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Integrity 2.0 – whatever happened to the fourth arm of government? 

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — 

There have been improvements, including the replacement of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, increased funding to some agencies and the introduction of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), although without the power to hold public hearings whenever they are in the public interest.

Overall, the government’s broader record on integrity and transparency remains wanting.

  • There is no Whistleblower Commissioner or Office as Labor promised in 2019.
  • This government’s record on dealing with freedom of information requests remains poor.
  • Integrity agencies remain underfunded even as their responsibilities expand.
  • Ministers are not required to, and do not proactively, publish their diaries to reveal who they are meeting with.
  • The response to the Robodebt scandal has failed to achieve justice for victims of the unlawful scheme, with the NACC subject to adverse findings over its handling of the matter.
  • David McBride is behind bars for blowing the whistle on alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.

This Tuesday, the Australia Institute and Fairer Future will convene a roundtable of integrity experts and officeholders emeritus to discuss the decline in accountability and the role of the integrity arm of government: including auditors, ombudsmen, anti-corruption commissioners and information commissioners.

The media is invited to attend community independent Senator David Pocock’s keynote address, which will open the roundtable. 

Immigration Cannot Solve the Fertility Crisis

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — 

With the federal government having long treated birthright citizenship as a requirement of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, President Trump’s executive order denying it to children of noncitizen, non-permanent resident mothers faces an uphill court battle. Still, opponents of birthright citizenship can hope that the result will elucidate Section 1’s much-debated “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” phrase and clarify whether an amendment is necessary to reinterpret it.

This issue is not trivial. My colleagues and I at the Center for Immigration Studies recently put together a preliminary estimate that illegal immigrant mothers gave birth to between 225,000 and 250,000 babies in 2023. That number is larger than the total number of births in any single state in 2023 except Texas and California. All of these children are automatically U.S. citizens, and through their birth they increase their parents’ chances of remaining in the country as well.

With the U.S.’s sub-replacement level fertility, isn’t having more children exactly what our country needs? “I want more babies in the United States of America,” Vice President J.D. Vance recently declared, and with good reason. Deaths will soon outnumber births in the U.S., bringing the risk of economic and cultural stagnation as our population ages.

“A crime against humanity”: Trump’s intentions for Gaza

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — 

On this episode of After America, Matt Duss, Executive Vice-President at the Washington DC-based Center for International Policy, joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss Trump’s Gaza announcement, the freeze on US development funding, and the new Cabinet’s approach to China.

This discussion was recorded on Friday 7 February 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: Matt Duss, Executive Vice-President, Centre for International Policy // @mattduss

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

Show notes:

‘Trump’s Gaza Proposal is Less Original Than He Thinks’ by Matthew Duss, Foreign Policy (February 2025)

Power: Training and Planning Tools

 — Organisation: The Commons Social Change Library — 

Introduction

Here are training and planning resources to help trainers and groups explore the many aspects of power, including:

  • different forms of power
  • patterns of power
  • power mapping and analysis

Other useful tools for trainers related to power include:

Coaching for Leadership

 — Organisation: The Commons Social Change Library — 

Introduction

How can you organise more efficiently and effectively? Coaching is a leadership practice that is essential to ensure the success of your campaigns – from the initial stages of a campaign strategy and managing your team, to building the right work processes and mapping your biggest challenges.

Here is an introduction to coaching from a session held at the FWD+Organise Conference in 2024 in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. This session explored best practice approaches based on the works of Marshall Ganz and the Leading Change Network. Learn more about coaching using the Marshall Ganz approach.

Leadership is enabling others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty. Coaching enables others. – Marshall Ganz

Coaching 101

Coaching is different from managing or mentoring. Whilst Managing focuses on performance and accountability and Mentoring focuses on guidance and providing perspective – Coaching focuses on facilitation of self-discovery and personal growth.

Natural Handcrafted Artisanal ... Streets?!

