Grattan Institute

Political parties spent almost half a billion dollars in the year leading up to the 2025 federal election. Big-money campaigns mean politicians spend more time chasing donations, and risk giving major donors more influence over policy. From next year, new rules will finally put a ceiling on money in Australian politics — but that ceiling is set far too high. In our latest podcast, Grattan research...

Every night, thousands of car spaces across Australia’s cities sit empty. This is the result of state and local governments requiring new housing projects to include off-street parking at rates much higher than residents want or need. In this podcast, Grattan housing expert Matthew Bowes talks to co-author Ashleigh Chang about our report, ‘Wasted space: Axe car-parking rules to ease the housing cr...

Paid work can be a pathway to independence, purpose, and connection — but Australians with disability are far less likely to be employed than everyone else, especially those with high support needs. Many who do work are paid well below the minimum wage, some as little as $3.31 an hour. How do we build a system for disabled workers that opens up better jobs and fairer wages? In this podcast, Gratta...

Australians visit the pharmacy more than any other health service. But what's happening behind the scenes? How does the price you pay at the counter get set? How's the pharmacy sector funded? For years, decisions about pharmacy policy have been made through closed-door negotiations. In this podcast, Grattan Associate Reilly Polaschek talks to Grattan Health Program Director Peter Breadon about our...

The NDIS is one of the central fiscal bets of the federal budget. In this podcast, our disability experts discuss what the government's proposed reforms will really cost — and what needs to change. In this podcast, Grattan Senior Associate Hannah Orban talks to Grattan Disability Program Director Sam Bennett and Grattan Associate Reilly Polaschek about the NDIS reform bill and the Senate inquiry e...

The Grattan energy team is back with a new podcast on their latest report, Out of gas: Managing the decline of gas in Australia. In this episode, our energy experts dig into the detail of their longest report yet. Joining the conversation are report authors Alison Reeve, Program Director; Hamish McKenzie, Deputy Program Director; and Associate Ben Jefferson. Read the report: grattan.edu.au/report/...

Managing the decline of gas in Australia is a multi-decade challenge. In this podcast, our energy experts detail the the tough decisions Australia has to make. In this podcast, Grattan Associate Molly Chapman talks to Grattan Energy Program Director Alison Reeve about our report, Out of gas: Managing the decline of gas in Australia. Read the report: https://grattan.edu.au/report/out-of-gas-managin...

On Tuesday, 12th of May, Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down his fifth budget under the Albanese government. What did Grattan's experts make of this year's Budget, and what was left on the cutting room floor? The Grattan Podcast is produced by the Grattan Institute, an independent think tank focused on Australian public policy. Subscribe for expert analysis on the issues shaping Australia's...

With the 2026 federal budget just two weeks away, Grattan Institute CEO Dr. Aruna Sathanapally joins Deputy Program Director of Energy and Climate Change Hamish McKenzie to unpack what could be one of the most consequential budgets in a generation. Against a backdrop of war, a global energy crisis, and rising inflation, the government faces a set of colliding imperatives: steady the ship or seize...

Australians cannot take the future strength and resilience of our democracy for granted. Grattan Institute's new report ‘For the people: Future-proofing Australia’s democracy’, shows that democracy is backsliding globally, and the world order in which Australia has flourished is being seriously tested. Our investigation exposes warning signs for Australia, and underscores that it will take work to...

On 11 December, we celebrated the official launch of Grattan Institute’s 2025 Prime Minister's Summer Reading List at State Library Victoria. Grattan CEO Aruna Sathanapally was joined by ABC politics and economics journalist Tom Crowley and acclaimed author Cordelia Fine for a lively discussion, as we unveiled our selection of six of the most thought-provoking, compelling, and relevant books of 20...

On a typical school day in Australia, about 11% of students who should be at school are absent. These absences add up quickly. Missing one day of school a fortnight is the equivalent of missing four weeks a year – and missing a whole year between the first day of school and the end of Year 10. On our latest podcast, education experts Amy Haywood and Molly Chapman discuss how to improve school atte...

