New analysis reveals that renters living in Australia’s capital cities are spending on average nearly $15,000 more a year to rent a house since the pandemic.
To kick off the first day of Anti-Poverty Week (13-19 October), Everybody’s Home has analysed SQM Research weekly asking rents data, showing the shocking annual rise in rents that have been smashing Australians across the country since January 2020.
The analysis shows renters in capital cities are on average paying $14,700 more a year to rent a house, and $9,600 more a year to rent a unit compared to the beginning of 2020.
Sydney and Perth have seen the steepest rent rises, with the annual increase well above the capital city average for both units and houses. Adelaide and Brisbane unit rents are also above the capital city average.
To coincide with the Australian Government’s Nature Positive Summit this week, we published a full-page ad in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times to highlight that beneath the spin, current government policies are overwhelmingly “nature negative”.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has talked a big game — she recently claimed that Australia has made “good progress” towards becoming nature positive. However, just two weeks before the summit she approved three giant new coal mine extensions that will cover an area almost the size of Sydney. That makes seven new coal mines and over 200 new gas wells approved under this government.
Polly Hemming, Director of our Climate and Energy Program, appeared on the 7am podcast to explain that so long as the government keeps doing more harm, it won’t even be “nature neutral”, let alone “nature positive”. And Richard Denniss, our Executive Director, appeared on ABC News Radio to reiterate that we’re not going to be “nature positive” until we stop logging native forests and approving new coal and gas projects.
This essay was written by one of my college writing students at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas, California. I am so grateful to share this beautiful piece of scholarship with you. These students do not have Internet access, only paper, a golf pencil, and reading that I give them.
A report by the National Anti-Corruption Commission into payments to a former Department of Home Affairs official by a company with a lucrative contract with Home Affairs raises more questions than answers.
Bill Browne, Director of the Australia Institute’s Democracy and Accountability Program, says the report is disappointing when it comes to transparency and public expectations.
Parliamentarians, academics and former whistleblowers will be among those meeting at the Australia Institute’s Transparency Summit next week to discuss how to address Australia’s culture of secrecy, including how to strengthen the NACC.
A survey of 1,005 Australians was conducted by Dynata between 21 and 23 May, 2024, about the circumstances under which the National Anti-Corruption Commission should be allowed to hold public hearings.
Riley Gaines is at it again! This time she appears to be paying collegiate sports teams to forfeit games against a school that may or may not have a trans volleyball player.
The rock is Israel’s intransigence and the implacability of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s coalition partners.
The hard place is the immense suffering of the Palestinian and, now, the Lebanese people.
“Acceptance” of Israel’s extreme brutality in the assertion of its right to national security and “concern” at the slaughter of 30,000 non-combatants, including over 10,000 children, are irreconcilable.
Trying to steer between the two results in the impotence and timidity that distinguishes the procession of state leaders and foreign ministers now talking at the UN General Assembly.
Its repeated claims to indispensability and world leadership notwithstanding, the US is as impotent as its allies.
Despite its repeated efforts at brokering, it has been little more than a bystander since 1948.
Netanyahu dismisses President Joe Biden’s suggestions and Anthony Blinken’s advice with scorn, preferring instead to take the Middle East to the brink of war, sure in his belief that the US is powerless to apply sanctions, cut off arms and demand a ceasefire.
Israel is certain that the US will not permit it to fail.
But driving Hamas and, now, Hezbollah further underground – literally – while reducing neighbourhoods to rubble will only increase the desperation of the Palestinian and Lebanese people and encourage further acts of terrorism and missile assault by both.
It will thus diminish rather than strengthen Israel’s long-term security.
An academic report released today outlining the failure of carbon offsets has found Australia’s biggest carbon credit method is barely removing any greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
The report adds to the significant body of independent analysis demonstrating that Australia’s carbon credits are not effectively storing or avoiding carbon emissions, and when used as carbon offsets they are increasing emissions.
