In The Media
June 2023
Inflation, Corporate Pricing and Central Banking
Dr Evan Jones, retired professor of Political-Economy at the University of Sydney, has published an insightful commentary on recent debates regarding corporate profits, inflation and monetary policy. With permission we reprint his article here. It originally appeared in Counterpunch. The politics of inflation in Australia Consumer price inflation in Australia reached 6.8 % in the
May 2023
Q & A: Corporate profits and inflation
Q & A audience member Amy Brown cited the Australia Institute’s profits research when she asked the panel of politicians when they’re going to “act on behalf” of the constituents who elected them, instead of on behalf of corporations.
August 2022
Peter Dutton says Liberals will not attend government’s national jobs summit
The federal Liberals have rejected an invitation to attend a national jobs summit next month, labelling it a stunt.
ACTU pushes for caps on energy bills and a windfall tax on corporate profits ahead of jobs summit
Report proposes big changes to Australian economy including giving workers more clout to bargain for better pay
RBA’s ‘whatever it takes’ attitude will cause a recession: ACTU
The Australian Council of Trade Unions has accused the Reserve Bank of deliberately laying the groundwork for a recession due to its “whatever it takes” attitude to bringing inflation back to target.
ACTU presses for radical overhaul of economic structures to boost jobs
The ACTU has proposed a radical overhaul of the nation’s economic structures, pushing for a tax on businesses that profit from high inflation and price controls on some goods and services, while tasking the Reserve Bank with driving down unemployment.
March 2022
Training system still in disarray, despite billions spent: report
A pandemic-era $1.6 billion injection in much-needed funding into the nation’s training system has dramatically increased headcount of people in vocational courses, a new report says, but left Australia’s pipeline of skills in disarray. Three in five new apprenticeships have gone to male-dominated trades while numbers training in feminised sectors, such as aged and disability
February 2022
December 2021
August 2020
March 2020
November 2019
May 2019
July 2018
Dr. Jim Stanford interview with Alan Hickey, 5AA Radio – Insecure Work
Interview Jim Stanford, Director of Centre for Future Work, The Australia Institute.
July 2017
Unemployment steady, full-time jobs rebound, but is the economy as good as it looks?
A surge in full-time employment over the past five months has raised optimism about the economy’s health, but is that positivity misplaced?
April 2017
Former RBA governor Bernie Fraser says penalty rate cut will produce inequality, not jobs
Former Reserve Bank boss Bernie Fraser has savaged the Fair Work Commission’s cuts to penalty rates and the Turnbull government’s company tax cuts, saying the measures will further entrench inequality but do little to produce jobs and growth.
November 2016
The truth about claims of a faulty welfare system
Last weekend’s edition of The Saturday Paper featured an in-depth analysis by journalist Mike Seccombe, dissecting the Coalition government’s attempts to scapegoat welfare programs for Australia’s labour market and fiscal problems. The article included several statistics from the Centre for Future Work, as well as from our colleague Richard Denniss (Chief Economist at the Australia Institute). With decent paid work increasingly hard to find, it’s no wonder the government targets income-support payments for working-age Australians: there are both political reasons (shifting blame) and a perverse economic logic (reinforcing the compulsion on desperate workers to accept any job, no matter how insecure or badly-paid) behind the government’s strategy.
October 2016
Unpaid overtime and dodgy internships: When employment becomes exploitation
Economist Jim Stanford, the director of the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute, has calculated that as many as two-thirds of Australian workers are now regularly expected to put in some form of unpaid overtime.
Employment in the era of exploitation
In today’s chronically depressed labour market, workers will go to unprecedented lengths to find and keep a job — even agreeing to work for free! ABC’s RN program Future Tense recently explored the rising prevalence of unpaid work in Australia’s economy, including staying at work after hours, taking your work home with you (such as e-mails that never stop), and unpaid internships.
July 2016
Future Proof
Regardless of who wins the Federal election, the major issue facing Australians is the future of work.
June 2016
New research: Abbott and Turnbull the worst economic managers since Menzies
A new report from the Australia Institute shows that on a range of measures, the performance under the current government has been worse than that under Gillard, write Greg Jericho.
Report urges a revival of Australia’s manufacturing sector to drive innovation
Australia now has the lowest proportion of manufacturing jobs in the OECD, according to a new report by the Centre for Future Work.
The report says the decline isn’t inevitable and can be reversed; several of our global peers are expanding their manufacturing sectors.
As Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull promotes his innovation agenda on the election campaign trail, the report finds the sector that is most innovation-intensive has been allowed to wither.
October 2013
General Enquiries
mail@australiainstitute.org.au
Media Enquiries
Glenn Connley Senior Media Adviser
glenn.connley@australiainstitute.org.au