report release

• Trial multi-school organisations to improve schools

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  04.10.2020

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  Australia should trial multi-school organisations to give schools a better chance of improving student performance, according to a new Grattan Institute report.

  The report, Spreading success: Why Australia should trial multi-school organisations, says too many children are treading water in schools that struggle to improve academic performance, meet students’ complex needs, or offer a rich set of life experiences.

  Running highly effective schools is difficult. Governments have underestimated how much support principals and teachers need, and have not yet found the best way to provide that support.

  Principals are straining under the weight of expectations, and teachers frequently find themselves in workplaces that lack the resources and know-how to provide the training and career development essential for a strong profession.

  On their own, most schools are too small to marshal the experienced leadership, specialist expertise, and operational nous needed to provide an excellent education.

  While education departments have the organisational heft required, they struggle to provide each school with a clear vision for improvement, and precise and practical operational support. And the advice they provide is sometimes incompatible with day-to-day realities on the ground.

  Meanwhile, regional supports and loose, collaborative school networks – designed to help tackle these challenges – are limited in the actions they can take to drive real improvement.

  The result is a system in which schools are expected to provide an excellent education, but often feel poorly supported to do so. This means too many children are missing out.

  ‘While Australia has many exceptional schools, it has struggled to spread enough success to deliver on its promise of educational excellence for all,’ says report lead author and Grattan Institute Education Program Director Jordana Hunter.

  ‘And when schools fall short, it is unclear who should bear responsibility, and who should take charge of turning things around.’ 

  The report finds that establishing multi-school organisations (MSOs) could help. MSOs are strong ‘families’ of schools, bound together through a united executive leadership that is accountable for students’ results.

  Grattan Institute case studies of successful MSOs in England and New York City show that effective MSOs increase the odds of school improvement.

  Leading strong families of between 10 and 100 schools, these MSOs have a mandate to maintain high standards, and are accountable for doing so.

  Each has a clear blueprint for running an effective school, and the authority to enact this blueprint across multiple schools. This includes turning around schools that have under-performed for decades, as well as helping already good schools become great.

  Their ‘Goldilocks’ size helps too. These MSOs are small enough to understand – and ‘own’ – the specific challenges their principals, teachers, and students face. But they are also big enough to marshal the resources and expertise their schools need.

  Each Australian school sector should trial MSOs.

  State and territory governments and large Catholic dioceses should establish multiple trials.

  Independent schools – especially small ones – should consider working with others to trial MSOs too.

  Each trial should start with a high-performing ‘beacon’ school, and gradually build to a family of 10 schools within a decade, with further growth possible after that.

  While the MSO structure gives schools a clearer shot at improving, it does not guarantee it. Internationally, some MSOs have performed poorly or been mismanaged.

  Australia should learn from these mistakes and set clear expectations for the trial MSOs. Governments should also establish a robust regulatory framework for the trials, including rigorous public reviews.

  ‘Schools and teachers need a lot more support to provide an excellent education for all,’ says Dr Hunter.

  ‘MSOs offer a powerful way to give schools the boost they need.’

  For further enquiries email media@grattan.edu.au

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• Australia needs a reading revolution

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  04.10.2020

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  Australia has a reading problem. A new Grattan Institute report shows that a third of our children can’t read proficiently.

  ‘In the typical Australian school classroom of 24 students, eight can’t read well,’ says report lead author and Grattan Institute Education Program Director, Dr Jordana Hunter.

  ‘Australia is failing these children.

  ‘And it’s a preventable tragedy – the reason most of those students can’t read well enough is that we aren’t teaching them well enough.’

  The report, The Reading Guarantee: How to give every child the best chance of success, calculates that for those students in school today who are hardest hit by poor reading performance, the cost to Australia is $40 billion over their lifetimes.

  Students who struggle with reading are more likely to fall behind their classmates, become disruptive, and drop out of school. They are more likely to end up unemployed or in poorly paid jobs.

  A key cause of Australia’s reading problem is decades of disagreement about how to teach reading. But the evidence is now clear.

  The ‘whole-language’ approach – which became popular in the 1970s and is based on the idea that learning to read is an easy, natural, unconscious process – does not work for all students. Its remnants should be banished from Australian schools.

  Instead, all schools should use the ‘structured literacy’ approach right through school, which includes a focus on phonics in the early years.

  Students should learn to sound out the letters of each word, and teachers should read aloud rich literature to their class. Once students have mastered decoding new words, they still need explicit teaching to build up their background knowledge and vocabulary, so they can comprehend what they read – the ultimate goal of reading.

  If schools don’t take this approach, disadvantaged students will be left even further behind their advantaged peers, who tend to have richer learning opportunities outside of school.

