Follow The Money

There is a growing awareness globally that unregulated technological development is not delivering on its promise to transform the world for the better. The Australia Institute launched the Centre for Responsible Technology, a new non-partisan centre designed to give people greater influence over the way technology is rapidly changing our world, on Wednesday 20 November 2019. The new Centre will b...

A new book, "See What you Made Me Do" by Walkley-award winning investigative journalist Jess Hill looks at the national emergency that is domestic violence or what Jess now calls domestic abuse. Trigger warning: some of the content we are going to discuss and the clips of various government anti-violence campaigns may be upsetting for some listeners and might not be appropriate for young ears. Hos...

The recent Pacific Islands Forum turned from a 'Pacific step up' to a Pacific step back for Scott Morrison, as Australia held a hardline on coal and emissions cuts.  Former president of Kiribati, Anote Tong urged that Australia's membership of the Pacific Island Forum to be reviewed, asking "How can you justify being part of a family and part of a group which you're trying to destroy?" and Follow...

First there were dead fish and towns running out of water, then #Watergate and now Four Corners have done an investigation into the Murray Darling Basin — again. Big picture...what's going on? Host: Rod Campbell, research director at The Australia Institute // @R_o_d_C Contributors: Maryanne Slattery, senior water researcher at the Australia Institute // @MaryanneSlatte1 Support the research power...

Two months ago, the Treasurer delivered a budget with rosy economic figures - what the hell happened? Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director at The Australia Institute // @ebony_bennett Contributors: Richard Denniss, chief economist at the Australia Institute // @RDNS_TAI  Support the research powerful interests fear: https://theaus.in/3RR3KYd See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's mass confusion about the new Senate voting system. Follow the Money unpacks how to get the most out of your Senate ballot paper. Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director at The Australia Institute // @ebony_bennett Contributors: Richard Denniss, chief economist at the Australia Institute // @RDNS_TAI  Support the research powerful interests fear: https://theaus.in/3RR3KYd See omnystudio.com/li...

Why is Australia in the midst of a wages crisis? In this episode, Follow the Money explains how we got here.  Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director at The Australia Institute // @ebony_bennett Contributors: Jim Stanford, economist and director of the Centre for Future Work // @jimbostanford  Support the research powerful interests fear: https://theaus.in/3RR3KYd See omnystudio.com/listener for priv...

In this episode, Follow the Money unpacks everything you need to know about the federal budget.  Producer: Jennifer Macey // @jennifermacey  Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director at The Australia Institute // @ebony_bennett Contributors:  Richard Denniss, chief economist at the Australia Institute // @RDNS_TAI  Support the research powerful interests fear: https://theaus.in/3RR3KYd See omnystudio.c...

What the hell is dividend imputation and why is everyone talking about franking credits? In this episode, Follow the Money explains how it all works.  Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director at The Australia Institute // @ebony_bennett Contributors: Richard Denniss, chief economist at the Australia Institute // @RDNS_TAI  Support the research powerful interests fear: https://theaus.in/3RR3KYd See omn...

Welcome to Follow The Money's summer special series! If you're taking a break this summer, but still crave a political fix, settle in a listen to the 'best of' from the Australia Institute's live politics in the pub events this year. In his Quarterly Essay, Dead Right, Richard Denniss talks about how neoliberalism ate itself, what he has in common with Matt Canavan and Tony Abbott and what comes n...

Welcome to Follow The Money's summer special series! If you're taking a break this summer, but still crave a political fix, settle in a listen to the 'best of' from the Australia Institute's live politics in the pub events this year. Launching the book Wrong Way, Senator Doug Cameron talks about privatisation and how some economic reforms backfired.  Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director at The Aus...

Welcome to Follow The Money's summer special series! If you're taking a break this summer, but still crave a political fix, settle in a listen to the 'best of' from the Australia Institute's live politics in the pub events this year. Ten years after the global financial crisis, Wayne Swan, Tanya Plibersek and Jim Chalmers revisit the Labor government's stimulus package which kept Australia out of...

