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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)

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

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.

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.

The demonisation of public spending has long been a strategy of conservative forces around the world – blaming it for any economic ill at hand.

The Liberals’ Treasury spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, has gone back to the old canard that inflation and interest rates are higher because the government is spending too much.

O’Brien likes to say that government spending is now higher than it has been since 1986 (outside of recessions).

This is kind of a dumb point. Because previously the NDIS was not a thing. Takeaway the extra spending due to the NDIS and government spending is not unusually high:

But the full weakness of the argument was highlighted this week when Ted O’Brien and Shadow Finance Minister James Paterson were reduced to massively verballing the Governor of the Reserve Bank in a desperate attempt to suggest they had a point.

On this episode of After America, Allan Behm and Angus Blackman discuss the American ‘double-tap’ strike on an alleged drug boat, Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal to share sensitive military information, and why Trump spent a night posting 160 times on Truth Social.

This discussion was recorded on Friday 5 December 2025.

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.

Aiming Higher: Universities and Australia’s future by Professor George Williams is also available now.

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

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

Show notes:

War Crimes: Where do Responsibility and Accountability Start and End? By Allan Behm, the Australia Institute (May 2025)

The Australia Institute’s Chief Economist Greg Jericho says if the RBA had hiked rates today in response to the most recent inflation data, it would have been a brutal knee-jerk reaction, especially with real wage growth slowing.

He says the slight uptick in inflation is likely to be short-term, due to the ending of government power bill subsidies.

“The inflation increase in October, from 3.6% to 3.8%, was largely a one-off response to the ending of power bill subsidies. That isn’t a trend,” said Greg Jericho, Chief Economist at The Australia Institute.

“The truth is, market predictions of rate hikes and cuts will swing with new data on inflation, economic growth, real wages and unemployment.

“The RBA has chosen to wait and see. That’s at least a small mercy for mortgage holders a fortnight out from Christmas.”

The post Rate hold shows RBA uncertainty appeared first on The Australia Institute.

With the federal government seeking a new way to fix Australia’s self-inflicted “gas crisis”, Australia Institute research shows a 25% tax on gas exports would solve the problem.

The research shows a tax, proposed by the ACTU and supported by the Greens, would increase supply and cut energy bills for Australians.

It would also raise around $17 billion for Australians annually, bringing Australia closer to other gas exporting countries like Norway and Qatar.

Gas giants Origin and Shell, which both have surplus gas, are lobbying to continue exporting as much uncontracted gas to the global spot market as possible, ahead of supplying Australians. Santos, which doesn’t have enough gas, wants to continue taking gas out of the Australian market for export.

“A 25% tax on gas exports would solve the gas crisis. It would cut energy bills, ensure there is enough gas for Australians. It would also provide $17 billion annually for better housing, health care, education and childcare,” said Mark Ogge, Principal Advisor to The Australia Institute.

“A 25% tax on gas exports would solve the problem immediately and provide a huge financial benefit the Australian community.”

The gas industry has been trying to convince us all there is a gas shortage, but that’s nonsense and it will no longer fly. Politicians from across the political spectrum now acknowledge that Australia has a gas export problem.

It is hard to understate what a complete disaster unlimited gas exports have been for Australian households and business.

Around 80 per cent of Australia’s gas is used for export. In just the past five years, governments have allowed the export of enough gas to supply Australia for more than 20 years.

Since Australia began exporting gas in 2015, domestic gas prices have tripled, and electricity prices have doubled. The Opposition Leader, Sky News, and others like to blame renewables (more on that later), but excessive gas exports are the main reason wholesale electricity prices have doubled.

And what do Australians get in return for using 80 per cent of our gas for export? Apart from higher energy bills, we get bupkis. Peanuts. Chump change. Australia Institute research shows multinational gas export companies paid zero royalties on over half the gas they exported overseas.

For most people, this list didn’t include any Australian artists, and if it did it was likely someone well-established, like Vance Joy or The Kid Laroi.

