Climate change has made it impossible to treat development as business as usual. Extreme weather, food insecurity, mass displacement, and the loss of biodiversity are exposing just how outdated our economic governance models have become. But while governments have shown they can mobilize trillions in times of war or financial collapse, this boldness is still absent when it comes to inequality, hunger, and climate resilience.
In this context, the climate crisis can no longer be seen as an environmental issue, but a governance challenge. And the aid system, still anchored in a donor-driven assistance paradigm, is being called into question.
This blog is a follow-up to the panel discussion From Digital Feudalism to Digital Sovereignty, part of UCL IIPP’s Rethinking the State Forum 2025. The session, chaired by Rainer Kattel, Co-Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance at UCL IIPP, featured Francesca Bria, Honorary Professor at UCL/IIPP, member of the High-Level Roundtable for the New European Bauhaus, and co-author of EuroStack 2025; Mike Bracken, visiting Professor at UCL/IIPP, founding partner at Public Digital and former Executive Director of the UK Government Digital Service; Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at UCL and Founding Director of IIPP; and Cecilia Rikap, Associate Professor in Economics and Head of Research at UCL/IIPP. The recording can be watched above.
“Don’t even bother talking about efficiency unless you know what it’s for”. With this provocation, Mariana Mazzucato opened the panel “Beyond the Chainsaw: Rethinking Efficiency in Government” at IIPP’s Rethinking the State Forum 2025. The conversation, moderated by Josh Entsminger, PhD student at UCL’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, featured Yamini Aiyar, former CEO of the Centre for Policy Research; Rohit Chopra, former Director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Elizabeth Linos, Emma Bloomberg Associate Professor of Public Policy and Management; Damon Silvers, Visiting Professor at UCL IIPP; and Mazzucato herself, Professor and Founding Director at UCL IIPP.
Over the course of ninety minutes, the panel unpacked what efficiency has come to mean in public administration and how, far from being a neutral virtue, it has become a weapon.
Ever since the Republican Party failed to repeal and replace Obamacare during President Trump’s first term, healthcare reform has slipped off the GOP’s agenda. However, Obamacare’s problems continue to fester, with Americans in the individual health insurance market facing high costs and restricted choices. If the GOP intends to deliver on its pledge to help middle-class families—and especially the young voters who swung to Trump—it must finally honor its broken promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. In doing so, the GOP could look to countries like Australia, Chile, and Germany on how to restructure the individual market.
Media Release Number 2025-15: The RBA has commenced its consultation on Guidance for the Australian Clearing and Settlement Facility Resolution Regime.
At the 2025 federal election, the Albanese Labor Government won over 55% of the two-party preferred vote. The two-party preferred vote, called 2PP, measures whether Australians preferred their Labor candidate or their Liberal–National Coalition candidate. 55% of the 2PP is the party’s best result since 1943.
This high 2PP vote disguises a relatively low first-preference vote of 35% for Labor. That is, only about one in three voters put “1” next to their Labor candidate.
The Labor Party has never received so many preferences. 20% of Australians preferred Labor to the Coalition but did not put Labor first. That 20% plus the 35% who gave Labor their first preference results in 55% 2PP for Labor. The result is a Labor landslide, despite a relatively low first-preference vote.
The Liberal–National Coalition also depended on preferences to an unusually large degree. Even so, it had a historically low vote, whether you measure it in first-preference or 2PP terms.
What’s On around Naarm/Melbourne & Regional Victoria: June 30-July 6, 2025 With thanks to the dedicated activists at Friends of the Earth Melbourne! . . See also these Palestine events listings from around the country: 9193
Labor’s landslide federal election victory in May, both in seats and two-party preferred terms, was underpinned by a greater number of preferences than ever from voters who didn’t put it first on the ballot paper.
Key findings:
The Labor Party has never received so many preferences from voters who didn’t put it first.
The growing number of voters giving their first preference to a minor party or independent candidate is hurting the Coalition far more than Labor.
In 2013, 21% of voters gave their primary vote to a minor party or independent candidate. Of that, more preferred Labor (62%) to the Coalition (38%). Yet the Coalition was able to form government.
In 2025, 34% of voters gave their primary vote to a minor party or independent candidate. Despite an almost identical split of preferences to 2013 (62% Labor/38% Coalition), Labor won in a landslide.