  The Grattan report calls on all Australian state and territory governments, and Catholic and independent school sector leaders, to commit to a six-step ‘Reading Guarantee’:

  1. Pledge that at least 90 per cent of Australian students will become proficient readers.

  2. Give principals and teachers specific guidelines on how to teach reading in line with the evidence on what works best.

  3. Provide schools with the high-quality curriculum materials and assessments that teachers need to teach reading well.

  4. Require schools to do universal screening of students’ reading skills and help struggling students to catch-up.

  5. Ensure teachers have the knowledge and skills they need, through extra training, and by appointing Literacy Instructional Specialists in schools.

  6. Mandate a nationally consistent Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, and regularly review schools’ and principals’ performance on teaching their students to read.

  ‘Australia needs a reading revolution,’ says Dr Hunter.

  ‘We need to transform the way we teach reading in school, so that every Australian child gets their best chance in life. This report shows how to do it.’

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• Grattan Institute appoints new CEO

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  04.10.2020

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  Aruna Sathanapally has been appointed CEO of Australia’s leading public policy think tank, Grattan Institute.

  Dr Sathanapally is currently Executive Director, Macroeconomy, at the NSW Treasury, where she previously led the Revenue division, the NSW Intergenerational Report, and health and justice reform. A former barrister, and management consultant with McKinsey & Company in London, she did her masters in law and doctorate at the University of Oxford as a Menzies Scholar and a John Monash Scholar.

  The Chairman of the Grattan Institute Board, Lindsay Maxsted, said: ‘We are delighted to be able to appoint someone of Aruna’s calibre, intellect, and standing.

  ‘The Board is confident that under Aruna’s leadership, Grattan will continue to build its position as a permanent institution in Australian public life, to the benefit of present and future generations.’

  Dr Sathanapally becomes the third CEO of Grattan, following the inaugural chief executive, John Daley (2009 to 2020), and Danielle Wood, who departed at the end of last year to become Chair of the Productivity Commission.

  Dr Sathanapally said: ‘Grattan Institute is Australia’s independent public policy powerhouse, so it’s an honour to take on this vital role.

  ‘I know from experience that Grattan has a well-earned and enviable reputation in government and beyond for intellectual rigour and innovative thinking.

  ‘Grattan’s Program Directors – Tony Wood in Energy, Peter Breadon (Health), Jordana Hunter (Education), Brendan Coates (Economic Policy), and Sam Bennett as head of the new Disability Program – are all recognised leaders and experts in their field.

  ‘I can’t wait to start working with them and the Institute’s highly motivated research staff, to identify and advocate for better public policy in the interests of all Australians.’

  Dr Sathanapally will start at Grattan in late February.

  For further information, please contact:

  Grattan Institute
  Phone: 03 9035 9881
  Email: media@grattan.edu.au

  What they say about Grattan Institute:

  ‘Winning in the business of ideas’
  The Australian Financial Review, 2023

  ‘The think tank that carries weight with the government’
  Paul Kelly, Editor-at-Large, The Australian, 2023

  ‘The country’s most influential think tank’
  AFR, 2023

  ‘The federal government’s go-to ideas factory’
  Tom Dusevic, National Chief Reporter, The Australian, 2023

  ‘Grattan Institute is Australia’s most recognised think tank, and its policy recommendations are regularly adopted by state and federal governments’
  AFR, 2023

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• Back hydrogen to cut emissions and help fuel a green Australia

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  04.10.2020

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  Hydrogen can help Australia hit net-zero carbon emissions and become a green energy superpower – but only if it gets targeted government support.

  A new Grattan Institute report, Hydrogen: hype, hope, or hard work?, calls on the federal government to promote hydrogen use in the production of ammonia, alumina, and iron.

  The cost to the government would probably be about $0.6-2 billion per year.

  But the prize for Australia would be reduced emissions from domestic production of ammonia, alumina, and iron, and new export industries that ultimately wouldn’t need subsidies.

  In each of these commodities, hydrogen faces a ‘green premium’ – the gap between the cost of using hydrogen for zero-emissions production, and the cost of conventional production.

  The government should do three things to help close that gap.

  First, bring down the price of electricity, by improving renewable energy generation, storage, and transmission.

  Second, lift the price of carbon. Heavy industry is covered by the government’s Safeguard Mechanism, which imposes a carbon price to drive down emissions. But under the mechanism’s current settings, this price isn’t likely to be high enough to close the cost gap.

  Third, use industry policy to underwrite demand for ‘green’ versions of ammonia, alumina, and iron.

