Tasmanian MPs’ rate of pay has been frozen since 2018. Before then the base salary of Tasmanian members of parliament increased annually. It was last increased in July 2018 to $140,185 per year.
Figure 1: Members of parliament base rate of pay 1996-97 to 2023-24
The Vulnerability to Extreme Heat report identifies locations across Australia which have a high likelihood of experiencing extreme heat and a high concentration of people who are vulnerable because of illness, age and/or income level.
It finds that wealthy, coastal areas of major cities are generally less vulnerable to extreme heat than inland suburbs, and that rural areas are generally more vulnerable than urban areas.
Extreme heat is the number one cause of weather-related illness and death in all parts of Australia, except Tasmania, and Australians on low incomes who are older and/or have a long-term health issue are more vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat.
Doctors for the Environment Australia say the research is a vital tool which will help governments to save lives.
At the moment numerous media outlets are attempting to make the case that the Victorian government’s finances are in a parlous state. The Financial Review for example has editorialised “Allan and Pallas in denial about Victoria’s state of decline”, while The Age stated as though it was an uncontested fact that “The state’s finances are heading towards a cliff.”
The media like to point to Victoria’s debt and deficit but they do so by including government fixed capital investment in the deficit. This might seem to the layperson as perfectly reasonable, but it is not how accounting works in the private sector and it presents a distorted picture of the state of the budget.
Including capital investment in a similar manner would, for example, see BHP’s 2024 profit drop from its declared US$20.7 billion to a marginal US$0.2 billion. Many other profitable companies would be in deficit were their budgets measured in the same way that now has the media suggesting the Victorian state finances are in deep trouble.
In 2022-23 (the latest year of ABS data), Victoria’s general government sector actually made a profit (net cash flow from operating activities) of $4.0 billion. Victoria’s budget papers also show a $1.4 billion surplus from operating activities in 2023-24.
For years politicians have been rolling out policies they claim will make housing more affordable. And for years housing affordability has continued to get worse. Housing needs to become cheaper and instead it is becoming more expensive.
You might expect that our politicians would be concerned by the fact that all their policies fail. Instead, the government rammed two new housing affordability bills through the parliament yesterday which are more of the same.
The best you can say about the government’s two new policies is that they will have no impact on the housing market.
The list of policies that both sides of politics have claimed will fix the problem is long. First home buyer grants, government support for social and affordable housing, first home buyers accessing super to buy a home, plus many, many more.
All the while anger is growing as house prices keep rising.
There are two things you can do to make something cheaper. You can increase supply or decrease demand. Or both. If there is a bumper crop of apples (more supply), then the price of apples goes down. When fewer people wanted to buy DVDs (less demand) the price of DVDs went down.
The first problem is many of these policies don’t increase supply or decrease demand. In fact, some of them do the opposite.
The various first-home-buyer grants gave first-home buyers more money to buy a house (increase demand). They all show up the auction and bid up the price of homes making them more expensive.
On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Elinor discuss Trump’s wild new tariff announcement and the end of the standoff between Labor and the Greens over housing.
This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 27 November 2024 and things may have changed since recording.
Pre-order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.
Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute and Centre for Future Work // @grogsgamut
Host: Elinor Johnston-Leek, Senior Content Producer, the Australia Institute // @elinorjohnstonleek
Show notes:
‘Welcome to Trump’s trade war – where no one wins because everyone just pays more for things’ by Greg Jericho, Guardian Australia (November 2024)
Theme music: Blue Dot Sessions
Thousands of voters have signed a petition, launched by The Australia Institute, demanding a public inquiry into the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Bill.
The changes would significantly benefit Labor and the Coalition, giving them a huge financial advantage over independents and minor party candidates seeking a seat in the Australian Parliament.
The Australia Institute petition, launched just over a week ago, states:
Trust in our democracy is embedded in strong electoral laws and processes.
The Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Bill risks undermining this trust by being unfair, rushed, and shrouded in secrecy.
We call on you to immediately establish a parliamentary inquiry, with public hearings, to assess the proposed changes to Australia’s electoral laws.
This must happen before major changes to Australian electoral law are put to Parliament for a vote.
The petition has attracted more than 18,000 signatures.
In the past, even small changes to our electoral system have been scrutinised by a parliamentary committee. Petitioners agree that should happen before these proposed changes are passed.
