Salmon farming is a hot topic in Tasmania. The industry is responsible for over 2% of Gross State Product and over 1% of employment, including considerable full-time employment. This economic contribution is due to substantial growth. The industry tripled in size over the past decade, and plans to double again in the 20 years to 2030. The industry

The Minerals Council of Australia featured in 1,594 Australian news stories in the last year mentioning coal. This was three times more than iron ore, far more than any other mineral. Yet only 16 of the MCA’s 45 members mine coal at all. Just 3 are entirely focused on thermal coal. The biggest members, BHP

Governments around the world offer incentives to support electric vehicles. Australia does not. This paper examines how we can boost electric vehicle sales – in four proven, low-cost ways. There is a race to transition the world’s massive car fleet to electric vehicles and Australia is falling behind. Technological improvements make electric vehicles more affordable

Most Australians support a Clean Energy Target and they want it to build renewables, including most voters for the Coalition and One Nation. The Australia Institute surveyed 1,421 Australians in September 2017 about whether they supported a new Clean Energy Target. Four in five (78%) said Yes: the Australian government should introduce a new Clean

National poll asked 1,421 Australians about the proposed Adani Carmichael coal mine.  The poll, conducted online for The Australia Institute through Research Now, in late September, before revelations about Adani’s corporate record were aired on 4 Corners on the 2nd of October. More Australians oppose Adani’s mine than support it, and a huge majority oppose

The Australia Institute made this submission to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee’s inquiry into consumer protection in the banking, insurance and financial sector. Our main concern in this submission is to look at the deeper issues and ask what are the forces that drive ‘bad behaviour’ in the finance and insurance sectors. We start with

The Australia Institute’s new Climate & Energy Program has released the National Energy Emissions Audit. The Audit, compiled by renowned energy specialist Dr Hugh Saddler, provides a comprehensive, up-to-date indication of key greenhouse gas and energy trends in Australia. “The report finds, disturbingly, that Australia’s annual emissions from energy use have increased to their highest

The Australia Institute’s new Climate and Energy Program has released the Electricity Update of the National Energy Emissions Audit (The Audit*) for September 2017, authored by renowned energy expert Dr Hugh Saddler. The September Electricity Update includes a special analysis of the peak demand events in February 2017 which shows that in addition to coal

With the Tasmanian Joint Select Committee on Future Gaming Markets considering the future of poker machines in Tasmania, community pressure is growing for poker machines to be banned from hotels and clubs, limiting them to casinos and the Spirit of Tasmania vessels. Concern that this proposal would reduce government revenue is misplaced. Recent modelling by

Budget-cutting political leaders regularly target the jobs and incomes of public sector workers as the first and most politically convenient target of their austerity measures. But their crusade to balance the books by downsizing headcounts, intensifying work, and freezing the pay of the workers who deliver essential public services can backfire. In this new report,

The first major report from The Australia Institute’s Climate & Energy Program evaluates the energy policies required to meet Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets set by the Abbott government and pledged at the international climate summit in Paris. The Climate & Energy Program was launched following the transfer of the Climate Institute’s intellectual property

The record-slow pace of wage growth in Australia’s economy is not just making it difficult for families to balance their budgets, it also threatens severe long-run damage to Australia’s superannuation retirement system.  That’s the finding of new research from the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute.

The Australia Institute Tasmania and Unions Tasmania launched the inaugural Tasmanian Jobs Survey in June of this year. We invited Tasmanians to complete a survey about their employment status, their union membership (if any), their household budget and disposable income and how work affects their life. The survey began May 1st 2017 and ran until

Around the world, governments are recognising the benefits of wide-scale electric vehicle use and are supporting their uptake through policy.  Thanks to its compact geography, Tasmania would encourage people to purchase electric vehicles by providing even just a handful of public vehicle charging stations. This paper explores two options for providing coverage to a large

When the Climate Institute has closed its doors, The Australia Institute was honoured to be selected to carry forward some of The Institute’s work as part of our new Climate & Energy Program. One of the important initiatives being carried forward under The Australia Institute’s Climate & Energy Program is the Climate of the Nation report on

The McArthur River zinc-lead mine in the Northern Territory imposes significant environmental costs on the local community. Claims that it could produce government revenue of over $1.5 billion are based on flawed economic modelling that estimates tax revenues over a 1,000 year period.

This week the ABS released new GDP data, covering the June quarter, which confirm the continuing structural shift away labour toward capital in the distribution of income. We have prepared a short briefing note, contrasting the strong growth in corporate profits over the past year with the stagnation of labour incomes.  Workers simply do not

Political donations in Australia are difficult to monitor as many go unreported. Only donations over $13,000 are disclosed to the Australian Electoral Commission. The majority of donations are likely to be under this disclosure threshold or hidden through other means, such as through associated entities or party fundraising events. Despite these shortcomings, the disclosures that

Australia’s mining industry is 86% foreign owned and has spent over $541 million in the last ten years on lobbying Australian governments through its peak lobby groups, which are dominated by foreign interests. Spending on lobbying by individual mining companies is not public information, but would bring this number up significantly. This report finds that:

The Australia Institute has released the Electricity Update of the National Energy Emissions Audit (The Audit*) for August 2017. The report, by renowned energy analyst Dr Hugh Saddler, shows flat demand across the National Energy Market (NEM). “Total annual demand for electricity in the NEM is dead flat. With both national economic activity and population

What we do and don’t know about mines, closures and rehabilitation in Victoria. Little data is available to the public on the clean-up from the mining boom. State government agencies often lack basic information on how many mines are in operation, with still less published on closures and abandonments.

Our Centre has conducted considerable research into the impacts of the Fair Work Commission’s decision to substantially reduce penalty rates for Sunday and holiday for workers under the terms of the Modern Awards covering four sectors of the economy: fast food, retail, hospitality, and pharmacy. Penalties for Sunday work will be reduced by up to half; penalties will also be reduced for working on public holidays.

The Australia Institute made a brief submission to the Treasury discussion paper on Tax deductible gift recipient reform opportunities. The Australia Institute is a Canberra-based think tank, registered as a charity with the ACNC. We conduct research on a wide range of economic, policy and political issues. We commented on Consultation question 12: Stakeholders’ views

This paper, by Dr Andrew Carr of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, looks at where this sense of bipartisanship came from, how it operates and assesses its impact. While seemingly an innocuous idea — that our two major parties should seek agreement or cooperate in a spirit of unity —