Polling shows the majority voters across the political spectrum support a federal ICAC. Results of poll of 1,420 Australian residents: 80% of people support establishing a federal ICAC Support is highest among Coalition voters (84%) 63% of people have a low level of trust in federal parliament, only 10% have a high level of trust

The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) is a $5 billion government fund for concessional financing to build infrastructure in northern Qld, NT and WA. The default financing mechanism is a loan. Adani has applied for a concessional loan of nearly $1 billion from the NAIF for a rail line so that it can export coal

A new ReachTEL poll of 1,618 Queenslanders shows strong opposition to state and federal subsidies for the Adani coal proposal, including among LNP and One Nation voters. -Polling results in attachment below- 59% of Queenslanders oppose Federal and State taxpayers’ money being used to fund Adani’s project. 37% said they were strongly opposed and just

New polling from The Australia Institute shows almost two thirds (64%) of Australians oppose a taxpayer-funded subsidised loan to the Adani coal mine project, as reports emerge the Queensland Government is considering an additional $320 million subsidy to Adani in the form of a ‘royalty holiday’. —For polling brief see attachement below— “Providing a billion

Developing northern Australia is a priority for the Turnbull Government, like many governments before it. The focus of these efforts is often on capital-intensive major projects such as irrigation dams or mining infrastructure. Such investments generally provide terrible returns to the taxpayer, generate few jobs and fail to ‘develop the North’. For example, the Ord

Contrary to recent media commentary, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party continues its political rise.  Examination of the Western Australian state election results shows that while One Nation’s vote fell short of Senator Hanson’s hopes and expectations fuelled by some opinion polls, the far-right party doubled its support in Western Australia in the seven months between

From 17 March to 24 March 2017 The Australia Institute surveyed 1420 Australians about Donald Trump’s election as President of United States of America.

A new report conducted by the country’s largest union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), in conjunction with The Australia Institute has revealed high-levels of exploitation and human rights abuses suffered by low-wage workers involved in the overseas production of every-day medical goods used by Australians. 

As the mining boom winds down and the mining clean up boom begins, mine site rehabilitation and mine abandonment are emerging as major issues for Australian communities, governments and taxpayers. All stakeholders will need information on the status of mines and their rehabilitation efforts to ensure this is carried out in a way that does

A comparison of the Queensland and NSW anti-corruption commissions. The Queensland CCC has major design flaws that render it far less effective than the NSW ICAC, leading to fewer corrupt conduct findings and minimal public exposure of systemic corruption.

The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Select Committee on the Establishment of a National Integrity Commission. With recent polling conducted by the Australia Institute revealing 85% of Australians believe there is corruption in federal politics, and ongoing scandals showing evidence of this, it is time for a National Integrity

Despite overseeing $5 billion in subsidised loans, the NAIF has limited staffing and internal documentation. Secrecy around Adani proposal Handful of staff to assess $5 billion worth of projects Lack of guidance documents for Investment Decisions No detailed Application and Assessment process Limited governance policies which they refused to release Secrecy about NAIF Board decisions

Despite widespread coverage, little is known about the NAIF or the $1bn NAIF loan proposal for Adani’s coal rail. Lacking robust governance policies, including some required by its legislation, and poorly resourced, NAIF should reject the immense political pressure to fast-track the loan. The Australia Institute also lodged FOI requests with the NAIF. The FOI

Philip Dorling, a Senior Researcher at The Australian Institute, investigates the growing influence of the American “alt-right” on One Nation’s new economic thinking. One Nation’s new economic advisor, Darren Nelson, has worked on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and with radical free-market think-tanks in America, including one associated with the notorious Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca.

Report on what we do and don’t know about mines, closures and rehabilitation in New South Wales. Little data is available to the public on the clean-up from the mining boom. State government agencies often lack basic information on how many mines are in operation, with still less published on closures and abandonments.

In the context of One Nation’s presence in the Australian Senate, indications of increased voter support for the party and wider populist trends in the United States and Europe, Australians need to understand One Nation’s world view – especially where the party’s ideas come from.  It is important to chart One Nation’s ideological and political

The ABC is not biased against business according to the recent ABC Editorial Review of business and economics coverage. Far from being anti-business, research released today by The Australia Institute finds that the ABC’s ample coverage of business and economics skews towards big business. Big business receives three to five times more ABC coverage than

The Forest Products Commission (FPC) is a statutory body wholly owned by the Western Australian government. Its primary function is to conduct forestry activities on a commercial basis in state-owned forests, including softwood plantations, sandalwood and native forests. The FPC is responsible for most of Western Australia’s (WA) native forestry, which occurs in the state’s

The NAIF will spend $5 billion of public funds in Northern Australia on infrastructure that is unable to attract commercial financing, which could include subsidising the controversial Adani Carmichael coal mine.  Australians don’t want their money funding infrastructure for coal and gas companies under the $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), national polling released

Australia sends asylum seekers to offshore camps wherethey are detained indefinitely and subjected to well documented abuses, in violation of their human rights. The Australian Government outsources the operations at the camps, and Spanish company Ferrovial has responsibility for the system’s largest operational contracts, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Broadspectrum. Investors in Ferrovial, including the Norwegian

Voting and electoral participation are part of Australia’s culture, expressed through our long history of electoral reform as well as modern trends such as the social media tag #democracysausage. Ensuring that everyone’s vote is counted is consistent with our ethos that everyone gets a “fair go”. Australia has among the highest electoral participation rates in

Gas industry funding and direct involvement in research committees of GISERA, the research body that conducts research on social and environmental impacts of CSG, is potentially compromising the scientific independence of CSIRO. The five main Queensland gas companies provide the lion’s share of funding to the Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research Alliance (GISERA) – the Gas Industry Social

The Australia Institute has an ongoing program of research into policy options around the ABC. Several of our research papers relate to the ABC’s operations in rural and regional Australia and the ABC Charter. Most recently, polling we commissioned in January 2016 shows strong public support in Tasmania for increased funding for the ABC in