Super is the wrong tool to provide an adequate support in retirement for low-income earners. Our research shows top-up measures to help this group are poorly targeted and too expensive.
If your health practitioner has used a syringe, pacemaker, dental filling or joint implant to treat you, you’ve encountered a product from the medical technology industry.
Mobilising and organising large numbers of voters makes for a powerful political force, and as a tool for change in democracies. Its use is not limited to ‘elites’.
The Property Council of Australia, a lobby group representing the biggest real estate developers, has shaped election debate about negative gearing and some taxes.
Pathology Australia promptly abandoned its Don’t Kill Bulk Bill campaign against cuts to bulk-billing incentives after doing a deal with the federal government.
The ACF has retreated from an “insider” approach of lobbying politicians for policy change, towards a more grass-roots approach, harnessing community support. And it seems to be working.
Political engagement in Australia has changed enormously over the past decade. New organisations such as GetUp! have taken the lead in channelling citizen voice into politics.
Lobbying in Australia is a multi-billion dollar industry which employs a sophisticated strategy to win public opinion and political favours for its clients or members. Here’s how.
The AMA has campaigned heavily on the Medicare rebate freeze, pointing out its potential impact on patient access if out-of-pocket costs were to increase.
Lobbying political actors to achieve particular outcomes is an acceptable practice in a democracy. But state capture, as is allegedly happening in South Africa, denotes holding the state to ransom.
More and more countries are shining lights on lobbyists’ efforts to shape policy. For all the hope of a new politics after the Scottish indyref, the SNP government is offering a limp biscuit.
Managing Director, Triple Helix Consulting; Chief Executive Officer, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research; Professorial Fellow, ANU Fenner School for the Environment and Society, Australian National University