The Jubilee Australia Research Centre and The Australia Institute welcome the opportunity to make a submission on the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Amendment (Support for Commonwealth Entities) Bill 2016. The primary purpose of Efic under the original Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Act 1991 is to “assist the development of Australian export trade.” Efic

The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Finkel Review. With the current state public discussion around energy issues, this review has the potential to steer Australia back towards a policy path that looks after the interests of energy consumers and the environment. Australia’s energy future should centre on renewable energy

The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to a submission to the Inquiry into the Major Bank Levy Bill 2017 and the Treasury Laws Amendment (Major Bank Levy) Bill 2017. This submission should be read in conjunction with some earlier submissions to Senate Inquiries. In particular we refer to our submission to the Senate Economics Committee

Successful Homeshare programs in the balance as NDIS roll-out offers new risks and opportunities. A new report from The Australia Institute, released today at the Council on the Ageing national housing policy forum, identifies semi-formal shared living opportunities for older Australians and people with disabilities. —Full report available in PDF below— Homeshare models provide free

In conjunction with the National Manufacturing Summit, titled “From Opportunity to Action,” at Parliament House in Canberra on June 21, 2017, the Centre for Future Work has released a new research paper on the opportunities to sustain and expand manufacturing jobs in Australia. Our new report, Manufacturing: A Moment of Opportunity, by Jim Stanford and

Development of unconventional gas in the NT risks connecting the NT to the chaos in wider Australian gas markets. As the nation becomes a major gas exporter with record production there have been no winners.

Welcome to the first issue of the The Audit – Electricity Update, the companion publication to the National Energy Emissions Audit Report.   Each issue of Electricity Update will also contain a more detailed discussion of one or two particular topics relating to the electricity system which have assumed particular importance in the period prior

Download The Audit (June 2017) The Australia Institute has launched the National Energy Emissions Audit (The Audit), written by respected energy analyst and ANU Honorary Associate Professor, Dr Hugh Saddler, which tracks Australia’s emissions of greenhouse gases from the combustion of fossil fuels. The National Energy Emissions Audit will be published on a quarterly basis,

A new report models the impact of an increased Medicare Levy in comparison to a progressive Medicare Levy, more like income tax, on the spread of Australian income earners.  The Government proposes to increase the Medicare levy to 2.5 per cent of income from July 2019. That would mean a gradual switch in the tax

Amidst increasing concerns among economists and budget forecasters about the historic stagnation of Australian wages, the latest GDP statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics have confirmed that the proportion of national economic output that is paid to workers has reached an all-time low.

Report calls for Tasmania to become energy self-reliant and an exporter of renewable energy. A new report from Hobart-based think tank The Australia Institute Tasmania identifies an opportunity for Tasmania to take advantage of its unique energy assets which could deliver cheaper local electricity.  The report finds that Tasmania’s link to the National Electricity Market

The Fair Work Commission released two major decisions this week: its order regarding the timing for the implementation of reductions in penalty rates for Sunday and public holiday work in four major retail and hospitality awards, followed by its annual review of the general minimum wage. Both decisions will take effect on July 1. It

Is Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party anti-Asian?  Just how much has One Nation changed since Pauline Hanson first sat in the Australian Parliament two decades ago?  This report reviews One Nation’s statements of the 1990s and the current policies of the party.  It concludes that One Nation’s broad policies on immigration and multiculturalism remain essentially

Polling shows the majority voters across the political spectrum support a federal ICAC. Results of poll of 1,420 Australian residents: 80% of people support establishing a federal ICAC Support is highest among Coalition voters (84%) 63% of people have a low level of trust in federal parliament, only 10% have a high level of trust

The Australian government’s surprising decision to impose a new tax targeted precisely at the biggest financial institutions in the country continues to generate public debate.  We have reviewed the structure, likely effects, and economic and regulatory context of the proposed 0.06% levy on selected liabilities of the 5 largest financial institutions in Australia. The loud

