Victorian brown coal-fired power plants are some of the worst performing stations in the National Electricity Market. With hot and dry conditions forecast for the rest of this summer, Victoria is at risk of further breakdowns of aging coal generators, insufficient supply and blackouts.

Australia has a long history of secondary boycotts, which have been widely used for causes now generally accepted. Expanding laws primarily intended to limit union power to outlaw advocacy campaigns is illiberal, and would require significant changes to the law.

New research from The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work estimates that Australian workers are currently working an average of 4.6 hours of unpaid overtime each week, which translates to 6 weeks of full time work without pay, per employee, per year – with an annual worth of $81.5 billion for Australian employers.

The Australia Institute made a submission to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee’s inquiry into nationhood, national identity and democracy. The submission outlines how the Australia Institute’s existing research applies to each of the committee’s terms of reference.

The Australia Institute made a submission to the Senate Economics References Committee’s inquiry into Australia’s oil and gas reserves. The submission highlights our existing research on Australia’s oil and gas and how they relate to the inquiry’s terms of reference. Update Read our second submission to the Senate Economics References Committee’s inquiry into Australia’s oil and

Aggregating the land portfolios of property investors in South Australia, so that they pay tax on their investments as a whole, is a fair reform that will help to raise the revenue required to fund public services. Drastically reducing land tax rates in a way that primarily helps property investors with portfolios valued over $1

Norwegian oil company Equinor is planning exploratory drilling for oil and gas in the Great Australian Bight beginning in late 2020. Modelling commissioned by the oil and gas lobby shows that South Australia is unlikely to receive any noticeable benefit from tax payments as a result of oil and gas production in the Great Australian

Truth in political advertising laws are supported by 84% of Australians. Successful models include industry self-regulation in New Zealand and making misleading advertising an offence in South Australia. Decisions about what constitutes “the truth” may be fraught, but they are routinely made by companies and regulators under consumer law. Australia can choose from a variety of models, but some form of truth in

The economic benefit of the salmon industry to Tasmania is weighted strongly against its environmental and social impacts. Yet it accounts for just 1% of jobs in the state. Over 5 years $3.8 billion worth of fish were sold, but just $64 million tax paid, while $9.3 million in subsidies were received in 2 years.

Most Australians want 100% renewable energy, a stamp duty to land tax swap and pill testing at music festivals in their own state, new national polling from The Australia Institute shows.

Victoria’s brown coal fired power stations suffer from frequent breakdowns and Loy Yang A is the responsible for largest number of breakdowns on the National Energy Market, since monitoring began in December 2017, and Loy Yang A’s Unit 2 is the most unreliable unit on the grid.

The projected rise in extremely hot days as a result of global warming presents a serious risk to the health and wellbeing of the Queensland community. There has already been a clear increase in numbers of these extreme heat days over recent decades, as demonstrated in our profiles on: The Gold Coast; Brisbane; The Sunshine

The Australian public supports stronger gun control and stricter restrictions and laws on firearms. Despite this, there is a real danger of our firearm laws being watered down. Successive inquiries have found that no state or territory has ever fully complied with the National Firearms Agreement. The public will on firearms is being circumvented because

Increasing extreme heat will have profound impacts on people, industries and ecosystems in Mackay. CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology projections estimate that the average number of days over 35 degrees could increase from around one day presently to over seventy by 2090 without strong climate policies. Virtually all summer nights by 2090 are projected to

Increasing extreme heat will have profound impacts on people, industries and ecosystems in the Whitsundays. CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology projections estimate that the average number of days over 35 degrees each year could increase fourfold by 2030 and reach over 87 days per year by 2090 without strong climate policies. Hot nights above 25

Increasing extreme heat will have profound impacts on people, industries and ecosystems in Townsville. CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology projections estimate that the average number of days over 35 degrees each year could increase fivefold by 2030 and reach over one hundred days per year by 2090 without strong climate policies. Almost two hundred nights

Increasing extreme heat will have profound impacts on people, industries and ecosystems in South East SA. CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology projections estimate that the average number of days over 35 could increase from historical averages of 21 at Murray Bridge and seven at Mount Gambier, to 56 and 22 days respectively by 2090 without

So far in 2018, there have been 27 major breakdowns at gas and coal power stations in NSW. Every coal power station experienced at least one breakdown. The Tallawarra gas power station experienced three breakdowns. Aging plants Liddell and Vales Point experienced the most breakdowns.

In 2018 there were 135 major breakdowns at gas and coal power stations in the National Energy Market. While the oldest coal plants were responsible for a large proportion of the breakdowns, newer supercritical plants were also unreliable. There were three breakdowns at one of the newest gas plants. Victoria’s brown coal plants were the

A number of federal and state politicians and mining industry groups have called for new supercritical or ultra-supercritical coal-fired power stations to be built in the National Electricity Market (NEM). Data from The Australia Institute’s Gas & Coal Watch shows that coal plants are unreliable and prone to break downs – as they have dozens of times

Increasing extreme heat will have profound impacts on people, industries and ecosystems in Adelaide. CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology projections estimate that the average number of days over 35 could increase by 180% without strong climate policies, from historical averages of 18–25 days per year up to 51–69 days per year by 2090.

The Australia Institute released new research showing the Senate crossbench safeguarded $23.4 billion worth of investment in renewable energy, from 2013–2018, when it prevented the Coalition Government from abolishing three renewable energy policies (The Clean Energy Finance Corporation, ARENA and the Renewable Energy Target). The ‘Saved by the bench’ report is being released in conjunction

Increasing extreme heat will have profound impacts on people, industries and ecosystems in Western Sydney. CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology projections estimate that the average number of days over 35 could increase by up to five times without strong climate policies from a historical average of 11 up to 52 days by 2090. Some parts