Howard-era reforms to higher education have led to a lack of transparency and democratic accountability within the councils that govern Australia’s public universities.

Experts from the Centre for Future Work recently made a submission to the Senate committee studying the “Closing Loopholes” bill, which would make several reforms to the Fair Work Act.

The audit, assurance and consulting industry has failed to meet expectations. The industry needs clear standards, better monitoring and strong sanctions for misconduct.

The Stage 3 cuts are a high-cost, inequitable policy.

The Australia Institute is a longstanding supporter of a constitutionally enshrined Voice, as articulated in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Research is the cornerstone of the Australia Institute’s work. There is a significant body of research—led by First Nations people—about the Voice to Parliament, where it came from, how it is likely to work,

Publicly-listed companies in Australia disclose little information about their political expenditure, with few disclosing lobbying spending or payments to trade associations

Truth in political advertising laws are recommended, supported, and overdue in Victoria.

In 2018, the Victorian Parliament made major changes to electoral law in the state, including introducing real-time disclosure of donation, banning foreign donations and limiting anonymous donations.

The disability support workforce is central to the effectiveness and sustainability of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

New research confirms that corporate profits in Australia, despite recent moderation, remain well above historic norms, and must fall further in order to allow a rebuilding of real wages in Australia that have been badly damaged by recent inflation.

Avoiding the worst impacts of climate change demands urgent action. This urgency ought to be driven by fulsome and transparent information. Current economic modelling by the CCA could be an important contribution to this task, if done properly and shared with all.

Australia wastes 7.6m tonnes of food each year, costing households $19.3 billion.

The Australia Institute’s annual Climate of the Nation report provides a comprehensive account of Australian attitudes towards climate change, its causes and impacts, and the integrity of Australia’s current and proposed climate solutions.

The problems attached to over-use of consultants are becoming clearer. The experience in New South Wales accords with the national experience: dependency on consultants hollows out public sector capacity and leads to bad government decisions.

The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to make a submission on the Syngas and Power Generation, Stage 1 Commercial Development, NeuRizer Urea Project, which is currently open for public comment under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act Public Portal.

In Denmark, renewable wind power generates 54% of all electricity. The rapid expansion of wind power has been driven by policies that ensure citizens have a financial stake in its development. 

FOI is a crucial part of the beneficial information feedback loop between the government and the people. However, our FOI system is broken and cultural and legal changes are needed to fix it.

The Australia Institute surveyed Australians about the importance of governments keeping their election promises, finding three in five think it is more important to adapt economic policy to suit the current circumstances.

Education has long been recognised as a vital determinant of both personal life chances and broader economic and social performance.

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s decisions on interest rate increases rely on the concept of balancing inflation and unemployment.

Tasmania has not published a State of the Environment Report since 2009. Nationally, alarming declines of natural and cultural values are underway. Without a state-focused analysis, Tasmanians are in the dark about the scale and detail of concerns and government decision-makers are flying blind.

The Australia Institute surveyed a sample of 1,501 Australians about their attitudes towards consultancies, donation reform, and who they trust to provide policy advice to the government. The results show that: Three in every four Australians (74%) support banning political donations from organisations that receive funding from government contracts, including 80% of Coalition voters, 70%

The NT LNG facility aims to produce up 20 million tonnes of LNG per year for export using gas fracked from the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin.

A submission made by the Australia Institute to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security on the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Prohibited Hate Symbols and Other Measures) Bill 2023.

The Australia-America economic relationship is one of the world’s most consequential relationships, worth over $2 trillion, yet few understand its depth and scale.

The Australia Institute made a submission to the Northern Territory Government’s Consultation for designing an ad valorem mineral royalty scheme. In our view, It is unclear that there is a need to change the NT mining royalty system. Following reforms in 2018, royalty revenue has increased substantially, and mining exploration investment is at a 10-year

Constructive and non-partisan political finance reform could improve trust in politics and reduce the influence of vested interests.

But if political finance reform is done poorly, it could make Australian elections less fair, and conceal rather than expose the undue influence moneyed interests enjoy over our politicians and parties.

This Bill appears primarily aimed at facilitating the Santos Barossa Project, its related Bayu-Undan carbon capture and storage (CCS) project and other fossil fuel projects off Australia’s northern shores. CCS is a technology that has failed for decades, a fact omitted by public agency submissions relating to this Bill.

Australia needs to respond quickly to powerful new incentives for sustainable manufacturing now on offer in the U.S. and several other industrial countries, or risk being cut out of lucrative new markets for manufactured products linked to renewable energy systems.

Public interest journalism from the ABC has placed scrutiny on issues that governments would prefer to ignore, prompting numerous government inquiries and investigations – what Josh Taylor, writing in Crikey, called “The Four Corners effect”.