Peter Whiteford, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
The Institute of Public Affairs says 425,000 more Australians are on welfare than in 2018, but it has double-counted some Australians and left out others.
Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Australian age pensioners who earn more than $227 a week from paid work lose two-thirds of it in tax and pension cuts. If we adopted NZ’s approach, we could have an extra 500,000 willing workers.
Peter Whiteford, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Lifting Australia’s retirement age happened with little protest. But it hits some more than others: especially Indigenous men and women, and tens of thousands of older people pushed onto JobSeeker.
Managing expectations before a budget is always tricky. Two committees are making this especially so for Treasurer Jim Chalmers ahead of his second budget.
Michelle Grattan and Mike Callaghan discuss the government's change to super, the complexities regarding it, and whether young people should be able to access it for a house deposit
Many of the 2.5 million Australian retirees on the age pension would like to work, but only a fraction do – partly because it can mean losing some of their pension.
Depending on circumstances, it may be time to re-think the bias to paying down housing debt over wealth accumulation in super. At least to do the sums, so you can make an informed choice.
The government’s retirement incomes review should concentrate on boosting rent assistance and Newstart and fixing the pension assets test. These would achieve more than boosting super.
No single super contribution rate suits everyone, and there’s only a clear case for an increase if there’s no age pension.
Under the Institute of Actuaries proposal, only retirees with more valuable than normal homes would face an assets test, and only on that part of the value that was higher than normal.
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Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Newstart increases are projected to get smaller and smaller relative to pension increases. By the end of the century Newstart will be just two fifths of the pension.
Not cutting deeming rates when other rates are falling keeps people off the pension.
The Conversation played host to really important new ideas in 2018. Some will take years to develop. Others will never come to fruition. But they’re important.