In 2025, the Liberal–National Coalition had a historically low vote, whether you measure it in first-preference or 2PP terms.
“One of the great Australian innovations is the full preferential voting system, which guarantees that every vote matters and you cannot waste your vote,” said Bill Browne, Democracy & Accountability Director at the Australia Institute.
The comparison of median rent data for March Qtr 2025 shows that the commercial asking rent data inflates rent prices, a trend reflected over time. This matters because it impacts on rents in the market.
Israeli strikes kill at least 72 people in Gaza as prospects for ceasefire in war improve ABC / AP | 29 June 2025 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-29/israel-strikes-gaza-displacement-tents-ceasefire-talks-improve/105473676 More than 70 people, including children, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, according to Palestian health officials. There have been sporadic indirect talks between Israel and Hamas since Israel […]
FPM Media Report Saturday June 28 2025 IDF launches investigation into possible war crimes after deaths near aid sites https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-27/israeli-strike-kills-18-palestinians-in-central-gaza/105471440 In short: The Israeli military has opened an inquiry into possible war crimes after deaths near a Gaza aid site. Meanwhile, 18 people have been killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza, in an […]
This article was originally published, in slightly different form, on the writer’s Substack, Chris Arnade Walks the World. It is shared here with permission. Photos provided by the writer.
This blog is a follow-up to the panel discussion “Decolonising Public Administration: Rethinking Public Governance and Policy”, part of the 2025 IIPP Forum. The session gathered researchers and practitioners to interrogate how ‘decolonisation’ is being deployed across public institutions, and whether that language is matched by structural change. The recording of the event can be watched above.
What is the state? How does it function? And who benefits from it? For Professor Rainer Kattel, Co-Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance at UCL IIPP, these are the fundamental questions that any serious conversation about decolonising public administration must confront.
This article is read by Eunice Wong, a Juilliard-trained actor, featured on Audible's list of Best Women Narrators. Her work is on the annual Best Audiobooks lists of the New York Times, Audible, AudioFile, & Library Journal. www.eunicewong.actor
There’s a world before Trump’s descent down the escalator, and there’s a world after it. The recent “No Kings” protests transmitted the idée fixe of the pre-2015 world. That idea was hostility to personal authority, or personal power—hostility to the notion of sovereignty, to the power once exercised by kings. Donald Trump, the figure who has dominated politics since 2015, is its most visible sign of contradiction. In that sense, the protesters weren’t entirely wrong. Trump’s success marks the passing of the world of the latter half of the 20th century, which was defined by hatred of personal authority.
Successive generations demolished the concept of sovereignty, casting suspicion on the notion that a leader’s decisions can legitimately reshape political or social life. This shift began in the United States when the intelligentsia promulgated the concept of “the authoritarian personality.” They found this personality in the working classes, their churches and associations, their families and fathers, and the politicians who represented them. Where there was the whiff of authoritarian character traits, fascism probably lurked.
In 2010, the U.S. government created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to restore public trust after the global financial meltdown. It was a bold experiment: a state agency with a clear mission, deep expertise, and a mandate to protect ordinary people from predatory financial practices. By all accounts, it worked. Until it became DOGE’s target.
At the recent panel, which opened IIPP’s Rethinking the State Festival, titled “Rethinking Public Value in the Age of Doge”, former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra described what’s happening:
We are at war with Iran, we are not at war with Iran. Federal lands are for sale, the sale of federal lands is prohibited. The tariffs are back, the tariffs are over. Foreign students are banned, foreign students can stay. Trump rebuffs Israel, Trump will defend Israel to the death.
To the death, to our death: the threat of death is the constant. Nothing is real except awful things that don’t stop growing and don’t backtrack. Death is behind the drapes you draw down like a gunfight you already lost. The temperature hits 100 and makes you remember when the world had centuries instead of one endless day.
The heat will not relent. Why should it when nothing else will?
Politics is a jigsaw seesaw with a push and pull that cuts. Every policy is retracted and reinstated so that you can no longer remember relief. What were its ingredients — time, promises? She inhaled a sigh of relief, you think, but all you inhale is heat. You open the front door and stick out your head and breathe like Sylvia Plath.
Slam the door: you have a choice. Slam the door on that cannonball sun.
