Who gets a say? It’s one of the core questions in any democratic process. In our recent report on Australia’s democratic resilience, we make the case for broadening whose voices count in elections for our lowest level of government. A short thread 🧵 1/

The Grattan podcast is back! Listen in to catch Kate Griffiths and me talking about our latest report 'For the people: future-proofing Australia's democracy'. Link below.

Among many discussions we have with policy leaders at the Grattan Institute, one issue continually comes to the fore: Australia's democracy. But is our democracy really under pressure? If so, how should we respond? This is the topic of our latest Grattan Institute report.

Was great to be on a panel hosted by Infrastructure Victoria last week discussing all things housing, planning, and infrastructure, alongside Katherine Sundermann, Patrick Fensham, and Jonathan Spear.

Recently in my research at the Grattan Institute, I’ve been thinking a lot about Australian democracy: the factors that have made it successful, the challenges it faces, and how we can make it better. A few thoughts on one of the books that’s helped me with these questions. 🧵

Was absolutely thrilled to take part in a panel this week alongside the great Alain Bertaud, as part of an event organised by YIMBY Melbourne

My boss wrote a piece in support of migration – and migrants. It’s good. Makes me proud. #auspol grattan.edu.au/news/migrant...

Excited to have been in Sydney today presenting on some of our research as part of a Grattan Institute event on ‘How to tackle Sydney’s housing crisis’. Here's a short summary🧵

The idea that landlords just ‘pass through’ costs they face onto renters - as is now being argued in the context of capital gains tax reform - is widespread, but misguided. A short thread 🧵

With the federal budget approaching and speculation again mounting over capital gains tax reform, there's been some discussion about returning to the pre-99 'inflation indexation' approach to taxing capital gains. Here's a quick explainer on how that would work.

How did Australia's political parties finance their 2025 election campaigns? In our latest piece for the Conversation, Kate Griffiths and I dig into the recently released party returns data to find out. 🧵

Huge amounts of money flowed into the coffers of Australian political parties in the lead up to the most recent federal election. Here’s who gave the most.

First reaction: this is an incredibly brave response in the face of some pretty blatant political thuggery. Second reaction: if I had a nickel for every time a historic reserve bank office building turned out to be a pain to refurbish…

New year and new article out in @ausjpolsci.bsky.social with Mark Chou, Rachel Busbridge & Luke Dean: Mapping the ‘fringe’ in Australian local politics We provide the first systematic analysis of fringe candidates in the 2024 NSW & VIC local government elections. 🧵

There’s a few arguments I disagree with in this op-ed from Kate Shaw, but one point I wish housing experts of all stripes could agree on is that a ‘30% of income’ benchmark is a poor metric of housing stress - or the functioning of our housing market.

Good article here from Brian Potter on why Sweden’s much-commented-upon high rates of prefabrication in housing construction haven’t necessarily led to lower construction costs. Link in next post.

I read a bunch this year for Grattan’s wonks and summer reading lists - if you haven’t checked them out, do, they’re great! - but not all my favourite papers, books, or essays made it to those lists, so here’s a few year-end highlights I thought were worth sharing. 🧵

A succinct explanation here from Jerusalem Demsas of why the posting (including posting letters) to policy pipeline is so powerful in local government. The vibes of local policymakers are constantly being reshaped by the few community members who engage.

I've had a great time reading and discussing a wide range of books this year to help find the best policy-relevant reads for Grattan's Prime Minister's Summer Reading List. Catch the full list on our website, along with our accompanying Wonks' List. 1/ grattan.edu.au/news/...

Two months ago, I wrote a paper for the Electoral Matters Committee. It clocked in at 23,000 words with 16 data tables, 11 graphs, 204 footnotes and 30,000 datapoints. I made the case that we should take advantage of this historic juncture to expand participation in our representative democracy.

Responding to our 'More homes, better cities' Grattan report, Professor Nicole Gurran wrote that our plan to boost housing supply needed a 'reality check' in part because 'building completions fall when prices stagnate'. Here's why that argument misses the mark. 🧵

‘Australia’s economy is in a post-pandemic slump. To dig us out, state and federal governments must tackle the chronic shortage of housing in our biggest cities.’ Catch our latest piece in Pearls and Irritations:

'Housing in Australia’s cities is now among the least affordable in the world. At the heart of the problem is the fact we just haven’t built enough homes to meet rising demand.' Catch our latest op-ed in The New Daily:

1/ Housing in Australia's major cities is among the least affordable in the world. A big reason is that we no longer build enough homes, especially where people most want to live.

Housing in Australia is both too scarce and too expensive. Yet our major cities are among the least dense of their size in the world. Our latest Grattan report show how we can reform our urban planning rules to allow for more homes and better cities. 🧵

3-storey townhouses and apartments should be permitted on all residential land in all capital cities to help fix Australia’s housing crisis. Building more homes will create cheaper housing and more productive cities. Our new report shows how. buff.ly/NfAM6C7 #auspol

I'm back again telling everyone who'll listen and a lot of people who won't that we need more politicians! Today, the ACT Assembly's inquiry into the 2024 election published a submission from @francismarkham.bsky.social and myself arguing it's time to make the Assembly bigger... again.

