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.

“Gina Rinehart and the mining industry already get out of paying excise on petrol. So I can see why she thinks everybody should avoid it.” – Executive Director Richard Denniss on Channel 9’s the Today Show.

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.

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.

Gas extraction is often lauded by the industry as the ‘backbone of the Australian economy’, but the actual revenue collected from one of the main taxes on the industry falls staggeringly short of what most people would expect. Find out why this is the case – and what we can do to fix it.

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

2023 has shown us a planet on the brink of collapse. Cyclones, heatwaves, catastrophic floods, fires and landslides have killed people, destroyed ecosystems and decimated communities. And yet Australia is still yet to repair all the homes lost in the Black Summer bushfires of 2020 or the devastating Lismore floods of 2017 and 2022. No

One of the key things about this whole problem is that the only way to solve it is that we need to rapidly reduce and phase out fossil fuels. That can’t wait a decade. We need to be making substantial reductions this decade.

The Australia Institute will do everything it can to keep fossil fuel expansion, fossil fuel subsidies, dodgy offsets and much more on the agenda ahead of the next federal election.

What would an evidence-based response from the government to climate change look like? And how can we build integrity back into our democratic system? At the Climate Integrity Summit 2024, our first panel discussed the power of political leadership and evidence-based policy. Featuring: Bernie Fraser, Former Governor, Reserve Bank of Australia Dr Monique Ryan MP,

Removing the fossil fuel industry’s influence on politics and parliament is how we change the story and restore trust in government decisions.

“The growing interest in ESG is driving the biggest change to financial markets and financial reporting and disclosure standards we’ve actually seen in a generation. We’ve got to make sure that we are ready to meet the challenge of that change at every step of its development.”

Words are only as good as the actions that follow. There’s no integrity in climate ambition without commensurate climate action. Having integrity means keeping our word, and that includes countries like Australia and other members of the G20 transitioning away from fossil fuels and doing so now.

Today, we stand at the crossroads of opportunity and crisis.

I am starting my address to this year’s summit in the exact same way that I started last year’s address. Because it is just over a year since I delivered these same words, which aren’t actually my words. They are the words of our Climate Change Minister, and they provide a baseline of sorts for what progress has been made in that time.

Climate integrity is a critical issue for a small atoll nation like Tuvalu, I need not remind people that Tuvalu is one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change with the highest points above sea level for the entire country being four meters. But our vulnerability should not be a bargaining chip for regional security issues.

We are trying to make our voices, our knowledge and wisdom heard by those with the power and the responsibility to create change to do better. We must not give up hope. We have no more decades to make these changes.

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?

If we wanted to fix these things, we could. If you think that we need some complicated policy measure or some very expensive investment, you’ve been misled.

The Albanese government’s failure to back up its rhetoric with meaningful action on climate change is “very disappointing”,  according to a former President of Kiribati, Anote Tong.

Enjoy five key takeaways from Richard Denniss’ address to the National Press Club, 31 January 2024.

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.