Why this week matters | Between the Lines
The Wrap with Amy Remeikis
Earlier this week, 2025 clocked up its 183rd day.
Most of eastern Australia would have been keeping one eye on the weather report, given the ‘rain bomb’, while others were reeling from the news an alleged child sex offender had been working at Melbourne child care centres.
Like every day, millions of Australians would have been lost in the life changing and mundane, and many wouldn’t have noted the date at all.
But July 2 mattered. At least for those focused on the battle we have to save the planet and life as we (sort of) know it.
From July 2, we are now closer to 2050 than we are to the Year 2000.
It’s just eight more federal elections away (presuming we continue to have three year terms).
That gives us 293 months to try and keep global warming to just 1.5 degrees.
The global average temperature increase last year was 1.6 degrees.
Spikes happen, and a single year isn’t enough to say it’s done. But we are trending the wrong way.
As Benjamin Franklin once said, you may delay, but time will not. It’s continuing to march on while our government delays taking the climate action every rational thinking person knows is necessary to save the future; putting an end to new coal and gas.
Instead, we are getting another inquiry into the gas industry. We don’t need it. We know the answers. Tax the companies already stripping the land of resources properly and don’t approve any new projects.
We have seen the Albanese government approve the North West Shelf expansion (the equivalent of 12 coal mines in terms of emissions) faster than even Peter Dutton promised to do it. Since coming to power in 2022, the Albanese government has approved 11 new coal mine projects, with another 29 under consideration.
We are closer to 2050 than we are to the year 2000. And yet the commitment to lower our emissions is still not being taken seriously enough for the government to act as it should.
11 coal mine project approved. 2,511 million tonnes of emissions. Visit Coal Mine Tracker for more info.
Humans can be funny creatures. Often, we won’t act on a threat until we, or a loved one, experience it ourselves. It’s one of the reasons Australia is sticking so close to America, despite the cruelty and avarice of the Trump administration, and why so many people seem able to ignore a genocide.
But climate change is already threatening our way of life. An ecological disaster is playing out along the shoreline of South Australia, after an ocean heatwave turbo charged an algae bloom which is choking the local marine life. Experts can’t put a figure on the deaths – which are still happening – but confidently predict it has cost ‘tens of thousands’ of animals and other vital ocean dwellers, their lives.
Hopes that winter would cool the marine heatwave, first identified earlier this year, have been dashed.
Nearly a third of the population of Tuvalu has entered a ballot to relocate to Australia, under an agreement struck with the Albanese government in its first term of parliament. Climate refugees are very real, and it’s starting to play a bigger role in diplomatic relations – Vanuatu is now playing hardball with the Australian government over immigration and understandably – what is the point of a ‘strong and enduring’ relationship, if we just watch water lap at their door?
Australia can not just pretend that it’s business as usual any longer. 2030 is in less than five years and one of the nation’s two ‘major’ parties is still arguing over whether it supports net zero or not.
The LNP in Queensland has watered down the previous Labor government’s climate commitments, and extending the life of the state-owned coal fired power stations.
Politicians can pretend like none of this matters, but we know better. This is not something that can be reviewed away, or delayed until the final year before extension by committee. This is a real and present danger to not just our way of life, but the future. We don’t get to pretend that this is something we can deal with later.
The politicians making the decisions now will not be there in 2050 for the ultimate reckoning. Some of those who have dedicated their political careers to being as big a barrier to action as they possibly can won’t even be alive to see the fruits of their poisonous labour.
But to pretend that this is all something that will only impact us in the future, instead of the changes we are all seeing and experiencing every day, is just as dangerous. You’re always going to have the Barnaby Joyces of the world yelling at clouds. But how many more ‘unseasonable’ weather events, ‘unprecedented’ storms, food shortages, algae blooms, animal losses, rising global tensions, illnesses, ‘historical’ floods and droughts do we have to see before we start realising the future is actually now?
We are more motivated than ever and emboldened by having you at our sides. Thank you for all you do, so we can do what we do. It matters now more than ever.
Take care of you, Amy x
— Amy Remeikis is the Chief Political Analyst at the Australia Institute
The Big Stories
Government launches another unnecessary gas inquiry
The federal government’s new review of the gas industry is unnecessary and not fit for purpose.
