News and Media
Democracy can never be sublet
Travers McLeod – July 2020
The privatised Jobactive system is failing and government needs to step back in. Victoria’s decision to give private security contractors responsibility for quarantine hotels is the subject of a judicial inquiry, which will reveal the true cost of this decision and whether it was right. But the reported poor performance of those contractors suggests that we should consider government reliance on such outsourcing more generally.
How prepared is our financial system for climate shocks?
Travers McLeod – June 2020
The Reserve Bank of Australia has joined with 66 central banks from around the world in urging nations to embrace ambitious emissions targets, warning that global gross domestic product could fall by as much as 25 per cent by the century’s end.
Summer’s Legacy
Jennifer Doggett – June 2020
Bushfires have long shaped the Australian landscape, but they have generally been relatively isolated events affecting small populations for short periods. All that changed when the Australian summer of 2019–20 brought fires of unprecedented scale, duration and impact.
Our Energy Future
Zoe Whitton – June 2020
The Federal Government has unveiled its roadmap for Australia’s energy future, shifting focus from coal to gas. Will the new energy plan benefit all Australians now and into the future?
Road to Recovery: Employment opportunities post pandemic
Sam Mostyn – June 2020
COVID-19 has revealed the precariousness of our lives and systems. As we start talking about rebuilding, many are left vulnerable, facing uncertain futures. How can we ensure the cracks don’t become chasms and instead develop a plan that supports an inclusive future and supports social cohesion?
Reimagining Government
Terry Moran – June 2020
CPD Chair Terry Moran was one of the panellists on Reimagining Government, a webinar jointly hosted by the Centre for Public Impact (CPI) and the Australian and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) focussing on how governments can do better for citizens.
Housing the Australian Nation
Peter Mares – May 2020
COVID-19 has exposed the failings of Australia’s housing system like never before: rough sleeping, homelessness, the insecurity of renting, and a real estate boom-bust cycle.
A chance to do better for migrants, and for the economy
Annabel Brown and Caitlin McCaffrie – May 2020
Covid-19 has exposed the flaws in Australia’s treatment of temporary migrants. Fortunately, a blueprint for change already exists.
Here are ten steps to build a stronger Australia after Coronavirus
Travers McLeod – May 2020
The steps Australia takes after Covid-19 can’t take us back to the way we were. The prime minister’s message after briefings from Treasury and the Reserve Bank has been clear: we need to grow differently. Here are 10 steps to do that and build a stronger nation.
Coronavirus is a human crisis beyond most of our scariest dreams – we will need to restart our society
Sam Mostyn and Travers McLeod – April 2020
Whether we like it or not, our economy – and indeed our society – is going to be remade over the coming months. But we do have a choice about how this remaking is done – in fear or in hope – and we need to make that choice now.
We need a “red team” for COVID-19
Travers McLeod – March 2020
Australia can strengthen its response to the pandemic by tapping into a wider circle of expert skills and knowledge.
Heavyweights now speaking with one voice on climate change risks
SAM Hurley – March 2019
Climate change is reshaping Australia’s economy and financial system, and its consequences will be devastating without urgent action. If that message had not hit home, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s intervention last week made it clear.
The young ones – Millennials get a bad rap but they’re focused on a future where they will have to live
TRAVERS MCLEOD – March 2019
If the Who got baby boomers talkin’ ’bout their generation, millennials are joining Gang of Youths to ask what they can do if the fire goes out.
It’s tough being a millennial in a world built by boomers. Australian millennials are accused of being lazy, have less job security, are priced out of the housing market, and are blamed for spending too freely on coffee and smashed avo.
Murray-Darling report shows public authorities must take climate change risk seriously
ARJUNA DIBLEY – February 2019
The tragic recent events on the Darling River, and the political and policy furore around them, have again highlighted the severe financial and environmental consequences of mismanaging climate risks.
