The Australia Institute made a submission on the Winchester South coal mine environmental impact statement. Winchester South is a marginal project.  The economic assessment, astonishingly, does not consider the impact of climate action on the coal market. Optimism bias and management incentives explain why mining approval is being sought despite the weak financial or economic

The current level of floodplain harvesting is inconsistent with legislation. Reducing the practice to lawful levels could be done with minimal economic impact due to the export-oriented and capital-intensive nature of cotton production. Even in cotton producing regions, cotton accounts for less than 5% of jobs. Despite a reputation for high profits, major cotton producers

The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,000 Australians in May 2021 about their social and emotional states since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of these questions were first asked in 2011 and again in April 2020. By providing these polling results, The Australia Institute hopes to assist the committee in

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report on strategic water purchases found that the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources’ processes were poor, could not ensure value for money or that conflicts of interest were eliminated. Despite these findings, the audit did not ask if the public actually got value for money and real environmental

The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media.

New research from The Australia Institute has shown that a significant majority of Queensland voters want to see truth in political advertising laws introduced at a state level, following the 2020 state election. The Australia Institute surveyed 1,447 Queenslanders between 3 and 7 November 2020. Only people who voted in the 2020 state election were

Submission made to the Energy Security Board’s proposed framework for the planning of renewable energy zones (REZ) within state jurisdictions in the National Electricity Market (NEM). This form part an ongoing research project titled Rural Communities and Renewable Energy: A Socio-economic Study in NSW, conducted by thte University of Sydney Environment Institute, Australian National University and the

The Australia Institute modelled the impacts that removing the coronavirus supplement would have on the number of people in poverty. The national results and an explanation of the modelling are available in Poverty in the age of coronavirus. State specific figures can be found in the following reports: Poverty in the age of coronavirus –

Recently released documents show that the vendors in an $80 million water sale had repeatedly offered far lower prices to the Commonwealth but these offers were rejected as ‘not value for money’. The documents mention a company linked to Energy Minister Angus Taylor seven years after it says it ended work with the vendors. The

The Australian National Audit Office is investigating so-called strategic water purchases in the Murray Darling Basin. These purchases were counter to government policy on reducing consumptive use, have not brought balance to the Commonwealth’s water portfolio, were not value for money and did not meet guidelines on transparency, accountability and ethical procurement. The Australia Institute

The Australia Institute made a submission to the Independent Assessment of Social and Economic Conditions in the Murray-Darling Basin. The socio-economic conditions of the Murray Darling Basin share many characteristics with other areas of regional Australia – lower incomes and difficult access to important services. These should be addressed as well as the mismanagement of

The Australia Institute supports the Murray-Darling Basin Commission of Inquiry Bill 2019. This submission considers the implementation of the Basin Plan from a financial auditing perspective.

The Australia Institute made a submission on the Galilee Gas Pipeline proposed by Jemena. The Pipeline Project should be considered a controlled action under the EPBC Act as it would impact on matters of national environmental significance.

As Queensland’s Government and Opposition compete to sweeten deals for the coal industry, open-cut coal mines in Queensland already get up to 17% of their coal for free compared with similar mines in NSW. At average export prices over the past decade, the benefit to Adani’s mine would have been $223 million and $1.3bn to

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 Australia Institute released new research showing Adani is not “ready to go” with its Carmichael coal mine and there are a number of significant reasons why Adani is not ready to proceed with its mine. “One thing that can be said with certainty about the Adani coal mine is that whether it goes ahead

Documents obtained by the Australia Institute shows that mining is experiencing a crisis in public trust among Queenslanders, with coal mining particularly unfavourable.  The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) commissioned polling company Ipsos to conduct this research on the industry’s reputation because it has observed a “decline in positive (public) sentiment” about the QLD resource sector, and can

The mismanagement of the Murray-Darling Basin has become a national issue in 2019. While the Basin’s problems are widely discussed, solutions are not. Practical steps to turn around the fortunes of the Basin and its people are: Provide emergency relief to the southern Basin dairy industry. Develop a policy framework to ensure diversity in Basin

The electorate of Herbert stands to be heavily impacted by climate change. Increasing floods, drought and heatwaves will impact the community’s health, environment, infrastructure and vital industries, particularly agriculture and mining unless decisive action is taken to tackle climate change

Analysis of released documents shows that the licences bought by the Commonwealth didn’t exist until the vendors estimated the volumes of the licences themselves, at the suggestion of the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. Due diligence was problematic. At least half of the water purchased cannot count towards water recovery targets as it was