 — Publication: Not Just Bikes — 

Housing crisis pushes frontline services to limit in record summer surge

 — Organisation: Everybody's Home — 

Frontline organisations supporting people impacted by Australia’s housing crisis have faced their worst summer on record, experiencing an unprecedented surge in demand, according to Everybody’s Home.

The national housing campaign’s ‘Under Pressure’ sector survey of dozens of frontline organisations found that nearly nine in ten (87%) had a major increase in workload during December and January compared to previous years, due to the worsening housing crisis. 

The vast majority (98%) of organisations—including those in housing, homelessness, domestic violence, and other social and community services—reported increased workloads over the past year and expect demand to keep rising in 2025.

As a result of soaring demand for their help, three in four (76%) organisations reported more complex casework, seven in ten (72%) cited increased waitlists, while two in three (67%) said they’ve been unable to provide clients with long-term housing solutions. Three in five (63%) reported staff burnout and attrition as a major impact. 

Power and Connection – Exploring how Organisations Engage with Communities

 — Organisation: The Commons Social Change Library — 

Introduction 

The Loci of Power and Connection (LOPAC) framework is a tool for civil society organisations to use to consider their role and activities.

This article is a summary of The Loci of Power and Connection: a Framework for Exploring the Democratic Relationships of Civil Society Organisations published in the Interest Groups & Advocacy journal. 

Context

Pretty much every civil society organisation (CSO) I’ve come across over the years wants to do something good for a particular community. 

This can be as small scale as a local neighbourhood centre aiming to provide spaces where locals can connect, with each other as well as with any services they need. It can be at a much a wider scale, like climate action groups which campaign to save the whole planet from the potential impacts of global heating. Hell, even the National Rifle Association aims to represent the interests of its members – albeit those interests are far removed from mine, and dare I say yours.

Further development in the unfolding fight between the judicial branch and Trump executive branch

 — Author: Heidi Li Feldman — 

Earlier today, I wrote about the dangerous trajectory toward violent conflict set off by the Trump regime's refusal to comply with federal court orders. Now, the twenty-three states who won an injunction to pause Trump's efforts to stop funding federal programs have filed a motion with the court seeking emergency enforcement of this judgement in the face of repeated violations by Trump officials and staff. The lawsuit is New York v. Trump. Today's motion from the plaintiff-states triggers what I expect to be an evermore pitched battle between the federal district court and the Trump regime.

According to the new motion:

The Empire Self-Destructs

 — Author: Chris Hedges — 

Become a Firefighter for Democracy

 — Author: danah boyd — 
Dreamstime: lrochka

Wildfires are terrifying. They are especially gobsmackingly horrible when you add in hurricane-style winds. I will never forget the day of the Marshall Fire when my daughter stepped out of the car and literally blew down the street, forcing us to race after her and catch her. In those environments, it's easy to see how a wildfire can spread so fast and furious. My heart continues to go out to all in Los Angeles who are still navigating the immediate aftermath of this. We in Boulder know that it'll take a long time to recover - and that even after you rebuild your house, you will still shudder when the wind is strong.

Justice and Clemency, in That Order

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — 

After years of political division and the Democrats’ abuse of the justice system, President Trump’s promise of “retribution” has set the stage for a defining moment in American history. In 2016, Trump confronted a similarly delicate task of balancing retributive justice and national unity. After threatening to “lock her up,” Trump famously declined to pursue charges against Hillary Clinton. He stated that such a move would be too divisive and did not “want to hurt her.” But now, with the stakes even higher, the demands for accountability—and perhaps retribution—have grown louder and more urgent.

The challenge Trump faces lies in pursuing justice without weaponizing it, or even appearing to weaponize it. Accountability is essential to restoring public faith in our government, but it must be handled with fairness and restraint. As Trump himself recently clarified, retribution is not about vengeance—it is about fairness and restoring integrity to institutions that many Americans rightly see as having betrayed their trust. To meet this challenge and complete the restoration of due justice, clemency must work in tandem with justice.

