Think: Business Futures

We’re coming up to the most wonderful time of year - Christmas. Tinsel is up and Mariah Carey is blaring through shopping centre speakers. Most retailers make around 30% of their annual income from this time alone. But is consumer confidence still high after a long year of covid lockdowns? And will issues with global supply chains led to empty stockings under the chimney? Guests: Sanjoy Paul, senior lecturer in operations and supply chain management at UTS Brian Walker, CEO and founder of Retail Doctor Group

While the attention is on COP26 and Glasgow, there was a less discussed meeting of international leaders going in Rome. On Sunday, the leaders of the G20 endorsed the OECD changes to international tax laws designed to crack down on multinational companies. Tax havens and profit shifting are key targets, as well as creating new rules for the digital era and ending the race to the bottom for corporate taxation. So, what's in the rules? Who are the winners and losers? And will it actually work? Guests: Roman Lanis, associate professor in accounting at UTS Miranda Stewart, professor in tax law at Melbourne University

As Australia heads towards reopening its international border for the first time since the pandemic began, migration has been flagged as critical to the Australian economic recovery. Last year was the first time that more people left Australia than arrived since World War 2. Immigration has been critical to Australian economic growth for nearly 80 years, but has the way temporary migrant workers have been treated soured the appeal? Will there be an influx of migrants to help Australia grow its way out of debt? Guests: Jock Collins, Professor of Social Economics at UTS Gabriela D'Souza, senior economist, Committee for the Economic Development of Australia

Technology platforms have become ubiquitous in our lives, effectively public utilities despite being run by private corporations. For years, Google operated on an ethos of "Don't be evil" before quietly retiring the phrase from their code of conduct. More and more questions are being asked about how these businesses are run and their overarching impact on our lives, as well as the access they have to our information. Facebook has been the subject of numerous inquiries of late regarding its internal leaks about conduct. This week, Rana Foroohar, global business columnist and associate editor at the Financial Times and global economic analyst for CNN joins Roy Green, emeritus professor at UTS for a wide-ranging conversation about big tech, its expansive reach and whether a big state can reign in these platforms. This is an edited conversation taken from the UTS Vice Chancellor's Democracy Forum 2021.

The plant-based meat industry in Australia is booming. Australians forked out $185 million for meat alternatives in 2020, and the industry is only set to grow from here. As more of us look to ditch meat, or eat less of it, there are questions being asked about the seemingly healthy alternatives. Many are highly processed to simulate meat, which raises the question: just how "plant-based" are they? How much bigger will this industry get? Are we headed for a world without meat, or is it just phoney baloney? Guests: Natalina Zlatevska, Associate Professor of Marketing at UTS Hope Johnson, Senior Lecturer of Business and Law at Queensland University of Technology Producer / Presenter: Josh Green

Evergrande is the name on everybody’s lips. China’s second largest property developer is struggling to service debts of up to US$300 billion. With Evergrande in a trading halt and on the verge of collapse, there's a broader question to ask about what this means for Australia. Australian iron ore has helped build the Chinese property market which has been the engine of their economic growth. If the Chinese economy suffers a slowdown, will this impact Australian exports? What should the trading relationship between these two countries look like? Guests: James Laurenceson, Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at UTS Tim Harcourt, Industry Professor and Chief Economist at Institute for Public Policy and Governance at UTS Bob Gregory, Professor Emeritus at the Research School of Economics at ANU and former member of the Reserve Bank of Australia Board

After a slow start, Australia is surging ahead in vaccine uptake. The number of Australians who are unsure whether they’ll get the jab has plunged from heights in May of 29% down to around 9%. As NSW and Victoria get closer to restarting their economies, vaccine saturation is going to be critical to reaching herd immunity whilst limiting the number of people who will get a serious infection. So how do we identify and break through those final barriers of vaccine hesitancy to keep people safe while reopening Australia? Is FOMO going to be enough to convince free riders to get off the sidelines and get vaxxed? Guests: Leonora Risse, economist and senior lecturer at RMIT University Ofer Mintz, associate head of the marketing department at UTS Business School Paul Burke, deputy director of the Centre for Business Intelligence and Data Analytics at UTS Business School

Are you thinking of quitting your job? You're not alone. Overseas, people are switching careers or leaving the workforce in such volumes that it's being called The Great Resignation. COVID-19 has shifted many people's priorities or motivated some to pursue their dream career, while others are sick of employers putting excessive demands on their time. Australians have remained loyal to their employers so far, but this week we're asking whether the big quit is coming down under. Guests: Kyoung-Hee Yu, associate professor at UTS Cat Wratten Nusardel Oshana Liam Unwin

Public universities in Australia are in a dire state. This week, two reports outlined that 1 in 5 academics have been made redundant over the past year and that the government’s changes to funding student places, last year’s Job-Ready Graduates program, doesn’t cover the cost of cuts made in years prior. International students were the third largest export in Australia prior to COVID-19, and universities have become heavily reliant on their fees to cover teaching and research costs. But with borders closed and no additional government support forthcoming, can these institutions continue to meet demand as the financial support runs dry? Guests: Alison Barnes, NTEU national president Mark Warburton, honorary senior fellow at the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education Roy Green, emeritus professor at UTS

It’s no secret that water is essential to life as we know it. By 2025, it’s estimated that over 60% of the world will live in water stressed areas. So it’s no shock that access to and ownership of water is big business. Australia has the most sophisticated market system for the trading of water entitlements, predominantly built around the Murray-Darling Basin. But does the market work effectively? Should something as valuable as water be commoditised like shares? Guests: Mike Young, professor of water policy at the University of Adelaide Scott Hamilton, author of Sold Down the River

To lead or not to lead, that is the badly paraphrased question. Trendsetters and thought leaders proliferate across every aspect of our lives, from our workplaces to our social media. But what makes a leader? Does leadership just come down to how many people follow you on LinkedIn? Or is there something more intangible than that? Does the cream always rise to the top? Guests: Dan Caprar, associate professor at the University of Sydney David Goldbaum, associate professor in economics at UTS.

