Digging into details of the Future Made in Australia plan, does the Government’s actions match their rhetoric?

“The Australian public thinks the gas industry should be paying for the gas.” “We can keep doing dumb things if we want to. But if this Government wants to have more money for schools, more money for hospitals…there is a simple tax reform opportunity here.” – Executive Director Richard Denniss on ABC The Business

Australia Institute research has found that 56% of gas exported from Australia attracts zero royalty payments, effectively giving a public resource to multinational gas corporations for free. Around 80% of Australia’s gas is exported as liquefied natural gas (LNG). Most of this gas is extracted from gas fields in Commonwealth waters, but the Australian Government

Gas companies are meant to pay royalties for the right to extract and sell Australian gas. But no royalties are paid on 56% of gas exported from Australia. Report author Mark Ogge joined ABC News to discuss. A new report from the Australia Institute, Australia’s Great Gas Giveaway, shows that over the last four years,

An on-the-ground video investigation into native forest logging and the people trying to protect the last refuges of some of Australia’s most iconic wildlife.

Ongoing logging within the boundaries of the proposed Great Koala National Park threatens the survival of endangered species and contradicts conservation efforts, writes Stephen Long.

Nobody likes to be hoodwinked, but that’s what big companies are essentially doing when they engage in greenwashing – giving consumers the false impression they have business practices that help the environment instead of harming it.

The Australia Institute’s analysis of the 2024 Federal Budget finds that while there some big numbers and good measures, there’s no meaningful solutions to issues such as inequality, housing or climate change.

There’s a lot of misinformation in the debate surrounding Australia’s gas industry. To be clear: the world cannot afford for new gas projects (or any other fossil fuel projects) to be opened if we want to avoid dangerous climate change.

While social licence for fossil fuels has slipped, gas seems to be clinging on longer than the rest.

With the Future Gas Strategy, government policy has entered a backward land where logic is reversed, writes Stephen Long.

They knit, they sing, they even have their own ‘nannafesto’, and these unlikely environmental activists are a force to be reckoned with.

Despite a decade-long commitment to establish the Great Koala National Park, the NSW Labor Government is delaying its creation so that the forests can be exploited for carbon credits. It’s a decision with disastrous consequences for the koalas, and the climate.

By waiting for a carbon credit scheme to be established before delivering its Great Koala National Park, the New South Wales Government is putting the species at risk, says Stephen Long.

The NSW Labor Government took office promising to create a vast koala sanctuary on the state’s mid-north coast – the Great Koala National Park. Despite the threat of koala extinction in the state, more than a year later the Great Koala National Park is yet to be established. 

Jigsaw Farms, long held up as a shining star of carbon neutral farming, is no longer carbon neutral, although only just. 

Rather than backing cheap and abundant renewable energy, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has gone all in on nuclear.

Nuclear energy really is remarkable.

When AUKUS was announced, the ANU was quick off the mark to cash in.

Australian agriculture doesn’t have enough capacity to offset its own emissions, according to Mark Wootton from Jigsaw Farms.

Climate change is the greatest moral challenge that humanity has ever had to face, and for those of us who have the capacity to stop it, are we going to do it?

Carbon offsetting has received a lot of attention recently. As businesses and governments look to meet their climate targets, many are turning to carbon offsets. That is, they are paying someone else to reduce or avoid putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, so they don’t have to.

For decades, the Grinch has had a terrible reputation as a Christmas-hating monster who railed against the festivities of the season and stole the townspeople’s presents, food and decorations in an attempt to stamp out the whole technicolour carnival.

The hydrogen dream has become widespread in the Australian climate conversation: apparently, with it, we’re going to decarbonise Japan, Korea, and the world! Is this ambitious vision a genuine step towards a greener future or merely a diversion from ongoing fossil fuel expansion?

The Australia Institute Tasmania’s work was critical to triggering the federal EPBC review of salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour.

The Australia Institute Tasmania’s work was critical to triggering a federal EPBC review of salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour, given new scientific evidence shows the endangered Maugean skate, a ray-like animal, is at risk of extinction due in large part to salmon farming.

Resources Minister Madeleine King texts in a question for Richard Denniss during a live interview about fossil fuels on ABC radio.

‘Thylacine of the sea’ at risk of extinction this summer if salmon farming doesn’t cease in Macquarie Harbour

Clive Palmer’s controversial legal strategies challenge Australia’s trade agreements and environmental laws, and have profound implications for global climate action, writes Stephen Long.

In parliament last week, responding to the temporary blocking of a legislative favour to Santos, Foreign Minister Penny Wong berated the opposition. The bill – which did eventually pass – is designed to facilitate massive expansion of the gas industry.