By The Australia Institute
Economics and politics explained in plain English
Freedom of Information laws have helped the public uncover information governments would prefer to keep secret, but the system is failing.
Rather than delivering on their election promise to create a Great Koala National Park, the New South Wales Government is sitting on its hands until it can earn carbon credits from forests.
The major parties claim that minority and coalition governments are chaotic and unworkable, but are they actually more effective?
After scarcely mentioning it for nearly a decade while in government, the Coalition are now hot to trot on nuclear power – but why?
Capitalism is dying, but not in the way you might think
The Albanese government came to power with big expectations around climate action, but are the government’s actions falling short of their rhetoric? On this episode of Follow the Money, former President of Kiribati Anote Tong joins Walkley Award winning journalist Stephen...
The ‘robodebt’ debacle was a shameful episode for the federal government, but was it an anomaly? Our guest today says the same behaviours that enabled robodebt have been playing out for decades in our climate policymaking and questions whether the...
Independent MP Helen Haines has introduced a bill to Parliament designed to prevent pork-barreling, where taxpayer money is allocated according to where it is needed to win votes, not where the public needs it most. This was recorded on Tuesday 27th...
Tasmania is heading to an election – 14 months early. Tasmania is retuning the size of its lower house from 25 seats to 35 seats at this election and multiple polls have predicted the result will be a minority government, so...
Federal Parliament is set to pass new industrial relations laws, including the 'right to disconnect.' This means that workers will legally be able to ignore calls outside of work hours. This was recorded on Tuesday 13th February 2024 and things may...
Every year, the Commonwealth collects more revenue from HECS than it gets from the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax. The PRRT is so insufficient that gas companies love it! Mark Ogge explains the Government's proposed changes, and how we can fix it...
It’s been a week for the books in Australian Politics history, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announcing changes to the highly-criticised Stage 3 tax cuts. Which got the media, and the opposition, into a bit of a frenzy. So what's...
With the Iowa Republican caucus over, the starting gun on the 2024 US Election has fired, with the promise of a dramatic election year, and democracy itself on the ballot. This was recorded on Tuesday 23rd January 2024 and things may...
Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars and live events in 2023. 7 years ago, The ABC’s groundbreaking environmental series War On Waste firmly placed the nation’s attention on Australia’s waste issues and solutions....
Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars and live events in 2023. Extreme heat is the most direct and deadly consequence of our hellbent consumption of fossil fuels. It is a first order threat...
Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars and live events in 2023. On 15 September 2008 came the collapse of Lehmann Brothers, the largest bankruptcy in US history. This set off a chain reaction...
Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars and live events in 2023. Australia’s native forests are not only home to some of our most vulnerable and threatened species, they hold critical cultural and ecological...
Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars and live events in 2023. The first person will face trial in relation to Australian war crimes in Afghanistan is David McBride, the whistleblower on trial, not...
Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars and live events in 2023. What if we’re thinking about inflation wrong? Join renowned economist Isabella Weber, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst...
Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars and live events in 2023. This episode, we're listening back to one of our most popular episodes from the year with our Executive Director Richard Denniss, digging...
Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars and live events in 2023. One of the great mysteries of Australian life is that a land of sweeping plains, with one of the lowest population densities...
Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars and live events in 2023. This year has been a doozy in Australian politics, and we need to talk about it. We invited a panel of distinguished...
The United Nations annual climate conference, COP28, is wrapping up, and it's crunch time. Is there going to be a mention of actually phasing out fossil fuels? Or will we have more of avoiding the issue? This was recorded on Tuesday...
The Maugean skate, native to Macquarie Harbour, is running out of time. It's facing extinction, due in large part to the Tasmanian salmon industry. This was recorded on Monday 4th December 2023 and things may have changed since recording. australiainstitute.org.au // @theausinstitute Guest: Eloise...
Clive Palmer, one of Australia's richest men, is suing Australia for at least $41.3bn, claiming it breached the ASEAN free trade agreement in relation to coal exploration permits. But he's doing so...as a foreign investor? Stephen Long explains how Clive Palmer’s...
In a less than ideal week for the government, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has copped some criticism for how much overseas travel he’s been doing. Most PMs have been subject to criticism for travelling, so how seriously should we take...
Economic data can tell us a lot about what's happening in society and the economy. Introducing the Autralia Institute's brand new podcast, Dollars & Sense, with Greg Jericho, Chief Economist at the Australia Institute and the Centre for Future Work...
Australia is one of the few countries with a developed research sector that does not have a research integrity watchdog, instead relying on research institutions to initiate and oversee investigations into their own researchers. This was recorded on Wednesday 15th November...
