Policy Pitch Competition Winners 2018
From left to right: Associate Professor Dr. Peter Earl, School of Economics, Dr. Bruce Littleboy, School of Economics, Sally Duncan, Professor Jeff Mann of ELRI, Jack Donnelly and Laurie Bristow.

ELRI and The University of Queensland Economics Society (UQES) held another successful “Policy Pitch Competition.”

It involved the entrants researching a topic of their choice, making a 10 minute presentation and being cross examined by the panel comprised of Associate Professor Dr. Peter Earl, School of Economics (UQ) Dr. Bruce Littleboy, School of Economics (UQ) and Professor Jeff Mann, Director of ELRI. Again, the standard of the papers and the presentations were very high. The Panel of judges decided that there be joint winners, Sally Duncan “Shock and Ore – WA’s GST Redistribution Woes” and Jack Donnelly and Laurie Bristow “Mates Rates”.

You can access the papers of the finalists below:

Download PDF: Land Value Tax Daniel Yanes Sanchez, Santiago Pollmeier

Download PDF: Inheritance Tax in Australia Dominic Steven-Roberts, Antonius Bekti Brief

Download PDF: Mates Rates Laurie Bristow, Jack Donelly

Download PDF: NDIS: Enabling Change Liam Hickey

Download PDF: UQES Policy Pitch Madeliene Briggs

Download PDF: Shock and Ore – WA’s GST Redistribution Woes Sally Duncan

Download PDF: Fixing Australia’s Gas Market Will Garske, Stanley Kerne

Download PDF: The Super Norm Zoya Sapara, Jane Tin

Australian Bond Market Seminar

The seminar explored the Australian corporate bond market and examined the economics of expanding the domestic bond market. In comparison to foreign markets, Australia’s corporate bond market is underdeveloped, as measured by an index incorporating: size, efficiency, access, and stability.

Presently, 80% of Australian corporate bond issuance in the past decade has occurred in offshore markets, where Australian companies are able to obtain longer tenors, larger sizes, at lower cost, and to lower-rated issuers than domestically. This represents a lost opportunity for the Australian financial sector. The seminar explored the barriers to development of the Australian corporate bond market from the perspectives of the issuer and investor including: investment markets heavy bias for equities, strong competition from the banking industry and a range of regulatory, institutional and taxation factors. Finally, the seminar explored the economy-wide benefits of development of the corporate bond market, as well as the benefits of an established corporate bond market for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

ELRI is privileged to again sponsor the UQ Economics Society.

UQES held a wonderful Careers & Cocktails function in March this year.

UQES Economics Society

Pictured here(left to right):
Nigel Turay: President, UQES | Kate Mann: Director, Corporate Sponsorship | Professor Jeff Mann AM: Director, ELRI | Professor Ian Harper: Board Member, Reserve Bank of Australia

ELRI UQES Policy Pitch Competition

ELRI and the University of Queensland Economics Society (UQES) has held a “Policy Pitch Competition”.

It involved the entrants researching a topic of their choice, making a 10 minute presentation and being cross examined by the panel comprised of Professor Flavio Menezes, Professor of Economics, School of Economics at UQ , Professor Jeff Mann, Director of ELRI and Dr. Ian MacKenzie, Senior Lecturer, School of Economics at UQ.

It was a great success – there were 17 entrants and the standard was high. The winner was Filip Milosavljevic. The prize is an internship with ELRI.

Pictured (left to right):

  • Professor Flavio Menezes, Professor of Economics, School of Economics at UQ;
  • Filip Milosavljevic, the winner;
  • Professor Jeff Mann, Director of ELRI;
  • Dr. Ian MacKenzie, Senior Lecturer, School of Economics at UQ.

UQUES Public Speaking Team

One of our research Fellows, Kate Mann, was a member of the winning team.

Congratulations to our team of Famin Ahmed, Edward Hogan and Kate Mann for winning the Brisbane Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand Pitch Perfectly Competition!

The team had a great time interacting with one of our premier sponsors, with great exposure to a number of professional services firms around Brisbane. Thanks to all the support crew that attended as well!

Enduring Powers of Attorney Crisis

Enduring power of attorney problems persist as this article shows in The Australian on 5 October 2015. Will this ever increasing social problem continue to go unchecked? This problem was highlighted by ELRI back in December 2012: see the report on this website.

A preliminary discussion paper was produced then by ELRI and is now included on this website to again highlight what ELRI sees as a serious, pressing problem. It has family relationship impacts, financial affairs impacts and ultimately wider cost burdens on the community. Relevant organisations which should be leading the way to reform seem to be just uninterested.

ELRI is of the view that these organisations are failing in their duty to the wider community to get stuck into this problem.

With the ageing population ever expanding, why do they do nothing? If they are doing something, what and where is it? ELRI hopes that, by including the preliminary paper on this website, those organisations may break out of their lethargy.

Download PDF: ELRI Enduring Powers of Attorney Report

QLS State Taxes

As part of its public education role, ELRI presented at the Queensland Law Society Symposium 2015 to alert practitioners to terrific practice opportunities if they skill up in Queensland State Taxes and by doing so will not only help the development of their businesses but greatly assist their clients meet their compliance obligations and the OSR’s compliance requirements.

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