Short commentary article summarizing findings and policy implications of a research paper on threats to access to, and utilisation of, paid holiday leave in Australian employment. Written by Troy Henderson and Jim Stanford, and published by the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute.

Remember when Prime Minister Turnbull and Immigration Minister Dutton blamed unionized construction workers for the high cost of housing in Australia? The idea that workers (not property speculators or bankers) are to blame for the property bubble is pretty far-fetched - in fact, it sparked a viral storm on social media, using the #blameunions hashtag...

Australia has, at various times, been viewed as a “workers’ paradise” and the land of the long-weekend, a place where workers enjoy high wages and people live an easygoing or laid back lifestyle. But the social advances that underpin these stereotypes were the result of a century of concrete political and industrial struggles. The social...

This briefing paper is an attempt to dig beneath vague claims about economic competence and friendliness to business, and consider more concrete indicators of economic progress.

The problems in Australia’s manufacturing sector are well-known, and many Australians have concluded that the decline in manufacturing is inevitable and universal: that high-wage countries like Australia must accept the loss of manufacturing as an economic reality. But international statistics disprove this pessimism. Worldwide, manufacturing is growing, not shrinking, including in many advanced high-wage countries.