“The integrity of Australian elections is too important for the Albanese government’s proposed changes to be rushed through without scrutiny, including a thorough parliamentary inquiry,” said Bill Browne, Director of the Australia Institute’s Democracy & Accountability Program.
Endangered Maugean skate and its only home, Macquarie Harbour, are matters of national environmental significance and protected under national environmental law. One third of the harbour is World Heritage and Maugean skate, an endangered stingray-like animal, are one of the natural values of Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area.
Scientific evidence shows salmon farming operations are the primary risk and ‘almost certain’ to be ‘catastrophic’ to the skate.
The Australia Institute commissioned polling by Dynata, which surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,009 Australians between 13 and 15 November 2024 about their attitudes towards fish farming in Macquarie Harbour where it is putting the endangered Maugean skate at risk of extinction. The margin of error is ±3%.
In a short primer on the South Australian political finance changes, The Australia Institute explains:
“Behind Premier Malinauskas’ proposed ban on most political donations is around $18 million in new taxpayer funding for political parties and candidates; the vast majority goes to the two major parties,” said Bill Browne, Director of the Australia Institute’s Democracy & Accountability Program.
The drop in Australia’s inflation has been quite sharp. The latest monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures from the Bureau of Statistics show that prices over the year to October rose just 2.1%. That is such a relatively small increase that so far form being worried about the 3% ceiling of the Reserve Banks inflation target, we’re now near the 2% bottom. Five months ago the CPI was at 4% and economists were speculating that the RBA might increase rates again.
The big reasons for the decline in price growth are that inflation across the world has slowed – and Australia is very much part of the world economy – and because the government sought to reduce prices by introducing an electricity rebate.
The drop in electricity prices has been dramatic.
In October the amount of electricity that in June last year would now have cost $100 now just cost $69.83. And while that is significant enough, had there not been the Commonwealth government rebate and the other state rebates in WA, Tasmania and Queensland, the average cost of that $100 worth of electricity would be $116.
In essence, the actions of state and federal governments have knocked 40% off the average cost of electricity bills across the county.
That is no small thing.
It serves to remind everyone that governments do actually have a vital role to play in combatting inflation.
On this episode of Follow the Money, the Hon Helen Haines MP, Independent Member for Indi, joins Ebony Bennett to discuss the Government’s Electoral Reform Bill, its potential impact on new and independent candidates, and the future of Australian democracy.
This discussion was recorded on Tuesday 26 November 2024 and things may have changed since recording.
Sign the Australia Institute petition, calling on the Government to establish a parliamentary inquiry, with public hearings, to assess the proposed changes to Australia’s electoral laws.
Pre-order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website. Pre-order by 1 December and save $5 on the RRP.
Guest: The Hon Helen Haines MP, Independent Member for Indi // @helenhainesindi
Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director, the Australia Institute // @ebonybennett
Theme music: Pulse and Thrum; additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
More than two thirds (69%) of those who grow their own food say they do it to access healthy food, while 60% do it to save money.
Growing your own helps cut down waste during the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, with almost two thirds of growers composting or worm farming, preventing mountains of food waste from ending up in landfill.
On Tuesday November 26, Australia’s favourite gardener, Costa Georgiades, will join independent MP Sophie Scamps, along with representatives from The Australia Institute and Grow it Local to launch Grow Your Own 2024 – Growing food to feel better, eat better and help the planet.
Please join us for a symbolic seed-planting and media conference in the Senate Courtyard at 9:45am.
The groundbreaking new research found:
Dr Ruth Mitchell, neurosurgeon and founding member of the Australian Nobel Prize-winning group, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the global consequences of Trump’s cabinet picks and what his election means for efforts to eradicate nuclear weapons.
This discussion was recorded on Thursday 21 November and things may have changed since recording.
Pre-order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.
Guest: Ruth Mitchell, Board Chair, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War // @drruthmitchell
Host: Emma Shortis, Director of International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @EmmaShortis
Show notes:
Risky Business: An update on super funds and nuclear weapons by Rosemary Kelly and Margaret Beavis (September 2024)
In fact, more than two thirds (71%) of those polled say that right should be protected by federal legislation.
In a report released in July, the Human Rights Law Centre found there had been 49 laws passed over the last two decades eroding Australians’ right to protest – many aimed at those protesting inaction on climate change.
The Australia Institute polling reveals voters from all parties agree that peaceful protest has a right to play in our democracy, including 79% of Labor voters, 75% of Coalition voters and 73% of One Nation voters.
