The Australia Institute

Hi, I'm Angus Blackman and this is After America.

And this week I'm here with Dr. Emma Shortis, Australia Institute Director of International and Security Affairs.

G'day, Emma.

Hi, Angus.

I've always taken the view, and perhaps it's been easier in the kind of academic work that I've pursued, that My job is not to take sides unless there's evidence to drive in a particular direction, but I don't start from a particular position in that I treat arguments on both sides with respect and not only treat the arguments that are there, but I think about What would the other side say when I'm reading something? What would be a response? I, like everyone else, have a gut response to a lot of things I read, but then I have to check myself and say, well, that's fine.

But if you were someone on the right or someone further to the left or whatever, what might you say about this? I've always taken the view, and I think it's increasingly important to take this view, that if academics are seen as simply pushing a line so that they are now seen to be or could be seen to be increasingly like someone working in the IPA, if you're on the right, or for the Australian Institute, if you're on the left, the question arises much more strongly than it did when I entered the academy why pay these people, why would a taxpayer pay to employ someone like Murray Goot? It arises now, leaving aside the fact that I've retired, but it arises now because when I entered the academy, there was almost nothing by way of a think tank So you did have people that were writing on the left and writing on the right.

And the university was a much more diverse place than it is today.

But you couldn't point to think tanks, except for the IPA, which was formed in about 1946, 44. you couldn't readily point to those think tanks and say, well, why isn't Murray at the United States Study Center or the IPA or the Lowy Institute or the Australian Institute? I mean, why do we hire these people? And in fact, political science, amongst other social sciences and humanities, is under threat in this country.

in part because of vice chancellors that say, we could do without these partisans, thanks very much.

They make life difficult.

We'll just end up being a third-rate economy in a banana republic.

G'day and welcome to Follow the Money, the Australia Institute's podcast that explains economics, politics and policy in plain English.

I'm your host, Ebony Bennett.

On Melbourne Cup Day, the Reserve Bank hiked interest rates for the fifth time this year.

It shows that consumption is quite sluggish.

It is going to make people feel like it's a recession.

But will this interest rate hike actually do much to tackle inflation? And is there anything the government can do to address the underlying issues? Joining me this week to dig into it all is Australia Institute Senior Economist, Matt Grudnoff.

G'day, Matt.

Okay, well, Shane, the problem with this latest rate rise, of course, is that it might not actually solve the inflation problem.

Now, Bernie Fraser... a former Reserve Bank governor, he told the Australia Institute recently that he doesn't think another rate rise will help much at all.

Those interest rate increases are not going to do much to change inflation in current circumstances in Australia, except very much at the margin.

But they are causing a lot of pain and agony for a lot of working people, a lot of people with mortgages.