Australia’s democracy is being stretched thin, with each federal parliamentarian MP now representing almost four times as many people as at Federation. This paper proposes that more MPs would increase the talent pool for ministries, reverse the growth in physical size of rural and regional electorates, and make MPs more responsive to local communities.

There are currently no disclosure standards for Australian companies’ charitable spending. This research into 20 of Australia’s largest corporations found that over half the value of their reported contributions to the community were dubious. Clear and consistent disclosure standards would help investors, consumers and the public make more informed decisions.

This report finds Australia's freedom of information (FOI) system is dysfunctional, making it very difficult for Australians to get information out of government. It notes that the changes proposed in the Australian Government’s Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025 would exacerbate problems in the system, concluding that government secrecy is the cause of the problems.

Freedom of information (FOI) is a crucial part of the beneficial information feedback loop between the government and the people. However, this submission finds that Australia's FOI system is broken and cultural and legal changes are needed to fix it. It presents the South Australian FOI review process as a model that could be adopted...

Australian federal Members of Parliament and Senators are entitled to over $3 million in pay, resources and benefits over a three-year election cycle. These resources can be used to boost re-election chances. Combined with changes to electoral laws coming into force, this paper finds that these threaten to make Australian elections less competitive than ever.