Grattan Institute

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – for wonks that is. The Federal Government will soon release their May budget. But with economic recovery high on the agenda in the wake of COVID-19, you might be wondering where the government will be spending big – or slashing costs. Listen to Danielle Wood, Grattan CEO, in conversation with Kat Clay, Head of Digital Communications, on what the upcoming budget might mean for you.

Australia has a new Minister for Women’s Economic Security in Jane Hume. But with an enormous gender gap in lifetime earnings between men and women, the significant job losses for women during the pandemic, and some women facing poverty in retirement, it’s hard to know which issue to start with. Listen to Rebecca Joiner, Tom Crowley and Kat Clay discuss how to fix the lifetime earnings gap.

All of us at some point in our lives have reaped the benefits of Medicare – whether that’s bulk billing a doctor’s appointment or receiving a more serious hospital procedure for free. When Medicare was introduced in the early 80s, the Minister for Health Dr Neal Blewett described it as ‘a simple, fair, affordable insurance system that provides basic health cover to all Australians’. But what about ‘a simple, fair, affordable aged care system that provides basic cover to all older Australians’. We have medicare, so why not a universally funded aged care system? Join Kat Clay and Anika Stobart, Associate, in conversation tackling this big question of why Australia should have a universal aged care system. For more information, visit: https://grattan.edu.au/

Achieving net-zero emissions sometimes sounds like an unachievable dream. With the political football of climate policy, and the current reliance on gas and coal-fired electricity sources, you’d be forgiven for becoming despondent about Australia ever getting to net-zero. But, at least in the electricity sector, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Join Kat Clay, Head of Digital Communications, with Tony Wood, Energy and Climate Change Program Director, and James Ha, associate, in conversation about their new report, Go for Net Zero: A practical plan for reliable, affordable, low-emissions electricity.

Chances are, if you’re on the market for a new property, or are trying to sell, you might have noticed how bonkers the Australian property market is right now. Queues of thirty people at open inspections isn’t unheard of in metropolitan areas, and prices are skyrocketing due to demand. It’s an unexpected outcome - the start of the COVID pandemic saw predictions that house prices would fall 10-to-20 per cent. One year on and Australian house prices are now surging at their fastest rate since 2003. After all the talk of crashing house prices a year ago, it’s enough to give would-be homebuyers whiplash. Listen to Kat Clay, Head of Digital Communications, and Brendan Coates, Household Finances Program Director, tackle the very real problem of housing affordability.

At the start of March, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety released its final report into aged care and laid out an extensive plan to overhaul the aged-care system. There’s no doubt that aged care must be reformed. But with an overwhelming number of recommendations, where do we even begin? Listen to this informed discussion with Anika Stobart, Associate with the Grattan Health Program, and Kat Clay, Head of Digital Communications.

COVID has compounded the effects of career breaks for women. Just six months out of work can add another $100,000 to the average $2 million lifetime earnings gap between men and women with children in Australia. This International Women’s Day, listen to Danielle Wood, CEO, Kate Griffiths, Fellow, and Tom Crowley, Associate, on how the COVID recession has affected women, now and into the future, and what we can do to ‘build back better’. Read our full report: https://grattan.edu.au/report/womens-work

It’s no exaggeration to say that COVID-19 has changed how we travel forever. Now that offices are reopening, many people are driving to work in order to avoid public transport. But do any of us want to go back to the office after discovering the flexibility of working from home? Or maybe, you’ve just decided to join the lycra clad brigade of MAMILS on their bikes. However we commute, it’s almost certainly going to look different to pre-pandemic transport. Listen to Kat Clay, Head of Digital Communications, in conversation with Owain Emslie, Senior Associate.

Australia’s border closure was one of the Morrison Government’s best decisions in responding to the pandemic. It was a big decision, but the right one. Tight border controls have given Australia the best of both worlds: little community transmission and a domestic economy largely unencumbered by COVID. Now, Victoria has just emerged from a five day lockdown caused by a breach in hotel quarantine. That follows similar breaches in Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth over the summer months. At the same time there have been fresh calls each week for more people to arrive in Australia from overseas. Citizens unable to return home. Universities desperate for international students to return. Workers from the Pacific to pick the harvest, otherwise left to rot in the fields. So, how can we fix hotel quarantine? And what do the current arrangements mean for migration in the coming months? Listen to Kat Clay, Head of Digital Communications, in conversation with Brendan Coates, Household Finances Program Director, and Henry Sherrell, Migration Fellow, about how to fix the hotel quarantine system. For more information, visit: https://grattan.edu.au/

Are you worried the age pension won’t exist in Australia by the time you retire? Turns out you’re not alone – more than half of Australians are worried about the pension disappearing. Watch Brendan Coates, Household Finances Program Director, in discussion with Kat Clay, Head of Digital Communications, and why you might not need to be worried about the pension disappearing.