Research

When the Climate Institute has closed its doors, The Australia Institute was honoured to be selected to carry forward some of The Institute’s work as part of our new Climate & Energy Program. One of the important initiatives being carried forward under The Australia Institute’s Climate & Energy Program is the Climate of the Nation report on attitudes to climate change, released annually by the Climate Institute. Huge amounts of...

The McArthur River zinc-lead mine in the Northern Territory imposes significant environmental costs on the local community. Claims that it could produce government revenue of over $1.5 billion are based on flawed economic modelling that estimates tax revenues over a 1,000 year period.

This week the ABS released new GDP data, covering the June quarter, which confirm the continuing structural shift away labour toward capital in the distribution of income.We have prepared a short briefing note, contrasting the strong growth in corporate profits over the past year with the stagnation of labour incomes. Workers simply do not have the bargaining power to demand and win wage increases that reflect steady productivity growth....

Political donations in Australia are difficult to monitor as many go unreported. Only donations over $13,000 are disclosed to the Australian Electoral Commission. The majority of donations are likely to be under this disclosure threshold or hidden through other means, such as through associated entities or party fundraising events.Despite these shortcomings, the disclosures that do exist allow for analysis of which companies make major, disclosed...

Australia’s mining industry is 86% foreign owned and has spent over $541 million in the last ten years on lobbying Australian governments through its peak lobby groups, which are dominated by foreign interests. Spending on lobbying by individual mining companies is not public information, but would bring this number up significantly.This report finds that: Total revenue of mining lobby groups over the last 10 years is $541,275,884, with the...

What we do and don’t know about mines, closures and rehabilitation in Victoria.Little data is available to the public on the clean-up from the mining boom. State government agencies often lack basic information on how many mines are in operation, with still less published on closures and abandonments. 

This paper, by Dr Andrew Carr of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, looks at where this sense of bipartisanship came from, how it operates and assesses its impact. While seemingly an innocuous idea — that our two major parties should seek agreement or cooperate in a spirit of unity — the reality today is far more corrosive.A default approach of bipartisanship restricts policy creativity and accoun...

Associate Professor Appleby has argued that a federal ICAC should have the discretion to conduct public hearings in ‘cases where public concern surrounding an allegation of corruption that it rises to a crisis of confidence in government’, demanding an immediate assurance that a robust investigation is underway.Recent survey research indicates that there is already something of a crisis of public confidence in government in this country. The Scan...

There is a strong need and broad public support for a federal anti-corruption commission with public hearings.Of the state commissions already established in Australia, NSW ICAC has been markedly successful in carrying out its legislated mission and provides a fair model for emulation, with refinement and adaptation, at the federal level.Premier Nick Greiner outlined in 1988 that NSW ICAC would only be effective with the powers of a Royal Commiss...

There is a compelling case for a federal integrity commission: there is strong public support for such a body, and there is evidence that corruption is endemic in our federal public service, with 3000 cases being reported by the public service’s own survey.State-based anti-corruption bodies have found corruption in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, and there is no reason it will not be found in Canberra once a federal integrity commission is...