If you’d like to give a presentation on the economics of mining, get in touch with us and we can give you the background information you need.

Gas fields covering NSW farmland and forests are approved largely on the basis of the claims they make about jobs and economic benefits. The gas industry employs some people and generates economic activity, but often not to extent claimed by industry advocates. This fact sheet will assist with arguing against the industry’s shonky economics.

Coal mines on NSW farmland and forests are approved largely on the basis of the claims they make about jobs and economic benefits. Coal mines certainly employ some peopleand generate economic activity, but often not to extent claimed by industry advocates. This fact sheet will assist with arguing against the industry’s shonky economics.

Warkworth modelling – you get out what you point in Queensland coal train wreck Sydney mining economics workshops TAI in the media Infographic Weekly updates from TAI Warkworth modelling – you get out what you point in The Warkworth coal mine case, run by the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO and supported by The Australia Institute

Treasurer Joe Hockey has said “the poorest people either don’t have cars or actually don’t drive very far in many cases.” The Treasure also said that the fuel excise is a “progressive tax”. The Treasurer defended his statement saying “I can only get the facts out there and explain the facts, how people interpret them

Tony Abbott’s problems with the Senate are only just beginning. The black eye the Palmer United Party gave him on his carbon and mining tax repeal is nothing compared to the body blow he will receive when the major policy initiatives announced in the budget, initiatives that weren’t mentioned during the election campaign, hit the

Earlier this week, data released by Treasury under a Freedom of Information request, were published in the media that showed Treasury predictions the Abbott Government’s budget measures were likely to hit lower income households harder than higher income households. In response, Treasurer Joe Hockey said “higher income households pay half their income in tax”. Check

Economic modelling is like The Wizard of Oz. Behind a impressive facade of power and omnipotence lies an underwhelming array of bizarre assumptions, confused theory, inadequate data, and a desire to please the customer. Economic modelling, it seems, is loved by everyone. Lobbyists and industry groups love it as it allows them to dress up

Ideology over evidence hurts the unemployed Housing a right or a commodity? Is it gender or Gina defining inequity Infographic Ideology over evidence hurts the unemployed In another triumph of ideology over evidence, the government announced on Monday that it was expanding the work for the dole scheme. Fresh from its victory over the carbon

Employment in renewable energy is difficult to determine. Figures are persistently disputed as being inflated or underestimated, depending on which stakeholder is asked. For example, when Liberal MP Mark Coulton defended the controversial Cobbora Coal Mine near Dunedoo against calls from Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon to abandon the project in favour of renewable investment, he

Tony Abbott came to office promising to restore confidence to the economy and to deliver business certainty. But while he hasn’t wavered in his determination to repeal the carbon price, his equivocation on his election promise to maintain the Renewable Energy Target (RET) is delaying investment, driving up electricity prices and causing the kind of

The nanny state of childcare Axing the taxes Financial planners free again TAI in the media Infographic Weekly updates from TAI The nanny state of childcare  The anticipated Productivity Commission report into Childcare, flagged before the last federal election by Tony Abbott to negate childcare affordability as an election issue was released this week. Not surprisingly,

The Liberals will tell you that they don’t like telling people how to live their lives. Indeed they regularly tell us that individuals, not governments, are best placed to make decisions about what is in their own best interest. But, like successive ALP and Coalition governments, Tony Abbott and his team are big fans for

Recent reports from the ABC and in the Australian, including a map of selected mines have outlined heavy job losses in Australia’s coal sector, specifically claiming that ten to twelve thousand jobs have been lost in the last two years. Labour force data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) does not support this claim.

