With the release of the Gillard Government’s plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions we can finally compare the government’s carbon price with the Coalition’s Direct Action Plan. Two different policies with the same goal, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by five per cent on 2000 levels by 2020. While large amounts have been written about

Has the PM “knocked the brick wall down”? A win for voluntary action Is climate change a left wing issue? Events Recent publications Recent media Has the PM “knocked the brick wall down”? ”I’ve knocked the brick wall down; this is going through, this is done, full stop.” Prime Minister Julia Gillard, 10 July 2011.

The Australia Institute now has a YouTube channel. View our recent ‘In conversation with Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown’ Politics in the Pub event. Economic road map failure, The Canberra Times, 8 July Satisfaction guaranteed: money makes us happy, The Australian, 29 June Walking both sides of the street, The Canberra Times, 24 June Mining

How many jobs is 23,510, really? Recasting the mining job loss debate, B Chapman and K Lounkaew, 6 June On the wrong track: The case for abandoning the promised $7 billion subsidies to Australia’s dirtiest coal-fired power stations, R Denniss, 25 May The rise and rise of online retail, B Irvine, D Richardson, J Fear

The Green Institute is conducting a series of ‘Green Schools’ in July and August which offer “an opportunity for in-depth discussion on the big social, economic and environmental issues, learning hands-on skills and meeting like-minded people”. Melbourne 30-31 July, Darwin 6 August and Southwest Queensland 27-29 August. For more information, and to enrol, go to

 The Ross Garnaut-commissioned CSIRO’s report Australians’ views of climate change last year polled 3096 Australians and found that the biggest single predictor of whether Australians believe that global warming is caused by humans is their voting intentions. The CSIRO found that 82 per cent of Greens voters and 63 per cent of Labor voters believed

The Australia Institute has spent a lot of time since 2009 explaining a simple, but often misunderstood feature of emissions trading; once a national target is set any efforts by individuals to reduce ‘their’ emissions simply frees up spare pollution permits for other polluters. Having identified the problem the Institute also proposed a solution in

”I’ve knocked the brick wall down; this is going through, this is done, full stop.” Prime Minister Julia Gillard, 10 July 2011. The good news is that the modest carbon price announced yesterday will neither impoverish Australians nor bankrupt our economy. The bad news is that the modest carbon price announced yesterday won’t save the

Economics is often called the dismal science. The accusation was justly made after Thomas Malthus predicted that “misery and vice” were the only check on world population growth. Of course these days many economists argue the exact opposite and suggest that population growth is essential for community wellbeing, but despite the U-turn the dismal tag

It can’t be only nine months since the last federal election. It feels like an eternity. That, of course, is the objective of Tony Abbott who has worked 24/7 to argue that the election result, the formation of the minority Gillard Government, and in turn, any legislation it proposes, is illegitimate and undemocratic. But this

The final version of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) was a cobbled together compromise between Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull. The Government’s own advisor, Professor Ross Garnaut, described it as one of the worst cases of public policy development he had ever seen. So why is it the starting point for negotiations between the

Once upon a time the justification for delivering the federal budget speech at 7.30pm was so that the stock market and money market would have time to absorb the information before the next day’s trading began. But these days, with many Australian shares listed on international stock exchanges and the Australian dollar traded just as

What is the point of Canberra’s 40 per cent emission reduction target? If you thought it was to help reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions then you should probably be far more concerned with the current negotiations between the Gillard Government, the Greens, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor. Put simply, unless those negotiations result in a

Budget one-upmanship in Australia has moved beyond the balanced-budget obsession of the 1990s to the new aim of producing an ongoing surplus, the bigger the better, under which it is taken for granted that everyone will be better off. Despite the recent natural disasters offering good reasons for the Gillard Government to reassess its commitment

Help us raise $40,000 from $20,000  Independent ideas can only come from independent funding, so last month we asked you to help fund such ideas by making a tax-deductible end of financial year donation to the Australia Institute. In exciting news, the Institute has been offered a ‘Challenge Grant’ from a wonderfully generous supporter who