Research by the Australia Institute looked at the top 10,000 artists being streamed inside Australia between 2021 and 2024 and found that the presence of Australian artists has declined, both in terms of the total number of artists and the total number of streams.

In 2024 Australia’s most streamed domestic artist was The Wiggles. The number of Australian artists appearing in even the bottom 5000 has dropped, which means new artists aren’t getting a look in.

The reason? If you rely on automated playlists – like the mixes Spotify recommends to its users – algorithms are deciding what music you hear.

Most streaming services now use large language models (LLMs) to make these playlists, which are based on the data of masses of listeners with similar tastes.

These algorithms can filter for language, but not for geography or culture, which means that all English language listeners – be they American, British, Irish, Canadian, Kiwi or Australian – are put into the same pool.

And yet, governments know we will accept it without question when it comes to taking from the most vulnerable.

How else to explain the ease with which the Labor government is not just cutting NDIS entitlements (cleverly marketed as “controls on future growth”) and now, the revelations from The Guardian’s Kate Lyons that not only will AI determine need and plans, but there will be almost no way for a human to intervene and make adjustments when, inevitably, human needs and nuances aren’t accounted for by software.

This will no doubt be celebrated by those who think “government can’t pay for everything” and it is “common sense” to put spending caps on care. Those same people never really think that spending caps ought apply to subsidies that just help people make money.

“NDIS costs soar as children flock to scheme” is a headline people accept. But we wouldn’t see those same papers of note report on “capital gains tax discount costs soar as investors flock to housing” – because that’s just the cost of doing business.

Take the event that fund manager Geoff Wilson recently held to celebrate knocking off the very modest superannuation reforms Jim Chalmers had floated.

On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Angus discuss why the devil is in the detail of the latest economic growth figures and how the Victoria has led the other states on housing affordability.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 4 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.

Aiming Higher: Universities and Australia’s future by Professor George Williams is also available now.

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

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

Show notes:

There are two big drivers of Australia’s economic growth – but shape matters as much as size by Greg Jericho, Guardian Australia (December 2025)

INXS. Kyle Minogue. Even the Wiggles. Australia has an incredible musical legacy, but with declining streaming numbers and revenues heading abroad, will the Aussie musician just become somebody we used to know? On this episode of Follow the Money, former Spotify Chief Economist Will Page and Australia Institute Research Manager Morgan Harrington join Ebony Bennett to discuss how to reverse the decline of Australian music.

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.

Aiming Higher: Universities and Australia’s future by Professor George Williams is also available now.

Guest: Will Page, Strategic Advisory, Pivotal Economics

Guest: Morgan Harrington, Research Manager, the Australia Institute // @mhharrington

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

Show notes:

One, because it was honest – a rarity in this game. And two, because it was mad.

Turnbull gave the interview during a time of upheaval in the Liberal Party. He was being undercut by members of the right faction, such as senator Nick Minchin, Tony Abbott and Kevin Andrews, who had used the issue of climate change action as a launchpad for their wrecking.

“There is a recklessness and a wilfulness in these men which is going to destroy the Liberal Party,” 2009 Turnbull said.

He went on to say the Liberals would be destroyed if the issue wasn’t resolved.

”If Nick Minchin wins this battle, he condemns our party to irrelevance because what he is saying on one of the greatest issues and challenges of our time, one that will affect the future of the planet and the future of our children and their children, Nick Minchin is saying ‘Do nothing’,” Turnbull said.

In the same interview, the kicker: “We will end up becoming a fringe party of the far right.”

Turnbull was ousted the next day and the rest is history – Abbott beat him, then Turnbull won the battle against Abbott and that faction who had openly despised him since 2009, but lost the war, leaving The Lodge with a rather thin record as prime minister.

On this episode of After America, Dr Ruth Mitchell, neurosurgeon and Nobel Prize winner with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the 80th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Trump’s nuclear testing claims, American healthcare under RFK Jr.’s leadership, and the misogyny at the heart of key US institutions.