Making traffic fines proportional to drivers’ incomes, as is done in Finland, is a fairer system according to a new report from The Australia Institute, supported by Uniting Vic Tas and Financial Counselling Victoria.
With cost of living already pushing many Australians into financial difficulties, traffic fines can force low-income people into choosing between essential spending and paying fines. By contrast, traffic fines are a minor annoyance for Australia’s high-income earners.
A new report from The Australia Institute outlines a more equitable model for speeding fines based on a Finnish proportional fine system.
Key points:
● Finland has a minimum fine amount but otherwise calculates a fine based on a driver’s income and whether they have dependents
● This is better for equality, and sometimes catches headlines when really big fines are issued to billionaires
● Australian states are already moving in this direction: in NSW there is already a Centrelink discount.
Lower-income drivers would see average speeding fines decrease in every state and territory, while people with the highest income bracket would see their speeding fines increase.
“For a person on a low income, speeding fines can be crippling,” said Alice Grundy, an Australia Institute research manager and report co-author.
“Having a billionaire pay the same $200 speeding fine as a low-income earner is unfair.
BFLR 7th Annual FinTech Issue (due May 1, 2025), BFLR FinTech Fellowship (due May 1, 2025), and BFLR Law Student FinTech Writing Program (due June 16, 2025)
On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Hayden discuss the government’s ‘Nature Positive’ summit, Australia’s housing debate, and a new push to end youth award rates.
Greg Jericho is Chief Economist at the Australia Institute and the Centre for Future Work and popular columnist of Grogonomics with Guardian Australia. Each week on Dollars & Sense, Greg dives into the latest economic figures to explain what they can tell us about what’s happening in the economy, how it will impact you and where things are headed.
Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute and Centre for Future Work // @GrogsGamut
Host: Hayden Starr, Digital Media Manager, the Australia Institute // @haydenthestarr
Our new report, developed with BLAM, takes a critical look at how racial trauma can be understood and effectively addressed through the development of anti-racist therapy that centres the voices and experiences of racialised people. Racial trauma in the UK is not just a personal burden, but a public health emergency. It stems from persistent […]
On this episode of Follow the Money, Margaret Beavis, Co-Director of Quit Nukes, and Adam Gottschalk, Anne Kantor Research Fellow at the Australia Institute, join us to discuss how some superannuation funds invest Australians’ retirement savings nuclear weapons.
This discussion was recorded live on Friday 4 October 2024 and things may have changed since recording.
Guest: Margaret Beavis, Co-Director, Quit Nukes // @margaretbeavis
Guest: Adam Gottschalk, Anne Kantor Research Fellow, the Australia Institute // @adamchalksitup
Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director, the Australia Institute // @ebony_bennett
The current world order is designed to be complex and confusing. Its function enshrines the power of our rulers, who purposely obscure its origins and underlying philosophy. Politicians, the media, so-called intellectuals at think tanks — along with the inertia of systemic falsehoods — perpetuate this veiled system. Neoliberalism has maintained its dominance through exploiting the many to sustain the prosperity of the few.
To mark PPE@10 this feature continues a series of posts to celebrate ten years of Progress in Political Economy (PPE) as a blog that has addressed the worldliness of critical political economy issues since 2014.
Feminist political economists all have a friend called Tom (or Richard. Maybe not Harry). Our Tom comes to us with questions about how class and gender collide or coincide in various aspects of the contemporary global economy. When the Economist released a report on a widening divergence in voting behaviours between young men and women, our Tom shared it in the group chat, cognizant that we had been interested in what appeared like rising rates of misogyny among young men in Australia and the implications for national security.
As feminists working at the intersection of critical political economy and international security, we’ve long been frustrated by the mainstream’s recognition that gender plays some role in the rise of extremist ideologies and violent extremist actions without a clear understanding of how and why.
