New research published by the Australia Institute, in partnership with RMIT, shows there is legal ambiguity surrounding the non-consensual removal of a condom during sex, also known as stealthing, that could be fixed through nationally consistent laws. The report Stealthing: Legislating for Change finds that while an overwhelming majority of Australians support criminalisation, many Australians do not

New polling research reveals a majority of Australians agree that junk food advertising during children’s viewing should be banned, and an overwhelming majority support a ban on TV gambling advertisements. A majority of Australians also supported bans on alcohol and tobacco advertising on TV, and more agree than disagree that ads promoting fossil fuels should

As Minister Richard Marles lifts Peter Dutton’s ban on some charity and diversity events in Defence, polling research has revealed most Australians are either unfamiliar with the term ‘woke’, or would describe themselves as ‘woke’. Key Findings: Of those who described themselves as woke, three in five were major party voters (59%) and more intended

Attorneys-General and Shadow AGs from around Australia are invited to participate in a roundtable on Thursday with legal experts and academics to tackle the damaging practice of ‘stealthing’, convened by sexual consent advocate Chanel Contos, the inaugural director of the Australia Institute’s newly established Centre for Sex & Gender Equality.

“The NSW Parliament’s decision to legalise voluntary assisted dying means the Federal Parliament should remove the bar that prevents the ACT and the NT from considering similar legislation,” said Ben Oquist, executive director of the Australia Institute. “Our research shows the majority of Australians support the Federal Parliament giving back Territory rights on legislating voluntary assisted

Almost one in five Australians (and a higher proportion of young workers) acknowledge working with potential COVID symptoms over the course of the pandemic, according to new opinion research released today by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work. The research confirms the public health dangers of Australia’s patchwork system of sick leave and related

“Today’s revelations in the Wall Street Journal confirm what we suspected at the time: that Facebook’s takedown was a deliberate attack on Australian democratic institutions, deployed as a negotiating tactic to avoid paying for news content,” said Peter Lewis, Director of the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology. “The fact that this global corporation was

A new report has found pandemic workforce shortages should be tackled through investment in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) to boost employment, unlock productivity and support life-long development outcomes for children.

The key driver of Australia’s acute housing affordability crisis is its over-reliance on just two housing options – private home ownership and private renting. New research from the Australia Institute’s Nordic Policy Centre shows that Nordic countries have a wider repertoire of policies, and Australia can learn from policies that are already in practice in

The next federal government can save universities, make undergraduate education free for all Australians and employ tens of thousands of staff securely by lifting the public spend on higher education to just one per cent of GDP, according to a landmark new report. The Australia Institute’s Centre For Future Work report shows, if the federal

Australia should follow the European example and introduce a Youth Job Guarantee, according to a new report from the Australia Institute which reveals the true extent of youth employment devastation during the pandemic. Despite representing just 14 per cent of workers, the new report, ‘Youth unemployment and the pandemic’, shows young people (aged 15-24) bore 39

Making Early Child Education and Care (ECEC) universal in Australia would pay for itself by unlocking women’s labour supply, boosting GDP and growing government revenues by billions, according to new research from the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work. With cost of living shaping up as a key election issue, policy experts say boosted funding would

“Australia has missed a great opportunity to improve its parental leave policies, invest in children’s early years, support parents and improve gender equality,” said Professor Andrew Scott at Deakin University and Convenor of The Australia Institute’s Nordic Policy Centre. “The Budget decision to abolish the designation of two weeks parental leave for fathers from Australia’s

Cutting the excise on beer from kegs is an ineffective and inequitable way to support the hospitality sector, reduce cost of living pressures, and reduce excessive drinking according to a new report released by The Australia Institute. “The overwhelming majority of beer drinkers in Australia are men, and the overwhelming majority of hospitality venues don’t

Australia’s vocational education and training (VET) system shows growing signs of erosion, fragmentation and dysfunction, according to new research from the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work. The research reveals a grim picture of a VET system starved of consistent funding or focus, fragmenting into scattered offerings of non-accredited and ‘micro-credential’ courses, mostly provided by

