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• Government Spending

Governments spend taxpayers’ money on a wide range of programmes from education to defence and from welfare to infrastructure. Yet there can be too much of a good thing, and some government spending is just wasteful. How can we ensure that taxpayers are getting value for money?

Car industry handouts are childish
Alexander PhilipatosJanuary 27, 2012

An article in the Australian Financial Review last week opened with a question to the...

It’s time to bust open the pharmacists’ closed shop
Terry BarnesJanuary 25, 2012The Australian

IN his bestselling autobiography Lazarus Rising, former prime minister John Howard singled out Australia's community...

Trans-Atlantic Fiscal Follies: The Sequel
Oliver Marc Hartwich, Robert CarlingNovember 30, 2011PF21

What started as the US subprime crisis became the global financial crisis and has now...

Left or Right can find common ground
November 25, 2011

The Greens’ support for the government’s superannuation increase is tepid at best. They’ve agreed to...

Spending Spree wasted decade of prosperity
November 18, 2011The National Business Review

To gain wisdom for the future, one must learn lessons from the past. One of...

New Zealand’s spending binge
Luke MalpassNovember 18, 2011

Most of New Zealand’s general election campaign is being dominated by squabbling over the Crown...

Riches from Royalties: How Australia’s states and territories depend on mining
Gene TunnyMay 15, 2025PP61
Royalty payments by mining companies for extracting resources, including large volumes of fossil fuels, are...
Gorillas In The Mist. How government obscures its spending
Gene TunnyNovember 21, 2024PP59

Executive Summary Government overreach: The federal government’s planned $78 billion of off-budget measures over the...

scales
Government spending and inflation
Robert CarlingSeptember 4, 2024PP58
That government expenditure in Australia has grown apace in recent years is well-known. The growth...
Business Means Business. Why Corporates Should Avoid Social Activism
Simon Cowan, Emilie DyeJuly 18, 2024AP72
Senior management should be concerned they are putting their companies at risk of reputational harm...
scales
Budget Fails Important Policy Tests
Robert Carling, Gene TunnyMay 28, 2024IA150
The deficit budgeted for 2024-25, amounting to over $28 billion ($28,000 million), translates to a...
closing the gap
From Measuring to Merely Meeting: Productivity Commission misses mark on Closing the Gap
Nyunggai Warren Mundine AOMay 16, 2024PP57
Why, despite decades of expenditure on Aboriginal affairs, do solutions to ‘Closing the Gap’ in...
Alarm bells ringing on more interest rate pain
Michael StutchburyMarch 18, 2026DAILY TELEGRAPH
Australians were losing faith that the combination of Labor’s economic policies and the RBA monetary...
Blame diagnostic inflation for the NDIS’ $10b Autism bill
Steven SchwartzMarch 5, 2026AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW

As recently reported in The Australian Financial Review, autism costs the National Disability Insurance Scheme...

The RBA had no choice but to tighten the screws
Robert Carling, Michael StutchburyFebruary 6, 2026THE CANBERRA TIMES
The government has been rightly blamed for fuelling the inflation flames with too rapid growth...
The only things going up now are the prices
Robert CarlingFebruary 3, 2026DAILY TELEGRAPH
The decisions that made higher rates unavoidable were taken in Canberra. If inflation is the...
Economic exceptionalism is dead – and rate cuts died with it
Michael StutchburyJanuary 31, 2026AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW
Jim Chalmers doesn’t have a central bank governor to blame for his forward misguidance or...
Tip from a friend: Australia’s economy is in a slow race to ruin
Michael StutchburyNovember 29, 2025THE AUSTRALIAN
Sometimes it takes outsiders to say the obvious but unwelcome things: high spending, low growth...
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Submission to the Independent Review of the Australian Public Service
Simon Cowan, Eugenie JosephAugust 1, 2018
Submission to the National Commission of Audit
Alexander Philipatos, Jennifer Buckingham OAM, Jeremy Sammut, Robert Carling, Simon Cowan, Stephen Kirchner, Trisha JhaApril 1, 2014T30.08

The federal government’s Commission of Audit (CoA) was established in 2013 to review the performance...

Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill 2012
Andrew BakerJanuary 25, 2013

Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill...

Submission to the COAG Select Council on Disability Reform on NDIS ‘eligibility and reasonable and necessary support’ criteria
Andrew BakerSeptember 10, 2012

Submission to the COAG Select Council on Disability Reform on NDIS ‘eligibility and reasonable and...

Submission to Native Title Leading Practice Agreements Discussion Paper 2010
Helen Hughes, Mark Hughes, Sara HudsonNovember 30, 2010

The Native Title process is only one of the processes returning land to traditional owners....

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