The Australia Institute is part of the big policy debates in Australia. We have challenged the flawed thinking behind Australia’s over-reliance on resource extraction, the economic dangers of climate change, the economic and social costs of inequality, and the need for a fairer tax system, among other issues. We lead debates, we help drive change

Welcome to The Australia Institute’s 2016 Budget Review. Firstly, the good news. No, really! In the space of one election cycle superannuation tax concessions went from bi-partisan sacred cow, to bi-partisan race to reform. The Australia Institute has put out a stack of reports calling for an overhaul of what has become one of Australia’s

History surely has a sense of humour. In 2010 after taking down a sitting Prime Minister, Julia Gillard went on after the next election to run a minority government. Fast forward 5 years to 2015 and Malcolm Turnbull takes down a sitting Prime Minister only to discover that he too is running a minority government.

New costings from the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) show the government could help retirees boost their own incomes at nearly no cost to the budget by making the Pension Loans Scheme to available to all who wish to use it to have a comfortable retirement while living in their own homes. Costings requested by Senator

The Claim “Counterproductive workplace regulation, in particular high minimum wages and industry-specific award rates, [is an] impediment to youth job creation in Australia.” – Dr Patrick Carvalho, Centre for Independent Studies The Evidence Minimum wages are often accused of reducing demand for young jobseekers. The evidence is less compelling. The call for lower minimum wages

The 1st of July 2014 seems like a long time ago. We’ve been busy. Our research has led debates, laid out the facts, busted myths, challenged corporate and mining giants, upset more than a few lobbyists and conservatives, and changed minds.  Thank you everyone who has read our work, shared or talked about us, or

  The claim Senator Sean Edwards claimed that an expansion of the nuclear fuel cycle in South Australia could provide low or even no cost electricity, create a generation of high-paying jobs and do so without any subsidies from government. His plan is to take spent fuel from older nuclear power plants from around the world,

Adani mega-coal mine approved, again Environment Minister Greg Hunt has just re-approved the Carmichael Coal mine. Our research over many years has shown that the industry is getting massive taxpayer subsidies from both state and federal governments, in particular with government-financed infrastructure. Adani appears to be struggling to raise private capital, and despite declaring that construction would be underway by 2013, not

The Australia Institute is excited to announce we are merging with Jubilee Australia Research Centre. Jubilee Australia works to raise awareness about harmful government policies and irresponsible behaviour of Australian companies operating overseas, particularly mining companies. Jubilee began as the Australian arm of the world-wide Jubilee movement working for debt cancellation and its research examines

The claim Mr Hockey said; Over the last couple of months we have had some very pleasing economic information. Importantly, since the beginning of this year nearly 163,000 new jobs have been created, an average of 23,000 new jobs per month—23,000 new jobs per month. When Labor left office they were averaging 3,600 jobs per

The Monthly is one of Australia’s premier political current affairs magazines. The Australia Institute’s Richard Denniss provided the cover article for the current edition, titled ‘Of clowns and treasurers’.   The response has been staggering. As of Thursday, over 18,000 people had shared the article through their social media accounts (follow facebook or twitter). The reach and readership is

The claim: Concetta Fierravanti-Wells: This [marriage equality] is not a conscience matter. It’s not a life or death matter. Conscience votes in our party room are reserved for life or death matters. And in – Jonathan Green: Not for matters of deep conviction? Concetta Fierravanti-Wells: Well, the point is it’s not a life or death

A message from the Chair of the Board The Australia Institute has some exciting news to announce. After 8 years at the helm Richard Denniss has decided to step down from the role of Executive Director of the Australia Institute. On behalf of the Board I would like to express my appreciation to Richard and

The claim “Any changes to the GST are a matter for the states.” Tony Abbott The evidence Subsection 38-47 of the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 (GST Act) grants the Health Minister the power to determine that “A supply is GST‑free if it is a supply of goods of a kind

Joe Hockey’s second budget was much better armoured than his first. The brazen nature of the first budget made the task of those critiquing it pretty easy. This one took more time and detailed analysis to break down. Our verdict: The 2015 Federal Budget doesn’t fit the 2015 Australian economy. It ignores obvious and major issues,

Claim: Negative gearing keeps rent prices low. Treasurer Joe Hockey recently defended the practice of negative gearing investment properties. “If you change negative gearing then there are significant flow-on consequences from people that rent homes and that needs to be properly considered,” he said. “There is a very strong argument that if you were to

The Australia Institute wrote to all NSW political parties on March 11, asking for them to outline their policies on regulating lobbying, and to what extent they had adopted the ICAC recommendations. Letter from The Australia Institute to NSW Parties Response from the NSW Liberal Party  Response from the NSW Labor Party Response from NSW

The Australia Institute wrote to all NSW political parties on March 11, asking for them to outline their policies on regulating lobbying, and to what extent they had adopted the ICAC recommendations. Attached is the response recieved from Hon John Kaye MP’s office. 

The Australia Institute wrote to all NSW political parties on March 11, asking for them to outline their policies on regulating lobbying, and to what extent they had adopted the ICAC recommendations. Attached is the response recieved from Hon Luke Foley MP’s office. 

The Australia Institute wrote to all NSW political parties on March 11, asking for them to outline their policies on regulating lobbying, and to what extent they had adopted the ICAC recommendations. Attached is the response recieved from Premier Mike Baird’s office. 

The attached is a copy of the letter sent to NSW Parties regarding their accountability, tranparancy and lobbying policies.

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has said that without coal “we go broke”. Would Australia, or any particular state encounter serious fiscal difficulty if coal production and consumption was reduced? New South Wales and Queensland are Australia’s main coal producing states, producing 257 and 294 million tonnes respectively in 2013-14. Victoria the next largest is far

It’s amazing how controversial decisions just happen to be made in the days before Christmas. It’s almost as if decision makers didn’t want anyone to notice. So we thought we’d wait until February, once everyone is good and ready, to bring you December’s big New South Wales coal stories. We won another court case!!! Newcastle

The new Social Services Minister Scott Morrison is concerned about retirees who are cash poor but asset rich. Labor Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek raised similar concerns, saying: ‘You can’t eat your family home, you can’t pay your electricity bill with it.’ But an existing government scheme allows retirees to do just that. The Pension Loans

The day after the Prime Minister defeated the spill motion against him he was asked about his policy on renewable energy. In the Prime Minister’s response he said And they want to keep the Renewable Energy Target not at 20% but at more like 27% which means much higher power prices for the people of

The Australia Institute sent letters on January 8th 2015 (copy of letter to LNP) to Queensland’s main political parties. Responses were requested by January 19th, 2015. Responses received: Queensland Labor Party – ALP response – PDF Queensland Greens – Greens response – PDF Bob Katter’s Australia Party: Response to The Australia Institute Letter to Katter’s Australian

Happy New Year! We hope you enjoyed (or are still enjoying) time off over the summer. 2014, the hottest year on record, sure had its fair share of awful, so here’s to a better 2015. The Australia Institute is heading into the new year stronger than ever, thanks to a big effort in 2014, and

The World’s Second Biggest Coal Exporter Votes Accountability and Transparency Enters the Debate Is it a Gas, Gas, Gas? TAI in the media The World’s Second Biggest Coal Exporter Votes If Queensland was an independent nation, it would be the world’s second biggest coal exporter. That makes the State Election this Saturday a global concern,