To get a firearm licence in Australia requires having a “genuine reason” to own a gun. In most jurisdictions, this requirement can be satisfied by being a paid-up member of a sports shooting club. Shooting groups promote this fact, advertising that you can join “from the comfort of home”. This may explain why up to 253,000 NSW firearms licences list shooting sports or recreational hunting as a reason for gun ownership, but fewer than 36,000 people in NSW participated in either activity in 2025.

Fossil fuel subsidies cost Australian governments $16.3 billion in 2025–26, an increase of 9.4% on the previous year. This is a larger increase than the 7.6% growth of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Growth in fossil fuel subsidies is driven by the federal government’s Fuel Tax Credit Scheme, which cost $10.8 billion in 2025–26. Growth

War in the Middle East will likely increase global energy prices. Australian Government choices will determine how hard this price spike hits Australian households, how huge gas export company profits are and how much tax revenue Australia will collect.

Australians are suffering from climate disasters that are accelerating as climate change worsens. Climate change is spurred on by the historical and present emissions of the fossil fuel industry. A levy on fossil fuel exports could make the fossil fuel industry pay for the harms it has caused and raise up to $100 billion every year.

Do beer drinkers pay more tax than gas companies? Yes, they do! Independent Senator David Pocock recently asked Treasury officials whether beer excise raised more money than a key tax on the gas industry, Australia’s Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT). A video of the response – that yes, more money comes from beer excise than

The Triple J Hottest 100 featured fewer Australian songs in 2024 than in any year since 1995. Australians are spending more on music than ever before, but less is going to Australian artists. Policy support matters – Australia’s arts funding is among the lowest in the developed world. US artists dominate Australian charts, but the

The Albanese Government has acknowledged Australia’s gas export problem. However, rather than implement a tax that would reduce domestic prices, raise revenue and help the climate, the government looks to be weighing options that favour either Santos or its rivals Origin and Shell.

The creation of energy from waste facilities is not an effective ‘solution’ to managing residual waste. Rather than risking the health and environment of regional communities through these facilities, better solutions will focus on reducing the amount of residual waste produced in the first place.

The Bill should not pass because the Energy Roadmap proposals could increase Queensland’s emissions by 310 million tonnes to 2050, almost a years’ worth of Australia’s national emissions. This increase from the electricity sector will impose abatement costs of perhaps $98 billion on other parts of the economy. Within the Energy Roadmap there is an

The Australia Institute made a submission opposing the proposal to extend Peabody’s Wilpinjong Coal Mine, located near Mudgee, NSW.

The Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) mines are among the largest coal expansion proposals in Australia, representing potentially over a billion tonnes of total greenhouse gas emissions. The Australia Institute made a submission to the NSW planning process opposing the latest proposals. As with previous proposals to extend HVO North and South, emissions costs are underestimated and project

Theft of legal guns is now the single biggest source of new guns on the black market in Australia, yet public information on the topic is scarce. This report compiles new data from state law enforcement agencies and other sources to find that over 9,000 firearms have been stolen since the start of 2020. At least 44,600 have been stolen over the past 20 years – one every four hours. Police recover only around a quarter of guns taken.

China’s territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea have remained largely consistent since 1949. While China has become more assertive in exercising those claims in recent years, its actions have not been solely responsible for tensions in the region. The involvement of non-claimants has neither facilitated a settlement of the disputes nor reversed China’s growing military advantage in the area. Beijing’s interests point to continuing its current policy of managing the disputes through dialogue with fellow claimants.

Adani sold coal for $100/t through a period that saw relevant coal prices reach $280/t, resulting in apparent royalty underpayments of almost $400 million. The Queensland Government’s decision to abandon its pursuit of these royalties may be linked to regulatory action around Adani’s Abbot Point coal terminal.

State government cultural funding is dependent on federal revenue, yet Australia’s Federal Government raises little tax revenue by international standards. Arts advocates and state leaders should be vocal in urging the Federal Government to raise more revenue. Raising the State’s GST revenue to match economic growth since 2001 could put $76 million per year into

The costs of climate change are increasing rapidly, while local government revenues grow slowly. Climate costs will become increasingly onerous on local government unless new revenue sources are created, such as a climate disaster levy on fossil fuel companies.

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

The upcoming roundtable appears set to ignore climate change and its impact on the economy. Climate change is already driving up the cost-of-living, and this is only likely to get worse. Climate change will substantially harm productivity, particularly if action is not taken to mitigate its extent and adapt to its impacts.

Until the mid-2010s, wholesale gas prices in eastern Australia were low.

The deterioration of the Tasmanian budget means that net debt is expected to reach $10 billion by 2027-28. This paper outlines how the state could increase revenue by auctioning salmon licences, reforming gambling taxes, increasing mineral royalties, and increasing motor vehicle stamp duties and registration fees. If changes to the GST were also made, $11.4

Over the past 10 years $125 billion worth of liquified natural gas was exported from Gladstone in Queensland.

Gas exports from WA cause more greenhouse gas emissions than 153 individual countries.

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.

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.

Australia and Qatar are two of the world’s largest exporters of liquefied natural gas, each exporting around 80 million tonnes in 2023, worth $85 billion. From these exports the Qatari Government received $A56 billion, while Australian governments received just $11 billion.

Companies exporting liquified natural gas from Australia have made windfall profits close to $100 billion since 2022, when energy prices spiked because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Most of these profits are based on royalty-free gas and no Petroleum Resource Rent Tax was paid. At best, $20 billion in company tax was paid on this

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?

Australians are being ripped off by gas export corporations.

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

Over half of Australia’s gas exports are given away, without payment of royalties or Petroleum Resource Rent Tax. Over the last four years, multinational companies made $170 billion exporting gas they got for free. Based on Federal Government forecasts, to 2030 another $170 billion of liquified natural gas will be exported based on free gas.