A few days before my 39th birthday, I found myself relaxing in a reclining chair, Bob Marley and the Beach Boys playing through a home speaker while my Xanax kicked in. It might’ve been the perfect way to ring in another year gone- if I hadn’t also had a gigantic needle in my neck.
Yes, eight days ago I underwent a Stellate Ganglion Block procedure in yet another semi-experimental attempt to treat various Long COVID symptoms, including dysautonomia and migraines (both of which SGBs show some promise in alleviating). The nurse at the neurology and pain center asked me to pick a playlist, and I’d attempted to replicate the feeling of relaxing on a beach. And it had gone pretty well until needle met neck.
To borrow a phrase from a writer many of my radical colleagues love to cite, the chickens are coming home to roost at colleges and universities around the country.
As anyone paying even a modicum of attention knows, the Trump Administration is endeavoring to curtail some of the more explicit ideological partisanship going on in higher education under the mask of scholarship and teaching. Beyond that, many schools are recognizing that bottom lines have shifted, and faculty hiring will have to adjust.
Recently, faculty and administrative communities on many campuses have discussed the difficulties departments are facing in replacing departing faculty lost through retirement or moves. The American Association of University Professors has been fretting about it for some years. My place of employment, Bucknell University, is currently experiencing just such a moment, as have institutions like American University and UNC-Chapel Hill.
In this paper we study the propagation of demand and supply shocks in a heterogeneous agent New Keynesian model. Calibrating the model to Australia, we explore how inequality in the model affects shock transition, as well as how shocks impact individuals differently across the distribution. Contrary to much of the literature, with a single asset in the model we find a dampening in the response of the real economy to a monetary policy shock, driven by falling consumption in the extremes of the distribution. This dampening is likely due to the high holdings of liquid assets by many households in the model, which allows these households to effectively smooth their consumption, emphasising the need to include further asset classes. In the case of supply shocks, we likewise find a dampened response of the real economy to both a labour disutility shock and a mark-up shock. These results highlight the need to explore models with more realistic asset classes in the Australian context.
The federal budget today resembles a time bomb with a Medicare card taped to it. Entitlement spending consumes the vast majority of federal outlays, and future obligations (mostly from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) far exceed $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Reform is overdue, but politically radioactive. The welfare state is no longer a safety net—it is a gravitational force pulling federal priorities inward.
Sixty-nine million Americans received $1.5 trillion in Social Security payments in 2024. Nearly $2 trillion was spent on Medicare and Medicaid combined. Welfare outlays were $1.6 trillion. The magnitude of these numbers is not simply staggering, but beyond comprehension. For comparative scale, the outlay for military salaries and housing was $176.2 billion for fiscal year 2024. Federal employees who weren’t military were paid $384 billion.
This is obviously irresponsible and unsustainable. Treating Social Security as anything other than a general fund and part of the federal income tax structure is dishonest. The program is a general fund in, and a general fund out. This was once an important debate—but it is no longer.
Only President Trump could have ordered Operation Midnight Hammer, which dealt a blow to the Iranian nuclear program while blazing a path toward a real diplomatic solution to the Iran-Israel conflict. The president has demonstrated peace through strength, and it is now the responsibility of policymakers and defense officials to ensure the military can deter and, if necessary, win in a range of conflict environments.
By all accounts, Operation Midnight Hammer was a stunning success. It was a meticulously executed, 37-hour tactical operation that was meant to cripple Iran’s nuclear program. It demonstrated America’s unrivaled ability to project force across continents, penetrate air defenses, and strike hardened targets with precision.
The coordination of stealth bombers, mid-air refueling aircraft, and supporting naval assets showcased the professionalism and lethality of the U.S. military. At least a dozen B-2 bombers, including those that were part of the deception flights out of Guam, were joined by mid-air refueling tankers, multiple fighter jets, and even a few nuclear-powered submarines that acted in concert against three Iranian nuclear sites. For many observers, it appeared to reaffirm the conviction that when the United States chooses to act, it can do so with unmatched resolve and capability. President Trump’s decisiveness is fundamental to this reality, one that our enemies are only beginning to come to grips with.
