Courtney Pedersen

Chart showing that Australia is a low-taxing nation and raises around $138bn less tax than the average of the OPEC

Business groups are calling for the government to overhaul the tax system. Excellent!
As @grogsgamut.bsky.social writes, we have some ideas...
australiainstitute.org.au/post/busines...

It’s good to celebrate #LabourDay in May! #SolidarityStrengthIntegrity @nteunion.bsky.social

Capitalism’s 'talent' was making us believe we are isolated individuals, threatened by others. We must dismantle this illusion. Others are not our enemies; they are our equals. Dismantling capitalism starts by recognizing our shared humanity and rejecting division. ⚡🏴

I back your bet.

We need to tax gas companies properly so the Australian people get a fair share of our resources.

Beer, spirits, and tobacco tax all raise more revenue than the Petroleum Resources Rent Tax.

#auspol #Budget25

I think we really need to encourage wider use of the term ‘tyranny’ again.
See it, name it, shame it.

Pics from last night’s #ClimateOfViolence intense performance and casual artist talk at Outerspace in Brisbane 🏳️‍⚧️ @amysargeant.bsky.social @lvndr-nixon.bsky.social

Cute terms I’ve heard used today to describe the brutal seas off the coast right now: ‘bit lumpy’, ‘bit woolly’ #TropicalCycloneAlfred

Trump just terminated the Chair of the Kennedy Center and has installed himself as the new chair.

He says he will now be dictating the institution’s “art and culture” and says it “must reflect” what he chooses.

Marianne Faithfull, singular icon of British pop, dies aged 78 Singer and actor overcame drug addiction and homelessness to collaborate with everyone from the Rolling Stones and Metallica to Jean-Luc Godard

Too many media failing the challenge to write about Faithfull without leading with Jagger.

Guardian UK does well:

"Marianne Faithfull, whose six-decade career marked her out as one of the UK’s most versatile and characterful singer-songwriters, has died aged 78"
www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Shouldn’t be so difficult to talk about a woman in her own terms, but apparently…

Taxpayers Subsidising Private School Luxuries As Australia enters a new school year, a submission from The Australia Institute highlights the growing disparity between public and private school

There is a growing disparity between public and private school funding, with new analysis revealing that taxpayers are helping fund lavish private school facilities and the high salaries of private school principals.

@mhharrington.bsky.social #auspol

As universities have been driven to a precipice across the UK, US and Australia, I want to know what governments of all complexions expect to achieve?

Screenshot of Google docs generative AI agent asking me to Rephrase, Shorten, Elaborate, More formal.

Holy moly. I'm trying to write an academic paper, and nearly every application I'm using is not only offering Generative AI as an option for writing, but *pushing it* -- pervading the design to the point where a simple misclick would make my content AI-generated. Here's why that's a problem. 🧵

Great article from our research manager @mhharrington.bsky.social about the benefits of investment in the arts, and some cracker ideas for how to do it:

“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.”
-Angela Davis

Happy 81st birthday, Angela Davis.

"If you live long enough a defeat will turn into a victory."
--Angela Davis

Congratulations to @leesawatego.bsky.social – as fraught and grim as 26 January is, it's still wonderful to see someone acknowledged for their fantastic work.

Today is not a day to celebrate.
We will be donating to paytherent.net.au.

Penguin Random House buys famous indie publisher Text. Live Nation decides to shut down Splendour in the Grass for another year. Australia’s cultural sector is being bought up by foreign multinationals and we’re just sitting around, watching

Woolworths sacks two workers and investigates dozens over alleged conduct during 17-day strike Letters seen by Guardian Australia focus on alleged pickets on 26 November outside warehouses that were not then on strike

Months after the bitter warehouse strike, Woolworths has started quietly firing workers who participated in the pickets www.theguardian.com/business/202...

The rules, if you are keeping track:

If a single left activist anywhere in the world says "defund the police," it becomes the official position of the Democratic Party, now and forever.

If the president's top surrogate repeatedly sieg-heils on stage, it's ambiguous, impossible to interpret.

The new public square is fact-free social media – and it couldn’t come at a worse time for Australia | Ed Coper Navigating the next 100 days of Australian politics online will require sharp teeth to discern fact from fiction I outsmarted and shamed a nice elderly man named Leo last night, who was only trying to help me. Leo’s a career coach with a trimmed white…

The new public square is fact-free social media – and it couldn’t come at a worse time for Australia | Ed Coper

Outer Space Outer Space is a not-for-profit Contemporary Arts organisation. We collaborate with artists and arts workers to develop, make, and present critically engaged creative practice in a supportive professi...

www.outerspacebrisbane.org

2025 Exhibition Program — Outer Space
So many good things to love in the main gallery and facade programs this year! Including Amy Sargeant and Arianna Nixon, Dean Ansell, Rae Haynes, Dylan Bolger, Paean Sarker, Pamela See — and so many more

Academic Work Tracker Template v2.2 (2025)

I have updated the Academic Workload Tracker for 2025. I strongly encourage all academics to track how long you actually work, and at what tasks. It's a crucial way to counter the deliberate wage-theft of obfuscatory university workload models.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Here's your daily reminder that bookstores keep the love of reading alive — but they also keep neighborhoods beautiful. They are places to gather, to celebrate stories, to find community.

Please do your holiday shopping at your local independent bookstore, if you are lucky enough to still have one.

Lecturer, S/Lecturer, A/Professor-Art History: Identified (s25) Job in St Lucia, Brisbane QLD - SEEK Seeking an experienced academic in the area of Art History to grow your profile in teaching, research and service and engagement.

PLEASE SHARE with your #ArtHistory networks:
The University of Queensland is accepting applications for a Level B/C/D Art History position, open to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants only, closing 22 December urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

Millions of Australians plant a seed for a healthy life and a healthy planet From the humble backyard vegetable patch to herb gardens on the kitchen windowsill – 9 million Australians are now growing their own food, according to

Growing your own helps cut down waste during the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, with almost two thirds of growers composting or worm farming, preventing mountains of food waste from ending up in landfill.

Read:
australiainstitute.org.au/post/million...