New research has found no evidence of a major China-backed campaign to influence Australian political discourse on social media, according to the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology. The research analysed more than 69,000 tweets from two low-points in Australia-China relations in 2020 and found no evidence the CCP was using bots to shape political

New research from The Australia Institute shows the Labor Party holding a narrow 2PP lead, 51%-49%, one month out from the 2022 state election. The Australia Institute’s survey of a representative sample of 602 South Australians also found there is strong sentiment in the community that the state was not adequately prepared when borders were

Today marks one year since the company formerly known as Facebook mounted a hostile takedown of Australian news and civil society sites, threatening quality journalism in Australia. “The failed takedown, designed to apply bipartisan pressure in an effort to block the News Media Bargaining Code, highlighted the willingness of the global corporate giant to threaten

An electorate analysis of the Federal Government’s current plan to scrap the LMITO (Low and Middle Income Tax Offset) after 2021-22, shows most taxpayers will be worse off when the legislated Stage 3 tax cuts to high income earners comes into effect in 2024-25. Key Findings: Scrapping the LMITO will see 90% of taxpayers pay

“The Morrison Government announcement today that there will be no further cuts to the ABC and the indexation freeze on funding will be removed is a welcome one, however, this announcement does nothing to restore the more than half a billion dollars in cumulative funding cuts the ABC has endured since Tony Abbott’s ‘no cuts

New figures reveal ABC funding has been cut by $526 million since the Coalition took office, with 640 jobs lost. The figures were obtained from the ABC which was asked to provide details on ‘budget reductions’ since the Coalition Government’s first budget in 2013/14, in a QoN at Senate Estimates. Polling from the Australia Institute’s

New Australia Institute polling in the federal seats of Wentworth and North Sydney show strong support for the ABC. The polling in the blue-ribbon Liberal seats in NSW shows overwhelming support for increasing ABC funding and for a more independent ABC board appointments process. 853 residents of NSW federal seat of Wentworth and 850 residents

A new book from the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology, published by MUP and released today, The Public Square Project: Reimagining Our Digital Future explores a new blueprint for a more democratic digital space, and re-examines the idea of a public space where people gather to share ideas, mediate difference and make sense of

The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible technology today called on Amazon to mark its global marketing day, Black Friday, by ditching patents to increase the surveillance of its workers. According to an analysis by UNI Global, Amazon currently have patents on a range of technologies that will erode workplace privacy including: Augmented reality headsets that

New research from the Australia Institute’s Democracy & Accountability Program shows that for each voter who was marked as voting more than once (accurately or otherwise), there were over 1,000 Australians who were entitled to vote but whose votes were not counted. New voter ID laws risk disenfranchising even more voters, for the sake of

The media and information industries have lost some 60,000 jobs in Australia over the last 15 years. With almost half of those jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, new research shows active policy supports are urgently needed to stabilise and protect the ‘public good’ function of journalism. A new report by the Australia Institute’s Centre

State governments trialling home quarantine need to take active steps to ensure they are not crossing a new frontier in the surveillance of citizens by using Facial Recognition Technology, warns the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology. This follows reports that in several states police have accessed COVID check-in data to undertake routine law enforcement activities.

The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology has backed Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s proposal for a high-level review of the public health impacts of Facebook’s business model, calling for a Royal Commission into the company’s impact on Australian users. Evidence from an internal whistleblower to the US Senate this week has exposed how Facebook’s leadership

New research from the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work confirms that workers in casual and insecure jobs have borne the lion’s share of job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic – both the first lockdowns in 2020, and the more recent Delta-wave of closures. Key Findings: Since May, workers in casual and part-time jobs have

The Australia Institute has welcomed the Senate Committee for the Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation decision to recommend that the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Amendment (2021 Measures No. 2) Regulations 2021 be disallowed. The Committee, chaired by Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, outlined concerns which include that the regulation lacks clarity, would give the Charities Commissioner a