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The Wrap with Dr Emma Shortis

More often than not, Australia’s relationship with the United States highlights and reinforces the worst in our politics, and the worst in theirs.

Here at home, the week began with some shamefully racist politicking by federal parliamentarians. A “hardline” Liberal Party immigration proposal was “leaked” to the Australian media. Straight from the Trump playbook, the proposal mooted banning immigrants from 37 regions, deporting 100,000 asylum seekers and visa holders, and even vetting the social media of aspiring migrants. To followers of American politics, that might sound very familiar.

Photo: AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi

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On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Angus discuss why Coles is in court over its pricing, whether it’s time to panic with government debt set to hit $1 trillion, and the role of corporate profits in driving inflation.

This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 18 February 2026.

What we owe the water: It’s time for a fossil fuel treaty by Kumi Naidoo, is available now for just $19.95. Use the code ‘PODVP’ at checkout to get free shipping.

You can also subscribe to the Vantage Point series to get four essays a year on some of the most pressing issues facing Australia and the world.

Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute // @grogsgamut

Host: Angus Blackman, Executive Producer, the Australia Institute // @angusrb

Show notes:

The results show that support for taxing gas export cuts across party lines, including among voters often seen at opposite ends of the political spectrum, such as the Greens and One Nation.

Australia Institute research shows a 25 per cent tax on gas exports could raise  $17 billion every year, while incentivising producers to prioritise the supply of gas to domestic customers.

The findings come ahead of the upcoming Farrer by-election, expected to be contested by the Liberals, Nationals, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, and independent candidates.

Statement: “Gas export corporations should pay a flat 25% tax on gas exports” 

“Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of liquefied natural gas,” said Dr Richard Denniss, co-CEO of The Australia Institute.

On this episode of After America, Jon B Wolfsthal, former Special Assistant to President Obama for National Security Affairs, joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the expiry of the New START nuclear weapons treaty between the United States and Russia, AUKUS and Australia’s nuclear capabilities, and why “nuclear weapons are back with avengeance”.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 12 February 2026 Australian time.

The latest Vantage Point essay, What we owe the water: It’s time for a fossil fuel treaty by Kumi Naidoo, is available now for $19.95. Use the code ‘PODVP’ at checkout to get free shipping.

Guest: Jon B Wolfsthal, former Director of Global Risk, Federation of American Scientists // @jonatomic

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

Show notes:

Trump has scrapped the long-standing legal basis for tackling climate emissions by Robyn Eckersley, The Conversation (February 2026)

Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit was always going to deepen divisions within Australia, not heal them. Social cohesion can’t be built on a bedrock of police violence, criminalising protest, silencing dissent and ignoring international law.

Australia’s Jewish community needs comfort and support while they grieve the fifteen innocent lives lost in the Bondi massacre. But why not invite a religious leader to provide comfort instead of a deeply controversial political leader? The grief of the Palestinian community in Australia, who are mourning the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians at the hands of Israel, was extended no such comfort or consideration by the Prime Minister or the NSW Premier in recent weeks.

Israel’s crimes in Gaza are monstrous and well-documented. The UN commission of inquiry found evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal intent by Israeli leaders and has recommended they be prosecuted.

He will equal Scott Morrison’s record of 1368 days on Thursday. On Friday, he’ll surpass him, leapfrogging both John Curtin and Morrison, to sit behind Paul Keating as the 12th longest-serving prime minister.

Short of his party moving against him, Albanese is almost certain to win another term as Prime Minister.

The Coalition is 28 seats behind. Even if there was a “thruplition” with One Nation, the Liberals, Nationals and Barnson would have to hold their existing 43 seats and win another 27 to take government.

And don’t expect that election to be held in 2028. New deputy leader Jane Hume was right last week when she said expected Albanese to take advantage of the Liberal Party’s decline and call an early election.

Labor is already eyeing off Forrest, La Trobe, Longman and Goldstein as potential seat gains. Bowman will be on the list.

The Liberals, or Nationals (depending on who wins that fight), will have a tough time holding on to Sussan Ley’s seat of Farrer, with One Nation on the march and a community independent having already shorn 10 points off Ley’s margin at the last election. It is very doubtful the Liberals or Nationals will run another woman in Farrer, which will leave the Coalition with just enough women in the lower house to fill a 2016 Honda Civic. That’ll be sure to arrest the number of women turning their back on the party!

On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Elinor discuss the persistent rumours of changes to the capital gains tax discount, why government spending isn’t to blame for the latest inflation increase, and the impact of the federal government’s five per cent deposit scheme on lending figures (and don’t discuss wages as promised last week, cus Greg can’t read a calendar).

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 12 February 2026.

What we owe the water: It’s time for a fossil fuel treaty by Kumi Naidoo, is available now for just $19.95. Use the code ‘PODVP’ at checkout to get free shipping.

You can also subscribe to the Vantage Point series to get four essays a year on some of the most pressing issues facing Australia and the world.

Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute // @grogsgamut

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

Show notes:

Isaac Herzog has been credibly accused of incitement to commit genocide and, while his is largely a ceremonial role, he is the head of state of a nation credibly accused of genocide, whose leaders are wanted on war crime charges.

Raising any of these legitimate issues brought more lectures from political leaders about needing to “bring down the temperature” and a reminder that Herzog is here to comfort members of Australia’s grief-stricken and traumatised Jewish communities after the horrific Bondi terror attack.

But two things can be true at the same time. In this case, while there were Australian Jewish people who sought comfort from “their head of state”, there were also Australian Jewish people who found no comfort in Herzog’s visit, who found community in people protesting the invitation while Palestinians are still being killed by Israeli forces.

Herzog himself ended his public meeting with Anthony Albanese by referencing the “next phase in Gaza”. But raising what that means – which includes Americans and Israelis seeking to establish beachfront resorts on Palestinian territory, built on the bones of mass graves – is raising the temperature, according to Australian leaders.

It was 13 years from the formation of the Australian Labor Party to when then-leader Chris Watson was invited to form government.

His four months as prime minister was spent at the helm of the first democratic socialist government in the world. But his impact on modern Labor looms large, having helped establish the solidarity pledge for Labor caucus members, which ultimately forced his own exit during the 1916 conscription split.

Since then, caucus solidarity – the rule that once Labor’s political arm has made a decision, all caucus members are bound to it regardless of personal views – has been treated as both a threat and novelty by party outsiders. It has always been thus.

Another future Labor “rat” Hector Lamond, wrote of the caucus system in 1914:

“Most electoral contests are determined by that large body of more or less intelligent voters who do not attach themselves permanently to any political party. For the most part they are patriotic citizens, striving earnestly to approve what is best in the programs of rival candidates for their electoral favours.

“A large body of these electors has naturally been attracted by the progressive and national character of the Labor platform, and in increasing numbers have given the Labor Party a qualified support.

On this episode of Follow the Money, Kumi Naidoo, South African human rights and climate advocate, joins Ebony Bennett to discuss the need for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, why it’s past time for the Australia government to stop coal and gas expansion, and his new Vantage Point essay, What We Owe the Water.

This episode was recorded on Monday 9 February 2026.

What we owe the water: It’s time for a fossil fuel treaty by Kumi Naidoo is available now for just $19.95. Use the code ‘PODVP’ at checkout to get free shipping.

You can also subscribe to the Vantage Point series to get four essays a year on some of the most pressing issues facing Australia and the world.

Guest: Kumi Naidoo, President, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative // @kuminaidoo

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

Show notes:

The report, part of a submission to a federal parliamentary inquiry, has found the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM)) scheme is so lopsided it could damage diplomatic and economic relationships, rather than enhance them.

Similarly, the expansion of the scheme to fill shortages in the health and aged care sectors is luring medical professionals away from the health systems of workers’ home nations, leaving them desperately under-resourced.

The scheme generates around a billion dollars a year, yet just $184 million makes it back to the homelands of workers.

The report makes three recommendations:

• Ensuring a fair share of money makes it back to workers and their families.
• Improving the rights and conditions of workers, to ensure they’re not at risk of modern slavery.
• Re-examining the expansion of the scheme – originally designed to fill seasonal agricultural roles, like fruit picking – into Australia’s care sectors.

“When the PALM scheme was established, it was lauded as a win-win for Australia and its participating neighbours,” said Morgan Harrington, Research Manager at The Australia Institute.

“But more than three quarters of the money earned in Australia stays in Australia. This is desperately unfair and not in the spirit of what the scheme was set up to do.

“These workers are now a vital part of our economy, particularly in rural Australia. Without them, our meat processing, fruit picking, aged and health care sectors would be in trouble.

On this episode of After America, Ben Doherty, Guardian Australia senior reporter covering international affairs, joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the mass layoffs at the Washington Post, the lack of transparency around the AUKUS submarine deal, and why the Australian government still has its head in the sand over Trump.

This discussion was recorded on Friday 6 February 2026.

The latest Vantage Point essay, What we owe the water: It’s time for a fossil fuel treaty by Kumi Naidoo, is available now for $19.95. Use the code ‘PODVP’ at checkout to get free shipping.

Guest: Ben Doherty, Senior Reporter, Guardian Australia

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

Show notes:

‘Possibility of US ever selling Australia nuclear submarines is increasingly remote, Aukus critics say’ by Ben Doherty, Guardian Australia (February 2026)

The Wrap: Australia doesn’t need a strong Opposition, but it does need a strong Parliament

“Australia is an ‘elective dictatorship’, an ominous term coined in the 1990s by David Hamer. Mr Hamer was a Liberal parliamentarian who served in both houses of Parliament (he was an MP and a senator). His point was that, between elections, the Government’s power is barely constrained by law or the Constitution.

“Instead, the Government is constrained by the Parliament. However benign or well-meaning a Government, democracy depends on the option for the Parliament to intervene to stop abuse of power,” writes Bill Browne.