“Peaceful protest has an essential role to play in democracy and it played a major role in helping women win the right to vote, ending Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War and protecting significant parts of Australia’s history and culture such as The Rocks,” said Richard Denniss, Executive Director of The Australia Institute.
“It is clear that a majority of Australians support the right to peaceful protest, even if they don’t always agree with each individual protest.
The report was written by the Immigration Advice and Rights Centre (IARC), a community legal centre that provides free and confidential legal advice and assistance to people throughout New South Wales on all immigration, refugee, and citizenship matters.
It finds that restrictive visa settings are at the root of the many cases of exploitation. This includes the fact that PALM workers are not allowed to leave their employer without approval from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR). These employers are allowed to make deductions from the wages of PALM workers, which means they are sometimes left with just $100-$200 per week.
Over two years, IARC participated in a series of forums for migrant workers engaged in supplying Australia’s two major supermarkets with fruit and vegetables. IARC also regularly advises PALM workers referred to the service as a result of experiencing workplace exploitation.
In one of his most recent columns for the Philadelphia Inquirer, columnist and author Will Bunch highlighted a quote a top aide to former US President George W. Bush gave to journalist Ron Suskind in 2004.
The context was the Iraqi invasion and the war on terror. Suskind reported the aide, widely believed to be Karl Rove (which Rove denies) told him:
“…that guys like me were ‘in what we call the reality-based community’,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality … That’s not the way the world really works anymore”.
“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
Bunch dug up the quote to remind readers that trying to discern rationality and structure around the irrational and erratic was a pointless exercise that only served bad faith actors who were actively shaping new realities that only served them.
The wider point? Don’t get distracted by the individuals. Target the systems they operate in.
We are delighted to sponsor this year’s Australia Institute Climate Cartoon Award, organised by the Australian Cartoonists Association.
The winner will be announced on Saturday, 30th November at the 40th Annual Stanleys Awards at Old Parliament House.
This year’s shortlisted cartoons are as follows:
On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Elinor discuss the government’s new cash mandate plan and the latest state and territory economic data.
This discussion was recorded on Thursday 21 November 2024 and things may have changed since recording.
Pre-order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.
Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute and Centre for Future Work // @grogsgamut
Host: Elinor Johnston-Leek, Senior Content Producer, the Australia Institute // @elinorjohnstonleek
Show notes:
‘Australia took its interest rate medicine – and it has poisoned our living standards’ by Greg Jericho, Guardian Australia (November 2024)
Theme music: Blue Dot Sessions
Republicans have control of the Senate, possibly the House of Representatives too and, backed by his handpicked Supreme Court, Trump can enact his plans to further undermine American democracy with almost unchecked power.
Australians would be naive to think the same toxic currents and ambitions can’t be harnessed here.
Vice-President Kamala Harris called Trump the day after the election to congratulate him, concede defeat and assure him of a peaceful transfer of power.
It’s in stark contrast to the violent insurrection Trump instigated last election, that saw his supporters storm the Capitol building and threaten to hang vice-president Mike Pence for refusing to overturn the election results and declare Trump the victor.
That this man, who is on tape asking Georgia’s top election official to find enough votes to reverse his election defeat, has been re-elected as president is an indictment of US democracy and its political institutions.
Yes, Trump was democratically elected, decisively so, but that does not diminish the threat he poses to democracy. Trump won not only the electoral college vote by sweeping the swing states, but the popular vote too. That does not automatically make his policies democratic. Trump plans to be a dictator “on day one”, beginning mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, as well as sacking thousands of independent public servants and replacing them with political appointees who are loyal to him.
If Trump is re-elected, how does Australia engage with such a powerful ally led by such an authoritarian and unstable leader? More importantly, how can Australia prevent the same slide toward authoritarianism happening in our own democracy?
Comparing a politician to Hitler used to be seen as the quickest way to lose an argument, but this week Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, former US Marine Corps general and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, told multiple news outlets that Trump liked “the dictator approach” to running a country and meets the definition of a fascist. Mr Kelly told The Atlantic, in a conversation confirmed by two sources, that Trump said: “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had”.
In any functional democracy, a former White House chief-of-staff going on the record to reveal these comments would represent the end of Trump’s political career. But for Trump that was just Tuesday. Let’s be clear: racism and extremism have always been part of US politics. The late Molly Ivins, a Texan journalist and columnist, once observed that “It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America”. But politics in the United States is less a contest between two rational political parties who disagree on policy issues, than a pitched battle between democracy and authoritarianism.
