Submission to the Select Committee on Cost of Living

Dear Committee Secretary,

The purpose of this letter is to share research and analysis conducted by the Institute of Public Affairs (“the IPA”) with the Select Committee on Cost of Living (“the committee”). The findings contained in this submission are based on wide-ranging analysis published in numerous IPA research reports over the past 12 months regarding issues relevant to the cost of living, some of which are attached to this submission. IPA research has demonstrated that government policy is compounding the cost of living crisis in the following ways:

• Net zero is making energy unaffordable.
• Rapidly increasing immigration will cause acute housing supply shortages.
• Rising government spending is exacerbating inflation and the cost of housing.
• Australia’s worker shortage crisis compounds cost of living pressures.

On the basis of IPA research, government should ease cost of living pressures by abandoning the policy of net zero emissions by 2050, restraining federal spending to help address inflationary pressures and rising mortgage payments, reduce immigration to sustainable levels to address rising housing shortages, and adopt policies to address Australia’s worker shortage crisis, such as removing tax and red tape barriers to pensioners entering the workforce