The proposals highlighted in this submission provide prioritised measures that would make the use of public resources in parliamentary elections more democratic and ensure public money is better spent.

The Future Gas Strategy, published in May 2024, sets out the Albanese Government’s plan for gas production and consumption in Australia between now and 2050.

The cost of party and candidate campaigns in the 2022 South Australian election exceeded public funding by $3.3 million. The shortfall was covered with private funding, including political donations.

Organisations in Australia are using blood analysis as a means of screening future employees for ‘health risks’ that they allege may impact on their performance of work. Collecting sensitive information from blood analysis is restricted under Australia’s privacy laws. This is because the mishandling of this information can have a substantial detrimental impact on those

Inequality in Australia is growing and is driven by the rapid accumulation of wealth by the very wealthy.

Australia’s electoral participation is relatively good, though there is significant room for improvement, including doing better to count the votes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and making citizenship more accessible for Australian residents.

According to the Australian Government’s Future Gas Strategy, gas is “critical” to the nation’s economy. In view of this, many Australians might be surprised to learn that a large amount of the country’s gas reserves are essentially being given away for free.

While Australia generates a lot of renewable energy, a significant amount of that energy is wasted. In the middle of the day, when solar panels are at their most productive, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) often instructs solar farms to disconnect from the grid.

The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,014 Australians about whether they support public funding for political parties and candidates to run election campaigns and cover administrative costs. The results show that: Three in five (60%) Australians oppose public funding of political parties and candidates. Only one in four (27%) Australians support public

Woodside’s North West Shelf Extension has not identified sufficient gas supply for its export capacity. This is already resulting in applications to divert domestic gas to the export terminal. This will permanently destabilise WA’s domestic gas market.

Even though the transport sector is the third largest source of Australian emissions and accounted for 21% of national emissions in 2023, the Australian Government continues to incentivise the sale of big utility vehicles (utes) relative to other car options. Over the last twenty years, the number of utes on our roads has grown much

The Australian Government claims that green hydrogen is part of its vision for becoming a renewable energy ‘superpower’, but budget documents show this is not the case. Current industrial hydrogen use in Australia is 500,000 tonnes per year. The Commonwealth Government is budgeting for green hydrogen production of around 500,000 tonnes per year into the

The Electoral Disclosure and Funding Amendment Bill 2024 seeks to address shortcomings of existing electoral laws; however, further amendments are required to adequately account for fairness for new political entrants, allow community voices to engage in elections, and strengthen regulation of corporates and industry bodies seeking to influence elections as third parties.

Parliaments exist to share power, and power sharing has been a feature of Australian parliaments for as long as they have existed: between different interest groups, different communities and different political movements; across the upper and lower houses; within parties (via factions); and between parties (including coalition agreements like those between the Liberals and the Nationals).

Oil and gas extraction in South Australia employs just 833 people, 0.1% of SA jobs. Petroleum royalties make up 0.4% of the state budget. On oil and gas production worth $1.7 billion in 2021-22, the industry paid at most $99 million in federal tax, of which Santos paid zero. Despite this, the industry has significant

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we work and the jobs we do. AI innovations in workplaces can have positive benefits, including through productivity gains. However, AI applications can also have significant risks for workers and for job quality. AI applications, including automated decision making, are not neutral processes. Software can be designed and

A workplace delegate is a worker chosen to represent workers who are union members in dealings with management. Delegates are volunteers who perform their union duties on an unpaid basis in addition to their normal job at work. Delegates spend their time undertaking vital tasks for workplace representation.

One in six Australian children live in poverty, yet there is no official poverty line or monitoring of poverty in place.

The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,005 Australians about their willingness to pay for nuclear energy.

Housing cooperatives run on a non-profit, collective ownership model in which the costs of buying or building a dwelling are shared, and decisions about how it is run are made based on a ‘one member, one vote’ system. This means that tenants who buy into a cooperative get the right to have a say in the housing they pay for.

The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,005 Australians about the prosecution of Julian Assange. Respondents were asked if they think the Federal Government is doing too much or too little to secure the release of Australian citizen Julian Assange. One in three Australians (34%) think that the Federal Government is doing too

Super tax concessions exacerbate income and gender inequality.

The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,005 Australians about Australia’s anti-siphoning laws.

War in Ukraine has seen oil and gas export revenue out of Australia increase from $40 billion in 2020-21 to $107 billion in 2022-23. Lobby group forecasts of $17 billion in 2023-24 payments to government should be considered in this context.

For many years competition has been enshrined as a goal of economic policy.

According to the Australian Government’s Future Gas Strategy, gas is “critical” to the nation’s economy.

Every year, over 300,000 tonnes of clothing is either sent to landfill or exported from Australia. To respond to the growing textiles waste problem, the Commonwealth has proposed policies intended to create a ‘circular economy.’ However, a genuinely circular economy depends on drastically reducing the rate at which textiles are produced and consumed, banning the

In 2019, the Australia Institute published Canberra: Laboratory of democracy, which described innovative, politically controversial policies from the Australian Capital Territory that were popular across the country.

Royalty revenue from WA gas exports has halved in the past two years and now makes up just 1.5% of budget revenue.

The existing NSW Koala Strategy fails to recognise or address the immediate and systemic impacts of logging, fossil fuel production and climate change on koala populations.