The Australia Institute Feed Items

On this episode of After America, Dr Emma Shortis and Angus Blackman discuss Trump administration group chats, Big Pharma’s big whinge, and the history of conservative efforts to dismantle the federal Education department.

This discussion was recorded on Tuesday 25 March 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Read more from Emma in the latest edition of Australian Foreign Affairs.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

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

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

Show notes:

‘The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans’ by Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic (March 2025)

He also wants to introduce a National Interest Test for major projects seeking environmental approval. The test would take into account economic and social benefits.

Woodside’s proposed 50-year NWS gas expansion should be subject to a National Interest Test.

It would fail miserably.

Last night’s passing of amendments to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act weakens the protection of our natural treasures, rammed through by a government which promised greater protection.

The amendments increase the likelihood that Australian native species will become extinct, driven by a government which promised no extinctions under its watch.

The amendments are designed to protect the destructive, foreign-owned commercial salmon industry in Tasmania.

But the changes could stop anyone – from local community groups to Federal Government Ministers – from reviewing projects like coal mines, gas exploration, land clearing or other destructive practices.

“This bill has ramifications for industries that goes well beyond salmon. It will affect all industries governed by this legislation,” said Eloise Carr, Director, The Australia Institute Tasmania.

“Labor and Coalition MPs described what they were trying to achieve as ‘fixing a flaw’ in the EPBC Act. There was no flaw in the law.

“For once, just as our nature law was about to do what it is supposed to – protect world heritage and species threatened with extinction – the major parties have changed the law.

“We have a parliamentary process to scrutinise laws before they pass. But not this time.”

Ten years ago, Anthony Albanese described similar changes proposed by the coalition government as an act of environmental vandalism.

On this episode of Follow the Money, Ebony Bennett discusses the Government’s efforts to weaken the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act with Australia Institute Executive Director Dr Richard Denniss and Strategy Director Leanne Minshull.

This discussion was recorded on Tuesday 25 March 2025 and things may have changed.

Sign our petition calling on the Government not to gut Australia’s environment laws.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

Guest: Richard Denniss, Executive Director, the Australia Institute // @richarddenniss

Guest: Leanne Minshull, Strategy Director, the Australia Institute // @leanneminshull

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

Show notes:

The Centre for Future Work’s research team has analysed the Commonwealth Government’s budget, focusing on key areas for workers, working lives, and labour markets.

As expected with a Federal election looming, the budget is not a horror one of austerity. However, the 2025-2026 budget is characterised by the absence of any significant initiatives.
There is very little in this budget that is new, other than some surprise tax cuts, which are welcome given they mostly benefit people on low incomes

There are continuing investments in some key areas supporting wages growth where it is solely needed and for rebuilding important areas of public good. However, there remains much that needs to be done in the next parliament, whoever is in government.

“The budget does deliver a welcome tax cut targeted towards those on low incomes” Chief Economist Greg Jericho notes, “but the lack of new spending and initiatives highlights the need for policies from all political parties in the coming election campaign that address inequality and the needs of people who have been most hurt by cost of living rises over the past three years.”

Read our full budget briefing paper for more information

The post Commonwealth Budget 2025-2026: Our analysis appeared first on The Australia Institute.

Winners

Well, everyone who earns more than $18,200. Everyone gets a tax cut – up to $268 in 2026-27 and another one in 2027-28. It’s a smart tax cut – mostly benefitting those earning less than $45,000.

People who go to the doctor/use the PBS – as was previously announced – cheaper PBS medicine, cheaper GP visits (hopefully) and the energy rebate is extended for another 6 months (tune back in 6 months to see if it gets extended again).

Beer drinkers – the Government will pause indexation on draught beer excise and excise equivalent customs duty rates for a two‑year period, from August 2025 – also previously announced.

Gas companies who are projected to pay less PRRT over the next 4 years – $1.95bn than $1.8bn then $1.65bn then $1.45bn. As a result, beer drinkers – even with the pause of excise indexation will still pay $4.8bn more than gas companies do on PRRT over the next 4 years.

Wealthy people who live using the superannuation system to avoid paying tax – no changes to the super tax concessions.

Wealthy people who like using the tax system to speculate in the housing market. No changes to that nor negative gearing.

It has modest sweeteners, in the form of tax cuts, electricity rebates, cheaper medicines and incentives to increase bulk billing.

The tax cuts are well-targeted and cost-of-living measures are not inflationary.

There is nothing in the budget which should stand in the way of more interest rate cuts.

