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Dec 1, 2024 | 
australiainstitute.org.au | Greg Jericho |David Richardson |Richard Denniss |Polly Hemming
Victoria’s budget and economy are actually doing well – both the state’s public net worth and overall economy recovered solidly from the pandemic. At the moment numerous media outlets are attempting to make the case that the Victorian government’s finances are in a parlous state.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
australiainstitute.org.au | Ebony Bennett |Polly Hemming
It’s like an episode of Utopia or Yes Minister – just a week out from the government’s Global Nature Positive Summit, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek approved three whopping coal mine extensions in NSW. You don’t have to be David Attenborough to know that coal mines are “nature positive” in the same way as asbestos is lung positive.
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Oct 31, 2024 | 
australiainstitute.org.au | Greg Jericho |Yasmine Wright Gittins |Polly Hemming |Ebony Bennett
Every time the government approves a new fossil fuel mines it choose to make it harder for people to build homes. This week came the latest of many stories about the problems of rising costs and labour shortages in the Australian construction industry. And while a common refrain is the need for higher migration, one of the most actuate causes of the shortages is the government’s approvals of new coal and gas mines.
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Oct 3, 2024 | 
australiainstitute.org.au | Angus Blackman |Yasmine Wright Gittins |Polly Hemming |Stephen Long
By choosing to extend three coal mines, the government could be inadvertently redirecting construction workers from building houses to the fossil fuel industry. On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg explores the impact of the government’s coal mine extensions on the housing market and our climate. Greg Jericho is Chief Economist at the Australia Institute and the Centre for Future Work and popular columnist of Grogonomics with Guardian Australia.
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Sep 25, 2024 | 
australiainstitute.org.au | Angus Blackman |Ebony Bennett |Polly Hemming
By relying on uncertain and unethical carbon offsets to combat the climate crisis, society is setting itself on a path to destruction, George Monbiot says. On this episode of Follow the Money, George Monbiot, Guardian columnist and co-author of The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism, joins the Australia Institute’s Polly Hemming to discuss the impact of neoliberalism on our climate, the folly of carbon offsets, and why “bollocks” incrementalism won’t lead to systemic change.
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Jun 5, 2024 | 
australiainstitute.org.au | Angus Blackman |Ebony Bennett |Polly Hemming
Australia is in the midst of a housing crisis, fuelled by poor government policy. Across the country, house prices have skyrocketed, putting the prospect of buying a home well out of reach for too many people. Rents have also soared, placing huge financial pressure on people and pushing many into homelessness.
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Apr 17, 2024 | 
australiainstitute.org.au | Angus Blackman |Ebony Bennett |Polly Hemming
Freedom of Information laws have helped the public uncover information governments would prefer to keep secret, but the system is failing. Strong Freedom of Information laws are critical to Australia’s democracy, but delays and government resistance are undermining people’s faith in the system.
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Apr 10, 2024 | 
australiainstitute.org.au | Ebony Bennett |Polly Hemming
This is an extract of Lech Blaine’s Quarterly Essay, Bad Cop: Peter Dutton’s Strongman Politics, out now. Join Australia’s Biggest Book Club for April 2024Register for Bad Cop: Peter Dutton’s Strongman Politics11:00am Friday 12 AprilPeter Dutton eats bleeding-heart lefties for breakfast. He is tall and bald, with a resting death stare. His eyes – two brown beads – see evil so that the weak can be blind. His lips are allergic to political correctness.
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Mar 27, 2024 | 
australiainstitute.org.au | Angus Blackman |Ebony Bennett |Polly Hemming |Richard Denniss
After scarcely mentioning it for nearly a decade while in government, the Coalition are now hot to trot on nuclear power – but why? On this episode of Follow the Money, energy researcher Matthew Ryan and host Ebony Bennett discuss the cost of a massive nuclear energy rollout, the legal and environmental barriers standing in the way and why the Coalition’s plans would be dreadful for Australia’s emissions in the coming decade.
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Mar 24, 2024 | 
australiainstitute.org.au | Luciana Lawe Davies |Allan Behm |Polly Hemming |Emma Shortis
When AUKUS was announced, the ANU was quick off the mark to cash in. It seems that the Universities of Sydney and Nottingham, through the United States Study Centre, also want to pursue a new business line: the creation of “social licence” for government policies, new technologies and new products. They plan to monetise a form of advertising and promotion that was once known as propaganda.
