Next month, the Albanese government is due to announce its proposed changes to Australian electoral laws. It has been a long road. The minister responsible, Senator Don Farrell, had planned to introduce the laws by the end of last year.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz join us to discuss the presidential election, the AUKUS deal and the right-wing media machine.

We discuss declining social cohesion, the Prime Minister’s visit to the Northern Territory and the cabinet reshuffle with veteran journalist Paul Bongiorno.

A majority of voters oppose the public funding of political parties and candidates, and increases to this funding, to run election campaigns and cover administrative costs, according to new research from the Australia Institute.

Electoral recommendations from a Victorian parliamentary committee should spur action on truth in political advertising laws, but others need further consultation. 

On this special crossover episode of After America and Follow the Money, we discuss Biden’s decision to drop out of the campaign and why Democrats have rallied around Kamala Harris as the presumptive nominee.

Replacing political donations may sound good in theory, but in practice what matters is who gets the money – and how much they get.

The rise of independents and minor parties means that Labor and the Coalition can no longer take any race for granted.

Former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr joins us to discuss the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the new Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, and the future of America’s place in the world.

Australia was never exclusively a “two-party system”, a reality that is getting harder to ignore as minor party and independent representation grows, according to new research from the Australia Institute. While power sharing has always been a feature of Australian parliaments, the declining major party vote demands a more mature and nuanced analysis of electoral

The resignation of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption, the Honourable Ann Vanstone KC, should trigger a rethink of the debilitating and troublesome changes to the ICAC that were rushed through the South Australian Parliament in 2021.

Canberra doesn’t really have a fossil fuel industry, which perhaps explains why we lead the country in decarbonising our economy.

Careless political finance reforms could shift the balance in Australian democracy in favour of special interests.

There are no parallels for the first debate of the 2024 US presidential election cycle.

Today, in a surprise development likely weeks in the planning, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was able to leave the United Kingdom for the first time in more than a decade after reaching a plea deal with the US government.

Leading civil society organisations have signed an open letter, coordinated by the Australia Institute and published today in The Canberra Times, calling on the Parliament of Australia to safeguard Australia’s democracy by addressing major gaps in the nation’s electoral laws.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has just approved a new coal seam gas pipeline in Queensland.

Leading environment and policy groups are calling on the Tasmanian Government to make the decade-long-delayed State of the Environment Report public before several key financial and planning decisions are made by the government and the parliament later this year.

A majority of Australians (57%) want the Biden Administration to drop the prosecution of Julian Assange and allow him to return home to Australia, according to new Australia Institute research.

The Malinauskas Government’s electoral amendment bill could represent a potential paradigm shift in South Australian politics, but risks adverse outcomes unless carefully tested in a parliamentary inquiry. 

Today, the name of Niccolò Machiavelli is a byword for cynicism and hunger for power, but there was one profession so parasitic and selfish even he could not stomach it.

This edition: Independents call out the gas industry and Australia’s consultant addiction continues

The decision by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to not investigate potentially corrupt conduct by public servants administering Robodebt highlights the gaps in Australia’s accountability and anti-corruption regime.

Australia Institute research has found a majority (56%) of Australians want free-to-air sports coverage to be available on the internet.

New analysis from the Australia Institute shows that the privatisation, deregulation, and outsourcing of public services has failed to provide economic or social returns to Australians.

Transparency, integrity and accountability were buzzwords of the 2024 state election, yet Tasmanians went to the polls without knowing where their politicians get their money, without laws requiring truth in political advertising, and without an anti-corruption body that is fit for purpose.

Who would have thought that the legal and personal travails of Julian Assange, the Australian citizen whom US authorities are invested in prosecuting and jailing for the rest of his life without deep consideration of his fundamental rights, would become a lightning rod for former President Trump’s re-election hopes?

While money can’t buy everything, the Australian Government can ‘buy’ a lower Consumer Price Index (CPI).

In 2019 the Australia Institute identified ambitious, progressive policies from the Australian Capital Territory, most of which are overwhelmingly popular among all Australians. Five years on, we have an update on how these policies have progressed in Canberra and around Australia.