General

The Connectivity Costs II: Telecommunications Affordability and Waged Poor Households report follows our 2016 Connectivity Costs report which looked at telecommunications affordability for those primarily reliant on Centrelink incomes. This new report focuses on telecommunications affordability for those households living below the poverty line but whose main source of income is wages.

This report is the second volume analysing the results of the survey of 1,000 South Australians about their attitudes to taxes and government expenditure. This volume focuses on expenditure and challenges the public desire for more spending and the perceptions of waste in government expenditure.

Download Reality Check: Public Perceptions of South Australian Government Expenditure and Waste

Major study conducted jointly with the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network based on a survey of over 500 low income households and a series of focus groups. The study looks at the (in)adequacy of the Centrelink Telephone Allowance (CTA) and the gaps in the market's provision of appropriate telecommunication services. 

Download Connectivity Costs

SACOSS’ report into gambling taxes in SA highlights growing pressures on the state budget from declining gambling tax revenues – but it is not necessarily good news for gamblers or the community. The SACOSS report notes that gambling taxes are the fifth biggest source of state taxes ($388m in 2014-15), but estimates that in real terms gambling tax revenue is now $111 a year less than it was a decade ago.