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In 2015 former Treasurer Joe Hockey suggested to buy a house you just needed a “good job that pays good money”

Ten years on new research shows that had a person on the average full-time male earnings in each state been saving 15% of their after-tax income, they would still be unable to afford a deposit on a median-priced house.

Worse than that, in Sydney they would have gone backwards. At the end of 2014 they would have needed a deposit of $154,600, but by the end of 2024 after saving $126,00 for 10 years they would still need an extra $155,404 in order to afford a 20% deposit on the median-priced house in Sydney.

As people have saved, the price of houses – and the size of the deposit needed – has kept going up, even faster.

In politics, as in life, winning is better than losing. But some losses are worse than others. An especially damaging defeat creates a situation that is both hard to endure and hard to change.

This is the Democratic Party’s dilemma after the 2024 election: It suffered a bad defeat. An important cause of that defeat was that the party had embraced and become identified with a social justice ideology that offends more voters than it attracts. To become more politically competitive by becoming less politically correct is, under the circumstances, clearly advisable but also highly improbable.

A Win Is a Win

First, the election. Republicans retained a majority in the House of Representatives, with a 220- to 215-seat advantage, after a net loss of two seats. By gaining four seats, the GOP also captured control of the Senate with a workable but not dominating 53-47 majority. Finally, the party won the presidency with a 49.8% to 48.3% popular vote plurality and won 58% of the Electoral College: 312 electoral votes to the Democrats’ 226.

The post Material deprivation in Australia: launch presentation appeared first on Poverty and Inequality.

Introduction

This article, Narrative Power in Crisis: How to Narrate Towards Action by the Narrative Initiative, presents five guides to use when narrating through a crisis. This article was written in the context of Trump becoming president of America in Jan 2025, but is applicable to be used in any crisis situation.

How to Narrate Towards Action

A key element of the Trump administration’s strategy is to convince the public that the MAGA movement is unstoppable. They will broadcast the message that “No one can beat us” with each advance, whether the arena is legal, journalistic, educational or civic. They will be doing this on multiple issues simultaneously, hoping to send community, labor and cultural groups into panic mode. When everyday people, without whom mass movement is impossible, absorb the idea that something is unstoppable, they lose the political will to organize and act. We can narrate in a way that inspires action, rather than contributes to its depression.

Introduction

Tools for activist training and strategy development, including campaign strategy, power, conflict, narrative and storytelling. Follow the links to find materials to put together your own training workshops and planning sessions.

Learning, reflecting on action and preparing for the future are key elements in any social change project.

These guides share tools and activities which have been developed by many different trainers and strategists. Thank you to everyone who has made their work available for others to learn from. If you use materials please acknowledge the source and respect any licenses that apply.

Remember to modify activities and session plans to fit your context, including:

• the time you have available
• the space you are meeting in, including whether it is in person or online
• the purpose of your training or planning
• the access needs and skill levels of your participants
• stories and case studies that are relatable to your audience or your own experience
• your style and comfort level as a trainer or facilitator

The Commons will continue to gather training materials to support social change trainers and facilitators. If you have resources to add please contact us.

The promise of AI innovation has captured the attention of the technology industry and its associated policy makers. While we wait for the development of a National AI Capability Plan in Australia, companies are left with a set of voluntary guardrails to navigate the technologies’ associated risks. 

In a world in which the tech industry has shown blatant disinterest in following laws and policies, against a backdrop of rampant authoritarianism and a global political trend of sunsetting “responsible AI” initiatives, we need an enforceable legislative framework that prioritises privacy and protects us from harm. 

What do we mean when we talk about Artificial Intelligence?

“AI” can be a slippery concept that has different meanings and purposes depending on who is using it and why. In its broadest sense, “AI is the ability of a computer system to perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, and making decisions.”

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.

Red State Strategy | Cincinnatus Series Ep. 6

Introduction

In the opening months of 2025 a wave of protest and resistance has rolled across the United States as people grapple with sustained attacks on the rights and livelihoods of those from all walks of life.

In raising their voices protesters have pushed back against the “shock and awe” approach of the federal government and its allies by showing that resistance is alive and possible. 

Amongst the many strategic questions raised by all this activity is that of where action can be most effectively carried out and how protests can move away from standard locations and predictable actions to wrongfoot opponents and garner greater public attention.

In their book, Re:Imagining Change: How to Use Story-Based Strategy to Win Campaigns, Build Movements, and Change the World Patrick Reinsborough and Doyle Canning discuss the importance of selecting and effectively targeting points of intervention, “specific places in a system where a targeted action can effectively interrupt the functioning of the system and open up opportunities for change.” 