Australia is failing more than 130,000 people with significant psychosocial disability – despite spending billions every year on the NDIS. This gap is fuelling a growing problem. People without adequate supports are more likely to experience homelessness, be hospitalized, or have their needs escalate, putting pressure on systems that are already under strain. In this podcast, Sam Bennett, Mia Jess...

Spending on Australia’s public hospitals has increased by an average of $3 billion every year in the past decade. Yet hospitals are still under strain. Ambulances are ramping outside emergency departments, waits for surgery are getting longer, and staff say they’re burning out. And demand will only grow as Australians gets older and sicker. There’s no doubt governments will have to spend more - bu...

Housing in Australia’s cities is among the least affordable in the world. For decades, we have not built enough housing where people most want to live. A lack of well-located homes is dividing families and communities, and robs younger Australians of economic opportunity. But there is a case for optimism – provided we change planning laws to increase housing density in our major cities. On our lat...

Australia will fail to hit its climate change target of net zero by 2050 unless it imposes a constraint on emissions from the electricity sector. In this podcast, our energy and climate change policy experts Alison Reeve and Tony Wood talk about the thing Australia’s political leaders still refuse to talk about: carbon pricing. Alison and Tony also discuss the modelling for their new Grattan repor...

Australia's workforce is almost evenly split between men and women, yet fewer than one in four Australians work in a gender balanced occupation. But why does it matter? Turns out, it’s bad for workers, businesses and the economy. In this podcast episode, host Kat Clay is joined by Jessica Geraghty to discuss her latest research on why fixing the gender balance matters. Read the article: https://gr...

This week, the Economic Reform Roundtable met to discuss how to boost Australia's productivity, where Grattan Institute's CEO spoke on four key areas for tax reform. A robust tax system plays an essential part in creating a competitive and productive economy - but how do we balance the system to create a better tax mix? In this podcast, CEO Aruna Sathanapally and Senior Associate Jessica Geraghty...

Over 1.3 million students sat the NAPLAN tests in March, which provides a health check on Australia's education system. Now, the results are in. But what do they reveal about the state of education in Australia? In this podcast, host Kat Clay is joined by education experts Amy Haywood and Molly Chapman to unpack the latest NAPLAN data. They discuss how students are tracking, and what can be done t...

Some people love it, some people hate it. But whatever you feel about gas, Australia urgently needs a gas strategy. Listen to our energy experts Alison Reeve and Tony Wood discuss the highly contested role of gas as Australia strives for net zero.

The NDIS is a vital part of Australia’s social fabric, but the scheme has grown too big, too fast.  Grattan’s new report, Saving the NDIS: How to rebalance disability services to get better results, presents a four-step plan to make the NDIS sustainable. In this podcast, report authors Sam Bennett, Mia Jessurun, and Hannah Orban are joined by Senior Fellow Alastair McEwin to discuss how to rein in...

Over decades of compulsory contributions, Australians have amassed $4 trillion in retirement savings. But behind this headline success lies a range of unresolved policy problems. The promise was a more comfortable retirement. The reality is a taxpayer-subsidised inheritance scheme. Listen to our CEO Aruna Sathanapally in conversation with Grattan’s superannuation policy experts, Brendan Coates and...

No one looks forward to seeing a specialist—whether it’s a cardiologist, paediatrician, or psychiatrist. A referral often signals your GP is concerned about a serious health problem: a suspicious lump, a complex condition, or a health issue that needs specialised attention. For many Australians, it can be a worrying time. And those worries only get worse when faced with high specialist fees and lo...

Australia has a maths problem: one in three Australian school students fail to achieve proficiency in maths. When maths is taught well, children and the nation benefit. But taught poorly, students are robbed of a core life skill. Adults with weaker maths skills have worse job prospects and are more likely to struggle with routine tasks such as managing budgets and understanding health guidance. Jo...

Whether it’s increasing rent or mortgage repayments, the surging cost of buying a house or simply finding a secure place to live, Australians are struggling more than ever with housing costs. And with a federal election around the corner, cost-of-living is one of the biggest issues facing voters. Labor is spruiking the housing policies that it legislated over its first term, including the newly ex...