In Sugar Land, Texas, a giant statue depicting the monkey-faced Hindu deity, Hanuman, was erected in August 2024. Officially titled Statue of Union, many Texans and Americans elsewhere have found this monument to be an aberration. For some it is the aesthetic unsightliness. For others it is a religious aversion to having a pagan idol be raised to such heights. And for others it is a demonstration of just how many foreigners now live in Texas.

I see each of these points as pins on a board that, when connected, reveal a fault line in American civic life: we are divided culturally—and the divide is widening.

On this episode of Follow the Money, Alice Grundy and Skye Predavec join Ebony Bennett to discuss how the Howard Government’s brave reforms in the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre are falling short of its aims – and what federal, state and territory governments can do to keep Australians safe.

1800RESPECT is the national domestic, family and sexual violence counselling, information and support service. Call 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732, chat online or video call via their website.

Correction: This podcast was updated to remove a reference to buying firearms and ammunition interstate when there is a limit on the licence, which does not appear in our research. What is possible is for a licence-holder to buy firearms and travel to another state.

Dead Centre: How political pragmatism is killing us by Richard Denniss is available for pre-order now via the Australia Institute website.

Guest: Alice Grundy, Research Manager and Managing Editor, the Australia Institute // @alicektg

Guest: Skye Predavec, Anne Kantor Fellow, the Australia Institute // @skyelark

ODOT’s claim that Oregon spends less on roads than neighboring states was a key talking point in trying to sell a higher transportation tax in the 2025 Legislature

Based on ODOT”s data, legislators repeatedly claimed that Oregon spends less on roads than  other Western states

The trouble is it’s not true.  Big state sales taxes on cars warp the comparison. Other states do charge sales taxes on car sales, but this money goes to general funds, not to road construction and repair

Independent national comparisons prepared by the widely respected Brookings Institution, using Census Bureau data from all 50 states shows Oregon spends almost the same on roads as neighboring states, about $630 per capita in 2021.

ODOT’s numbers are a bogus and deceptive sales technique, not an objective analysis

ODOT’s Big Lie:  Oregon spends less on roads than other states

The idea that Oregon’s taxes for transportation are much lower than neighboring states has become a widely repeated talking point in the State Capitol.

Listen to the full conversation on the Perspectives Journal podcast, available to subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Music, and all other major podcast platforms.

Today in the AFR, the head of the private health insurance lobby group “PrivateHealth Australia” showed the industry is very worried by suggestions by The Australia Institute and others that private health insurance fees should be subject to GST.

When the GST was introduced, John Howard ensured private health insurance fees were not subject to GST, and at essentially the same time, he introduced the “Lifetime Health Cover”, which meant if you did not join private health insurance by the time you were 30 you would have to pay higher fees were you to join it later.

The problem is that even with this virtual forcing of people onto health insurance, most people take out the minimum health insurance they need to qualify for the lifetime health cover, and usually this means lots of things are excluded from the cover, and also you have to pay a lot of excess payments should you actually need to use it. It is not health insurance in any true sense, but it is wonderful for private health insurers.

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

Fame and fortune are often corrupting forces, ones that beget power and comfort. To stand with the afflicted requires sacrificing this privilege and few embody that sacrifice more profoundly than the legendary musician of Pink Floyd Roger Waters.

For years, through his music and political action, Waters has amplified the voices of the oppressed. He has championed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, defended attorney Steven Donziger, demanded the closure of Guantánamo Bay, has long stood against the apartheid state of Israel and now unwaveringly against the genocide of Palestinians.

Currently, political parties are allowed to send postal vote application forms bundled with information about a candidate.

The forms are then returned to the political party, which forwards them to the Australian Electoral Commission.

The new poll has found that a vast majority of Australians would rather voters send their voting paper directly to the AEC.

Key findings:

‘Money talks, and fear is a great motivator’ — Christopher Rufo, 2025

This quote from Christipher Rufo, one of the most influential architects of Donald Trump’s current assault on ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ in education, succinctly distils the key techniques in what has become a global war on higher education.

This war takes on different forms in different jurisdictions, but it finds expression, to a greater or lesser extent, right across the globe.

For Trump, it is now quite clear that the goal of this war is to eliminate academic freedom, and open enquiry – the bedrock of higher education. If this goal is not fully expressed outside of authoritarian regimes, it is nonetheless a lens through which to view how higher education, and higher education workers, are increasingly being regulated.

Like all workplaces, universities are sites of power and contestation, where managers have an imperative to exercise control over the labour process. It might sound odd to describe universities as workplaces, but that’s exactly what they are. It is workers – academic and non-academic – who teach the students, conduct the research that make universities what they are.

Yet, as higher education managers are impelled to control their workforces, there are constituent elements of universities this potentially conflicts with, especially academic freedom and collegial decision making.