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On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Elinor discuss the Reserve Bank’s decision to raise interest rates and the absurdity of elite private schools receiving substantial public funding.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 5 February 2026.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘POD5’ to get $5 off the regular price – offer available for a limited time only.

Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute // @grogsgamut

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

Show notes:

Australian high schools the most expensive in the world – new research, the Australia Institute (February 2026)

What are the odds? The RBA has raised interest rates – for no real reason other than to meet the desires of speculators by Greg Jericho, Guardian Australia (February 2026)

On this episode of Follow the Money, Matt Grudnoff joins Ebony Bennett to discuss big economic reform opportunities facing the government and why the Reserve Bank of Australia is so cautious about cutting rates, yet so quick to hike them up.

Join economist, author and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and friends in Adelaide on Sunday 1 March and in Sydney on Thursday 5 March. Tickets are selling fast, so get yours now.

Guest: Matt Grudnoff, Senior Economist, the Australia Institute // @mattgrudnoff

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

Show notes:

Hasty decision inflicts more pain and will cost jobs, the Australia Institute (February 2026)

The RBA was cautious when it came to cutting interest rates last year. The board repeatedly told borrowers it didn’t want to be hasty and would wait for more data before bringing rates down.

Today’s decision is, predominantly, a reaction to one month of inflation data. The annual inflation rate increased to 3.8 percent in December, above the Reserve Bank’s target band of 2-3 percent. But that was almost entirely driven by one-off spending on travel and accommodation.

The underlying or “core” inflation – which strips out all the big jumps and falls – was 0.23 percent in December, the lowest in six months.

“By its own cautious standards, the RBA should have waited at least another month before inflicting more pain on borrowers,” said Matt Grudnoff, Senior Economist at The Australia Institute.

“The December CPI numbers were driven almost entirely by the increase in prices for travel and accommodation.

“Today’s decision will cost jobs. The RBA wants unemployment to go up. It believes low unemployment makes it hard for businesses to hire workers, forcing them to increase wages to attract them, and those higher wages will lead to higher prices.

“But unemployment has been below the RBA’s sustainable rate of 4.5 percent for four years and wages have not shot up. Forcing unemployment up will just create pointless misery.”

On this episode of After America, author and former speechwriter Don Watson joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the trajectory of the Trump administration, why Australia can’t avoid the rupture being brought about by the MAGA movement, and where Democratic leadership might come from in a “woefully” split party.

This discussion was recorded on Friday 30 January 2026.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available now via Australia Institute Press. Usually available for $34.95, use the code ‘POD5’ to get $5 off – offer available for a limited time only.

Guest: Don Watson, author of The Shortest History of the United States

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

Show notes:

The Shortest History of the United States of America by Don Watson, Black Inc. (2025)

From the fallout from Adelaide Writers’ Week, to our gun research referenced several times in Parliament, we had a busy start to the year. Watch just a few of our media appearances from January 2026.

The post January 2026 Media Highlights appeared first on The Australia Institute.

The soaring cost of educating high school students is driven by the unusually high number of Australian students who go to private schools and the unusually high prices of those private schools.

It costs Australian families $4,967 per year to send a child to high school, almost four times the OECD average. This figure is the average for all families with a child at high school. Families who send their children to private schools are paying even more, with fees now reaching up to $55,000 per child, per year.

Key findings:

• More than 40% of Australian high school students now attend private schools. If the current trend continues, most Australian high school students will attend private schools by 2055.
• Despite increasingly high fees, private schools don’t offer a substantially better education than public schools. Research shows gaps in test results are mainly due to differences in the socio-economic background of students, rather than the quality of the teaching.
• Private schools that have enough money to build swimming pools and horse stables still receive significant public support. At the same time, public schools face a funding shortfall of over $4 billion.

“Governments are throwing public money at private schools that clearly don’t need it,” said Richard Denniss, co-CEO of The Australia Institute.

Australian politics is often unedifying. But watching the latest spill-non-spill-spill (or Schrödinger’s spill, if you will – it being both on and not on at the same time) play out, while Sussan Ley’s team beg for their jobs in a WhatsApp chat group (this columnist is not on the invite list) seems yet another low point.

We have a Nationals MP challenging a leader without canvassing any votes (either a stalking horse move or just another Queensland MP tantrum) and a Liberal Party unable to work out if it has a challenger just yet, or if it wants to wait until the election review is released and that dust settles before stepping in.

The opposition has a stand-in shadow cabinet, while its MPs claim it is still auditioning for government. Branson is riding high on the discontent.

Meanwhile, the government preaches social cohesion. All while preparing to welcome the Israeli president – who posed for content signing bombs that were later dropped on civilians in Gaza – and having just passed hate speech laws that make criticism of Israel’s actions against Palestine a potential crime.

Listeners vote on their favourite songs from the previous 12 months in what has become known as “the world’s largest musical democracy”. Over two million votes were cast for the latest countdown. In this wide-open playing field, the success of Australian artists is a source of national pride.