This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 19 November 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.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available for pre-order now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘SAVE5’ to get $5 off.

Aiming Higher: Universities and Australia’s future by Professor George Williams is also available now.

And it’s not because of some inherent aspect of Australian culture that wants to bet on two flies crawling up a wall. It’s the predictable outcome of a predatory gambling industry that successive governments have been unwilling to take on.

Every year, the gambling industry destroys lives, and it’s even plotting to expand its reach by targeting new demographics such as young women.

In 2023, after a parliamentary inquiry into online gambling (the “Murphy review”), it seemed like change might be coming. The inquiry included pollies from the Labor, Liberal and National parties, as well as independent Kate Chaney. Despite their usual appetite for animosity, the cross-party committee unanimously endorsed 31 recommendations to reduce gambling harm, including a phased-in ban on advertising for online gambling.

From hosting a sold-out Barrie, Bowers & Friends event in Sydney, to The Hon. Mike Rann giving the Dr Hugh Memorial Lecture in Adelaide, to appearing before the Senate, there was a lot to do! And that’s on top of all our research!

The post November 2025 Media Highlights appeared first on The Australia Institute.

On this special episode of Dollars & Sense, we discuss the cost of growing inequality with Dr Cassandra Goldie AO, CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), Kasy Chambers, Executive Director of Anglicare Australia, and Dr Mark Zirnsak, Secretariat of the Tax Justice Network Australia.

This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 29 October 2025 at the Australia Institute’s Revenue Summit at Parliament House in Canberra.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available for pre-order now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘SAVE5’ to get $5 off.

Aiming Higher: Universities and Australia’s future by Professor George Williams is also available now.

Guest: Cassandra Goldie, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Council of Social Service // @cassandragoldie

Guest: Kasy Chambers, Executive Director, Anglicare Australia // @ChambersKasy

Guest: Mark Zirnsak, Secretariat, Tax Justice Network Australia

The EPBC is a planning instrument and while this bill is stronger with the Greens’ amendments, it will not secure a safe climate and protect biodiversity.

The most important contribution Australia can make to stabilising our climate is committing to no new gas and no new coal. It’s time for Resources Minister Madeleine King, Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to plan for a fossil fuel phase out.

Last week, in the Brazilian city of Belém, Australia and 23 other countries committed to a transition away from fossil fuels.

Our parliament’s work to live up to that commitment begins now.

Australia Institute research shows that Australia is currently expanding fossil fuels, with 94 new coal and gas projects in the pipeline.

Around 130 environment groups also expressed their concern about Labor’s proposed national environment law reforms, in an open letter to the Federal Government published in several newspapers across the country.

“Nearly a fifth of Australia’s domestic emissions now come from exporting fossil fuels overseas, nothing in this new act will change that,” said Leanne Minshull, co-CEO of The Australia Institute.

“We know, through the National Climate Risk Assessment, Australia is facing devastating environmental and economic consequences as a result of climate change – and fossil fuels are the cause.”

On this episode of Follow the Money, Matt Grudnoff and Ebony Bennett discuss the latest job cuts at the CSIRO, why this is a missed opportunity as researchers leave the United States, and why science investment matters for productivity.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available for pre-order now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘SAVE5’ at checkout to save $5 off the price – available for a limited time only.

Aiming Higher: Universities and Australia’s future by Professor George Williams is also available now.

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

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

Show notes:

We are Australians that dearly love the land, water, wildlife, and culture of our great country. We are committed to communities having a fair go, to openness in decision-making and to having our voices heard on decisions that affect us. We are committed to the wellbeing of this generation and future generations – and to protecting our people and our landscapes from the devastating impacts and costs of climate disasters.

We are dismayed that the Albanese Government has put forward national environment law reform that experts tell us will take us backwards – backwards on protecting environments, backwards on integrity, and backwards on community rights and interests.

Our national environment laws were first drafted 25 years ago, under John Howard, and they have never been fit for purpose. We are dismayed that the Albanese Government is proposing new laws that go backwards from that, despite the many new crises and pressures that we face.

