Incoming electoral reforms will cap the amount parties can spend on election campaigning, but it’s still far too high. Here’s what the rules should be instead.
- Democracy Deputy Program Director, Grattan Institute
The new legislation tinkers around the edges rather than making bigger changes to really tackle gambling harm.
While we’re feeling gloomier about the future, Australia actually ranks highly on many economic and social measures.
A formal government response to a federal inquiry into online gambling harm may be tabled while the parliament is looking elsewhere.
Australia is one of the world’s leading democracies, but we’re not immune from the pressures causing backsliding overseas.
Huge amounts of money flowed into the coffers of Australian political parties in the lead up to the most recent federal election. Here’s who gave the most.
The challenge is not job creation, but how to find the workers we need. There’s much the government can do, from childcare to migration.
Whoever forms government after this weekend, here are 5 key areas to get better value for taxpayers’ money and reduce the sway of powerful lobby groups over policy.
Cost-of-living measures are the key feature of this pre-election budget. But does it shore up our economy at a time of global risks? We asked 5 experts.
While there’s plenty of information in the latest data disclosure, Australians are still in the dark about exactly who funds our political parties at election time.
More Australians delay or skip dental care because of cost than their peers in most wealthy countries. Adding dental to Medicare wouldn’t be easy, but it would vastly improve Australians’ health.
Current regulations are not enough – we need an advertising ban and loss limits to reduce Australians’ huge gambling losses and the harm it causes.
The budget projects deficits way out into the future with scarcely any measures in place to contain them.
There are simple (and some not-so-simple) measures that would make donations more transparent and fairer.
The former Administrative Appeals Tribunal was stacked with political appointments. The government must ensure the same does not happen with its replacement.
Genuine reform should include tackling tax concessions on superannuation, capital gains and trusts and redesigning the GST.
Labor may now be in office, but it’s the Coalition that still attracts the big bucks. And there remains much murkiness about who donates to whom - and why.
Grattan Institute estimates point to deficits without end, growing with the need for greater spending on health, defence and natural disasters. We’ve presented the treasurer with 13 costed options.
Among the more arresting figures are that Clive Palmer spent more than the Labor Party on the 2022 election, and for the first time since 2010, the party that had the biggest wallet didn’t win.
Politicisation of taxpayer-funded advertising is wasteful and creates an uneven playing field in elections.
Using taxpayer-funded advertising for political advantage is rife, but there are ways it can be curbed.
Ministerial discretion should be tightly controlled whenever millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent.
The federal government needs a transparent, merit-based process for all public appointments
Our experts rated the Coalition’s model as either very unsatisfactory or a fail. Most agreed Labor’s proposed model is much better, but said a lot more detail is needed.
We can expect political ads to continue to ramp up over the coming weeks. The onus will be on each voter to sift through the spin for the facts and for the policies that matter to them.
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