The Australia Institute has tested two claims made in response to the bank levy announced in the Federal Budget: that the impact of the levy will be passed onto customers, and that it will be borne by shareholders, affecting Australian superannuation savings. —For paper see PDF below— In either scenario, the research finds that the

The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) is a $5 billion government fund for concessional financing to build infrastructure in northern Qld, NT and WA. The default financing mechanism is a loan. Adani has applied for a concessional loan of nearly $1 billion from the NAIF for a rail line so that it can export coal

The Australian Government has put $1.3 billion of taxpayers’ money towards Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) initiatives since 2003, with zero large scale operational projects to show for it. A new report from The Australia Institute’s, Money for nothing, has found that despite years of generous taxpayer funding, there are no large-scale CCS projects operating

A new ReachTEL poll of 1,618 Queenslanders shows strong opposition to state and federal subsidies for the Adani coal proposal, including among LNP and One Nation voters. -Polling results in attachment below- 59% of Queenslanders oppose Federal and State taxpayers’ money being used to fund Adani’s project. 37% said they were strongly opposed and just

The Southern Highlands has a diverse economy, with its band of towns and its proximity to major cities giving it an economic structure similar to NSW as a whole, but with a special focus on tourism, agriculture and manufacturing. Local businesses and community members are concerned about the potential effects of the proposed Hume Coal

Australia’s export credit agency, Efic, is a government-owned, taxpayer-backed organisation that aims to assist Australian exporters with financial services. Efic is currently considering a loan to a South African coal project. The Boikarabelo coal project has approval to produce 32 million tonnes of raw coal each year. The development of this project would likely contribute

The Labor party has announced a policy to limit the deduction that can be claimed for managing your tax affairs to $3,000. The complexity of the tax system means that some people are spending large amounts of money on accounting advice to take advantage of tax loopholes to significantly reduce their taxable income. They can then reduce their disposable

New polling from The Australia Institute shows almost two thirds (64%) of Australians oppose a taxpayer-funded subsidised loan to the Adani coal mine project, as reports emerge the Queensland Government is considering an additional $320 million subsidy to Adani in the form of a ‘royalty holiday’. —For polling brief see attachement below— “Providing a billion

New polling from The Australia Institute shows the majority of Australians think US President Donald Trump will not honour a deal to take refugees from Manus Island and Nauru to be resettled in the United States. Half of respondents (51%) disagreed with the statement ‘Donald Trump will follow through on the agreement’ while 28% agreed

New research from The Australia Institute has found that the Prime Minister’s electorate is the biggest reaps the greatest benefit from capital gains tax discount, by a large margin. CGT discount expected to cost the budget $9.6 billion dollars this year (2016-17) $44 billion over the next four years. Historical data also shows that, in

The economic assessment of the Narrabri Gas Project is misleading and does not comply with NSW assessment guidelines. The benefit cost analysis by consultants GHD is contradicted by the proponents’ financial statements and analysis commissioned by the Australian Energy Market Operator.

Developing northern Australia is a priority for the Turnbull Government, like many governments before it. The focus of these efforts is often on capital-intensive major projects such as irrigation dams or mining infrastructure. Such investments generally provide terrible returns to the taxpayer, generate few jobs and fail to ‘develop the North’. For example, the Ord

Media reports suggest that the Palaszczuk Government intends to give Adani a discount on the royalties the company would pay to extract the state’s coal.  If the Queensland government settles on a royalty holiday for Adani’s proposed coal mine, similar to that used earlier by the NSW government, the cost to Queenslanders will be almost

As a regional community, Tasmanians have historically enjoyed higher rates of home ownership than their mainland counterparts. However, as wages continue to stagnate, housing prices start to increase, and the State attracts more investment, the number of Tasmanians owning and occupying their own homes is falling.

As Australians debate the Fair Work Commission’ decision to reduce penalty rates for retail and hospitality workers, the Centre for Future Work has published new research on the prevalence of weekend work in other sectors of Australia’s economy – and the macroeconomic importance of extra income generated by weekend penalty pay. The analysis is based