Deferred Happiness Syndrome affects 30% of Australians and occurs when employees are not satisfied with work but do it to achieve happiness later on, often through money and material interests. This often results in downshifters that voluntarily reduce working hours to ensure better lifestyles.

Explores in detail the life changes and attitudes of 20 downshifters to answer the questions prompted by the first study on downshifting completed in January 2003. The in-depth interviews were augmented by four focus groups held across the country and aimed to explain why people downshift, how they change, how others react, what are their

This study parallels Discussion Paper 50 and shows that 25 per cent of British adults aged between 30 and 59 have downshifted over the last ten years.

A companion study to Discussion Paper 49 with remarkably similar findings. In one of the world’s richest countries, the United Kingdom, a high proportion of citizens feel that their incomes are inadequate to buy everything they really need.

This piece uses three main statistics, to come to the conclusion that 1/3 of Australian adults have a drug dependency. Firstly The National Health Survey found that 18.1% of people have had medication in the past fortnight for mental health reasons; secondly that when coupled with the amount of Australians who partake in risky alcohol

This Discussion Paper follows on from the previous one. It examines the effectiveness of current regulatory arrangements and puts forward new proposals for minimising youth exposure to internet pornography. A section of the report presents the findings of a survey specially commissioned to determine the attitudes of parents to the question of their children’s access

This paper examines the extent to which youth in Australia is exposed to pornography through the Internet and X-rated videos and summarises the literature on the possible harmful effects of that exposure, drawing from this the conclusion that youth should be protected to a far greater extent than it currently is. Some of the material

The preoccupation with money and consumption comes at an increasing cost. Many Australians consider that money-hunger conflicts with their deeper values and preferences and results in a society that is too materialistic. There is evidence that many people are deciding to accept lower incomes and consumption levels in order to have more balance in their

A recent Newspoll survey, commissioned by the Institute, reveals that 62 per cent of Australians believe that they cannot afford to buy everything they really need. Taking into consideration the fact that Australia is one of the richest countries in the world and that Australians today have income three times higher than in 1950, it

High-income earners over $50,000 for individuals and $100, 000 for families pay a Medicare Levy Surcharge of 1 %( $500 and $1000 respectively). High-income earners can be exempted from the surcharge if they have private insurance, insurance companies exploit this and provide policies with annual costs under the respective $500 and $1000. The insurance policies

The world’s scientists have warned that the nations of the world will need to shift to a low-carbon future in order to avoid dangerous changes to the global climate. Even the Federal Environment Minister admits that Australia will need to cut greenhouse gas emission by 60 per cent or more. This report is ground breaking

A paper that argues that models projecting the cost of emissions abatement (including the IPCC’s own models) do not take adequate account of low- or zero-cost opportunities for abatement, technological changes or the impact of government policies, including a possible carbon tax.

The structure of the tax system can play an important role in either protecting or causing harm to the natural environment. This report examines existing taxes, charges and related incentives that encourage either environmental protection or degradation in each of the areas of transport, stationary energy, land, water, forests and waste. The study also considers

Against the approximately $1.1 billion contribution koalas make to Australia’s tourism industry, this article proposes leveraging enduring international interest in koalas with proposed conservation efforts and koala culls on Kangaroo Island to create a koala hunting industry that would contribute further to the inbound tourism sector.

Clive Hamilton and Hal Turton respond critically to some of the recent claims made in bestselling book ‘The Skeptical Environmentalist’ by Bjorn Lomborg, a Danish statistician who claims to be an environmentalist. They argue that Lomborg’s analysis is both too amateur and too simplistic to be taken seriously.

Climate change is expected to have severe adverse impacts on the majority of Commonwealth countries, especially developing country members. Australia has displayed a callous disregard for the future well-being of the poorest and most vulnerable members of the Commonwealth.

A report last year by the Allen Consulting Group has played a pivotal role in reinforcing perceptions that cutting greenhouse gases would result in large economic costs and extensive job losses, especially in regional and rural Australia. The first part of this paper exposes a number of serious errors in the Allen Consulting report on

Proceedings of a conference organised by Manning Clark House and The Australia Institute, held on 26 July 2001. The paper includes nine presentations by speakers at the conference, and is edited by Pamela Kinnear.

Analysis of IPCC data from 1998 evidencing Australia remains the highest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases of Kyoto countries, due principally to a large agricultural sector and continued land-use change as a source of emissions.

This paper reports an updated version of the GPI published by The Australia Institute in 1997. The paper is in two parts, the first providing the rational for the GPI and raising some methodological issues. The second part provides a comprehensive discussion of each component making up the GPI.

Submission Number 6 to The Senate Reference Committee Inquiry into Australia’s Response to Global Warming

The Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL) was sold in 1994 by the Commonwealth and became a privately owned company, tasked with the processing of blood. Since its privatisation it has been accused of allowing hepatitis-C and CJD to infect the blood. This document focuses on the $400 million given to CSL by the Commonwealth between 1994

Submission No. 4 to the Senate Environment References Committee Inquiry into Australia’s Response to Global Warming

This paper is the first comprehensive investigation of the relationship between population growth and greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. There are four parts to the analysis each of which reaches some striking conclusions.

Submission Number 2 to The Senate Reference Committee Inquiry into Australia’s Response to Global Warming

A submission to Senate Environment References Committee Inquiry into Australia’s Response to Global Warming

A submission to the Senate Environment References Committee Inquiry into Australia’s Response to Global Warming