Are you scared yet?

The Treasurer is telling us we can’t afford to grow old, the Prime Minister now speaks in front of more flags than you can poke a massive intrusion on our privacy at, and Barnaby Joyce is telling us without coal we’ll go broke.

Don’t Panic. In Between the Lines below you can listen to Richard Denniss break down the strategies of the ‘Punishers’ of Australian politics and read about the real issues we face as a society and economy, right now, and probably for the next 40 years – but who can predict the future anyway?

• TAI response to the Intergenerational Report
• Street Harassment – Australia Institute report reveals shocking results
• 2015 Manning Clark Lecture delivered by Richard Denniss
• Thousands rally for ‘Water not Coal’
• TAI in the Media

TAI response to the Intergenerational Report

The Intergenerational Report (IGR) is a deeply flawed document based on deeply flawed assumptions. The modelling includes a plan to reduce the tax paid by wealthy Australians for the next 40 years, causing a shortfall for health and aged care in the future. If you read closely, this is all spelt out in the IGR, and, perhaps surprisingly, it all revolves around the indexation.

The IGR should provide an opportunity to start a conversation about the Australia we want to have in the coming decades, instead it simply tries to scare the public into accepting the government’s short term policy agenda. While the report tries to scare Australians about the costs of ageing, it barely talks about the threats of climate change or the enormous cost of building the new infrastructure that rapid population growth will require.

Tax concessions for superannuation are now among the fastest growing expenses in the budget, but the Treasurer chose to focus on the rising cost of spending on health. Joe Hockey said Australians would ‘fall off their chairs’ when the IGR was released. He failed to add that we might find ourselves rolling around on the floor laughing.

The Australia Institute’s Executive Director was in the ‘lock-up’ for the release of the report, and was interviewed immediately afterwards on Radio National and had an article on the report published by Crikey: Hockey’s IGR meaningless forecasts based on magical thinking.

Street Harassment – Australia Institute report reveals shocking results

Do you hold your keys like a weapon, cross the street to avoid strangers at night or pretend to talk on your phone to avoid appearing alone or vulnerable? New research released this week by The Australia Institute shows such actions are a common part of many women’s lives.

Women are feeling unsafe in our community and are taking proactive actions to keep themselves safe. Nearly 9 in 10 women have changed their behaviour in the last year to ensure their personal safety. For example, six in ten women have avoided walking alone at night while 45 per cent have not exercised alone after dark.

Street harassment against women is a major contributor to women feeling unsafe in their neighbourhood, and in Australia it’s all too common with nearly nine in ten women experiencing it in their lifetime. Shockingly this begins at a very young age, with more than half of women experiencing harassment before they are 18 and a third experiencing it before they turn 15. The research also shows that women are targeted when they are alone, and harassment is coming overwhelmingly from men.

Harassment encompasses a range of actions from acts of sexism such as honking and wolf whistling to threatening physical behaviour such as being followed or having your path blocked. More than seventy per cent of women have experienced honking, wolf whistling and excessive staring while many women have also been subjected to a form of harassment that could constitute indecent assault. For instance a third of people have been kissed without their consent while a quarter have been threatened after rejecting the sexual advances of a stranger.

Everyone should have the right to feel safe in their own community, but for many women this is clearly not the case. Many women suffer harassment when they are going about their daily lives. We need to recognize the prevalence and seriousness of harassment and act towards helping women feel safe on our streets in our communities.

The report – available here – has created a great deal of interest, sparking a number of articles and discussions. The Australia Institute is now looking to do research into Australian men’s attitudes towards street harassment.

2015 Manning Clark Lecture delivered by Dr Richard Denniss

Is it possible to plan 100 years into the future? What are enlargers and punishers and what influence have they had on Australia’s past, present and possible futures? Executive Director of the Australia Institute, Dr Richard Denniss delivered the 2015 Manning Clark Lecture on the 3^rd of March in Canberra and asked: “What can economists learn from one of this country’s most influential historians?”

Drawing on Manning Clark’s description of ‘Enlargers’ and ‘Punishers’, Dr Denniss looks at the obsession with GDP, the Intergenerational Report, and that greatest of political tricks: getting people to vote against their own interests.

Big Ideas on the ABC’s Radio National were on hand to record the event, and the lecture can be listened to online – here. Since airing on the ABC, host Paul Barclay has publically remarked at the incredible interest created on the Big Ideas website. Thanks go to Manning Clark House for hosting the event, and for inviting Dr Denniss to deliver this years address.

Thousands Rally for Water not Coal

On Saturday, 7^th March, Richard Denniss joined Alan Jones and Peter Martin in speaking at a rally of more than 1200 people at Bowral, NSW. The crowd were gathered to show their concern over consequences of coal mining operations proposed in the Southern Highlands.The Southern Highlands Coal Action Group organised the ‘Water not Coal’ rally which called for definitive answers from both Hume Coal and the NSW Government. Hume Coal is a mining company which has been exploring the possibility of mining in the Highlands.

Richard again attacked the dodgy modelling and warned of false job number claims often made to justify resources projects:

“They tell us that mining creates jobs, and miners spend money in the local community. Is that compared to nurses, who flush their money down the toilet or teachers, who bury their money in the backyard?” he said.

Event organiser, Peter Martin said:

“We’re not an isolated group of extremists or hobby farmers who are against this, we’re a whole group of people – younger people, older people, Greens, Labor and Liberals. The fact that there’s more than 1000 people here today makes a mockery of the claims that it’s just a handful of people with concerns.”

2GB Presenter, Alan Jones, described the expanding coal industry a “vandalistic movement.”

TAI in the media

7.30 ABC – Superannuation tax perks under attack as Treasurer suggests Super home help

Southern Highland News – Concerns about coal

RN Breakfast with Fran Kelly – Preview of the Intergenerational Report

SBS The Feed – Street harassment in Australia: how common is it?

The Drum – McClure Report on Welfare Overhaul

Australian Financial Review – Austerity is not the only choice

Weekly updates from TAI

We aim to keep you updated every week. Every fortnight we send out the Between The Lines which provides an overview of our research and topical issues. On alternate weeks we send out a newsletter based on our work in equity and mining. If you would like to receive those, click here, choose your newsletter, and we’ll make sure they land in your inbox.