When the then-coalition government sought to weaken the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, Mr. Albanese said “the right of citizens with standing to challenge their governments in court is a fundamental pillar of a robust democracy”.

Tomorrow, the Albanese government is planning to do exactly what Mr. Albanese warned against in 2015.

The government will introduce amendments to parliament tomorrow seeking to change subsection 78(3) and subsection 78C(1) of the EPBC Act, which will limit the ability to review decisions and have major consequences for our natural environment.

Science is constantly evolving. Australia needs laws which enable decisions to be reviewed based on the latest evidence. These amendments stop us from doing that.

The Wrap with Amy Remeikis

What Peter Dutton and the Coalition are offering Australian voters is a fiction.

It’s headlines without substance, chimeras and half-truths that never stand up to scrutiny, but comprehensively misdirects the media’s gaze.

The nation has been in election mode since the beginning of the year, when Anthony Albanese used his January press club address to remind voters of what he had spent the better part of the last three years doing.

Dutton fronted his own quasi election opening campaign launch in Victoria, the state he hopes will help deliver a Labor defeat, complete with a new slogan ‘let’s get Australia back on track’.

If it sounds as though someone in Coalition headquarters ran ‘Make America Great Again’ through ChatGPT with the instruction to make something similar for Australia, but different, congratulations – your neurons are firing in exactly the way someone receiving big money worked to manipulate.

But on the eve of the election being formally called, one has to ask – what track is a Dutton led Australia heading towards?  An imaginary fantasy of the 1950s, when ‘strong’ men made decisions and women did what they were told, and migrants were indistinguishable from their neighbours, as long as their name wasn’t printed on the letter box?

That equates to $28,381 per minute, handed to some of the biggest, most profitable companies in Australia at a time when ordinary Australians are battling a long-running cost-of-living crisis.

As the federal election approaches, independent and minor party candidates have indicated that winding back these subsidies would be a key objective if they are elected into a hung parliament.

Key points:

• Federal Government fossil fuel subsidies reached $12.6 billion, mainly due to the Fuel Tax Credit Scheme which refunds fuel tax to major diesel users
• Major mining corporations are the key beneficiaries of federal subsidies, with the coal industry receiving $1.1 billion through the Fuel Tax Credit Scheme
• State governments provided $1.2 billion worth of assistance measures such as cheap access to infrastructure, gas purchase commitments and handouts for research and development

“Fossil fuel subsidies harm the budget and make climate change worse,” said Rod Campbell, Research Director at The Australia Institute.

“Cutting back subsidies like these, which make the community and the climate worse off, should be a priority for the next parliament.

“It is pleasing to see crossbench members looking seriously at fossil fuel subsidies such as the Fuel Tax Credit Scheme.

“This is a major opportunity to redirect billions of dollars from mining companies like BHP and Glencore, and instead invest this money in health, education and other community services.”

On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Elinor preview next week’s Federal Budget and why the Government doesn’t need to leave so much tax revenue on the table.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 20 March 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

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

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

Show notes:

5 ways and 63 billion reasons to improve Australia’s tax system by Greg Jericho, the Australia Institute (March 2025)

The changes to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act will reportedly be rammed through Parliament next week as a favour to the salmon industry in Tasmania. They would also benefit gas and coal mines.

The proposal would prohibit third-party civil society organisations like The Australia Institute and Environmental Defenders Office from challenging environmentally damaging projects.

“Weakening environmental laws doesn’t help the Australian community or the Australian economy. It simply boosts the profits of salmon corporations, coal companies and other corporate interests,” said Rod Campbell, Research Director of The Australia Institute.

“Any change that makes it harder for community groups to use Australia’s environment laws is, by definition, anti-democratic.

“This legislation appears to be in response to The Australia Institute triggering a review of the impact of salmon farming in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour, where salmon corporations are pushing the endangered Maugean skate towards extinction.

“This isn’t just The Australia Institute’s view, it’s the view of the Federal Environment Department. Documents released under freedom of information reveal that officials told Minister Plibersek that it was ‘likely’ salmon farming would have to stop while a full environmental assessment is done.

“The role The Australia Institute and other NGOs play in environmental decision-making fundamentally strengthens Australia’s democracy.

