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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

Show notes:

The huge cost to states budgets of failing GST, the Australia Institute (July 2025)

Raising revenue right: Better tax ideas for the 48th Parliament by Greg Jericho, the Australia Institute (March 2025)

Theme music: Pulse and Thrum; additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

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.

Big Bill, Big Win | The Roundtable Ep. 275

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 […]

The post Rebecca Thomas appeared first on Equality Trust.

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.

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.

Key findings:

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.

You can sign our petition calling on the Australian Government to launch a parliamentary inquiry into AUKUS.

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.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

Guest: Thomas Mayo, Assistant National Secretary, Maritime Union of Australia // @thomasmayo

Host: Paul Barclay, Walkley Award winning journalist and broadcaster // @PaulBarclay

Show notes:

Compared to the cost of protesting, buying time with a minister is very cheap by Jack Thrower and Vivien Clarke, the Australia Institute (January 2025)

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 […]

The post Pathways to Work: Our Submission appeared first on Equality Trust.

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.

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. And Mahmoud 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.

Ellen Brown
More “Roundtable: Public Banking
Why Public Funds Should Be Deposited in Publicly-Owned Banks”

Ellen Correia Golay, Maximilian Dunn, Michael J. Fleming, Peter Johansson, Isabel Krogh, Or Shachar, and Joshua Younger

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.”

The post Wrong call – RBA rate hold unfairly dashes borrowers’ hopes for relief appeared first on The Australia Institute.

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.

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.

The Zero Lower Bound Remains a Medium‑Term Risk

 — Organisation: Federal Reserve Bank of New York — Publication: Liberty Street Economics — Monday 7th July 2025

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.

More…