292 research outputs found
Out of reach? The Australian housing affordability challenge
No full textThis report argues that Australia\u27s housing market is not meeting the needs of all Australians, which is reflected in declining home ownership rates, and recommends extensive reforms.
Executive summary
In this report, the committee underscores the importance of affordable, secure and suitable housing as a vital determinant of wellbeing. But, based on the evidence, the committee finds that a significant number of Australians are not enjoying the security and comfort of affordable and appropriate housing—that currently Australia\u27s housing market is not meeting the needs of all Australians.
Sustained growth in median housing costs above the rate of median household income growth in recent decades has made it increasingly difficult for a growing proportion of Australians to afford housing that is safe, secure and appropriate to their needs. Added to the general decline in housing affordability, and indeed compounding the trend, the stock of affordable housing—that is, housing appropriate to the needs of low- to moderate-income households—has failed to keep pace with demand in recent decades. The committee does not believe the issue of housing affordability in Australia is rightly categorised as either a \u27supply-side problem\u27 or a \u27demand-side problem\u27. With this in mind, it is clearly evident that supply is currently not keeping pace with demand in the housing market. In this context, policy interventions that add to demand without addressing or at least accounting for supply-side constraints risk inflating house prices and exacerbating affordability problems.
Worsening housing affordability is reflected in declining home ownership rates. This decline is troubling for a number of reasons, not least because home ownership can be an important means for people to achieve financial and social wellbeing. Moreover, high rates of home ownership also provide broader economic and social benefits to the community. As such, while the committee believes governments should work to improve affordability outcomes for all types of housing tenure, it considers it appropriate for governments to promote home ownership.
The committee makes a range of recommendations directed primarily toward improving home purchase affordability. They include state governments phasing out conveyancing stamp duties, to be achieved through a transition to more efficient taxes, potentially including land taxation levied on a broader base than is currently the case. Other recommendations are directed at improving the efficiency, effectiveness and equity of infrastructure funding arrangements, which can have a strong influence on the cost of new housing. Similarly, a number of recommendations are made with the intention of ensuring land supply, urban planning and zoning processes have a positive effect on housing affordability
Privatisation of state and territory assets and new infrastructure
No full textThis inquiry examined incentives to privatise state or territory assets and recycle the proceeds into new infrastructure.
Introduction
The Economics References Committee examined:
Incentives to privatise state or territory assets and recycle the proceeds into new infrastructure, with particular reference to:
(a) the role of the Commonwealth in working with states and territories to fund nation-building infrastructure, including:
(i) the appropriateness of the Commonwealth providing funding, and
(ii) the capacity of the Commonwealth to contribute an additional 15 per cent, or alternative amounts, of reinvested sale proceeds;
(b) the economics of incentives to privatise assets;
(c) what safeguards would be necessary to ensure any privatisations were in the interests of the state or territory, the Commonwealth and the public;
(d) the process for evaluating potential projects and for making recommendations about grants payments, including the application of cost-benefit analyses and measurement of productivity and other benefits;
(e) parliamentary scrutiny;
(f) alternative mechanisms for funding infrastructure development in states and territories;
(g) equity impacts between states and territories arising from Commonwealth incentives for future asset sales; and
(h) any related matter
You cannot tax what you cannot see: corporate tax avoidance report part 1
No full textThis interim report summarises the findings of the Senate Inquiry into corporate tax avoidance and aggressive minimisation, after holding five public hearings and receiving more than one hundred submissions.
Given both the public interest and new issues that have been raised over the course of the inquiry, it will continue through the latter half of the year with a provisional final reporting date of 30 November 2015. This interim report makes 17 recommendations over four areas:
evidence of tax avoidance and aggressive minimisation;
multilateral efforts to combat tax avoidance and aggressive minimisation;
potential areas of unilateral action to protect Australia\u27s revenue base; and
the capacity of Australian government agencies to collect corporate taxes.
It is expected that the final report will focus primarily on transfer pricing and profit shifting, with a secondary focus on:
excessive debt loading;
foreign companies avoiding permanent establishment in Australia;
the use of tax havens;
exemptions from general purpose accounting; and
the role of private accounting firms in tax avoidance
Economics references committee: Government's economic stimulus initiatives
No full textIntroduction
The referral
1.1 Disruptions to the financial system have resulted in the global economy contracting in 2009, for the first time since the Second World War. The Australian economy is less vulnerable to external shocks than many other advanced economies given its stronger and better regulated financial system and its mining industry\u27s links to the strong Chinese economy, but nonetheless was expected to suffer a serious contraction as a result of the global downturn.
1.2 When the global outlook deteriorated sharply in late 2008, most advanced economies moved to implement some form of fiscal stimulus. A record of prudent fiscal policy going back more than a decade allowed Australia to introduce a larger stimulus than most countries, which further moderated the recession in Australia.
1.3 The economic outlook has improved over recent months. This has led to calls to scale back the economic stimulus initiatives announced by the Government in October 2008 that will be progressively wound down over the forward estimates to 2011-12. The Senate referred this issue to the Economics References Committee on 8 September 2009. It initially asked the Committee to report by 2 October 2009. The Committee presented an Interim Report on 30 September 2009, requesting an extension of the reporting date to 27 October 2009.