On this episode of After America, Dr Ruth Mitchell joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss how Canada and Australia have responded to tariffs, what America’s decision to sell out Ukraine means for efforts to abolish nuclear weapons, and RFK Jr’s performance as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 13 March 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Read more from Emma in the latest edition of Australian Foreign Affairs.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

Guest: Ruth Mitchell, Board Chair, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War // @drruthmitchell

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

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

Show notes:

When old and new MPs return to Canberra after the election, they’ll have a unique opportunity to tackle Australia’s biggest challenges on inequality, sustainability, health and education.

There is a need for more spending in disability care, childcare, aged care, health care, education and housing. There are also calls for more spending in defence. Regardless of which parties form government after the next election, they are going to need more revenue.

Fortunately, significant revenue can be raised relatively easily, and in ways which will make Australia fairer and safer.

By cutting fossil fuel subsidies, ending the gas industry’s free ride, reforming negative gearing and closing tax loopholes for superannuation and luxury utes, Treasury would raise between $12 billion and $63 billion.

• $12 billion could fund 70,000 extra jobs to improve education, health and a host of other public services.
• $63 billion would enable the government to raise support payments above the poverty line and double spending on education and housing.

Not only would these changes be easy to implement, they’d be popular.

And – after all that – Australians would still be paying significantly less tax than taxpayers in equivalent developed countries.

The Australia Institute’s new Discussion Paper, Raising Revenue Right, has five realistic  recommendations for Australia’s 48th Parliament:

The Australia Institute has recommended an extensive list of reforms to make our once-great university sector more efficient, transparent and democratic – in a submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Quality of Governance at Australian Higher Education Providers.

Australia’s higher education sector has been plagued with scandals in recent years, from wage theft and conflicts of interest, to excessive spending on marketing, travel and consultants.

Yet our university Vice-Chancellors are among the highest-paid in the world.

In 2023, the Australian National University spent around $54 million on consultants. It was later revealed that contracts were awarded to a consulting firm run by a friend of Chancellor Julie Bishop. As the University cut costs and slashed jobs, Ms. Bishop spent $150,000 on travel.

On this episode of Follow the Money, Eloise Carr, Director of the Australia Institute Tasmania, the Federal Government’s dangerous proposal to get around Australia’s already inadequate environmental protections and why salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour needs to end.

This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 19 March 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Sign our petition to end salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

Guest: Eloise Carr, Director, the Australia Institute Tasmania // @eloise-carr

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

Show notes:

Take your seats, ladies and gentlemen, for Australia’s annual gas pantomime, guaranteed to scare the wits out of struggling consumers.

Every year it’s the same tired script, where the villain is cast as the hero, and crisis is averted in the nick of time. Hurrah! The heating stayed on for another winter. Standing ovation.

Frack that

On Thursday, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) releases its annual gas statement of opportunities, GSOO as it’s affectionately known. Cue scary headlines and claims of a looming “gas shortage” and a “catastrophic supply shortfall” unless we let the gas cartel unleash more fracking and mining of the fossil fuel.

For media companies, GSOO is manna from heaven — almost guaranteed to deliver a “warning” that, framed a certain way, can scare the bejesus out of people and pull in a big audience. For the gas industry, it’s an opportunity to demand more and more gas expansion and to castigate any government concerned about climate change and the environment.

Nothing short of bull

As Public Enemy sang, don’t believe the hype. There is no gas shortage. Australia has an abundance of gas. It is the third largest exporter of liquified natural gas in the world. Each year, giant gas companies ship offshore far more of the fuel than Australian businesses and households could possibly use. The gas industry uses more of it to liquify the gas for export than Australia’s entire manufacturing industry consumes.

At the time, many argued we had paid too much, and US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium shows it can’t even protect Australia’s steel and aluminium from being slapped with arbitrary tariffs.

Those exports will now face 25 per cent tariffs in the United States.

This should serve as a wake-up call that the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) can’t even do what it’s supposed to do: protect free trade between Australia and its most powerful ally.

AUSFTA was signed in 2004. The Howard Government had pulled Australia into the Iraq War and was dedicated to deepening ties with the George Bush-led USA through a trade deal.

The final text included no major concessions from the US, and, despite Australia’s focus on boosting agricultural exports, the US only gave small and gradual concessions on its otherwise protected and subsidised agricultural sector, and didn’t loosen restrictions on sugar imports at all.

The sector is plagued with scandals, from wage theft and conflicts of interest to excessive spending on marketing, travel, and consultants.

Alongside these scandals, Australia’s Vice-Chancellors are some of the highest paid in the world.

A recent Australia Institute submission provides an extensive list of recommendations that would improve university governance.

