Follow the Money

The Australia Institute’s Follow the Money podcast explains Australia’s big economic issues in plain English. We bust myths, dissect politics, interpret econobabble and help you sound really smart at your next dinner party, with host Ebony Bennett.

January 2022

Summer series – Raising the Age: Getting children out of prison

featuring Ebony Bennett

Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. Everyone knows that children do best when they are supported, nurtured and loved. But across Australia, children as young as 10 can be arrested by police, charged with an offence, hauled before a court and locked away in a

Summer Series – Ensuring Accountability with Senator Kristina Keneally [webinar series]

featuring Ebony Bennett and Bill Browne

Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. Accountability is fundamental to restoring integrity in politics. Join Shadow Minister for Government Accountability, Senator Kristina Keneally, for a discussion about scrutiny, transparency, and why integrity in politics matters. This episode was recorded live on 5 May 2021 and

Summer Series – Australia’s growing wages crisis with Sally McManus [webinar]

featuring Ebony Bennett and Jim Stanford

Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work was an essential element of the promise of Australia. The last 30 years have seen a dramatic shift of the share of Australia’s prosperity going to profit and away from

Summer Series – Keeping the Bastards Honest with Senator Rex Patrick [webinar series]

featuring Ebony Bennett and Bill Browne

Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. This episode you’ll hear from Independent Senator Rex Patrick Rex about the huge gaps in Australia’s system of integrity and accountability mechanisms at the federal level. This in-depth discussion covers everything from unnecessary government secrecy, Freedom of Information laws

Summer Series – The Long Covid-19 Economic Crisis with Richard Denniss [webinar]

featuring Ebony Bennett and Richard Denniss

Our summer series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. This episode we’re bringing you a conversation with our chief economist Richard Denniss about the merits and flaws in the government’s fiscal response to the pandemic and the long terms effects on the Australian economy. This was recorded live on

Summer Series – Feeling the Heat with Marian Wilkinson, Richard Denniss and Allan Behm [webinar]

featuring Allan Behm, Ebony Bennett and Richard Denniss

Our summer series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. This episode we’re bringing you a conversation with award-winning journalist Marian Wilkinson and the Australia Institute’s chief economist Richard Denniss and Allan Behm, International & Security Affairs program director, about the growing pressure on Australia, as global and regional powers

Summer Series – Climate Change and the Pacific with the Hon Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa Prime Minister of Samoa [webinar]

featuring Ebony Bennett, Richie Merzian and Ben Oquist

Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. This episode you’ll hear from the Prime Minister of Samoa, the Hon. Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa on climate change and the Pacific, as part of the Australia Institute’s Regional Climate Diplomacy Forum, with youth climate activist and UNICEF Pacific Ambassador

December 2021

Summer Series – Understanding Consent with Chanel Contos [webinar]

featuring Ebony Bennett

Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. This episode we talk to sexual assault activist Chanel Contos, whose petition calling for earlier sex education in schools prompted hundreds of testimonies from former Sydney schoolgirls about sexual assault. This episode was recorded live on 11 August 2021

Summer Series – Coal, Climate Change and Conservatives with Malcolm Turnbull [webinar]

featuring Ebony Bennett and Richard Denniss

Our summer series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. This episode we’re bringing you a conversation about coal, climate change and conservatives and why NSW needs a moratorium on new coal mines with former Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, who was in conversation with the Australia Institute’s chief

Summer Series – Rewiring Australia with Saul Griffith and Lily D’Ambrosio MP [webinar]

featuring Ebony Bennett, Richie Merzian and Ben Oquist

Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. This episode you’ll hear from Saul Griffith, clean tech entrepreneur and founder and Chief Scientist of Otherlab, in conversation with VIC Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change and Minister for Solar Homes, Lily D’Ambrosio about how Australians can

Summer Series – State of the Climate with Chris Bowen [webinar]

featuring Ebony Bennett and Richie Merzian

Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. This episode we bring a discussion with Shadow Minister for Climate and Energy Chris Bowen, about how the globe’s climate emergency is Australia’s jobs opportunity. He was in conversaton with Richie Merzian, climate & energy program director at the

The biggest attack on the Australian charity sector you have never heard of

featuring Ebony Bennett and Ben Oquist

On the eve of an election, without consultation and without scrutiny, the Morrison government, with the support of the Opposition, rushed retrospective amendments into the Parliament that will squash charities’ right to advocate, effectively stomping on our democracy. The Australia Institute’s Ben Oquist unpacks what happened and what the impacts will be for the Australian

November 2021

October 2021

Junk Carbon Credits

featuring Ebony Bennett, Polly Hemming and Richie Merzian

Today’s episode examines carbon offsets, in other words, the credits companies can buy to offset their emissions. The Australia Institute, together with the Australian Conservation Foundation did a bit of digging into Australia’s offsets system and found some alarming things. Recorded live on 5 October 2021 The Australia Institute // @theausinstitute Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy

September 2021

The importance of the crossbench with Senator Jacqui Lambie [webinar series]

featuring Ebony Bennett and Eloise Carr

The number of independent Members and Senators elected to Parliament has been steadily increasing and the crossbench plays an important role in shaping the future of Australia. independent Senator for Tasmania Jacqui Lambie for an inside look at how it all works. Recorded live on 3 March 2021 as part of the Australia Institute webinar

Fracked: Gas in the Northern Territory

featuring Ebony Bennett, Rod Campbell and Mark Ogge

Extracting gas from the Northern Territory through hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) is one of the largest potential sources of carbon pollution in the world. In this episode we explore the climate cost of a potential policy backflip on opening up the NT to fracking, as well as the community opposition and the economics of it all.