You don’t have to be David Attenborough to know that coal mines are “nature positive” in the same way as asbestos is lung positive. The timing of the approvals was egregious, but as an example of governments’ fundamentally dishonest approach to halting and reversing biodiversity and habitat loss, it was entirely on brand.
What does nature positive even mean? Well, it actually means that governments have committed to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030. Only if governments said that plainly, it might encourage expectations to stop things that destroy nature, like new coal mines and native forest logging.
But nature positive is a nice euphemism that allows environment departments to talk about restoring nature in their PR pamphlets, while the resources departments keep up a pipeline of projects that are destroying nature in real life.
Nature is in decline. Logging, land-clearing, invasive species and climate change are devastating threatened species and the habitats they live in. In Australia alone, the Black Summer bushfires killed or displaced nearly three billion animals – mammals, reptiles, birds and frogs – almost triple the original estimate, according to scientists commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
On this episode of Follow the Money, Walkley Award-winning journalist Stephen Long joins Alice Grundy to discuss climate change, skyrocketing premiums and serious impact they’re having on inequality.
This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 13 November 2024 and things may have changed since recording.
Pre-order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.
Guest: Stephen Long, Senior Fellow and Contributing Editor, the Australia Institute // @StephenLongAus
Host: Alice Grundy, Research Manager, Anne Kantor Fellows, the Australia Institute // @alicektg
Show notes:
Premium price: The impact of climate change on insurance costs, the Australia Institute (November 2024)
Theme music: Pulse and Thrum; additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
Fruit pickers and meat workers who fill chronic labour shortages in Australia are being overtaxed and exploited, new research from The Australia Institute has found.
Workers holding Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) visas can be the difference between fruit being harvested or left to rot on the vine.
But, in return for the critical work they do to keep some sectors of our agriculture industry afloat, PALM visa holders pay more tax than Australians doing the same work and find it almost impossible to access their superannuation.
Australians like to think that we live in a very equal society – where because of Medicare, unlike in the USA, wherever you live you can expect the same level of healthcare. Unfortunately the data shows the lie to this belief.
Healthcare should be universal, but your postcode has a big impact on life expectancy. People who live in inner metropolitan electorates (the inner parts of Australia’s capital cities) live almost a year (0.8) longer than people in outer metropolitan electorates (the edges of Australia’s capital cities).
But life expectancy falls even more for people who live in electorates outside the capital cities. In electorates where the majority of people live in major regional cities life expectancy falls by more than a year (1.1) compared with outer metro electorates. In rural electorates the results are even worse. Almost half a year (0.4) lower than provincial electorates.
This means that those in inner metro electorates can expect to live on average 2.3 years longer than there fellow Australians in rural electorates.
But this is more than just about the distance from healthcare services. This is about rich and poor. In South Australia the relatively wealthy rural electorate of Mayo has an average life expectancy of 84.5 years, while the relatively poor outer metro electorate of Spence has a life expectancy 4 years lower than that at 80.5 years.
“The integrity of Australian elections is too important for the Albanese government’s proposed changes to be rushed through without scrutiny, including a thorough parliamentary inquiry,” said Bill Browne, Director of the Australia Institut
On this episode of Follow the Money, Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Co-President of the Club of Rome, joins Ebony Bennett to discuss phasing out fossil fuels, the false narratives being peddled about the green transition, and why addressing inequality is fundamental to tackling the climate crisis.
This discussion was recorded on Thursday 24 October 2024 and things may have changed since recording.
Pre-order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.
Guest: Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Co-President of the Club of Rome // @SDDecleve
Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director, the Australia Institute // @ebony_bennett
Host: Alice Grundy, Research Manager, Anne Kantor Fellows, the Australia Institute // @alicekgt
Show notes:
Earth for All – A Survival Guide for Humanity, The Club of Rome (2022)
The Limits to Growth, The Club of Rome (1972)
On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Elinor discuss the latest wages data, the likely impact of Trump’s tariff policies on Australia, and why the Reserve Bank are running out of excuses not to cut interest rates.
This discussion was recorded on Thursday 14 November 2024 and things may have changed since recording.
Pre-order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.
Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute and Centre for Future Work // @GrogsGamut
Host: Elinor Johnston-Leek, Senior Content Producer, the Australia Institute // @ElinorJ_L
Show notes:
‘It’s time for the RBA to admit its fears of a wage-price spiral were misguided – and cut interest rates’ by Greg Jericho, Guardian Australia (November 2024)
How Governments Can Help with the Cost of Living, the Australia Institute’s Policy School
Following in the tradition of parentheses bill names, which attempt to frame how a bill is thought about by voters and therefore prevent closer looks, the Electoral (Accountability and Integrity) Amendment Bill 2024 seeks to amend the state’s donation laws.
The reforms are being billed as a way of removing political donations from election campaigns and ending political fundraising during state election campaigns. In place of those donations, the Australia Institute estimates between $15 million and $20 million in public funding will be shared among political parties and candidates for elections.
The government says it will “restructure the public funding model, increase administrative funding, introduce an advance payment scheme, amend party registration and nomination requirements” and insert new definitions into the legislation, including for the term, ‘donation’.
All of that sounds great. Attorney-general Kyam Maher says it will “help to ensure power is kept in the hands of voters and give both established and new voices an equal footing in state elections”.
What does it actually do?
Here is where we get to those pesky details. Director of the Democracy and Accountability Program at The Australia Institute, Bill Browne, has taken a pretty long look at the bill and found some small print the big headlines haven’t gone into.
Workers holding Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) visas can be the difference between fruit being harvested or left to rot on the vine.
But, in return for the critical work they do to keep some sectors of our agriculture industry afloat, PALM visa holders pay more tax than Australians doing the same work and find it almost impossible to access their superannuation.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese consistently talks about being part of a “Pacific Family”, lauding the PALM program as a key component of that close regional relationship.
But this new report finds the PALM program is in urgent need of reform if Australia is to truly treat these workers like family.
Yet quality, affordable care remains inaccessible for many families. Since the last increase in government subsidies a year ago, fees have increased faster than inflation and wages.
But what if the government offered early childhood education in the same way it offered school education? Reforming Australia’s approach to early childhood education would increase the size of the economy by $168 billion and allow the government to collect an additional $48 billion in revenue.
Both sides of politics know the benefits of early childhood education: high-quality childcare improves educational outcomes for children, and low-cost or free high-quality childcare also increases labour force participation by providing parents the opportunity to return to work. Access to affordable and quality care is also integral to family violence prevention and response.
Despite the clear value for children, families and the broader community, early childhood education in Australia is often run by private, for-profit providers that drive up fees and have contributed to the creation of childcare deserts across the country. Early childhood education centres are also difficult to staff sustainably, with many workers underpaid and undervalued.
But the solutions being offered mainly focus on increasing childcare subsidies in the hope of reducing the cost for families even though this doesn’t work.
Well, that was quite the week, wasn’t it?
We wouldn’t blame you if you’re feeling a little bit flat. While many people may have thought they were prepared for a Trump victory, thinking it and seeing it happen are two very different things. Moo Deng may have tried to warn us Trump was heading for a conclusive victory, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t still hopes America would choose differently.
And while there are concerns over how Trump will handle domestic concerns, particularly for immigrants, women and minorities, the result of this election doesn’t just change the United States – it has ramifications for the world.
The world order as we know it looks set to be turned on its head.
Trump hasn’t been shy in expressing his love of the fossil fuel industry, something which clearly resonated with Australia’s Gina Rinehart who was spotted at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago as one of the soon-to-be 47th president’s “special people”, which will make meeting the world’s climate goals even more difficult.
Rinehart believed she was on the winner’s ticket from the beginning – she met with the Trump campaign the first time round in 2016, after which she urged the Australian government to adopt his economic policies.
Fast forward eight years and Australia’s richest woman hasn’t changed her tune, telling the Australian newspaper early last week “the world would be better off with more leaders like Trump”.
In light of reports, they are seeking increases above 5%, it is worth remembering that private health insurance is a terrible way to deliver good health outcomes.
You can’t say public policy is always worse in America, but aside from how they conduct elections, the one policy the US does worse than anywhere else is healthcare.
Among OECD nations, the US spends the most on health and as a reward they have one of the worst life expectancies:
There are several reasons why they have this outcome – from structural racism to the serious lack of economic safety nets such as decent minimum wages – but the chief reason is their healthcare overly relies on private insurance in a manner unlike most other nations.
