By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has committed a Coalition government to phase in income tax indexation under a “tax back guarantee” that he says “will fully protect all taxpayers from inflation”.
In his budget reply on Thursday night, Taylor described the plan, which would cost $22.5 billion over the forward estimates, as “generational tax reform”.
“It’s fair, simple, and honest. It will back Australians to work hard, take risks, and invest in their future. It will force government to respect your money.
"Any government that wants to tax Australians more should…
(Full Story)
|
By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Angus Taylor might have reckoned he and the opposition are in such deep doo-doo that he might as well throw everything at Thursday night’s budget reply.
The result was a mixed bag. The promise to index tax brackets is a bold reform that can’t be faulted in principle, although it would come with a big eventual cost and put a financial constraint on a future Coalition government that it might come to regret.
The pledge to restrict access to 17 welfare benefits and payments (and the National Disability Insurance Scheme) to Australian citizens falls into a very different category.…
(Full Story)
|
By Jasper Verschuur, Assistant Professor in Engineering Systems and Climate, Delft University of Technology
Paul Behrens, British Academy Global Professor, Future of Food, Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford
Millions more people will face hunger in the coming months if the conflict in the Middle East is not resolved soon, the UN has warned. The price of energy, which instantly affects the cost of producing and transporting food, has risen sharply due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The price of fertiliser, much of it made in the Gulf states and exported via the
(Full Story)
|
By Pat Collins, Associate Professor in Geography, University of Galway
In the early 2000s, Ireland was a newly rich country that wanted to be more international looking. Westlife created un-Irish pop for an international market.
(Full Story)
|
By Netalie Shloim, Lecturer in Counselling & Psychotherapy, School of Healthcare, University of Leeds
Chagit Peles, PhD Candidate, Population Health, Bar-Ilan University
Pregnancy is often regarded as a time to prepare the nursery, but it is also a useful moment to get the kitchen ready.
For many expectant parents, the months before a baby arrives are filled with practical jobs: buying clothes, assembling a cot, choosing a pram, packing a hospital bag. Yet one of the most important forms of preparation happens somewhere less photogenic: in the cupboards, the fridge and the daily routines of the home.
Research Peles and colleagues conducted
(Full Story)
|
By Emilie Rutledge, Senior Lecturer in Economics, The Open University
The US and Israel’s war on Iran has cast a long shadow over the Gulf. It has placed many of the economies that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) regional grouping – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia – under substantial strain.
Since the war began in February, the World Bank has downgraded its 2026 GDP growth forecast for the region from 4.4% to just 1.3%. Some…
(Full Story)
|
By Nick Turner, Professor and Future Fund Chair in Leadership, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary
A. Wren Montgomery, Assistant Professor of Sustainability & General Management, Western University
Erica Carleton, Associate Professor of Leadership, Hill and Levene Schools of Business, University of Regina
Serra Al-Katib, MSc Student in Organization Studies, Levene School of Business, University of Regina, University of Regina
A 10-year study of nearly 3,000 Canadian workers finds that sleep quality and diet do more to protect health under chronic work stress than exercise.
(Full Story)
|
By Sydney Leigh Smith
The Lekiji case illustrates a broader legal and social dynamic. Formal land rights establish a foundation, but the distribution of access and control determines how those rights reshape power within communities.
(Full Story)
|
By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image A USAID box amid materials left behind after widespread vandalism and looting following clashes at the World Food Programme warehouse in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, February 21, 2025. © 2025 Luis Tato/AFP via Getty Images (Washington, DC) – The United States government’s abrupt cuts to nearly all US foreign aid in 2025 harmed the global human rights movement and countless people at risk, Human Rights Watch said in a 42-page paper issued today.“Every Autocrat’s Dream: A Global Snapshot of the Human Rights Harms of US Foreign Aid Cuts” examines the immediate…
(Full Story)
|
By Catherine Smith, Senior Lecturer of Wellbeing Science, The University of Melbourne
The federal government has announced a new “safeguard” around how funding is spent to support school students with disabilities.
The budget papers say there is an issue with “inaccurate claiming” by schools and new controls are needed to prevent “fraud…
(Full Story)
|