Donald Trump’s f-bomb is one missile that could sway Benjamin Netanyahu ABC | Matthew Doran | 25 June 2025 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-25/trump-and-netanyahu-ceasefire-reaction-analysis/105456502 The world is rarely left wondering what Donald Trump thinks. It might be confounded by the tone, but most of the time his unique turn of phrase expresses a blunt assessment of what’s happening in […]
Palestine Israel Media Report Thursday 19 June 2025 Gazans fear they are being forgotten amid focus on Iran https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-19/gazans-fear-they-are-being-forgotten-amid-focus-on-iran/105434708 While Israel’s war with Iran continues, Gazans are begging for help, saying their suffering is being ignored because of the new conflict. “No one cares about Gaza. The massacres continue in silence,” Mahmoud Wadi, from northern […]
It is a consequence of an election in which more crossbench candidates than ever either won or came second in a House of Representatives seat.
Key findings:
Second place to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Grayndler was a Green; to Opposition Leader Sussan Ley in Farrer was an independent; and to Nationals Leader David Littleproud in Maranoa was One Nation.
Crossbench candidates set a record for the most first and second-place finishes in the 2025 federal election: 35, up from 27 in 2022 and just 15 in 2019.
“It is the first time in Australian history that every party leader had to defeat an independent or minor party runner-up to win their seat,” said Bill Browne, Democracy & Accountability Director at The Australia Institute.
“Over the past four decades, Australians have increasingly voted for minor parties and independents at the expense of the major parties.
“The minor party and independent vote exceeded the Liberal/National vote for the first time at this election.
“Australians are entitled to fair and competitive elections, but earlier this year Labor and Liberal voted together to pass laws that will give tens of millions of dollars to the major parties and treat independents and new entrants unfairly.
On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Elinor discuss why being a CEO of a top company might be the sweetest gig in the country and the perverse debate over the government’s proposed superannuation tax changes.
This discussion was recorded on Thursday 26 June 2025 and things may have changed since recording.
Our independence is our strength – and only you can make that possible. By donating to the Australia Institute’s End of Financial Year appeal today, you’ll help fund the research changing Australia for the better.
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
The ACCC alleges that Australian Gas Networks misled consumers by suggesting customers could be using “renewable gas” within a generation.
Renewable gas refers to alternatives, such as hydrogen or biomethane, to the natural gas that is currently piped into millions of Australian homes.
“We allege that Australian Gas Networks engaged in greenwashing in its ‘Love Gas’ ad campaign,” said ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb.
“It is not currently possible to distribute renewable gas at scale.
“We say these ads were intended to encourage consumers to connect to, or remain connected to, Australian Gas Networks’ distribution network and to purchase gas appliances for their homes, based on the misleading impression they would receive ‘renewable gas’ within a generation.”
According to the CSIRO, Australia is the 14th biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. The processing and burning of natural gas is a major contributor to those emissions. Australian gas also contributes to the emissions of many other countries, with huge quantities shipped overseas.
Australia Institute research shows the proposed expansion of the North West Shelf gas export project in Western Australia would lead to 182 million tonnes of emissions being released into the atmosphere, which is greater than the emissions of all of Australia’s coal power stations and greater than the emissions of 153 individual countries.
20-22 July 2025: Free Palestine Melbourne (FPM) is organising some transport from Melbourne/Naarm to the Converge On Canberra event and return. Please read the following details before making your registration.
There is not much more that can be said about the unfathomable levels of devastation the genocide in Gaza has reached. Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, has been chronicling the genocide and joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to shed light on the current situation in Gaza, including parts from her upcoming report on the profiteers of the genocide.
On this episode of Follow the Money, Dr Emma Shortis and Allan Behm join Ebony Bennett to discuss the American bombing of Iran, the Albanese Government’s choice to back the Trump Administration’s decision, and why upholding and strengthening a rules-based global order is more than just “nostalgia”.
You can sign our petition calling on the Australian Government to launch a parliamentary inquiry into AUKUS.
Our independence is our strength – and only you can make that possible. By donating to the Australia Institute’s End of Financial Year appeal today, you’ll help fund the research changing Australia for the better.
Guest: Emma Shortis, Director of International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @emmashortis
Guest: Allan Behm, Senior Advisor in International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute
Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director, the Australia Institute // @ebonybennett
A couple of combined decades in the trenches of public sector innovation, from Nesta or the World Bank to exploring the dynamic capabilities of city governments, have confirmed the validity of IIPP’s motto, emblazoned across our colleagues’ tote bags and notepads: Innovation is Political.
