Research

There is a widespread view that the middle class in Australia is doing it tough, that they are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a decent standard of living and are suffering from mortgage stress. Indeed, some media reports have announced the end of the middle class dream. This paper tests a number of these popular views against the statistical data. It asks whether the typical Australian family can be said to be struggling? Are mort...

This report investigates how coastal shipping compares to the other major freight transport modes in terms of energy and emission intensity. It further considers the extent to which increasing shipping's share of the domestic freight task could reduce Australia's emissions.

Dog-whistle politics is the art of sending coded or implicit messages to a select group of voters while keeping others in the dark. Dog whistling allows politicians to communicate divisive or reactionary ideas using apparently harmless statements so as to avoid offending or scandalising more tolerant members of the community. This paper represents the first in-depth examination of dog whistle politics in its various forms. It includes a history...

While we stigmatise fat people, perhaps they are behaving normally in a sick social environment. The answer then is not diets, drugs and surgery but a wholesale change in the culture of consumption, which itself is a reaction to the emptiness of affluence.

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This piece focuses on if the electorate believes that prominent politicians should go to heaven. Out of the six politicians John Howard scored the lowest with less than half of the population believing he should go to heaven, while Peter Garrett scored the highest at 74%. When split into political parties Howard was the most divisive, and Bob Brown and Garrett had the most bipartisan support. There is also a gender divide with women both more pro...

Australia has already blown its 21st century greenhouse budget targets according to a comprehensive analysis of the rate at which Australia is emitting carbon dioxide. The new Australia Institute report shows Australia consumed almost 30 per cent of a 100-year carbon dioxide budget in just five years. The finding is made in Australia's 21st Century Carbon Budget: How much have we consumed?, by the Institute's Deputy Director, Andrew Macintosh....