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There’s nothing Congress likes better than not legislating. The legislative process in theory still takes place in Congress, but the results, which have the name and form of law, are in reality not law, properly understood. Legislative policy is still made in America, but it overwhelmingly takes forms other than laws enacted by Congress according to the process set forth in Article I of the Constitution. By conferring legislative power on others and leaving vital public issues unaddressed through congressional action, members of the legislature are effectively failing to carry out their constitutionally designated duties.

The importance of this change in the American political system cannot be overstated. Delegation—Congress’s abdication of its core legislative function—is key to understanding both the modern Congress and the crisis of constitutional government in America. Congress’s regular use of delegation has led to two seismic consequences: institutional failure on a massive scale and, more fundamentally, a transformation in the very character of the American regime.

Congress and the Legislative Power

The mine, approved by the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC), now has approval to operate to 2045, generating 809 million tonnes of climate pollution, equivalent to almost two years of Australia’s national emissions.

“This is not a ‘just transition’. It’s not even a transition. It’s an expansion,” said Rod Campbell, Research Director at The Australia Institute.

“The government pretends it’s ok to dig up more coal in the Hunter Valley because someone, somewhere else promised to do something to reduced emissions.

“This approval shows that Australia’s climate policies are working exactly as the government intended: pretend to be tackling emissions reduction while carrying on expanding coal.

“Australia’s climate policies are designed to safeguard fossil fuel projects like this one, and carbon offsets are central to this.

“The decision states on page 1 that the climate impacts of the huge coal mine ‘are managed effectively within the parameters of the NSW and Commonwealth statutory and policy regimes’.

“Scientists say there should be no new coal mines, but NSW decision makers say this huge mine is fine because of ‘requirements for minimisation and offsets’.

“The approval text says that carbon offsets have “real environmental benefits” not once, not twice, but three times.

“This is partly a result of key figures in NSW environment groups spending months, if not years, promoting and developing dodgy carbon offset proposals.

A Senate inquiry report out today must be a turning point for renters, Everybody’s Home said, as the campaign urges the federal government to turbocharge social housing and limit rent increases.

The Select Committee on Intergenerational Housing Inequity has made 10 findings including that the housing crisis is affecting every generation and fuelling inequality. 

Across party lines, the committee agreed that many elements of the housing crisis arise from the decline in investment in public housing, and it must be addressed by more investment in these rentals. 

The committee also found that rent increases have outpaced wages growth by several multiples, and that too many Australians live in real anxiety about maintaining a safe roof over their heads and affording rent. 

Everybody’s Home spokesperson Maiy Azize said rents have been rising for years and there’s no end in sight. 

“Renters have been forced to pay higher and higher rents for years. The odds of being pushed into housing stress or turning to homelessness services for help have never been higher,” Ms Azize said.

“Renters can never catch a break. No matter whether interest rates rise or fall, renters still cop rent hikes year on year. 

On this episode of Follow the Money, Justine Davis, Independent Member for Johnston in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, joins Ebony Bennett to discuss Australians’ extraordinary gambling losses, the federal government’s failure to create a national regulator for online gambling, and her proposal to lift standards in the NT.

This episode was recorded on Friday 25 September.

If this episode raised issues for you, you can call the National Gambling Helpline on 1800 858 858 for free, professional and confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Or visit Gambling Help Online at www.gamblinghelponline.org.au.

If you or anyone you know needs help, you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or online at www.lifeline.org.au.

Guest: Justine Davis, Member for Johnston, Northern Territory Legislative Assembly // @justinedavismla

Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director, the Australia Institute // @ebonybennett

Over the past few weeks, Old Guard conservatives have been making a concerted effort to attack Vice President JD Vance and the New Right.

Many were critical of Vance’s support for a Trump Administration proposal to allow federal dollars to go to stay-at-home parents. Dana Loesch suggested that those who accepted such funds weren’t “man enough.” Another conservative called it a “scheme” and “a longstanding tenet of the Postliberal/Orbanist policy agenda.”

