by Maryanne Slattery[Originally published in The Canberra Times, 13 July 2019] The Murray-Darling Basin is broken. Literally. As in its parts aren’t joined up anymore – the Darling River/Barka hasn’t flowed into the Murray since 2017. The Murrumbidgee isn’t flowing into the Murray either and will be disconnected from the rest of the basin more

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in The Canberra Times, 15 June 2019] Australia’s debate on the climate crisis reached a new level of lunacy this past week. Almost nowhere else in the world is the climate debate so divorced from reality. Firstly, Adani’s groundwater plan was approved by the Queensland government in a rushed process. This

by Richard Denniss[Originally Published on Guardian Australia, 29 May 2019] While Australian political debate has never seemed more sharply divided, the philosophical lines between left and right have never seemed more blurred. The economy is always in transition, and people are always losing and finding jobs, but – after decades of the right being contemptuous

by Richard Denniss[Originally published in the Australian Financial Review, 27 May 2019] There’s no doubt the Adani coal mine helped the Liberal National Party win votes in North Queensland but there’s also no doubt it helped them lose a lot of votes – and economic credibility – in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. And while the triumphalism of

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in the Canberra Times, 17 May 2019] Bob Hawke is perhaps credited most often for his economic reforms, but he also leaves a tremendous legacy of protecting Earth’s wilderness. Without Bob Hawke, Antarctica would be a quarry, Tasmania’s iconic Franklin River would be flooded and Queensland’s Daintree rainforest would be a

by Richard Denniss[Originally published in The Australian Financial Review, 5 March 2019] Cultural symbols have replaced price signals at the heart of conservative politics. There’s now no better way for Australian conservatives to virtue signal than to support the construction of new coal mines. The Coalition is no longer neo, nor liberal – it simply

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in the Canberra Times, 23 Febuary 2019] These last two weeks of Parliament may prove a turning point for the 2019 election, but only time will tell if they mark the moment the Coalition got back in the game or the point at which voters wrote them off entirely. At their

by Richard Denniss[Originally published in the Financial Review, 19 Feb 2019] Millions of people in developing countries jumped straight from having no phone to having a mobile phone and so too will thousands of villages in developing countries jump from having no grid electricity to their own renewable energy. Leapfrogging old technologies can save billions.

by Ebony Bennett[Originally published in The Canberra Times, 26.01.19] Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and forcing 537 councils to conduct citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day. And it’s stinking hot. What could be more Australian than a nationwide ban on shorts and thongs as we confer citizenship on our newest Aussies during

Over the summer, we have been busy recording what Tasmanians think about a whole range of issues. Tassie is cool and tourism is hot – with our state having the largest rise in visitor numbers this quarter. Whilst some in the South and East are worried about over crowding and under funding of infrastructure, the

PDF of Open Letter can be downloaded in full here. Full text of open letter and list of signatories below. Dear Premier and Ministers of the Government of Western Australia — Unconventional oil and gas development in Western Australia should not go ahead under any circumstances. The consequences of global warming are already extremely serious;

by Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director of The Australia Institute. [This article originally appeared in the Canberra Times 08.09.18] Watching Brazil’s National Museum burn this week was a tragic reminder that, if we don’t take care, we can snap the threads that bind us to our history forever. Over a matter of hours, tens of millions

4 May 2018 Dear Auditor-General, Supply measure projects  We refer to the proposed amendment to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. That amendment is based on 36 ‘supply measure’ projects. Supply measures aim to achieve the same environmental outcome as under the original Basin Plan, but using less water. The Commonwealth has committed $1.6 billion to implement these supply measures. The

The Auditor-General has received correspondence from Senators Patrick, Griff, Hanson-Young and Bernardi, Ms Rebekha Sharkie MP and the Hon. Tony Burke MP dated 24 April 2018, requesting that the Auditor-General conduct an investigation to examine the purchases of water for environmental flows in the Murray-Darling Basin. This request is under consideration and the response will

