Public Matters
The Public Matters series comprises short books addressing pressing issues of public concern for Australians.
Please note: The following list of titles is sorted by publication date, with the most recent first.
Displaying results 1 to 2 of 2.
Curing Australia’s Childcare Crisis »
Quality, universal early learning
Authored by: Andrew Scott
Publication date: 2026
Australian childcare is in crisis. Revelations in the last two years of the serious harm being done to many of Australia’s youngest citizens, in places meant for their education and care, have shocked the nation. Failings simmering for decades, because governments have again allowed childcare to become dominated by excessive profit seekers, are forcing a policy reckoning. In this book, Professor Andrew Scott outlines expert evidence and international experience to demonstrate how we can best make childcare safe and invest in children’s crucial first 5 years, when 90 per cent of their brain development takes place. Further, Scott demonstrates how the public outlay on policy measures needed will result in a substantial net financial gain for taxpayers. He outlines a future in which traditional Australian community involvement in early learning such as kindergartens, together with innovative new forms of provision, are mobilised to support parents, properly value the work of childcare professionals, boost women’s workforce participation and increase the role played by fathers in the lives of their children. Out of crisis, as Professor Scott powerfully shows, comes the opportunity for far-reaching, beneficial social change.
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Fragile Prosperity »
Australia’s gigantic monetary gamble
Authored by: Stuart Kells
Publication date: April 2026
Fragile Prosperity presents a new perspective on the past five decades of economic policy in Australia. This book shows that in important respects the basic pillars of this policy are misconceived, resting on fundamental misunderstandings of money, taxation and fiscal accounting.
Monetary and fiscal policies in Australia are reappraised, along with the nation’s program of financial deregulation: a gigantic experiment in modern money. A new understanding is presented of the causes of inflation in Australia and the drivers of house price growth, along with associated impacts on wealth distribution and inequality.
The implications are stark. While successive federal governments and Australia’s central bank have given up the means to directly control the principal cause of inflation, the current method of inflation control operates like a dead hand on the non-bank economy. Australia now faces a terrible conundrum in public policy and macroeconomic management, one with urgent implications for countries with similar regulatory settings, such as Canada and New Zealand. Further afield, the story of Australia’s experiment with modern money is a cautionary tale for all advanced economies.
‘Many younger Australians no longer feel that hard work brings a better life. In this timely book, Kells reveals the deeper, actual reasons Australia is no longer a land of economic opportunity.’
Thomas Walker, CEO, Think Forward
‘The thrust of this excellent work is that the process and consequences of the generation of money have been widely misunderstood by regulatory and government bodies, leaving Australia unwittingly clinging to a “fragile prosperity”. Kells sets about offering practical solutions.’
David Merrett, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Melbourne
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