On this episode of What’s the Point?, Richard Denniss explains the theory of ‘trickle-down’ economics – and why so much of the money seems to be trickling the other way.
Tue 6 Oct 2026 12.08 AEDT
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has released a consultation paper on excessive specialist fees. The paper can be boiled down to a simple question: when a specialist charges far more than their peers, or far more than the Medicare schedule fee, could government do anything about it? The answer is yes.
The latest corporate tax data released today by the Australian Tax Office (ATO) showed that once again, major gas producers are paying no company tax, and despite claims that changes to the Petroleum Rent Resources Tax (PRRT) would deliver “more revenue sooner”, the PRRT in 2024-25 raised less tax than in 2020-21.
Australia’s criminalisation and detention of children as young as ten is a “crime scene and a human rights catastrophe,” disproportionately impacting First Nations kids, Senator Lidia Thorpe has said. In separate comments to the Senate inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system, which reported last month, Senator Thorpe explicitly named detention centres as “sites of systemic child abuse".
On this episode of What’s the Point?, Richard Denniss explains the theory of ‘trickle-down’ economics – and why so much of the money seems to be trickling the other way.
This episode was recorded on Thursday 24 September.
Host: Richard Denniss, co-Chief Executive Officer, the Australia Institute // @richarddenniss
Host: Anna Chang, Managing Editor, The Point // @annachang