Since Spiderbait became the first Australian artist to top the countdown with their song Buy Me A Pony in 1996, a total of 16 Australian artists have clinched the number one spot. Although British singer-songwriter Olivia Dean took out this year’s honours, five of the top 10 songs were by Australian artists. This good showing, however, no doubt has something to do with the fact that voters were given a new option of filtering their votes to include Australian artists only. The reason Triple J introduced this initiative probably has something to do with the reality that last year’s countdown featured the fewest artists since 1996.

Over on the national ARIA charts, not a single Australian song cracked the top 20 in 2025 – in fact Taylor Swift has more songs in the top 40 than all Australian artists put together. It seems that ARIA’s initiative to exclude songs more than two years old (which would weed out evergreen hits) is yet to bear fruit.

So what gives? Surely Australians haven’t just stopped liking Australian music?

The translation from Republic is a little more nuanced – Plato was obsessed with order and assumed everyone was just as obsessed as him, and carried that assumption through to a desire to hold office.

So Plato assumed everyone went into office for the same reason. The whole passage the paraphrased quote comes from goes something like this:

“For they are not desirous of honours. It is indeed necessary to add some compulsion and penalty on them if they are intending to be willing to rule. This is likely the reason that a willingness to go to office without facing compulsion is considered shameful. But the greatest penalty is to be ruled by someone worse if a person is not willing to hold office himself. It seems to me that people of propriety hold office (when they do) because they fear that outcome and that they enter into power not because they are going after something good or because they enjoy it, but because it is necessary and they are not able to entrust it to those better than themselves or their equals.”

Which, obviously, is not true. Some people just like power. Those same people enjoy sowing seeds of discord that they never have to actually solve, in order to keep it. They are able to do that, because many of us in the media work to make their offerings seem sane and normal.

On the first episode of Dollars & Sense for 2026, Greg and Elinor discuss why the Radical Left Lunatics at the OECD think Australia’s property investor tax concessions are busted, why inflation is your fault (*for shame*), AUKUS spending, and that one time Greg went too hard on New Year’s Eve.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 29 January 2026.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘POD5’ to get $5 off the regular price – offer available for a limited time only.

Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute // @grogsgamut

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

Show notes:

The easy thing for the RBA to do next week is raise interest rates. The smart move is to wait by Greg Jericho, Guardian Australia (December 2025)

On this episode of Follow the Money, Dr Emma Shortis and Greg Jericho join Glenn Connley to discuss how Australia can navigate what Canadian PM Mark Carney calls the Trump “rupture”.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘POD5’ at checkout to save $5 off the price – available for a limited time only.

Guest: Emma Shortis, Director, International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @emmashortis

Guest: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute // @grogsgamut

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

Show notes:

After America, the Australia Institute

Dollars & Sense, the Australia Institute

On this episode of After America, Allan Behm joins Dr Emma Shortis discuss the global “rupture” identified by Prime Minister Carney, President Trump’s petulant response, why Trump’s apparent climbdown over Greenland may not save NATO, and what this all means for America’s allies, including Australia.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 22 January 2026.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available now via Australia Institute Press. Usually available for $34.95, use the code ‘POD5’ to get $5 off – offer available for a limited time only.

After America: Australia and the new world order is available from Australia Institute Press for just $19.95.

Guest: Allan Behm, Advisor, International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute

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

Show notes:

Special Address by Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada | World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026, World Economic Forum on YouTube (January 2026)

The Wrap with Amy Remeikis

You didn’t have to be a political savant to see what was going to happen this week from the moment Sussan Ley decided to open the door to negotiations with Anthony Albanese on the hate group bill almost no one wanted.

One of the first rules of politics is if the other side are knocking on your door asking you to negotiate with them, then what you’re negotiating is only ever going to benefit those knocking.

It was the worst of politics – civil liberties used as bait to hoist the Liberal leader by her own political petard. Ley’s lack of principle, experience and political instinct saw her rush to politicise the antisemitic Bondi attack, demanding a royal commission, for parliament to be recalled and a suite of hate speech legislation to be rushed through. After a united media and political class frenzy, Albanese gave Ley everything she wanted. She was, in every sense, the architect of her own downfall, egged on every step of the way by a rightwing media apparatus that has sent the Coalition backwards for the last two elections.

Last year’s Hottest 100 featured just 27 Australian songs, the lowest number since 1994.

This contrasts with the years 2014 to 2022 when Australian artists produced more than half of the songs in the Hottest 100.

The analysis shows that the decline in Australian songs in the Hottest 100 is mirrored in data from streaming services – the number of Australian songs and artists featuring in global streaming services like Spotify is declining rapidly.

This is because Australian artists are crowded out by other English-speaking acts, particularly those from the USA.

The analysis concludes that Australian music can be rejuvenated with policy support focused on increased funding and better regulation of streaming services.

“The decline of Australian songs in the Triple J Hottest 100 is caused by lack of funding and governments’ failure to regulate streaming services,” said Rod Campbell, Research Director at The Australia Institute.

