Tasmania hosts some of the highest marine diversity and endemism on Earth, world’s best practice expertise in marine science and governance, and punches above its weight in economic contributions, thanks to our ocean.

The 43rd Parliament of Australia, which was the first minority parliament since 1940, was a time of renewed interest in parliamentary reform to enhance our democratic accountability and processes. With the potential for the 2022 federal election to grow the crossbench or result in another hung parliament, what further reforms could be on the horizon?

In September 2021, the multi-party Electoral Matters Committee of the Parliament of Victoria released an extensive report, the findings of its inquiry into the impact of social media on elections and electoral administration. The Australia Institute surveyed a representative sample of 600 Victorians with questions about truth in politics and social media in Victoria, based

The Commonwealth Government has tabled its budget for the 2022-23 financial year. As the nation emerges from two years of lockdowns and border closures, with less than two months until a federal election, this budget is focused on getting the government re-elected – rather than addressing the challenges of public health, stagnant wages, and sustainability facing Australia.

The Business Council of Australia (BCA) is again proposing a cut in company tax rates. There is little that is new: the BCA has been advocating this proposal or a similar one ever since it came into existence in the early 1980s. Currently, the BCA proposes to cut by way of increasing the threshold below

The economic assessments of the Glendell proposal overstate its benefits and understate its costs. Applying current carbon prices to only its direct emissions gives a net present value of between negative $460 and negative $570 million. This excludes consideration of the potential heritage and biodiversity impacts.

Proposals to halve the beer excise would cost around a billion dollars over the next five years and undermine policies to reduce the abuse of alcohol.

In 2021-22, Australian Federal and state governments provided a total of $11.6 billion worth of spending and tax breaks to assist fossil fuel industries. This is a 12% increase on last year’s figure and 56 times the budget of the National Recovery and Resilience Agency. Over the longer term, $55.3 billion is committed to subsidising gas and oil extraction, coal-fired power, coal railways, ports, carbon capture and storage, and other measures.

Freedom of Information documents show that when designing the ERF CCS method, the Clean Energy Regulator consulted almost exclusively with fossil fuel companies and big emitters, while actively excluding independent researchers.

Strong vocational education and training (VET) systems are vital to the success of dynamic, innovative economies and inclusive labour markets. Australia’s VET system once provided well-established and dependable education-to-jobs pathways, but a combination of policy vandalism and fiscal mismanagement plunged the VET system into a lasting and multidimensional crisis.

The stage 3 tax cuts will give occupations like CEOs of large corporations, surgeons, and federal politicians a $9,075 a year tax cut. While aged care workers, hairdressers, and café workers will get nothing. When the LMITO ends teachers, nurses and chefs will pay $1080 more in tax.

Government efforts to increase the supply of carbon credits in Australia suggest that proposed administrative changes to the Carbon Farming Initiative Regulations may be used as an opportunity to allow excluded projects to participate in the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF).

Allowing carbon credit projects on land that has been recently or illegally cleared would both incentivise land clearing and undermine the purpose of the ERF in reducing emissions.

The proposed REDD+ project in Oro Province of PNG covers an area twice the size of London and is expected to generate a huge 800 million carbon credits over its lifetime.

However, the available evidence fails to provide any assurance that this project has integrity, raising broader concerns about the types of carbon credits that Australia, other countries, and the private sector may use to meet their emission reduction commitments.

New research from the Centre for Future Work shows that the rapid transformation of Australia’s aluminium facilities to sustainable sources of electricity would spark substantial economic benefits: for the aluminium industry, its supply chain, and for the burgeoning renewable energy sector (which would achieve greater critical mass from major new power supply contracts).

Tasmania’s Integrity Commission is weak and is losing public trust. It has never held a public hearing. It has run fewer investigations than any other state’s integrity body. It has the second lowest per capita budget. It has only ever referred two people for prosecution, the lowest number of any state. Tasmania’s Commission needs broader

Key results The Australia Institute surveyed nationally representative samples of 1,000 Australians for their views on the Australian Senate, and the principle of proportional representation. The results show that: Respondents were asked whether the Coalition Government has a majority in the Senate. Respondents are somewhat more likely to select the correct answer, that it does

Quantitative and qualitative analysis was conducted on large samples of Twitter data collected following two points of tension in the Australia-China relationship in 2020 – Australia’s call for an independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19, and a Chinese Government representative’s retweet of an image of an Australian solidier killing an Afghan child. There was

The Australia Institute surveyed a representative sample of 602 South Australians, asking them which State Government Ministers and shadow (Opposition) Ministers they had heard of.

The Australia Institute surveyed a representative sample of 602 South Australians about their level of satisfaction regarding the job being done by the Premier, Steven Marshall, and the Leader of the Opposition, Pater Malinauskas. The results show that, while the Premier’s total satisfaction is slightly higher than the Opposition Leaders, dissatisfaction rates were also higher

The Australia Institute made a submission to the consultation process regarding Recommendation 14.1 of the NT Fracking Inquiry, “That prior to the granting of any further production approvals, the Government designs and implements a full cost-recovery system for the regulation of any onshore shale gas industry.”

The Department of Planning and Environment recommends approval of the project based on economic benefits, but finds these benefits reduce “significantly” if greenhouse emissions are properly accounted for. The Department did not quantify the significant reduction. Applying a carbon price of between $24.50/t and $73/t reduces the value of the project to zero. Such carbon

The Australia Institute surveyed a representative sample of 602 South Australians about the State Government’s handling of COVID-19 and the opening of the state borders on November 23, 2021. The results show that: One in two South Australians (51%) disagree with the State Government’s decision to open the borders in November. Two in five (42%)

The Australia Institute surveyed 602 adults living in South Australia, asking about state election voting intention, between the 1st and 14th of February 2022, online through Dynata’s panel, with representative samples by gender and age.

The stage 3 tax cuts will go mainly to male, high income taxpayers. Half will go to the top 10%, 72 per cent going to the top 20 per cent while the bottom half get only five per cent and the bottom 20 per cent get nothing. Men will get twice as much of the tax cut as women.

An electorate analysis of the Federal Government’s current plan to scrap the LMITO (Low and Middle Income Tax Offset) after 2021-22, shows most taxpayers will be worse off when the legislated Stage 3 tax cuts to high income earners comes into effect in 2024-25. Key Findings: Scrapping the LMITO will see 90% of taxpayers pay

The Australia Institute has been involved throughout the Energy Security Board’s (ESB) project to create a Post 2025 design for the National Electricity Market (NEM). In this submission we address the ESB’s proposal to design a capacity market mechanism as a way of managing energy reliability as coal power stations retire. The problem the ESB

Global automotive manufacturing is rapidly transitioning to the production of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in line with technological advancements and the global community’s commitment to addressing climate change. This transition presents an enormous opportunity for Australia to rebuild its vehicle manufacturing industry, taking advantage of our competitive strengths in renewable energy, extractive industries, manufacturing capabilities, and

Key results The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,000 Australians about ABC funding and the importance of the ABC to a healthy democracy. The results show that Just over half (52%) of Australians support restoring $84 million in funding to the ABC, with 25% that oppose. Almost two in three (65%) Greens