Grattan Institute

Energy policy has played a central role in the removal of another Australian Prime Minister, highlighting our inability to integrate energy and environmental policy. What policies and market structure do we need in this new world and how will they balance energy prices, reliability and emissions? Our panel of experts, including Chloe Munro, Ross Garnaut and Michael Brear, threw light on these questions in the final Future Energy Series of public policy forums for 2018.

Event podcast: this Policy Pitch event looked at the different ways special interest groups – including business, unions and not-for-profits – seek influence over policy. Do political donations buy access? Which groups lobby the most? And who spends the most on public campaigns?

Event podcast: This Forward Thinking event looked at the different ways special interest groups – including business, unions and not-for-profits – seek influence over policy. Do political donations buy access? Which groups lobby the most? And who spends the most on public campaigns?

A conversation with School Education Program Director, Peter Goss on school funding. Do state schools get a fair go? How much should governments give to non-government schools? And how can we assess ‘fairness’ amid all these competing demands and all this heated politics?

A conversation with Health Program Director, Stephen Duckett. A new Code of Conduct for doctors has been drafted by the Medical Board of Australia. Entitled Good Medical Practice it covers issues for the medical profession in Australia such as the fees they charge, the way they deal with patients, and the ethics they practice. But have they got it right?

A conversation with Stephen Duckett on his latest report. Australia could save $1.5 billion a year on health spending by improving the safety of patient care. Safer hospital care doesn’t just reduce harm to patients, it saves money for taxpayers and frees up beds so other patients can be treated.

A conversation with Senior Associate, Greg Moran. Understanding the size of the costs of complications is important because it can help show that investing in patient safety can actually improve the bottom line. We discuss Grattan’s recent work estimating the costs of hospital complications and some of the challenges involved in this analysis.

Event podcast: At this Policy Pitch event, Dr Amanda Kenny, the Violet Marshman Professor of Rural Health at La Trobe University and Dr Hal Swerissen, Fellow, Grattan Institute discussed the state of play for primary care in Australia and options and recommendations for the future.

A conversation with Hal Swerissen and Stephen Duckett on their latest report. Primary care policy needs an overhaul to ensure all Australians, especially the poor and the elderly, get the best possible health care. Many poorer Australians can't afford to go to a GP when they need to or a dentist when they should, and people in rural and remote areas find it too hard to get to a pharmacist or medical specialist.

Event podcast: At this Energy Futures event ACCC Chair Rod Sims, Grattan Institute’s Tony Wood and Dr Leslie Martin from The University of Melbourne's Department of Economics and the Centre for Market Design, discussed the ACCC report, its recommendations to governments on solutions and the expectations we should have for real improvements in the short to medium term.

A conversation with Transport Fellow, Hugh Batrouney. Australia is growing – and most of the growth is happening in the capital cities. So are we building enough infrastructure to cope? Are we building the right infrastructure? And are we making the best use of the infrastructure we already have?

Event podcast: At this State of Affairs event, Stephen Duckett, Health Program Director at Grattan Institute presented data on the costs of complication rates and potential new strategies to reduce adverse events based on a forthcoming report on hospital safety.

Event Podcast: At this Policy Pitch event, School Education Fellow, Julie Sonnemann and a panel of experts discussed the difficulties of achieving evidence-based teaching at scale and how to implement critical reforms, such as tailored teaching and new specialist teacher career pathways.

A conversation with Energy Program Director, Tony Wood and Associate Lucy Percival. Wholesale electricity prices rose by 130 per cent between 2015 and 2017. But governments can’t fix the problem, because most of the price rises are caused by issues beyond their control. Politicians should tell Australians the harsh truth: high electricity prices are the new normal.

Event podcast: At this Capital Ideas event, Grattan Institute’s CEO John Daley and the CEO of the Financial Services Council, Sally Loane discussed the possible futures for Australia’s super system.

A conversation with Higher Education Fellow, Ittima Cherastidtham. What factors may make it more likely that you will drop out of uni? What things can you do to increase your chances of successfully completing uni? And is ATAR still a relevant guide to student performance?

Event podcast: At this Policy Pitch event, the panel discussed the reasons students leave university without completing, and what universities are doing or can do to ensure students get the best outcome from their higher education experience.

A conversation with Energy Program Director, Tony Wood. Energy has become one of the great barbecue-stoppers of Australia. Electricity and gas bills are soaring, energy supplies seem to be less reliable than they used to be, and if you really want to start an argument around the barbeque, say you’re in favour of coal-fired power, or that you want nothing but renewables such as wind and solar.

A conversation with Budget Policy and Institutional Reform Program Director, Danielle Wood and Fellow, Brendan Coates discussing this years budget announcements. Also featuring Transport Program Director, Marion Terrill and Higher Education Program Director, Andrew Norton.

Event Podcast: At this Energy Futures Seminar, ESB Chair, Kerry Schott, Grattan Institute’s Tony Wood and Tim Nelson from AGL as they explained, discussed and debated these issues. The Forum was moderated by Jennifer Hewett from the Australian Financial Review and was hosted by the Melbourne Energy Institute, Grattan Institute and the State Library of New South Wales.