Trump and his Attorney General, Pam Bondi, must offer not only strict consequences for wrongdoing but also a path to rehabilitation to social and political life for those willing to admit fully their violations of the public trust.

What is Long COVID?

 — Author: Julia Doubleday — 

Like many people with Long COVID, I spend a good amount of time learning about my disease. I spend an additional large chunk of time educating friends, family, the audience of my newsletter, and even my own doctors about Long COVID.

Without the help of clear, frequent, and reliable public health communications about what we’ve learned, the public remains ignorant about Long COVID. And that isn’t likely to change with Trump in the White House, Elon’s minions skulking around federal agencies like the NIH, and RFK Jr eyeing HHS; it’s likely to get much, much worse.

The Gauntlet is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Golden Calf of the Grand Old Party

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — 

If 21st-century Republicans have an idol, a graven image we collectively worship, it is Gross Domestic Product. All discussion about the flourishing of our nation is reduced to GDP, and its increase is seen as an ironclad refutation of anyone who questions whether America is, in fact, flourishing. But GDP, as today calculated, is largely fake, disconnected from the actual production of value. Worse, flourishing-as-quantity is a destructive way to view our society. It was once commonplace that the value of very many things, a mother’s love or a scarlet sunset, was immense, but unmeasurable. We have forgotten this, to our detriment. To truly make America great again, a crucial first step is dethroning GDP as a measure of our greatness.

Yes, there is some benefit to having in our quiver of analytical tools an aggregate way to view additions to economic value, the production of new goods and services. Think of 20 men and women who do nothing except eat and drink what is at hand. They produce no value; the GDP of their little society is zero. If, however, they begin to produce anything, goods or services, they produce value. How to measure such production has, however, generated different approaches, and the method we use today, while it serves our desire for simple ways of viewing the world, conceals truth in order to serve political ends.

The coming clash between the federal judiciary and the Trump regime

 — Author: Heidi Li Feldman — 

With organizations like Democracy Forward and Public Citizen winning court-ordered pauses in the various unlawful actions taken by Trump Cabinet officials kowtowing to Elon Musk's unlawful DOGE (which I urge everyone to call FIDO or DOGGY), we are quickly headed toward an unprecedented clash between two branches of the federal government.

For many Americans today, the idea of a government refusing to obey a federal court order or judgment summons up the image of federal troops in Alabama, enforcing the school integration required by Brown v. Board of Education. That clash pitted the state of Alabama against the federal judiciary. President Eisenhower, as chief executive of the federal government sent the U.S. army to Alabama to enforce the Supreme Court's ruling and related federal judicial orders. We now face a different configuration. Trump is not going to order enforcement of federal court orders in cases he or his Cabinet officials have lost.

Productivity is often mistaken for wages. What does it really mean? How does it work?

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — 

Australia’s productivity growth has reverted to the same stagnant pattern as before the pandemic, according to the Productivity Commission’s latest quarterly report.

Productivity is complex and often misunderstood in media and policy debates. So before we read too much into this latest data, here are six key things to understand about productivity.

1. It’s about quantities, not costs

Productivity “measures the rate at which output of goods and services are produced per unit of input”. So it’s about how many workers does it take to make how many widgets?

Most Australian workplace managers don’t know how to measure productivity correctly.

If someone says “higher wages mean lower productivity”, they don’t know what they’re talking about. Wages aren’t part of the productivity equation. People often cite “productivity” as a reason for a policy they like because they can’t say “we like higher profits”.

In fact, high wages can encourage firms to introduce new technology that improves productivity. If labour becomes more expensive, it may be more profitable for firms to invest in labour-saving technology.

But lower productivity isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes higher selling prices can lower productivity. It seems odd, but works like this: if prices for commodities such as iron ore or coal are high, it becomes profitable for mining companies to dig through more rock to get to it.

Trump’s Gaza Grab | Between the Lines

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — 

The Wrap with Amy Remeikis

On September 30, 1938 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stood outside 10 Downing Street and declared the Munich Agreement had appeased German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s territorial aims.