Introduction

Training resources about campaign strategy for changemakers including workshop exercises, activities and templates to explore in a group setting. You can draw on these materials to put together training workshops and planning sessions. Remember to modify materials for your particular context.

This guides shares tools and activities which have been developed by many different trainers and strategists. Thank you to everyone who has made their work available for others to learn from. If you use materials please acknowledge the source and respect any licenses that apply.

This is a live list. If you have a resource to add please let us know.

Here are other training tools that may be of interest.

On this episode of Follow the Money, Dr Fiona Macdonald, Acting Director at the Centre for Future Work, joins Glenn Connley to discuss Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, Peter Dutton’s plan to axe public service jobs, and why the private sector generally doesn’t deliver better public services.

This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 12 March 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

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

Guest: Fiona Macdonald, Acting Director, Centre for Future Work // @drfionamac

Host: Glenn Connley, Senior Media Advisor, the Australia Institute // @glennconnley

Show notes:

Briefing Paper: Restoring public sector capability through investment in public service employees by Lisa Heap, the Centre for Future Work (February 2025)

The making and unmaking of British ‘monetary Keynesianism’

Tuesday 25 March, 1.00pm-2:30 pm, 2025

Room 341, Level 3, Social Sciences Building (A02), University of Sydney

Speaker: Dr Sahil Dutta

For a generation that spanned from the depths of the interwar period to the birth of the postwar welfare state, British political economic policy was defined by Cheap Money. This involved the Bank of England and Treasury coordinating fiscal and monetary policy to lower long-term interest rates. This monetary experiment was short-lived, but its impacts were lasting, shifting the terrain for macroeconomic governance for the following two decades. Liquidity and credit greatly expanded and attempts at austere monetary policy were left ineffective. Successive governments and the Bank of England instead had to rely on direct regulations on banks and, increasingly, austere fiscal policy to manage the economy. The talk will explore how  ‘monetary Keynesianism’ emerged and how its undoing left a legacy where fiscal policy came to be the heart of Britain’s faltering ‘Keynesian revolution’. By revisiting this period, a different light can be shed on the post 2008 re-emergence of Cheap Money and new lessons can be learned for fiscal-monetary coordination today.

As I wrote in my earlier post today, Donald Trump has escalated his attack on rule of law and U.S. constitutional democracy by issuing an executive order targeting Perkins Coie, a law firm he dislikes and fears. Now, Perkins Coie, represented by Williams & Connolly, has commenced a lawsuit to invalidate and quash Trump's order. The complaint, filed in the District Court of DC, is excellent. It is a lesson in both basic constitutional law and civil rights law. You can download a copy of the complaint, annotated by me below. Here's a link to the complaint on the web. In this post, I will describe and explain Perkins Coie's claims and arguments.

Donald Trump has been going after large law firms who represent clients and causes he doesn’t like. This started with his executive order stripping security clearances from any Covington & Burling lawyers and employees who assisted Special Counsel Jack Smith and directing all federal agencies to review any contracts with Covington and, essentially, to stop doing business with the firm. Several days ago, Trump issued an even more egregious order against Perkins Coie. These orders make it crystal clear that Trump is after any and every civil society institution that can impede his dictatorial ambitions. Over this past weekend, Trump announced his intention to penalize more law firms. As always, believe him when he tells you what he is going to do.

The case has large implications for compensation to Indigenous peoples for government acts between 1911 and 1975, particularly in the Northern Territory and also the Australian Capital Territory.

Prior to Wednesday’s High Court decision, The Australia Institute is pleased to publish research by Dr Ed Wensing outlining the potential implications for the ACT.

Key points:

• Native title matters remain unresolved in the ACT with no statutory land rights system.
• The issues raised by Yunupingu in the Northern Territory have many similarities with historical circumstances faced by Traditional Owners in the ACT.
• The ACT Government has acted hypocritically. It has a policy of reconciliation and healing, but joined the Commonwealth’s appeal to the High Court on two out of three grounds.

“The High Court’s decision has huge implications for the ACT and its Traditional Owners,” said Dr Ed Wensing, Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Indigenous Policy Research at the Australian National University and long-time contributor to The Australia Institute.

“The nub of the case is about the expansion of the period of liability for compensation for Territory Government granted titles over native title.

“If the High Court decides in favour of Mr Yunupingu and the Gumatj Clan, the ACT’s long-held position that all native title rights and interests in the ACT were extinguished by past events simply evaporates.