On this episode of Dollars & Sense, substitute Greg (Matt Grudnoff) returns to discuss Trump’s Big Pharma tariffs, the privatisation of childcare, and why the RBA got it wrong in its latest interest rate decision.
This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 9 July 2025 and things may have changed since recording.
Host: Matt Grudnoff, Senior Economist, the Australia Institute // @mattgrudnoff
Host: Elinor Johnston-Leek, Senior Content Producer, the Australia Institute // @elinorjohnstonleek
Should the federal government auction less than one percent of non-conservation status public lands to alleviate housing shortages and reduce the federal debt? This is how Utah Senator Mike Lee tried to frame the question when he included a provision to this effect in the Senate version of the Big Beautiful Bill. Alas for Senator Lee, the New Right’s resounding answer has been hell no, and he has beaten a hasty retreat. Perhaps to his relief, the Senate Parliamentarian ruled the public land sale provision ineligible for the reconciliation procedure under which the BBB was being handled. Mr. Lee lives to fight another day, but can the New Right be warmed up to his proposal?
For many years, Western Republicans have chafed at the federal government’s poor management of public lands, which make up most of the acreage of several states. California is almost half public land, while Nevada is more than 80%. Western states average about 50% public lands.
These lands were open to homesteading until 50 years ago, just as was the vast American valley of the Mississippi. But where the Great Plains were rapidly settled with farms and towns, the arid Mountain West saw far less settlement. Late 19th-century technology was inadequate to access the water resources necessary to farm most of the high desert, so homesteaders stuck to the very few fertile stream valleys. The rest of the land remained free for mining and cattle grazing.
10 July 2025: We are deeply alarmed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s embrace of recommendations that would see public funding withheld from universities, media organisations, and arts institutions unless they adopt a deeply contested definition of antisemitism—one that dangerously conflates criticism of Israel with hatred of Jews.
Following attacks on Iran by Israel and the United States, the world held its breath as the prospect of World War III loomed on the horizon. After 12 days of conflict, a ceasefire has brought about new uncertainty for the future.
Former British diplomat Alastair Crooke joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to make sense of the current situation in the Middle East and what can be expected in the coming weeks or months.
In courtrooms and shelters across Canada, a hidden crisis unfolds. Gender-based violence traps hundreds of thousands of Canadian women in dangerous situations and economic precarity—not because they lack the courage or skills to escape, but because they lack the financial means.
With several provincial elections on the horizon and ongoing discussions about poverty reduction strategies, it’s time to shift the conversation. A Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) could transform our response to gender-based violence from crisis management to prevention. This is about more than just helping individual survivors; it’s about changing an economic system that makes violence profitable for abusers and impossible to escape for victims.
Economic Abuse as Social Control
Gender-based violence costs the Canadian economy $7.4 billion annually, according to the Department of Justice.
Project Acacia has today reached a significant milestone with a number of industry participants (see below) selected to explore how innovations in digital money and existing settlement infrastructure might support the development of Australian wholesale tokenised asset markets.
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.
With over 17 years of experience as a leading expert on equality and human rights, Rebecca has dedicated her career to advancing social justice through policy and legislation. Her current work, which focuses on advising government and parliament on matters relating to employment and children’s rights, has had a significant impact on shaping inclusive public […]
In a July full of high-stakes Supreme Court rulings, U.S. v. Skrmetti stood out as a crucial victory against insanity. In a 6-3 decision, the Court asserted that it is not a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment for Tennessee to ban transgender surgeries and hormone therapies for children with gender dysphoria. This opinion, along with cases like Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022 and Medina v. Planned Parenthood last month, allows room for sanity in red states. These are important victories against the institutional Left, which seeks to shut down debate on controversial issues by imposing its political will under the guise of newly invented rights. Skrmetti doesn’t win the fight against transgender extremism, but it allows red states to pass sane laws and begin to reverse course.
On this episode of Follow the Money, Matt Grudnoff joins Ebony Bennett discuss Government’s productivity agenda, why the GST is failing to do the job it was designed for, and how 91 millionaires managed to pay no tax.
Guest: Matt Grudnoff, Senior Economist, the Australia Institute // @mattgrudnoff
Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director, the Australia Institute // @ebonybennett
New Australia Institute research shows that if the GST had kept up with economic growth, as it was intended to do, states and territories would have received an additional $231 billion in revenue in the time since it was introduced.
