Play stupid games, win stupid prizes | Between the Lines Newsletter
The Wrap with Amy Remeikis
You didn’t have to be a political savant to see what was going to happen this week from the moment Sussan Ley decided to open the door to negotiations with Anthony Albanese on the hate group bill almost no one wanted.
One of the first rules of politics is if the other side are knocking on your door asking you to negotiate with them, then what you’re negotiating is only ever going to benefit those knocking.
It was the worst of politics – civil liberties used as bait to hoist the Liberal leader by her own political petard. Ley’s lack of principle, experience and political instinct saw her rush to politicise the antisemitic Bondi attack, demanding a royal commission, for parliament to be recalled and a suite of hate speech legislation to be rushed through. After a united media and political class frenzy, Albanese gave Ley everything she wanted. She was, in every sense, the architect of her own downfall, egged on every step of the way by a rightwing media apparatus that has sent the Coalition backwards for the last two elections.
The personal nature of the political attacks following December 14 – never before seen in Australia in response to a terror attack – blaming Albanese and Labor for a mass casualty event, took Australian politics to a new low.
The Albanese government responded by putting Australian’s civil liberties on the line in a game of political brinkmanship Ley was too shortsighted to see.
Ley and the Liberals lost, as they were always going to. By not giving the government its support in the wake of Bondi, by not urging time and caution in the response and instead leading with their worst instincts, by not urging caution in creating legislation in response, Ley set the scene for the government to play politics with Australian’s freedoms.
In the days after the Coalition crash out, Liberals and Nationals have blamed the Albanese government for creating the legislation. But the only reason it is law, is because the Liberals voted for it. And we are all poorer for the politics that was played.
So where to now? As we have been saying since the 2025 election, the Coalition is irrelevant. They will continue to fight and scrape and divide over an increasingly smaller slice of pie as they destroy themselves in the bid to out One Nation, One Nation.
The only power the Liberals have, as we saw in the worst circumstances earlier this week, is the power Labor gives them.
The Liberal vote has not yet bottomed out. Which means Labor sees opportunity to win even more seats from them at the 2028 election, which means Labor’s instinct will now be to appeal to Liberal voters flirting with going elsewhere in seats like La Trobe and Longman.
In doing so, the pushback against needed reforms in tax, climate and foreign policies will be even more difficult to fight for. Governments are supposed to govern today, for the future. Australian politics has narrowed that down to governing for the next election in what has been an ongoing war on the future. It will not matter how we got there, just that we did. It’s why fighting for principles, for doing the hard thing because it’s right, not politically expedient, matters.
It’s why the response to this week should not be politics as normal, but seizing the disruption to make sure politicians hear you – not just those with the loudest voices.
Australia, like the world, is at an inflection point. So far we have largely been saved by incompetence. You can’t always rely on those who would drag Australia to its worst instincts being so useless they can’t ever capitalise upon it. One day, someone competent is going to come along, and use the foundations all this short term political brinkmanship has set up to enact their own worldview upon the nation. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, yes. But what is really at risk here, is us.
Thank you for continuing to fight along side us. Take care of you. Ax
— Amy Remeikis is the Chief Political Analyst at The Australia Institute
The Big Stories
Federal Government passes new firearm, hate speech laws
The Federal Government has passed stronger gun laws, with support from the Greens and the crossbench. It also passed its hate speech laws at the eleventh hour with support from the Liberals.
The changes include the first major national gun buyback since the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 and banning the importation of some rapidly reloading rifles and shotguns.
“Gun law reforms can’t stop hate or antisemitism, but these reforms will help stop hate from turning into the kind of horror we saw in Bondi,” says Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director of The Australia Institute.
Our leaders don’t need mandates to solve big problems
“Remember when the press gallery thought the only new laws the Albanese Government could introduce before 2028 were the ones they sought a specific ‘mandate’ for at last year’s election? I’m glad to see those days are long gone,” writes Dr Richard Denniss in The Point.
“Our leaders don’t need mandates to solve big problems, but they do need bravery, judgement and the rhetorical skill to bring the community along with them.”
CCS isn’t climate action, it’s an offset scam
“Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is an offsets zombie the government keeps trying to raise from the dead to prop up the future of fossil fuel projects,” writes Louise Morris in The Point.
“The Australian Government keeps talking up CCS like it’s a breakthrough that will become viable – one day – and solve our ‘energy and climate realities’. That reality being the Government’s plan to keep offering up new areas for exploration and approving new coal and gas.”
