Events
Charting Australia’s path to a fairer and more prosperous future - ONLINE ONLY
Event Type: ESA Event
Date: Wednesday Jul 30, 2025, 12:30 pm
Recent events in the USA and Europe show how rising inequalities can fuel social division, polarisation and political instability. This serves as a stark reminder of how important it is to monitor the health of our nation and take action to avoid a similar fate. So how does Australia’s progress on key economic, social and environmental indicators compare to our peers? Where are we falling behind and what are the risks? Can we turn around the rising levels of inequality, declining investment in innovation, and persistent poverty in Australia and chart a path to a fairer and more prosperous future? Our new report card on Australia’s progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) helps to answer these crucial questions.
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Emerging Women in Economics Cocktail Event
Event Type: ESA Event
Date: Thursday Jul 31, 2025, 6:00 pm
The Economic Society of Australia invites you to an inspiring evening of connection and conversation at our ‘Emerging Women in Economics’ cocktail event.
This special gathering is designed to bring together early-career women economists, students, professionals, and friends of the field for a relaxed and uplifting night of networking and idea-sharing.
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The paradigm shift in Australian labour market policy: Balancing efficiency with equity
Event Type: ESA Event
Date: Wednesday Aug 6, 2025, 12:30 pm
Australia’s labour market reforms since the 1990s were aimed at prioritising business ‘efficiency’ over other policy goals. Governments gave employers increased discretion over workforce decisions relating to pay-setting, recruitment and training, and reduced the influence of trade unions and employment tribunals over these processes. These changes were seen as necessary to allow employers to adjust to an increasingly competitive business environment following the liberal economic reforms of the 1980s. In this context, this presentation will analyse the paradigm shift in Australian labour market policy since 2022 aimed at balancing business ‘efficiency’ with workforce ‘equity’. Through an analysis of changes to wage-setting and bargaining, workplace gender equality and skilled immigration, it will argue the post-1990s wave of efficiency-oriented policies produced not only ‘inequities’ including low wage growth, gender-based job undervaluation and underpayment, but also ‘inefficiencies’ including skills shortages and competitive disadvantages for compliant employers. As well as analysing the post-2022 changes, the presentation will consider possible future labour market reform options.
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Medicine in an era of exponential technological change: what will this mean for you, and for Australia?
Event Type: ESA Event
Date: Wednesday Sep 17, 2025, 11:45 am
We are in the midst of a transformation of medical technology, driven in large part by parallel exponential changes in three areas of technology: genomics, which provides high-resolution data about the molecular composition of our bodies; data science and AI, which allow us to identify patterns in these data; and therapeutics, which provides increasingly precise ways to intervene in human biology to prevent or cure disease. In combination, these technologies define the emerging field of genomic medicine, which has already had a profound impact on the diagnosis of genetic disorders and the treatment of cancer, and has the potential to improve virtually all areas of healthcare. However, these technologies also create new challenges, including maintaining high quality in an era of rapid change; potential increases in the cost of healthcare; and equity of access and impact. Prof MacArthur will outline the potential of the field of genomic medicine and summarise the challenges ahead, acknowledging that resolving them will require a multi-pronged strategy across research, healthcare systems, policy, and society.
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