Trial multi-school organisations to improve schools 17.03.2024 Share Photo courtesy of Dixons Academies Trust Australia should trial multi-school organisations to give schools a better chance of improving student performance, according to a new Grattan Institute report. The report, Spreading success: Why Australia should trial multi-school organisations, says too many children are treading water in schools that struggle to improve academic performance, meet students’ complex needs, or offer a rich set of life experiences. Running highly effective schools is difficult. Government ..read more

Australia needs a reading revolution 11.02.2024 Share Australia has a reading problem. A new Grattan Institute report shows that a third of our children can’t read proficiently. ‘In the typical Australian school classroom of 24 students, eight can’t read well,’ says report lead author and Grattan Institute Education Program Director, Dr Jordana Hunter. ‘Australia is failing these children. ‘And it’s a preventable tragedy – the reason most of those students can’t read well enough is that we aren’t teaching them well enough.’ The report, The Reading Guarantee: How to give every chil ..read more

Grattan Institute appoints new CEO 08.01.2024 Share Aruna Sathanapally has been appointed CEO of Australia’s leading public policy think tank, Grattan Institute. Dr Sathanapally is currently Executive Director, Macroeconomy, at the NSW Treasury, where she previously led the Revenue division, the NSW Intergenerational Report, and health and justice reform. A former barrister, and management consultant with McKinsey & Company in London, she did her masters in law and doctorate at the University of Oxford as a Menzies Scholar and a John Monash Scholar. The Chairman of the Gr ..read more

Back hydrogen to cut emissions and help fuel a green Australia 03.12.2023 Share Hydrogen can help Australia hit net-zero carbon emissions and become a green energy superpower – but only if it gets targeted government support. A new Grattan Institute report, Hydrogen: hype, hope, or hard work?, calls on the federal government to promote hydrogen use in the production of ammonia, alumina, and iron. The cost to the government would probably be about $0.6-2 billion per year. But the prize for Australia would be reduced emissions from domestic production of ammonia, alumina, and iron ..read more

Millions of older Australians are at risk. We need a vaccination policy reset 26.11.2023 Share Vaccination rates have plummeted since the height of the pandemic, and Australia urgently needs a policy reset to save lives and take pressure off hospitals, according to a new Grattan Institute report. The report, A fair shot: How to close the vaccination gap, shows that millions of older Australians at high risk of serious illness are not getting vaccinated against COVID, flu, shingles, and pneumococcal disease. COVID vaccination rates have plunged. In December 2021, more than 90 per c ..read more

$1 billion in extra funding is just the first step to fixing local roads 12.11.2023 Share Our local roads are in a state of dangerous disrepair, especially in the bush, and they’re only going to get worse without an extra $1 billion in funding each year, according to a new Grattan Institute report. Potholes and pitfalls: how to fix local roads shows that a gradual erosion of federal funding over the past decade has been terrible for local roads. A $1 billion funding injection would mean an extra 25 per cent on top of what councils are currently spending on road maintenance. Many c ..read more

Declare war on hidden salt to save lives 29.10.2023 Share Eating less salt could see Australians collectively living an extra 36,000 healthy years in the next two decades, a new Grattan Institute report finds. Each year, it would prevent more than 300 deaths while saving money, freeing upour health spending equivalent to 6000 hospital visits.  The report, Sneaky salt: How Australia can shake its salt habit, shows that Australians have a killer diet. We eat too much unhealthy food and too little healthy food. Diseases caused, or made worse, by an unhealthy diet now cost $10 bi ..read more

Grattan Institute launches search for new CEO after Danielle Wood accepts appointment as Chair of the Productivity Commission 06.09.2023 Share Australia’s leading public policy think tank, the Grattan Institute, has launched a global search for a new CEO, after the incumbent, Danielle Wood, accepted the role of new Chair of the Productivity Commission. Ms Wood’s appointment to the PC, for a term of five years, was announced today by Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Ms Wood, 43, has worked at Grattan Institute since 2014, and was appointed CEO in July 2020. She will continue in the role unt ..read more

Grattan Institute launches a new Disability Program 04.09.2023 Share Australia’s leading public policy think tank, the Grattan Institute, is expanding, with the launch today of a new Disability Program. We are delighted to announce the appointments of Dr Sam Bennett as Director of the Disability Program, and Alastair McEwin AM as part-time Senior Fellow in the Disability Program. Sam has worked at the heart of disability reform for years, most recently as General Manager for Policy, Advice, and Research at the National Disability Insurance Agency. He previously held executive ..read more

Get off gas to hit net zero 18.06.2023 Share Australia needs to get off natural gas if it is to have any hope of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, according to a new Grattan Institute report. Getting off gas: why, how, and who should pay? shows that all-electric homes are cheaper to run and better for people’s health, and that alternative technologies such as hydrogen or biomethane are too costly and too far off for widespread use in homes and small businesses. The report calls on each state and territory government to set a date for the end of gas. Governments should l ..read more