I like to be in America? New travel figures suggest otherwise.
Australian travellers have given the Trump presidency a resounding thumbs down. While the number of Australians travelling overseas for short trips rose more than 9% over the past year, the number of Australians going to the USA fell 2.3%.
The latest overseas arrivals and departures figures, released by the Bureau of Statistics provides key data on how many people are coming to Australia to work or holiday. It also shows how many Australians are travelling overseas, and where they’re going to.
Fact check: Will restrictions on property investors reduce housing supply and push up rents?
The Australian Property Investor Magazine claims that solving the housing crisis “could rest upon property investors”. They argue: “Abolishing negative gearing or increasing CGT could cause one of the biggest house price booms in history.”
However, the evidence is piling up that property investors are one of the primary causes of higher house prices.
The Win
Federal Government passes stronger gun laws
The Federal Government has passed stronger gun laws, with support from the Greens and the crossbench. The changes include the first major national gun buyback since the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 and banning the importation of some rapidly reloading rifles and shotguns.
“Gun law reforms can’t stop hate or antisemitism, but these reforms will help stop hate from turning into the kind of horror we saw in Bondi,” said Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director of The Australia Institute.
The Bin
Serious and extensive concerns over hate speech laws
Serious concerns have been raised about the Federal Government’s hate speech laws, passed this week. Bill Browne, Director of The Australia Institute’s Democracy & Accountability Program, says the laws are ambiguous, potentially overly harsh, possibly unconstitutional, and blinkered – focusing only on race hatred rather than protecting all vulnerable minorities.
The Quote
“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
– Amy Remeikis, Chief Political Analyst at The Australia Institute, argues we’re all the losers from the hate speech fracas.
Podcasts
Does the government understand its own hate laws? | Follow the Money
Amy Remeikis and Bill Browne join Ebony Bennett to discuss how having fewer guns in the community will make Australians safer. However, the complex anti-hate legislation that was rushed through at the same time could have serious consequences for Australian society.
Listen now:
US extorts Europe in effort to acquire Greenland | After America
Matt Duss joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the Trump administration’s coercion of Europe over Greenland, what if anything it might do in Iran, and its threats to prosecute political opponents.
Listen now:
What’s On
A Time for Bravery with Craig Foster AM & Amy Remeikis
Friday, 30 January | Online
Join Craig Foster AM and Amy Remeikis discuss their contributions to A Time for Bravery, from Australia Institute Press.
We are living at a critical point in history with the stubborn problems of rising inequality, rising fossil fuel production, and declining faith in democracy. This is a time for individuals, organisations, communities and our elected representatives to find the bravery we need to not just acknowledge, but address, the challenges we face.
A Time for Bravery brings together advocates, politicians, campaigners, medical doctors, academics and a firefighter each with their answer to the question: what does bravery look like in Australia and how might it reshape our future for the better.
Awash in the global stream: Australian music versus the algorithm
Friday, 6 February | Online
Global streaming behemoths like Spotify, YouTube, Apple and Amazon dominate the global market for recorded music. For just a few dollars a month, listeners are granted access to a near infinite music library, while artists get a shot at having their music played billions of times. But research published by the Australia Institute shows that although revenue from Australian music is increasing, less of it is going to Australian artists.
The finger of blame is variously pointed at record labels, streaming platforms, radio stations, and the pandemic – the last of which hit Australian artists particularly hard. And there are also less obvious culprits, like tall poppy syndrome. But what can be done to support Australian music at home and overseas, and why does it matter? Join former Spotify Chief Economist Will Page and London-based music manager Lucie Watson to find out.
Politics in the Pub: Earthquake
Wednesday, 18 February | Canberra and online
Join Niki Savva, award-winning political commentator and author of Earthquake: The Election That Shook Australia; Amy Remeikis, Chief Political Analyst at The Australia Institute; and Dr Richard Denniss, co-CEO at The Australia Institute, as they discuss Niki’s new book, Earthquake: The Election That Shook Australia.
Earthquake contains the best of Niki’s scene-setting newspaper columns from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, along with a riveting and deeply informed analysis of Australia’s epoch-making 2025 election.
The discussion will be followed by book signings. Copies of Earthquake: The Election That Shook Australia will be available for purchase.
Between the Lines Newsletter
The biggest stories and the best analysis from the team at the Australia Institute, delivered to your inbox every fortnight.