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Stephen Bartos

Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Stephen is an internationally recognised expert on governance, regulation and public finance.

Stephen was Professor of Governance and Head of the National Institute of Governance at the University of Canberra, and also a Commissioner with the International Airservices Commission, the regulator that governs operators’ access to international air passenger and freight routes into and out of Australia. During the 2015 and 2019 NSW elections served as Parliamentary Budget Officer.

Until 2003, he was Deputy Secretary, Australian Department of Finance and Administration, where he managed the Budget Group. During this period, he introduced Australia’s outcomes/outputs and accruals budgeting framework, which (with some modification) remains the budget system today.

Climate Change Series

The 7 charts that show Australians struggling as saving falls to near zero

Dec 07, 2023 08:05 am UTC| Economy

The national accounts released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show economic growth slid to a measly 0.2% in the last quarter. Thats well down from a low 0.4% in the June quarter. Of course, economic...

Climate Change Series

From field to store to plate, our farmers are increasingly worried about climate change

Mar 11, 2022 17:01 pm UTC| Nature

Empty supermarket shelves still shock Australians, who have become accustomed to being able to buy the food they want. But we can expect to see more empty shelves, more often, in coming decades. Climate change means...

Economy

What should you do if you can’t pay your rent or mortgage?

The cost of living crisis is making it difficult for many people to pay their bills, including housing costs. Private sector rents have increased by an average 9% over the year to February 2024, and rising interest rates...

Reducing energy demand and improving efficiency will help prevent the next gas crisis

Gas prices have relaxed, Europe has come out of the winter with record gas storage levels and a surfeit of liquefied natural gas is set to reach the shores of Europe over the coming years. Many commentators are hopeful...

Minimum wage for South African farm workers: study shows 2013 hike helped reduce poverty even though compliance was poor

Minimum wage policies are typically aimed at reducing poverty. Yet there is little direct evidence of this effect, especially in developing countries. And none for South Africa. In a recent paper, we consider the...

Gas is good until 2050 and beyond, under Albanese gas strategy

The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel through to 2050 and beyond. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuels uses would change over...

South Africa’s plan to move away from coal: 8 steps to make it succeed

The South African governments Just Energy Transition Implementation Plan was launched in November 2023. It is a roadmap guiding the country away from reliance on coal-fired power towards renewable energy alternatives by...

Politics

Donald Trump Allegedly Offers Oil Execs a Deal to Scrap EV Incentives for $1B Donation

Former President Donald Trump reportedly proposed a $1 billion deal to oil executives, offering to end electric vehicle (EV) subsidies in return for campaign funding, according to The Washington Post. This move underscores...

US Supreme Court upended decades of precedent in 2022 by allowing voters to vote with gerrymandered maps instead of fixing the congressional districts first

For the 2022 midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Alabama to use congressional districts that violated the law and diluted the voting power of Black citizens. A 5-4 vote by the Supreme Court in February...

Germany lowers voting age to 16 for the European elections

Ahead of the European parliament elections in June, Germany has lowered the age limit on participation to 16. This makes it the largest of just a handful of states in the EU to allow people under the age of 18 to vote....

South Africa will be president of the G20 in 2025: two much-needed reforms it should drive

South Africa will play an important international role in 2025 as president of the G20. The G20 is a group of 19 countries as well as the African Union and the European Union. Between them they represent 85% of global...

What early 2024 polls are revealing about voters of color and the GOP

By the end of winter 2024, the return of Donald Trump to the top of the GOP presidential ticket has revealed a surprising trend in the former presidents base of support: his increasing popularity among Black and Latino...

Science

Is dark matter’s main rival theory dead? There’s bad news from the Cassini spacecraft and other recent tests

One of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics today is that the forces in galaxies do not seem to add up. Galaxies rotate much faster than predicted by applying Newtons law of gravity to their visible matter, despite those...

Why are algorithms called algorithms? A brief history of the Persian polymath you’ve likely never heard of

Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without...

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...

Dark matter: our new experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light

A ghost is haunting our universe. This has been known in astronomy and cosmology for decades. Observations suggest that about 85% of all the matter in the universe is mysterious and invisible. These two qualities are...

Technology

Altcoins Expected to Yield 2x-5x Gains by May End: Fetch.AI, Floki, AAVE, ENA

The latest climb in Bitcoins price beyond $65,000 on Wednesday sparked a new relief rally in the cryptocurrency market. Top altcoins are also profiting from the upward momentum, recovering from recent downturn tendencies....

US Orthodontic Leader Accepts Shiba Inu, Embracing Cryptocurrency for Payments

Shiba Inu, the popular meme coin, is experiencing a period of growth and increased utility. Amoré Orthodontic Aligners, a company that specializes in orthodontic care, recently announced that it will now accept SHIB...

Crypto Lender Genesis to Return $3 Billion in Bankruptcy Wind-Down Amid Rising Creditor Haircuts

Crypto lender Genesis Global received court approval to return nearly $3 billion to customers, while a report highlights a significant increase in creditor haircuts in bankruptcy cases to 73% in FY24. Judge Approves...

Binance Enhances SHIB, USTC, AGIX Trading and Liquidity for Better Market Dynamics

Binance has announced efforts to enhance liquidity and trading for Shiba Inu (SHIB), USTC, and SingularityNET (AGIX), including tick size adjustments aimed at improving market dynamics and trading experience. Binances...

OpenAI Disbands Team Tackling AI Risks Amid Leadership Changes and GPT-4o Launch

OpenAI has dismantled its Superalignment team, initially formed to address AI risks, following the resignations of key leaders Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike. OpenAI Disbands Superalignment Team Days After Leaders Resign,...