I finally had a chance to look carefully at Justice Sotomayor’s dissent from a dangerous, awful shadow docket maneuver by the U.S. Supreme Court in DHS v. DVD, announced yesterday. The case is one concerning due process rights of immigrant-deportees. I wrote extensively about it here.
The American Mind’s ‘Editorial Roundtable’ podcast is a weekly conversation with Ryan Williams, Spencer Klavan, and Mike Sabo devoted to uncovering the ideas and principles that drive American political life. Stream here or download from your favorite podcast host.
Bunker Busted | The Roundtable Ep. 273
The Supreme Court has upheld Tennessee’s right—and by extension, the right of other states—to regulate or ban trans medical procedures for children. Meanwhile, Trump’s precision strike against Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities has succeeded in extracting a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. The possibility of diplomacy and peace now exists—but will it materialize? The hosts are joined this week by regulars Seth Barron and Matthew Peterson, alongside special guest and Army veteran Will Thibeau to discuss the recent events in the Middle East and global implications. Plus: book and media recommendations!
Donald Trump’s significance to the American republic must be understood in light of his fight against despotism. He does not face a tyranny of blood and iron—he faces a tyranny of mass conformity, which bypasses the body and controls the will by controlling the mind. It seeks universal conformity, and for that reason, it is a more complete tyranny than anything imagined by ancient or medieval tyrannies. Kings could proscribe against their enemies, but they could find protection from the church, the aristocracy, or the people. There were threats to individual freedoms in the past, but they were never those of a mass society.
Trump’s candidacy was a declaration of war against a despotism that has restricted free speech and freedom of the mind more effectively than could any Roman emperor or European monarch. Our modern tyranny has been named, though not necessarily explained, using a variety of epithets: “political correctness,” “globalism,” “Cultural Marxism,” “the Deep State,” “the uniparty,” “the Swamp,” “the establishment,” and “the blob.” By challenging it, Trump forced it to drop its mask and reveal itself.
Tomorrow, the shortlist will be announced for the biggest prize in Australian literature, the $60,000 Miles Franklin Award.
The winner is likely to hand over at least a quarter of their winnings to the tax office.
Ironically, if someone backs the winner with a bookmaker, even if they won $60,000 on the bet, their winnings would be tax-free.
Similarly, if they won a raffle or pokies jackpot, the tax office would not take a cent.
The new analysis argues there would be enormous artistic and cultural benefit if the government made the prizes awarded to Australian writers, painters, playwrights and artists from other disciplines tax free.
“Taxing art prizes makes no sense,” said Alice Grundy, Research Manager at The Australia Institute and Managing Editor of Australia Institute Press.
“It raises hardly any revenue, and it stifles the creativity of some of the nation’s greatest artistic talents.
“If you win the lottery, Who Wants to be a Millionaire or The Block, you don’t pay tax on your prize money. Win the Stella Prize for writing by Australian women, and you pay tax. Win the Archibald prize for painting, pay tax.
“The median income for Australian authors is $32,760, which is below the poverty line.
Past winners of the award include legendary writers such as Tim Winton, Thomas Keneally, Alexis Wright, Thea Astley and Peter Carey.
And because it’s Australian culture, you can place a bet with a bookmaker on which title on the shortlist will win the award.
The winner of the Miles Franklin can expect prize money of $60,000.
Many will then pay around $20,000 of that back in income tax.
But if you picked the winner of the Miles Franklin with the bookies, your winnings are tax-free.
Isn’t that weird? Winning authors pay tax. Mug punters, no tax.
It gets weirder. If you win the lottery, Who wants to be a Millionaire or The Block, you don’t pay tax on your prize money.
Win the Stella Prize for writing by Australian women – pay tax.
Win the Archibald prize for painting – pay tax. How about the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards? Well in that case, “All prizes are tax-free” is in bold on the website.
This shows that whether prizes are taxed is completely arbitrary. It is a decision for Australian governments to make. And should the Australian government choose to axe the taxes on arts prizes, they would be making a sound investment in Australian culture.
The loss of revenue would be unnoticed by a government that just gave away $215 billion dollars’ worth of natural gas for free.
It would barely register given the $10 billion in subsidies the government handed over in the form of the fuel tax credit to mining companies.