Although the introduction of the Affordable Care Act has shifted some private health insurance from voluntary to compulsory, the nation still massively relies on a system designed to profit from people’s ill heath:
My oma would read me Aesop’s fables as a child because she believed stories should always teach you something. And that something was always easier to learn through the lessons of someone else.
My favourite was The Wolf and the Lamb.
I would listen as she would tell me of the wolf looking to justify his actions by finding some blame in the lamb he wished to eat.
But the lamb did not feed from the wolf’s pasture, did not drink from his spring. The lamb had not lived long enough to insult the wolf. But still the wolf ate the lamb, citing his right to dinner.
The lesson; the tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny, and it is useless to appeal for justice from an unjust oppressor.
And so, how then, does one beat the wolf? After all, Aesop also told us of the shepherd who learnt once a wolf, always a wolf, after the one he trusted ate half his flock.
The answer, my oma would say, was to be brave.
Like the mice who lived in fear of the barn cat but could not find the bravery to hang a bell from its neck. Without bravery, things continue much as they always have.
The wolf will find the justification to eat the lamb no matter how unfair.
It wasn’t the tale itself that made it a favourite. It was that the answer in beating the wolf was so obvious.
Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s 29th Prime Minister, joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss why sucking up to Trump will get Australian leaders nowhere and how the AUKUS “shocker” is making Australia more dependent on the United States, right at the time America is becoming less dependable.
This discussion was recorded on Friday 8 November 2024 US time and things may have changed since recording.
Guest: Malcolm Turnbull, the 29th Prime Minister of Australia // @TurnbullMalcolm
Host: Emma Shortis, Director of International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @EmmaShortis
Show notes:
‘The Bad Guys: How to Deal with our Illiberal Friends’, Australian Foreign Affairs (October 2022)
Theme music: Blue Dot Sessions
Subscribe for regular updates from the Australia Institute.
From December 2019 to June 2023, inflation in Australia rose faster than it has in 30 years. Over this time, the share of national income going to corporate profits also increased substantially.
At the same time, the share going to wages and small businesses declined.
The profits made by large corporations during this time are huge: some $100 billion over and above their pre-pandemic profit margins.
According to Australia Institute research, these rising profits made up more than half of the inflation above the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)’s target range of 2% to 3%.
The link between profits and inflation in Australia was replicated in research by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), headed by former Liberal Finance Minister Mathias Cormann.
The research found that while a majority of drivers wanted to purchase an EV next time they buy a car, the government’s focus on improving charging infrastructure – at the expense of helping with the upfront cost of an EV – is putting the brakes on sales.
New data, released today by the Australian Automobile Association, reveals sales of fully electric vehicles fell by 25% in the three months to September.
Vehicle emissions account for almost 20% of the state’s overall emissions.
While the biggest obstacle for choosing an electric vehicle is the upfront cost, the government’s EV policies are almost entirely focused on expanding and improving charging infrastructure.
The Australia Institute surveyed 800 NSW residents between 6 September and 10 September 2024. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5%.
In the last of our daily election episodes of After America, Dr Emma Shortis reflects on the glass ceiling in American politics, the Democrats’ failure to address their own shortcomings over the last three decades, and why the Australian Government doesn’t need to just cop whatever challenges the next US administration throws at it.
This discussion was recorded on Thursday 7 November 2024 US time and things may have changed since recording.
Host: Emma Shortis, Director of International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @EmmaShortis
Show notes:
Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom (January 2019)
‘Kidnapping, assassination and a London shoot-out: Inside the CIA’s secret war plans against WikiLeaks’, Yahoo! News (September 2021)
Theme music: Blue Dot Sessions
Subscribe for regular updates from the Australia Institute.
On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Elinor discuss the big structural problems with Australia’s private health insurance system and why public services like healthcare are best carried out by the public sector.
Greg Jericho is Chief Economist at the Australia Institute and the Centre for Future Work and popular columnist of Grogonomics with Guardian Australia. Each week on Dollars & Sense, Greg dives into the latest economic figures to explain what they can tell us about what’s happening in the economy, how it will impact you and where things are headed.
Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute and Centre for Future Work // @GrogsGamut
Host: Elinor Johnston-Leek, Senior Content Producer, the Australia Institute // @ElinorJ_L
Show notes:
‘Is private health insurance a con? The answer is in the graphs’ by Greg Jericho, Guardian Australia (February 2018)
On this episode of After America, Dr Emma Shortis and Alice Grundy discuss what the Trump victory means for American society and democratic institutions, the soul-searching facing the Democrats after a comprehensive defeat, and the implications for Australia.