However, the Australian National University (ANU) has unwittingly shown that a good place to start would be greater use of a powerful existing tool: Senate Estimates.

Last month ANU’s Chancellor Julie Bishop was the subject of questions at Senate Estimates about external consultants and conflict-of-interest processes.

The Australia Institute’s Chief Economist Greg Jericho has charted exactly where home buyers would be if they’d taken Mr. Hockey at his word.

A decade ago, a home buyer needed a deposit of $154,600 to buy a median-priced house in Sydney.

If someone earning the average full-time male wage had saved 15% of every pay packet in the ten years since, they’d have amassed $126,096.

Not only would that have left them well short of their original target, but the growth in house prices means the deposit they’d need now has almost doubled, to $281,500.

So, a decade after setting out to save $154,600, they’d still be $155,404 short.

The Australian Government’s latest report into the state of live music – “Am I Ever Gonna See You Live Again?” – makes some great recommendations, including for:

• tax offsets to be given to venues that host live music;
• training and education programs to help foster a love of music among young people;
• a rebate or voucher scheme to incentivise younger audiences to attend live music (which, as Australia Institute research has shown, is an approach that has been successful in Europe).

But, for these recommendations to have any weight, they’ll need to be backed up with adequate funding; the March budget is an opportunity for just that.

On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Elinor discuss new research showing just how difficult it is to save for a house deposit and the political response to Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 13 March 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

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

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

Show notes:

‘Gone are the days when a ‘good job’ gets you a house – and now we have the data to prove it’ by Greg Jericho, Guardian Australia (March 2025)

In 2015 former Treasurer Joe Hockey suggested to buy a house you just needed a “good job that pays good money”

Ten years on new research shows that had a person on the average full-time male earnings in each state been saving 15% of their after-tax income, they would still be unable to afford a deposit on a median-priced house.

Worse than that, in Sydney they would have gone backwards. At the end of 2014 they would have needed a deposit of $154,600, but by the end of 2024 after saving $126,00 for 10 years they would still need an extra $155,404 in order to afford a 20% deposit on the median-priced house in Sydney.

As people have saved, the price of houses – and the size of the deposit needed – has kept going up, even faster.

On this episode of Follow the Money, Dr Fiona Macdonald, Acting Director at the Centre for Future Work, joins Glenn Connley to discuss Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, Peter Dutton’s plan to axe public service jobs, and why the private sector generally doesn’t deliver better public services.

This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 12 March 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

Guest: Fiona Macdonald, Acting Director, Centre for Future Work // @drfionamac

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

Show notes:

Briefing Paper: Restoring public sector capability through investment in public service employees by Lisa Heap, the Centre for Future Work (February 2025)

The case has large implications for compensation to Indigenous peoples for government acts between 1911 and 1975, particularly in the Northern Territory and also the Australian Capital Territory.

Prior to Wednesday’s High Court decision, The Australia Institute is pleased to publish research by Dr Ed Wensing outlining the potential implications for the ACT.

Key points:

• Native title matters remain unresolved in the ACT with no statutory land rights system.
• The issues raised by Yunupingu in the Northern Territory have many similarities with historical circumstances faced by Traditional Owners in the ACT.
• The ACT Government has acted hypocritically. It has a policy of reconciliation and healing, but joined the Commonwealth’s appeal to the High Court on two out of three grounds.

“The High Court’s decision has huge implications for the ACT and its Traditional Owners,” said Dr Ed Wensing, Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Indigenous Policy Research at the Australian National University and long-time contributor to The Australia Institute.

“The nub of the case is about the expansion of the period of liability for compensation for Territory Government granted titles over native title.

“If the High Court decides in favour of Mr Yunupingu and the Gumatj Clan, the ACT’s long-held position that all native title rights and interests in the ACT were extinguished by past events simply evaporates.

The costs are being passed onto ordinary Australian households and businesses through skyrocketing insurance premiums. Emergency response, recovery and reconstruction costs are also paid through our taxes.

The one group paying none of the costs are the giant fossil fuel exporters who are causing the problem in the first place.

The Australia Institute has proposed climate damage compensation levy on fossil fuel exports to help take the burden off Australian households and businesses.

Major floods in eastern Australia pushed insured losses in 2022 to a record $7 billion, almost double previous records. Perhaps more alarmingly, since 2013, insured losses in each year have exceeded the combined losses of the five years from 2000 to 2004.

Between 2022 and 2023, the average home insurance premium in Australia rose by 14%, the biggest rise in a decade. As The Australia Institute revealed last week, around one-in-five households are now either uninsured or underinsured.

