The Australian retail, financial, and online advertising markets are all highly concentrated in Australia. As the last 20 years of attempts to increase competition in these sectors has shown, there is no silver bullet to address the market power of dominant firms in Australia. That said, there is clear consensus that new firms, and new

The Australia Institute studied paid political ads published on Facebook and Instagram over a two-month period between 21 March 2022 and 20 May 2022. The analysis includes political ads published on pages administrated by candidates and parties contesting the 2022 federal election. A total of $12.5 million was spent to run 26,945 political ads on

The technological shift away from coal to renewable energy for electricity generation is also a spatial shift. We are moving electricity generators to new dedicated Renewable Energy Zones (REZ) in parts of rural Australia that have not hosted energy utilities at this scale before. This report presents the first significant analysis of the spatial aspect

The recent federal election featured important debate regarding the rising cost of living in Australia, and whether and how wages should be boosted to keep up with higher prices. One exchange, late in the campaign, occurred when ALP leader Anthony Albanese stated his belief that wages should keep up with prices — but then was

Despite the importance placed on foreign investment, and public sensitivity to it, little data is available on the level of foreign ownership of Australian companies. What data is available often confuses legal and beneficial ownership or is based on limited sample size. The research report comes amid growing calls for a windfall profits tax on

The Australia Institute conducted a special exit poll, surveying a nationally representative sample of 1,404 Australians from 6pm Saturday May 21, about strengths and weaknesses of Liberal-National Coalition in the 2022 federal election. The results show that Australians think that the state of aged care, the treatment of women in politics and the government failing

The Australia Institute conducted a special exit poll, surveying a nationally representative sample of 1,424 Australians from 6pm Saturday May 21, which asked whether the Prime Minister should live in The Lodge. Key findings: • Over half of Australians (57%) agree that the Prime Minister should live in The Lodge in Canberra, compared to 20%

Shifting from private passenger vehicle use to zero emissions public transport will help curb Australia’s rising transport emissions. When considering other factors, such as population growth – particularly in urban areas – and the significant non-CO2 pollutant emissions associated with traditional diesel buses, it is clear that electrification of buses should be a central pillar

The electoral pendulum performs no better than an alternative method, the cube law, in predicting the overall result of an election. In its common, alternative use as tool to predict individual seat changes, it is successful less than half of the time. Note: An earlier version of this report said that the electoral pendulum had

The government defines ‘clean hydrogen’ as “hydrogen produced using renewable energy or using fossil fuels with substantial carbon capture and storage.”

Despite being labelled as ‘clean energy’, none of the emissions HESC has produced in its pilot phase have been buried through Carbon Capture and Storage.

The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,002 Australians about their Senate voting intentions and their understanding of how Senate voting works. The results show: A significant proportion of Australians remain uncertain about important aspects of Senate preferential voting: More than four in ten (43%) respondents thought that putting a 6 beside a

In April and May, The Australia Institute surveyed nationally representative samples of Australians about who they intend to vote for in the Senate.

Firms like Woolworths would have still seen profit growth if they paid all of their workers a five percent pay rise and did not increase prices.

Wage growth played no significant role in the recent surge in inflation and, as the analysis shows, maintaining real wages across the entire economy as distinct from merely maintaining the minimum wage in real terms would have a trivial impact on the price level even if firms seek to recoup all of a nominal wage rise as further price increases.

Almost one in five Australians (and a higher proportion of young workers) acknowledge working with potential COVID symptoms over the course of the pandemic, according to new opinion research published by the Centre for Future Work. The research confirms the public health dangers of Australia’s existing patchwork system of sick leave and related entitlements. The main

Five of Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association’s (APPEA) most prominent member companies have paid no income tax for at least the past seven years despite combined income from their Australian operations of $138 billion. A sixth company, Santos, paid just $6 million on $28.9 billion of income, and paid no income tax from 2015

This study, the largest and most comprehensive domestic study of the practice of cronyism in relation to appointments to a government agency ever conducted, finds there has been a sharp rise in the proportion of political appointments to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) during the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison administration.

In 2021 the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety recommended that gig work, independent contracting and other ‘indirect’ employment arrangements be restricted in the publicly-funded aged care sector.

A comprehensive review of Australian wage trends indicates that wage growth is likely to remain stuck at historically weak levels despite the dramatic disruptions experienced by the Australian labour market through the COVID-19 pandemic. The report finds that targeted policies to deliberately lift wages are needed to break free of the low-wage trajectory that has

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg have stated repeatedly that their government’s approach to stimulus spending in the wake of the covid crisis was for ‘temporary and targeted’ measures to boost economic activity in the short term without creating ‘structural pressure’ on the budget. For example, in announcing first of three stimulus packages

Australia has never hosted a United Nations climate conference (COP) and the recent proposal from the Labor Party to bid for the 2024 COP in partnership with the Pacific could shift Australia’s reputation from climate laggard to regional leader. This shift should be accompanied by substantive changes to Australia’s climate policy, including on Australia’s climate

This report from the Carmichael Centre argues that Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services should be treated as a strategic industry of national importance – not just a ‘market’, and not just a ‘cost’ item on government budgets.

Emissions have increased under Australia’s only climate policy, the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF).

uComms conducted a survey of 855 residents in the federal seat of Goldstein on behalf of The Australia Institute during the evening of 27 April 2022 using self-completed automated voice polling methodologies. The poll was conducted with a sample size of 855 people via telephone, with a margin of error of 3.34%. The poll is

The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,002 Australians about their attitudes towards six political messages, three from the Labor Party and three from the Liberal Party. The two messages with highest total agreement were Labor messages: that “Scott Morrison is all announcement, no delivery” (53% agree, 31% disagree) and “Labor will put

Australia’s housing affordability crisis results from over- reliance on just two options – private home ownership and private renting. To tackle it, a wider repertoire of policies is required.

If the federal government lifts annual higher education spending to 1% of GDP, it could repair the destruction inflicted by the COVID pandemic and make universities more accessible and affordable for all Australians, according to new research from the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute.

Australia is precariously dependent on imported fuel. Demand-side solutions, particularly electrifying transport, should be adopted to improve Australia’s fuel security and increase energy independence.

The Coalition government has committed $7.4 billion to the construction of new dams and water infrastructure in Australia, the vast majority of which will be spent in North Queensland even though only 1.1% percent of Australians live in that region and 97 percent of agricultural production occurs outside of that region.