Grattan Institute

A conversation with Australian Perspectives Fellow, Brendan Coates. Australia’s retirement income system is not working for the poorest Australians, who are disproportionately women. Australia has a persistent gender gap in retirement savings and incomes. This means that women, particularly single women, are at greater risk of poverty, housing stress and homelessness in retirement.

Event podcast: Innovation and Science Australia has just released its plan for Australia’s innovation, science and research system, Australia 2030: Prosperity through Innovation. How big is the opportunity for Australia? Who really benefits from rapid innovation? Should policymakers follow ISA’s recommendations? At this Forward Thinking event, a panel that included the authors of the report used these questions to form the basis for an engaging discussion on innovation policy

A conversation with Grattan CEO, John Daley and Australian Perspectives Fellow Brendan Coates about their latest report. Low interest rates, policy changes and restrictive planning have doubled house prices in 20 years. It's time for governments to open the gate to more housing and stem rising public anxiety about housing affordability.

Event podcast: in this Policy Pitch event, a panel of transport and infrastructure experts explored: How bad congestion is across Melbourne; at what point we should consider new strategies to manage congestion, including congestion pricing; and, if a government were to introduce congestion charging, what principles should guide the scheme.

Event podcast: In this Capital Ideas event, Dr Peter Goss, Grattan Institute School Education Program Director, hosted a panel of leading policy thinkers to explore 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?

Event podcast: In this Forward Thinking event, a panel of experts will discussed if the demand driven system be restored. Its supporters argue that it increased access to higher education, fixed skills shortages caused by too few graduates, and encouraged innovation in teaching. Its detractors argue that admission standards fell, that we now have too many graduates, and that it cost taxpayers far too much.

A conversation with School Education Fellow, Julie Sonnemann. The Commonwealth should not use the extra money it is spending on schools as an excuse to intervene in school education. The danger is that the 'Gonski 2.0 Review' could be used as a platform for Commonwealth interventions that sound good, but don't actually help on the ground.

A conversation with School Education Program Director Pete Goss. The "gap" between Indigenous and other school students is even bigger than official figures show. Grattan research reveals that Year 9 Indigenous students in very remote areas are five years behind in numeracy, six years behind in reading, and seven-to-eight years behind in writing. Even in the cities and regions - where most Indigenous students live - the gap is three to four years by Year 9.

A conversation with Health Program Director, Stephen Duckett. One in nine patients who go into hospital suffers a complication, and the risk varies dramatically depending on the hospital. An extra 250,000 patients would leave hospital complication-free each year if all hospitals lifted their performance to match the best 10 per cent of hospitals. A Grattan Institute Report Podcast.

A conversation with Health Program Director Stephen Duckett and Fellow Hal Swerissen. February 1, 2018 marks the 34th anniversary of the beginning of Medicare. How did it begin, how has it been used politically and what challenges will it continue to face?

A conversation with Energy Fellow, David Blowers. Australia’s electricity sector is in crisis, or something close to it. But electricity shortages are just one part of the story - for most Australians a more visible and perhaps crucial part of this crisis is our ever-increasing electricity bills and everyone wants to blame someone else for the problem. Is there a single factor responsible for our electricity pricing woes? Or is the story more complex than that? Discussed on the podcast this week: David Blowers, A high price for policy failure: the ten-year story of spiralling electricity bills, January 2018 https://grattan.edu.au/news/a-high-price-for-policy-failure-the-ten-year-story-of-spiralling-electricity-bills/ Wood, T., Blowers, D., and Moran, G. Price shock: is the retail electricity market failing consumers?, 2017 https://grattan.edu.au/report/price-shock/

A conversation with Australian Perspectives fellow, Brendan Coates and Associate Trent Wiltshire. Unsurprisingly, housing affordability continues to remain in focus for media, politicians and researchers. In recent weeks, two papers have been released discussing regional housing supply and demand in Australia and housing accessibility for first home buyers. Here are the papers discussed on the podcast this week: Gianni La Cava, Hannah Leal and Andrew Zurawski, Housing Accessibility for First Home Buyers, RBA Bulletin December Quarter 2017 http://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2017/dec/pdf/bu-1217-3-housing-accessibility-for-first-home-buyers.pdf Ben Phillips and Cukkoo Joseph, Regional Housing Supply and Demand in Australia Regional Housing Supply and Demand in Australia, 2017 http://csrm.cass.anu.edu.au/research/publications/regional-housing-supply-and-demand-australia Also discussed in the podcast this week: Ong, Dalton, Gurran, Phelps, Rowley, Wood, Housing supply responsiveness in Australia

Event podcast: at this Policy Pitch event, Grattan Institute launched our annual Summer Reading List for the Prime Minister at the State Library Victoria. Melbourne broadcaster Sally Warhaft joined Grattan Institute CEO John Daley in Melbourne to discuss how this year's titles illuminate some of Australia’s most important debates.

A conversation with Grattan Program Director Jim Minifie, Senior Associate Cameron Chisholm and Associate Lucy Percival. The widely held belief that powerful firms control the Australian economy is a myth. But where a few firms dominate markets, such as in the supermarket and banking sectors, they earn higher profits.

Event podcast: This Forward Thinking event explored the widening economic and social divide between Australia’s cities and regions. What are the economic forces at play? What are the effects on the social fabric of the nation? And what if anything should governments do to bridge the divide?

A conversation with School Education Program Director, Pete Goss. Australia’s school education system is not fit for purpose, and we need to rethink the way we teach students, support teachers and run schools. To halt the decline, we should make the system more adaptive.

Event podcast: Energy policy in 2017 has been constantly in the media headlines, driven by the reality of the impact of high prices and security uncertainty and the ongoing, intense politicisation of energy and climate change policy. The chair of the Energy Security Board, Kerry Schott, and the chair of the ACCC, Rod Sims, came together for our last Energy Futures forum for 2017 to reflect on 2017 and what we need in 2018.

A conversation with Program Director Danielle Wood and Associate Carmela Chivers. Last week saw Australians overwhelmingly vote yes for same-sex marriage. What were the patterns of voting in this plebiscite? What trends did we see and what are the political implications? Read the op-ed published at The Conversation: https://grattan.edu.au/news/same-sex-marriage-results-crush-the-idea-that-australian-voters-crave-conservatism/

Event Podcast: This Policy Pitch event detailed Grattan analysis about the real shifts in Australia’s economy, culture and institutions, and which of them are plausibly linked to shifts in voting. It then considered what policy reforms would do most to re-engage people in the institutions that are vital to good government.

A conversation with Health Program Director, Stephen Duckett. Australia needs to reform the way we collect and use information about patient safety, to reduce the risk of more tragedies in our hospitals. The system is awash with data, but the information is poorly collated, not shared with patients, and often not given to doctors.