Grattan Institute

Since the Hazelwood power station closed in 2017 Victoria’s power prices have been up and reliability has been down. How will Victoria’s ageing brown coal power stations cope with an influx of new renewable generation? When will the Yallourn power station close, and what will be the effect on our power supply? This Policy Pitch event looked at the challenges facing the National Electricity Market, and Victoria in particular, as it transitions away from coal and towards renewables. Featuring speakers Guy Dundas, Grattan Institute Energy Fellow, Audrey Zibelman, CEO, Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), and Ross Edwards, Executive, Markets, EnergyAustralia. This event was held in partnership with State Library Victoria.

Bright young Australians are interested in becoming teachers, but are put off by low pay and poor career progression. That’s the finding of Australia’s first survey of young high achievers on their attitudes to teaching as a career choice. In this Grattan Institute State of Affairs event, Julie Sonnemann, Graham Moloney, Isobel Dagg and Paul Kennard discussed what changes can be made to position a teaching career as an attractive option for young Australians. This event was held in partnership with the State Library of Queensland. For more information, visit: https://grattan.edu.au/

Drivers should be charged $5 to enter the Sydney and Melbourne CBDs in the morning peak and another $5 to exit in the afternoon peak, as part of a package of reforms to make our biggest cities work better. The scheme would reduce the number of cars entering the CBDs each morning by about 40 per cent. The money raised should be spent on upgrading CBD streets to make them safer and less congested for pedestrians. Listen to two of Grattan's transport experts, Senior Associate Greg Moran and Associate James Ha talk about why it's time for congestion charging in Australia.

London. Singapore. Stockholm. What do these cities have in common? Congestion charging. Australia’s capital cities should join them by charging drivers who use the busiest roads at the busiest times. Listen to two of Grattan's transport experts, Senior Associate Greg Moran and Associate James Ha talk about why it's time for congestion charging in Australia. You can read the report discussed in this podcast on our website: https://grattan.edu.au/report/why-its-time-for-congestion-charging/

Chaotic approaches to energy policy have pushed up electricity prices and scared off investors. Governments feel compelled to respond when electricity supply is lost and when prices are too high, but ad hoc and uncoordinated actions by federal and state governments have made things worse. Listen to Grattan Institute's Energy Program Director Tony Wood and Fellow Guy Dundas discuss solutions for Australia's electricity market with Paul Austin.

Australia’s commitment to the Paris Agreement means cutting carbon emissions to near zero over the next 30 years. Doing this at reasonable cost while maintaining reliability will require reforms and investment unprecedented in scale and complexity. Yet, recent history raises concerns that we need new foundations to underpin the policy reform agenda. This is an event recording of a public forum in the Energy Future series, hosted by Melbourne Energy Institute and Grattan Institute. Speakers Chloe Munro, Professorial Fellow, Monash University Richard Bolt, Vice President of Strategy and Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology Tony Wood, Energy Program Director, Grattan Institute Moderator Madeleine Morris, Reporter, 7.30 at Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Australia’s commitment to the Paris Agreement means cutting carbon emissions to near zero over the next 30 years. This must be done at the lowest cost, while ensuring energy supplies remain reliable. This historic task is a challenge and an opportunity. The reforms and investments required will be unprecedented in their scale and complexity. But Australia has the energy and other resources to flourish in this low-carbon future. Listen to Grattan Institute's Energy Program Director Tony Wood and Fellow Guy Dundas tackle the future of energy in Australia with podcast host, Paul Austin.

University leaders are calling for the re-instatement of demand driven funding, which let them enrol unlimited numbers of bachelor-degree students. At the same time, there are widespread calls for the vocational education system to be strengthened to attract more young people, especially into the trades. Are these goals in tension? What advice should we give people thinking about their post-school options? Listen to Professor Linda Kristjanson AO, Professor Peter Noonan, Frances Coppolillo, and Higher Education Program Director Andrew Norton discuss the choice between vocational and higher education in this event held in partnership with State Library Victoria.

Australia’s top teachers should be able to earn $80,000 a year more, and top school-leavers should get $10,000-a-year scholarships if they take up teaching, as part of a $1.6 billion blueprint to boost teacher quality and student performance. The reform package could double the number of high achievers who choose to become teachers, and increase the average ATAR of teaching graduates to 85, within the next decade. Listen to Grattan Institute's School Education Program Director Peter Goss, School Education Fellow Julie Sonnemann and Associate Jonathan Nolan discuss the new report, 'Attracting high achievers to teaching'.