“If you cause a fire or flood at your neighbour’s house, you pay for the damage. That’s what should happen here,” said Mark Ogge, Principal Advisor at The Australia Institute.

“Ordinary households and businesses are paying the cost of floods and fires caused by giant global energy companies. It’s time we made them pay instead of us.

“A drop in the ocean of their massive profits would make a huge difference to Australian households and businesses reeling after the QLD floods.

On this episode of After America, His Excellency Vasyl Myroshnychenko joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the importance of upholding the international rule of law, the deterioration of relations between Ukraine and the Trump administration, and why Ukrainian security is important for the entire world.

This discussion was recorded on Friday 7 March 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

Guest: His Excellency Vasyl Myroshnychenko, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia and New Zealand // @ambvasyl

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

Show notes:

Poll: Trump a greater threat to world peace than Putin or Xi, the Australia Institute (March 2025)

1.      Care and flexibility

Working from home benefits employers and employees. Despite moves by some employers and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s claims about the public service, the Fair Work Commission is working to develop a working-from-home clause for industrial awards.

Fiona says: “It’s unlikely there’ll be a widespread return to five days in the office in 2025. We’re also expecting a continued reduction in overwork and unpaid overtime in the first full year of right-to-disconnect laws, which are expanding in August.”

2.      Gender pay gap

Following reforms to the Fair Work Act, a review of wage rates in female-dominated awards is underway. New cases to address gender undervaluation of work are before the Fair Work Commission.

Lisa says: “Hundreds of thousands of women and their families will benefit from the pay increases already awarded in care sectors. The Commonwealth Government’s preparedness to fund these pay increases has been critical. Continuing commitment will be essential to further narrow the gender pay gap in 2025.”

3.      Economic security for young women

Young women are more stressed by the financial squeeze than men and they’re less able to raise money in an emergency. They’re also more likely to have buy-now, pay-later debt. 60% of Australians with an outstanding HECS debt are women – and the gender pay gap means it takes them longer to pay it off.

In 2024 we saw some welcome developments for working women, led by government reforms.

Benefits from these changes will continue in 2025. However, this year, technological, social and political changes may challenge working women’s economic security and threaten progress
towards gender equality at work Here’s our list of five areas we think will impact on women workers’ economic security in 2025.

1. AI and the digital transformation of workplaces

2024 was the year artificial intelligence really started making its presence felt in Australian workplaces. The take up of AI is likely to accelerate in 2025. Alongside benefits from innovation there are some significant risks for workers, including in sectors dominated by women.

Job displacement is likely. Some new jobs will be created but job loss and casualisation are big risks for workers unless active effort goes into planning, training and support. In numerical terms, the greatest displacements are expected to be in retail trade, administrative and support services, professional, scientific and technical services and health care and social assistance, all female-dominated sectors.

Other risks are to job quality, as algorithmic management spreads from app-driven gig work into traditional workplaces. Assisted by electronic surveillance, AI is being used in selection and recruitment of staff, allocation and direction of work, and evaluation of performance of workers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Wrap with Amy Remeikis

Well, those two weeks were quite the month, weren’t they?

The headlines could cause whiplash; from a focus on the alternative prime minister’s past, to election date scuttle, to Chinese military vessels niggling boundaries, to Donald Trump making it clear to the people in the back where his America stands, it’s easy to see how quickly news fatigue can set in.

Trump, who is doing exactly as intended, is following the well-worn path his once most trusted advisor described as ‘flooding the zone with shit’, which is a strategy that boils down to hacking the media’s inability to focus when there are so many shiny headlines around.

The leopards didn’t just tell people they would eat faces, they explained how they would do it. But we have a habit in modern democracies of prescribing good faith to people running in positions we have been taught to respect.  Sure, Trump is enabling an unelected foreign billionaire to rampage through the country, and by association, the world, slashing foreign aid, backing in the far right, lie about allied leaders and abandoning the principles of democracy, but did you hear he’s bringing back plastic straws?

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

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 6 March 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

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

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

Show notes:

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

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

This discussion was recorded live on Wednesday 26 February 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

Guest: Senator David Pocock, Independent Senator for the Australian Capital Territory // @davidpocock

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

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

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

Show notes:

While Australians struggled with the cost-of-living crisis, the three largest private health insurers of Medibank Private, BUPA and NIB made pre-tax profits of $1.7 billion in 2023-24, according to APRA data.