“When it comes to Australian music, streaming has changed everything.

“Whereas once the main source of music for Australian listeners was Australian radio stations, audiences are now listening through global streaming services. These work on algorithms that filter for language but not for geography, so Australian artists are competing against American artists, which the streaming services are biased towards.

Amy Remeikis and Bill Browne join Ebony Bennett to discuss how having fewer guns in the community will make Australians safer. However, the complex anti-hate legislation that was rushed through at the same time could have serious consequences for Australian society.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘POD5’ at checkout to save $5 off the price – available for a limited time only.

Where it all went wrong: the case against John Howard by Amy Remeikis is available for pre-order now.

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

Guest: Bill Browne, Democracy & Accountability Director, the Australia Institute // @browne90

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

Show notes:

Australia Institute research shows the number of guns in the Australian community has surged to more than 4 million and a gun is stolen every four hours in Australia. The theft of legally owned guns is the biggest single source of new firearms on the black market in Australia.

The laws establish the infrastructure for a new national gun buyback scheme, make it illegal to import the kind of rapidly reloading rifles and shotguns used in the Bondi massacre, and enable states and territories to consider intelligence gathered by Commonwealth agencies like ASIO as part of firearms licensing decisions.

“Gun law reforms can’t stop hate or antisemitism, but these reforms will help stop hate from turning into the kind of horror we saw in Bondi,” said Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director of The Australia Institute.

“Australia Institute research has repeatedly shown that the most straightforward way to keep Australians safe is to reduce the number of guns available in the community.

“Not only are there at least 800,000 more guns in the Australian community now than before the Port Arthur massacre, but they are being kept in large numbers in our cities and suburbs.

“Thirty years on from Port Arthur and there is still no National Firearms Register up and running, something that needs to be accelerated as a matter of urgency.

On this episode of After America, Matt Duss joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the Trump administration’s new tariffs against Europe, what if anything it might do in Iran, and its threats to prosecute political opponents.

This discussion was recorded on Friday 16 January (AEDT) 2026.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘POD5’ to get $5 off – offer available for a limited time only.

Guest: Matt Duss, Executive Vice President, Center for International Policy // @mattduss

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

Show notes:

‘Shorter America this week: everything is gender’ by Emma Shortis, The Point (January 2026)

‘How Marco Rubio Went from “Little Marco” to Trump’s Foreign-Policy Enabler’ by Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker (January 2026)

Ley, and others in her increasingly small circle, mistook Josh Frydenberg’s win in forcing the Albanese government to call a royal commission into the events that led to Bondi as a personal victory.

It became obvious that was a mistake almost as soon as it happened. The Liberals may have found brief unity in a feverish lust of blaming the government, and anti-genocide protesters, for the actions of deranged terrorists, but that unity was never going to hold.

After losing the summer, Anthony Albanese is playing the long game. In throwing together a little of what everyone wanted into a bill no one wanted, he got to say he tried.

It is a well-worn Australian political tactic – wielding power through failure: “We tried to do something, and just couldn’t and that’s someone else’s fault” becomes the narrative, with the focus then shifting to who is not letting the government do as it wishes, rather than the government’s failure to find the support it needs to get it through.

In this case, Labor itself didn’t want the “something” it was attempting to do. It played a high stakes game with liberties to own the right, aided by the Greens, who saw the lay of the land and made the smart choice.

Now Ley must own the Coalition walking away from legislation it said it wanted, while the government gets to pretend it tried to meet its expectations.

In more crass terms, Ley f–ked around. Now she’s finding out.

Just days after hundreds of homes were destroyed and tens of thousands of livestock died in Victoria’s bushfires, across the state hundreds more people were evacuated and multiple cars washed out to sea due to flash flooding following an intense storm.

Fossil fuel companies cause the climate change that turbocharges extreme weather events, but ordinary Australians are paying the price. It’s time that changed.

Global warming means extreme weather events like storms, floods, and bushfires are more frequent and more intense. But these disasters are still too often framed as tragic but unavoidable acts of nature, rather than the inevitable consequence of Australia being the third largest exporter of fossil fuels on Earth.

Gas, oil, and coal companies are let off the hook, while the true costs of climate-fueled disasters keep landing on the wrong people, again and again. It’s well past time Australia implemented a climate disaster levy on fossil fuel companies.

Because the costs of climate-fueled disasters are enormous. Homes and properties are destroyed. Businesses shut down. Cattle dead. Farms damaged. Local infrastructure – roads, power, water – wiped out in a matter of hours.

Following a string of major floods across the east coast of Australia in 2022, Australians claimed more than seven billion dollars on their home insurance – almost double the previous record.

On this episode of After America, Professor Elizabeth N Saunders from Columbia University joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the “chaotic cruelty” of the Trump administration, its escalation of hostilities over Greenland and whether it will strike Iran.

This discussion was recorded on Tuesday 13 January (AEDT) 2026.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘POD5’ to get $5 off.

