Vanessa is the Equality Trust’s Senior Project Officer. She champions the meaningful implementation of the Socio-Economic Duty (SED) to help build a fairer society. She represents the Equality Trust on the SED Expert Advisory Group to the Cabinet Office, the #1forEquality alliance and Make Equality Real campaign coalition. Key to her work is centring the […]
The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it. To permit such officials to freely “annul the judgments of the courts of the United States” would not just “destroy the rights acquired under those judgments”; it would make “a solemn mockery” of “the constitution itself.” United States v. Peters, 9 U.S. (5 Cranch) 115, 136 (1809) (Marshall, C.J.). — from Judge Boasberg’s opinion.
Today, Judge Boasberg issued a slightly complicated opinion and order regarding the Trump executive’s apparent contempt of court in obeying his orders regarding Venezuelans the executive surreptitiously captured and sent to prison in El Salvador. The complexity is actually brilliant.
Boasberg found that there is “probable cause” for finding Trump officials in criminal contempt. Boasberg also set out a procedure for eventually reaching a criminal contempt judgment. That procedure ensures due process for any Trump official fined or jailed while keeping the public spotlight on the Trump executive’s likely refusal to obey the court yet again.
On this episode of Follow the Money, the Australia Institute’s Amy Remeikis and Bill Browne join guest host Stephen Long to discuss housing policy, the Australian electoral system, and the need for truth in political advertising laws.
This discussion was recorded on Tuesday 15 April 2025 and things may have changed.
Follow all the action from the federal election on our new politics live blog, Australia Institute Live with Amy Remeikis.
Order ‘After America: Australia and the new world order’ or become a foundation subscriber to Vantage Point at australiainstitute.org.au/store.
Guest: Amy Remeikis, Chief Political Analyst, the Australia Institute // @amyremeikis
Guest: Bill Browne, Director, Democracy & Accountability, the Australia Institute // @browne90
Host: Stephen Long, Senior Fellow & Contributing Editor, the Australia Institute // @stephenlongaus
ISRAEL-PALESTINE MEDIA REPORT 16.4.25 US must act on killings The Age | Letters | 16 April 2025 https://edition.theage.com.au/shortcode/THE965/edition/78aeee5a-b151-c9b3-75b7-3e3dd9564559?page=da8fdc97-df47-1e8f-ccfb-9b21b04711dc Since when did children’s playgrounds, schools and places of worship become legitimate military targets for Russian and Israeli drones to kill and maim unsuspecting Ukrainians and Palestinians, many of them women and children? Dismissing such war crimes […]
President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency is perhaps the most welcome wake-up call for the federal government—and its obscene spending habits—in decades. It is refreshing to see many overpaid, underworked, often-vacationing federal employees fretting about whether their cushy jobs will disappear, and to see at least one branch of the federal government working to rein in our massive deficit spending. All of this is long overdue.
Yet it remains to be seen whether DOGE will help jump-start a serious and sustained effort to restore fiscal sanity, or whether its high-profile efforts will wrongly convince Americans that enough has been done, and that we can stop worrying that the federal government is bankrupting the country. If the former happens, it will be an extraordinary and much-needed development; if the latter, it will provide further evidence that, as Lincoln warned us nearly two centuries ago, if our republic is to be destroyed, it will be destroyed from within.
There are already signs that DOGE might not be able to deliver as much as originally promised.
As Australia’s federal election campaign has finally begun, opposition leader Peter Dutton’s proposal to spend hundreds of billions in public money to build seven nuclear power plants across the country has been carefully scrutinized.
Economist Richard Denniss joined ABC’s Q+A to dig into the election promises and explain how we can actually help people who are struggling in Australia.
Will the major parties housing policies actually help?
With calls for more spending to help those struggling the most, what are Australia’s options to collect more revenue?
“Australia is the third biggest fossil fuel exporter in the world. “Norway, which is also a big fossil fuel exporter, they tax their fossil fuel industry and give their kids free university education. “In Australia, we subsidise the fossil fuel industry.”
“We can either collect more tax from the big businesses that can afford to pay it, or we can say, Sorry, Marge, you’ve had it too good.”
Feel free to modify this template for your organisation’s use by picking out the sections that are most relevant.
Please note that the Organising Models Mapping Project researched approaches to organising in Australia and Aotearoa/NZ. The situation may be different in your country or community. If you have other frameworks, tools or articles to share on The Commons, we welcome your input.
Thanks to Beth Koch (formerly Australian Conservation Foundation), Anita Tang (Australian Progress) and Dr Robin Gulliver for their work on this project.
