It will be 40 years in December since the incoming Whitlam government asked the Arbitration Commission to reopen the equal pay case.
Productivity Commission
What Wilkie’s pokies reform didn’t bet on: the internet
The commotion surrounding Labor’s delay of Andrew Wilkie’s pokies reform takes on different meaning when viewed through the context of the inevitable, which is that the future of gambling resides on the internet, writes Alan Kohler.
The 2011 Crikeys: the government policy hits and misses
2011 was the biggest year in economic policy for a long time - which isn’t saying much. What was best and worst?
Time-honoured rituals of regulation live on
Tony Abbott’s promise to slash red tape is a time-honoured Canberra ritual, but it’s a hollow promise. And he should shake up his front bench to inject more policy nous into the mix.
$400 down, up the Nile without a paddle: life of a problem gambler
Reason tells you the sheer easy availability of high stakes, highly addictive poker machines comes at a cost too high for our society to bear. Why do we let this continue? asks Mr Denmore from The Failed Estate.
Why political strangulation of Sydney Airport is a farce
At Sydney Airport, jets are being told to stay on the ground, ready to take off, waiting 20 minutes or more, because the airport has exceeded its politically imposed capacity for airliner movements.
Searching for truth on productivity
For journalists willing to do some work, it’s easy to check whether the link being made between IR deregulation and labour productivity stands up.
Ignoring evidence may explain why the income management gap doesn’t close
Today the Productivity Commission releases its latest report on Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage, which shows only 13 of 45 measures showed any improvement and seven went backwards.
Crikey Says: The government should channel Shorten’s anger
“The treatment of people with impairment in Australia is a disgrace,” said Bill Shorten last year. The time to end the exile for Australians with disabilities is now.
Government hastens slowly on disability care and insurance
The Productivity Commission has released ita final report on disability, and the government is in no rush to implement it.
PC report: no help coming for retailers
On the surface, the draft report from the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into the structure of the retail sector appears to have some good news. Except for one thing — there is little chance any of these changes will happen quickly.
Liberals in search of the case for IR reform
Since IR reformers won’t explain why we need it, we’ve looked at what WorkChoices accomplished. It wasn’t much.
PC reveals the great greenhouse rip-off
There can no longer be any doubt — the Australia and overseas experiences shows an ETS is by far the cheapest way to cut emissions
Are we being gouged on delivery as well?
Not merely are Australians being ripped off by local retailers for internationally available goods, it costs more to deliver them.
Bartholomeusz: executive pay report on the money
If the government was expecting a blueprint for influencing/constraining executive remuneration, and incentive payments in particular, it would have been disappointed.
Online retailing: the great Australian gouge
Australians are being charged far more for products than overseas consumers — and not just by bricks-and-mortar outlets. Crikey examines the expensive goods and the retailers’ hypocrisy.
Mayne: directors club scrambling to retain barriers to entry
Directors of Australian public companies have long enjoyed something of a closed shop with substantial barriers to entry and very few new entrants attempting to barge their way in uninvited.
Infrastructure isn’t the (whole) answer
The Murray-Darling debate has laid bare the basic problem of how to support regional communities, and whether they should be asked to bear the cost of fixing an historic problem alone.
The science of pokies make them a special kind of harm creation
Pokies and the large networked system within which they operate are extremely effective at modifying what sociologists call the ‘agency’ of many people, affecting the basis on which they utilise their rational capacity, writes Charles Livingstone.
Come in Spinner: Sixth time lucky for aged-care communications
The Productivity Commission is starting what will be the sixth major inquiry into aged-care funding — a policy area that has become a no-go area because of poor initial communications, writes Noel Turnbull.
Draconian, perhaps, but changing fag packaging will work
So the Rudd government is adopting the world’s “most draconian” cigarette packaging regulations? Good, says Nicholas Gruen.
The PC pleases no one on the Murray-Darling — just the way it should be
The Productivity Commission’s new report on the Murray-Darling Basin provides the tool kit for a more efficient water market and effective establishment of environmental flows. Too bad no one will pay attention.
Pokies industry arguments and edifices starting to crumble
With the federal government now considering the Productivity Commission’s final report, the pokies industry won’t just be able to heavy individual state governments that are so addicted to the tax revenue.
Winners and losers in the great game of industry assistance
Australia stopped reducing its industry assistance in the 1990s and has been increasing it for years — mainly to big multinationals in small industries with strong unions. And other sectors are paying the price.
NSW pokies venues looking out for POOPs (Pets of Older Persons)
Donations to POOPs, as it is known, are at the heart of the present conundrum of clubland. Are they a vital hub of their community, or giant pokie palaces which are using their local connections as a fig leaf?