On a mission to save democracy
TRAVERS MCLEOD, SAM HURLEY, ALLISON ORR – DECEMBER 2018
Despite five prime ministers in five years and policy paralysis in Canberra, Australians don’t want to do away with democracy. They want to save it.
Innovate before it’s too late, warns economist Mariana Mazzucato
CENTRE FOR POLICY DEVELOPMENT – December 2018
To future proof an organisation Mazzucato recommends an immediate long term, investment-led growth strategy based on innovation.
Step up? We’ve stepped aside by failing to sign migration pact
TRAVERS MCLEOD – November 2018
“Step up or step aside.” This was former Indonesian foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda’s 2016 warning to Australia and Indonesia as co-chairs of the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime.
Time for an Australian sustainable finance taskforce
TRAVERS MCLEOD AND SAM HURLEY – July 2018
ASIC commissioner John Price left a Sydney audience in no room for doubt last month when he confirmed company directors risked personal liability if they didn’t consider climate change risks.
Focus with Cassie McCullagh on Institutionalised Separation
CPD EDUCATION RESEARCH – July 2018
Be informed, entertained and inspired each weekday morning on ABC Radio Sydney. Join in on debates about the latest issues, hear the stories that affect you and meet some fascinating people along the way.
‘Hubs of concentrated advantage’: selective schools need a rethink
FELLOW CHRIS BONNOR – July 2018
In the debate about selective schools, personal stories and beliefs can drown out evidence, especially when that evidence challenges the status quo. So we hear plenty of anecdotes about the successes of selective school students, but relatively few about the students and schools they leave behind.
ASIC recommends voluntary disclosure of climate risks
CPD – June 2018
The corporate regulator has encouraged companies to go beyond meeting strict legal requirements and voluntarily disclose climate change risks and opportunities to the market. Australian Securities and Investments Commission commissioner John Price told a Centre for Policy Development forum on Monday night that in addition to the strict legal requirements, companies should also “carefully consider the general information needs of investors” when it comes to disclosing climate risks.
ASIC puts directors on notice over disclosure on climate change risks
CPD – June 2018
The corporate regulator has urged Australian companies to undertake formal modelling of the risks posed by climate change to their businesses, warning directors may be unable to escape legal breaches about nondisclosure if they have failed to properly assess it.
Time to judge our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
TRAVERS MCLEOD – March 2018
“We will never forget that 100 years ago a young and brave nation on the other side of the world made history by writing our history. Lest we forget.” So ended French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe’s tribute to the Anzacs in April this year at the opening of the Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux. Compare this to what a former Afghan refugee who calls Australia home wrote after Fairfax Media reported our special forces may have committed war crimes in Afghanistan.
Has outsourcing run its course, or is it the secret to the ‘ideal’ worker?
TRAVERS MCLEOD – March 2018
Th As Finance Minister Mathias Cormann again confirms the government will not contemplate a cap on external workforce spending, others find justification for concern as the line between consultants and external contractors blurs. The difference between consultants and external contractors was once pretty clear, but according to the Centre For Policy Development, that’s not so much the case any more.
Helping refugees build new lives: Q&A with Peter Shergold
SETTLING BETTER REPORT – March 2018
Through collaboration, NSW agencies are shifting the service response from one that is reactive to refugees’ immediate settlement needs towards an investment approach that creates employment pathways. By identifying and building on refugees’ strengths, resilience and human capital, Shergold believes NSW can deliver better outcomes for both refugees and the communities they live in. The Sax Institute’s online journal Public Health Research and Practiceasked him about his role, its objectives and its achievements.
ABC 4Corners – Weather Alert
POLICY DIRECTOR SAM HURLEY – March 2018
Australia’s warming climate is changing the way we live and work. Across Australia, farmers, small businesses, government planners and major corporations have stopped waiting for politicians to decide whether climate change is real. They’re acting now. Four Corners has travelled from coast to coast to chart how Australians are adapting to the new weather challenges. From farm kitchens to the board rooms of our major cities, people are changing the way they do business.