The RBA has delivered its first interest rate rise since Michelle Bullock took over from Philip Lowe as Governor, up 25 basis points to 4.35%, the highest in 12 years. So what needs to change for the pain to stop? This...
By exposing human rights abuses, government wrongdoing and corporate misconduct, whistleblowers like David McBride and Richard Boyle make Australia a better place. Yet too often in Australia, whistleblowers are prosecuted rather than supported. This was recorded on Tuesday 24th October 2023 and...
Following the Voice Referendum, new Australia Institute research shows that almost nine in ten (87%) Australians want Parliament to pass truth in political advertising laws before the next federal election. This was recorded on Tuesday 17th October 2023 and things may have...
Many Australians are still unsure what the referendum on is even about. What would a Voice to Parliament look like, and how would it help Indigenous people? To help make it more clear, the Australia Institute’s own Kate McBride recently...
As the Senate Inquiry into the management and assurance of integrity by consulting services continues, Labor senator Deb O'Neill and Greens senator Barbara Pocock have been applying the pressure to consulting firms in the hotseat. This was recorded on Wednesday 4th...
The Australia-America economic relationship is one of the world’s most consequential, worth over $2 trillion, yet few understand its depth and scale. This was recorded on Thursday 3rd August 2023 and things may have changed since recording. The Australia Institute // @theausinstitute Guest: Joey...
As the Northern Hemisphere experiences extreme heatwaves and Australia prepares for a “horror summer”, and the new RBA Governor Michelle Bullock warns climate change poses a “particularly acute” challenge for the Australia economy, listen back to the launch of the...
As many Australians are facing rising cost-of-living, which is being made worse by climate change, fossil fuel companies are making record profits. So how can our Government make them pay the bill? This was recorded on Tuesday 12th September 2023 and...
A new deal to save the Murray-Darling basin has been brokered by Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, following another mass fish kill, and a survey finding not a single adult Murray Cod in the Lower Darling-Bakka. This was recorded on Tuesday...
The Labor Government has been campaigning for Australia to host COP31, the UN climate conference, in partnership with a Pacific Island nation. But Pacific Islanders have several concerns, mainly due to Australia's track record with new fossil fuels, and lacklustre...
While you might not think native duck hunting is a big issue in Australia, it actually has extensive detrimental effects on our ecosystems. And it isn't even that popular among Australians. This was recorded on Tuesday 6th June 2023 and things...
The lifecycle emissions resulting from Tamboran Resources’ proposed Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) processing and export facility in the Northern Territory would be equivalent to 12 coal-fired power stations every year when operating at full capacity. Not exactly on the transition...
The Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Amendment (Using New Technologies to Fight Climate Change) Bill currently before Parliament sounds promising. But as it turns out, the name of the bill is hiding a lot of ugly truths. This was recorded on Thursday...
Restoring trust and integrity in Australia’s democracy was a key issue in 2022 federal election. In March, independent MP Dr Sophie Scamps introduced a new bill designed to end the ‘jobs for mates’ culture in federal politics. The bill seeks...
In his new essay “The Great Stock ‘n’ Coal Swindle” for The Monthly, Nick Feik takes a deep dive into Australia’s carbon offsets industry and its links to fossil fuel expansion. This was recorded on Wednesday 8th March 2023 and things may...
The Maugean Skate, nicknamed the 'Tasmanian Tiger of the Sea,' is on the brink of extinction, with salmon farming in the region threatening its natural habitat. So will Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek be able to fulfill her promise of...
Given the existential threat that rising sea levels and increasing extreme weather events pose to their communities, Pacific Island nations have been some of the most vocal advocates for climate action and, more specifically, an end to fossil fuel production. Australia...
Sitting parliamentarians rarely lose elections. While incumbents have a publicly funded head-start, challengers rely on donations to fund their election campaigns, which is why political donation reform needs to ensure everyone should be able to afford a ticket to run...
The Australian Government has proposed that Australia host the 2026 UN Climate Conference, in “partnership” with Pacific nations. But can Australia be considered a credible host for a COP31 while it continues to subsidise and approve fossil fuel expansion? This was...
More than a decade after the Gonski review into Australia’s school funding aimed to reduce the impact of social disadvantage on educational outcomes, educational outcomes for Australian schoolchildren are getting worse. The success of Finnish educational outcomes shows that equity...
Norway is number one the World Press Freedom Index, while Australia dropped 14 places in 2022 due in part to its highly concentrated media landscape. This webinar, the second of our special Nordic Talks webinar series, will explore how Norway’s targeted...
In Denmark, the bicycle has been recognised as a fast, efficient, and sustainable mode of transportation for decades, and the key to more liveable cities and happy, healthy people – supported by a network of safe cycling infrastructure and a...
