Grattan Institute

By Grattan Institute

What's Grattan Institute about?

Grattan Institute is dedicated to developing high quality public policy for Australia’s future. Our podcasts cover a range of public policy topics focusing on the main issues facing Australia. We aim to further the debate, sometimes by presenting controversial viewpoints. Our podcasts concentrate on the current Grattan Programs, Australian perspectives, budget policy, economic growth, energy, health, institutional reform, school education, transport and cities.

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Will COVID-19 change the wa...

02.24.2021

It’s no exaggeration to say that COVID-19 has changed how we travel forever. Now that offices are reopening, many people are driving to work in order to avoid public transport. But do any of us want to go back to ...

Grattan Institute episodes:

02.24.2021 Will COVID-19 change the way we travel around cities forever? It’s no exaggeration to say that COVID-19 has changed how we travel forever. Now that offices are reopening, many people are driving to work in order to avoid public transport. But do any of us want to go back to ...
02.19.2021 How to fix the hotel quarantine system Australia’s border closure was one of the Morrison Government’s best decisions in responding to the pandemic. It was a big decision, but the right one. Tight border controls have given Australia the best of both worlds: little community transmission and ...
02.12.2021 Will the pension still exist when you retire? Are you worried the age pension won’t exist in Australia by the time you retire? Turns out you’re not alone – more than half of Australians are worried about the pension disappearing. Watch Brendan Coates, Household Finances Program Director, in ...
02.05.2021 Donations Data Revealed With the recent release of data from the Australian Electoral Commission, political parties in Australia collectively received $168 million in income for the last financial year. Yet more than half of the funding for the major parties remains secret. In ...
02.01.2021 What's ahead for climate policy in 2021? Climate change policy is in for a rocky ride in 2021. And sometimes it’s hard to make sense of where Australia stands on climate change. How are emissions going? And what do our politicians need to do to get to ...
12.20.2020 Summer Reading List for the Prime Minister - Event Recording Listen to CEO Danielle Wood, in discussion with renowned journalist and broadcaster Geraldine Doogue, as we reveal our top six thought-provoking, diverse, and relevant books and articles from 2020. It’s been an extraordinary year, and these are extraordinary reads – ...
12.18.2020 Grattan's 2020 Year in Review with Danielle Wood 2020 was an enormous year for Australia, but it's also been a big year for the Grattan Institute. We've seen bushfires, the coronavirus crisis, and the huge fiscal and societal effects of the pandemic. In a special podcast, Grattan Institute ...
12.07.2020 Climate change and health: preparing for the next disaster Australia is getting hotter, and Australians’ health is being harmed. Our health sector must do more to adapt to the reality of climate change. This podcast discusses Grattan's last report for the year, Climate change and health: preparing for the ...
11.29.2020 Reforming aged care: a practical plan for a rights-based system In 2020, the out of sight, out of mind attitude to older Australians had deadly consequences. By the end of Australia’s second wave in October 2020, there had been about 2,000 COVID-19 cases and 680 deaths in residential aged care ...
11.22.2020 Why Social Housing Is Good Stimulus Last week the Victorian Government announced a $5.4 billion dollar Big Housing Build, billed as a ‘landmark investment in social housing.’ The plan will build more than 12, 000 new homes in Victoria, including more than 9300 new social housing ...
11.15.2020 Flame out: the future of natural gas in Australia Far from fuelling the recovery from the COVID recession, natural gas will inevitably decline as an energy source for industry and homes in Australia. Listen to Tony Wood, Energy Program Director, and Guy Dundas, Energy Fellow, bust the three biggest ...
11.08.2020 Counting the mega costs of megaprojects Australian governments are currently fast-tracking transport projects, hoping for an infrastructure-led recovery from the COVID-19 recession. But our infrastructure pipeline is already bulging with several megaprojects underway across the country. And the history of such projects in terms of cost ...
10.29.2020 Reaching zero: Victoria’s response to COVID-19 on top of the world This week Victoria reached 0 COVID cases and 0 deaths – in what has affectionately been dubbed ‘Donut Day’. It’s been a hard-won road with the dramatic shutdown of the entire state for 112 days. Hospitality, retail and the arts ...
10.09.2020 Hard hat or hard-hit? Evaluating the 2020 Federal Budget With this week’s release of the historic 2020 Federal Budget, economic stimulus seems to be all about high-vis and hard hats. But what about the hardest hit? In this podcast, three Grattan Institute experts give their extended take on what ...
10.04.2020 Rethinking aged care: emphasising the rights of older Australians By September this year, there have been about 2000 COVID cases and 500 deaths in residential aged care, which accounts for 70% of Australia's COVID death toll. At the same time, we are faced with the horror stories of the ...