This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 6 November 2024 and things may have changed since recording.
Host: Emma Shortis, Director of International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @EmmaShortis
Host: Alice Grundy, Research Manager, Anne Kantor Fellows, the Australia Institute // @alicekgt
Theme music: Blue Dot Sessions
Subscribe for regular updates from the Australia Institute.
We’d love to hear your feedback on this series, so send in your questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes to podcasts@australiainstitute.org.au.
The Australia Institute’s submission to the inquiry identified serious conflict of interest risks in the consulting industry and polling found most Australians support a ban on PwC receiving new government work.
“Australians have understandably lost confidence in consulting firms following multiple scandals, including mismanaged conflicts of interest, leaking of confidential government information and burying information that reflected badly on the illegal Robodebt scheme,” said Bill Browne, Director of the Australia Institute’s Democracy & Accountability Program.
It is a timely reminder that for all its faults, Australian democracy is a model for the world: with independently administered elections, where voters can list their true preferences without throwing away their vote, and compulsory voting that ensures that the voices of the disadvantaged and disaffected are heard.
The Australia Institute Tasmania Director Eloise Carr and I have identified three key reforms that could improve Tasmanian elections and the integrity and accountability of its government:
The diversity of voices elected to the Tasmanian Parliament gives hope that these, and other reforms we recommended in the Democracy Agenda for the 51st Tasmanian Parliament, will be taken up.
In fact, there is only a hearing today because one of the recommended reforms has already been adopted: the creation of the Tasmanian Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters.
Most other Australian jurisdictions have these committees, which review each election for lessons learned, any problems that occurred and ways to improve the system for next time.
On the final pre-election episode of After America, Matthew Bevan and Dr Emma Shortis reflect on an enormous Harris rally in Philadelphia, whether the polls have anything useful to tell us, and the dangers of a contested result.
Guest: Matthew Bevan, host and writer of If You’re Listening, the ABC // @MatthewBevan
Host: Emma Shortis, Director of International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @EmmaShortis
Theme music: Blue Dot Sessions
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We’d love to hear your feedback on this series, so send in your questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes to podcasts@australiainstitute.org.au.
These tiny margins, and the general confusion around American politics today, make it impossible to predict the outcome.
The polls might well be wrong: the electorate may have shifted dramatically since 2020 in ways that will only reveal themselves after the election. The reality is we do not know much of anything for sure, and we may never be able to untangle all of the threads that make up the knot of American politics.
After two assassination attempts on Trump and incumbent President Joe Biden’s dramatic decision to leave the race in August, it is entirely possible this election will throw up more big surprises. But as things stand, there are three broad possibilities for what will happen on Election Day.
All of them throw up their own challenges – for the United States, and for the world.
Trump may make history and win back the White House. Only Grover Cleveland has managed to get elected a second time as president (in 1892) after suffering a defeat four years earlier.
If Trump does win, it could be via a similar path to the one he took in 2016 – by once again sundering the “blue wall” and winning the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
This feat will likely mean his campaign tactic of mobilising men has worked.
On this episode of Follow the Money, Australia Institute International & Security Affairs Advisor Allan Behm joins us to discuss the “unachievable” AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, Australia’s ‘fear of abandonment’, and how the outcome of the presidential election might change US foreign policy.
Guest: Allan Behm, International & Security Affairs Advisor, the Australia Institute // @Mirandaprorsus
Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director, the Australia Institute // @ebony_bennett
Show notes:
The Odd Couple: the Australia-America relationship by Allan Behm (2024)
No Enemies No Friends: Restoring Australia’s Global Relevance by Allan Behm (2022)
Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World since 1942 by Allan Gyngell (2021)
Theme music: Pulse and Thrum; additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
On the eve of the 2024 Transparency Summit in Canberra tomorrow, the Australia Institute contrasts the United States, where whistleblower rewards have encouraged the recovery of billions of dollars from white collar criminals, to Australia, where corporate malfeasance appears to be rife and protections and support for whistleblowers are limited.
“Many of the worst examples of corporate wrongdoing have been exposed by whistleblowers. It’s time whistleblowers were protected and compensated,” said Professor Allan Fels AO.
“Whistleblowers are brave people who expose the truth about corporate misconduct and wrongdoing. They should be protected and celebrated, not punished,” said Kieran Pender, Acting Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre.