Did we lose our head over axing the tax? Dodgy economic modelling in NSW – an endangered species? Warkworth rerun ANZ hoaxer Jono Moylan awaits his sentence TAI out and about Did we lose our head over axing the tax? The carbon price has been repealed. After two years, the government’s own figures estimate it

When you buy a car or a house, no-one really believes the salesman or the real estate agent when they tell you you’re getting a great deal. You know you need to do your own research and shop around. How about financial advice? Most people assume that financial advisors act in their best interest, and

Just as introducing the carbon tax didn’t really drive the cost of a leg of lamb to $100, removing it isn’t really going to have any noticeable impact on the cost of living. Supermarkets are adamant they didn’t increase prices when the carbon price came in, and they are just as adamant they won’t cut

Fighting dirty on clean energy The price of inequality Playing minor chords to major effect RET-boy! TAI in the media Infographic Weekly updates from TAI 1. Fighting Dirty on Clean Energy The big fossil fuel generators are keen to water down or scrap the Renewable Energy Target (RET). They’re the biggest losers from a policy that

The Government intends to change the indexation of the Age Pension from September 2017. If their legislation passes through the Senate, the pension will be indexed to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), (the same as Newstart). At the moment the pension is indexed to the higher of the CPI, the Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost

It’s much easier to solve imaginary problems than real ones, which explains why the current Government is highly concerned about low levels of debt, and relaxed about high levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Since 1950 our national debt has fallen from 100 per cent to 14 per cent of GDP. Our greenhouse gas emissions have

The Prime Minister continues to claim that “The RET is very significantly driving up power prices,”. He has made this claim in the past and linked the Renewable Energy Target (RET) to energy costs going up. Despite an existing regulated review process, based on this claim the Prime Minister established an additional review of the

The day after Clive Palmer announced he would oppose the Abbott government’s efforts to abolish the 20 per cent renewable energy target, the price of market-traded renewable energy certificates jumped 27 per cent. The same day shares in Infigen, a company with a big portfolio of renewable energy generation, jumped 16 per cent. The next day, as the

Mining the Age of Entitlement Childcare costs increase Frightbats for equity Temporary reprieve for welfare recipients Infographic Mining the Age of Entitlement Money you’ve spent on one thing is money you can’t spend on another. Money the States pay to mining companies is money they can’t invest in essential services, infrastructure, and other things you

In Mining the age of entitlement: State government assistance to the minerals and fossil fuel sector The Australia Institute has detailed the extent to which Australian states and territories underwrite the profits of private companies in the minerals and fossil fuel sector with public money. The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has responded to this

Charging sick people $7 to go to the doctor will hurt ordinary Australians far more than the carbon price ever did. While, admittedly, the ALP did a poor job of explaining it, the reality was that most Australians received more in compensation than they paid in higher electricity prices. Of course there is no compensation

Plain packaging for cigarettes was introduced in Australia in 2012. The Australian newspaper has reported that sales of cigarettes have in fact increased. The ABC program Media Watch has refuted this claim. The program argued that ‘the rise in wholesale cigarette sales figures is almost certainly explained by retailers trying to beat a rise in

Meet David – he donates to The Australia Institute. He’s a psychologist and economist from Melbourne, and he particularly likes our work on equity. We love David because not only does he believe in progressive ideas; he’s also willing to fund them. David wants to post us a cheque for $10,000 as his End of Financial

Australia has one of the lowest levels of energy productivity in the developed world. We use more energy to make a dollar’s worth of gross domestic product than the countries we typically compare ourselves to. But while labour productivity, multi-factor productivity and the productivity of our ports elicit interest from our political and business leaders,

Seeing through the dust: Coal in the Hunter Valley economy Help us defend the Renewable Energy Target Divestment Campaign Gathers Momentum Winter Clearing of Leard Forest for Open Cut Coal Stopped Infographic Seeing through the dust: Coal in the Hunter Valley economy Today The Institute released new research on Hunter Valley Coal. The major finding

While the Hunter Valley produces and exports large volumes of coal, it is no longer the “bedrock” of the Hunter Valley economy that it once was. The Hunter now has a more diversified, modern economy. Almost 600,000 people live in the Hunter Valley region*, with 343,000 living in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie urban areas