Australia Institute research has repeatedly shown that there is no gas shortage in Australia, and that we have enough gas to supply the domestic market many times over. Instead, the vast majority of gas extracted in Australia is sold overseas.
There is no gas shortage in Australia. Remember: Australia exports 80% of its gas.Despite the fact that nearly all sides of politics agree, this hasn't stopped Big Gas from pushing the myth of a shortage to justify digging new gas fields.Read more: australiainstitute.org.au/post/forget-…
— The Australia Institute (@australiainstitute.org.au) 2025-07-01T00:02:11.950Z
“Our research suggests there is certainly a gas crisis in Australia, but it is a crisis of integrity, not supply,” said Mark Ogge, Principal Advisor to The Australia Institute.
“Successive governments have allowed this industry to take vast sums of Australian gas, sell it at a huge profit on the export market, price-gouge us for our own gas, then claim there’s a shortage here, which has led to skyrocketing prices for Australians.”
Rich cry poor over super tax
Australians could have free dental in Medicare.
Instead, our tax system subsidises the inheritance of Australia’s wealthiest people through our excessively generous system of superannuation tax concessions, writes Greg Jericho, Australia Institute, in Guardian Australia.
To make matters worse, Australia’s media all-too-often perverts the discussion around our superannuation system.
“The way superannuation is mostly covered by the media in this country is about how to avoid paying tax and how to use it to fund inheritance,” Greg writes.
On Dollars & Sense, Greg let rip over the response to the Government’s modest proposed changes to the superannuation tax concessions and asked why being a CEO of a top Aussie company might be the sweetest gig going.
Greens, independents and minor parties the closest threat to leaders
For the first time in Australian history, all three major parties – Labor, Liberal and National – have leaders who saw off a crossbench challenger to hold their seat, according to new Australia Institute analysis.
Second place to Albanese in Grayndler was a Green. Second place to Ley in Farrer was an independent. And second place to Littleproud in Maranoa was One Nation.
Nearly a quarter of the seats in parliament are "non-classic" contests – where either 1st or 2nd is not a major party – incl the seats held by the ALP, Lib & Nats leaders #OffTheCharts @browne90.bsky.social @skyelark.bsky.social @joshuablackjb.bsky.social australiainstitute.org.au/post/for-maj…
— The Australia Institute (@australiainstitute.org.au) 2025-06-25T22:39:27.316Z
After this year’s federal election, nearly a quarter of all seats in the federal parliament are now “non-classic” seats, where first and second is no longer a fight between the two major parties.
What does the US bombing of Iran mean for Australia?
As the US chooses destruction over diplomacy in Iran, Australia has to decide between principle and prostration, writes Allan Behm, Senior Advisor in International & Security Affairs.
“For all their sermonising and sanctimonious moralising, successive Australian governments are selective in their advocacy and support for the “international rules-based order”,” Behm wrote.
“The rules really matter when Russia attacks Ukraine. They don’t seem to matter as much when America launches a massive “shock and awe” airstrike against Iraq, as it did in 2003, or assembles 125 bombers and supporting aircraft to obliterate alleged strategic targets across Iran…”
On After America, Dr Emma Shortis, Director of International & Security Affairs, discussed why Trump decided to bomb Iran, the comparisons with America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, and what this decision could mean for Australia.
The costly double standard of winning a cash prize in Australia
The winner is likely to hand over at least a quarter of their winnings to the tax office.
Ironically, if someone backs the winner with a bookmaker, even if they won $60,000 on the bet, their winnings would be tax-free. Similarly, if they won a raffle or pokies jackpot, the tax office would not take a cent.
If you bet on the winner of the Miles Franklin, your windfall is tax free but if you win the Miles Franklin you pay tax. There's an easy and cheap way for the gov to help our best artists and writers. Make prizes tax free. Thanks to @charlottewood.bsky.social & Melissa Lucashenko for their thoughts
— Alice Grundy (@alicektg.bsky.social) 2025-06-24T23:11:16.874Z
“Taxing art prizes makes no sense,” said Alice Grundy, Research Manager at The Australia Institute and Managing Editor of Australia Institute Press.
“It raises hardly any revenue, and it stifles the creativity of some of the nation’s greatest artistic talents.