09.28.2020 Good gas? Reforming the energy system after COVID-19 In early September, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the reform of the energy system to aid Australia’s economic recovery from COVID-19. Much of this announcement focussed on gas as they key to stimulating manufacturing and investment in Australia. But is ...
09.20.2020 How governments should prioritise their agenda Faced with the hard task of economic recovery from COVID-19, governments need to prioritise policy changes that makes a difference, while minimising the political cost. But Australian policy has stagnated under the lack of prioritisation. The failure to prioritise has ...
09.13.2020 Is early access to super a bad idea? A big part of the Morrison Government’s response to COVID-19 has been allowing people early access to their superannuation. At the same time, compulsory super contributions are legislated to climb from 9.5 per cent of wages to 12 per cent ...
09.07.2020 Go for Zero: How Australia can get to zero COVID-19 cases COVID-19 is the biggest issue of our age, and one of the biggest questions is how can we best fight coronavirus? Can we realistically get to zero active cases in Australia? Or should we just let it rip? On today's ...
08.30.2020 Congestion charging: why now? One of the biggest challenges facing our largest cities before the pandemic, and one we will eventually have to face again, is congestion on our roads. With so many people either out of work or working from home, now might ...
08.16.2020 How To Boost Female Workforce Participation - Webinar recording Increasing female workforce participation is one of the biggest long-term economic opportunities for governments. Australia’s female workforce participation rate is above the OECD average, but Australian women are much more likely to work part-time than their overseas counterparts. Before COVID-19, ...
08.09.2020 Cheaper childcare: how to boost female workforce participation Childcare should be made cheaper to enable more women to do more paid work, and to help lift the economy out of the COVID recession. Find out how Australian governments can enable mothers to do more paid work (and how ...
08.02.2020 Fast Train Fever: Should Australia build a bullet train from Brisbane to Melbourne? Should Australia dump the decades-old dream of building a bullet train from Brisbane to Melbourne via Sydney and Canberra? The east-coast bullet train advocated by the federal ALP could be an expensive folly: Australia’s small population and vast distances present ...
07.27.2020 The future of Grattan and policy in Australia: John Daley interviews Danielle Wood The second part of our two-part special podcast on Grattan's past and future. This week John Daley, our CEO of eleven years, interviews our new CEO, Danielle Wood, on the future of Grattan, the importance of public trust in institutions, ...
07.20.2020 Grattan's origins and achievements: Danielle Wood interviews John Daley As we farewell Grattan's CEO of eleven years, John Daley, and welcome our new CEO, Danielle Wood, we present the first part of a special two-part podcast series, looking at where Grattan has come from, and where Grattan will go. ...
07.12.2020 Zero-emissions Australia: opportunities and barriers - Webinar recording Australia continues to debate whether achieving very low or net zero emissions will cost jobs or open a new era for the country as an energy superpower. In this Grattan Institute/State Library of Queensland Webinar, a panel of experts explored ...
07.06.2020 How Australia can recover from the COVID-19 crisis – Webinar recording COVID-19 is the biggest social and economic shock since World War II. Within two months, policies and systems for welfare, employment, childcare, health, and education have been turned on their head after decades of (at most) incremental reform. Recovering from ...
06.29.2020 School education in the age of COVID-19 - Webinar recording Teachers and students responded quickly and well to remote learning when the COVID-19 crisis forced the closure of schools. But new research suggests most students learnt less at home than they would have in the classroom – and that disadvantaged ...
06.22.2020 How our health system can be better after the pandemic – Webinar recording After COVID-19, Australia’s health system looks nothing like the health system of six months ago. All aspects of the system – primary care, mental health, and alcohol and other drug services – have embraced new ways of working because of ...
06.14.2020 COVID catch-up: helping disadvantaged students close the equity gap Australia should launch a $1 billion, six-month tutoring blitz to help 1 million disadvantaged school students recover learning lost during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Governments should send a battalion of 100,000 tutors into schools between now and Christmas to conduct intensive ...
05.24.2020 Fast train fever: Why renovated rail might work but bullet trains won’t Australia should dump the decades-old dream of building a bullet train from Brisbane to Melbourne via Sydney and Canberra, and we should be wary of expensive promises to upgrade regional rail to ease population pressures on our major capitals and ...
05.15.2020 COVID-19: What does the new normal look like? There's no doubt that COVID-19 has changed our lives forever. After two months of hibernation in Australia, states are slowly beginning to loosen restrictions. We've heard the term the 'new normal' over and over again. But what does the new ...
05.10.2020 Start with steel: A practical plan to support carbon workers and cut emissions Investing in ‘green’ steel could create 25,000 local manufacturing jobs, a multi-billion-dollar industry and cut emissions in Australia. It’s a win-win-win. Listen to Tony Wood, Energy Program Director, Guy Dundas, Fellow, and Paul Austin, Editor, discuss Grattan Institute’s latest report, ...