That includes $22 billion in lost revenue in 2023-24 alone.
The decline of GST revenue has been driven by inequality. This is because wages haven’t kept up with the cost of housing, which means lower-income earners have less money to spend on other things that GST is applied to, and wealthier people are able to avoid GST on things they are more likely to use, like private health insurance and private school fees.
On this episode of After America, Dr Emma Shortis discusses how Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ will further redistribute wealth from lower and middle class people to the richest Americans, before Josh Bornstein joins the show to discuss the Supreme Court and whether the rule of law is crumbling in the United States.
This discussion was recorded on Friday 4 July 2025 and things may have changed since recording.
Join Dr Emma Shortis and Dr Richard Denniss in conversation about After America: Australia and the new world order at the University of Melbourne at 6pm AEST, Wednesday 16 July.
Guest: Josh Bornstein, Principal Lawyer, National Head of Employment Law, Maurice Blackburn // @joshbornstein
Host: Emma Shortis, Director, International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @emmashortis
Host: Angus Blackman, Producer, the Australia Institute // @AngusRB
On this episode, Thomas Mayo joins Paul Barclay to discuss the Voice referendum, the use of Indigenous issues as a political football, disinformation in the media and social media, truth in political advertising laws, and the continuing importance of the Uluru Statement and a voice for indigenous people.
This discussion was recorded on Thursday 6 February 2025, and things may have changed since the recording.
The below is our submission to the government consultation on the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper. Consultation Questions Chapter 2: Reforming the structure of the health and disability benefits system 1. What further steps could the Department for Work and Pensions take to make sure the benefit […]
More than twice as many Labor voters support Labor forming government with the Greens and Independent crossbench members as oppose (61% agree vs 25% disagree).
Liberal voters are neck-and-neck in their support for the Liberal party to form government with Greens and Independents (45% agree vs 46% disagree).
It’s Tasmania’s second election in just over a year, and polling research suggests another power-sharing parliament is the most likely outcome.
An Australia Institute study of 25 power-sharing governments showed most power-sharing governments see out a full term and can help enforce ministerial responsibility.
“It is clear that most Tasmanians want whoever seeks to form government to do so with the crossbench, including Greens and Independents, if they cannot form majority government,” said Eloise Carr, Director, The Australia Institute Tasmania.
“The question then becomes, will Dean Winter really refuse to attempt to form government should he be given the third opportunity to do so?
“Many Liberal and Labor voters are open to power-sharing governments, despite the narrative that these two parties are pushing. The free public forum which The Australia Institute is hosting this Thursday will debate the opportunities that these types of government can bring.”
“Power-sharing governments can be good for democracy and the democratic process,” said Bill Browne, Director of The Australia Institute’s Democracy & Accountability Program.
Speech by Andrew Hauser, Deputy Governor, to Mark the Centenary of the Economics Society of Australia, Australian Conference of Economists, Sydney – 9 July 2025. This speech is being broadcast live.
The Supreme Court’s blockbuster cases—in other words, those that are politically controversial—always seem to be decided in late June at the very end of the term. October Term 2024 is no exception.
Planned Parenthood does not have standing to challenge South Carolina’s decision to exclude it from Medicaid funding, the Court held in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. Texas’s law requiring that websites publishing sexually explicit content verify that visitors to the site are over 18 is constitutional, stated the Court in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. AndMahmoud v. Taylor indicates that parents of children in grades K-5 are entitled to a preliminary injunction allowing them to opt their children out of “LGBTQ-inclusive” storybooks.
But the case causing the most apoplexy on the Left is Trump v. CASA, Inc., which held that lower courts exceed their authority when they issue nationwide or “universal” injunctions that block the implementation of executive orders beyond the actual parties to the case.
At a time when inflation is within the RBA’s target band, today was an opportunity to take the pressure off families who have been paying too much for too long.
“The high interest rates are slowing the Australian economy at a time when economic growth is on life support,” said Matt Grudnoff, Senior Economist at The Australia Institute.
“With the inflation rate within the target band, what more information does the RBA need to cut rates?
“This decision comes with real costs. Households are struggling to pay the bills, and this delay will only cause more pain.”
It was a nasty, low-down week so I bought myself a 38 Special. I got it from a peddler down by the river. “Look to the sky before you buy,” the peddler warned. “No refunds!”
