Grattan Institute

A conversation with Energy Program Director, Tony Wood. Energy has become one of the great barbecue-stoppers of Australia. Electricity and gas bills are soaring, energy supplies seem to be less reliable than they used to be, and if you really want to start an argument around the barbeque, say you’re in favour of coal-fired power, or that you want nothing but renewables such as wind and solar.

A conversation with Budget Policy and Institutional Reform Program Director, Danielle Wood and Fellow, Brendan Coates discussing this years budget announcements. Also featuring Transport Program Director, Marion Terrill and Higher Education Program Director, Andrew Norton.

Event Podcast: At this Energy Futures Seminar, ESB Chair, Kerry Schott, Grattan Institute’s Tony Wood and Tim Nelson from AGL as they explained, discussed and debated these issues. The Forum was moderated by Jennifer Hewett from the Australian Financial Review and was hosted by the Melbourne Energy Institute, Grattan Institute and the State Library of New South Wales.

Event podcast: At this Policy Pitch event, the panel looked at how current generations are faring in retirement, and what kind of retirement we can all expect in the future. They discussed the policy levers such as the Super Guarantee, superannuation draw-down rules, retirement ages, and the level and means testing of the Age Pension. And they explored the trade-offs that these involve for spending before retirement and for government budgets.

A conversation with School Education Fellow Julie Sonnemann. Following the release of the recommendations from the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools, we ask what Gonski 2.0 has found, why it has received a cold reception among some in the industry and how the implementation of Gonski’s findings should be managed. Links to research discussed in this podcast: Goss, P., Sonnemann, J., Griffiths, K., and Chivers, C., 2016, Circuit breaker: a new compact for school funding, Grattan Institute: https://grattan.edu.au/report/circuit-breaker/

Event podcast: In this State of Affairs event, Julie Sonnemann, Grattan Institute School Education Fellow, along with a panel of leading policy thinkers explored: What is needed to lift educational outcomes at scale; what are the benefits, challenges and risks of Commonwealth interventions; and, where should the Commonwealth focus its efforts, and why?

A conversation with Higher Education Fellow, Ittima Cherastidtham. More than 50,000 students who started university in Australia this year will drop out. Part-time students are particularly at risk. Policy makers should do more to reduce the number of young people who leave university with nothing but debt and regret. Read the report: https://grattan.edu.au/report/dropping-out/

A conversation with Budget Policy and Institutional Reform Program Director, Danielle Wood and Australian Perspectives Fellow, Brendan Coates. The announcement of Labor’s plan to abolish refunds of unused imputation credits for retirees in late March sparked significant confusion in the media, and in turn many Australians, about the economic effects and who would actually pay. Danielle and Brendan cut through this debate and shed some light on exactly what this policy will mean and who it will impact. Links to research discussed in this podcast: Brendan Coates and Danielle Wood, The real story of Labor’s dividend imputation reforms, published by Inside Story, March 2018 https://grattan.edu.au/news/the-real-story-of-labors-dividend-imputation-reforms/ Daley, J., Coates, B., Young, W., and Parsonage, H., Age of entitlement: age-based tax breaks, 2016, Grattan Institute https://grattan.edu.au/report/age-of-entitlement/ Daley, J., Coates, B., Wood, D., and Parsonage, H., 2015, Super tax targeting, Grattan Institute https://grattan.edu.au/report/super-tax-targeting/

Event podcast: In this Policy Pitch event, Stephen Duckett, Health Program Director at Grattan Institute presented data on the costs of complication rates and potential new strategies to reduce adverse events. He was joined by Associate Professor Jill Sewell, chair of the Victorian Clinical Council and Dr Linda Swan, Chief Medical Officer for Medibank to discuss how strategies might work in the public and private sectors.

Event podcast: Electricity network costs continue to be an area of significant focus for consumers, government, regulators and media, as well as network businesses themselves. In some cases, claims have been made that network prices are paying for investments the value of which has since been questioned. Experts from Grattan Institute, Powerlink and the Melbourne Energy Institute debated and explored these challenges in this first of our Energy Future Series for 2018.