"Defunding the ABC is not enough. They need to be shut down”.

This is the war cry of a new coordinated campaign to smear our public broadcasters and reignite the political pressure to defund them.

It's Trump-style politics – and it's how the previous Coalition Government slashed $526 million in ABC funding and 640 jobs were lost.

This is exactly why we launched our Media Fund – to keep powering the research proving why well-funded, independent public broadcasters matter. Our research helped shift Parliament to block a Coalition-One Nation push to cut ABC funding and undermine its independence in 2017.

With your support today, we can defend the ABC once again.

Donate now to our new Media Fund and power the evidence we need to fight back!

Your impact

Some of the recent impact of our work includes:

• Playing a critical role in the Federal Government’s decision to redesign the Stage 3 tax cuts to deliver an additional $84 billion dollars from high income earners to low- and middle-income earners over the next ten years, the culmination of five years of Australia Institute research and advocacy 
• The announcement of no less than six different inquiries into prices and price-gouging, following our influential research exposing how excessive corporate profits were largely responsible for the burst of inflation that followed COVID lockdowns.  
• The establishment of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, following a decade of research and advocacy from the Australia Institute exposing the serious flaws and gaps in our integrity system.
• Exposing how around 75% of Australia's gas is exported overseas, over half (56%) of gas exported from Australia attracts zero royalty payments, effectively giving a public resource to multinational gas corporations for free.

But we couldn't do it without supporters like you.

The Australia Institute is not government-funded. We are powered by donations from philanthropy and by thousands of supporters across the country who value research that matters, as well as grants and commissioned work. 

Previous work on media reform

From taking on the Australian Financial Review over skewed reporting of how excessive corporate profits were driving post-COVID inflation, to defending the ABC’s independence, and platforming Nordic models to support media diversity—we are no strangers to fighting for a strong and diverse media, with public interest journalism at its heart. You can read some of our past work on media and democracy here:

• Australia’s media caters to a population of 25 million, which is about the same as the combined population of the Nordic nations. The similarities end there. Australia’s media ownership is among the most concentrated in the developed world. Read our full report into the lessons Australia can learn from Scandinavian measures to support media diversity here.
• Australia’s public broadcasters (the ABC and SBS) should remain independent and free from political interference. Read our submission to review of options to support the national broadcasters' independence here.
• A lack of transparency and integrity lies near the heart of every political issue facing Australia. The Australia Institute’s inaugural 2024 Transparency Summit brought together experts, whistleblowers and those working to ensure the interests of all Australians are represented in our policy-making process.
• The media industry has changed radically over the last three decades, transformed by the 24-hour news cycle, social media and the tech giants, and now artificial intelligence. We were joined by Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, Ed Husic MP, and Karen Percy to discuss regulating the digital giants, the challenge of artificial intelligence and restoring trust in the media. Listen to this episode of our podcast Follow the Money here.
• There is widespread public support for banning gambling advertisements on free-to-air media because of the harm caused by gambling. Australia Institute research shows a small levy on the many billions of dollars gambling companies extract from Australians could compensate the media for the lost revenue – with enough left over to increase funding for the ABC. Read more here.