I was way ahead of him. There are no takebacks on the Fourth of July in 2025, only take-froms. No refunds, only defunds. AI takes jobs and ICE takes people and cruelty takes its toll.
That’s why I got a 38 Special: fifty ride tickets for thirty-eight dollars, to be shared by me and my husband and our two children, for one last round of memories.
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What’s On around Naarm/Melbourne & Regional Victoria: July 7-13, 2025 With thanks to the dedicated activists at Friends of the Earth Melbourne! . . See also these Palestine events listings from around the country: 9241
Sophia Cho, Thomas M. Mertens, and John C. Williams
Interest rates have fluctuated significantly over time. After a period of high inflation in the late 1970s and early 1980s, interest rates entered a decline that lasted for nearly four decades. The federal funds rate—the primary tool for monetary policy in the United States—followed this trend, while also varying with cycles of economic recessions and expansions.
The Political Economy of Palestine is a new reading group that aims to set-up chapters around Australia. To express your interest in joining a chapter in your city, please complete this short Expression of Interest.
7 July 2025: Rob Martin, a retired businessman from Clyde North, will fly to Italy tomorrow to join the international campaign to break Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip.
DEI employees are still running amok in the hallowed halls of the United States Military Academy at West Point (USMA). President Trump and members of his administration have taken the first steps toward eliminating DEI in the military, but there won’t be lasting change until all traces of it are removed from our military’s oldest academy.
In 2024, Congress and watchdog groups started asking questions about why cadets were being taught DEI and CRT ideology in West Point classrooms. Over the next several months, USMA was embroiled in controversy as it faced a barrage of congressional hearings, lawsuits, and FOIA requests. But West Point was able to successfully shield many of its woke policies through disingenuous public relations efforts.
More than six months into the Trump Administration, it is clear that West Point’s “compliance” with President Trump’s Restoring America’s Fighting Force executive order and Secretary Pete Hegseth’s anti-DEI memo is merely perfunctory, and even deceptive. Their orders are being undermined by the continued presence of woke employees who continue to prop up a leftist regime that has embedded itself at West Point.
Man charged over Melbourne synagogue fire amid calls for parliament to reconvene to pass new protest laws ABC | 6 July 2025 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-06/synagogue-fire-charges-protest-laws-victorian-parliament/105498480 A man has been charged after the door of the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation synagogue was set alight while people were inside on Friday night. The NSW man has been charged with […]
As the Treasurer embarks upon a national tax reform debate, it’s important that the Australian public thinks about what we actually want to tax and how much.
Who is paying too little tax? Are we taxing the right things? These are all democratic questions as much as economic ones.
Taxes are just one of the ways that governments raise the revenue needed to provide the hospitals, schools, roads, aged care and social safety nets Australians rely on.
The more tax a government collects, the bigger the public sector it can sustain. But who we choose to tax and how much has profound implications for fairness and equity.
The fact is, Australia is one of the lowest-taxing countries in the developed world.
Australia raises very little tax revenue compared to similar countries. If Australia were to collect the same amount of revenue from taxation as the OECD average, the Commonwealth would have had an extra $140 billion in revenue in 2023-24.
Think what an additional $140 billion a year could deliver for your local emergency room, primary school, aged care facility or national park.
Yesterday, I wrote a post for the Indivisible Santa Fe website. As the title indicates, it is for all my communities. I’m lucky to have several. For those in this one, there’s an excerpt below. Full version here.
Today, I make a comparable pledge, one fit for today’s America, one I invite every member of my communities to join:
For the support of the restoration of pluralistic constitutional democracy in the United States and the better achievement by its government of the basic commitment to the equal right of all to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, I pledge my life, my fortune, and my honor.
Further thoughts on John Alt’s article Editor It might be helpful to recognise that Premise #2 is a good basis for describing the financial operations…
As food prices keep climbing and grocery chains rake in record profits amid slim margins, it’s time to seriously consider a public alternative to the supermarket giants and dépanneurs: municipally owned grocery stores.
Lala Peñaranda of Trade Unions for Energy Democracy Matt Kirkegaard of Progressive International present the Colombian Oilworker’s Plan — a bold strategy for a worker-led public pathway to transition off fossil fuels, with vital lessons for the Canadian labour and climate movements.