04.30.2020 Planning for recovery: Australia after the pandemic - Webinar recording Australia has done better than most countries in limiting the spread of COVID-19. The health crisis is not over, but attention is now turning to the ‘road out’ of the economic shutdown. There are lots of uncertainties. What are the ...
04.20.2020 Shutdown: estimating the COVID-19 employment shock Between 14 and 26 per cent of Australian workers could be out of work as a direct result of the coronavirus shutdown, and the crisis will have an enduring impact on jobs and the economy for years to come. Listen ...
04.09.2020 COVID-19: Your Questions Answered - Webinar recording The COVID-19 crisis is having an impact on every aspect of our lives: our health and wellbeing, our jobs and recreations, our personal finances and relationships, our children’s education and prospects. Governments have rarely been under such stress as they ...
03.30.2020 COVID-19: the challenges of online schooling Will our children be able to cope during this stressful time? Will they be able to learn if they are forced to do online schooling for weeks, months, or even the rest of the year? Listen to informed analysis and ...
03.27.2020 The economic, budgetary and health impacts of COVID-19 – Webinar recording Coronavirus is the biggest crisis of our generation. Australians are fearful. The elderly are vulnerable. People are dying. Recession is almost certain. Businesses and borders are closing. Governments must balance protecting public health with ensuring economic survival. How can they ...
03.13.2020 Coronavirus and Australia's healthcare system Australia’s 1950s-style, GP-centric primary care model is not fit to respond to the increased prevalence of chronic disease — and now we know it’s not fit to respond to an infectious disease pandemic either. Stephen Duckett, Health Program Director, discusses ...
03.11.2020 Tackling Melbourne’s Congestion – Event recording Plenty of people think congestion is a real problem in Melbourne, and they are right. Up until now, state governments’ main efforts to reduce congestion have been to build new roads and add new public transport services. But decades of ...
03.01.2020 Balancing Act: managing the trade-offs in retirement incomes policy The retirement incomes system works well for most, but fails too many poorer Australians, especially low-income women and retirees who rent. Listen to Brendan Coates, Household Finances Program Director, Jonathan Nolan, Associate, and Paul Austin, Editor, unpack the complexities of ...
02.24.2020 How coronavirus is affecting the Australian economy From trade to higher education, the Australian economy is feeling the effects of coronavirus. This week on the Grattan podcast, we look at what the virus has already meant for Australia, and what it may mean for Australia's future if ...
02.17.2020 Dark money: How to reform Australia's political donations system Big money matters in Australian elections. Amidst a busy week in politics, with the increasing threat of coronavirus, the annual release of the federal political donations data might have slipped under your radar. Yet this data points to a very ...
02.09.2020 Top teachers: sharing expertise to improve teaching A new career path for expert teachers could transform Australian schools and boost student learning by 18 months by the time they turn 15. Listen to Peter Goss, School Education Program Director, and Julie Sonnemann, School Education Fellow, discuss their ...
02.02.2020 Do increases in superannuation come out of wages? It’s a common assumption that compulsory superannuation comes out of workers’ wages. But is it true? With compulsory super set to rise from 9.5 percent to 12 percent by July 2025, it’s timely to ask who is going to foot ...
01.24.2020 Could the bushfire crisis be the turning point for climate policy in Australia? Dozens of lives have been lost and homes destroyed due to the Australian bushfires. In the midst of the tragedy, a big question arises. Might the summer of 2020 be a turning point in climate politics and policy in Australia? ...
01.09.2020 Energy Futures: Hydrogen, worth the hype? Hydrogen is now surging to the top of the global decarbonisation agenda. Australia’s competitive advantages, including local expertise and infrastructure, proximity to Asian markets, and abundance of renewable energy, could mean we become a globally significant player through hydrogen exports, ...
12.12.2019 Can private health insurance be saved from the jaws of death? Canberra event recording Private health insurance has changed dramatically over the past few decades, and young and healthy people are dropping out (or not joining). Something has to change. Can we cut private hospital costs? Can we stem the flow of surprise bills ...
12.08.2019 Prime Minister's Summer Reading List 2019 Every year Grattan Institute selects six thought-provoking works for the Prime Minister's Summer Reading List. Our 2019 recommendations tackle wide-ranging topics, from secret ballots to cities, Tories to the Testaments. Each selection provides inspiration and warning for how to shape ...
12.04.2019 Saving Private Health 2: Making private health insurance viable The only way that private hospital insurance can survive as Australia’s population ages is to make insurance cheaper for younger, healthier people. Younger consumers are spending more on private hospital insurance but getting less value for their money. The industry ...

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