“I believe it is peace for our time,” he said.

“…Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.”

Germany violated the agreement almost immediately.  Six months later it had invaded all of Czechoslovakian territory and another six months after that, after German troops marched on Poland, the world was at war.

We know how that ended.

We know how history has judged the appeasement policy of 1930s leaders, which included both major parties in Australia, who held tight to the British empire’s coat tails even as other commonwealth nations pushed for independence.  Australia’s government did not ratify the 1931 Statute of Westminster, a British law which gave formal legislative independence to commonwealth nations, until 1942.  John Curtin was prompted to ratify it after the Fall of Singapore, which put to bed the deep belief Britain would be able to protect Australia in a war.

Australia began turning to America. And we’ve been turning blind eyes, ever since.

None of this should be new information to any student of history.

What may be new is the role of the British press during the appeasement policy.

Ensuring workers’ safety in the climate crisis

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — 

As I watched the fires in Los Angeles unfold in January this year, my mind of course reflected on the 1999-2000 Black Summer bushfires in Australia. Both these seasons have wrought significant damage to humans and other animals, and to land, infrastructure and property. There has been a huge personal, collective and financial toll involved. Climate change is of course driving these unprecedented events, and there are significant health impacts for people.

During these disasters we are conscious of the direct risk posed to fire fighters, but the air pollution generated presents health and safety challenges for workers and others more broadly. When working hard physically in any role we of course breath more deeply, taking in more smoke and ash from the fires. Ultimately, the 2019–2020 Black Summer fire period in Australia burned 24.3 million hectares, killed or displaced 3 billion animals, and killed 33 people directly — with a further 455 people killed indirectly due to the smoke and ash pollution, which enveloped four-fifths of Australia’s population.

Australia’s biggest companies turn their backs on flawed carbon offset scheme

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — 

Less than a week out from The Australia Institute’s 2025 Climate Integrity Summit, it’s been revealed that organisations like Telstra, Australia Post, PWC and the NRMA – and more than a hundred others – have walked away from the Federal Government’s Climate Active scheme.

Australians are fed up with polluters buying carbon credits of questionable quality rather than making real investments in real reductions in the amount of fossil fuels they are burning.

The public knows the difference between greenwashing and real action on climate change. Now, corporate Australia is getting the message. Many companies are choosing not to be associated with programs which lack integrity.

“Even PwC doesn’t respect the integrity of the accounting standards behind the Commonwealth Government’s own carbon offsetting scheme. When PwC is telling you to pull your socks up, you know you have an integrity problem,” said Richard Denniss, Executive Director of The Australia Institute.

“A growing number of Australians are sick of the greenwashing and accounting tricks, and simply want their governments to drive a real reduction in fossil fuel use. That’s why climate scientists and business people like Andrew Forrest are calling for real zero targets to replace the vague net zero targets which rely on carbon offsetting.

Afternoon of Day Seven of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025: Treasury Secretary Bessent’s Lawlessness & Sorry Readers- Read and Write Code Still Seems in Play

 — Author: Nathan Tankus — Publication: Notes on the Crisis — 

UPDATE 4:21 PM: MARKO ELEZ HAS RESIGNED. WALL STREET JOURNAL CLAIMS IT WAS OVER "RACIST POSTS". OBVIOUSLY NOT TRUE- WIRED, TALKING POINTS MEMO AND I GOT HIM. NEED TO REST, MORE TOMORROW

Afternoon of Day Seven of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025: Treasury Secretary Bessent’s Lawlessness & Sorry Readers- Read and Write Code Still Seems in Play

Notes on the Crises pivoted over the weekend into around the clock coverage of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025

The Return of Regime Politics

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — 

The Trump Administration’s decision to contest the dominant interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment is a sign that we might be living in an era of regime politics.