In Australia’s Westminster system, governments depend on MPs for support – and MPs can be replaced part-way through the term or change their minds about who to support.
Since Federation, the governing party changed eight times due to non-electoral events, most recently in 1975 with the Dismissal of the Whitlam Government.
While in 1975 it was the Governor-General who forced a change, the other seven were caused by MPs changing their minds about who to support or governments failing to get their agenda passed through the parliament.
A government can also lose its parliamentary majority outside of a general election but hold on to power.
In 2018, when Malcolm Turnbull quit Parliament and independent Kerryn Phelps won his seat, the Morrison Government fell into minority. The government survived, although legislation to allow for medical evacuation of sick refugees and asylum seekers became law despite the government’s opposition.
At the state level, since 1992 there have been three times when crossbenchers have forced a change in premiers or ministers, without bringing down the rest of the government – most recently in Tasmania last year.
Crossbenchers can demand the old convention of ministerial responsibility is upheld without threatening the survival of the government as a whole.
The housing crisis continues to grip Australia and it’s a central part of this election campaign. Unfortunately, while both major parties have made housing policies key parts of their election platforms their policies mostly tinker around the edges and fail in four key ways.
Join me tomorrow on my YouTube channel for a live Q&A at 4pm PT / 7pm ET. I will pull questions from the comments of this post, my X, and live on YouTube. To post your questions here, you must be a paid subscriber to my Substack. Please attempt to keep your questions direct and relatively brief, as I cannot read entire paragraphs during the show.
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We are just finishing our 33rd book book in the group, which is Mario Tronti, Workers and Capital (Verso, 2019) and a commentary on that book will be available soon.
Following on from that, the P&P Reading Group will commence Gerstenberger’s Market and Violence on Thursday 12 June @5:00pm (AEST) on Zoom and each Thursday week thereafter at the same time. The group convenor Adam Morton can be contacted for further details on the Zoom link, subject to limited available numbers.
As with all the volumes we read, please click on the book titles below for more details:
Professor James Hankins has written a sincere but largely misguided piece advocating for what amounts to a national guest worker program with a delayed pathway to citizenship. He proposes, with appropriate modesty, that “The advantages of this [immigration] proposal may not seem obvious at first sight to Republicans.” Let me, with all due humility, suggest that the alleged advantages are not obvious because they are not there. While Hankins’s program has a slightly different taste, it is basically the same old amnesty wine in a new bottle.
His core problem is viewing immigration policy as one issue among many in which any proposed solution should ultimately be subject to a popularity contest. In reality, immigration is an existential issue, and the way we approach it defines what kind of community we will be.
On this episode of After America, Daniel James, award-winning journalist and host of the 7am podcast, joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the potential blowback against Trump’s tariffs at the midterms and whether the next federal government might introduce a little more transparency into Australia’s foreign and defence policy-making processes.
This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 9 April 2025 and things may have changed since recording.
Order ‘After America: Australia and the new world order’ or become a foundation subscriber to Vantage Point at australiainstitute.org.au/store.
Guest: Daniel James, award-winning writer, broadcaster and co-host of 7am // @mrdtjames
Host: Emma Shortis, Director, International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @EmmaShortis
In the wreckage of World War II, there was no question who had won. Europe lay physically and morally bankrupt—its cities shattered, its institutions hollowed out, and its spiritual confidence extinguished in the fires of fascism and the humiliations of collaboration. America, in contrast, emerged not only militarily triumphant, but also civilizationally intact. It stood at the apex of industrial productivity, financial power, and—most crucially—a sense of providential mission. The nation had saved the world again from barbarism, and now it would rebuild it.
The instrument of this rebuilding was not martial coercion but what was euphemistically called the European Recovery Program. The Marshall Plan, as it came to be known, was a masterstroke of economic strategy. But it was more than that—it was a civilizational covenant. Through grants and loans, technology transfers, and institutional design, the United States reseeded the very soil of European life with the means of moral and material reconstruction. The goal was not merely to avert famine or restore infrastructure, but to reorient Europe toward the West—toward a shared vision of liberty, dignity, and law grounded in the remnants of a Christian moral order.
Western Europe rose from the ashes, and for a time, it seemed to regain its footing. From the founding of NATO to the forging of the European Economic Community, the transatlantic alliance was not merely a political convenience, but an expression of civilizational unity.
On Tuesday 15th April, 6:30pm, Free Palestine Melbourne and Muslim Votes Matter are hosting a joint Justice at the Ballot Box forum of political candidates and community leaders at Schoolhouse Studios in Coburg.
Here is a collection of resources about community organising in the Arab World. These resources are from an organisation called Ahel.