  This three-pronged strategy should be coordinated with other policies supporting green products, including critical minerals, as part of a comprehensive Australian green industry policy.

  The government should be more cautious about supporting hydrogen uses such as long-duration energy storage and long-distance road freight, because it is not yet clear whether using hydrogen is the best way to decarbonise these activities.

  And it should rule out further investment in hydrogen uses unlikely to be viable, including for replacing natural gas in homes and commercial buildings, and replacing petrol and diesel in cars and utes.

  ‘We need to dial down the hype about hydrogen – it’s now clear it will not be the sole clean fuel in a net-zero world,’ says report lead author and Grattan Institute Energy and Climate Change Program Director Tony Wood.

  ‘The reforms recommended in this report would help Australia to hit net zero by 2050 and give us the best chance to build a hydrogen industry that can fuel export industries and boost national prosperity.’

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• Millions of older Australians are at risk. We need a vaccination policy reset

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  04.10.2020

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  Vaccination rates have plummeted since the height of the pandemic, and Australia urgently needs a policy reset to save lives and take pressure off hospitals, according to a new Grattan Institute report.

  The report, A fair shot: How to close the vaccination gap, shows that millions of older Australians at high risk of serious illness are not getting vaccinated against COVID, flu, shingles, and pneumococcal disease.

  COVID vaccination rates have plunged. In December 2021, more than 90 per cent of high-risk adults had been vaccinated for COVID in the previous six months. Today, it is just 27 per cent.

  ‘The consequences are deadly,’ says report lead author and Grattan Institute Health Program Director Peter Breadon.

  ‘COVID is still with us, and it’s still causing more deaths and putting more people in hospital than the flu.’

  But it’s not just COVID. Uptake of other adult vaccines is also far too low. Less than half of Australians in their 70s are vaccinated for shingles. Only one in five are vaccinated for pneumococcal disease.   

  And the problem is worse for older people from some regions, suburbs, and cultural backgrounds.

  If you don’t speak English at home, you are only half as likely to get recommended COVID vaccinations as the average Australian. If you are Indigenous, you are a third less likely. Many people in rural and remote areas are not getting vaccinated.

  The report calls for a new National Vaccination Agreement between the federal government and the states, to set ambitious targets and forge a plan to drive up vaccination.

  There should be regular vaccination ‘surges’, when people at high risk of severe disease could get vaccinated even if they’d had a recent infection or vaccination.

  The surges should be backed by government advertising campaigns, and every Australian at high risk of serious illness should be sent an SMS reminder to get vaccinated.

  Pharmacists and GPs should get more help to reach more people, including cultural groups that are missing out, and people living in aged care homes.

  Aboriginal health organisations should get more money to boost vaccination rates among Indigenous people.

  And pandemic programs to reach communities with the lowest vaccination rates – including homeless people and some cultural groups – should be sustained and strengthened.

  ‘Hundreds and sometimes thousands of Australians are killed every year by vaccine-preventable diseases, and tens of thousands more need hospital treatment for severe and distressing symptoms,’ Mr Breadon says.

  ‘This report shows how we can make it easier for everyone to get a jab – especially the people who need it most.’

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• $1 billion in extra funding is just the first step to fixing local roads

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  04.10.2020

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  Our local roads are in a state of dangerous disrepair, especially in the bush, and they’re only going to get worse without an extra $1 billion in funding each year, according to a new Grattan Institute report.

  Potholes and pitfalls: how to fix local roads shows that a gradual erosion of federal funding over the past decade has been terrible for local roads.

  A $1 billion funding injection would mean an extra 25 per cent on top of what councils are currently spending on road maintenance. Many councils do not have a realistic way of raising the money they need to keep their roads in good condition, especially rural and remote councils. A billion dollars is only about 10 per cent of what the federal government spent on roads last year.

  It will take more than money alone to fix our roads, though: the funding needs to be better targeted, with cleaner lines of accountability from the funding source to the end point of better, safer roads.

  The report recommends that the federal government stop favouring densely populated states with its funding arrangements, and cut back the share of the funding pool that goes to the major-city councils that are already self-sufficient.

  Federal and state governments should also help under-resourced councils manage their road networks. A Grattan Institute survey of councils conducted for this report reveals that a quarter of councils don’t even know exactly what roads and bridges they manage; for remote councils, it’s almost half.

  To help councils better manage their roads, the federal government should establish a national road hierarchy, minimum service standards, and basic data specifications for councils to follow.

  ‘Taxpayers would get better bang for their buck if the federal government spent an extra $1 billion on improving our local roads rather than on building new megaprojects in the major cities,’ says report lead author and Grattan Institute Transport and Cities Program Director Marion Terrill.