Near the beginning of his Crisis of the Two Constitutions, Charles Kesler distinguishes “normal politics” from “regime politics”:

Normal politics takes place within an accepted political and constitutional order, and concerns means, not ends. That is, the purposes and limits of politics are agreed; the debate is over how to achieve those purposes while observing those limits. By contrast, regime politics is about who rules and for the sake of what ends or principles. It unsettles any existing political order, as well as its limits. It raises anew the basic questions of who counts as a citizen, what are the goals of the political community, and what do we honor or revere together as a people.

Day Seven of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025: “Yours and WIRED's Reporting is Actually Doing Something”

 — Author: Nathan Tankus — Publication: Notes on the Crisis — 
Day Seven of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025: “Yours and WIRED's Reporting is Actually Doing Something”

Notes on the Crises pivoted over the weekend into around the clock coverage of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025

Read Part 0, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4

What’s driving the wealth inequality crisis?

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — 

On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Australia Institute Senior Economist and Elinor Johnston-Leek discuss how our housing and superannuation policies are fuelling wealth inequality.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 6 February 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.

Host: Matt Grudnoff, Senior Economist, the Australia Institute and Centre for Future Work // @mattgrudnoff

Host: Elinor Johnston-Leek, Senior Content Producer, the Australia Institute // @elinorjohnstonleek

Show notes:

Superannuation tax concessions are making inequality worse by Greg Jericho, the Australia Institute (July 2024)

Income and wealth inequality in Australia by David Richardson and Frank Stilwell, the Australia Institute (July 2024)

The American Mind Podcast: The Roundtable Episode #253

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — 

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.

Belt and DOGE | The Roundtable Ep. 253

John T Harvey - Pluralism in Economics

 — Organisation: Modern Money Lab, YouTube — 

The Power of Public Comment: A Love Letter to Your Community

 — Organisation: Strong Towns — 

Arab Regimes and the Betrayal of Palestine (w/ Farah El-Sharif) | The Chris Hedges Report

 — Author: Chris Hedges — 

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

Farah El-Sharif, writer, academic and Visiting Scholar at Stanford, is uncompromisingly blunt in her assessment of the Middle East. The decades of repression faced by an entire people have produced a fragmented society—culturally and through colonially imposed borders. To help understand why the Muslim world is so broken, corrupt and full of contradictions, El Sherif joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report.

Conflict Transformation in the Personal and in the Political

 — Organisation: The Commons Social Change Library — 

Introduction

In our work as organisers and campaigners, there is often an element of debate or conflict in our work, especially when it comes to shifting power and lobbying external decision-makers. But what about conflict within our spaces? How we approach it, hold each other accountable, and move through it requires practice.

This article reflects on key learnings from a workshop facilitated by Noura Mansour, a Palestinian activist, and Anisha Senaratne, a Naarm based facilitator, at the FWD+Organise Conference in Naarm/Melbourne in December 2024.

The workshop explored the intersections of personal and political conflict, applying a decolonial lens and lived experiences to examine how conflict transformation can be a powerful tool in both our personal and political lives.

Leaning into conflict is political. – Anisha Senaratne

Decolonial Theory 

Noura and Anisha began the workshop with a grounding in decolonial theory.

From a decolonial perspective, conflict is not just something to resolve or manage – it is an opportunity to transform systems and cultures that perpetuate harm and inequality.

Birthright Citizenship and the American Founders

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — 

Frederick Douglass once denounced the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford as constituting “an open, glaring, and scandalous tissue of lies.” For the massive violence it did to both the Constitution and to the principles upon which that charter is based, that opprobrium is richly deserved.

Forty-one years later, the Court issued a decision that deserves, but has largely avoided, the same kind of vituperation. In United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the Court maintained that the Constitution, particularly the 14th Amendment, incorporated the British common law doctrine of birthright citizenship, and that America’s Founding Fathers intended that this doctrine should prevail in America.

