Richard Denniss
Richard Denniss is a prominent Australian economist, author and public policy commentator, and has spent the last twenty years moving between policy-focused roles in academia, federal politics and think-tanks. He is a regular contributor to The Monthly and co-chief executive of the Australia Institute.
The fake gas and housing shortage is Australia’s real crisis
Australia doesn’t have a shortage of houses, a shortage of gas, or a shortage of bullshit about housing and gas supply. Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of gas, but we’re often told we don’t have enough gas. Likewise, Australia has more houses and apartments -- in absolutes terms and per person -- than we did in the 1960s.
Australia actually has more than enough houses, they’re just owned by investors
Over the past 10 years, the number of new homes has been growing faster than the population. Read that sentence again if you need to, but doing so won’t change the facts.
CGT reform isn’t left or right, it's good policy and good politics
The last time Labor proposed to wind back the expensive and inequitable capital gains tax discounts their vote soared in the highest income electorates.
Left-right labels make political commentary easy, and democracy hard
Is protecting freedom of speech a left wing issue or a right wing issue? And if you aren’t sure, how on earth can the press gallery or anyone else talk about what a ‘centre right’ political party's stance on such a point of principle should be.
My advice? There's no such thing as the 'centre right'
Leaving aside the fact that it was John Howard who buried so many of the landmines blowing up the Modern Liberals' backyard, he was right about a few things, including his observation that ‘politics is governed by the iron law of arithmetic’. So, let’s count some votes.
Engaging with people you disagree with is part of democracy. Silencing authors is not.
The Australia Institute’s decision to withdraw its involvement in, and sponsorship of, Adelaide Writers’ Week was easy to make but raises difficult questions. As a research-based think tank, we thrive in the cut and thrust of disagreement, and we regularly participate in events, debates, and conversations with people we disagree with.
Engaging with people you disagree with is part of democracy. Silencing authors is not.
The Australia Institute’s decision to withdraw its involvement in, and sponsorship of, Adelaide Writers’ Week was easy to make but raises difficult questions. As a research-based think tank, we thrive in the cut and thrust of disagreement, and we regularly participate in events, debates, and conversations with people we disagree with.
Who is Zohran Mamdani, what is his agenda, and what would his equivalent in Australian Labor be promising to do?
Zohran Mamdani just broke all the rules for winning office in the USA.
Fixing the housing crisis isn’t complicated, governments just don’t want to do it
The easiest way to boost the supply of housing in Australia would be for governments to build new houses. And the easiest way to provide affordable rental accommodation would be to rent the new government-built houses to people at affordable rents. Fixing a housing crisis is not complicated.
Waste incinerators: the latest bin fire in Australian climate policy
Something has gone terribly wrong with a society and an economy that sees a steady and inexhaustible flow of garbage as a reliable fuel for generating electricity. But here we are.
Rebuilding after climate chaos 'creates jobs', but isn’t economic progress
Climate change will create jobs, but rebuilding what’s been destroyed is not progress.
'The good has become the enemy of better’: why the Senate refused to accept Labor’s first EPBC draft
'Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good’ has become the catch-cry of proud 'centrists' in Australia. But it’s time we admitted that the good has become the enemy of better.
How many extra possums does it take to compensate for a dead platypus?
That’s the kind of calculation a bureaucrat would literally have to make under Environment Minister Murray Watt’s new ‘environmental laws’.
Don’t hobble Victoria with complaints about taxes, debt and deficit
Big business never tires of saying taxes are bad, yet those same companies thrive on the very services taxes pay for.
It wasn’t the laws that were too weak to stop those projects, it was the ministers
The Prime Minister is betting that by 2028 people will forget the North West Shelf and EPBC backflips, but it would be a brave backbencher willing to make that same bet.
Why do Australian nationalists love foreign companies so much?
The gas giants are taking the piss, and the Australian right are encouraging them.
Labor claims that they accept the science on climate change - but their actions indicate the opposite
The Coalition’s clumsy culture war is providing perfect cover for Labor’s determination to expand fossil fuel production
What matters for the country is not that differences of opinion exist in political parties, but how those differences are managed
The Australian Labor Party is as much a broad church as John Howard once proclaimed the Liberal Party to be.
