The Australia Institute has welcomed the Energy Security Board’s Options Paper for the redesign of the National Electricity Market but warned against a proposal that would effectively tax consumers to prop up unprofitable coal power stations. “The Options Paper contains a seriously risky proposal that would prolong the lives of unprofitable, highly polluting coal power

A new report by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology calls for a rethink of the role of the national broadcaster to provide alternate digital spaces to Facebook and other global platforms. The paper The Public Square Project proposes a publicly funded social network built on the trust and reach of the ABC to create: communities

New research from the Australia Institute Tasmania finds most Tasmanians (87%) want Truth in Political Advertising laws, and a ban on political donations by the gambling industry (73.3%). Four in five (80.1%) Tasmanians agree the Tasmanian Integrity Commission should undergo structural change so its design is improved and its existing powers, including holding full inquiries with public hearings, are utilised.

The Budget has traditionally advantaged men over women. The Australia Institute has today released a paper which explores how the Budget is currently biased in favour of men, and makes seven recommendations on how to improve women’s economic security and use the Budget as a tool to reduce gender inequality. The recommendations in this paper

Fossil fuel subsidies cost Australians a staggering $10.3 billion in FY 2020-21 with one Commonwealth tax break alone ($7.84 billion) exceeding the $7.82 billion spent on the Australian Army, according to research released today by The Australia Institute. In fact, $10.3 billion in Government subsidies means that in 2020, every minute of every day $19,686

New research from the Australia Institute Tasmania finds most Tasmanians (63%) want to suspend the expansion of salmon farms in Tasmania, expressing widespread (63.5%) concern that the health of Tasmania’s coastal waters is declining. More than one in two (56.3%) Tasmanians agree the Tasmanian Government is not doing enough to protect the health of our oceans.

If Australia followed the leadership of the US expected announcement of a new climate target and committed to halving emissions by 2030, it would prevent 875 million tonnes of emissions being emitted, equivalent to almost two years of Australia’s current annual emissions, according to new research by the Australia Institute Climate & Energy Program. 40

A global coalition of 101 Nobel Laureates, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Australia’s Professor Peter Doherty, are calling out the continued expansion of the fossil fuel industry as “unconscionable” in an open letter to political leaders on the eve of US President Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate. The Nobel Laureates – including economics,

An unlikely group of 25 companies and organisations, including car manufacturers, auto groups, electrical infrastructure companies and environmental groups have come together to publish an open letter to the Victorian parliament calling on them to vote against Victoria’s regressive electric vehicles tax. The letter, which appears as a full-page advertisement in The Age, highlights that

The majority of voters (57.4%) in the NSW state seat of Upper Hunter support former PM Malcolm Turnbull’s call for a moratorium on new coal mine approvals and a remediation plan for existing mines for the Hunter Valley. The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 686 residents in the NSW state seat of

The Australia Institute is calling on the NSW Government to support a National Climate Compensation Fund, funded by a levy on fossil fuel exports, to help cover the crippling costs of climate change on the state. Today’s NSW Treasury Intergenerational Report on Climate Risk shows the average annual costs of climate change for NSW to

New economic modelling commissioned by the Australia Institute from the Centre for Social Research and Methods, shows that four tax concessions: negative gearing, superannuation tax concessions, capital gain tax discount and refunding excess franking credits, cost the Federal Budget $60 billion per year; and for every dollar that goes to women, two dollars goes to

The vast majority of Australians (76%) support the Commonwealth allowing Territory Governments to legislate to legalise voluntary assisted dying within their jurisdictions. The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,434 Australians about their attitudes to voluntary assisted dying. Key findings: Three in four Australians (76%) support the Commonwealth allowing Territory Governments to legalise

In the Upper Hunter Valley proposals for new coal projects have a combined output of 98 million tonnes per year, equivalent to ten new Adani-sized mines, according to new research from the Australia Institute. Key Findings: In the Upper Hunter Valley, proposals for new coal projects have a combined output of 98 million tonnes per

New economic modelling commissioned by the Australia Institute from Communities in Numbers, shows the effective $100 per fortnight cut to JobSeeker, scheduled to take effect on 1 April 2021, will push a further 155,000 people into poverty – including 20,000 children. This choice by the Government will mean there will be over a million more

