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

Voter turnout is at record lows in federal elections. A review of non-voting penalties should be undertaken and consideration given to Scandinavian-style progressive penalties. “Members of the Committee also regard compulsory voting as a corner-stone of Australia’s democratic system.” Joint Standing Committee into Electoral Matters (2018) Report on the conduct of the 2016 federal election

The Australia Institute released new research showing the Senate crossbench safeguarded $23.4 billion worth of investment in renewable energy, from 2013–2018, when it prevented the Coalition Government from abolishing three renewable energy policies (The Clean Energy Finance Corporation, ARENA and the Renewable Energy Target). The ‘Saved by the bench’ report is being released in conjunction

In this report series, we present and analyse the results of Senate voting intention polls to project the potential makeup of the Senate following one or more elections. On current polling, future elections are likely to return a crossbench that is about as large and divided as the current one. Future governments – whether Coalition

The Australia Institute routinely polls a representative sample of the Australian population on a variety of issues, including how they intend to vote at the next election. While other pollsters only ask about House of Representatives voting intention, our polling also asks specifically about Senate voting intention. In this new report series, to be released

A large post-Budget poll of the division of Longman shows the proposed flat personal tax rates are rated as unfair and company tax cuts remain deeply unpopular among voters due to head to a by-election in the seat of Longman. The Australia Institute commissioned ReachTEL to conduct a survey of 1,277 residents across the federal

On behalf of The Australia Institute Tasmania, ReachTEL conducted a survey of 925 residents across households in the Tasmania during the evening of 14th February 2018. Questions: What impact do you think having pokies in hotels, pubs and clubs has on the community? Based on your general impressions, approximately what percentage of Tasmanian state governmentrevenues are

The number of members of Parliament and senators has not kept up with Australia’s population growth. Parliamentarians represent three times as many people as their counterparts did in 1901.  The last substantial increase in parliamentary numbers is now over thirty years old, meaning that federal representatives have never been spread as thinly as they are now. This lack of

The Australia Institute surveyed 1,412 Australians about which federal Ministers they had heard of. Respondents were presented with a list of 20 Ministers, and former Minister Matthew Canavan, and were able to select as many as they had heard of, or select “None of these”. Similar questions were asked previously in surveys since March 2016,