Semiconductors are the tiny microchips that are critical to the operation of electronic devices. Working from home means that people want newer smarter devices, driving demand for semiconductors up. At the same time, its fragile global supply chain has been impacted during the pandemic. Industries relying on these tiny silicon chips, like carmakers, are losing money and running out of chips. How did this happen? And should Australia start making its own chips to build up sovereign capability? Guests: Jim Rabeau, director of quantum technologies future science platform at CSIRO Moira Scerri, lecturer in strategic supply chain management at UTS

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is yet another warning to decarbonise the economy as soon as possible. To reach net zero, countries are putting a price on carbon emissions through cap and trade schemes or taxation. The EU and US are looking at going one step further by considering additional tariffs on trade partners who lack an emissions trading system through border adjustment mechanisms. The Australian government is hostile towards emissions targets, let alone carbon pricing. So will we continue to hold out against meaningful change or will we be forced to take action in order to keep up with our trading partners? Guests: Bob Carr, former Foreign Minister and Industry Professor of Climate and Business at UTS Nicki Hutley, economist and councilor to the Climate Council

Afterpay is the darling of the financial world following its acquisition by US payments fintech Square in the largest acquisition in Australian corporate history, valued at $39 billion AUD. It caps off a monumental run for the pioneer of the Buy Now, Pay Later market. The payment scheme allows its target users to purchase goods upfront and pay them off over 4 fortnightly installments. So is this credit by another name operating in a regulatory loophole? Or is this modern day form of lay-by the future of payments? Square seems to think so, but will they be paying in 4 fortnightly installments too? Guests: James Sleep, policy advisor at Financial Counselling Australia Marta Khomyn, post-doctoral researcher in economics at UTS Lien Duong, senior lecturer in economics and finance at Curtin University

Around the world, house prices are surging. In Australia, house prices are climbing at their fastest annual rate in 17 years. This is propelled by a combination of low interest rates and government stimulus along with a small number of properties on the market and a strong demand from people looking to buy. To be fair, it always feels like house prices are impossibly high in state capitals like Sydney or Melbourne, with young people feeling locked out from owning their own patch of affordable land. So how can we change this? What policy levers can be pulled to burst the bubble and make housing more affordable for Australians? Guests: Janet Ge, Associate Professor in the School of Built Environment at UTS Matt Grudnoff, senior economist at The Australia Institute Saul Eslake, economist at Corinna Economic Advisory

As NSW faces a protracted lockdown, stimulus is back on the agenda to keep the economy from crashing and burning. The Federal government has come out with a COVID-19 disaster payment while avoiding the magic word on everyone's lips: JobKeeper. Do we need to bring back a new refined version of the wage subsidy program or will the current stimulus plan be enough to save businesses? Guests: Mary Aldred, CEO of the Franchise Council of Australia Peter Docherty, Associate Professor of Economics at UTS Steven Hamilton, Assistant Professor at George Washington University and Chief Economist at Blueprint Institute

It may be 2021 but the 2020 Olympics are only just about to get underway. Tokyo has been a saga, with spectators banned from attending due to COVID-19 outbreaks and calls for the event to be cancelled. With Brisbane working hard to get a guernsey and host the 2032 Olympics, we're asking: are the Olympics fit enough to go the distance? Guests: David Rowe, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society at WSU. Tim Harcourt, Chief Economist with the Institute of Public Policy and Governance at UTS.

Well, the financial year has come and gone, and you may have received emails or phone calls or postage from any number of charities calling for tax-deductible donations. The not-for-profit sector makes up 11% of the economy, employing around 1.4 million Australians. Indeed, a glimpse at the sector in 2019 paints a rosy picture of a broad industry made of large businesses and smaller volunteer outfits, a sector growing in donations, assets and government support. But this was before the pandemic where operations were shuttered and volunteers were sent home while at the same time, demand for services increased. To discuss a sector under pressure, I was joined earlier by Dr Bronwen Dalton, Head of the Department of Management at the UTS Business School and co-ordinator of the Masters of Not-for Profit and Social Enterprise Management and Tim Costello, Chair of the Community Council for Australia.

More and more, companies are investing based around the buzzword of ESG. That stands for Environmental, Social, Governance, which broadly describes the non-financial factors that are increasingly important to investors. These can include incorporating gender diversity in a company board, to not supporting carbon emitting investments or other such ethical commitments. As the European Union and the United States take steps to regulate the ESG investing industry, the question is whether Australia can match up in a socially conscious manner. Cassandra Williams, Certification and Ratings Manager at the Responsible Investment Association Australiasia and Danielle Logue, Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Business and Sustainable Development at the UTS Business School joined me to discuss this further.

Where did you go to school? Over the last 30 years, non-government schools have doubled in size as more and more parents are opting for greater school choice. How these schools are funded has been a point of contention. School funding is provided by partnerships between the federal and relevant state governments. Private schools are predominantly funded by the federal government, while public education is mostly drawn from state funding. A funding model for private schools is set to come in next January, but will this ensure all independent schools are fairly funded? And is the amount of money going to private schools fair and equitable when compared to the staffing and resources struggles of public schools? This week, host Toby Hemmings was joined by Glenn Fahey, research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies and Associate Professor Jane Hunter from the University of Technology Sydney School of Education to discuss how money is spent on private and public education in a post-Gonski world.