Private health insurance is a con job
FELLOW IAN MCAULEY – February 2018
You won’t believe it, but my birthday was on Tuesday and I got a present from the federal government. I also got a card from my state member, sending his “very best wishes” for reaching such an “important milestone” in my life.
Progress made on Indigenous retention rates masks growing racial divide at schools
CPD – February 2018
Indigenous students are disproportionately represented in Australia’s most disadvantaged schools and the divide between rich and poor is developing an “unhappy racial dimension”, a new report has found.
Most Indigenous students consigned to schools with least capacity to help
FELLOW CHRIS BONNOR – February 2018
We are now into the tenth anniversary of the strategy to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. Last week saw a report on progress, a subdued celebration on scattered achievements and copious hand-wringing over endemic failures.
Big, impersonal and opaque: how Jobactive is failing jobseekers
ROB STURROCK – February 2018
A decade and a half ago, in mid 2003, the federal government stopped doing something that governments have done continuously since 1946. It would no longer help unemployed people find jobs, and would instead give the task to a group of charities and private providers. Justifying this transition to a scheme it called Job Network, the Howard government argued that finding jobs for the unemployed wasn’t core government business.
Former Head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet discusses the leaked cabinet documents
TERRY MORAN – January 2018
Former Head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Terry Moran, says whoever sold the filing cabinets containing the government papers should be sacked.
RN Best of the Festivals: Marty Natalegawa – Can Democracy Deliver?
CPD – January 2018
Marty Natalegawa, Indonesia’s former Foreign Minister delivers the inaugural John Menadue Oration, the headline event launching the 10th Anniversary Series of the Centre for Policy Development. One of the most respected foreign policy and international security thinkers of his generation, his address focuses on the health of democracy and the international rules-based order.
Selective school decisions coming back to haunt us
FELLOW CHRIS BONNOR – January 2018
Almost alone in Australia, New South Wales has been expanding its number of selective schools, accompanied each time by arguments about the need to increase choice and cater for the gifted and talented. And each time we are left with one less school for local students, together with an ongoing trail of collateral damage to other schools and overall student achievement.
Don’t mention the republic!
CPD – January 2018
Well, that didn’t take long. When provocateur-in-chief Paul Keating goaded Malcolm Turnbull into putting the republic issue back on the agenda for about five minutes it told you more than you needed to know about the wretched state of Australian politics.
As politicians we must lift our game and respond to the frustrations of Australians
CPD – January 2018
2017 has been a spectacularly bad year for Australian democracy. People are saying that our politics is broken – and this isn’t just in response to a litany of tabloid headlines, though no doubts the proliferation of scandals has had an impact. Too often, formal politics just seems irrelevant to many Australians.
World’s biggest coal port looks to life after fossil fuels
Roy Green – December 2017
The world’s biggest coal port has warned it must diversify from the commodity to ensure its future in a sign of how businesses are planning for a time without the fossil fuel. Australia’s Port of Newcastle, which shipped 161m tonnes of coal last year, said on Sunday the long-term outlook for coal was a threat to the port and the entire Hunter Valley region and it needed to diversify its business.
How to better help refugees and asylum seekers enter the workforce on Life Matters
CPD – December 2017
While modern Australia has been shaped by waves of immigration, many newly-arrived migrants, refugees and asylum seekers have trouble finding work, no matter how much they want to. So what’s the best way to empower people into employment?
80pc of voters back a federal ICAC: Centre for Policy Development
CPD – December 2017
Three quarters of voters say there is a need for democratic renewal in the form of a federal anti-corruption commission and a tougher code of conduct for MPs, as part of wider reforms that would also see a rejuvenated public sector return to service delivery.
Most Australians support federal anti-corruption agency: research
CPD – December 2017
Most Australians want the government to create a federal anti-corruption commission, make its national agencies more independent and set four-year parliamentary terms, according to a new report led by one of the nation’s most respected former public servants.