Guest: Elizabeth N Sauders, Professor of Political Science, Columbia University // @profsaunders

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

Show notes:

‘What happens now in Venezuela – and the world?’ by Elizabeth N Saunders, Good Authority (January 2026)

‘Imperial President at Home, Emperor Abroad’ by Elizabeth Saunders, Foreign Affairs (June 2025)

On this episode of Follow the Money, Richard Denniss and Ebony Bennett discuss the political and policy response to devasting Bondi terrorist attacks, the cancellation of Adelaide Writers’ Week, Trump and the Australia-US alliance, and what to look out for in federal politics in 2026.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘POD5’ at checkout to save $5 off the price – available for a limited time only.

Dead Centre: how political pragmatism is killing us by Richard Denniss is also available now.

Guest: Richard Denniss, co-Chief Executive Officer, the Australia Institute // @richarddenniss

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

Show notes:

The Wrap with Dr Emma Shortis

The Trump administration started 2026 as it means to continue: with violence and lawlessness.

Trump’s attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of the Venezuelan president clearly contravene every principle of international law.

This attack, and the administration’s escalating threats against other places, like Greenland, send a clear message. Trump is leading an imperial revival. His version of America has no respect for old alliances. It has no care for the safety or security of the rest of the world.

We are, now, in uncharted territory. The America we thought we knew is gone. And it isn’t coming back. Even a “decent” America (and there are many decent Americans) will be looking over its shoulder, cautious and reluctant.

This has deeply serious consequences for Australia. As our colleague Allan Behm wrote in The Point this week, we simply cannot bury our heads in the sand and hope this will all pass us by. It will not.

The Trump administration has already made that clear. It has trashed the Free Trade Agreement we signed with the US in 2004. The US Congress is threatening the Australian eSafety Commissioner with contempt charges if she does not testify before a congressional committee. She is being accused of “harassing” US tech companies – for enforcing Australian domestic policy and law in Australia.

If international law matters to Australia – and it does – then our response to Trump’s concerted attacks on the rule of law also matters.

On this episode of After America, Emma Shortis and Angus Blackman discuss the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, the credibility of the Trump administration’s threats against Greenland and elsewhere, and the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.

This discussion was recorded on Friday 9 January 2026.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘POD5’ to get $5 off.

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

Host: Angus Blackman, Executive Producer, the Australia Institute // @AngusRB

Show notes:

‘What you need to know about Trump administration’s abduction of Nicolás Maduro’ by Emma Shortis, The Point (January 2026)

Following a statement from the board responsible for the Adelaide Festival organisation and all Adelaide Writers’ Week events, The Australia Institute is withdrawing its support and sponsored events from this year’s literary festival.

The Australia Institute has valued being part of discussions at the event, which in the past have promoted bravery, freedom of expression and the exchange of ideas.

Censoring or cancelling authors is not in the spirit of an open and free exchange of ideas.

The post Statement from The Australia Institute appeared first on The Australia Institute.

In the fourth and final episode of PALMed Off, host Morgan Harrington canvases some of the proposed solutions to the problems facing the PALM scheme, including an amnesty for disengaged workers and ensuring that everyone working in Australia has the right to leave their employer.

PALMed Off is a special four-part series of Follow the Money exploring the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, an Australian Government guestworker program that could be putting people from nine Pacific Island nations and Timor-Leste at risk of modern slavery.

The interviews for this podcast were recorded between June and August 2025.

Host: Morgan Harrington, Research Manager, The Australia Institute // @mhharrington

Interviewees: Ken Dachi (Welcoming Australia), Dr Lindy Kanan (researcher), Dr Matt Withers (ANU), (Waskam) Emelda Davis (ASSI-Port Jackson Chair), Thomas Costa (Unions NSW), anonymous former PALM workers

Scripting and production support: Stephen Long, Senior Fellow & Contributing Editor, the Australia Institute

Sound design and mixing: Simon Branthwaite

Show notes:

‘The PALM Scheme: Labour rights for our Pacific partners’, The Australia Institute (December 2023)

In episode two of PALMed Off, host Morgan Harrington travels to Leeton, New South Wales, a town that’s become a safe haven for some of the estimated 7,000 people who have ‘disengaged’ from the PALM scheme. We find out what leads people to make the difficult decision to walk away from their employer and speak to some of the community members trying to help them.

PALMed Off is a special four-part series of Follow the Money exploring the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, an Australian Government guestworker program that could be putting people from nine Pacific Island nations and Timor-Leste at risk of modern slavery.

The interviews for this podcast were recorded between June and August 2025.

Host: Morgan Harrington, Research Manager, The Australia Institute // @mhharrington

Interviewees: Ken Dachi (Welcoming Australia), Paul Maytom (Leeton Multicultural Support Group), Ian Bull (member of St. Peter’s Anglican congregation, Leeton), (Waskam) Emelda Davis (ASSI-Port Jackson Chair), anonymous former PALM workers

Scripting and production support: Stephen Long, Senior Fellow & Contributing Editor, the Australia Institute

Sound design and mixing: Simon Branthwaite

Show notes:

In episode three of PALMed Off, host Morgan Harrington hears how a lack of affordable medical care can have dire consequences for PALM visa holders and discusses the problems faced by women who fall pregnant whilst working in Australia.

