Farmers and irrigators have joined the Australia Institute in a national campaign to support voluntary buybacks, with the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023 passing the Senate today, clearing the way for important Murray-Darling basin reforms to become law.

The unemployment rate used by the Reserve Bank to help publicly justify policy decisions – including increases to interest rates – is based on strict and outdated definitions that significantly underestimate the actual number of people looking for work, according to new research released today by the Australia Institute.

The Australia Institute will attend a Senate Inquiry today to highlight flaws in Australia’s broken freedom of information (FOI) system and argue for much-needed reforms modelled on South Australia’s approach.