Even with this these huge profits they continued to ask for more. The private health insurance lobby had been pushing for increases in insurance premiums beyond inflation. On 26 February the Minister, Mark Butler, permitted an average premium increase of 3.73%, which will apply from 1 April 2025. The Minister also claimed to have considered the insurers “years of record profits” yet Medibank, BUPA and NIB all received approval for above-average increases of 3.99%, 5.10% and 5.79% respectively.

The profits of Medibank, BUPA and NIB contradict the insurance industry’s claims that “nearly every dollar that comes into health insurance goes back out to hospitals, to doctors, to physiotherapists to dentists”.

Australia’s private health insurance industry is highly concentrated with the top five insurers (Medibank, BUPA, NIB and not-for-profits HCF and HBF) accounting for 79% of all premium income.

New analysis from The Australia Institute has found that private health insurers are making a killing but have managed to convince the government to let them make even more.

According to the latest data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), the biggest of them all, Medibank, recorded a pre-tax profit of $785 million last year, yet has been given permission to increase premiums by 3.99% from next month … above the average increase and above the rate of inflation.

Medibank’s profit represents a 45% return on equity, which means – in one year – it made almost half the overall amount the company’s shareholders have invested in the company.

BUPA made $607 million and is putting premiums up by 5.10%, while NIB made $289 million and will hike premiums by 5.79%.

“While Australians struggle through a cost-of-living crisis, health insurers are raking it in,” said David Richardson, Senior Research Fellow at The Australia Institute.

“They know their customers are struggling. But they obviously care more about profits.

“How much profit is enough? Medibank made three-quarters of a billion dollars yet is still putting premiums up by more than most.

“When they’re making a fortune, there is no justification for increasing premiums above the rate of inflation.

“Do they even live in the real world? This is a dud industry which is milking profit from customers’ pain.”

Mass farmed salmon deaths are continuing in southeast Tasmania, with rotting corpses washing up along the state’s beaches.

Tasmania’s Environment Protection Authority appears to know very little about what is going on.

A similar event occurred in Macquarie Harbour last year, with 10 per cent of farmed fish dying.

Concern among Federal Parliamentarians is increasing with Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie and Independent MP  Andrew Wilkie calling out the unsustainable practices of the salmon industry in recent days.

Meanwhile, the science remains clear that salmon farms are the number one threat to the endangered Maugean skate, recognised for its world heritage value.

Now, the salmon industry has admitted the real number of local people whose jobs would be affected if the industry moved out of Macquarie Harbour.

“The Australia Institute has shown the real number of jobs for west coast locals in Macquarie Harbour is fewer than 76 since 2023,” said Eloise Carr, Director of The Australia Institute Tasmania.

“Now the salmon industry has finally owned up and admitted it’s 60, not the 400 so often claimed.

“Jobs like those in processing and administration, already based elsewhere, do not have to rely on industrial fish feedlots that destroy world heritage.

“This misleading behaviour may have caused the government to invest in oxygenation trials when in fact it would be more economically prudent to destock and provide direct support to affected workers.”

In a poll of 2009 Australians, conducted before the weekend’s disastrous White House event with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, 31% rated Trump the greatest threat to world peace, compared to Russian President Putin (27%) and Chinese President Xi (27%). 15% were unsure.

Almost half (49%) said they felt less secure since the election of President Trump. 17% feel more secure.

Respondents were asked if they thought Australian interests would be better served by a closer alliance with the United States or a more independent foreign policy.

44% said they’d prefer a more independent foreign policy. 35% would prefer a closer alliance with the United States.

The research also found:

• 56% of women feel less secure since the election of Donald Trump
• 53% of Baby Boomers, 51% of Gen Xers, 44% of Millennials and 45% of Gen Zers say they feel less secure since the election of Donald Trump
• 48% of Labor voters would prefer a more independent foreign policy, while 30% would prefer a closer alliance with the US. Among Coalition voters, 49% would prefer closer ties with the US and 34% would like a more independent foreign policy

“This is a potentially seismic shift in Australian thinking about America,” said Dr Emma Shortis, Director of the International & Security Affairs Program at The Australia Institute.

On this episode of After America, Dr Emma Shortis and Angus Blackman discuss the shocking public disintegration of relations between the United States and Ukraine, why many Australians are feeling less secure with Trump in office, and what that means for the future of the Australia-US alliance.

