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The oil and gas industry loves to tell everyone they pay a lot of tax, but the evidence tells a very different story.

The oil and gas industry claim their tax pays for nurses and other public sector services, but new Australia Institute research shows that nurses pay more in income tax than the oil and gas industry pay in company tax and Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT).

Over the last 10 years, Australia’s nurses have paid $52 billion, or an average of $5.2 billion per year, in tax.

By contrast, the oil and gas industry, who can’t stop talking about how much tax they pay, has paid $45 billion or on average $4.5 billion per year.

It’s worth noting that almost all of the oil and gas industry’s payments have occurred in the last two years, since Russia invaded Ukraine and pushed energy prices to record levels.

While official ATO figures haven’t been released yet, the oil and gas lobby group Australian Energy Producers claims that its members paid $11.1 billion in 2022-23 and $13.9 billion in 2023-24. These lobby group figures are included in the above chart. If assessing the average annual tax payment of the oil and gas industry based on only ATO figures, that exclude the Russia war-linked windfalls, then the average is $2.8 billion per year over the ten years to 2020-21.

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

The American corporate coup d'état is almost complete as the first weeks of the Trump administration exemplify. If there has been one person who saw this coming, and has taken courageous action over the years to prevent it, it would be Ralph Nader. The former presidential candidate, consumer advocate and corporate critic joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to chronicle his life’s work battling the corporate takeover of the country and how Americans can still fight back today despite the growing repression from the White House.

“The sign of a decaying democracy is that when the forces of plutocracy, oligarchy, multinational corporations increase their power, in all sectors of our society, the resistance gets weaker,” Nader tells Hedges.

What do a windswept town on the plains of North Dakota and a sandy beach hamlet in Florida have in common? Aside from the fact they’re both in the U.S., they only require students to show proof of identification, residency, and an up-to-date vaccine card to enter their schools. With the exception of some states that allow for vaccination waivers, this policy has led to an unprecedented number of illegal migrant children gaining admittance to public schools across the country.

Though statistics on these demographic movements have been difficult to find, what is available suggests that the number of children of illegal immigrants attending publicly funded schools is staggering. The situation is becoming clearer with an uptick in deportation, and the Trump Administration’s stemming the tide of illegal entries into the U.S. The strain on public resources has been intensely felt—and in many school districts, the strain has become downright catastrophic.

Jacob Conway, Natalia Fischl-Lanzoni, and Matthew Plosser

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.

Trump’s Cards | The Roundtable Ep. 257

On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Elinor discuss the end of Australia’s per capita recession, why the humble chickpea deserves some of the credit, and why DOGE is looking like a disaster for the American economy.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 6 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.

Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute and Centre for Future Work // @grogsgamut

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

Show notes:

‘The Reserve Bank should be looking at these numbers and wondering why it waited until February to act’ by Greg Jericho, Guardian Australia (March 2025)

On Super Bowl Sunday, President Trump announced that the penny, a coin that has been in circulation since 1792, will no longer be minted. For as long as America has had a penny, it has also had a national debt, and there has recently been a discussion of how much debt is too much.

The penny has become a microcosm of our financial issues. We collect a penny in revenue but incur three cents in costs. The penny-minting business runs a deficit, just like much else in Washington.

In order to keep our financial system operating smoothly, it is time for Washington to address the question of the debt limit.

Always a political minefield, Congress is supposed to set the credit limit on its own credit card. But for eight of the last ten years, it has given itself unlimited credit by suspending the limit altogether. Congress is now considering raising the debt limit beyond the existing $36 trillion.

But how far can Congress safely go?

In our personal lives, we are all aware that there is a limit to how much can be borrowed on a house or automobile. A banker will ask two questions before approving your loan: how much you earn and what you owe. He is seeking to determine if you have the capacity to handle a certain amount of debt.

Gentrification:  Here’s your all-purpose list, from artists to zoning, of who and what’s to blame

We first published this list in 2019, but the realm of suggested scapegoats has expanded, and now includes fire, gray paint, little libraries and microbreweries.

When bad things happen, we look around for someone to blame.  And when it comes to gentrification, which is loosely defined as somebody not like you moving into your neighborhood, there’s no shortage of things to blame.  We’ve compiled a long—but far from exhaustive—list of the things that people have blamed for causing gentrification. (This task has been made easier by the seemingly inexhaustible editorial/journalistic appetite for stories pitched as exploring the gentrification of “X”, although an essay at Jacobin branding graphic novels as the “gentrification of comic books” seems to represent the moment that this meme has jumped its shark.)

Introduction

Protest is powerful! This guide connects you with resources about the impact of protest, how to organise protests, making protest strategic, and protecting the rights and safety of protesters.

I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept. – Angela Davis

Before you jump in we’d like to remind you that protest can take many forms. Gene Sharp defined 198 Methods of Noviolent Action and there are many more. All kinds of people engage in protest, for all sorts of reasons. Protests can channel outrage and anger as well as grief, compassion, solidarity, humour and more.

Protests are important for the messages they send to powerholders, but also for the connections between the people taking action. Feeling part of something bigger than ourselves, instead of being isolated individuals, can be empowering and life changing.

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.

Cell Phones in Schools | Cincinnatus Series Ep. 5

Independent Senator David Pocock and Tony Windsor AM, former independent parliamentarian who held the balance of power during the Gillard minority government, join Amy Remeikis to discuss how they negotiate with the major parties, the growth of the independent and minor party vote, and why there’s so much fearmongering about minority governments in Australia.

This discussion was recorded live on Wednesday 26 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: Senator David Pocock, Independent Senator for the Australian Capital Territory // @davidpocock

Guest: Tony Windsor AM, former Independent Member for New England // @TonyHWindsor

Host: Amy Remeikis, Chief Political Analyst, the Australia Institute // @amyremeikis

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

Show notes:

Franziska Paul and Andrew Cumbers
More “Roundtable: Public Banking
A Radically Open Future? The US Public Banking Movement and the Creation of Economic Alternatives”

The grotesque banalization of Hitler and Hitlerism proceeds apace. The American Left’s discourse is replete with comparisons of President Donald J. Trump to Adolf Hitler and constant evocations of a dangerous “fascist” threat to democracy supposedly coming from an altogether illiberal Right. Kamala Harris labeled Trump a fascist and Nazi sympathizer in a CNN town hall meeting in October, and she and the mainstream media continued to pile on until the November election.

When Trump held a rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on October 27, a little over a week before the election, many Democrats, and the increasingly hysterical talking heads on CNN and MSNBC, compared that rally to a meeting of the pro-Nazi German-American Bund in that same venue in 1939. Completely disregarding the impressively multiracial character of the MAGA supporters gathered to hear Trump, as well as the large contingent of Orthodox and Hassidic Jews also in attendance, the media incessantly identified Trump with Hitler and “fascism.” Not only was the deep-seated evil that was National Socialism trivialized beyond recognition, and not only was fascism crudely (and absurdly) identified with any opposition to a hard Left agenda, but crucial distinctions between fascism, National Socialism, and democratic conservatism were elided in a deeply misleading manner.

By Anna Goulden

Home to over 40% of Bangladesh’s urban population, Dhaka is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. After being voted the 7th most ‘unliveable’ city globally by the Economist Intelligence Unit in 2023, public officials in Dhaka are under increasing pressure to improve quality of lives for the citizens they serve. At the same time, the city is facing a range of environmental, political and demographic challenges. And its population continues to grow, exacerbated by climate-displacement and uneven economic opportunities driving much of the country’s population to its capital.

Jaison R. Abel, Richard Deitz, and Ben Hyman