian Australia column, the slap-dash and short-term nature of the measures reveals this government has lost any real reason for governing. From the extra bonus of the low-middle income tax offset with…
A short-term budget with no vision or coherency
The 2022-23 budget is one of the most shameless election year budgets in memory. With the opportunity to use windfall gains in revenue to begin the fix of structural issues in the economy dealing with the low paid and essential services, the government instead has thrown money at voters in the hopes of re-election. The…
Alison Pennington: Budget billions wasted as real wages go backwards
The federal government’s budget would have us believe that the cost of living is a sudden problem because of higher oil prices. But the real reason people are feeling the pinch is because their real wages are going backwards. The budget forecasts wage growth of 2.75 per cent in 2021-22, below inflation which is forecast…