Centre for Policy Development's Blog, page 64

Crikey | 26 August 2013

Why Australians should pay more tax.

According to Miriam Lyons, Adam Stebbing, Adrian March and Shaun Wilson, Australians say they want improved services and greater equality of opportunity, all of which come at a cost that we should be prepared to pay. Any hint of increasing taxes is usually evokes protest, but we cannot expect low taxes, high quality public services and balanced budgets.

Crikey published an excerpt from the chapter on taxation and the need to pay for a better society in CPD’s upcoming book Pushing our luck:

“Australian taxpayers are currently paying bargain basement prices for the services our governments deliver. We have the fifth lowest taxes in the developed world. Yet we have one of the best health systems in the world and we have a better-educated population than many other rich countries. Our overall living standards are remarkably high: Australia ranks behind only Norway in the UN Human Development Index and tops the OECD’s Better Life Index.”

Read more at Crikey

Support Pushing our luck on StartSomeGood

Where and when to get your copy of Pushing our luck

Pushing our luck: ideas for Australian progress PUBLISHING SCHEDULE:

StartSomeGood crowd funding campaign: LIVE – support CPD’s publishing project NOW and help us get the good ideas out there!
30 Aug: pre-election preview e-book released - BUY NOW & get an e-book download right away plus a revised e-book after the election!
1 Sept: – Philanthropy Forum – presentation by Miriam Lyons
16 Sept: Anglicare Australia National Conference, Brisbane – presentation by Miriam Lyons
17 Sept: post-election e-book launched with panel including John Quiggin and Scott Steel (aka Possum Comitatus) at Avid Reader bookstore, Brisbane
24 Sept: hard-copy book released – launch event TBA (watch this space!)
2 Oct: Festival of Ideas, Melbourne – presentation by Miriam Lyons
18 Oct: NUW Anti-Poverty Week event, Melbourne, speeches by Miriam Lyons & Lisa Heap
7-8 Nov: Progress 2013, Melbourne – ‘ Pushing our luck : Australia’s economic future’ panel discussion

For now, read more here under Pushing our luck, check (& like) our Facebook page for more news, and support the book project on StartSomeGood

The Sydney Morning Herald & The Age | 26 August 2013

‘Rush to schools in wealthy suburbs skews the system’
‘Strugglers sit next to strugglers in some schools and the fortunate next to the fortunate…’

Jane Caro and Chris Bonnor, authors of the chapter ‘Getting past Gonski: every child deserves a good school’ in CPD’s forthcoming book Pushing our luck, look at the trend of inequality widening between public schools. In northern Sydney public schools are performing well, with results as good as private schools parents rush to find their children a place. Playgrounds are getting smaller and portable classes being brought in with the government announcing plans for two new schools. As this is happening public schools in more disadvantaged areas are loosing their potential high performers leaving the struggling kids with a larger disadvantage.

“When you group disadvantaged children in the same schools, it compounds their disadvantage. No surprise, then, that it is becoming harder and harder to improve the achievements of our lowest achieving students.

We know all this; the Gonski review laid it bare and helped raise concerns.”

In Pushing our luck Chris Bonnor and Jane Caro show how Australian schooling has been turned into a winner-takes-all competition, and what we can do about it. The reforms sparked by the Gonski Review could go some of the way towards fixing this situation, but more needs to be done.

Read the article at The Sydney Morning Herald or The Age

Support the release of Pushing our luck on StartSomeGood

Pushing our luck launch: Sydney Ideas | 26 September

Pushing our luck: ideas for Australian progress FREE launch event

Sydney Ideas forum

What are the ten big issues that will shape this country for the next ten years? From school education to cultural integration, climate responsibility to economic strategy and social welfare to fairer taxation, Pushing our luck, puts policy into perspective. Dust off those weary post-election brains and join us for a conversation that just might revive your zest for political debate in this country!

CPD executive director and Pushing our luck editor, Miriam Lyons, joins Rebecca Huntley and contributing authors Geoff Gallop, Roy Green, Ian McAuley and Jane Caro for a vibrant discussion and debate.

WHERE

Law School Foyer, Eastern Avenue, The University of Sydney

WHEN

Thursday 26 October, 2013. 6:30pm to 8:00pm

CONTACT

Sydney Ideas

T| 9351 2943

E| sydney.ideas@sydney.edu.au

ADMISSION

FREE! Register now!  |  J oin the Facebook event!

 

Support Pushing our luck on StartSomeGood and send good ideas to Canberra

The Conversation | 23 August 2013

Where will Australia’s future growth come from?
After the mining boom.