Ahel works across the Arab region to support people leading collective action for justice, freedom, and equality to build their people power.
Using a values-based community organizing approach, Ahel coaches campaigns, trains leaders in organizing and participatory leadership, and connects changemakers who share a commitment to dignity and justice.
Ahel produces Arabic-language knowledge on community organizing and documents campaign journeys and successes—sharing real stories of how people power drives change.
Ahel’s methodology is based on Marshall Ganz’s work in value based community organizing adapted and expanded for the context of the Arab speaking region.
The concept of productivity, including those for labour, capital and multi-factor productivity (MFP) are central to economic discussion about national economic performance, government policy and income distribution. There is common agreement that productivity growth has been, and remains, central to the long-run improvement in living standards. However, the orthodox or neoclassical, conceptual foundation of productivity, which informs both the work of the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates of productivity growth, media analysis and economic policy is rarely subjected to critical analysis.
The issue of productivity, its measurement and the problems with these measures is a very large one. To assist important economic policy debates that revolve around the concept of productivity, David Richardson (The Australia Institute) and I have written this very short briefing paper, which is being published today on Progress in Political Economy (PPE). The paper sets out just a few of the long-standing questions that have been raised over many decades about the conceptual and empirical robustness of the concept and its role informing public policy.
What are flash mobs? Here is a curated collection of resources about what they are, how to do a flash mob, and examples from around the world.
What are Flash Mobs?
A spontaneous, contagious, and often celebratory protest that often uses social media or word of mouth to gather people on short notice in a particular place at a particular time. – Beautiful Trouble
A group of people summoned (as by email or text message) to a designated location at a specified time to perform an indicated action before dispersing. – Merriam Webster Dictionary
Flash Mob refers to any online-coordinated event in which an ad-hoc group of participants meet up at a central location for various purposes. While certain flash mobs may convey a political or commercial message, they are usually organized for the spontaneous amusement of the participants and bewilderment of bystanders. – Know Your Meme
Labor’s announcement that a returned Albanese government would build 100,000 houses for first home buyers is hardly radical. Who’d have thought that actually building houses for people to live in might work? It would.
The Prime Minister’s other housing announcement – to allow people to buy a home with a deposit of just 5%, to avoid mortgage insurance – would give more buyers the chance to bid against each other and push prices up.
The Liberal policy, to allow first home buyers of new homes to claim the interest as a tax deduction, would do the same. Enabling them to dip into their super would make things worse and risk making them poor in retirement.
Neither Anthony Albanese nor Peter Dutton mentioned the two obvious reforms that would help to solve the housing crisis: scrapping or reducing negative gearing and removing the capital gains tax discount for investors.
“We welcome the government’s plan to build 100,000 homes,” said Matt Grudnoff, Senior Economist at The Australia Institute.
“The Australia Institute has long argued the best way for the government to improve housing affordability is to build and own more homes for people to live in – much as it does for Defence Housing Australia.
“This plan is not radical and should become standard for all governments.
“But the plan to guarantee a 5% deposit for first-home buyers will put pressure on prices.
For those just tuning in: I wrote a piece a day for the first three days of this week on what we should probably now term the “Trump Tariff Financial Crisis”. I am coming to you Sunday because, yes, I am a human and took much of the rest of the week off. I even slept at night! Three times in a row! Vanity Fair’s profile of Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway a very bad sign, and very resonant to my experience this week: “No! Sleep! For Bloomberg! How the Media Giant’s Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway Survived a Manic Week”. Well, I did take about 16 hours to write this piece, but I did it at a slower pace with lots of breaks.
The LNP came first on 38%, Labor second with 27%, and the Greens third also with 27% – just 11 votes behind Labor.
A surprising trend emerged: when right-wing minor party candidates were eliminated their preferences favoured the Greens over Labor.
Preferences from United Australia and One Nation voters, as well as Animal Justice voters, propelled Greens candidate Stephen Bates ahead of Labor, at which point Labor preferences won the seat for Bates at the expense of sitting LNP MP Trevor Evans.
Elsewhere in Queensland, in the seat of Groom, independent Suzie Holt went from fourth place with 8% of the vote to finish second with 43% on preferences.
This improbable result occurred because she was favoured above the Liberal National candidate by voters across the political spectrum: Greens, One Nation and Labor voters.
These unexpected results are a reminder that you, the voter, decide your preferences, not the political parties – and those preferences could decide an election.
Australia doesn’t have a gas shortage, Australia has a gas export problem; and putting a levy on gas exports will help fix the problem.
Unfortunately, Dutton’s wrong on almost everything else.
