• Australia’s productivity problem

    Open Forum     |      March 1, 2024

    A new report from the Productivity Commission shows that labour productivity fell sharply in 2022-23, as a record-breaking increase in hours worked failed to generate a similar increase in economic output.

  • The history and future of economic reform

    Jenny Gordon     |      January 1, 2024

    The reforms of the Hawke and Keating governments helped revitalise the Australian economy but the declining role of government in the production of goods and services and a generally light-handed approach to regulation have failed to arrest a decline in competition and economic dynamism in recent years.

  • Making things matters

    Open Forum     |      December 17, 2023

    Australia’s ability to sustain its local manufacturing industry is under threat by a generational loss of crafts and hands-on making expertise, according to a UniSA research report.

  • New challenges and old responses in economics

    Peter Söderbaum     |      December 16, 2023

    Redefining economics as “multidimensional management of resources in a democratic society” would encourage new conceptual frameworks and languages to better respond to current environmental and political challenges the current system seems unable to solve, or even confront.

  • Behind the wheel

    Brendan Nicholson     |      October 10, 2023

    In a recent interview, former cabinet minister Christopher Pyne recalls the knock on effects on Australia’s manufacturing capacity of the closure of South Australia’s car plants.

  • Making the most of Australia’s free trade agreements

    Evgeny Postnikov     |      October 5, 2023

    Australia has been at the forefront of trade liberalisation, negotiating and signing a record number of FTAs with most of its important trading partners over the last two decades.

  • Fight the power

    Carl Rhodes     |      September 20, 2023

    The past 40 years have seen large corporations grow to dominate the global economy, surpassing the capacity of people – or governments – to control or even comprehend them.

  • Australia’s opportunity in regional trade

    Daniel Borer     |      September 18, 2023

    Australia has joined 14 other states in The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, tapping into 2.2 billion consumers and 30 percent of the world’s GDP.

  • Reforming Australia’s foreign trade system

    David Widdowson     |      September 15, 2023

    The government’s multi-year program to simplify its international trade regulations, streamline its regulatory processes and modernise outdated computer systems still have some way to go.

  • The growth of degrowth economics

    Mike Joy     |      September 5, 2023

    The human economy is merely a subset of the biosphere, meaning we need to reduce our demands on the biosphere to avoid a disastrous ecological collapse, with consequences for us and all other species.

  • Banks must speak the same digital language

    Daniel Gozman     |      September 4, 2023

    The complex, opaque and often outdated systems used by large international banks threaten the stability of the global banking system.

  • Resilience and Australia’s trading system

    Jenny Gordon     |      August 6, 2023

    As Australia seeks to diversify its economy, build more resilience into supply chains and improve productivity, reducing the transaction costs of both exporting and importing must be high on all governments’ policy agendas.