Another chapter from CPD’s Pushing our luck makes an appearance in The Conversation. Roy Green’s chapter ‘After the boom: where will growth come from?’ focuses on jobs, productivity and investment areas after the end of the mining boom. An edited extract from the chapter outlines how Australia got to this point and the problems we face.

“The resources investment of recent years may well bring additional production and exports, but it’s becoming clear that the boost to our national income growth from the high commodity prices from Australia’s latest mining boom is coming to an end, revealing a serious and potentially damaging fall in productivity.”

Read the article at The Conversation

Find out more and support the release of Pushing our luck on StartSomeGood

Melbourne Writers’ Festival, Fourth Annual Philanthropy & Ethics Forum | Melbourne, 1 Sept

The Fourth Annual Philanthropy and Ethics Forum: Mind the Gap
Does philanthropy distort government policy and misdirect resources? Or does it enhance participation and opportunity?
Mary Crooks(Victorian Women’s Trust), Sayajit Das (finance analyst and writer), Miriam Lyons (CPD executive director) and Terry Moran AC (Institute of Public Administration Australia), examine philanthropy’s risks and rewards.

Proudly supported by the Australian Communities Foundation   
WHEN

Sunday 1 September, 11.30am

WHERE

Deakin Edge, Fed Square, Corner Swanston Street & Flinders Street, Melbourne 3000

TICKETS

$21.50/$19.50    |    Bookings at mwf.com.au or call 03 9999 1199

Crikey | 16 August 2013

Evaluating government performance.
A vision for policies, putting politics aside.

Geoff Gallop former premier of Western Australia is author of the chapter ‘The vision thing: we need a national plan’ in CPD’s Pushing our luck. An edited excerpt of the chapter has been published in Crikey outlining the missing focus on policy implementation, that is often distracted by politics. The declining trust in our politicians and government is driving this need for a national plan.

“Politics isn’t just about values like “equity” and “efficiency” but about how values are to be realised in the real world, and when evidence is brought to bear we often find that the two sides are closer together than might initially appear…”

Read more and support Pushing our luck on StartSomeGood.com

Read the article on Crikey

St James Ethics Centre ‘Australia is still the land of the ‘fair go” IQ2Oz debate | Sydney, 12 Sept

Symbolised in the Eureka Flag that flew over the stockade, the Australian ideal of a ‘fair go’ for all was supposed to overturn older ideas of class and privilege. Has this ideal withered over time? Do the conditions of life in contemporary Australia mock our pretensions to be a land of the ‘fair go’ – if ever such a place existed beyond the imagination of a few?

WHERE

City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney

WHEN

Thursday 12 September 2013, 6:45pm

CONTACT

City Recital Hall box office: (02) 8256 2222 or 1300 797 118

ADMISSION:

 

More information and tickets from: City Recital Hall

Speakers for:
Speakers against:


Amanda VanstoneProf. Peter Shergold

Akram Azimi (2013 Young Australian of the Year)
Dr Bob BrownMiriam Lyons

Larissa Behrendt                                                                                           

 

 

 

 

Developing the North | Fact Sheet

The north of Australia is not as ripe for agricultural development as it would first appear…

With conversation growing louder on ideas to develop Northern Australia into a new agricultural power house or ‘foodbowl’, it is important to consider all the facts. CPD research director and co-author of 2012 landmark CPD report Farming Smarter, Not Harder  Laura Eadie has produced a fact sheet outlining key points which must be addressed before agricultural expansion can be sustainable:

Until adequate policies, plans and controls are in place, agricultural development should be kept to a small scale. Individual farm based irrigation development with capacity to utilise smaller isolated pockets of better soils may be appropriate. Crops supporting the established grazing industry (i.e. fodder crops) may be appropriate as there is an accessible local market. This could stabilise beef production during drought periods

Developing the North Factsheet Read the Developing the North factsheet

 

Read Farming smarter not harder, and watch this space for more research on sustainable food production

Change can happen faster than you think – help us seize the moment and point to the alternatives. Add your voice to ours!

3CR | 14 August 2013

The Problems with Property
Severe housing affordability pressures

Marcus Westbury of Renew Australia (and CPD fellow), teamed up with Australians for Affordable Housing‘s Joel Pringle and Prosper Australia‘s Karl Fitzgerald to raise debate and discussion on the current problems with property.

On 3CR’s ‘Renegade Economists’ program they addressed how even full time workers are struggling with housing prices. They will host a free forum event in Melbourne on the 26 August at Loop Bar to continue the discussion:

“Is Australia’s property market permanently broken? House prices are over-inflated, rents are unaffordable and thousands of shops and offices sit empty. How have we done this to our property markets and what can we do about it?”

Listen to the podcast at 3CR

Find out more about The Problems with Property forum event