The Australia Institute released new research showing Adani is not “ready to go” with its Carmichael coal mine and there are a number of significant reasons why Adani is not ready to proceed with its mine. “One thing that can be said with certainty about the Adani coal mine is that whether it goes ahead

The Australia Institute made a submission to the NSW Rail Access Undertaking – Review of the rate of return and remaining mine life – Draft Report (‘Draft Report’). The review assesses aspects of charges that apply to access several rail networks in NSW. Specifically, it considers the rate of return Government-owned RailCorp, can use in

Documents obtained by the Australia Institute shows that mining is experiencing a crisis in public trust among Queenslanders, with coal mining particularly unfavourable.  The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) commissioned polling company Ipsos to conduct this research on the industry’s reputation because it has observed a “decline in positive (public) sentiment” about the QLD resource sector, and can

New analysis of income tax data confirms a dramatic slowdown in Australian wages in recent years – and the slowdown is worse than previous statistics indicated.

Tomorrow the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release its quarterly Wage Price Index: the most commonly-reported measure of wage growth in Australia’s labour market. Given the importance of public debates about wages and wage policy in the current federal election campaign, this release is timely and politically important.

This briefing note reviews some methodological issues related to the WPI. It also considers recent data confirming the visible impact on the WPI of last year’s strong increase in the national minimum wage.

New research from The Australia Institute, released just weeks out from the Federal Election, shows that a majority of South Australian voters want the government to mobilise all of society, “like they mobilised everyone during the world wars”, to tackle global warming.

Many Australians are eagerly anticipating a unique concentration of public holidays in coming days. There is a ten-day period (stretching from Good Friday through Sunday, 28 April) during which many employees only have to work three days. Many Australians are now arranging to take those three days off: creating an extended 10-day holiday for the “price” of just three days leave.

Norway has implemented a suite of policies to boost electric vehicle uptake. These policies should be considered in Australia’s electric vehicle debate.

The tax cuts announced in the budget will make Australia’s income tax system less progressive, hand billions to high income earners and for every dollar in tax cuts to females, males will get two dollars

This week’s pre-election Commonwealth budget will feature reductions in personal income taxes, as the Coalition government tries to overcome a disadvantage in the polls in the coming federal election. Public debate in recent weeks has been focused on the economic and social hardship caused by the unprecedented slowdown since 2013 in Australian wage growth. It is likely that the government will portray its personal tax cuts as a form of “compensation” for slower wage growth.

The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,536 Australians about fish farm regulation. The survey told respondents that large scale fish farms are currently assessed and regulated by state governments, not the federal government. They were then asked who should assess and regulate fish farms.

New polling from The Australia Institute shows South Australians overwhelmingly think increasing funding for public services is a far more effective policy for encouraging jobs and economic growth than the SA Government’s land tax cut for property investors.

Australia can learn much from the policy leadership of the Ardern Government in New Zealand and its reforms to address stagnant wages and rebuild a more inclusive workplace relations framework, according to new research from the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute.

The ABS has released what is likely the last quarterly GDP report before a Commonwealth election expected in May. Coalition leaders were hoping a strong report would underline their standard talking points about being the best “economic managers.”  But they were badly disappointed.

What’s a ‘gig’ job, anyway? There’s lots of media hype about how people won’t have jobs in the future (they’re so old-fashioned). Instead they’ll work a never-ending series of gigs. Will they love the supposed ‘freedom’ and ‘flexibility’? Or will they yearn for the good old days when a job provided regular hours … and a regular paycheque?

The NSW Draft Floodplain harvesting monitoring and auditing strategy (draft strategy) is entirely inadequate for managing floodplain harvesting in New South Wales.  It is inconsistent with numerous legislative and other government commitments and is likely unlawful. It should be withdrawn and heavily revised. [Read the full submission]

Dividend imputation was introduced by the then Treasurer Paul Keating in 1987 with the aim of eliminating the so-called double taxation of company income. Under dividend imputation the individual who receives dividend income is taxed but receives credit for company tax paid by the company. Company tax paid by the company is imputed to the

In the lead-up to the 2013 federal election, then-Opposition Leader Tony Abbott made a high-profile pledge that a Coalition government, if elected, would create 1 million new jobs over the next five years. Abbott was elected (although later ousted by his own party), and total employment in Australia did indeed grow by over 1 million positions between 2013 and 2018.  Current Prime Minister Scott Morrison hopes that this success can resuscitate his party’s flagging fortunes: he has pledged, if elected, to create even more jobs (1.25 million) over the next five years.

The Australia Institute was commissioned by independent journalist and researcher Ginger Gorman to estimate the economic costs of online harassment and cyberhate. This report is part of a wider research by Ms Gorman on cyberhate. In April 2018, a nationally representative sample of 1,557 Australians were surveyed about online harassment and cyberhate. The poll was