Welcome to Follow The Money's summer special series! If you're taking a break this summer, but still crave a political fix, settle in a listen to the 'best of' from the Australia Institute's live politics in the pub events this year. Investigative journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown wanted logging in Sarawak to stop. The Malaysian Prime Minister wanted her jailed. Now he is in jail. And Clare Rewcast...

Welcome to Follow The Money's summer special series! If you're taking a break this summer, but still crave a political fix, settle in a listen to the 'best of' from the Australia Institute's live politics in the pub events this year. In this episode you will hear from Nobel laureate economist and winner of the 2018 Sydney Peace Prize, Professor Joseph Stiglitz.  Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Directo...

Welcome to Follow The Money's summer special series! If you're taking a break this summer, but still crave a political fix, settle in a listen to the 'best of' from the Australia Institute's live politics in the pub events this year. In this second episode of our summer series and one year on from the marriage equality vote, we bring you the launch of Yes Yes Yes: Australia's journey to marriage e...

Welcome to Follow The Money's summer special series! If you're taking a break this summer, but still crave a political fix, settle in a listen to the 'best of' from the Australia Institute's live politics in the pub events this year. First up, the end-of-year political wrap with press gallery journos Amy Remeikis, Rob Harris, Bevan Shields and Annika Smethurst. 2018: what the hell even was that? H...

As 2018 draws to a close, Australia's climate and energy policy remains almost entirely unresolved. While the government under Scott Morrison has a Minister for bringing down energy prices, it really has no clear plans to reduce emissions and has flagged plans to underwrite new coal-fired power. Meanwhile Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has announced Labor's 15 billion dollar energy package, with a...

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has repeatedly claimed Australia will meet its Paris commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2030 'in a canter', but is this true? As we approach the next United Nations climate negotiations in the Polish town of Katowice, the Institute's director of Climate & Energy Richie Merzian and senior economist Matt Grudnoff unpack the...

Ten years ago, on September 15th 2008 the US investment bank - Lehman brothers collapsed - triggering panic on financial markets around the world and the start of what we in Australia call the Global Financial crisis. So what lessons were learnt? How appropriate was Australia's response? What is the political legacy of the GFC? And can it happen again? At the Australia Institute, we have been help...

In this episode, Ben Oquist talks to John Hewson -- former Liberal leader, Professor at the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy and former member for Wentworth -- about climate change and Liberal party politics and Dr Hewson did not hold back. This episode is an excerpt of our Politics in the Pub event in Canberra on 12 September, following John Hewson's launch of Climate of the Nation 2018, a be...

In this episode, Michelle Grattan joins Ben Oquist to discuss what's wrong with politics and how to fix it. This discussion, ranging from our current 'coup culture' to Julia Banks' resignation, was recorded at our Politics in the Pub event in Canberra. Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director at The Australia Institute // @ebony_bennett Contributors: Michelle Grattan, Chief Political Correspondent at...

Why, after 27 years of economic growth and a mining boom, how can Australia be too broke to afford high quality rape crisis services, or to increase Newstart above the poverty line? Today you'll hear the Australia Institute's Chief Economist Richard Denniss at the official launch of his June Quarterly Essay - Dead Right: how neoliberalism ate itself and what comes next. And a language warning - Ri...

"the vast majority of the money being handed out is going to go to high income earners..." The Australia Institute was in the 2018 Budget Lockup, and subsequently have gone through the budget papers. Listen to two top economists break it down and give you the straight facts in a way that you won't hear from the pollies. >> Read the Australia Institute's full Budget Wrap 2018 Support the rese...

In a special "Pocket Money" episode of Follow the Money, released on the eve of the Budget, we discuss the 14 reasons why the case for the company tax cuts collapsed. See below for all the ways you can find our Budget analysis.  Our original episode discussing the company tax cuts can be found here.  Support the research powerful interests fear: https://theaus.in/3RR3KYd See omnystudio.com/listene...

"Burning something to boil water to create steam is a really old-fashioned technology..." The Australia Institute has spent the hot summer days monitoring when gas and coal power plants trip, taking sometimes hundreds of megawatts of power from the grid at unpredictable times. In contrast, solar power is taking pressure of the grid by delaying peak demand by several hours on days of extreme heat....