This discussion was recorded on Monday 3 March 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Read more about the research on the Australia Institute website.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

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

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

Photo: Biden White House Archived/Flickr (US Government Work)

Theme music: Blue Dot Sessions

On this bonus episode of Follow the Money, Walkley Award-winning journalist Stephen Long speaks to three young climate advocates about the impact of climate change in Tuvalu and Kiribati, their dismay at the continued expansion of fossil fuels by Australia and other developed nations, and how they are fighting for the future of their societies.

Subscribe to Between the Lines, the Australia Institute’s fortnightly newsletter.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

Guest: Gitty Yee, Communications Officer, Tuvalu Climate Action Network

Guest: Aselu O’Brien, Draughtsman, Lands and Survey Department, Government of Tuvalu

Guest: Robert Karoro, National Coordinator, Kiribati Climate Action Network

Host: Stephen Long, Stephen Long, Senior Fellow and Contributing Editor, the Australia Institute // @StephenLongAus

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

Show notes:

The Coalition’s recent statements committing to “prioritise supply to the domestic market” is welcome recognition that gas exports are hurting Australians.

“The government can achieve this tomorrow by capping exports. It is not complicated,” said Richard Denniss, Executive Director at The Australia Institute.

“We have provided certainty of supply and price to the Chinese market for decades, while ripping off customers at home.”

Australia is one of the largest exporters of gas in the world. There is no shortage of gas in Australia, as highlighted in the Coalition’s recent statements.

Multinational gas export corporations already export 80 per cent of Australia’s gas and control almost all of Australia’s gas reserves.

On this episode of Follow the Money, Dr Emma Shortis and Ebony Bennett discuss Trump’s efforts to “rinse” Ukraine for its resources, the administration’s moves to dismantle significant portions of the Federal Government, and how the Australian Government can use its significant bargaining power to push back against the American President.

This discussion was recorded on Tuesday 25 February 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Subscribe to After America now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

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

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

Show notes:

On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg and Hayden discuss the latest monthly inflation data, the proposed improvements to Medicare, and Australia’s misguided obsession with federal budget surpluses.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 27 February 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Subscribe to Between the Lines, The Australia Institute’s fortnightly newsletter.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

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

Host: Hayden Starr, Digital Media Manager, the Australia Institute // @haydenstarr

Show notes:

But new research by The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work has found that sacking public servants actually costs the country money and makes providing services less efficient.

The new briefing paper – Restoring Public Sector Capability Through Investment In Public Service Employees – debunks several of the myths promoted in the political debate around the size of Australia’s public service. One such myth is that Australia’s public service is “bloated” or “inefficient”.

The research found that, despite claims to the contrary, most of the public service jobs created since 2022 were not based in Canberra.

It also found:

Salmon are dying in the pens of commercial farms and their rotting remains have been washing up along Tasmania’s beaches for the past week.

The foreign-owned salmon industry must come clean about the scale of this disaster and ensure Australians that not a single diseased fish is processed for sale.

The industry must ensure diseased fish do not end up on Australian supermarket shelves or dinner plates.

“Hundreds of thousands of salmon are continuing to die,” said Eloise Carr, Director of The Australia Institute Tasmania.

“The regulation of this industry is completely inadequate, so we don’t know much. But it looks like the dead fish are being extracted too slowly from pens that are still full of other fish. You can see the carcasses rotting and falling apart.

“Tasmanians are rightfully starting to ask what is being done to protect the health of consumers in all this?

“The salmon industry claims it gets more scrutiny than on-land agriculture. When there is a breakout of avian flu on land, the entire chicken flock is euthanised. In salmon pens, it appears the dead and live salmon are in the same pen. The dead ones are taken to the tip. What happens to the live ones?

“The Environment Protection Authority has not provided an update about this disease for a week now. Australians deserve better. Is this bacteria transferable or harmful to humans?”

Wealth inequality in Australia has dramatically worsened over the past 20 years, mainly being driven by investment properties (excluding the family home).

The richest 10% have seen their property assets grow by an average of $2.2 million per household over the last two decades.

Wealth is being taxed more generously than income, with $100 billion of tax concessions going to the three biggest assets: other property, superannuation, and the family home.

Key points:

• ‘Other’ property is the most concentrated with half of their increase over the last 20 years going to the richest 10%. This was worth $900,000 per household.
• The poorest half of Australian households got just 7% of the benefit ($24,000 over 20 years).
• Superannuation was the second fastest growing of the three major assets, with 37% of the last 20 years growth going to the richest 10%. The bottom half received 15%.
• Huge tax concessions worth $100 billion per year are going to the three major assets. These concessions reduce taxes on wealth and add to wealth inequality.
• Investment properties benefit from negative gearing and the CGT discount, with 73% of their benefit going to the top 10% of income earners.
• Cracking down on these tax concessions would reduce wealth inequality.

