The Australia Institute has conducted an extensive study of 20 of Australia’s largest and most influential trade associations. The study assesses and compares the size, membership, political activities and members’ services offered by each association, and finds that there is tremendous variety in the types and scale of trade association activity. Most trade associations had

Over 20 years ago the Australia Institute recommended creating a rewards system for whistleblowers. In the decades since, rolling corporate scandals have revealed white-collar crime is pervasive while American rewards systems have proven highly successful. By instituting a whistleblower rewards system Australia can more effectively uncover, combat, and deter these crimes, promote ethical business behaviour, and broadly benefit societal wellbeing.

Australians continue to invest in the production of nuclear weapons through their superannuation. In 2023, major superannuation funds invested at least $3.4 billion in companies that produce the worst weapons of mass destruction.

For many years competition has been enshrined as a goal of economic policy.

Publicly-listed companies in Australia disclose little information about their political expenditure, with few disclosing lobbying spending or payments to trade associations

Few political parties have detailed policies on corporate democracy and governance, despite the major role that corporations play in our economy and political debate.

This report examines the policies of the largest Australian superannuation funds, highlighting their investments in companies involved in nuclear weapons development, production and maintenance (nuclear weapons companies).

The Australia Institute made a submission on the consultation paper for the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources’ Enhanced offshore oil and gas decommissioning framework.

The Centre for Responsible Technology made a submission to the consultation process on a digital industry code on disinformation, run by industry group DIGI.

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.

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.

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 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

A new national poll has asked 1,557 Australians what they think large companies are likely to do with a company tax cut. A majority (61%) of respondents think that increasing worker’s pay would be the very bottom of the list of priorities for large companies receiving a tax cut. 63% think increasing executive pay, and

On the 10 year anniversary of Bear Stearns collapse, Wayne Swan, with the GFC+10 project, launches report on executive pay in Australia. GFC+10 is a research program and series of events marking the ten-year anniversary of the Global Financial Crisis. It was launched by then Economic Secretary to the Treasury in the UK, Ed Balls,

The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. We expect the Royal Commission to be swamped by submissions that relate to specific examples of misconduct. Our submission tries to take a step back and consider the extent to which

Corruption costs 5% of GDP worldwide. The cost of corruption to economies is well established, and much research exists on the impact of corruption on investment, business costs, efficient allocation of capital and economic inequality.  Trust in government is at a historic low in Australia, and according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) Australia

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

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 Tasmania commissioned a survey, conducted by ReachTEL, of 927 residents in the federal electorate of Lyons on the night of the 17th July 2017. Less than one in five (16.9%) voters saying the industry has a positive effect on other fishing industries, while around one third (33.5%) say it has a negative effect

A new report conducted by the country’s largest union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), in conjunction with The Australia Institute has revealed high-levels of exploitation and human rights abuses suffered by low-wage workers involved in the overseas production of every-day medical goods used by Australians. 

The Forest Products Commission (FPC) is a statutory body wholly owned by the Western Australian government. Its primary function is to conduct forestry activities on a commercial basis in state-owned forests, including softwood plantations, sandalwood and native forests. The FPC is responsible for most of Western Australia’s (WA) native forestry, which occurs in the state’s

Australia sends asylum seekers to offshore camps wherethey are detained indefinitely and subjected to well documented abuses, in violation of their human rights. The Australian Government outsources the operations at the camps, and Spanish company Ferrovial has responsibility for the system’s largest operational contracts, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Broadspectrum. Investors in Ferrovial, including the Norwegian

Gas industry funding and direct involvement in research committees of GISERA, the research body that conducts research on social and environmental impacts of CSG, is potentially compromising the scientific independence of CSIRO. The five main Queensland gas companies provide the lion’s share of funding to the Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research Alliance (GISERA) – the Gas Industry Social