Gas is driving up the cost of living. After Australia started exporting gas, wholesale gas prices in Australia tripled.
You now pay global prices for Australian gas. For over a decade the gas industry has been pushing the lie that Australia has a gas shortage, but the problem is we export around 80 per cent of our gas.
No matter what crap the gas industry tries to feed you – Dutton has correctly identified Australia has a gas export problem.
For the first time in over a decade, all sides of politics in Australia agree that we’re exporting too much gas, including the Labor government, the Liberals and Nationals, the Greens and most of the independents who sit on the crossbench.
It’s a remarkable political consensus. Politicians now have the opportunity, in the middle of a cost-of-living election, to finally put a stop Australians getting ripped off by the gas industry. It would be a win for the economy, a win for your back pocket and a vote winner for politicians.
To fix Australia’s gas export problem, the Coalition is proposing to tax gas exports to ensure our gas flows first to Australian businesses and households.
Australia has split with US President Joe Biden over an international arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes, after Foreign Minister Penny Wong refused to oppose or endorse the International Criminal Court’s decision. The ICC issued warrants on Thursday for Mr Netanyahu and his sacked defence minister Yoav Gallant, accusing […]
Why won’t you hold Israel to account? You don’t have to wait for the rest of the world. You can be the leaders, you can be the leaders to hold Israel to account, for the slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinians, for the killing of Zoni Frankcom.” – Senator Mehreen Faruqi, addressing the Australian […]
Article link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/18/lebanon-civil-defence-reels-after-deadly-israeli-strikeArticle source: The Guardian/ William Christou,19.11.20248211
In many ways, the issuing of arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes is the realisation of Israel’s worst fears about the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the reason it is not a state party. Both are unlikely to travel to […]
There is no alternative to the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, its chief insisted, following Israel’s order to ban the organisation that coordinates nearly all aid in war-ravaged Gaza. “There is no plan B,” head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, told reporters in Geneva. Within the UN […]
The horrific situation in the Middle East has landed Foreign Minister Penny Wong with a difficult and frustrating job. She is wedged between a so-far unacknowledged obligation to honour Australia’s legal commitments to condemn Israeli genocide and apartheid on the one hand, and on the other, a vociferous campaign by local Zionists and their supporters […]
Everybody’s Home has called on the major parties to present more ambitious housing policies to Australians ahead of the election, warning that today’s announcements fall short of what is needed to end the country’s deepening crisis.
The Coalition is expected to propose a policy that would allow first home buyers of newly built properties to deduct their mortgage interest payments from their taxable income.
Meanwhile, Labor is proposing to allow all first home buyers to purchase a home with a five per cent deposit to avoid lenders mortgage insurance and will commit $10 billion to build 100,000 new homes for them.
Everybody’s Home spokesperson Maiy Azize said: “The promises made by the major parties today fall well short of what’s needed to address the housing crisis — in fact, some elements could make it even worse.
“The Coalition’s proposal to allow mortgage payments to be tax deductible for first home buyers is a form of negative gearing for non-investors, a move that will give more help to people on high incomes and could push home prices even higher. To make housing more affordable, we need to get rid of tax breaks when it comes to property, not create more.
“Labor’s home deposit support for first-home buyers will also add to demand. Building 100,000 homes is a good step, but they aren’t guaranteed to be affordable. Australia doesn’t just need new homes, we need homes that people can actually afford.
On the first day of our Route 66 trip, the media announced that Donald Trump would be indicted that week. I did not believe them because I had heard this claim every year since 2016 and throughout my 1980s and 1990s childhood, when reporters were more straightforward about his ties to organized crime. Trump had been under federal investigation since before I was born.
The year 2023 marked a half century of the Department of Justice opening an inquiry and then doing little about it. With every year his impunity grew, and with it his cruelty. He pushes and pushes, as if frustrated with the ability of the United States to contain its worst instincts, which are embodied in himself. He pushes and pushes, as if testing whether people are as weak and hypocritical as they seem, and no one in power pushes back, which means he is probably right. Trump ended the week he was supposed to be indicted by holding a fascist campaign rally in Waco, Texas.
This book aims to provide nothing less than a full-throated defense of moral and political sanity against the latest eruptions of ideological mendacity in our time. Its thesis is simple enough, but it needs the full resources of applied political philosophy to explain with adequate clarity and depth. The thesis? That the “ideological” project to replace the only human condition we know with a utopian “Second Reality” oblivious to—indeed at war with—the deepest wellsprings of human nature and God’s creation has taken on renewed virulence in the late modern world, just 35 years after the glorious anti-totalitarian revolutions of 1989.
