Past Programs
Business, Economics and Finance - 2008
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2003
Immigration
10/11/2008
Immigration minister Chris Evans is likely to reduce migration in Australia because of the economic downturn and a predicted rise in the unemployment rate. At the same time employers in agriculture and mining are still complaining about skills shortage.
While the government is setting up exam centres in India to streamline the recruitment of overseas-trained doctors, a physician in rural Victoria has been denied permanent residency because his son has Down syndrome.
How much migration does Australia need? How important are migrants to our economy? And does the selection process need to be reviewed?
Daylight saving
22/10/2008
This weekend will see the start of daylight saving in Western Australia. WA is joining the other Australian daylight saving states with a three-week delay. With Queensland and the Northern Territory opting out of daylight saving, Australia is dealing with five time zones. So would it be important to harmonise time in Australia? Does daylight saving benefit businesses and reduces energy consumption? Or has it just a negative impact on our rhythm of life?
Innovation review
24/09/2008
Today on the program we follow up on some of the key recommendations of VenturousAustralia, Terry Cutler's new report on Australian innovation, research and development. It calls for a doubling of present funding for research including full government funding for university research and significant new tax concessions. Is this where we should be investing the winnings from the resources boom, and is it enough to turn Australia into the clever country?
Resilience: National Science Week
18/08/2008
Scientists around the world are getting very excited about a new way of thinking called resilience. They say it can be used to better manage our communities, businesses, natural resources or even help cope with the pace of change in our lives.
Our population has doubled over the past 40 years, smog is choking our cities and our resource base is disappearing. So, is this the answer to tackling the big problems like the future for the Murray Darling, drought, global warming, or even depression? Or is resilience just a new buzzword that will inevitably fall out of favour? A leading panel of scientists, farmers, industry leaders and psychologists discuss the possibilities of the new science of resilience at a special Australia Talks forum in Canberra, part of National Science Week.
Emissions trade
08/07/2008
According to the Garnaut report emissions trade should start without delay—in 2010. Otherwise climate change would cost Australia not only billions of dollars but also important parts of our unique environment such as the Great Barrier Reef.
Everybody will pay for the scheme: directly through buying emission permits if you're a carbon-emitting industry, and the rest of us will pay for it indirectly through the rising costs of petrol and energy. The government plans to compensate some industries and low-income households. But will that be enough? What are the implications of emissions trading for our economy?
University funding
27/05/2008
Australia is the only developed country to reduced public funding for universities over the last decade. Consequently our universities have one of the highest investments from private sources in the world, around fifty per cent. How carefully should we be monitoring the sources of this funding?
The Saudi Arabian government contributed to an Islamic Research Unit at Griffith University. The University of Queensland accepted money for environmental research from the climate change sceptic Bryant Macfie, member of the Institute of Public Affairs. Woodside Petroleum is a major sponsor of the School of Oil and Gas Engineering at the University of Western Australia, and there are plenty more.
Does this money really come with no strings attached? Australia Talks ... about the funding of universities.
Beyond Kyoto
04/02/2008
Signing Australia up to the Kyoto protocol was one of the first acts of the Rudd government but where to now? As Minister for Climate Change Penny Wong returns from a meeting of the world's biggest carbon emitters, we look Beyond Kyoto.
One of the issues ahead is what responsibility current generations have to future generations. While many international treaties do refer to inter-generational responsibility, it's much more difficult to pin down in legislation. And in framing that legislation, does the environment itself need to be considered? Do the atmosphere, the oceans, or even the trees have a right to exist?
The role of the Reserve Bank
31/01/2008
The Reserve Bank is likely to raise interest rates when it meets on Tuesday -- which may lend support to the Prime Minister's war on inflation. But Australia now faces record levels of domestic debt and some economists are forecasting a recession in the US. So where to for the Australian economy, and is it possible to inoculate ourselves against the negative effects of a spreading global recession?
