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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?

Knowledge is a costly affair
July 3, 2001The Australian Financial Review

The Knowledge Nation Taskforce’s comprehensive agenda for upskilling Australia was widely welcomed yesterday. But the...

Stop Subsidising a Failure
August 9, 2000The Australian Financial Review

John Quiggin is a well- known microeconomic reform sceptic, and in these pages last week...

Reconnecting Compassion and Charity
Roger KerrJanuary 1, 1999OP67

Supporters of big government and the welfare state regularly accuse their opponents of lacking ‘compassion’....

The Welfare State: Foundations and Alternatives
Michael JamesMarch 1, 1989PF7

The central question for public policy in the 1990s is whether the state should retain...

Social Welfare: The Changing Debate
David GreenMay 5, 1988OP20

The Centre for Independent Studies Social Welfare Program has commissioned studies by qualified economists and...

Restraining Leviathan: Small Government in Practice
Michael James, Hugh Collins, J.J. Pincus, Patrick Minford, Cliff Walsh, Peter Swan AO, A.J. Moran, Ian Harper, Wolfgang Kasper, Chris Trengove, Keith Trace, Peter Forsyth, Scott Prasser, John D. Craig, James Cox, Robin O'Hair, Geoffrey Brennan, George WintertonOctober 1, 1987PF6

Foreword This collection seeks to increase our understanding of the scope and opportunities we have...

Welfare reform beyond decades of dependence, ‘dole bludgers’ and ‘double dipping’
Simon CowanMay 31, 2017OP156

Recent attempts to reform welfare have focused on the wrong elements of the system. In...

Fiscal Fiction: The Real Medicare Levy
Jeremy SammutMay 7, 2017RR27

The Medicare Levy is, and always has been, a fiscal fiction. The revenue raised by...

Reforming Social Housing: financing and tenant autonomy
Michael PotterApril 27, 2017RR25

Around 400,000 Australians live in social housing, which includes public and community housing. This sector...

Real Choice for Ageing Australians: Achieving the Benefits of the Consumer-Directed Aged Care Reforms in the New Economy
Jeremy SammutApril 9, 2017RR24

The consumer-directed aged care (CDC) reforms are an important opportunity to showcase the benefits of...

Report Card on State Finances
Robert CarlingFebruary 19, 2017RR23

The Commonwealth government’s perilous financial position is well known, but the finances of state government...

Politically-Feasible Health Reform: Whatever Will It Take?
Jeremy Sammut, Peta Seaton, Gerald Thomas, Terry BarnesDecember 7, 2016OP153

Despite the ever-escalating cost of health posing severe fiscal sustainability challenges, health reform has been...

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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