Australia could be on the cusp of a new wave of prosperity - provided our political leaders confront five long-standing domestic policy challenges, according to a special pre-election book from independent think tank the Grattan Institute.
Orange Book 2025: Policy priorities for the federal government sets out a policy blueprint to boost the living standards of current and future generations.
The book calls on whoever wins the election - whether Labor or Coalition, majority or minority - to stay the course on many necessary but difficult reforms, and tackle others that have been in the too-hard basket for too long.
It identifies Australia's Big Five policy challenges as:
1. Transitioning to net zero - we need to bend the curve on carbon emissions and focus on the economic transformation that accompanies decarbonisation.
2. Tackling the housing crisis - we need to boost supply, relax planning constraints, and support mobility.
3. Deepening talent pools - we need to improve our school systems, early childhood education, skilled migration, and delivery of human services.
4. Meeting the needs of an ageing population - we need to get better at tackling chronic disease, and shore-up sustainable retirement and aged-care systems.
5. Fixing the structural budget problem - we need to introduce bold tax reforms, implement sensible savings, make hospitals more efficient, and rein in NDIS costs to make the scheme sustainable.
'None of these challenges is new, and in each case we have already made a start - but the clock is ticking,' says the book's lead author, Grattan Institute CEO Aruna Sathanapally.
'To go the next mile, Australia needs to get from constrained workforce participation to maximising talent; from rooftop solar subsidies to industrial renewables, storage, and power grid infrastructure; from regulation that stifles housing supply to rules that make building homes easier; from a hospital-focused health system to a focus on primary care and prevention; from too many students falling behind in literacy and numeracy to high-quality teaching that raises achievement in every classroom; from unsustainable NDIS growth to a more efficient system that delivers the life-changing support disabled Australians need.'
The Orange Book is named after Grattan Institute's signature colour. Like the 'Blue Book' (for the Coalition) and the 'Red Book' (for Labor) that public service chiefs prepare for incoming governments, the 'Orange Book' sets out policy recommendations for whichever party wins the election.
Based on detailed research and rigorous analysis published by Grattan Institute since it was founded 16 years ago, the book has chapters on:
- Economic growth and budgets
- The net-zero economy
- Energy
- Housing
- Health
- School education
- The NDIS
- Retirement incomes
- Integrity in government.
'If governments over the next decade were to tackle a reasonable number of the reforms we recommend in the Orange Book, it would transform the lives of Australians, with higher incomes, less poverty, better-quality and more efficiently delivered services, a cleaner environment, and a stronger democracy,' Dr Sathanapally says.
'Even in these turbulent times, a better Australia beckons. Grattan's Orange Book shows the way.'
