Scholarships, grants and other links between Australian universities and fossil fuel industries

Australia taxes wealth very lightly. Imposing a 2% wealth tax on those with net assets over $5 million, an inheritance tax on large estates, and scrapping the CGT discount could raise $70 billion per year.

Productivity might be the word on everyone’s lips in the lead up to the Albanese Government’s Economic Reform Roundtable  however weak productivity isn’t the cause of many of the problems experience by workers in Australia today nor is increasing productivity the solution. Rapid inflation after the pandemic, combined with rising interest rates and slow wage

On July 2, 2025, the Executive Director of The Australia Institute, Richard Denniss, wrote to the Minister for the Environment and Water, Senator Murray Watt. The letter follows the minister’s provisional approval of the expansion of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas export operation in Western Australia, asking that he make public the conditions imposed on

A Whistleblower Protection Authority is a crucial missing piece in Australia’s anti-corruption laws, and it enjoys the support of 84% of Australians.

YouGov conducted a survey of 842 Tasmanian voters on behalf of The Australia Institute between 12 and 16 June 2025, using an online survey polling methodology. Full details are provided in the methodology statement. The poll is compliant with the Australian Polling Council’s requirements. The margin of error on the effective sample size is 4.2%.

Climate change is already here and getting worse, causing increasingly damaging disasters, and pushing insurance prices higher.

Restricting the number of investors in the housing market is possible if there is an increase in interest rates on investment loans. In 2017, this kind of regulation reduced house prices in Australia. Reintroducing this policy could, as interest rates fall, help make housing more affordable for owner-occupiers.

Securing newspaper endorsements was once a key part of running a successful Australian election campaign, through which Australian media shaped Australian politics. Televised debates between the prime minister and opposition leader were also major campaign events that allowed TV stations to shape the attitudes of a substantial number of voters. However, in the 2022 and 2025 elections, major media companies have been left to bellow from the sidelines.

Capping Vice-Chancellor remuneration is a necessary step to bring good governance to universities and refocus the sector on education and research.

Almost 30 years after Port Arthur, there are more guns in Australia than ever before, and the Howard Government’s landmark National Firearms Agreement is falling short of its stated aims. There is no National Firearms Register and minors can use firearms in every state. Eight OECD countries have lower gun homicide rates than Australia.

The university sector is in a governance crisis, fuelled by its lack of accountability to staff, students, federal or state governments. Australia needs a plan to make the sector accountable to the federal government and make university education and research a public service.

Universities spend vast sums on consultants, advertising, and travel. Reducing these expenses could have prevented the deep cuts that some of these same universities have made to their staff and courses in recent years.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Australia has 8,469 journalists, but where do they actually live? Which communities have their stories told firsthand while others are told by outsiders?

More than one in three workers in Australia usually work from home at least some of the week. Working from home has become an established working arrangement for many employees in jobs where it is possible to work remotely. Yet, there is strong opposition from some employers to working from home and regular reports of

Australians gamble more than any another nation. Gambling starts well before the age of 18 – almost one in three (30%) 12-17-year-olds gamble. This increases to almost half (46%) of 18-19-year-olds, and these habits persist into adulthood. By highlighting the high rates of gambling among young Australians, this paper shows the need for greater regulations

The state of print news competition in Australia is dire, and local and regional news is slowly dying.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme helps keeps the prices Australians pay for medicine low. In the USA, the pharmaceutical industry is calling on the Trump administration to put retaliatory tariffs on Australia as a way of pressuring Australia to make changes to the PBS so that it can make more money. This would make medicines more

Red Imported Fire Ants have the potential to cause significant environmental, social and economic damage.

The Australia Institute commissioned uComms, which surveyed 860 Australians living in Sydney between 17 and 18 March 2025 on environmental issues and salmon farming in Tasmania. Results show that: 61% support stopping salmon farming in areas where it is putting the endangered Maugean skate at risk of extinction; more than twice as many who oppose

The Centre for Future Work’s research team has analysed the Commonwealth Government’s budget. As expected with a Federal election looming, the budget is not a horror one of austerity. However, the 2025-2026 budget is characterised by the absence of any significant initiatives.  There is very little in this budget that is new other than the

The decades-long push to make Australia’s universities more ‘business like’ has had scandalous consequences. The remedy is to make university governance more transparent, democratic, and accountable. The most effective way to enact this change would be to amend the establishing Acts that give universities their public mandate.

The annual release of AEMO’s Gas Statement of Opportunities invariably triggers coverage suggesting that Australia, one of the world’s biggest gas producers, is about to run short of gas.

With the High Court of Australia set to hand down a judgement in the matter of Commonwealth of Australia v. Yunupingu (on behalf of the Gumatj Clan or Estate Group) & Ors [2023], The Australia Institute is pleased to publish this analysis by long-time Institute contributor Dr Ed Wensing.

The Australian Public Service (APS) is responsible for delivering some of the most crucial social services to all Australians. The APS workforce includes employees who deliver frontline services like in Medicare and Centrelink, those who administer the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), and those who assist service personnel and veterans via Veterans Affairs. These are

Wealth inequality over the past 20 years has progressively become worse in Australia.

Despite Australia’s significant gun reforms following the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre, there are now over four million guns owned by civilians nationwide — 25% higher than in 1996. This equates to one firearm for every seven Australians. Guns are widespread in metropolitan and suburban areas, with one in three firearms in NSW located in major cities.

The results show that:  Seven in ten Australians (70%) think gun laws should make it harder to access a gun. A majority of voters for all political parties and candidates think gun laws should make it harder to access a gun.  Three in five Australians (59%) think donations from the gun lobby to politicians and

Firefighters and paramedics save lives, protect us from the ravages of fire, and ensure the sick and injured receive the medical treatment they need. However, after a working life protecting others, these emergency workers face substantial risk of having inadequate retirement incomes. Firefighters and paramedics are regularly compelled to retire early due to particular barriers

The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,009 Australians about their attitudes to future property prices.