The Australia Institute welcomes the modernising of Australia’s referendum machinery ahead of the referendum to enshrine an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice in the Australian Constitution. To limit the impact of misinformation on the referendum debate, we recommend that the Parliament legislate truth in political advertising laws and stronger political contribution disclosures. The existing

Key results The Australia Institute surveyed nationally representative samples of about 1,000 Australians in June and July 2022 about their attitudes towards a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament for First Nations peoples as called for in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The respondents were asked how they would vote in a referendum on enshrining

A nation can only be as secure as its citizens. The death of a young Warlpiri man in the Northern Territory in 2019, and the recent trial of a police officer who, in the performance of his duties, shot and killed the young Warlpiri man is yet another affront to Australia’s First Peoples. It should

Consultations are beginning around the future of social security payments in remote Australia. This is an opportunity to assess what went wrong in the existing Community Development Program, and to consider a more effective, caring and creative approach to supporting the health, wellbeing, and economic aspirations of Indigenous peoples in remote areas. Authors: Zoe Staines,

Woodside and BHP’s Scarborough to Pluto LNG project is the most polluting fossil fuel project currently proposed in Australia. It would result in annual carbon pollution equal to over 15 new coal fired power stations, and more pollution than the proposed Adani coal mine. The direct pollution from this project would increase WA’s total emissions

Successive ACT Governments have said they are committed to a respectful relationship with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in the ACT and to working closely with them. The Parliamentary Agreement between ACT Labor and the ACT Greens commits the ACT Government to embarking on treaty discussions and rescinding certain restrictive clauses in

Australia’s federal parliamentarians have never been so thinly spread. Whereas at Federation there were 51,000 Australians per House of Representatives MP, there are now 170,000 Australians per MP. That leaves MPs stretched and voters disengaged. It is bad enough that there are 170,000 Australians per MP, but it is even worse that rounding the NT’s

Increases in extreme heat events in the Kimberley region will have severe impacts on the wellbeing of people in the region, particularly indigenous communities. It will also impact key industries, including tourism and agriculture, and damage natural ecosystems.

The Community Development Program (CDP) is remote Australia’s Work for the Dole (WFD) and “job assistance” scheme. In place since 2015, it operates across almost 75 percent of Australia’s area, an area with a population of just 304,000 people. Indigenous people are over 80% of the CDP’s 34,000 participants. In other words, CDP participants are

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

This study comprises a comprehensive assessment of public spending on education, employment, health and housing services for indigenous Australians compared with non-indigenous Australians. It shows that, contrary to claims made recently, public spending on programs for indigenous people is not excessive, and the advantages indigenous people gain from this expenditure are minuscule compared with the

In April 1997 the Australia Institute published Native Title: Implications for land management (Discussion Paper No. 11). It was highly successful, with hundreds of copies circulating around Australia from Parliament House in Canberra to remote communities in Western Australia. The success of that paper was proof of the craving for clearly presented information about indigenous

The native title debate has been one of the most acrimonious and divisive political debates in Australia’s history. The historic task of reconciliation requires a just settlement of the claims by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to land. The authors of this paper conclude that legislated extinguishment would be a severe and enduring blow

This paper considers the implications for the proposed uranium mine at Jabiluka of the Resource Assessment Commission’s inquiry into mining at Coronation Hill, also within the boundaries of Kakadu National Park. There are some important parallels in the issues and the way they have been treated.