PALMed Off is a special four-part series of Follow the Money exploring the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, an Australian Government guestworker program that could be putting people from nine Pacific Island nations and Timor-Leste at risk of modern slavery.

The interviews for this podcast were recorded between June and August 2025.

1800RESPECT is the national domestic, family and sexual violence counselling, information and support service. Call 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732, chat online or video call via their website.

Host: Morgan Harrington, Research Manager, The Australia Institute // @mhharrington

Interviewees: Ken Dachi (Welcoming Australia), Dr Lindy Kanan (researcher), Dr Matt Withers (The Australian National University), (Waskam) Emelda Davis (ASSI-Port Jackson Chair), Thomas Costa (Unions NSW), anonymous former PALM workers

In PALMed Off, a special series of Follow the Money, we explore the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, a program that allows people from nine Pacific Island nations and Timor Leste to work in Australia on a special temporary visa. The Australian Government argues the program is a win for the workers, their home communities and Australian employers. But PALM visa holders are subjected to restrictions that no other worker in Australia – temporary or permanent – have to put up with, and this has led to concerns that the program is facilitating modern slavery in Australia.

In the first episode of this four-part series, host Morgan Harrington speaks with people from Vanuatu who have worked in Australia under the PALM scheme and considers what it really means for Australia’s relationships with Pacific Island nations.

The interviews for this podcast were recorded between June and August 2025.

Host: Morgan Harrington, Research Manager, The Australia Institute // @mhharrington

Interviewees: Enoch Takaua (ecotourism business operator), Thomas Costa (Unions NSW), Dr James Cockayne (NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner), (Waskam) Emelda Davis (ASSI-Port Jackson Chair), Dr Matt Withers (ANU), Murielle Meltenoven (Commissioner, Vanuatu Department of Labour & Employment Services), anonymous former PALM workers

The Albanese Government’s announcement of a gas reserve for Australians is an acknowledgement that there is no gas shortage, and that excessive exports have driven up energy prices for Australians.

The Gas Market Review Report acknowledges that unrestricted exports linked Australian prices to world prices, tripling the cost of gas on Australia’s east coast over the last ten years.

Currently 80% of Australia’s gas is exported including two thirds of gas produced on the east coast.

The new policy will require gas exporters to supply between 15% and 25% of gas they produce to the Australian market, as opposed to simply being required to “offer” it to Australians.

Next, the government needs to address:

• • The giveaway of gas resources – over half the gas exported from Australia is given to gas exporters for free, with no royalties and no petroleum tax paid.
  • The need to stop new gas projects – Australia has no need of new gas projects that damage the climate and divide communities.
  • Reducing gas demand – helping Australian businesses and households use less gas.

“Finally, after a decade of policy failure, the Government has acknowledged there is no gas shortage and exports are the problem,” said Mark Ogge,Principal Advisor at The Australia Institute.

“This is an acknowledgement that the gas industry’s constant claim of a gas shortage was a lie, designed to force governments to support their unnecessary new gas export projects.

There is no denying Australia’s sense of safety has been shattered. There is no denying antisemitism exists in Australia and that the fears of the Jewish community have been horrifically realised in a way that perhaps we will never recover from.

There is no denying that in the days and months to come we will learn more about what could, should and didn’t happen to prevent what was supposed to be an unimaginable tragedy in Australia.

Jewish fears of an attack have been very real, with schools, synagogues, sporting and religious events requiring additional security. There are few communities (Muslims an exception) that would ever understand the cultural and psychological impacts of that. For Jewish people, last Sunday’s massacre came on top of those effects.

But there is also no denying that rather than try to promote unity, healing and a national stand against all forms of hate, some have sought to exploit that tragedy amid a completely unprecedented moment in Australian political history.

Never before has there been an opposition that has blamed a government for an act of terror and mass murder. Before Sunday, the rule for both major political parties was to place national unity ahead of any political gain.

In modern political history, Labor has been in opposition when Australia has experienced these nation-shaking acts. It has, in response, held firm to whatever line the Coalition government of the day was promoting.

The horrific anti-Semitic terrorist attack in Bondi, the most deadly mass shooting since the Port Arthur massacre thirty years ago, makes gun law reform in Australia necessary. Suggestions from former prime minister John Howard and others that gun law reform is just “a distraction” are cynical in the extreme.

Precisely no one is suggesting gun law reform is the only solution in response to the atrocity at Bondi. Clearly, there is much more than can be done to tackle rising antisemitism and hate speech effectively.

It has been interesting to watch many politicians who defended the right to be bigot just a few years ago, now leading the charge to criminalise hate speech. There may also have been intelligence failures that need to be examined. But when a man whose son was investigated by ASIO for links to Islamic State extremists is able to enact mass murder with a stockpile of six legal firearms, it is clear Australia’s gun laws are not working as intended.

