24 January 2020
Welcome To The Real World, Law Grads
There are a few responses to all those young graduate lawyers complaining about hard work, long hours and low pay. The first is: “Welcome to the real world.” If they don’t like being a lawyer they could try running a small business. Small business owners regularly report working 60 or 70 hours a week. Even if young lawyers think they
24 August 2017
High Penalty Rates Keep Young People Out of Work
“These jobs are so integral to people getting their start in the workforce.” High penalty rates keep young people out of work. The IPA’s Aaron Lane spoke to a Senate Committee on the Fair Work Amendment: Read our full submission here: https://ipa.org.au/research-areas/submission-inquiry-penalty-rates
9 August 2017
Big Government’s War On Young Australians
The major parties, unions and the bureaucracy have declared economic war on young people which threatens to create an invisible underclass locked out of economic participation. In March, the Brotherhood of St Laurence reported that labour force underutilisation (underemployment plus unemployment) of people aged between 15 and 24 was at its lowest point since the ABS started measuring it in
18 July 2017
Submission: Inquiry Into Penalty Rates
Recent IPA research shows that penalty rates were introduced in order to deter weekend work. Overtime, the justification of penalty rates has shifted to being a compensatory measure. As preferences and circumstances have changed over time, the need for additional compensation for weekend and public holiday work has also changed. On this basis, the recent decision of the Fair Work
10 July 2017
Penalising Work – A Historical Account of Penalty Rates in Australia
Penalty rates have been a fixture of Australian industrial relations regimes since the late 1800s. With federation, a series of decisions by various state and federal wage-setting bodies began, culminating in the first ‘national’ penalty rate decision in 1947. These early decisions indicate that penalty rates were imposed not as a compensatory measure for workers for performing weekend work, but
10 July 2017
IPA Research Exposes Selfish Union Campaign On Penalty Rates
A new report released today by the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs: Penalising work, a historical account of penalty roles in Australia, examines the history of penalty rates in Australia and the current Fair Work Commission (FWC) decision to reduce penalty rates for some sectors of the workforce. The second major report of the IPA’s Dignity
29 June 2017
Why We Should Repeal The Fair Work Act
The IPA’s Gideon Rozner explains why the Fair Work Act is one of the most unfair and unbalanced pieces of legislation in Australia’s history.
26 June 2017
Fair Work And The Right To Work
The Rudd Government’s 2009 overhaul of Australia’s industrial relations regime represented a substantial reversal of almost two decades of reform. Australia’s trajectory towards decentralised wage-setting directly between employers and employees was arrested in favour of a system with government and trade unions at its core. The reregulation of the labour market by the Fair Work regime (‘Fair Work’) has not
6 June 2017
Another Year, Another Hike In The Minimum Wage
“Another year, another hike in the minimum wage,” said Aaron Lane, legal fellow at the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. “Minimum wage decisions are becoming all too predictable. Every year the employer organisations, such as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, make a low-ball offer – this year, an increase of $8.10 per week. Every
29 March 2017
There Should Be No Role For Employers In Employee Super Fund Choice
Free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs has welcomed the direction of the Productivity Commission’s Draft Report into Alternative Superannuation Default Models but will urge it to go further in its Final Report. “The IPA believes that all Australians should have the freedom to choose their superannuation fund and that there should be no role for an employer,
