To meet the growing demand, the world will need new mines, and this new and rapidly changing context brings additional challenges and opportunities for the mining industry, for governments and communities. This report highlights a selection of key trends to understand the regulatory requirements and...

Over the last few years, the centre-right coalition in the United Kingdom has broadened beyond recognition – illustrated most strikingly by the Conservative Party’s landslide win at the 2019 election. The author of this report argues that the conservative movement’s future lies in paying disproportionate...

The experience of OECD countries shows that addressing corruption requires a comprehensive policy approach. The main purpose of this paper is to inform assessment of anti-corruption policies in the OECD Economic Surveys.

This study finds there has been a sharp rise in the proportion of political appointments to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) during the Abbott/Turnbull/ Morrison administrations.

This policy statement outlines The Greens' policy position on parliamentary standards, political donations and the establishment of a federal integrity commission.

Three decades after Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the first web server, the technologies that once promised to usher in a new era of democracy are now also being used to spread disinformation and sow distrust. Amid a global pandemic and the contentious political events surrounding...

State capture occurs when powerful or wealthy interests interfere with decision-making and assume a degree of control over the democratic rule-making process itself. This report breaks down six modes of influence used in State capture.

This publication explores the changing nature of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) engagement with Australian states and territories, local governments, city councils, universities, research organisations and non-government organisations nested in Australian civil society.

This report shows how support for populist politics ‘collapsed’ during the COVID-19 pandemic, but satisfaction with democracy also continued to falter.

The United Kingdom’s industrial policy since the 1970s has been characterised by frequent policy reversals and announcements, driven by political cycles. This paper explores the impacts of these deficiencies of the industrial policy-making landscape in the UK and contrasts them with the experiences of other...

Regulation of political lobbying is a significant corruption challenge for governments, according to this article, but if done successfully can enhance political equality and improve fairness of government policy-making by increasing transparency in the disclosure of lobbying activities.

This report on Operation Eclipse is an investigation into the regulation of lobbying, access and influence in New South Wales. It examines factors that could either allow, encourage or cause corrupt conduct, or detract from the integrity and good repute of public administration.

In recent times, online platforms like Facebook have usurped core aspects of what we expect from a public square. This discussion paper aims to initiate a focused discussion around the type of digital infrastructure we want to power our public square.

At a critical time in the United States' history, this paper examines how polarised discussions on race, ethnicity, religion, immigration and gender stem from years of income inequality, geographic disparities, systemic racism and the rise of digital technology. The authors also propose policy solutions to...

Exploring the history and evolution of lobbying regulation in Australian federal and state jurisdictions, this article develops a conceptual framework to evaluate lobbying regulation based on the form of regulation, the standards it imposes, and compliance processes.

Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index (Global Tobacco Index) is a global survey on how governments are responding to tobacco industry interference and protecting their public health policies from commercial and vested interests as required under the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO...

One of the greatest challenges in the study of disinformation and influence operations (IOs) is measuring their impact. This paper seeks to answer that challenge by proposing “The Breakout Scale,” a comparative model for measuring IOs based on data that are observable, replicable, verifiable and...

This report is the Australia case study of an ambitious year-long CSIS initiative to analyse China’s influence activities in Australia and Japan, and Russian influence activities in the United Kingdom and Germany.

This document is the result of a major inquiry into threat that Russia poses to the United Kingdom (Cyber; Disinformation and Influence; and Russian Expatriates). The investigation included a number of evidence sessions with a broad range of witnesses over the course of eight months...

The COVID-19 pandemic has shed new light on Russian and Chinese influence activities and created new opportunities for Moscow and Beijing to advance geopolitical goals through a range of influence operations, including through disinformation efforts. This research paper explores Russian influence activities in the United...

Researchers, policy-makers and the public at large are paying more attention to the threats that disinformation and other forms of online media manipulation pose to democratic institutions and political life. Coming after a number of international elections where disinformation was a serious problem, the authors...

This paper reports on what young people themselves believe their democratic responsibility is and what their level of engagement should be. It argues that their testimony provides an important insight and crucial information that will be of use not just to academics but also to...

This report provides background to and understanding of Prime Minister Scott Morrison's recent Townsville speech “Australia and the Pacific: a new chapter”, as well as an initial assessment of this announcement's implications.

This resource argues that the Turnbull Government’s proposal to ban foreign donations and limit political contributions from charities is a flawed and rash proposal that would undermine democracy.

The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s management of the Australian government’s Register of Lobbyists. It suggests that improvements could be made to communications, compliance management and evaluation for the code and the...