It’s notable to me that recent media reports on the low and mid rise housing policy in NSW struggle to explain the details of how it works, and miss the fact that it was scaled back from the policy originally proposed. A short 🧵

A common meme in housing policy is that such and such a view (e.g. supply scepticism or neoliberalism) is dominant among policymakers. I’ve increasingly come to think that this is just wrong: there’s remarkably little agreement on what our housing problems actually are.

A great project here by Michael Weibe, who is writing accessible literature reviews on topics in housing research. The first article is all about vacancy chains. open.substack.com/pu...

Low density suburbs in growing cities often face a problem - as property values rise and older homes are replaced with larger new ones, they become steadily less affordable. But as this paper from the US shows, thoughtful zoning reforms can change this story. 🧵

Low density suburbs in growing cities often face a problem - as property values rise and older homes are replaced with larger new ones, they become steadily less affordable. But as this paper from the US shows, thoughtful zoning reforms can change this story. 🧵

The claim here that we can't (or won't) build more than 50 homes per hectare is puzzling. When Marcus Spiller's SGS colleagues estimated housing capacity in Boroondara LGA, they assumed 75-100 homes per hectare even for 'general' residential areas. www.abc.net.au/news/...

I’m old enough to remember when the swing vote in the US Senate on major party-line reconciliation bills was so concerned about US government debt levels he had an aide text him the $ value every morning. Ah the good old days.

Earlier this week I presented to an ABS/RBA conference on data insights in housing. While my presentation was on Grattan’s February report, ‘Renting in retirement’, the conversation in the room left me with a range of important takeaways on housing tax and productivity. 🧵

I’ve often enjoyed Annie Lowery’s work, but as an Australian, it was painful to read this nonsensical article about preferential voting. PV isn’t more ‘chaotic’ because candidates recommend preferences instead of choosing whether to drop out entirely. www.theatlantic.com/...

Planning reform discourse is confusing because it often revolves around abstract terminology such as ‘red tape’ and ‘deregulation’, rather than the underlying policy reality that for decades we’ve effectively outlawed new townhouses and flats in large parts of Australian cities.

A cool research paper here that 1) uses weather-related delays to housing completions in Germany to estimate the reduction in rents from new homebuilding and 2) models how new market-rate housing supply reduces rents for low-income earners. 🧵

Cities across Australia often have rules on the books that mandate a certain amount of parking as part of new housing projects. As one study from Colorado shows, removing them wouldn’t just make many homes cheaper to buy - it would also help more homes get built. 🧵

The ACT’s ‘missing middle’ planning reforms show that Canberra doesn’t have to choose between protecting the “garden city” and making housing more affordable. It can, and it should, do both. Read the full op-ed below from Brendan Coates and myself. grattan.edu.au/news/...

Something that comes up often in housing policy discussions right now is the idea that planning reforms won't shift the dial because construction costs are just too high, so new homes will only be profitable if prices rise. A few thoughts on why I don’t think it’s this simple. 🧵

One of the big reasons I left Canberra was that it was almost impossible to live near your friends. So many left the city, it was so hard to meet new ones and the ones who stayed are spread across a giant sprawling city. This is a pro-social policy.

Big news on housing policy in the ACT, which is proposing to allow low-rise flats and townhouses in its most restrictive residential zone. Previously, apartments and townhouses were effectively banned on 80% of Canberra’s residential land. www.abc.net.au/news/...

A gentle suggestion to those opposing planning reforms that allow denser housing in existing suburbs: it does somewhat undermine your credibility when you claim that the reforms won’t increase supply, even though they will lead to reckless unchecked development.

Charging for or allocating rights to scarce public space is one of core policy tools available to local councils to manage congestion. That so many of Melbourne’s councils refuse to charge for parking shows an abject lack of respect for the public they serve. Full article below.

Housing policy was central to the federal election. But when it comes to building more homes, it is state planning reforms - like those that are underway in Victoria - that could really shift the dial. Our latest for The Conversation outlines why they matter. theconversation.com/...

The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) recently published a study of landlord behaviour that received some media attention for its finding that the median period of rental investment was just two years. Here's why this figure appears much too low. 🧵

There’s been discussion about whether a US-influenced ‘abundance’ agenda on infrastructure + housing applies to Australia, where our cities seem much less sclerotic. But in part, this is a sign of how often we exempt projects from ‘normal’ legal review and planning processes. 🧵

‘Gina Rinehart also singled out Italy and Hungary, which are governed by populist rightwing coalitions, as countries Australia could aspire to…’ Should Australia aspire to be Italy or Hungary?

Every election, at least one friend or family-member asks me the question ‘who are X party preferencing?’ because press coverage of how to vote cards has confused them about how preferences work. Well and truly time for the media to reconsider how they cover this issue.