1.4 The Senate\u27s reference requested the Committee to invite the Secretary of the Treasury and the Reserve Bank Governor and other pre-eminent economists to appear with the goal of a full update on the economic stimulus initiatives, which addresses:
(i) the efficacy of the spending measures to date,
(ii) the anticipated costs and benefits of continuing the spending measures,
(iii) consequent change in the stimulus ‘roll out’ that ought to be entertained given the changed economic circumstances,
(iv) anticipated impact of the stimulus spending on future interest rate movements and taxpayer liabilities,
(v) an evaluation of the environmental impacts of the spending to date, and
(vi) other related matters
Australia’s innovation future: A report on the structure and performance of Australia's national innovation system
No full textThis Report addresses the Terms of Reference of the Senate Economics References Committee inquiry into the Australian Innovation System. The Report recommends that Government should take action, in collaboration with research organisations and business, to lift innovation performance in five Strategic Action Areas: leadership and policy direction; building enterprise capability; lifting investment in science and research; supporting local innovation ecosystems; and addressing skills formation through an integrated tertiary education system.
This report also appears as an attachment to Australia\u27s Innovation System report listed below
Turning back the tide - the invasive species challenge
No full textTerms of reference
Preface
On 26 March 2003 the Senate agreed to the recommendation of the Selection of Bills Committee in its Report No. 4 of 2003 that the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Invasive Species) Bill 2002 be referred to the Environment Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 25 November 2003.
It was subsequently agreed that there was merit in a more comprehensive examination of the general topic of the regulation, control and management of invasive species, and accordingly on 26 June 2003 the Senate agreed to refer the Bill to the Environment Communications, Information Technology and the Arts References Committee for examination in conjunction with a broad inquiry into invasive species with the following terms of reference:
(1) The regulation, control and management of invasive species, being non-native flora and fauna that may threaten biodiversity, with particular reference to:
(a) the nature and extent of the threat that invasive species pose to the Australian environment and economy;
(b) the estimated cost of different responses to the environmental issues associated with invasive species, including early eradication, containment, damage mitigation and inaction, with particular focus on:
the following pests:
(A) European fox (Vulpes vulpes),
(B) yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes),
(C) fire ant (Solenopsis invicta),
(D) cane toad (Bufo marinus), and
(E) feral cat (Felis catus) and pig (Sus scrofa), and
the following weeds:
(A) mimosa (Mimosa pigra),
(B) serrated tussock (Nassella trichotoma),
(C) willows (Salix spp.),
(D) lantana (Lantana camara),
(E) blackberry (Rubus fruticosus agg.), and
(F) parkinsonia (Parkinsonia aculeata);
(c) the adequacy and effectiveness of the current Commonwealth, state and territory statutory and administrative arrangements for the regulation and control of invasive species;
(d) the effectiveness of Commonwealth-funded measures to control invasive species; and
(e) whether the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Invasive Species) Bill 2002 could assist in improving the current statutory and administrative arrangements for the regulation, control and management of invasive species
Milking it for all it's worth: competition and pricing in the Australian dairy industry
No full text This inquiry of the Senate Economics References Committee into competition and pricing in the Australian dairy industry follows a number of other investigations which the Committee has completed, which reflected on various aspects of Australian competition policy. Like those inquiries, the current examination of the dairy industry has raised issues concerning competition, including questions of market power, mergers and acquisitions, and the effectiveness of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. In light of these inquiries, and the experiences of the dairy industry brought to the Committee\u27s awareness throughout this inquiry, the committee suggests that a broader review of national competition policy is currently warranted.  
Performance of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission
No full textOverview: As the national corporate, markets and financial services regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is involved in most areas of Australia\u27s commercial world. With the limited resources available to it, ASIC should be commended for how it performs certain functions and many of the outcomes it has achieved. ASIC will never be able to do everything the community may expect of it. In some respects, nor should it. It would be unrealistic to expect that ASIC could be funded at a level where all breaches or allegations of misconduct were pursued. Despite this, the size and growth of Australia\u27s financial sector and the fact that millions of Australians are involved in it, not least because of compulsory superannuation, makes it essential that modern and adaptable regulations are in place and regulators such as ASIC are at the top of their game. ASIC needs to ensure it sets appropriate priorities and that its actions encourage widespread compliance.
This report underlines the critical importance of ensuring that Australia has a robust corporate regulatory system under the stewardship of a strong and effective regulator
Developments in the Structure of the Australian Financial System
No full textSome countries’ financial systems have undergone significant changes in response to the global financial crisis. While Australia’s financial system also experienced a variety of pressures and changes as a result of the crisis, the overall effect was much less severe than in some other developed countries and some of the recent changes in the structure of the Australian financial system have been a continuation of longer-term trends. This article examines recent developments in the institutional structure and performance of the Australian financial system, focusing on the past five years or so since the Reserve Bank published an article on this subject.Australia; financial system; structure; assets; liabilities; funding; capital; profit; liquidity; developments; authorised deposit-taking institution; ADI; bank; credit union; building society; CUBS; registered financial corporation; RFC; managed fund; funds management; general insurance; securitisation; superannuation; life insurance; super; financial institution; pension fund; concentration; growth; APRA; regulation;
Price hedonics: a critical review
No full textThis paper was presented at the conference "Economic Statistics: New Needs for the Twenty-First Century," cosponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, and the National Association for Business Economics, July 11, 2002. The main objective of this paper is to make a start in the evaluation of price hedonics. The author describes the hedonic model and reviews its main uses, because the credibility of price hedonics depends in part on the current state of academic research. This is a brief overview. The author then turns to some of the standard criticisms of price hedonics and moves into the uncharted waters of the political economy of price measurement.Statistics ; Prices ; Consumer price indexes
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