We call on the Australian Parliament to reject the Albanese government’s new laws and all the many components of them which will take us backwards, including:

On this special episode of After America, we explore the state of the Australia-United States relationship under the Whitlam government, the machinations at the time around the renewal of Pine Gap, and the previously untold account of Dr Liz Cham, former executive assistant in the office of Prime Minister Whitlam, who recalls handing over a mystery letter to an American official just before the Dismissal.

The interview with Liz Cham was recorded on Thursday 30 October.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available for pre-order now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘SAVE5’ to get $5 off.

Aiming Higher: Universities and Australia’s future by Professor George Williams is also available now.

Guest: Elizabeth Cham, fellow at the University of Technology Sydney and former executive assistant in the office of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam

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

Scripting and production support: Stephen Long

Sound design and mixing: Simon Branthwaite

Show notes:

Unless the state and federal governments can agree to make big structural changes to the way they collect revenue and spend it on health, then millions more people will die sooner than they need to, live in more pain than is medically necessary and waste years of their lives navigating a broken system rather than doing something far more productive — like working, caring for their kids or simply gardening.

The problem is that we have left the problem to the state health ministers to negotiate solutions with the federal health minister and they are stuck in a zero-sum game.

In the current negotiations, every dollar gained by one state either comes at another’s expense or adds to the Commonwealth deficit.

The obvious solution is to find more revenue, but that’s usually a conversation for treasurers, not health ministers.

Trying to fix our public health system without talking about how to collect more revenue is like trying to cure heart disease while ignoring the need for better diet and exercise.

Systemic problems respond best to systemic solutions. And luckily there is a simple solution to the health ministers’ woes.

But before prescribing the cure, let’s first accurately diagnose the problem.

The states’ major source of revenue from the Commonwealth comes from the GST.

When John Howard and Peter Costello proposed the GST, they roped in state premiers to help sell the idea by promising that all of proceeds from the GST would flow to states to fund services such as health and education.

In it, he described exactly what we see happening today.

This will not be an attempt to cast Calwell as some sort of heroic prophet. The former immigration minister and leader of the Labor party, known as the architect of Australia’s postwar immigration framework, was racist. He harboured racist views against Asians and other people of colour, tried to extend the White Australia policy for as long as he could and, even after politics, continued to rage against non-European immigration and people.

If there was one thing Calwell did understand intimately, it was structural power and the politics that dictated it. He wrote of the Labor Party as being a “duality”:”

“It is a political party in the accepted meaning of the term; but, at the same time, whether in power or out of power, it is a mass movement. It is always a propagandist movement seeking to change society in accordance with its policy. This gives the Labor Party a continuity which no other party possesses, a continuity of purpose which persists whether it is in power or not. For the conservative parties, possession of power is an end in itself, because conservative parties have never thought it part of their duty to attempt to change society fundamentally.”

Of Robert Menzies, who he had observed from his entry into politics, Calwell wrote” “Menzies was enough of a realist to be a socialist when necessary”.

And it’s a wake-up call for government. At precisely the time you would expect Australia to be building its ability to conduct cutting-edge public science, our premier scientific agency is sacking people.

CSIRO tried to characterise the cuts as “a renewed emphasis on inventing and deploying technological solutions to tackle national problems”, but it’s blatant cost-cutting. The news of the 350 full-time-equivalent researcher jobs being cut comes on the back of another 800 jobs being cut in the past 18 months.

Australians have always been fiercely proud of the CSIRO – and rightly so.

Few public institutions anywhere in the world can boast a track record like it. CSIRO is globally respected. From fast Wi-Fi, the polymer banknote, the Hendra virus vaccine, breakthroughs in radio astronomy, and world-leading climate modelling, CSIRO has repeatedly punched above its weight. The debt of gratitude Australians owe CSIRO for Aerogard alone can never be repaid.

Which is why it’s so alarming to watch its funding – and its people – bleed away.