Read a pdf version here

he Adani coal mine is the most divisive resource project since the proposal to dam Tasmania’s Franklin River in 1983. The debate over whether to subsidise it even more so. But thanks to Annastasia Palaszczuk’s last-minute decision to veto any Commonwealth loan to the project, the voters of Queensland are now being offered a full range of policy positions

The Australian gas industry’s best hope is the Turnbull government’s worst nightmare; a big increase in world prices for oil and gas. Santos and Origin executives lost billions of their shareholder’s dollars when they bet $60 billion worth of gas export facilities in Gladstone on a world oil price of around $US100. They lost. The

In a post-truth world, the ability of an industry to generate its own “alternative facts” is likely to be an asset in the short term and a liability in the long term. Indeed, for those who crave certainty and value continuous disclosure, the willingness of some firms to move well beyond simply putting a positive spin on

The notion of evidence-based policy in Australia is dead. While it’s been in poor health for some time, it was finally killed by the Coalition backbench last week and replaced with “gut instinct” and “the pub test”. First published by the Australian Financial Review – here When Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was recently quizzed

When Tony Abbott promised to shed more than 13,000 full time jobs from the public service there was a deafening silence from the Australian business community about the impact of job loss on Canberra communities and families. Likewise, you could hear crickets when Campbell Newman sacked 10,000 teachers, nurses and other Queensland public servants.

Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to merge the environment and energy portfolios could lead to a breakthrough in the toxic climate politics of climate first triggered when he was rolled by Tony Abbott in December 2009. Full article on Guardian Australia – here. Dan Cass, Strategist, The Australia Institute @DanJCass

Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to merge the environment and energy portfolios could lead to a breakthrough in the toxic climate politics that was unleashed when Tony Abbott rolled him in the December 2009 leadership coup. Or the new super-ministry and its new minister Josh Frydenberg could be set up for failure. It depends entirely on whether

Originally published in the Australian Financial Review – here.  The differences between rugby league and rugby union, like the differences between the disciplines of economics and finance, can seem obscure to those who aren’t fans of either. Subtle though they may be, small differences can have big impacts on the end result. Indeed, those small

First published in The Australian Financial Review – here. If you think that world demand for coal is going to grow in the coming decades, then it makes sense to build the 50 new coal mines proposed for Australia. And if you think that the world will continue its shift away from coal, then it

As Sweden debates how best to get out of the coal mining business, Australia is debating how best to subsidise the world’s largest export coal mines. Just last week the Australian Federal Government approved the enormous Adani/Carmichael coal mine which, at 40 kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide, is bigger than Gothenburg. The Australian Government

Originally published in the Australian Financial Review – Here. Like politics, economics often throws up some unusual allies. Take, for example, the recent call for a global moratorium on new coal mines by Kiribati’s President Anote Tong. Were such a restriction on the supply of coal to go ahead the biggest winners would be, you

First published in the Australian Financial Review – here It’s bizarre that people blame Tony Abbott’s demise on his inability to communicate. He was a great communicator, and people knew exactly what he stood for. No politician was as relentlessly ‘on message’.  Abbott’s problem wasn’t the clarity of his message; it was the incoherence of

Politics Tony Abbott picks his fights, and loves, on the basis of the enemies he will enrage. This time he’s decided to love coal, but he has also enraged key sections of the National Party. First published in the Australian Financial Review – here. As the coal price continues to fall, the financial case for

First published in The Australian Financial Review, 30 June 2015 – Here The Business Council of Australia once defended free markets, but now it and others only support reforms that help its big business friends. If the Business Council of Australia (BCA) was serious about reducing government waste it would have slammed the recent announcement

While Norway’s decision to divest its $900 billion sovereign wealth fund from coal shares sent shock waves around the financial world, it was the way the Norwegian parliament made the decision that is truly radical. Norway has a conservative minority government, but the idea to sell out of coal started with an NGO, was taken