Old Guard critic Jay Caruso mocked Vance for saying the administration would not “let” companies exchange American workers “with cheap foreign labor,” accusing the vice president of turning his back on the free market. Simultaneously, a chorus of Old Guard conservatives have been blasting Vance for supposedly refusing to distance himself from Nazis and groypers—and from a group of trinitarian Christians, the Society for American Civic Renewal.

Political economy approaches are an increasingly popular framework in the Public Health and Biomedical Sciences scholarships. A quick search of major biomedical and public health databases, PubMed and Ovid, highlights over 2,000 and 1,200 papers, respectively, using ‘political economy’ in their title or abstract. Most of these papers that utilise political economy in some way, shape or form have been published since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which suggests that the crisis helped elucidate the centrality of political economy factors to matters of health and illness. This is, of course, a welcome development; the more that our colleagues in Biomedical and Public Health fields can integrate political economy analysis into their studies, the better it will be for us all.

Progressive Albertans are on the front lines organizing for the referendum fight that Premier Danielle Smith, and her United Conservative Party government, have imposed upon the people of Alberta on October 19. It is not just Alberta separatism that is on the table: there are 10 questions being put to Albertans this fall that target immigrants and the province’s legal authority over the federal government.

There are mechanisms in Alberta for citizen engagement that would, through petitioning, force the government to call referenda on questions designed by the public, but this decision did not happen through these public mechanisms. A previous attempt to petition for an independence referendum was deemed unconstitutional by a federal judge earlier this spring as no consultation took place with First Nations whose sovereignty would be affected by this process. Instead of committing to democratic processes, Smith’s government, through an ‘Orders in Council’ executive decision, has authorized these referenda to take place. No mass of real public urgency forced these issues to referendum votes.

At our September 2026 John Cain Lunch we heard from Managing Director of Foundations for Tomorrow, Taylor Hawkins, about building the vision and infrastructure for long-term governance in Australia for a thriving community, environment and economy. Watch the recording below. 

Australia’s future is bigger than the next election. Australia’s capacity to govern for the long-term and safeguard the wellbeing of current and future generations depends on more than individual policies or political champions. It requires leaders equipped to think and act beyond immediate pressures, institutions capable of planning for the future and a public mandate that supports long-term decision-making.

Foundations For Tomorrow (FFT) is a non-profit organisation working to equip Australian leaders to think beyond electoral cycles and financial quarters to make the strategic long-term investments that lay the foundations for a thriving community, environment, and economy for years to come.

FFT is spearheading the National Conversation Development Lab, a collaborative project bringing together 240+ organisations and experts to develop a National Conversation about Australia’s future.

Per Capita’s 2026 John Cain Memorial Oration was delivered by Professor the Honourable Gareth Evans AC KC on Tuesday 22 September at the State Library of Victoria. Prof Evans spoke on the subject of good international citizenship. You can find the text of his Oration below.

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Good International Citizenship: Recapturing the Decency Dimension in Australian Foreign Policy

John Cain is one of the most unequivocally decent persons ever  to have held Australian public office, and it’s a privilege to have been invited by Per Capita – an NGO which understands better than most what decency in public policy is all about – to give this annual oration in his honour.

I first became aware of John’s quality – his commitment to progressive values, humanitarian instincts, courage in taking on formidable political opponents and total incorruptibility – when watching at a distance the leadership role he played, with a group of Melbourne Labor dissidents, in  working with Gough Whitlam to overturn the hopelessly-dysfunctional, dinosaur-Left then leadership of the Victorian Branch of the ALP, which had made the party unelectable not only in this State but nationally.

Australia is once again pushing for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, alongside Finland and Mongolia, because ‘a safer world is one governed by rules, not power and force alone’. While Australia consistently talks the talk on supporting the international rules-based order, it only walks the walk occasionally.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made the pitch for the Security Council with a simple vision: ” We listen with respect, we partner as equals and we protect what matters most.” The trouble is, on many issues the Australian government appears to hear, but not listen to its allies and neighbours. And when it comes to protecting what matters most, the Australian government appears to stand up for international law selectively, not consistently, when it comes to two issues in particular: climate change and US military interventions.