New research from The Australia Institute, commissioned to assist the Energy Security Board’s redesign of the National Electricity Market, has shown that batteries and clean energy are poised to replace the system security that has historically been provided by coal. The technical study was written by leading energy economist Professor Bruce Mountain and battery expert

New research from the Australia Institute has shown the majority of Coalition voters support the Liberal Party setting gender quotas to achieve a representative number of women preselected as Liberal Party candidates. The research also shows that half of Australians (50%) are not very or not at all confident in the Prime Minister’s ability to

Revelations at Senate estimates this morning that Treasury believe the scrapping of JobKeeper will result in 100,000 to 150,000 jobs being lost provide a chilling warning to Australia’s unemployed and to all businesses that sell products to Australian consumers. “It is staggering to believe the Government would even consider implementing a policy change that would

The Australia Institute has today published a discussion paper on the barriers to progress on Aboriginal land rights in the ACT. The paper explores the issues that need to be resolved before the ACT Government can make progress on treaty discussions. Key Findings: The transfer of the land of the ACT from NSW to the

The Australia Institute has welcomed the State Labor Opposition’s hydrogen energy plan for South Australia. “Clean sources of power, including green hydrogen produced from 100% renewable electricity, are the future of energy. Putting South Australia at the centre of the global energy transition is the smart thing to do,” said Noah Schultz-Byard, SA Director at

New research from The Australia Institute shows the majority of Australians support both a government policy subsidising the purchase of new electric vehicles and a ban on the sale of new fossil fuelled cars by 2035.

Australians significantly overestimate the oil and gas industry’s contribution to Commonwealth revenue, and the Australian community would most benefit by moving away from the oil and gas industry, according to an Australia Institute submission to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee. The Australia Institute has made a submission to the Senate Economics Committee as part of

More than half of Australians support an independent inquiry into whether Christian Porter is a fit and proper person to be Attorney General, according to new research from the Australia Institute. The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,000 Australians between 11 to 12 March 2021, about whether they support an independent inquiry

New research by the Australia Institute shows that it is the Australian Parliament’s bicameral structure, and specifically, the Australian Senate which has been key to the success of Australian democracy, in particular because its make-up provides accountability, proportionality and diversity to the Australian Parliamentary system The report is one of the few extensive studies of

The Commonwealth Integrity Commission legislation as currently drafted could see Ministers left exempt, according to the Australia Institute’s National Integrity Committee of retired judges. The National Integrity Committee submission, made in the public consultation period for the draft legislation, outlines a number of key shortcomings of the draft legislation. Critical shortcomings of this draft legislation

New research, released for International Women’s Day (8 March 2021), shows Australia’s recovery from the pandemic recession has widened the gender pay gap, as women’s jobs returned on a more part-time and casualised basis than for men. The report, by the Centre for Future Work, warns that Australia’s gender pay gap could deteriorate even further

The Australia Institute has welcomed the decision from the South Australian Government not to introduce an electric vehicle tax in July of this year. “The Australia Institute welcomes the decision of the South Australian Government, but a delay of one year is not enough,” said Noah Schultz-Byard, SA Director at The Australia Institute. “This EV

Among the recommendations in the Aged Care Royal Commission report is the call for an effective 1% increase in the Medicare levy, or a new Medicare-style Aged Care levy which could be applied progressively based on income. “Increasing the Medicare levy by at least 1 per cent, or a new progressive Aged Care levy, is

As Covid travel restrictions ease and Australia’s agriculture sector rebounds from years of crippling drought, new research from the Australia Institute Climate & Energy Program shows that the recoveries of the Transport and Agriculture sectors will cause Australia’s emissions rise significantly—reversing emissions reductions made in 2020 and setting Australia’s emissions back to pre-2018 heights. The

New analysis from the Australia Institute shows Australia’s unemployment rate is worse than that of most OECD countries. In fact, this analysis shows that across the OECD, it is higher unemployment payments (the ‘net replacement rate of unemployment’) that correlate with lower unemployment rates. The Government and commentators have long argued that Australia’s internationally low