If universities can’t be trusted to make their own investment decisions, who can be? Indeed, if the federal Coalition wants to join in the mining industry’s attack on the Australian National University for having the temerity to divest its shares in Santos and six other companies, why is the government proposing fee deregulation for the

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

Richard debated Stephen Galilee, the head of the NSW Minerals Council on 7.30 NSW regarding their recent attack on our research into mining subsidies. This material sheds light both on our approach to our research and the disingenuous approach taken by the NSW Minerals Council.

Facts are so last century. The secretary of the NSW Treasury thinks we have a shortage of electricity and we are in danger of an electricity price explosion. The Commonwealth Minister for Industry, Ian Macfarlane, on the other hand, believes we have an “oversupply” of electricity generation capacity, and that electricity prices are unsustainably low.

The Australian Institute says the Minerals Council members – the large, mostly foreign-owned, mining companies – should explain the attacks on The Australia Institute. The Minerals Council has claimed that The Australia Institute is being directed by a political party. This is untrue and defamatory. The Minerals Council should immediately desist from making such claims

Economics and politics don’t really have much in common. While it is the job of politicians to decide what is fair and what is not, students are taught in economics 101 that economics is not concerned with fairness and distribution. The main job of economists is to help grow the pie, and the main job

If you’d like to give a presentation on the economics of mining, get in touch with us and we can give you the background information you need.

Gas fields covering NSW farmland and forests are approved largely on the basis of the claims they make about jobs and economic benefits. The gas industry employs some people and generates economic activity, but often not to extent claimed by industry advocates. This fact sheet will assist with arguing against the industry’s shonky economics.

Coal mines on NSW farmland and forests are approved largely on the basis of the claims they make about jobs and economic benefits. Coal mines certainly employ some peopleand generate economic activity, but often not to extent claimed by industry advocates. This fact sheet will assist with arguing against the industry’s shonky economics.

Tony Abbott came to office promising to restore confidence to the economy and to deliver business certainty. But while he hasn’t wavered in his determination to repeal the carbon price, his equivocation on his election promise to maintain the Renewable Energy Target (RET) is delaying investment, driving up electricity prices and causing the kind of

Just as introducing the carbon tax didn’t really drive the cost of a leg of lamb to $100, removing it isn’t really going to have any noticeable impact on the cost of living. Supermarkets are adamant they didn’t increase prices when the carbon price came in, and they are just as adamant they won’t cut

It’s much easier to solve imaginary problems than real ones, which explains why the current Government is highly concerned about low levels of debt, and relaxed about high levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Since 1950 our national debt has fallen from 100 per cent to 14 per cent of GDP. Our greenhouse gas emissions have

Last week was another big week for The Australia Institute. You might have seen that we launched another major research report, Mining the Age of Entitlement, this time on the $17.6 billion worth of  taxpayer support that State governments have given the mining industry. You might have seen Ben Oquist’s name mentioned in relation to

The day after Clive Palmer announced he would oppose the Abbott government’s efforts to abolish the 20 per cent renewable energy target, the price of market-traded renewable energy certificates jumped 27 per cent. The same day shares in Infigen, a company with a big portfolio of renewable energy generation, jumped 16 per cent. The next day, as the

Age of entitlement lives on: Report exposes billions in government handouts to mining State governments are providing billions of dollars in subsidies to the minerals and fossil fuel industries, a new report by The Australia Institute (TAI) has revealed. The report exposes the massive scale of state government assistance, totalling $17.6 billion over a six-year

Charging sick people $7 to go to the doctor will hurt ordinary Australians far more than the carbon price ever did. While, admittedly, the ALP did a poor job of explaining it, the reality was that most Australians received more in compensation than they paid in higher electricity prices. Of course there is no compensation

Australia has one of the lowest levels of energy productivity in the developed world. We use more energy to make a dollar’s worth of gross domestic product than the countries we typically compare ourselves to. But while labour productivity, multi-factor productivity and the productivity of our ports elicit interest from our political and business leaders,

A strong majority (83%) of Hunter Valley residents do not want to see the coal industry expand, while 41 per cent would like to see it decrease or be phased out, a new research paper by The Australia Institute finds.  Seeing through the dust: Coal in the Hunter Valley economy will be launched at 10.30am,

MAKE no mistake, if a gas field is approved over the Surf Coast Shire it will industrialise the region. The economics of unconventional gas are pretty simple; once approval for a commercial gas field is granted, the company needs to extract as much gas as possible to maximise its return on investment. That typically means

Politicians love children, or at least they do a pretty good job of pretending to. But while there is political consensus around the niceness of children, no such agreement exists about what children really need. Compare the priorities of Barak Obama and Joe Hockey. In one corner we have the President of the United States,

There is a disparity between politicians’ love of symbolism and shareholders’ love of results. Unfortunately for Prime Minister Tony Abbott, that disparity seems set to distance his government even further from the agenda of the mainstream business community in Australia. As if proposing to introduce a new levy on corporate profits and increasing the top

To paraphrase Winston Churchill — never in the field of budget conflict has so much been extracted by so few at the expense of so many. While the rest of us face a horror budget where we are told to keep calm and carry on, the miners are walking away puffing a cigar and doing the

Today’s Supreme Court judgement reinforces the view that the economics of Rio Tinto’s Warkworth project have never stacked up for NSW or the people of Bulga, according to The Australia Institute.   Two economists from The Australia Institute, Dr Richard Denniss and Rod Campbell, gave evidence in Bulga’s successful Land and Environment Court case against the

One in two Australians want more regulation of coal seam gas, while 71 per cent think the federal government should be responsible for regulating the industry rather than individual states, according to new research by The Australia Institute.  Fracking the future: Busting industry myths about coal seam gas will be launched today by former Independent

The NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure has censored parts of The Australia Institute’s submission on the Terminal 4 coal project. The Institute’s submission focuses on the economic assessment of the project and highlights a number of flaws in the economic modelling. Almost a page of text showing the relationship between an “independent” reviewer of

Investments in coal, oil, and gas increase financial risk without increasing returns, according to the new report Climate proofing your investments: Moving funds out of fossil fuels published by The Australia Institute. To meet the internationally-agreed two degree global warming limit, fossil fuel businesses must leave in the ground two-thirds of the reserves currently on

Santos has been salivating at the prospect of selling gas for two to three times the domestic price for years. But as the big pay day draws near, the company has started blaming protesters, who oppose the harm that gas exploration does to farms and forests, for the impending price rises; the same price rises

The New Acland coal mine is applying to expand its operations in one of Australia’s most productive agricultural regions, the Darling Downs.  The mine has been controversial since it began, in its impact on the agricultural economy, and in clearing out the town of Acland where now only one resident remains.  The New Acland Mine

The review of the Renewable Energy Target is the latest move from a Prime Minister whose actions on climate change don’t match his words, writes Matt Grudnoff in this open letter.

The North Galilee Basin Rail project is not in the best economic or environmental interests of Queensland and should not be approved according to The Australia Institute’s submission to the Queensland Government today. It is inexcusable that a cost-benefit analysis has not been demanded by the Newman government before looking to approve the 300 kilometre