Like a struggling middle manager, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been playing the states against each other to distract from his own poor decisions. The interstate fight for vaccines, funding, and even praise from the Prime Minister, now dominates Australia’s response to COVID. But if COVID rarely breached our quarantine, if there was plenty of

The 15th National Coast to Coast Conference delegates have called for the Australian Government to adopt a National Sustainable Oceans and Coasts Strategy. The strategy provides a blueprint for change that Australia’s oceans and coasts need, and outlines the steps needed to transform how we govern and protect oceans and coasts across Australia. Among the

When the going gets tough, the Morrison government calls in the military to boost its authority and credibility. In this episode, Allan Behm discusses the securitisation of domestic policy issues and how bringing in the ADF doesn’t really solve anything. The Australia Institute // @theausinstitute Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director at the Australia Institute // @ebony_bennett Guest: Allan Behm,

New research from the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work, written by Senior Economist Alison Pennington and Monash University’s Ben Eltham, reveals the ongoing, devastating impact of COVID-19 on Australia’s arts and entertainment sector and provides a series of recommendations to government that would reboot the creative sector following the crisis. Key Findings: The arts

New research from the Australia Institute Tasmania finds that one in two Australians support a moratorium on the expansion of the salmon farming industry in Tasmania, while only 15% oppose. The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,001 Australians about their attitudes towards salmon farming in Tasmania. The Federal Government is currently undertaking

The worst day of my life was federal budget day in 2004. I was preparing to go into the lockup when I got the call that would forever split my life into “before” and “after”. My mum had been diagnosed with terminal cancer about six months before, and despite knowing she had a terminal diagnosis

The EU has announced it will introduce a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) as part of its efforts to reach net zero emissions by 2050. This has big implications for the Australian economy, especially carbon intensive expor industries. This week we talk to Richie Merzian and Hannah Melville Rea about what CBAMs are, how they

Australia’s states and territories have taken the lead in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, representing a potential re-alignment of state-federal relations, according to new research by the Australia Institute’s Democracy & Accountability Program. Polling shows that the proportion of Australians who rate their state/territory government as doing a better job of handling the crisis has reached

Carbon taxes are coming to Australia whether we like it or not. They are coming despite the triumphant ‘axing of the tax’ in 2014. They are coming despite the updated but equally loud ‘technology not taxes’ sloganeering from the Morrison government in 2021. They are coming despite our government’s refusal to commit to a net-zero

It’s no secret the Australia-China relationship has hit a rocky path recently. How did we get in this mess? How do we get out of it? And how does the Australian public perceive the threat of China? Today we discuss the latest research on public attitudes to China, comparing them to public attitudes in Taiwan.

More than seven in ten (72%) Australians support UNESCO’s recommendation to add the Great Barrier Reef to the World Heritage ‘in danger’ list, just 11% oppose. Furthermore, Queenslanders are most likely (50%) to think that climate change is the largest threat to the Great Barrier Reef and least likely (4%) to think that the health

New analysis of the Intergenerational Report reveals Treasury does not believe that any of the policies introduced by the Coalition Government in the last six years will have any measurable impact on Australia’s productivity growth in the coming decades. Key Findings: The latest Intergenerational Report (IGR 2021) reveals that the Treasury Department is more pessimistic

Nearly one in two Tasmanians (48.5%) distrust the Tasmanian Integrity Commission’s ability to uncover and prevent misconduct in public administration, including 19.6% who strongly distrust. Meanwhile 33.8% trust its ability, including just 6.6% who strongly trust. 17.7% were unsure. uComms conducted a survey of 1,060 residents across Tasmania on behalf of the Australian Institute during

New research by the Australia Institute’s International & Security Affairs Program has revealed that a similar number of Australians think China will attack Australia soon or sometime (42%) as Taiwanese think that China will attack Taiwan (51%)—a result that may have been stimulated by recent strong-arm tactics by the Government of China, and anti-China rhetoric

Births declining, fewer people working, health funding will double and deficits for years to come. The latest Intergenerational Report (IGR) has been released and the government wants you to be scared. But it turns out the IGR is rubbish at making predictions. Join Richard Denniss as he uncovers the hidden assumptions buried in the Intergenerational

New research from the Australia Institute finds that one in two Australians would prefer the funds budgeted for the expansion of the Australian War Memorial to be spent on services such as health and education, a further one quarter (26%) of Australians would prefer the money to be spent on veterans’ support services. Just 13%

The more a company invests in safely handling waste the more jobs it will create, the less damage it will do to the natural environment and the less harm it will do to the tourism, agriculture and fisheries industries that are built on the image and the reality of Tasmania’s clean environment. While it is

Not only are the Nordics among the world’s most prosperous nations, they have also dealt with many of the issues that Australia finds so difficult. As Australia starts to peek at a future beyond COVID-19, where should we look for inspiration on how to take our country, community and politics in a better direction? Scott Morrison’s

Australia still has no federal anti-corruption commission, more than 2 years after the Coalition government promised to enact one. Worse, there are several serious flaws with the government’s proposed model for a Commonwealth Integrity Commission. Join two former judges, the Hon Anthony Whealy QC and the Hon David Harper AM QC as they explain why

The South Australian Treasurer’s plan to import Victoria’s electric vehicle tax will cause the state to fall behind other jurisdictions with better EV policies, such as New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, The Australia Institute has said. “The Treasurer may say he’s not in the business of importing taxes from Victoria, but that’s

59 eminent Australians, former Judges and members of the legal fraternity have penned an open letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, calling for the urgent establishment of a National Integrity Commission, citing the Government’s election promise to have such a body legislated within 12 months of taking office. Signatories to the open letter include The

Climate and energy. Work/life balance. Mining taxes. Progress on policy issues like these is essential, and yet they have become subject to the most rancorous partisanship, the precipitation of culture wars, and have brought down governments. In The Nordic Edge, published by Melbourne University Press, a selection of Australia Institute researchers and guest authors show how

Electricity retailers and the Australia Institute have welcomed confirmation that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) are investigating a series of “high-price events” in May where it seems that withholding of supply in the National Electricity Market (NEM) led to massive increases in the wholesale price. Key points:

The Australia Institute has welcomed the New South Wales Coalition Government’s Electric Vehicle Strategy released today. The NSW Government electric vehicle strategy includes: $3,000 rebates on the purchase of 25,000 new EVs under $68,750, Exemption from stamp duty for EVs below $78,000 from September 2021 and all EVs from 2027, A deferral of their EV

The Australia Institute has welcomed the New South Wales Coalition Government’s Electric Vehicle Strategy released today and called on the South Australian Government to show similar leadership in their State Budget on Tuesday. Key points: Today the NSW Coalition Government announced an electric vehicle strategy that includes: $3,000 rebates on the purchase of 25,000 new

There has been an enormous surge in the sale of utes, due to the instant asset write-off in the Budget. But just how effective is this in terms of stimulating economic growth and creating jobs? Dig into the details and find out how we’re spending billions of dollars to make our car fleet bigger, heavier

While Australia sticks to accounting tricks, calls by other countries are growing to impose a carbon price on our export Who would have thought that Scott Morrison would be the one to reintroduce a carbon tax? And who would have thought it possible to design a carbon tax on Australian polluters that delivered revenue to

I’m a fifth-generation farmer. My family have run properties alongside the Darling/Baaka River for almost a century. We have watched as the once mighty river system that runs through the heart of our nation has suffered due to government mismanagement and over-extraction upstream. I’ve always said the red dirt of home runs through my veins,