First published in the Australian Financial Review – here It’s bizarre that people blame Tony Abbott’s demise on his inability to communicate. He was a great communicator, and people knew exactly what he stood for. No politician was as relentlessly ‘on message’.  Abbott’s problem wasn’t the clarity of his message; it was the incoherence of

Polling conducted over the weekend shows strong local support for the Newcastle City Council’s decision to include environmental and socially responsible factors together with financial returns in their investments.  47.3% of Novocastrians supported the council’s decision, while 24.8% were opposed.  Additionally, the majority (51.9%) of respondents to the ReachTEL polling thought that coal investments were

The Queensland Treasurer, Curtis Pitt, has brought a welcome reality check to discussion about the Adani coal mine, pointing out the danger of overstating the importance of the mine to the state’s economy. Queensland has workforce of 2.3 million people. Adani’s own economic expert has said the mine will create around 1400 jobs, or a

The Abbott Government’s move against environmental law is an unjustified overreaction according to a review of legal action under the EPBC act by The Australia Institute. 3rd party appeals to the Federal Court have only affected 0.4% of all projects referred under the legislation.  — Download briefing paper available below — “Proper third party appeals

Since Tony Abbott took office, 101,900 more Australians are unemployed, but the Prime Minister is determined to create a new scapegoat – that of environmental legal victories – rather than face up to fundamental issues in the economy. “We’re seeing a deliberate effort from the Government to blame environmental law for job losses, despite all

Today’s call by the President of the Republic of The Kiribati for a coal moratorium is a wake-up call for the Australian Government who, only last week, was publicly expressing support for the construction of the enormous Adani – Carmichael mine in Queensland.  No New Coal Mines website “As the world prepares to meet in

The Australia Institute has submitted a report to the inquiry into nuclear power in South Australia has found major flaws in both economic and technological assumptions underpinning the pro-nuclear push. “Nuclear power is not a practical option for South Australia,” Chief Economist at The Australia Institute, Richard Denniss said. “There are some very strange assumptions

Politics Tony Abbott picks his fights, and loves, on the basis of the enemies he will enrage. This time he’s decided to love coal, but he has also enraged key sections of the National Party. First published in the Australian Financial Review – here. As the coal price continues to fall, the financial case for

First published in The Australian Financial Review, 30 June 2015 – Here The Business Council of Australia once defended free markets, but now it and others only support reforms that help its big business friends. If the Business Council of Australia (BCA) was serious about reducing government waste it would have slammed the recent announcement

Queensland spends less on social services than the rest of Australia in per capita terms, a new report from The Australia Institute has revealed. (Table 1 below) The state is the nation’s biggest spender of public funds in one area though; subsidies for mining projects.  Currently public schools face a $268 million maintenance backlog, and

While Norway’s decision to divest its $900 billion sovereign wealth fund from coal shares sent shock waves around the financial world, it was the way the Norwegian parliament made the decision that is truly radical. Norway has a conservative minority government, but the idea to sell out of coal started with an NGO, was taken

The mining industry is furious that if you make a donation to an environment group, your donation is tax deductible. You know the drill. You give someone in a koala suit anything over $2, they give you a receipt and go off to save an owl, hug a tree or, more likely, make a submission

Most Australians agree universities should avoid investments in fossil fuels, according to the first national polling on the topic released today by The Australia Institute in a new report. The polling also shows university decisions to avoid fossil fuels may boost donations from alumni, while also encouraging people with superannuation to consider low carbon funds.