“A whistleblower incentive program, alongside improved whistleblower protections, would encourage more people to come forward to hold companies accountable for wrongdoing.
Bruce Thompson joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss what it’s like to live in a battleground state in the heat of a presidential campaign, the prospect of legal challenges from the Trump in the event of a Democratic victory, and who Harris might pick as her Secretary of State if she wins the election.
This discussion was recorded on Friday 1 November 2024 and things may have changed since recording.
Guest: R. Bruce Thompson II, Partner, Parker Poe
Host: Emma Shortis, Director of International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @EmmaShortis
Theme music: Blue Dot Sessions
Subscribe for regular updates from the Australia Institute.
We’d love to hear your feedback on this series, so send in your questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes to podcasts@australiainstitute.org.au.
The post Will women win Kamala Harris the election? appeared first on The Australia Institute.
On this episode of After America, Timor-Leste President José Ramos-Horta joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the US-China relationship and his disillusionment with the Western response to the Israel’s actions in Gaza.
This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 9 October 2024 and things may have changed since recording.
Guest: His Excellency José Ramos-Horta, President of Timor-Leste and Nobel Peace Laureate // @JoseRamosHorta1
Host: Emma Shortis, Director of International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @EmmaShortis
Show notes:
Statement of the Secretary-General on Israeli legislation on UNRWA, United Nations (October 2024)
UNRWA cannot be replaced, say UN top officials in response to Knesset ban, United Nations (October 2024)
Occupied Palestinian Territory, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
On this episode of After America, Yanis Varoufakis joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the prospect of a grand deal between the US and China on climate, how Trump emerged from the Obama presidency, and why America isn’t a real democracy.
This discussion was recorded on Friday 1 November 2024 and things may have changed since recording.
Guest: Yanis Varoufakis, economist, politician, author and the former finance minister of Greece // @yanisvaroufakis
Host: Emma Shortis, Director of International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @EmmaShortis
Show notes:
‘The end of capitalism with Yanis Varoufakis’, Follow the Money (March 2024)
Yanis Varoufakis – Technofeudalism, National Press Club Address (March 2024)
Theme music: Blue Dot Sessions
Subscribe for regular updates from the Australia Institute.
Elections in the ACT and on the northern beaches of Sydney suggest a movement is on foot.
Canberrans elected two independents, whose vote swelled at the expense of both major parties and the Greens. In the NSW state electorate of Pittwater, the community (or “teal”) independent Jacqui Scruby was victorious in what was, until recently, a safe Liberal seat.
The shift is part of a decades-long decline in the major party vote. At the 1990 federal, election just 9 per cent voted for a minor party or independent. In 2022 the figure was 32 per cent, not far short of the primary votes for Labor and the Liberal-National Coalition.
With the Labor government in the ACT approaching a quarter-century of rule (sharing power with the Greens for most of that time), proportional representation allowed Canberrans to elect a counter-veiling force without replacing the government with the Liberal opposition.
While the two independents will not hold balance of power, as parliamentarians they can influence parliamentary debate, propose legislation and question the executive.
The independents also offer a glimpse at a path back to power for the opposition, a point made by the last Liberal chief minister to win election in the ACT. “For the Libs to get up, they really need more independents”, Kate Carnell said on election night.
Across the states and territories, major party politicians are warming to independents and minor parties, and even the value of power-sharing in minority and coalition governments.
These companies have never paid company tax, despite exporting the equivalent of 15 years of gas used by Australians in the eastern states.
These companies have also been exempted from the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax, the tax that is supposed to cover gas production in Australia.
“It is amazing that companies making $36 billion of income exporting Australian gas could pay no company tax, said Mark Ogge, Principle Adviser at the Australia institute.
“If you paid any tax in 2022-23, you paid more than all these gas corporations combined.
“Australians are missing out on schools, hospitals, housing and cost of living relief because foreign-owned gas exporters are taking us for a ride, and our governments are doing nothing about it.”
The post Gas companies export $36 billion of gas from Queensland, pay zero tax … again appeared first on The Australia Institute.
As a key accountability mechanism for exposing public and private sector wrongdoing, it is time we recognise the role of whistleblowers in the pursuit of climate integrity.
But without fixing Australia’s broken whistleblowing laws, the risks for whistleblowers to speak up about climate and environmental wrongdoing will remain too high.