How increasing population is making the task of government harder – Kelvin Thomson MP The Australia Institute and Sustainable Population Australia will host a talk by Kelvin Thomson MP on the evening of Thursday 25 August. Kelvin will discuss the topic ‘The witches’ hats theory of government: How increasing population is making the task of

A rather small convoy of constitutional confusion today rolled into Canberra calling for a double-dissolution election. The impending carbon price, the ban on live exports and the imminent threat of one world government were all cited by participants as motivating their demands. But no matter how sincere their confused calls for a double-dissolution election, they

“The future is in our hands, and it will be defined by the way we handle the current minerals boom. Get it wrong, and we falter. Get it right and we set the nation up for decades to come.” Prime Minister, the Hon. Julia Gillard, The Australian, 4 February 2011. So, with the news of

BlueScope Steel has led the tantrum against the introduction of a carbon price and today it, or more precisely its employees, have fallen victim to an entirely different problem. The rising dollar has been placing obvious pressure on the competitiveness of the Australian steel industry but the company seems to prefer playing politics than proposing

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

Australia: a low-tax country The industries that cried wolf High stakes in gambling reform Recent publications Recent media Australia: a low-tax country  The federal budget will be handed down in a fortnight’s time and the Treasurer Wayne Swan has taken to the airwaves to warn us it will be lean and “unpopular”. Predictably, the Government