Blog

06 Feb

Posted at 15:21h in Blog

Tim Lyons is a Fellow at Per Capita and Deputy Chairman of a large industry superannuation fund. [caption id="attachment_1964" align="alignleft" width="442"] David Maruiz for AAP[/caption] In 2013, soon after taking office, then Treasurer Hockey announced a plan to “make his senior public servants spend more time in the world of executives, bankers, bond traders and corporate investors” or what he called “the real world”. Perhaps Hockey’s plan was for permanent redeployment. In his horror 2014 Budget, Hockey cut funding to ASIC by $120 million over five years, more than reversing an increase in funding provided by the previous Labor government. At the same time a minister called for more "self-regulation" of the financial services industry. Hockey was sending a message to business that the Government wasn’t just untroubled by the potential the capture of regulators by business, it positively encouraged it. And as for regulators, well, business could look after things themselves: the regulators...

24 Oct

Posted at 23:18h in Blog

Per Capita is delighted to announce that Dr John Falzon OAM will join our team as Senior Fellow, Inequality and Social Justice on 1 November 2018. Dr Falzon is a sociologist, poet and social justice advocate, and was national CEO of the St Vincent de Paul Society from 2006 to 2018. He has written and spoken widely on neoliberalism and the structural causes of inequality and has long been engaged in the collective movement for social justice. Per Capita’s Executive Director, Emma Dawson, said “We are thrilled that John is joining Per Capita to lend his voice to our fight against inequality in Australia. “John’s expert knowledge of policy issues related to economic insecurity, housing and homelessness, social security and workers’ rights, along with his proven track record of advocating for those at the margins of our society, make him a perfect choice as the newest member of the Per Capita team.” Dr Falzon’s...

01 Oct

Posted at 23:55h in Blog

[caption id="attachment_1776" align="alignleft" width="417"] photo: @UN4Ageing[/caption] International Day of Older Persons (IDOP) celebrates the contribution older people continue to make to societies across the world. It also provides a regular opportunity for advocates to raise awareness around key areas of concern in ageing: poverty, the pandemic of loneliness, and the growing incidence of elder abuse. The theme of 2018’s IDOP is to ‘Celebrate Older Human Rights Champions’. It has been 80 years since the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and a generation of older Australians helped drive that agenda, including Australia’s sole female delegate to the UN Jessie Street, who successfully campaigned to change the opening of the UDHR from "All men and brothers…" to "All human beings are born free and equal…" Today’s IDOP will recognise Street’s generation and the role older people continue to play in advancing human rights across the globe. It also provides an opportunity to continue to talk about...

18 Sep

Posted at 02:40h in Blog

[caption id="attachment_1719" align="alignnone" width="894"] photo: ABC[/caption] Last night’s Four Corners program exploring residential aged care was one of the ABC’s largest, crowd-sourced investigations. The ABC received more than 4000 submissions from concerned staff, families, sector advocates and insiders. It resulted in a compelling account of failure upon failure in our aged care sector. Chillingly, there were no real surprises. Tales of neglect and abuse, control by medication, are almost routine to anyone who follows the sector. That Four Corners uncovered further evidence of cruelty, neglect and lax governance is of no surprise to anyone aware of a 2017 Monash University study into preventable deaths in aged care. Here, choking and falls were almost routine – incredible when you consider how risk-averse aged care environments are designed to be, and that many meals take place in common areas. That the study also found evidence of self-harm, suicide and even murder – a shocking...

06 Sep

Posted at 00:21h in Blog

"Last night Warwick Smith, Senior economist at Per Capita was awarded the EJ Craigie Writing Award for his piece The big spending Victorian state budget is built on Australia’s worst tax. Warwick quickly laid out the damaging effects of stamp duties and then moved on to show another innovative ACT policy move, with the transition away from stamp duties and towards land taxes. Upon reading his piece, the imperative for such reform seems so obvious." Read more at Prosper Australia...

19 Jul

Posted at 01:54h in Blog, Homepage Feature

Address to the 2018 ACTU Congress Panel Discussion: Ending Trickle Down Economics John Kenneth Galbraith once described trickle-down economics as the theory that “if you feed enough oats to the horse, some will pass through to feed the sparrows”. In Australia today, as in so many other developed nations where trickle-down economics has been ascendant for the last three decades, the horses have grown very fat, and the sparrows are starving. Like me, you’ve probably been appalled by recent reports that one in every five Australian children has gone hungry in the past 12 months. A recent survey of 1,000 parents commissioned by Foodbank showed 22 per cent of Australian children under the age of 15 live in a household that has run out of food at some stage over the past year. It’s shocking. And Australia is one of the wealthiest countries on earth. It shouldn’t be happening here. Conventional economic theories tell us that, after...

26 Jun

Posted at 17:00h in Blog

Please note: this event recap is taken from the proceedings of the Melbourne event. Per Capita also held an event with David Madland in Sydney, where different topics may have been discussed. The latest guest at Per Capita’s Reform Agenda Series was David Madland, in conversation with Tim Lyons. David Madland is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. He has written extensively about the economy and American politics on a range of topics, including the middle class, economic inequality, retirement policy, labor unions, and workplace standards such as the minimum wage. Madland is also the author of Hollowed Out: Why the Economy Doesn’t Work without a Strong Middle Class. David began the session with a breakdown of the organised labour and workplace regulation context in the United States. While Australian workers have been hit hard by stagnant wage growth over the last decade, American workers have been dealing with stagnant wages...

26 Jun

Posted at 09:00h in Blog

Per Capita has today announced the appointment of two new directors to its board, and the retirement of two members who have served the think tank for many years. Dee Madigan, Director of Campaign Edge, and Tim Kennedy, National Secretary of the National Union of Workers, will join the Per Capita board. With over 20 years’ experience in the advertising industry, Dee Madigan is a creative director who has developed integrated campaigns for some of the world’s largest brands, including HSBC, Coca-Cola, J&J, Unilever and Nestle. She has been a winner or finalist at almost all major advertising awards, including Cannes. Dee understands the need for creativity as a tool to persuade an audience; she understands that effective messages are always based on brand truths and she knows how to develop and roll out a truly integrated campaign, from TV ads and traditional media, through to digital and social media. Dee is one of...