For quality of constitutional and historical reasoning, Wong Kim Ark is every bit as defective as Dred Scott. Yet while Dred Scott is universally condemned, Wong Kim Ark’s conclusions are generally accepted, even if few today are familiar with the case. The pernicious shadow of Wong Kim Ark continues to poison our law and policy regarding immigration.

Day Six of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025: “Treasury has been denying that they gave Marko write access, but I am looking at his access request right now”

 — Author: Nathan Tankus — Publication: Notes on the Crisis — 
Day Six of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025: “Treasury has been denying that they gave Marko write access, but I am looking at his access request right now”

If you are a current or former career Bureau of the Fiscal Service Employee, especially if you’re a legacy IT programmer with years of experience and especially if you are a COBOL programmer currently working on the PAM, SPS or any other adjacent team, contact me over email or over signal — linked here. My Signal username is “NathanTankus.01”. Legal counsel sources and payments level sources at the Federal Reserve are also helpful. I am also looking for sources at FINCEN

Afternoon of Day Six of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025: Changing the Treasury Payments Source Code & the Treasury’s “DOGE” gag order

 — Author: Nathan Tankus — Publication: Notes on the Crisis — 
Afternoon of Day Six of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025: Changing the Treasury Payments Source Code & the Treasury’s “DOGE” gag order

If you are a current or former career Bureau of the Fiscal Service Employee, especially if you’re a legacy IT programmer with years of experience and especially if you are a COBOL programmer currently working on the PAM, SPS or any other adjacent team, contact me over email or over signal — linked here. My Signal username is “NathanTankus.01”. Legal counsel sources and payments level sources at the Federal Reserve are also helpful. I am also looking for sources at FINCEN

02/05/2025 Market Update

 — Organisation: Applied MMT — 

“Defeats will be defeats.”

 — Author: Patricia Roberts-Miller — 
copy of book--Foreign Relations of the US, Vietnam, 1964

“Defeats will be defeats and lassitude will be lassitude. But we can improve our propaganda.” (Carl Rowan, Director of the US Information Agency, June 1964, FRUS #189 I: 429).

While Uni Vice-Chancellors rake in millions, young researchers struggle to survive

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — 

Australia’s higher education system is broken. University Vice-Chancellors – the CEOs of today’s corporatised higher education system – are among the highest paid in the world. Meanwhile, students suffer from expensive degrees, expanding debts and meagre income support, and staff are subjected to job insecurity, casualisation, hours of unpaid work and even outright employment law contraventions.

None of this is inevitable. Government choices matter, Australia created the current system, and Australia can create a better system that prioritises students and workers. Other countries have shown that this can work. In the words of Australia Institute Executive Director Richard Denniss

“…just consider the fact that in Norway, they tax the fossil fuel industry and give kids free university education, in Australia we subsidise the fossil fuel industry and charge kids a fortune to go to university.”

MAGA Feeding Frenzy Has Caused a Constitutional Crisis

 — Author: Thomas Zimmer — 

Climate Adaptation Fair Resources

 — Organisation: The Commons Social Change Library — 

Introduction

The Commons librarians have put together a handout of recommended resources for the Climate Adaptation Fair hosted by Friends of the Earth in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia on 8 February 2025.

More information about the event here.

It’ll be a day of celebrating and uplifting community-led climate adaptation! There will be information on adapting to locked-in climate change impacts – how we keep each other safe. Those already implementing projects in their communities will share their story and knowledge, so others can be inspired and learn how to do the same in their communities.

Hands off our elections

 — Organisation: The Australia Institute — 

On this episode of Follow the Money, Democracy & Accountability Director Bill Browne joins us to discuss the latest political donations data and why tens of thousands of Australians are concerned about the Government’s proposed electoral changes.

