The Australia Institute is an Australian public policy think tank based in Canberra. Since its launch in 1994, it has carried out research on a broad range of economic, social, and environmental issues. The Australia Institute states that it takes a bipartisan approach to research, but it has been described as "progressive" or "left-leaning".

The Australia Institute has faced criticism over alleged links with the Australian Greens, with critics arguing these connections undermine its claim of being non-partisan. Media reporting has highlighted that several current and former senior figures at the Institute have held roles with the Greens, including founder and former executive director Clive Hamilton, who ran as a Greens candidate in 2009, former executive director Ben Oquist and current executive director Richard Denniss, both of whom previously worked in the office of former Greens leader Bob Brown, and other staff who have served as advisers or communications officials for the party. Former deputy chair Barbara Pocock resigned from the Institute before entering the Australian Senate as a Greens senator in 2022. Critics, including some within the Australian Labor Party, have pointed to policy alignment between the Institute and the Greens on issues such as tax, climate, energy and defence as further evidence of political affinity. The Australia Institute has rejected these claims, stating it has no formal political affiliations and arguing that its independence is demonstrated by its willingness to criticise or support policies from any political party based on its research.

The Australia Institute undertakes economic analysis with special emphasis on the role of the public sector as well as issues such as taxation and inequality, including gender inequality, poverty, privatisation, foreign investment, and corporate power. Some of The Australia Institute's contributions involve analysis of modelling exercises on the part of other groups such as assessing some of the pandemic modelling as well as the modelling behind the government's intergenerational report. The fiscal response has prompted attention to the tax base and so The Australia Institute described the principles of a good tax and a report on how to make the budget less sexist. These are some of the topics among the hundreds of reports on economic issues generally.

The Australia Institute has produced research in the climate and energy space since 1994. In 2017, The Australia Institute took over the work of the Climate Institute, including continuing the Climate of the Nation report, the longest continuous survey of community attitudes to climate change in Australia. The Australia Institute also published the National Energy Emissions Audit until October 2021.

The Australia Institute's Democracy & Accountability Program was established to "research the solutions to our democratic deficit and develop the political strategies to put them into practice". Issues pursued by the program include truth in political advertising laws, how state and federal governments have handled the COVID-19 pandemic, and freedom of information laws.

In October 2019, The Australia Institute established the International and Security Affairs Program to examine "the global connectivity that both underpins and impacts on Australia’s place in the world and the well-being of our citizens". The program addresses a broad range of contemporary global issues, including new thinking on what security means, a contemporary Middle East policy, the proper use of the defence force, the ANZUS Treaty, Australia's relations with China, and how Australia might improve its performance in the Pacific.

The Australia Institute's researchers are prominent commentators on public policy issues, including work on climate change and energy, emissions trading, taxation policy, and inequality.

Clive Hamilton helped establish The Australia Institute in 1994 to generate public debate on building a better society, particularly the environment. It was formally established on 4 May 1994. The first directors of the institute were Professor Max Neutze (inaugural chair); Hugh Saddler, a consultant in energy policy; and John Langmore; then a Labor Party MP; John Neville; Russell Rollason, then executive director of the Australian Council for Overseas Aid; Elizabeth Reid, the former first women's adviser to the prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1973; Barbara Spalding, an expert in social welfare and education; and Professor Marion Simms, an expert in the fields of gender studies and political science.^{[citation needed]}