In the last Burning Platforms before the Australian Federal Election we run the rule over the policies being offered up by the major parties. Is it just Coke vs. Pepsi? Or are there bigger ideas at play? Recorded live 13th March 2022. Regular panelists: Peter Lewis, Director of The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology

As the Federal Election approaches amid heightened geo-political tensions, Burning Platforms looks at a ground-breaking attempt to understand how political actors game the social media algorithms to deliver targeted disinformation. Recorded live March 4th 2022. Regular panellists: Peter Lewis, Director of The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology Lizzie O’Shea, Chair of Digital Rights Watch

The budget is come soon and, because it’s an election year, income tax cuts are squarely on the agenda. In today’s episode we ask, who really benefits from the government’s legislated tax cuts? New research from the Australia Institute suggests anyone earning under $90k could be worse off. Recorded live on 22 February 2022 and

We mark 12 months from the Facebook news takedown and review the progress of the News Media Bargaining Code. Has the code achieved its objectives? Who’s missed out? And should it be a global model for managing the relationship between journalism and the platforms. Recorded live on 18th February 2022. Regular panellists: Peter Lewis, Director

While Australians spent the summer searching for RATs, a hastily convened federal government inquiry was holding public hearings about online safety, as the Morrison Government amps up its war with the Big Tech companies. Burning Platforms is back for 2022 to dissect the inquiry with deputy chair Tim Watts MP. Recorded live 4th February 2022.

Our summer podcast series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. Everyone knows that children do best when they are supported, nurtured and loved. But across Australia, children as young as 10 can be arrested by police, charged with an offence, hauled before a court and locked away in a

Our summer series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. This episode we’re bringing you a conversation with our chief economist Richard Denniss about the merits and flaws in the government’s fiscal response to the pandemic and the long terms effects on the Australian economy. This was recorded live on

Our summer series brings you some of the best conversations from our webinars in 2021. This episode we’re bringing you a conversation with award-winning journalist Marian Wilkinson and the Australia Institute’s chief economist Richard Denniss and Allan Behm, International & Security Affairs program director, about the growing pressure on Australia, as global and regional powers

Held at The Australia Institute’s Politics in the Pub event, we launch the Centre for Responsible Technology’s new book ‘The Public Square Project’. Western democracy has always been anchored by the idea of a public space where people gather to share ideas, mediate difference and make sense of the world. When Facebook blocked Australian users

The internet promised new ways to challenge power and privilege, so how has it become a tool to promote division and entrench despots? Join us as we dive deep with special guest Elaine Pearson from Human Rights Watch into the ways tech platforms have become wilful partners in oppression around the globe. Regular panellists: Peter

My Year of Living Vulnerably is a dazzlingly brilliant book about love, trauma and recovery, we chat with the author Rick Morton.

The dominance of Google’s data-hungry search engine is under the spotlight in Australia, with live inquiries on its role in the Ad-tech industry and anti-competitive deals which embed the search engine in smart devices. But DuckDuckGo has proven that you can build a search engine that’s not based on user surveillance. In this week’s Burning

As the world’s leaders debate the future of the planet, technology is being put forward as the solution to the earth’s climate woes. But will smart energy networks, AI and Bitcoin really save us? As part of the annual NetThing internet governance conference, this week’s Burning Platforms dives deep into the environmental impacts of technology. Regular panellists: Peter

Platforms are acting like nation-states and governments are trying to become platforms, but are they both getting it wrong? The idea of the ’platform’ has come to dominate our notion of the internet – that there are corporate networks that we stand on to support us in accessing cyberspace. Governments are employing the same construct

With a review of the Privacy Act expected soon, and the Facebook whistleblower revealing Facebook’s privacy breaches among other things, we take a deep dive into the legal frameworks for entrenching digital data rights into Australian law. From informed consent to data matching and security, is the traditional approach to privacy applicable to the online

Welcome to Burning Platforms. A new fortnightly podcast unpacks the latest developments in technology from around the world. This fortnight we explore algorithms that rule Australia, how we are increasingly outsourcing policy and governance to algorithms. We will look at how facial recognition, robo-planning and robo-welfare are entering our policy environments. This and more in

Australia’s universities were uniquely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and recession. Now, 18 months after the borders were first closed, things are getting worse for universities, not better.

The Doherty Modelling makes clear that without a highly functioning Test, Trace, Isolate and Quarantine (TTIQ) system we have no chance of stopping Australia’s ICUs from being overwhelmed; the problem is the effectiveness of TTIQ declines as case numbers rise and that has not factored into the modelling.

When it comes to addressing the systemic issues which are impacting Australian women’s everyday lives, it often feels like the problems are big and impossible to tackle. In today’s episode, Australia Institute research economist Eliza Littleton outlines 8 practical things that Prime Minister Scott Morrison could do right now to remove barriers to women’s equality

Australian women bore the brunt of the recession, but how are they faring economically now? In short: not great.

The findings of the Aged Care Royal Commission are shocking but not surprising. Among the recommendations 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, to create the revenue required to fund an aged care system with

When Facebook banned Australian news and information from its platform — as well as the pages of many charities, community groups and government departments — in an attempt to avoid regulation, it may have been the first time many Australians had heard of the news media bargaining code. So in this week’s episode we unpack what the code is, what it does, why it’s necessary and what happens next.

In its efforts to avoid regulation, Google commissioned economic modelling showing that Google providing tens of billions of dollars in benefits to Australia – but the figures quickly fell apart on closer inspection from the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology. In this episode, chief economist Richard Denniss talks us through some of the assumptions

In our summer special series, we bring you some of our favourite guests from the Australia Institute’s webinar series in 2020. In this episode, host Ebony Bennett talks to Jay Weatherill, Kate Carnell and Richard Denniss about how an affordable, accessible early learning system could help power Australia’s economic recovery. The full webinar is available

Let’s face it, 2020 has been a bit of a nightmare. This week, in our final episode of the year, Ebony Bennett and Richard Denniss revisit some of the Australia Institute’s predictions back in March 2020 and reflect on the way Australia’s economy and politics have changed this year in response to the pandemic. Mild

Australia’s news media is one of the most highly concentrated in the world. Since 2019, more than 157 newsrooms have closed in Australia and many local, community and rural newspapers have ceased printing or gone digital only. It was in this climate that in 2018 the federal government tasked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

In this episode we talk to Dr Richard Denniss about the role of neoliberalism in spreading Covid-19 and how decades of privatisations, outsourcing and cuts to government spending have left Australia vulnerable during this pandemic.The Australia Institute // @theAUSInstituteHost: Ebony Bennett, deputy director at the Australia Institute // @ebony_bennettGuests: Richard Dennis, chief economist at the Australia

In this, our 100th episode of Follow the Money, we celebrate with a special look back at some of our special guests, some of our favourite highlights, worst jokes and some of the interesting topics we’ve covered in the past 99 episodes. Our heartfelt thanks to all our listeners – we’re looking forward to the

One of the main goals of public health around the world has been to prevent the number of severe cases from overwhelming the hospitals and the health system. We know that severe cases of Covid require intensive care and respirators, but as a novel virus with no vaccine or treatments, clinicians are learning on the

The Morrison government has said it will increase investment in skills and training if the states and territories sign up to an overhaul of the Vocational Education and Training sector. ACTU President Michele O’Neil, Correna Haythorpe, federal president of the AEU and Alison Pennington, senior economist at the Centre for Future Work at the Australia