Organisation

McKinnon

Alternate Name:

Susan McKinnon Foundation

Submission

Australian political advertising and disinformation on Chinese-language media services

Sima Mohammadi, Stevie Zhang, Dan Dai

This submission is based on research on political disinformation and advertising on WeChat, RedNote and Chinese-language YouTube channels during the 2025 Australian federal election. The findings uncover the challenges in electoral regulation and enforcement, particularly concerning political advertising and disinformation that may undermine Australia’s electoral integrity. The submission provides four recommendations.
Submission

ADM+S submission to the Senate Select Committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy

Mark Andrejevic, Nicholas Carah, Alfie Chadwick, Kate Clark, Kyle Herbertson, Matilda Knowles, Khanh Luong, Isabella Mahoney, Giselle Newton, Yee Fui Ng, Abdul Obeid, Christine Parker, Lina Przhedetsky, Dan Tran, Ned Watt

This submission to the Senate Committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy draws on research conducted ahead of the 2025 Australian Federal Election to track political advertising in key electorates. The research revealed that astroturfing in climate and energy debates is not the work of fringe actors but a systematic strategy of mainstream...
Briefing paper

No oversight, no debate: the details of Labor’s housing policy


This paper contends that key details of the Australian Government’s flagship Help to Buy scheme have been hidden from proper parliamentary oversight. It reveals how the Help to Buy Program Directions 2025 hand sweeping powers to the executive, exempting crucial policy rules from parliamentary disallowance and scrutiny.
Report

Women speaking up: gender dynamics in Australia’s whistleblowing landscape


This report analyses the first year of client data from the Human Rights Law Centre's Whistleblower project in Australia. It finds women who blow the whistle are vital to exposing wrongdoing but are paying a heavy price. The report makes four recommendations to better protect women whistleblowers, including establishing a Whistleblower Protection Authority.
Briefing paper

Still shrouded in secrecy


Transparency is the cornerstone of democratic governance, yet Australia’s federal executive continues to undermine it through increasing non-compliance with Senate orders for documents. Compliance has fallen to new historic lows. This paper finds that the mechanism for accessing government information has failed, and substantial reform is required. It recommends the establishment of an Independent Legal...