Latest Reports
10 February 2019
Keep calm and carry on: Managing electricity reliability
The idea that electricity supply is less reliable with more renewables is wrong. Almost all outages are caused by problems in transporting electricity, and have nothing to do with how the power was generated. It’s also a dangerous idea, because if politicians panic and intervene in the market, power bills could rise even higher.
3 December 2018
Summer Reading List for the Prime Minister 2018
It’s been an extraordinary year in politics – and no doubt many politicians are well and truly ready for a summer holiday. To help our leaders make the most of their time off, Grattan Institute has curated a list of this year’s must-reads.
6 November 2018
Money in retirement: more than enough
The conventional wisdom that Australians don’t save enough for retirement is wrong. The vast majority of retirees today are financially comfortable, and our modelling shows this is likely to be true for most in future. This has big implications for policy.
28 October 2018
State Orange Book 2018: Policy priorities for states and territories
State and territory governments can do more to improve the lives of Australians. In many cases, states are different because their governments adopted better policies. Every state should learn from the others and do better.
22 October 2018
Measuring student progress: A state-by-state report card
Our new report card on NAPLAN results reveals big differences between the states on students’ learning progress through school. Governments should investigate why students make more progress in some states, to identify teacher practices and school policies that produce the best results.
1 October 2018
Remarkably adaptive: Australian cities in a time of growth
Australia’s urban commuters have little to fear from population growth, if recent experience is any guide. The average commute distances and times barely increased over the five years to 2016, even as Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane’s populations grew strongly.
23 September 2018
Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics
Powerful and well-resourced business groups, unions and not-for-profits are influencing policy to serve their interests, sometimes at the expense of the public interest. Stronger checks and balances on lobbying, donations and access would make our politics cleaner and fairer.
16 September 2018
Mapping Australian higher education 2018
The graduate gender pay gap in Australia is narrowing, with more women in paid work than ever before. Women’s earnings generally outpaced men’s over the past decade. More broadly, the financial benefit of going to university is falling as domestic bachelor-degree student numbers reach record high levels. But student numbers are now increasing slowly. Combined with recent jobs growth, graduate job prospects are expected to improve in the next few years.
19 August 2018
Safer care saves money: How to improve patient care and save public money at the same time
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.
29 July 2018
Mapping primary care in Australia
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.