Australia is not the United States; gun ownership is not a right, it is a privilege. Australians accept that many people have legitimate reasons for owning guns, like farmers. But most Australians think we should restrict who has guns, how many, why they have them and what kinds of guns they have.

From starting the Australia Institute Press and The Point, to hosting a sold-out Barrie, Bowers & Friends, to the federal election, to releasing documentaries, and so, so much more!

It’s been an amazing year, and we’ve from everyone here at the Institute, we’d love to say a massive thank you for all your support!

The post 2025 Year in Review appeared first on The Australia Institute.

The Centre for Future Work was established by the Australia Institute in 2016 to conduct and publish progressive economic research on work, employment, and labour markets.

Supported by the Australian Union movement, the centre produced cutting edge research and led the national conversation on economic issues facing working people: including the future of jobs, wages and income distribution, skills and training, sector and industry policies, globalisation, the role of government, public services, and more.

The Centre will now evolve to a stand-alone centre sitting outside of the Australia Institute.

“The Australia Institute and the Centre for Future Work have been such an important and powerful partnership in advocating for and winning ideas that make the world of work better. We look forward to what this next chapter can bring,” said Michele O’Neil, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

“We are thrilled to have been able to seed this important initiative and build it to where it is able to stand alone. The Australia Institute will continue to work with the Centre for Future Work to amplify good policy solutions for workplace issues,” said Leanne Minshull, co-CEO of The Australia Institute.

The post Centre For Future Work to evolve into standalone entity appeared first on The Australia Institute.

On the final episode of Dollars & Sense for 2025, Greg and Elinor discuss why it’s a time for bravery in our economic policy-making and whether rate hikes are on the way in 2026.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 11 December.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘POD5’ to get $5 off.

Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute // @grogsgamut

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

Show notes:

No wonder Michele Bullock’s dramatic departure from the RBA’s interest rate script left markets swinging wildly by Greg Jericho, Guardian Australia (December 2025)

A report by the Centre for Future Work at The Australia Institute and Public Services International has also found that when workers get to Australia, many are being deskilled, underpaid and exploited.

Care workers have been added to the Pacific Australia Labor Mobility (PALM) scheme, traditionally aimed at seasonal agriculture workers like fruit pickers. This has led to skilled health workers – like nurses – quitting their jobs to take up better paid but lower skilled jobs in Australia.

The report details the harrowing state of the health systems in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Many health services and hospitals have been decimated, operating at 30-40 percent capacity or below.

The research reveals that not only are Pacific workers doing lower-skilled care jobs in Australia, they are vulnerable to poor treatment, due to their visa status.

“Workers have the right to cross borders for a better life for themselves and their families,” said Fiona Macdonald, Director of the Centre for Future Work at The Australia Institute.

“But the current system is broken. It is rich countries taking from poor countries and giving nothing back. Australia and New Zealand are offloading their own care crises to their Pacific neighbours.

“Australia has vowed to invest in the health systems of its Pacific neighbours, not destroy them. It should be helping to build better, safer health facilities and train workers, not lure them away.

Governments are a bit like that, too.  It’s not that they don’t see the fire before the smoke, it’s just they figure it will be someone else’s problem to deal with it by the time it’s all ablaze.

We can see this with the gas industry – Labor is now looking at a couple of cabinet proposals for an east coast gas reservation policy, which would either take the form of an exporter permit model (where exporters can’t send gas offshore unless the domestic market has been taken care of) or a market-wide model (where all producers would have to contribute to the domestic market, potentially meaning smaller gas projects would have to purchase excess gas from the major ones in order to meet their supply obligations).

Of the two, the first would mean less gas being dug up.  Which means, of course, cabinet is leaning towards the second.

But in terms of how we got here, the flames have been lingering for some time.

This is not the first government to have to consider a domestic gas reserve, but it’s the first one to do so under such undeniable pressure.  Back in 2009, the Queensland Bligh government raised the need for a gas reservation policy because the future fires were clear.

That warning was repeated in 2010, when the reservation was rejected following a campaign by the same gas giants fighting against one now.

On this episode of Follow the Money, Hereditary Chief Na’Moks of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, Gwii Lok’im Gibuu Jesse Stoeppler of the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en Nations, and Kai Nagata from not-for-profit Dogwood tell us about their fight to stop gas giants including Woodside on unceded Indigenous lands.

Join Hereditary Chief Na’Moks and Gwii Lok’im Gibuu Jesse Stoeppler at the Stop Woodside in Canada event at Victorian Trades Hall at 6.15pm AEDT on Thursday 11 December.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘POD5’ at checkout to save $5 off the price – available for a limited time only.

Guest: Hereditary Chief Na’Moks,Wet’suwet’en Nation

Guest: Gwii Lok’im Gibuu Jesse Stoeppler, Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en Nations and the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition

Guest: Kai Nagata, Communications Director, Dogwood

Host: Leanne Minshull, co-Chief Executive Officer, the Australia Institute // @leanneminshull