Research from The Australia Institute shows closing tax loopholes on wealth will make housing more affordable and reduce wealth inequality.

• Plummeting royalties: Last year NWS royalties made up just 1.3% of WA’s budget revenue. However, the gas fields subject to royalties are depleting and being replaced by non-royalty paying fields. By 2027-28, WA Treasury expects NWS royalties to drop by almost two-thirds, making up just 0.6% of WA government revenue, around one-sixth the amount paid WA motorists in vehicle registration fees. Research.
• Threat to WA domestic gas reserves: Woodside’s offshore gas fields are depleting rapidly, and it has not identified sufficient gas to fill its enormous export capacity, equivalent to more than double WA’s entire domestic gas use. Woodside is proposing it become a third-party tolling export facility for the next 46 years, able to buy gas from the domestic gas market. This is unprecedented in Australia. All previous LNG projects have included gas fields sufficient (at least in theory) to feed their exports. Research.
• NWS export of domestic gas has already tripled WA’s wholesale Gas and electricity prices: The WA government’s approval of exports of the state’s onshore domestic gas reserves from Waitsia in 2020 has exposed Western Australians to high global prices, leading to a tripling of wholesale prices in WA’s domestic gas and electricity markets.

On this episode of After America, Dr Gorana Grgić joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss Trump’s plans for Ukraine, the MAGA movement’s support for Europe’s resurgent far-right parties, and the new Cabinet’s approach to ‘prioritising’ China.

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 20 February 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

Guest: Gorana Grgić, Senior Researcher, Center for Security Studies, ETH Zürich // goranagrgic.com

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

Show notes: 

Bridges across regions: the effects of Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific cooperation on European security architectures by Gorana Grgić, International Politics (January 2025)

The Climate Change Authority report concludes that additional emissions under the coalition plan would see Australia miss its 2030 emissions target and delay the overall transition to clean energy.

“The Climate Change Authority’s slap-down of the Coalition’s nuclear proposal is welcome, but it is yet another distraction from the big climate issues,” said Rod Campbell, Research Director at The Australia Institute.

“We’re talking about nuclear yet again, not about Australia’s uninsurable regions, massive fossil fuel subsidies and dodgy offset schemes.

“It suits both major parties to have a fake fight about nuclear and avoid these real problems in Australia’s climate policy, on which Labor and Liberals largely agree.

“It would be more useful if the CCA focused on Australia’s subsidised fossil fuel expansion and rising domestic emissions.

“Nuclear is a distraction that avoids scrutiny of Australia’s real climate problems.

The post Fake fight over nuclear a distraction from real climate issues appeared first on The Australia Institute.

The Wrap with Amy Remeikis

In amongst the gestures, *everything* happening in the world this week, the Albanese government delivered two lessons in power.

The first came through Anthony Albanese’s latest intervention in the fight to save the Maugean skate from extinction.

For those unaware, the Maugean skate, also known as the ‘dinosaur fish’ because of its direct lineage to the Gondwana era, is the only known brackish water skate in the world. It only lives in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour, one-third of which sits in the state’s Wilderness World Heritage Area.

So far, pretty simple; Australia has a literal dinosaur fish and the only known example in the world.  So we should protect it, right?

Well, yes.  And it would be simple if it wasn’t for vested interests.  Enter the multi-billion foreign owned salmon farming industry, which, through intense lobbying dressed up as a ‘jobs versus the environment’ fight, has some people convinced is on the verge of collapse if environment minister Tanya Plibersek follows the science and winds back marine farming in Macquarie Harbour.

As new powers and alliances emerge, the traditional dominance of the US comes into question and Australia’s unwavering allegiance to the United States risks aligning climate and security strategies with a partner that is failing to lead on the most pressing issue of our time.

Watch:

By acting more independently and forging stronger partnerships with nations and blocs to advocate for genuine decarbonisation and adaptation funding, Australia has an opportunity to play a meaningful leadership role on the global stage. By embracing this potential and asserting itself as a proactive and innovative leader in the fight against climate change, Australia can secure its own prosperity and influence in a rapidly changing world.

Presented by Dr Emma Shortis, International & Security Affairs Director, The Australia Institute