TAIHow many jobs is 23,510, really? Recasting the mining job loss debate, B Chapman and K Lounkaew, 6 June On the wrong track: The case for abandoning the promised $7 billion subsidies to Australia’s dirtiest coal-fired power stations, R Denniss, 25 May The rise and rise of online retail, B Irvine, D Richardson, J Fear

 ‘Only tiny’ carbon tax effect on mining jobs, The Age, 6 June $10b hiding in super overlap: thinktank, The Canberra Times, 7 June The price of shopping online versus the shopping mall, Online Opinion, 27 May Study questions level of carbon tax job losses, ABC The World Today, 6 June Go back to Between the

The Government has struggled to sell its message that households will receive compensation under a carbon price. There has also been far too little explanation as to what a well-designed compensation scheme can achieve. It would seem that some politicians who aspire to being good economic managers do not seem to understand a simple, but

In what appears to be an act of petty political recrimination, the new Victorian Coalition Government has slashed its funding for Environment Victoria, the state’s leading independent environment group (not to be confused with Victoria’s Environment Protection Authority, a statutory body). The recent state budget included no further funding for any of the programs that

It is commonplace in Australian policy debates for groups who think they will be adversely affected by proposed policies to provide estimates of the undesirable consequences of change. A popular and fashionable form relates to predictions of job losses for the groups affected, usually accompanied by counter-claims made by the government of the day or

Independent ideas can only come from independent funding, so last month we asked you to help fund such ideas by making a tax-deductible end of financial year donation to the Australia Institute. In exciting news, the Institute has been offered a ‘Challenge Grant’ from a wonderfully generous supporter who is willing to give us $20,000

We’ve all heard that the Australian Public Service’s superannuation schemes are generous, and a look at the budget papers would seem to confirm this, revealing that the Government is spending $14.1 billion on this entitlement. Put another way, public servants’ super appears to be a staggering 73 per cent of the $19.2 billion spent on

What is the true value of the service we get when buying something at a shop? It can be quite high when the shopping experience adds to the pleasure of the purchase, such as getting you out of the house, friendly sales staff and nice food next door. The value added can be particularly high

While we might not ever be able to agree on whether advertising works or not, or why it is that companies who say it doesn’t are so determined to spend a fortune doing it, it is easy to answer a slightly different question: do politicians think advertising works? Based on the way they conduct election

Help us conduct more ‘research that matters’ with an End of Financial Year donation Richard’s reflections on the federal budget Recent publications Recent media Help us conduct more ‘research that matters’ with an End of Financial Year donation The Treasurer has just done the books for Australia and many of you will be preparing to

Why the obsession with a budget surplus?, The Drum, 9 May ‘Green jobs’ won’t save the debate, Climate Spectator, 6 May Retailers battered by online shopping, ABC Radio National Breakfast, 9 May Dick Smith’s foreign food fightback, A Current Affair, 12 May Go back to Between the Lines

Surplus fetish: The political economy of the surplus, deficit and debt, D Richardson, 9 May The industries that cried wolf, R Denniss, 18 April The price of disloyalty: Why competition has failed to lower ATM fees, J Fear, 17 February Complementary or contradictory? An analysis of the design of climate policies in Australia, R Denniss

Once upon a time the justification for delivering the federal budget speech at 7.30pm was so that the stock market and money market would have time to absorb the information before the next day’s trading began. But these days, with many Australian shares listed on international stock exchanges and the Australian dollar traded just as

The Treasurer has just done the books for Australia and many of you will be preparing to do your own as the end of the financial year approaches. Don’t forget that all donations of $2 and above to The Australia Institute are tax-deductible. Independent ideas can only come from independent funding. While you will be

There has been a lot of talk about the need to ‘reframe’ the debate about climate change among the Australian environment groups who have tasked themselves with persuading our politicians to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, their attempts to reframe the debate have been as unsuccessful as their attempts to persuade our politicians. The