Legal advice obtained by The Australia Institute from law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler (ABL), reveals the government’s foreign donations bill may have a ‘very adverse’ impact on Australian businesses. One element of the laws would require the many businesses that engage in a modest level of expenditure expressing views on issues of public importance to

The National Integrity Committee, hosted by The Australia Institute, today welcomed the announcement by Opposition Leader Bill Shorten that a Labor government will legislate to establish a federal corruption watchdog. The committee welcomed Labor’s adoption of key elements of its Design Principles for a National Integrity Commission, including the ability to hold public hearings. Committee

New research from The Australia Institute shows that the number of constituents represented by each Federal MP has tripled since Federation and only 13% of Australians have ever spoken to their representative. [Full report – see PDF below] The report also shows that the increase in parliamentarians has not kept pace with Australia’s population, with

With a seemingly never-ending string of negative narratives about how poorly our politics is performing, we are now overdue for some more structured thinking about what needs to be done. The “anti-politics” sentiment now risks hardening into something more dramatic as the electorate turns away, not just from the current crop of politicians – but potentially from

Transparency and accountability of politicians and the public service may be one of the sleeper issues of the upcoming state election.  A recent poll of 781 voters in Bass undertaken by ReachTEL on the night of January 16th for The Australia Institute found that 85% of respondents wanted more powers and resources available to Tasmania’s

The pressure on Federal politicians to establish a national corruption watchdog has reached fever pitch as the extraordinary public support in polls and open letters combines with a push from legal experts and anti-corruption campaigners. Today television advertisements will commence running across the country outlining the need for a national corruption watchdog – with teeth.

The Hon Stephen Charles AO QC, former judge and adviser to Baillieu government on IBAC design, has today launched a briefing paper with The Australia Institute outlining the flaws in the operation of Victoria’s corruption watchdog. The paper finds that: IBAC has significant flaws that mean it is not a suitable model, in its current

New research released today by the Australia Institute estimates the effects of rising perception of corruption in Australia since 2012 could have reduced Australia’s GDP by $72.3 billion, or 4%. [Full report – see PDF below] “Since 2012 Australia has slid from 7th to 13th on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), with index score

ReachTEL polling released today by The Australia Institute, asked voters in three blue-ribbon Liberal electorates about cutting the company tax rate. The poll comes as proponents of the cuts site the progress of deeply unpopular Republican tax plans as a reason for Australia to follow suit. The GOP tax plan has been widely repudiated by

A new report, released today by The Australia Institute, questions using averages to represent flows in the Barwon-Darling and challenges the NSW Water Minister’s claims about how much water is going into maintain river health. Two massive flood years, 1950 and 1956 account for 21% of all of the water flows since 1944. These two

The National Integrity Committee welcomes comments from Prime Minister on the establishment of a national anti-corruption body. Polling released today shows overwhelming and increasing support for a federal ICAC: 88% now support a federal ICAC, increasing from 80% in March 2017 and 65% in March 2016 More than four in five (85%) said a federal

Three years after Campbell Newman suffered the biggest swing in Australian political history, the Liberal National Party (LNP) just lost another 8 per cent of Queensland voters. [This article was first published in the Australian Financial Review – here] Remarkably, senior conservatives are already demanding greater distance between their party and the vast majority of voters

The Australia Institute’s National Integrity Committee of corruption fighters and retired judges is in Canberra today to launch a blueprint of design principles which will be used to advise policy makers on the best model for a federal anti-corruption watchdog. Former NSW ICAC Commissioner David Ipp AO QC, former President of the Queensland Court of

A new ReachTEL poll of over 2,181 Queenslanders, commissioned by The Australia Institute, has found strong support for Queensland parties choosing to veto a federal subsidised loan for the Adani coal project. To accompany the polling (full results in PDF below), The Australia Institute has also released new research on the economic case for the

he Adani coal mine is the most divisive resource project since the proposal to dam Tasmania’s Franklin River in 1983. The debate over whether to subsidise it even more so. But thanks to Annastasia Palaszczuk’s last-minute decision to veto any Commonwealth loan to the project, the voters of Queensland are now being offered a full range of policy positions

An FOI request from The Australia Institute has revealed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has “several hundreds of pages” of documents relating to Ministers and officials making formal representations to foreign financiers to back the Adani project.  “With ‘several hundreds of pages’ of relevant documents across multiple parts of the Department of Foreign

The Australia Institute Tasmania today released a new report Salmon stakes: Risks for the Tasmanian salmon industry, outlining the serious risks Tasmania’s salmon industry faces if its environmental and social impacts are not managed. “The salmon industry is important to Tasmania and has tripled in size over a decade. Rapid growth is always brings problems,

New polling three key Liberal seats of Warringah, Wentworth and Kooyong on the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) policy shows voters overwhelming support pricing carbon, would be more likely to support a NEG that achieves 50% renewable energy, and do not think the NEG will lower electricity prices and back the States keeping their own renewable

A new report from The Australia Institute shows that the Minerals Council of Australia’s coal advocacy is out of all proportion with its members’ interests The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) represents companies that mine a wide range of minerals, yet delivers three times more media coverage for coal than for any other mineral. Analysis

Polling of over 1,000 voters in the Deputy Prime Minister’s electorate of New England shows strong support for renewable energy investment over coal. The results were similar in the electorate of Hughes, currently occupied by one of the most pro-coal members of the Coalition, Craig Kelly. “60 per cent of voters in New England think

A new ReachTEL poll, commissioned by The Australia Institute’s Climate and Energy Program, asked residents of the electorates of Hunter and Shortland about energy policy, including government investment in coal, renewables and the Liddell coal power station. Strong majorities in the coal electorates (61% and 57%) preferred government investment in renewables than in coal (32%

The Australia Institute is today releasing a new FOI showing that the CSIRO pays membership fees to the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) of $10k a year. The CSIRO is an associate member of the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), the mining lobby group known for its forceful campaigns against effective action on climate change.

New research released today by the Australia Institute shows that the mining industry is dominated by foreign corporate interests that are spending hundreds of millions of dollars influencing our political process. The report finds that: Total revenue of mining lobby groups over the last 10 years is $524,150,431, with the Minerals Council of Australia accounting