Archived publication for 2005 in Occasional Paper
Recent publications
The Death of Federalism?: Hal Clough Lecture 2005
The Australian federal system is at a crossroads. It needs to be reinvigorated or it will become a costly vestige of a noble but failed experiment.
Workplace Relations from Keating to Howard: The Case for Further Reform
The proposed workplace reforms are the third stage of a deliberate change that has been going on for 12 years now; an evolutionary process from compulsory arbitration to agreement making at the workplace level. This lecture, Workplace Relations...
Australia's Environment Undergoing Renewal, Not Collapse
In his new book Collapse Jared Diamond contends that the Australian environment is generally unproductive and has been irreversibly damaged by European farming, forestry and fisheries practices. Diamond reflects a popular view that is continually...
Deconstructing Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility is a political ideology that wants private interests to be subsumed by public interests, narrowly defined.
Housing Affordability - Address to HIA
All seven of Australia’s major capital cities are placed in the top dozen least affordable cities.
NSW Workplace Deaths Bill 2005: An Unsafe Act
What's wrong with the New South Wales Workplace Deaths Bill 2005?
Impact and Outcome of Regulation on the Economy
There is an understandable tendency for people to dismiss 'regulation' as a boring topic for economists. But the effects, for good and ill, of regulation pervade everyday life. Regulation profoundly affects what you can and cannot buy, how much...
Carbon Trading and Other Emission Abatement Measures
Although having decided not to ratify Kyoto, Australian Governments have undertaken a range of measures that in effect accede to its obligations. Australia has in place costly abatement measures in the form of taxes and command and control.
Workplace Health and Safety
Where state Occupational Health & Safety laws breach international obligations and justice principles, the Federal Government may be forced to intervene.
Meeting Gas and Power Infrastructure Needs
We spent half a century of government intervention overinvesting in power stations, over-manning all parts of gas and electricity supply and observing a dismal outcome in terms of reliability. But it is self-evident that a competitive environment...