I had a piece ready to go tomorrow covering the shocking story of the Federal Reserve nearly abandoning its 13(3) emergency lending authority in 1967. But I’ve moved it to next Tuesday because of the urgency of the moment. Obviously it's very unlikely for the Federal Reserve to jump in the middle of the Hurricane Milton disaster response but the situation is genuinely so dire that I am hoping pushing them right at this moment could lead them to seriously think about it. And in the bigger picture, criticism for their failure now makes it more possible in the future. Meanwhile the 30,000 pages of FOIAed Federal Reserve Board Minutes will come right after
UK-based anti-trans activist organizations For Women Scotland Sport and Sex Matters are asking on social media for reports on any trans athletes or teams who might support trans athletes, for presumably normal reasons!
On this episode of After America, Allan Behm, Director of the International & Security Affairs program at the Australia Institute, joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the situation in the Middle East and the sense of helplessness creeping into American policymaking.
This discussion was recorded on Friday 4 October 2024 and things may have changed since recording.
Guest: Allan Behm, Director, International & Security Affairs program, the Australia Institute // @Mirandaprorsus
Host: Emma Shortis, Senior Research for International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @EmmaShortis
The Anti-Trans Disinformation Handbook is for the media, civil society, and Governments for combating anti-trans disinformation.
Trans and gender diverse people deserve the freedom to be themselves, to enjoy the same rights and protections as everyone else, and to feel safe in their communities.
However, in recent years, our community has increasingly become the target of campaigns to erode our rights, our access to health care, and our freedom to live our lives happily and authentically. A major strategy of these campaigns is disinformation.
Disinformation is false information and media, produced with the intention to mislead the reader, often for political purposes. Anti-trans groups spread disinformation about trans and gender diverse people, our health care, and rights in order to sway public opinion and policy against the trans community.
Their goal is to prevent our community from having the freedom to live our lives, and to build popular support for a highly regressive political agenda. Many of the groups involved in anti-trans campaigns are also opposed to reproductive rights, LGBTSBIQA+ equality, and an inclusive society.
Non-government organisations from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have signed an open letter urging Australia to stop new fossil gas projects.
The letter was published as a full-page advertisement in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times, coordinated by The Australia Institute.
The groups say that Asia’s energy systems are shifting to use more renewable energy and less gas. They highlight that new gas projects will exacerbate the climate crisis, undermine regional security and work against the interests of both Asia and Australia.
Key points in the open letter:
Japan can achieve 90% clean electricity by 2035 and already on-sells Australian gas to third countries.
Solar and wind are already cheaper than gas-fired electricity in Korea, with energy storage costs also declining quickly.
Taiwan is implementing a carbon price and already has a rooftop solar mandate, policies that will reduce the role of gas in its energy system.
“This letter is about telling Australians that Asia is serious about climate action and phasing out fossil fuels,” said Yasuko Suzuki of Japan’s Kiko Network of community-based climate groups.
“The science is as clear in Asia as it is in Australia — real climate action means no new fossil gas.”
“The dirty gas projects proposed by Japanese companies in Australia will damage communities in Australia, Japan and around the world,” said Ayumi Fukakusa from Friends of the Earth, Japan.
How do you build a broad coalition, a united front, despite frictions in ideology and political positioning? Are there examples from other countries that have been able to do this?
The above question was posed to members of the Global Grassroots Support Network (GGSN) and they have generously shared their insights with you below.
Community Answers
Recognize that Broad Coalitions are not Long-term
I can tell you first hand, it is impossible to maintain a broad coalition for a long period of time. Unless you find some sponsor who’s willing to pay and keep everybody together. Other than that, coalitions get formed when there’s a common cause. You find the common denominator.
What is it that brings you all together, and that’s what you can work on. It’s going to have to be something that’s very general and vague, because the more specific you get, the more particular it gets to each individual group. So at this point you’re wanting to build on ideology.
A full-page advertisement published this morning by the Australia Institute warns that government policies and actions are overwhelmingly “nature negative” despite the NSW and Federal governments co-hosting the world’s first “Global Nature Positive Summit” in Sydney today.
Published this morning in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times, the advertisement highlights that Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek approved extensions to three major coal mines covering an area almost the size of Sydney just weeks before the summit.