The Win
ACCC takes big gas to court
The is nothing to love about gas or greenwashing.
That’s why the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)’s federal court action against the gas industry over its “Love Gas” campaign is an important step. The ACCC alleges that Australian Gas Networks misled consumers by suggesting customers could be using “renewable gas” within a generation.
“For any big polluter to promote itself as a leader in the fight against climate change is just plain wrong,” said Richard Denniss, Executive Director of The Australia Institute.
“The Australian government has allowed companies to buy so-called ‘carbon offsets’ so they can make scientifically baseless claims about being so-called ‘carbon neutral’.”
That’s just taking the piss.
The Bin
Politicians vs Protest Rights
Peaceful protest has an essential role to play in democracy. But over recent years, five of Australia’s six states have passed draconian anti-protest amendments that enable excessive punishment of peaceful protestors, with fines up to $50,000 and jail time on the cards.
This week, Hannah Thomas – who ran as a candidate for the Greens in the 2025 federal election – sustained severe injuries to her eye after police violently arrested her at a peaceful protest in Sydney.
These heavy-handed interventions are out of step with public opinion: our research found seven in 10 Australians (71%) support federal legislation to protect the right to peaceful protest.
The Quote
“I think it’s true that in this world today, this is a world governed by might and not right. And anyone who talks about this rules-based global order is really being nostalgic…”
– The Hon Andrew Hastie MP, Acting Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, suggests that the international rules-based order – which helps keep Australians and others safe by, among other things, suggesting that countries don’t just bomb each other – is over.
Podcasts
A matter of preference | Follow the Money
Labor won big and the Coalition got “smashed”, but the major parties have never been more reliant on preferences.
Listen now:
How’s that trade war working out? | After America
Last week, President Donald Trump announced that the United States had signed a trade deal with China. Did it though?
Listen now:
Negative gearing is back, baby! | Dollars & Sense
Positive gearing is so FY21-22.
On this episode of Dollars & Sense, substitute Greg (Matt Grudnoff) and Elinor discuss the 91 millionaires who paid zero tax, the grim reality driving the gender pay gap, and why negative gearing is back on trend (but still making housing less affordable).
Listen now:
Making climate action urgent and equitable | What’s the Big Idea?
The climate crisis is an inequality crisis. Australia needs to pay attention to equity and inclusion and enable sustainable development for countries in energy poverty.
Listen now:
What’s On
Rethinking the Rules
Join Dr Emma Shortis and Dr Richard Denniss at the University of Melbourne on Wednesday 16 July at 6:00 pm as they discuss what’s happening in America and what it means for us. Drawing on Emma’s research into the Australia–US relationship, and her recent time in America during the final days of the 2024 US presidential election, they will explore what Australia can do to forge its own path towards prosperity and security.
Copies of Dr Emma Shortis’ After America: Australia and the New World Order will be available for purchase on the night, with a book signing after the event. You can also buy a copy in advance via The Australia Institute website.
Power & Partnership: What will Tasmania’s next power-sharing parliament look like?
Join us at this special event featuring the Hon. David Bartlett, Christine Milne AO, the Hon. Bec Thomas, and Bill Browne on Thursday 10 July from 7 pm at the Hobart Town Hall. It’s Tasmania’s second election in just over a year, and polling research suggests another power-sharing parliament is the most likely outcome.
This event will explore what earlier Tasmanian power-sharing parliaments have looked like, what they look like on the mainland and what a power-sharing government that benefits Tasmanians could look like. Don’t miss your chance to attend this event—secure your spot now.
Free, registration essential >
Amy Remeikis at the South Coast Readers & Writers Festival
Join Journalist and chief political analyst of the Australia Institute, Amy Remeikis at the South Coast Readers and Writers Festival on Sunday 6 July.
10:00 am – 11:00 am – Amy joins some of Australia’s most esteemed political and science writers and thinkers, Antony Loewenstein, and Tim Flannery, as well as journalist and presenter Jan Fran to discuss current affairs both nationally and globally.
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – Amy and Jan Fran discuss the big ideas in Australia’s current political landscape: from fresh thinking about climate action and safeguarding our democracy, to the housing crisis, and our relationship with the United States.
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