The timing of these cuts couldn’t be worse. With the United States gutting its universities and medical research sector – Trump’s America has become a terrifying place to do science – Australia has a once-in-a-generation chance to attract some of the world’s top researchers. Instead we’re sacking researchers by the hundreds.

The Wrap with Amy Remeikis

Fifty-three years ago, Gough Whitlam swept to power with the slogan ‘it’s time’.

Looking at this Labor government, you now have to wonder what are they waiting for?

It’s past time for fair tax reform. Past time for an end to fossil fuel expansion. Past time for the government to start governing for people, and not vested interests.

And yet, as we enter the last sitting week for the year (unless Labor gets its way on the environment laws, in which case the government will probably try and drag everyone back for one more sitting), with Labor walking away from gambling advertisement reforms recommended by the late Peta Murphy, we have to ask again, what is it Labor is waiting for?

The gambling reforms are a perfect example of how hesitant Labor is to use power. Because what does it have to lose? The public supports it. Unlike the under-16s social media ban, there is evidence it will reduce harm. There are a multitude of ways for Labor to address the roadblocks of free-to-air television and media suffering a loss of gambling ad revenue, including by putting a levy on the gambling companies which trade in people’s hope and addictions. But they won’t do it.

On this special episode of Dollars & Sense, Liam O’Brien from the Australian Council of Trade Unions and Dr Ingrid Burfurd from The Superpower Institute join Dr Richard Denniss to discuss taxing the gas industry more effectively.

This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 29 October 2025 at the Australia Institute’s Revenue Summit at Parliament House in Canberra.

A time for Bravery: what happens when Australia chooses courage is available for pre-order now via Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘SAVE5’ to get $5 off.

Aiming Higher: Universities and Australia’s future by Professor George Williams is also available now.

Guest: Liam O’Brien, Assistant Secretary, Australian Council of Trade Unions // @lbobrien

Guest: Ingrid Burfurd, Carbon Pricing and Policy Lead, The Superpower Institute

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

It has a big majority in the lower house, an easy Senate and an opposition in a shambles.

Less widely remarked is that, outside of Parliament, some key potential critics are also at a low ebb, and it’s not just the traditional media critics that are no longer able to influence elections.

The mining and gas lobbies are also historically weak.

This might not seem obvious, given the Albanese government’s tendency to do whatever the resource sector asks – whether it’s approving carbon-bomb gas export projects for Woodside, putting environment law reform on the go-slow for the mining industry, or doing as little as possible to end the “great gas giveaway”.

But the government’s subservience to the resource lobbies stems more from the personal preferences of Anthony Albanese and his ministers, rather than the power of the lobbies themselves.

Long-gone are the days of 2010 when, the mining industry could claim – apocryphally or otherwise – to topple prime ministers and governments. These days it can hardly organise a meeting in a conference centre.

Last week the Minerals Council of Australia and the gas lobby Australian Energy Producers hosted Australia’s first Energy and Minerals Tax Conference.

Two of the country’s most powerful industry groups were teaming up to “highlight the significant economic and tax contribution of the natural gas and mineral resources sectors”.

Why did they need to have three-day conference with government, opposition and media invited to talk about how much tax they pay?

The Wage Price Index was released on Wednesday and is a measure of how fast wages are increasing.

It showed that wages increased 3.4 per cent over the past year, the same as the annual increase from last quarter.

An annual growth rate of 3.4 per cent is reasonable. The long run average is 3.1 per cent, so it’s slightly above average.

However, as the graph below shows, the growth rate in wages has fallen since it peaked at the end of 2023.

The Reserve Bank will certainly be happy, as it firmly believes that higher wages are a cost for businesses, who will push up prices in order to protect their profits. For the Reserve Bank, higher wages lead to higher inflation.

Is the cost-of-living crisis over?

Not so fast. Wages growth is only part of the picture. What people should really be focused on is what economist call real wages.

Real wages is a measure of how much stuff you can buy with your wage.