The Australia Institute’s Democracy & Accountability Program welcomes the Victorian Electoral Matters Committee’s recommendation for Victoria to adopt truth in political advertising laws, with the Australia Institute’s submission to the inquiry cited extensively in the committee report published today. Key Facts: Since March 2020, the Victorian Parliament’s Electoral Matters Committee has looked into the impact

The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,000 Australians between Wednesday 8th September and Friday 10th September, about whether the Prime Minister should be free to travel between Sydney and Canberra, and whether he should live in The Lodge. Key findings: Australians are split on whether PM Scott Morrison should be granted an

The Australia Institute welcomes the WA Government’s decision to end native forest logging and calls for independent inquiries into native forestry in other states. “The end of native forest logging represents not just good environmental policy, but good economic policy,” said Rod Campbell, economist and Research Director at The Australia Institute. “Australia Institute research has

The lack of a clear blueprint for vaccination ‘passports’ that addresses public concerns around safety and security risks is undermining the implementation of vaccine mandates, warns the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology. With vaccine passports for international travel reportedly just weeks away, there appears to have been little focus on the way a digital

Correspondence between Resource Minister Keith Pitt and civil society groups involved in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) shows that the Australian Government is walking away from its promise to join the tax transparency initiative for the mining, oil and gas industry. The move comes despite major mining companies and civil society groups supporting Australia’s

The Australia Institute commissioned uComms to conduct a survey of residents across the federal electorates of Brisbane (622 residents), Braddon (632 residents), Boothby (641 residents) and Bennelong (629 residents) on the nights of 4th and 5th of August 2021. Key Findings: Seat of Brisbane – 78.2% of Brisbane voters support setting up a Commonwealth Integrity

New research from The Australia Institute shows that South Australians rank health, the economy and climate change as the three most important political issues in South Australia ahead of the next state election. The Australia Institute’s survey of a representative sample of 599 South Australians also found the vast majority of voters would prefer it

An unlikely group of 12 companies and organisations, including car manufacturers, automotive groups and environmental organisations have come together to publish an open letter to the South Australian Parliament, calling on them to abolish stamp duty on electric vehicles. The letter, which appears as a full-page advertisement in The Advertiser newspaper today, comes as the

New Australia Institute analysis of the Doherty Modelling shows that while vaccination rates of 80% are essential to protect the community, so are other measures such as the ability to contact trace effectively and other little-analysed assumptions and outcomes of the model. Key Findings: While high vaccination rates lead to a significant reduction in the

New research from The Australia Institute has found that significantly reducing floodplain harvesting would have minimal economic impact and could actually increase overall employment across the Basin. The findings, contained in a submission to the NSW Parliamentary inquiry into floodplain harvesting, show that a reduction in the practice within the cotton-dominated northern basin could increase

While the effectiveness of ‘test, trace, isolate, quarantine’ (TTIQ) is dependent upon case numbers, new analysis from the Australia Institute shows the Doherty Modelling does not adequately take this into account. Key findings: While most discussion is around vaccine rates and COVID cases at the time of transition to Phase B (‘opening up’) a significant

The South Australian Government’s decision to delay its EV Tax until 2027 is welcome but the small, temporary EV incentive revealed today is insufficient to facilitate the rapid transition to zero emissions cars that our state needs, The Australia Institute says. Key points: As it stands, the 6000 one-off purchase incentives offered represent just 0.4%

The wealth of Australians has grown by an extraordinary $9.5 trillion or 302% in the past 33 years according to a new report released by the Australia Institute. However, despite this enormous increase in wealth, which primarily takes the form of housing and shares, the rapid growth in the assets of Australian households has been

Leading innovative energy companies have published an open letter, co-ordinated by the Australia Institute, to state and federal energy ministers and the Energy Security Board (ESB), opposing a key recommendation from the ESB to create a new market for ‘physical reliability’ that would subsidise loss-making coal power stations. The open letter signatories include Tesla Energy,

New electoral laws proposed by the Government will have unintended consequences and unfairly benefit incumbent political parties, warns the Australia Institute’s Democracy & Accountability Program. The Electoral Legislation Amendment (Party Registration Integrity) Bill would require political parties to have 1,500 unique members each within the next three months, up from 500, and prohibit new parties