This discussion was recorded on Tuesday 4 February 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: Bill Browne, Director, Democracy & Accountability, the Australia Institute // @browne90

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

Show notes: 

Electoral Reform Bill analysis by Bill Browne and Joshua Black, the Australia Institute (February 2025)

SIGN NOW: Protect our elections!, the Australia Institute

Theme music: Blue Dot Sessions

Are Investment Tax Breaks Effective? Australian Evidence

 — Organisation: Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) — 
Using Australian tax and survey data, we exploit discrete eligibility cut-offs to estimate the effect of several business investment tax breaks, including tax credits and instant asset write-offs, implemented over the past 15 years. Policies implemented during the global financial crisis increased investment. Responses are larger for unincorporated businesses, possibly reflecting reduced efficacy of investment stimulus under Australia's dividend imputation system. However, we find mostly no evidence of an effect for other investment policies, including those implemented to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Cincinnatus Series: Higher Education Reform Part I

 — Organisation: The Claremont Institute — 

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.

Higher Education Reform Part I | Cincinnatus Series Ep. 1

Kicking off the Cincinnatus Series, Claremont Institute president Ryan Williams is joined by Inez Stepman, Scott Yenor, and David Azerrad to discuss leftist agendas within universities, and the opportunity for state legislatures to pull the reins and reverse course. Among the levers for dismantling the radical ideological infrastructures are the creation of state-controlled accreditation agencies, funding restrictions, and a renewed focus on student outcomes. The guests discuss these topics, potential pitfalls, and more!

Recommended reading:

How Trump Can Make Universities Great Again

Suing to stop the Trump-Musk coup

 — Author: Heidi Li Feldman — 

The point of this post is to offer some explanation of a lawsuit filed yesterday, February 3, Alliance for Retired Americans v. Bessent. The case may slow or stop Trump and Musk from implementing a constitutional coup, though from its title it might seem otherwise. The named defendant is Scott Bessent, in his capacity as Secretary of the Treasury. The plaintiffs are two unions and a civil society association devoted to retirees' interests and two unions. They are represented by two cause law firms: Public Citizen Litigation Group, which is dedicated to consumer protection and State Democracy Defenders Action, dedicated to good government. The suit seeks to enjoin Bessent from continuing to give Musk and his minions personal and financial information about millions of Americans and to require the Treasury Department to remediate the damage already done.

Tariffs, Growth, and Inflation: What No One is Talking About

 — Organisation: Applied MMT — 
Tariffs, Growth, and Inflation: What No One is Talking About

The discussion around tariffs often gets caught up in political rhetoric, but if we take a step back and analyze the mechanics from a macroeconomic perspective, there are two key points that often get overlooked. Understanding these nuances requires thinking through the lens of post-Keynesian, Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)-influenced macroeconomics—an approach that sheds light on how tariffs impact financial flows, growth, and inflation.

The Recent Tariff Announcement and Market Reaction

Last Friday, Trump announced the implementation of tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China—25% on Mexico, 25% on Canada, and 10% on China. The announcement created immediate market turmoil over the weekend, leading to significant drops in futures markets when they opened on Sunday night. However, by mid-afternoon on Monday, Trump had paused tariffs on Canada and Mexico after discussions with both nations, leading to a near-full recovery in the markets.

Despite the volatility, the S&P 500 remains only 2% off its all-time highs. This resilience underscores an important point: while tariff-induced uncertainty can cause short-term disruptions, the long-term macroeconomic impact is what really matters. That’s why it’s crucial to break down what tariffs actually do in an economy and how they might affect growth and inflation.

Writing is hard; publishing is harder.

 — Author: Patricia Roberts-Miller — 
marked up draft of a book ms


In movies, struggling writers are portrayed as trying to come up with ideas. In my experience as a writer and teacher of writing, that isn’t the hard part. Ideas are easy, and are much better in our head than on the paper, so a very, very hard part of writing is to getting the smart and elegant ideas in our head to be comprehensible to someone else, let alone either persuasive or admired. But the even harder part is submitting something we’ve written—sending it off to be judged. It feels like the first day of sending a child to middle school—will they be bullied? Will they make friends? Will they change beyond recognition?

Co-Living Provides Community, Not Just Housing

 — Organisation: Strong Towns —