Some forms of government assistance can help facilitate adjustment to drought, including support for those small-business families facing poverty, as well as helping people to make better decisions when it comes to planning and preparing. On the other hand, ad hoc handouts to farm businesses in the form of subsidies for interest, freight and transport can have undesirable effects in terms of Australia’s national productivity and equity. Read More
Murray-Darling Basin Authority chief Phillip Glyde confidently asserts the agency would do a better job with almost four times as many staff working out of its regional offices, but there may be bigger upheaval in his future pending the outcome of looming elections. Read More
It is time for the Federal Indigenous Protected Areas and Indigenous Rangers programs to be moved back to the Department of Environment, otherwise we risk their ongoing success. Read More
Australian cities are becoming bigger, noisier and more congested. Would restrictions on cars improve our health and stress levels? Read More
The Reserve Bank will now factor climate change is as a "key policy concern" in monetary policy deliberations, says Deputy Governor Guy Debelle. Read More
Many agencies integrate disaster and climate “resilience” into their policies, programs and asset management. But that doesn’t mean Australia is any closer to deciding on let alone committing to a long-term policy for handling climate change, says Verona Burgess. Read More
Dr Geoff Edwards discusses balancing economic, social and environmental outcomes of the Murray-Darling river. Read More
Rural and regional Australia is a big and diverse place, but some broad common issues do emerge as policy priorities. Read More
Disagreement over the the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and spuriously scientific analysis of fish kills does not mean that the MDBA was wrong, writes one of its former board members. Read More
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority says the recent South Australian royal commission produced some “useful analysis and insights” and notes a few “areas of agreement” in its formal response, but argues it would be too risky for governments to follow the inquiry’s main recommendations. Read More
Water provides many examples of how politics can get in the way of good policy, and how Australia’s federal system sometimes supports and sometimes derails bipartisan solutions. Read More
Climate change is seen as a top international threat by more countries than any other problem, according to a 26-nation survey. Read More
Climate change and urban development are heating up Australia's cities. Planting trees is one solution being tried by local councils. Read More
The idea that renewable energy has made power supply less reliable "is wrong and dangerous", says the Grattan Institute. Read More
'The MDBA doth protest too much, methinks,' writes Commissioner Bret Walker in a rebuke that drew upon the works of George Orwell and William Shakespeare to describe how bureaucrats twisted the language of transparency. Read More