A new discussion paper published by The Australia Institute makes a case for major reforms to how livelihood and work programs operate in remote Australia. The paper was developed by eight leading researchers with decades of research experience on remote Indigenous unemployment. “We welcome the Federal Government’s acknowledgement that the Abbott-era Community Development Program (CDP)

New research from The Australia Institute shows that South Australians would be less likely to make the switch to an electric vehicle if the government proceeds with its plan to copy the Victorian Labor Government’s EV Tax. The Australia Institute’s survey of a representative sample of 599 South Australians also found there is strong support,

When it comes to a clean energy transition, Australia is lagging significantly behind other countries according to new research published today by the Australia Institute’s Climate & Energy Program. The research, authored by leading energy analyst Dr Hugh Saddler, shows that according to key indicators of decarbonisation and energy transition Australia ranks very poorly, and

Three in five (60%) Australians support requiring subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD) services, like Netflix, Stan and Amazon Prime, to spend at least 20% of their revenue on Australian content, finds new research by the Australia Institute.

New research released today by the Australia Institute outlines five sets of principles that will help evaluate the merits of different taxes. Taxation is the price we pay to live in a civilisation, however, with such a great number of tax possibilities, it is increasingly important to evaluate our taxation choices. The new report sets

The 15th National Coast to Coast Conference delegates have called for the Australian Government to adopt a National Sustainable Oceans and Coasts Strategy. The strategy provides a blueprint for change that Australia’s oceans and coasts need, and outlines the steps needed to transform how we govern and protect oceans and coasts across Australia. Among the

The Commonwealth Government is pouring $226 million of public money into subsidies for the NT gas industry, says a submission by the Australia Institute to a Senate inquiry. These massive public subsidies confirm the findings of the NT Fracking Inquiry that large scale fracking in the NT is unlikely to be commercially viable and will

New research from the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work, written by Senior Economist Alison Pennington and Monash University’s Ben Eltham, reveals the ongoing, devastating impact of COVID-19 on Australia’s arts and entertainment sector and provides a series of recommendations to government that would reboot the creative sector following the crisis. Key Findings: The arts

New research from the Australia Institute Tasmania finds that one in two Australians support a moratorium on the expansion of the salmon farming industry in Tasmania, while only 15% oppose.

Australia’s states and territories have taken the lead in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, representing a potential re-alignment of state-federal relations, according to new research by the Australia Institute’s Democracy & Accountability Program. Polling shows that the proportion of Australians who rate their state/territory government as doing a better job of handling the crisis has reached

More than seven in ten (72%) Australians support UNESCO’s recommendation to add the Great Barrier Reef to the World Heritage ‘in danger’ list, just 11% oppose. Furthermore, Queenslanders are most likely (50%) to think that climate change is the largest threat to the Great Barrier Reef and least likely (4%) to think that the health of the Great Barrier Reef is not threatened.

New analysis of the Intergenerational Report reveals Treasury does not believe that any of the policies introduced by the Coalition Government in the last six years will have any measurable impact on Australia’s productivity growth in the coming decades. Key Findings: The latest Intergenerational Report (IGR 2021) reveals that the Treasury Department is more pessimistic

Nearly one in two Tasmanians (48.5%) distrust the Tasmanian Integrity Commission’s ability to uncover and prevent misconduct in public administration, including 19.6% who strongly distrust. Meanwhile 33.8% trust its ability, including just 6.6% who strongly trust. 17.7% were unsure.

New research by the Australia Institute’s International & Security Affairs Program has revealed that a similar number of Australians think China will attack Australia soon or sometime (42%) as Taiwanese think that China will attack Taiwan (51%)—a result that may have been stimulated by recent strong-arm tactics by the Government of China, and anti-China rhetoric

New research from the Australia Institute finds that one in two Australians would prefer the funds budgeted for the expansion of the Australian War Memorial to be spent on services such as health and education, a further one quarter (26%) of Australians would prefer the money to be spent on veterans’ support services. Just 13% of Australians prefer the funds to be spent on the redevelopment of the Australian War Memorial.