Banks and insurers must prepare for climate-related risk: APRA
CPD – November 2017
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has warned that insurers and banks need to prepare themselves for climate-related risks, or jeopardise their futures. That stark caution was delivered overnight during a speech to the Centre for Policy Development in Sydney.
APRA quizzes finance sector over climate change risk preparations
Sam Hurley – November 2017
The prudential regulator has outlined plans to for an industry-wide review of climate-related disclosure, warning insurers, superannuation funds and banks they place their “futures in jeopardy” by ignoring risks related to climate change.
Australian shareholders should be told of climate risk to profits, says thinktank
Sam Hurley and Kate Mackenzie – November 2017
Australian companies need to start developing sophisticated scenario-based analyses of climate risks, and incorporating them into their business outlooks so shareholders know how climate change will affect profitability, a thinktank has said.
Terry Moran: Australians want bold government, not shrinking violets
Terry Moran – November 2017
Australians are fed up with policymakers in this country, says new attitude research, and they have a right to be according to one of the nation’s top former public servants.
Marty Natalegawa on ABC Saturday Extra with Geraldine Doogue
Marty Natalegawa – November 2017
Indonesian diplomat and advisor to the UN Marty Natalegawa discusses the fragility of democracy in the region and what needs to be done to strengthen democratic values as well as the role of ASEAN in conversation with Geraldine Doogue on ABC Radio National’s Saturday Extra.
Indonesia and Australia can nurture democracy together
MARTY NATALEGAWA – November 2017
Can democracy deliver? This is the question being asked in all corners of the globe. As one who has traversed Indonesia’s transformative democratic journey – it is today the world’s third-largest democracy – the reply can only be resoundingly affirmative: yes. More importantly, democracy must deliver.
The Manus Island agreement is a failure. Turnbull and Shorten need to accept it
FELLOW JOHN MENADUE – November 2017
There is now a humanitarian disaster on Australia’s doorstep. And it’s our responsibility. The refugees on Manus Island must be resettled promptly. After four years, all options other than Australia have come to nothing or have been rejected by our government. There is now no option but to resettle them in Australia.
Shifting deck chairs on the PHI death spiral
FELLOW IAN MCAULEY – OCTOBER 2017
The government’s changes to private health insurance have little, if anything, to do with health policy.
Rather, they are about staving off the insurers’ death spiral of rising premiums and desertion of profitable customers, and protecting the government from the embarrassment of yet another five or six per cent rise in premiums in 2018, writes Ian McAuley.
Private health insurance is just another way to rip off millennials
FELLOW JENNIFER DOGGETT – OCTOBER 2017
Like a lot of young people, my first job was in retail, in the sort of place that was mostly about discounts – cheap CDs, speakers and two-for-one DVDs. Younger Australians, in my experience, are fairly value-conscious thanks to our constant low-level awareness of just how high house prices are compared with our wage growth.
A rare opportunity to make schools work better
FELLOW CHRIS BONNOR – OCTOBER 2017
A little news item can tell a big story. This week the Guardian reported on a survey revealing that Australian parents want schools to teach more social skills. It raises many questions: whose job is it anyway; what will fall off the curriculum to make space; how will we know if it works? But in one sense it is certainly timely: right now, the Gonski 2.0 review is giving us a once-in-a-decade opportunity to have a say about what schools should and shouldn’t do.
Votes for corporations and extra votes for property owners: why local council elections are undemocratic
FELLOW RYAN GOOS – SEPTEMBER 2017
Imagine, for a minute, an undemocratic political system. Imagine a voting system in which someone has more votes than you because they own property. Or a voting system in which corporations have a vote – and maybe even more votes than regular people. A voting system in which, as a result, the power of your vote could be diluted by votes cast on behalf of corporations.ols should and shouldn’t do.