Today’s young Australians are in danger of being the first generation in memory to have lower living standards than their parents’ generation. Older Australians today spend more and have higher incomes and greater wealth than older Australians three decades ago. But living standards have improved far less for younger Australians. The wealth of households headed by someone under 35 has barely moved since 2004. Listen to Grattan Institute's Budget Policy Program Director Danielle Wood, Senior Associate Kate Griffiths, and Associate Owain Emslie discuss this topic with Paul Austin.

Some university students with low school results would be better off doing vocational education instead. Listen to Grattan Institute's Higher Education Program Director Andrew Norton discuss with Paul Austin when TAFE is a good alternative to university.

All Australians are spending more of their incomes on housing, but worsening affordability is hurting low-income earners the most. Almost half of low-income Australians in the private rental market suffer rental stress. It’s probably no coincidence that homelessness is rising. There is a powerful case for additional government support to help Australia’s most disadvantaged cope with high housing costs. Housing First policies have halved homelessness in countries like Finland. But not all policies are equally effective. So what should the Queensland State government and the Federal Government do to tackle these challenges? How should they target programs: should they focus just on social housing for those right at the bottom, or should they fund affordable housing for “key workers” in the inner city? How should additional support be delivered: as government funded development; as subsidies for developers; by imposing planning conditions for new developments; or as rent assistance directly into the bank accoun

Australia needs to decarbonise its energy supply to meet its international commitments on greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity from wind and solar can help – but how do we reduce emissions from the gas we use to warm our homes, heat water and cook dinner? The COAG Energy Council has set up a taskforce to examine the role of hydrogen in Australia’s energy system. Hydrogen can be produced from zero-emissions sources, and can be mixed in with natural gas in pipelines today. Over time, the gas network could switch to 100 per cent hydrogen, potentially delivering abundant emissions-free energy to households and businesses. In this Forward Thinking event Alison Reeve from the COAG Hydrogen Taskforce, Peter Harcus from Jemena Gas Networks and Craig Memery from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre joined Grattan’s Tony Wood to discuss whether hydrogen will become a key part of Australia’s energy supply.

Event podcast: In this Policy Pitch event at the State Library of Victoria, Council of Homeless Persons CEO Jenny Smith, Residential Tenancies in Victoria inaugural Commissioner Dr Heather Holst and Grattan Institute Fellow Brendan Coates discussed the best way to help low-income earners deal with rising housing costs and reduce the number of Australians who are homelessness.

Event podcast: In this Forward Thinking event, Grattan Institute’s Brendan Coates and The Australian Financial Review’s Joanna Mather discussed what the winner of the May 18 federal election should do to fix superannuation, and the retirement incomes system more broadly.

A conversation with Grattan CEO, John Daley. Many have interpreted the Coalition’s surprise victory in the 2019 federal election as signalling the end of substantial policy reform in Australia. But in this podcast conversation, Grattan's CEO shows that policy inaction is not a viable option, and he identifies priority areas where Prime Minister Scott Morrison might – and should – pursue reform.

Event podcast: The 2019 election has been branded the ‘generational election’. Beyond the hyperbole about an ‘age war’, there are serious questions about the economic future of today’s young Australians. In this Policy Pitch event the panel debated the contentious issue of intergenerational inequality, and identified what if anything we should do about it.

Event podcast: In this Policy Pitch event at State Library Victoria, Grattan Institute’s tax, energy, health, housing, retirement incomes, and transport & cities experts considered the issues in their field and nominate the choices that would really make a difference to Australia’s future. The discussion drew on Grattan’s Commonwealth Orange Book 2019, which identifies policy priorities for the next government.

A comprehensive conversation with the contributors to the Grattan Commonwealth Orange Book 2019 breaking down the key policy priorities for the next federal government. Drawing on 10 years of Grattan research and reports, the Orange Book recommends that Australia's next federal government should defy the national mood of reform fatigue and stare down vested interests to pursue a targeted agenda to improve the lives of Australians. Read the report - https://grattan.edu.au/report/commonwealth-orange-book-2019/ A time guide to this podcast: – 1:30 John Daley and Brendan Coates – The Orange Book policy priorities – 16:50 John Daley – Economic Development – 25:40 Brendan Coates – Housing – 32:40 Marion Terrill – Cities and transport – 41:30 Tony Wood – Energy – 55:10 Stephen Duckett – Health  – 1:05:30 Peter Goss – School education – 1:16:20 Andrew Norton – Higher Education – 1:21:00 Danielle Wood – Budget policy – 1:26:50 Danielle Wood – Institutional reform – 1:32:50 John Daley and Brendan Coates – Final thou

A conversation with Danielle Wood, Budget Policy Program Director. The 2019 budget was delivered on the cusp of the federal election. So, even more than normal, this budget is a political as well as economic document. Danielle Wood unpacks what the budget might mean for Australia and Australians over the next three years and beyond.