As interest in understanding the economic impacts of climate change grows, the climate economics and finance literature has developed a number of indices to quantify climate risks. Various approaches have been employed, utilizing firm-level emissions data, financial market data (from equity and derivatives markets), or textual data. Focusing on the latter approach, we conduct descriptive analyses of six text-based climate risk indices from published or well-cited papers. In this blog post, we highlight the differences and commonalities across these indices.
Helen Clark ONZ joins Dr Emma Shortis on this episode of After America to discuss the US-China relationship and how Australia and New Zealand can play a constructive role in the Asia Pacific.
This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 2 October 2024 and things may have changed since recording.
Join President José Ramos-Horta at 6pm AEDT, Tuesday 8 October for an evening of conversation at the Sydney Opera House, presented by the Australia Institute as part of its 30 Years of Big Ideas.
Guest: The Rt Hon Helen Clark ONZ, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and United Nations Development Programme Administrator // @HelenClarkNZ
Host: Emma Shortis, Senior Research for International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @EmmaShortis
How do we make it accessible and support individuals to share their stories, especially if they do not feel safe doing so?
The above question was posed to members of the Global Grassroots Support Network (GGSN) and they have generously shared their insights with you below.
Community Answers
1. Identify the Purpose for Sharing and Risks Involved
I think it is helpful to firstly be clear on what people want to get out of it e.g. you can’t promise they’ll get a policy change from sharing their lived experience. You need to provide a high level of support with a focus appropriate to what the person wants to get out of it.
They’ll need different support (like comms training for the first one, or therapeutic support for the second one).
Don’t underestimate how emotional it might be even if they don’t expect it, include aftercare as part of the package.
Make sure there is a clear risk assessment and do it with the person so they can think through the risks and safety plan/ decide not to share their story.
How do you simplify your message and discourse for your target group when creating a campaign message?
As civil society organizations, we sometimes create our message in a format that is difficult to understand to create a rights-oriented language, which creates a barrier to access to our campaign target group.
The above question was posed to members of the Global Grassroots Support Network (GGSN) and they have generously shared their insights with you below.
A guide to the Coalition Building topic in the Commons Social Change Library, including key concepts.
Introduction
Welcome to the Coalition Building topic in the Commons Social Change Library. To help navigate within the broad scope of this topic, we start by highlighting some key concepts used to discuss coalitions. Following this, we have collated introductory resources, frameworks, tools and guides for building capacity in coalition relationships, resources for understanding the roles and tensions that can emerge in coalitions, and examples that highlight lessons for building coalitions that contribute to lasting change.
We are very grateful to have learned from Dr. Anna Szilágyi, a long-term partner and friend of Over Zero, about the power of labels, metaphors, and divisive linguistics in either facilitating conflict or unlocking our shared humanity.
Dr. Szilágyi is an expert in communication, media, and politics who explores the linguistic dynamics of public speech and private interactions. She has taught classes at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Hong Kong, Central European University in Budapest, and Saint Louis University in Madrid. Her writings have appeared in academic journals and books, including The Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict and Advances in the History of Rhetoric. She has also written articles and provided commentaries for media outlets in different parts of the world, including Global Voices,Público, Quartz, Rappler, and Vice News. Her global educational program, “Words Break Bones” equips journalists, professionals, and citizens with crucial linguistic skills to detect and counter patterns of wounding, divisive, and discriminatory speech.
Covering political violence and violent extremism can be a fraught endeavor for the media. In an environment of polarization, social tension, and widespread misinformation, it is essential but also challenging to avoid inadvertently spreading false narratives, fueling conflict, or providing platforms to extremists.
In partnership with Protect Democracy, we’re working with organizations like the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection to compile best practices into guides for newsrooms looking to accurately and responsibly cover political violence and violent extremism in a range of contexts.
Each guide includes core principles, key questions reporters and editors can ask to guide coverage, examples of thoughtful coverage from a range of outlets, and links to additional resources on conflict sensitive reporting.
Additional guides will be posted on this page as they are developed.
