The past week has delivered some of the clearest evidence yet that both sides of politics are utterly in thrall to the mining sector. When asked about the escalating battle between farmers and coal seam gas miners by radio broadcaster Alan Jones, Tony Abbott made the apparently uncontroversial observation that ‘if you don’t want something

For all the talk about the rising cost of living in Australia it is amazing that there isn’t more concern expressed at the high mark-ups that big Australian retailers charge. Australians pay far more for clothes, computers and most other consumer goods than customers in the rest of the world. There are two main reasons

The Australia Institute and Sustainable Population Australia will host a talk by Kelvin Thomson MP on the evening of Thursday 25 August 2011. Kelvin will discuss the topic ‘The witches hats theory of government: How increasing population is making the task of government harder’. Providing food, water, energy, housing, education, jobs, health, liveable cities and

Australian politicians have spent more than 20 years thinking up reasons not to tackle climate change, but the latest from Tony Abbott really must take the cake. According to the Opposition Leader, it now seems that until Communist China introduces a market-based mechanism to reduce their emissions, Australia shouldn’t either. That should buy us some

The most profitable retailers are the ones who can get you to pay far more than something is worth. In Australia, Tiffany jewellery, Levi’s jeans and even Coca-Cola cost far more than they do in other countries. The brands, the retailers and the shopping centres are the big winners out of this sad state of

The concepts of economic rationalism and market liberalism seem to have been abandoned by the Liberals. Whatever happened to the term economic rationalist? It wasn’t that long ago that the favourite insult hurled by the left was the badge of honour worn by the right. The arguments were hilarious. “You’re nothing but a self-serving economic

Last week Tony Abbott branded the Government’s target to reduce emissions by five per cent by 2020 as ‘crazy’, but the crazy thing is that the Coalition has the same target. Was this just Mr Abbott getting over excited in his attacks on the Government? A slip of the tongue similar to when he told

If your doctor told you that you had cancer and Lord Christopher Monckton told you to ignore their advice would you listen to him? What if he told you not to immunise your children or drink fluoridated water? It’s interesting how many people are unlikely to trust him for personal advice but who seem willing

The House of Lords says that Christopher Monckton is not entitled to claim he is a member of that House, but he disputes this. The internet is full of scientists carefully debunking the claims about climate change made by him, but he is similarly impervious to correction. Put simply, Lord Monckton is a case study

Yesterday I met my first Lord and, like the debate itself, the experience was not quite what I expected. Lord Monckton has made a career out of not listening to people. He doesn’t listen to scientists, he doesn’t listen to journal editors and yesterday he repeated that he would not listen to the House of

Joint Academies Statement 1.       Climate change is real. There will always be uncertainty in understanding a system as complex as the world’s climate. However there is now strong evidence that significant global warming is occurring. 2.       We urge all nations, in the line with the UNFCCC principles, to take prompt action to reduce the causes

The Australia Institute’s Executive Director Dr Richard Denniss debated professional climate change sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton at the National Press Club on Tuesday 19 July. To read Richard’s take on the debate, click here To read an account of the debate Richard wrote for Crikey, click here

The Australia Institute was established to inform public debate, so in that spirit Executive Director Dr Richard Denniss agreed to take the opportunity to argue the case for action on climate change at the National Press Club on Tuesday, 19 July 2011. Richard’s opponent was professional climate change sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton. Read Richard’s speech

This edition of the Institute’s newsletter looks at: ‘Closing the Gap 2011’; Silencing dissent in Environment Victoria; The rise of online retail; The macroeconomics of online shopping; The future of the republican movement in Australia; and Australia’s surplus fetish. It also looks at the hidden cost of maternity leave.

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