Per Capita Research Fellow, Matt Lloyd-Cape, founding director of Per Capita’s Centre for Equitable Housing, has released a book examining Australia’s housing system, Our Place: How to Solve the Housing Crisis and Rebuild the Australian Dream. You can read a free excerpt below.

In Our Place, Matt cuts through the noise, showing exactly how our housing system broke. Drawing on the latest research, he reveals that although social housing tenants, renters and first-home buyers are worst affected, the whole of society suffers in a housing crisis. From the rise of far-right politics to intergenerational inequality, the housing crisis is reshaping the nation.

To solve the crisis, he argues, we need to think bigger – much bigger. Our Place shows how a bold national housing plan could:

• End homelessness by 2045
• Provide the next generation with appropriate rental standards and an affordable path to home ownership
• Create thriving urban centres away from the capital cities
• Place housing at the heart of an ambitious plan for a fairer and more prosperous Australia.

The tools are within reach. What’s missing are leaders willing to rethink the economic and political assumptions that got us here.

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Statement by the Monetary Policy Board: Monetary Policy Decision

 — Organisation: Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) — Tuesday 29th September 2026

At its meeting today, the Board decided to increase the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 4.60 per cent.

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The Historic Value of the Seigenthaler Bridge

 — Author: Betsy Phillips — Monday 28th September 2026

With the Titans hoping to extend the 100-plus-year-old pedestrian bridge, here's a look at the structure's greater context

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What’s Really Fueling Anti-Data Center Sentiment

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — Monday 28th September 2026

Increasing numbers of Americans are deeply opposed to building more data centers.

Over the summer, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro imposed the strictest data center rules in the country, Kathy Hochul ordered a statewide moratorium on hyperscale construction, and Greg Abbott paused new approvals in Texas pending a grid audit. At the local level, dozens of county and municipal fights have followed no reliable partisan pattern. Polling from Heatmap and Embold, collected by the anon Cremieux, shows data center popularity plummeting over the last year.

Though Cremieux argues the opposition is fundamentally driven by NIMBYism, I’m unconvinced. The polling seems to follow the pattern you’d expect if NIMBYism were the primary driver, but posing the problem as a generic national issue produces substantially less opposition. Something else is going on that NIMBYism can’t fully explain.

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Placid Trump-Xi summit bucks Washington ‘consensus’ of ever-rising tensions

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Monday 28th September 2026

On this episode of After America, Professor James Laurenceson joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the latest US-China leaders’ meeting, why the Biden administration’s hawkish approach to China may not be coming back, and what it all means for Australia.

This episode was recorded on Monday 28 September.

Guest: James Laurenceson, Professor and Director, Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney // @j-laurenceson

Host: Emma Shortis, Director, International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @emmashortis

Show notes:

Trump on throwing a state dinner for Xi Jinping, Mother Jones on Bsky (September 2026)

As fears of China wane, Americans favor greater engagement with Beijing, Chicago Council on Global Affairs (September 2026)

Trump dismisses China spying concerns after reports they provided Iran with Jordan airbase images, The Hill on YouTube (September 2026)

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What’s the point of inflation?

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — Monday 28th September 2026

On this episode of What’s the Point?, Richard Denniss explains what’s really driving inflation in Australia and why interest rates aren’t actually the only way to control it.

This episode was recorded on Friday 11 September.

More Fool Me: How the gas industry tricked Australia by Richard Denniss, the latest Vantage Point essay from Australia Institute Press, is available now.

Use the code ‘FOOLME’ on a four-edition Vantage Point subscription to receive a free copy of Richard’s book, Econobabble.

Read more on The Point.

Host: Richard Denniss, co-Chief Executive Officer, the Australia Institute // @richarddenniss

Host: Anna Chang, Managing Editor, The Point // @annachang

Show notes:

Hon Dr Jim Chalmers MP | Bernie Fraser Oration 2026, the Australia Institute

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Cycling Made Difficult (but it's getting better!)

 — Publication: Not Just Bikes — Sunday 27th September 2026

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Donald Trump and the Age of Evil

 — Author: Chris Hedges — Saturday 26th September 2026

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