About us
Grattan Institute produces high-quality public policy recommendations for Australia’s future. Since we were established in 2008, our independent research has helped shape the Australian policy conversation, from childcare to the COVID-19 response.
We are independent, taking the side of the public interest rather than interest groups. We receive no ongoing government funding and reject commissioned work to ensure this independence.
We are rigorous in obtaining the best evidence from our own data analysis and from published work.
We are practical in identifying what governments should do to improve the lives of all Australians.
And we believe in free access to good information; our reports, events, and articles are available online, without charge.
Grattan’s impact
Our work has had a significant impact on a wide sweep of public policies:
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The Federal Government is making paid parental leave more gender-equal and expanding it to 26 weeks by 2026, including a use-it-or-lose-it component for each parent, in line with Grattan recommendations in our 2021 report Dad days: How more gender-equal parental leave would improve the lives of Australians families.
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The Federal Government’s 2022 $5.4 billion cheaper childcare package was heavily influenced by our 2020 report, Cheaper childcare: A practical plan to boost female workforce participation.
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In June 2024, the Victorian Government announced big changes to the way reading is taught in schools, in line with recommendations in our February 2024 report, The Reading Guarantee: How to give every child the best chance of success. Schools will be required to use structured phonics as part of an explicit teaching approach, as we recommended.
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The Federal Government’s ‘Strengthening Medicare’ taskforce report, presented to National Cabinet in early 2023, mirrors our late-2022 report, A new Medicare: Strengthening general practice.