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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?

Free market strategy to solve societal problems
Josephine CashmanOctober 20, 2017Ideas@TheCentre

People seem to have lost faith in both the free market and in government. Capitalism...

Indigenous service structures slowing progress
Charles JacobsOctober 20, 2017Ideas@TheCentre

A new QLD Productivity Commission report echoes CIS findings that a convoluted labyrinth of programs...

Bill Shorten’s ‘grand bargain’ between business and unions will harm everyone
Simon CowanOctober 14, 2017Canberra Times

Bill Shorten’s call this week for another ‘grand bargain’ between business, unions and parliament should...

Indigenous corporations’ governance confusion
Charles JacobsOctober 6, 2017Ideas@TheCentre

Internal misunderstandings are threatening to undermine genuine efforts to develop economic independence on Indigenous lands....

Coalition must stop gaming budget forecasts if it wants credibility
Simon CowanSeptember 30, 2017The Canberra Times

In recent years, the release of updated budget data has rarely been cause for celebration....

Free market basics need to be re-learnt
Robert CarlingSeptember 22, 2017Ideas@TheCentre

The twentieth century taught us enough about the limits to government intervention that the Australian...

Australia’s Export Exposure to China’s Coronavirus Epidemic
Salvatore BabonesFebruary 18, 2020AP7

This paper estimates the direct and immediate effects of the coronavirus epidemic on the revenues...

Reform, Retreat and Relinquishment: Lessons from historic state ownership of businesses in NSW
Percy AllanSeptember 24, 2019PP23

In the 1980s and 90s, Australian governments agreed to an ambitious program of micro-economic reforms...

Millennials and Super: the case for voluntary superannuation
Simon CowanMay 28, 2019PP20
As a result of house prices increases, it has become much harder to save for...
Budget 2019: Why the long-term tax cuts should be fast-tracked
John HumphreysApril 4, 2019PP19

The centrepiece of the 2019/20 budget was a proposed doubling of the income tax cuts...

I, Mechanical Pencil: Why a socialist economy can never work
Steven KatesFebruary 6, 2019PP14

Socialism brings poverty and oppression. The ignorance of so many as to why only a...

Voting for a living: A shift in Australian politics from selling policies to buying votes?
Robert Carling, Terrence O’BrienSeptember 5, 2018PP9

This paper explores the hypothesis that growth of government has become self-sustaining through the emergence...

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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