  ‘What’s needed to put the road network on a better path is more funding better targeted at where it is needed most, and reforms to ensure that councils have the tools and time to fix the potholes and give their communities the roads they need.’

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• Declare war on hidden salt to save lives

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  04.10.2020

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  Eating less salt could see Australians collectively living an extra 36,000 healthy years in the next two decades, a new Grattan Institute report finds. Each year, it would prevent more than 300 deaths while saving money, freeing upour health spending equivalent to 6000 hospital visits. 

  The report, Sneaky salt: How Australia can shake its salt habit, shows that Australians have a killer diet. We eat too much unhealthy food and too little healthy food.

  Diseases caused, or made worse, by an unhealthy diet now cost $10 billion a year in healthcare and are a leading cause of death.

  The average Australian eats far too much salt – almost double the recommended maximum.

  That raises our blood pressure and can cause cancer. It condemns thousands of Australians to living with hypertension, heart disease, and the consequences of stroke.

  Each year, more than 2,500 Australians die from illnesses caused by high salt intake.

  ‘It’s time Australia got serious about salt,’ says report lead author and Grattan Institute Health Program Director Peter Breadon.

  Three-quarters of the salt in our diets is added during food manufacturing, so that’s what governments should target.

  Australia has had voluntary limits on how much salt manufacturers can add to foods such as bread and sausages since 2009, but the limits are badly designed, poorly implemented, and have failed. They have had virtually no impact on how much salt Australians eat.

  The report calls on the federal and state governments to:

  • Double the number of food types covered by salt limits.
  • Make some limits mandatory, because there has been no progress in reducing salt intake under Australia’s entirely voluntary scheme.
  • Measure the salt content of foods sold in bakeries and fast-food restaurants, to pave the way for salt limits there.
  • Investigate the feasibility of requiring enrichment of salt with potassium, starting with bread and table salt, because potassium enrichment can make salt much healthier without changing its taste.
  • Require government schools to use potassium-enriched salt instead of regular salt.

  ‘We are what we eat, and it’s making us sicker,’ says Mr Breadon.

  ‘If we don’t improve our diets, we won’t improve our health.

  ‘Our report shows how we can improve our diets and our health quickly and cheaply – and we won’t even notice any change in the taste of our food.’

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• Stop offering so many international graduates false hope

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  04.10.2020

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  Australia offers international students generous rights to stay and work here after they graduate, which gives false hope to thousands of graduates who will never gain permanent residency, adds to population pressures, and threatens Australia’s reputation as a destination for tertiary study.

  A new Grattan Institute report, Graduates in limbo: International student visa pathways after graduation, shows that many international graduates stay in Australia on temporary visas once they graduate, but struggle to pursue their chosen careers.

  Only half secure full-time employment, most work in low-skilled jobs, and half earn less than $53,300 a year.

  Many international graduates are also stuck in visa limbo: less than one third of Temporary Graduate visa-holders now transition to permanent residency when their visa expires, down from two thirds in 2014.

  One-in-three graduates return to further study, mostly in cheaper vocational courses, to prolong their stay in Australia.

  Federal government policy is moving in the wrong direction. Grattan Institute modelling shows that the government’s recent decision to allow many graduates to stay and work for even longer is a big driver why the number of Temporary Graduate visa-holders in Australia will almost double to about 370,000 by 2030.

  That will leave even more graduates stuck in visa limbo, with even worse prospects of ever securing permanent residency, while adding further pressure to Australia’s already-tight rental markets. 

  ‘Encouraging so many international graduates to stay and struggle in Australia is in no one’s interests,’ says report lead author and Grattan Institute Economic Policy Program Director Brendan Coates.

  ‘It erodes public trust in our migration program. It hurts the long-term prospects of those graduates who do stay permanently. It’s unfair to those graduates who invest years in Australia with little prospect of securing permanent residency. And it adds to population pressures in areas like housing.’

  The report recommends an overhaul of the visas offered to international graduates, to reduce the number of graduates left living in limbo and identify the best graduates to stay permanently in Australia.

  It calls on the government to: 

  • Cut the duration of post-study work visas for international graduates.
  • Raise the English language requirement for Temporary Graduate visa-holders.
  • Limit Temporary Graduate visas to people younger than 35 (down from 50 now).
  • Scrap visa extensions for graduates with degrees in nominated areas of shortage, and for graduates who live and work in the regions.
  • Only offer visa extensions to graduates who earn at least $70,000 a year.
  • Create a new ‘Exceptionally Talented Graduate’ visa which offers a direct path to permanent residency for the most talented international graduates.
  • Offer more help to international graduates who do stay to pursue their careers in Australia.

