Ian graduated from the University of Adelaide with qualifications in engineering and business management, following which he worked in a large manufacturing firm – back when our country employed engineers making things.
He has worked in the Commonwealth Government’s Industry and Trade Departments, including a posting to the Middle East for the Trade Commissioner Service – back when Australia exported things other than coal and iron ore.
Following completion of an MPA at Harvard’s Kennedy School he became a permanent part-time lecturer at the University of Canberra, with his other work consulting including paid work for Australian government agencies and international agencies, and pro-bono work for consumer and welfare organizations.
His main concern is to help those with an interest in “progressive” causes – inequality, climate change, shared public services – become engaged with economics. He emphasizes that good social policy and good environmental policy are also good economic policy: it is false reasoning to suggest that progress in these domains is at the expense of “economic” objectives.
Most of his published writings are linked from his website:
Academic publications including conference papers
Writings for The Conversation, New Matilda, John Menadue’s website
Significant recent works with a CPD connection include:
Governomics – Can We Afford Small Government? (Melbourne University Press 2015), co-authored with former CPD Executive Director Miriam Lyons
“Life after luck: building a more resilient economy” – Chapter in CPD book Pushing our Luck: Ideas for Australian Progress (CPD 2013).
“What are we complaining about? An analysis of cost-of-living pressures” CPD 2012
“Private Health Insurance: High in Cost, low in Equity” – with CPD fellows Jennifer Doggett and John Menadue (CPD 2012)
27 February 2018 | ABC Radio
Is private health insurance worth it?
14 February 2018 | The Age
Private health insurance is a con job
14 February 2018 | Sydney Morning Herald
More Australians dispose of health insurance because of rising premiums
20 September 2017 | New Matilda
The Mounting Case For A Royal Commission Into Banks And Insurance Companies
19 June 2017 | ABC News
Why doesn't Canberra have billboard advertising?
10 February 2017 | ABC The Drum
Private health insurance takes resources away from public hospitals
20 April 2017 | The Sydney Morning Herald
'Dangerous path': Medicare 'seriously threatened' by private health insurance
23 July 2016 | ABC Radio National
How average income earners will be pushed into private health insurance by 2020
29 October 2015 | Inside Story
The price-takers
30 June 2015 | ABC Radio National
Governomics: Can we afford small government?