This Month
Who’s who at the Chief Executive Women dinner
Labor MP Peter Khalil is fighting to save his seat against an ex-Greens leader; PM touches down in the Top End; Dutton back at a petrol bowser. Follow live updates.
Chalmers, economists slam Coalition’s debt reduction fund
The government and economists argue a Coalition plan to establish a new investment fund to help pay down debt will have the opposite effect.
Business leaders warn the big economic challenges are being ignored
Former leaders of the Business Council and Reserve Bank say the standard of economic policy in the election campaign is among the worst in decades.
Coalition’s Future Fund plan is a funny money fiscal illusion
The opposition’s proposal to pay down debt would actually involve the federal government taking on even more debt.
Chalmers and Taylor fail to tackle the big economic issues
The treasurers traded blows over the cost of living but fell short of laying out a reform agenda that business and economists have been calling for.
How Donald Trump crowded out Angus Taylor’s killer lines
Jim Chalmers and Angus Taylor were gearing up for a cost-of-living election but Trump’s ascension to the White House in January has changed everything.
How Labor is running rings around the Coalition with base politics
Peter Dutton needs people around him to start getting their hands dirty as the government makes it all about him.
‘Doesn’t stack up’: Top investors go cold on nuclear
New data shows Australia’s top asset managers have little interest in investing in atomic energy generation.
Libs commit to tax reform, but ‘budget repair comes first’
Peter Dutton says waving through the budget tax cuts would have been the easy thing to do, but they were unaffordable.
Dutton pledges to lift game, Taylor to fast-track investment
The opposition leader has promised colleagues his campaign will improve after a slow start marked by a series of missteps and slippage in the polls.
March
Dutton ups the ante on tax with fuel excise cut
Dutton says his petrol tax cut will give consumers more money more quickly than the tax cuts, and cost the budget far less.
For the party of lower taxes, this is an odd hill to die on
It’s a lot harder to run a campaign promising to repeal an already legislated tax cut than oppose the other side’s idea.
Hanson-Young holds up ‘rotten, stinking’ dead fish in Senate
Sarah Hanson-Young stages a stunt to accuse the government of “gutting” environment laws; pressure on Labor to pass instant asset write off. How the day unfolded.
Tax cut bill passes first hurdle, despite Coalition vote against
In rushing through the tax cuts bill, the government is forcing the opposition to go to the election promising to rescind the $17.1 billion in cost-of-living relief.
Chalmers’ budget has more than $3b in ‘zombie’ measures
The Coalition has singled out five policies that have stalled in parliament but have been baked into the Albanese government’s finances.
Dark winter looms without a plan to get the budget in shape
Affordability used to matter once but not so much in the post-COVID era, and the nation seems to have lost its fear of debt and deficit.
Dutton’s Trump problem and the budget no one wanted
This week on The Fin podcast, political editor Phillip Coorey and economics editor John Kehoe on how both sides of politics are planning to spin the budget and what to expect.
Chalmers concedes Labor won’t keep its $275 power bill pledge
Jim Chalmers has effectively raised the white flag on the election promise to lower power bills by $275, but says it will be worse under Dutton’s nuclear energy plan.
Dutton recommits to lower taxes, blames poll slump on smear campaign
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has assured his restive backbench he remains committed to tax cuts, but they have to be affordable and non-inflationary.
Liberal tensions emerge over party’s sales pitch on economy
Some MPs believe the Coalition isn’t as prepared as it should be to fight Labor on the economic front, but there are others who say it’s all going to plan.