Tax policy Resources companies and lobby groups are lobbying a parliamentary inquiry to strip political climate groups of their charity status. But resources companies can deduct the money they pay to their industry groups from tax. Speech isn’t free in Australia. It isn’t even cheap. Corporate Australia spends billions telling the public, and our politicians,

The Guardian reported this morning International Monetary Fund calculations that world fossil fuel subsidies are running at $5.3 trillion dollars annually, or $10m per minute. In Australia, successive state and federal governments have given subsidies in the form of diesel fuel rebates, infrastructure funding and royalties discounts worth billions. TAI director of research, Rod Campbell,

A little bit of economic theory is a dangerous thing, and many of the people defending what BHP and Rio Tinto have done to the price of iron ore are demonstrating that they have very little economic knowledge indeed. Economists usually don’t like cartels, or other forms of producer protections, as they help producers and

Executive Director of The Australia Institute, Richard Denniss, today delivered expert witness testimony to a court challenge of the approval of a major coal mine in the Galilee Basin.  Summary: Adani have long claimed in public that the Carmichael mine project will create 10,000 jobs. In court, Adani’s own economist testified that the project would

The iron ore price is well above its long-term average. Indeed, at $US50 per tonne it is well above the $US36 price that Wayne Swan inherited in 2007. Blaming the iron ore price for Western Australia’s budgetary woes is like blaming the sinking of the Titanic on the iceberg. Yes, it’s a factor and yes,

Imagine this. You’re a State Government minister. Your department and the most powerful industry it regulates are under fire for failing to comply with your government’s own guidelines. Courts, the media and community groups keep complaining that the industry breaks the guidelines and your department lets them get away with it. Even the consultants you

The Newman government was handing an Indian billionaire billions of dollars of taxpayer money for literally – literally – no reason. During the recent state election, both the LNP and Labor in Queensland broadly supported the Carmichael coal project by Indian mining giant Adani. The key difference was whether they were expecting the taxpayer to

Indian mining company Adani says its Carmichael coal project in Queensland’s Galilee Basin does hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds promised to it by the Queensland LNP, raising questions over why such a subsidy was offered in the first place. The $450 million rail subsidy, along with the offer to waive royalty payments

Job creation claims relating to coal projects in the Galilee Basin have been inflated by 300%, from 9,000 to 27,000, according to a report by economists at The Australia Institute. The Australia Institute’s Executive Director, Dr Richard Denniss, said the use of input/output modelling used by those championing the Galilee coal projects has been described by the

Once upon a time if a project couldn’t make a profit without government support conservative politicians would have called it a bad investment. Not these days. Take, for example, the Queensland government’s plan to spend $2 billion on coal transport infrastructure trying to make marginal mines in the Galilee basin financially viable. Even after enormous

The Tasmanian Government is taxing electricity users to prop up the losses that keep bleeding from Forestry Tasmania. Indeed, the $30 million “woodchip levy” funded by Tasmanian business and households is significantly larger than the $22 million annual cost of the Renewable Energy Target that some Tasmanian businesses claim to be so disadvantaged by. Energy

In a world in which war is waged for humanitarian reasons but sending doctors and nurses to prevent an outbreak of Ebola is considered too risky, almost any spin seems possible. But surely the mining industry’s claim that the best way to tackle global energy poverty is to build more coal mines takes the biscuit.

The term “energy poverty” refers to people who do not have access to electricity and clean cooking facilities. Globally, 1.3 billion people do not have access to electricity in their houses and 2.6 billion people cook by burning coal, wood and other solid fuels. This has major impacts on people’s health, safety and quality of

The climate debate reveals how confused the philosophical underpinnings of political parties have become, writes Richard Denniss for The Australian Financial Review. Public debate about the details of climate policy can be like seven-year-olds arguing over who would win a battle between Spiderman and The Incredible Hulk. The debate is messy because of the combination

As the world coal price continues to fall, politicians are asking themselves what the Australian economy will look like by the time the downturn bottoms out.They needn’t look far.Tasmania offers a clear road map for what happens to an economy when the price of a significant export commodity falls.And, most recently, with news the Tasmanian

The Abbott government has proposed a “one stop shop” approach to environmental protection to reduce so-called “green tape” and speed planning. The Commonwealth will no longer have oversight for a wide range of developments and it will be left to state governments to consider the national benefit. No one complains about duplication when it comes

In a democracy, power is the ability to talk crap and get and away with it. And nobody talks more crap than coal companies.  The public think that mining employs far more people than it really does, pays far more tax than it really does, and that it kept Australia out of recession during the