The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), as it’s called, assesses how well 15-year-olds are prepared to use their knowledge and skills in particular areas to meet “real-world challenges and opportunities”. It measures three core domains of reading literacy, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy. Students completeEvery three years, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development […]

Presentation to the Annual Tasmanian Economic Forum, 2nd November 2023. Despite out-performing the national economy on most metrics in the years leading up to the Covid pandemic, and during the pandemic itself, Tasmania remains the poorest state in Australia, by a wide margin. And now Tasmania’s economy appears to be under-performing the rest of Australia […]

An ‘instant analysis’ of the 2022-23 Tasmanian State Budget presented by new Treasurer Michael Ferguson on 26th May 2022

Saul talks to Tasmania Talks’ Mike O’Loughlin about Tasmania’s economy and the Morrison Government’s “Super for Housing”

Article published by the Tasmanian magazine Forty South about the corruption of the long-standing principles under which revenues from the GST (and before the introduction of the GST in 2000, ‘general purpose grants’ from the Federal Government) are shared among Australia’s states and territories How greed and politics threaten Tasmanian living standards

Saul talks to Tasmania Talks’ Mike O’Loughlin about Peter Gutwein’s legacy as Premier and Treasurer of Tasmania, and the challenges facing his successor, whoever he or she may be

Saul talks to Tasmania Talks’ Mike O’Loughlin about the 2022-23 Federal Budget, and its likely impact on Tasmania, wages, and housing affordability

The Tasmanian Government’s announcement, in the first week of March 2022, of forthcoming changes to the land tax scale have prompted a raft of commentary, much of it not very well informed, on the effects of land tax and the likely impact of the changes proposed by the Government on rents. This note explains why […]