  ‘These reforms would cut the number of graduates we leave in limbo, while ensuring Australia continues to attract the best international students and help the best graduates to stay,’ says Mr Coates.

  ‘We shouldn’t keep offering so many international graduates false hope about being able to stay permanently in Australia, when most clearly can’t.’

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• Grattan Institute launches search for new CEO after Danielle Wood accepts appointment as Chair of the Productivity Commission

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  04.10.2020

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  Australia’s leading public policy think tank, the Grattan Institute, has launched a global search for a new CEO, after the incumbent, Danielle Wood, accepted the role of new Chair of the Productivity Commission.

  Ms Wood’s appointment to the PC, for a term of five years, was announced today by Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

  Ms Wood, 43, has worked at Grattan Institute since 2014, and was appointed CEO in July 2020. She will continue in the role until 10 November 2023 to assist with the transition process.

  At Grattan Ms Wood has published extensively on economic reform priorities, budgets, tax reform, women’s workforce participation, generational inequality, and reforming political institutions.

  Before joining Grattan, Ms Wood was Principal Economist and Director of Merger Investigations at the ACCC, a Senior Economist at NERA Economic Consulting, and Senior Research Economist at the Productivity Commission. She holds an Honours degree in Economics from the University of Adelaide and two Masters degrees, one in Economics and one in Competition Law, from the University of Melbourne.

  Grattan Institute Board Chair, Lindsay Maxsted, congratulated Ms Wood on her appointment to the PC.

  ‘We are very disappointed to be losing Danielle, but the Government has made a fine appointment,’ Mr Maxsted said.

  ‘Those involved in public policy in Australia know that Danielle is an exceptional economist, with an ability to break down a problem, pinpoint its causes, and then imagine and design practical solutions.

  ‘Everyone at Grattan also knows Danielle as a thoughtful and welcoming colleague, a strategist, and an inspiring leader. She leaves with the best wishes of all of us.’

  Ms Wood said she was honoured to be offered the position of Chair at the PC, but also sad to be leaving Grattan.

  ‘My time at Grattan has been the most exhilarating, challenging, and fun of my career,’ she said.

  ‘I’m proud that, under my leadership and that of my predecessor, founding CEO John Daley, Grattan has been able to evolve from an institute into an institution, with a central role in improving public policy in the interests of all Australians.

  ‘The credit for that belongs to the incredible staff we have at Grattan – they are stunningly bright, intellectually curious, and driven to improve public policy in the public interest. Australia is lucky to have them, and I will miss them all.’

  Mr Maxsted said Grattan Institute will advertise immediately for a new CEO. The Board will retain a global recruitment firm to advise on the search.

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• Get off gas to hit net zero

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  04.10.2020

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  Australia needs to get off natural gas if it is to have any hope of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, according to a new Grattan Institute report.

  Getting off gas: why, how, and who should pay? shows that all-electric homes are cheaper to run and better for people’s health, and that alternative technologies such as hydrogen or biomethane are too costly and too far off for widespread use in homes and small businesses.

  The report calls on each state and territory government to set a date for the end of gas.

  Governments should launch long campaigns to encourage people to switch their homes from gas to all-electric and help them plan the timing to suit their personal circumstances.

  Governments should ban new gas connections to homes, shops, and small businesses.

  Well before 2050, they should phase out the sale of gas appliances, so that the last remaining gas appliances in homes are replaced with electric ones when they reach the end of their life.

  Governments should pay for public, community, and Indigenous housing to be upgraded to all-electric.

  A date should be set by which all rental homes should be required to have all-electric cooktops, water heaters, and home heating systems.

  ‘There is no time to waste,’ says report lead author and Grattan Institute Energy and Climate Change Program Director Tony Wood.

  ‘It will be complex for governments and for many people and businesses – but it is absolutely do-able, and further delay will only make this necessary transition harder.’

  About five million households in Australia are on gas. In Victoria alone – the state which relies most on gas – about 200 households a day will need to stop using gas to reach zero homes on the gas network by 2050.

  Although all-electric homes are cheaper to run, electric appliances are often more expensive to buy than the gas alternatives. To close this cost gap, and for a limited period, governments should provide low-interest loans or similar financing arrangements for homeowners, and tax incentives for landlords to replace gas appliances with electric ones.

  Governments will also have to ensure the gas network is safely decommissioned, and the electricity network is expanded and upgraded so it can cope with higher demand.

  ‘There will be costs to the great energy transition, and governments will need to decide who pays, how much, and when,’ says Mr Wood.

  ‘But we must do this – for our hip-pockets, our health, and our environment.

  ‘Our report shows how.’

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