● Watson Foundation rams Norwegian krill trawler in Antarctic waters   ♦ Murdoch empire holds 70% of print circulation   ♦ Australia gave away $300B in gas — Norway built a sovereign wealth fund   ♦ Kerry Stokes: mining magnate, media owner, political donor   ♦ Negative gearing costs taxpayers $6B per year   ♦ How they killed the mining tax   ♦ The revolving door between politics and media

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Politics

The wealth leaving through the politics beat.

Gas revenue foregone · since 2022/07/01
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BEAT / POLITICSPOWER, INFLUENCE, ACCOUNTABILITY30 INVESTIGATIONS · 5 CASES

Politics

Where policy meets money. Who funds whom, who blocks what, and how the machinery of government serves interests that are not yours.

02 / The evidence

The Inflation Rort · 8
01The two inflationsIn 2022, Australian inflation peaked at 7.8 per cent. The primary causes were supply-side: COVID supply chains, the Ukraine war, global energy price spikes. The Reserv…02GreedflationGrocery prices rose 24 per cent in five years. The ACCC’s Supermarkets Inquiry found Coles and Woolworths expanded their profit margins during the worst inflation in a…03Why the RBA did all the workThirteen rate rises. Fastest tightening cycle in Australian history. Budget in surplus. Corporate margins expanding. The RBA raised rates because it had to — its manda…04Who rate rises hurtMore than 1.5 million Australian households were at mortgage stress by October 2023. Monthly repayments on a A$500,000 loan increased by approximately A$1,210. Hundred…05Who rate rises helpedWhile 1.5 million Australian mortgage holders were at risk of stress, Australia’s four major banks reported a combined record profit of approximately A$32.5 billion — …06The fiscal tools they didn’t useThe UK introduced a windfall tax on oil and gas companies the same month the RBA began raising rates. The EU deployed a solidarity contribution levy on fossil fuel sec…07The political connectionsThe four major banks donated to both major parties. The fossil fuel companies whose export prices were driving energy inflation donated to both major parties. Woolwort…08The reckoningThe inflation came down. The RBA’s rate rises worked, in the sense that inflation returned to target. This is not contested. What is contested is how the reduction was…
The Roads Rort · 8
01The tollThe WestConnex M4 cost $4.56 in 2017. It costs $10.38 today. Australian consumer prices rose about 28 per cent over the same period. The toll rose 128 per cent. Drivin…02The modelThe toll road concession model works like this: a government needs a road built. It does not want to borrow to build it. It offers a private company the right to build…03Transurban: the monopolyTransurban was founded in 1996 with one road. It now holds full or partial ownership of every major toll road in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Its FY25 EBITDA was A$…04The fuel price cycleEvery week, petrol prices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide follow the same pattern: they fall during the week, then spike on Thursday or Friday, then fall a…05The political connectionsTransurban is a documented political donor to both major parties. The NSW Premier who sold WestConnex was described by academic analysis as selling to ‘one of his part…06Who owns the roadsTransurban’s largest shareholders include AustralianSuper and IFM Investors — the investment arm of the industry superannuation movement. AustralianSuper’s head of inf…07What the media coveredThe WestConnex 2021 sale was announced at a COVID media conference. The government led with a new Western Sydney investment fund. Reporters covered the fund. The finan…08What would fix itThe toll road concession model, as implemented in Australia, produces 75 per cent EBITDA margins, tolls rising faster than wages, and 40-year guarantees on rising retu…
Australia's Gas Heist · 6
01We gave away the gasAustralia is one of the largest LNG exporters on earth. Australians pay more for their own gas than buyers in Tokyo. The companies that take it pay almost no royalties…02What Norway builtNorway and Australia both discovered oil and gas. Both had booms. Both watched multinationals extract billions of dollars from their continental shelves. Norway taxed …03Beer, HECS, and the broken taxAustralia has a special tax designed to make sure citizens benefit from gas super-profits. It collects less than the beer excise. Australians repay their university de…05The political connectionsThe gas industry donated at least A$3.98 million to Australia’s major political parties in the year before the 2025 election. The minister who approved Queensland’s LN…08How they killed the mining taxIn 2010, a Prime Minister tried to make the mining industry pay a fair price for public resources. The industry spent A$22 million in six weeks. The Prime Minister was…11Why nothing changesThe gas rort has been documented for more than a decade. The PRRT has been reviewed, reformed, and reformed again. The case for change is not in dispute. Yet the syste…
The Airline Rort · 4
02The duopolyAustralia's aviation market has been a duopoly for most of the past 35 years. The same structure that existed before deregulation returned within a decade of deregulat…03The Qatar blockOn 10 July 2023, Transport Minister Catherine King rejected Qatar Airways' application to almost double its flights to Australia. Qatar found out via media. The letter…05Alan Joyce and the politiciansThe Chairman's Lounge has approximately 5,000 members. Around 90 per cent of federal parliamentarians are among them. Membership is free, by invitation of the Qantas C…08What would fix itThe reforms that would lower Australian airfares are known. The ACCC has identified them. Independent economists have modelled them. The Senate has recommended them. T…
Media Ownership · 4
01Who owns the news you think you’re readingAustralia has some of the most concentrated media ownership in the world. Three billionaires and a US conglomerate control almost everything you read, watch, and hear.…04Sky News and the regional captureIn Australian cities, you pay to watch Sky News Australia. In much of regional and rural Australia, it is your only available news channel, broadcasting free, all day,…05The revolving door between politics and mediaIn Australia, there is a well-worn path from parliament to the boardrooms and broadcasting studios of the companies that are supposed to be held to account by parliame…06501,876 signatures and nothing happenedIn October 2020, more Australians signed a petition calling for a royal commission into News Corp than have ever signed any petition in Australian parliamentary histor…

Nobody curates this desk. It is assembled from every investigation that touches politics — the moment The Rort publishes another, it appears here, and the names that keep surfacing rise on their own.

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