Six months after its 2025 re-election, the Australian Government faces serious integrity challenges. This report card assesses the Government’s actions – and inaction – across key democratic safeguards: transparency, merit-based appointments, limits on undue influence, strengthening the public service and support for the institutions that hold power to account. The paper urges the Government to...

This paper contends that key details of the Australian Government’s flagship Help to Buy scheme have been hidden from proper parliamentary oversight. It reveals how the Help to Buy Program Directions 2025 hand sweeping powers to the executive, exempting crucial policy rules from parliamentary disallowance and scrutiny.

Transparency is the cornerstone of democratic governance, yet Australia’s federal executive continues to undermine it through increasing non-compliance with Senate orders for documents. Compliance has fallen to new historic lows. This paper finds that the mechanism for accessing government information has failed, and substantial reform is required. It recommends the establishment of an Independent Legal...

This paper examines the central shortcomings of the Australian regime for regulating lobbying and proposes comprehensive reform to address them. It calls on the federal government to work towards re-building trust with the public by prioritising transparency, integrity and equality in lobbying. The paper proposes comprehensive legislative reform is urgently recommended. It provides 15 recommendations.

This factsheet identifies six key reforms to redress the unfairness created by the Commonwealth’s new political finance laws, and make real progress on combatting the influence of vested interests on the exercise of public power.