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Ben Chifley

April 2024

New governor-general Sam Mostyn. A lifetime of lobbying ends at Yarralumla.

A governor-general from the Chairman’s Lounge

The PM is truer than he knows when he says Sam Mostyn represents modern Australia. It’s a nation of talkers, not doers.

  • John Roskam

August 2023

Richard Marles, Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese see the AUKUS amendment over the line.

So much Labor hope is riding on an empty vessel

Labor’s leaders have put staying in government first. But it’s a bit pointless when they cannot even persuade their own supporters why they are taking the positions they are.

  • Laura Tingle

February 2023

More Australians believe they have been priced out of ever owning a home.

Why banning ‘super for housing’ might be politically unsustainable

Raging inflation and normalising interest rates may now test household tolerance for a compulsory system that forces households to pay fees and margins on both sides of their balance sheet.

  • Nick Hossack

October 2022

Treasurer Jim Chalmers in Washington, DC. He will upgrade wage growth in his first budget.

Why Chalmers will look to his Queensland roots as budget looms

It’s not just spending plans and spending cuts that will determine the new Treasurer’s budget. Labor’s own federal fiscal history will play an influential role.

  • Andrew Clark

March 2022

Since Morrison came to office in August 2018, wages have not kept pace with inflation. Workers’ pay packets have increased 6.6 per cent, while the price of what households buy has climbed 6.9 per cent, meaning purchasing power has gone backwards.

As election nears, rising prices hit political nerve

Already in a political rut, Scott Morrison has to navigate challenges around the increasing cost of living to win the federal poll.

  • Tom McIlroy and Michael Read

July 2021

Anthony Albanese says he will commission a white paper on full employment if he wins the next election.

Snapping back to 2019 ‘not good enough’: Albanese

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese will draw parallels between pandemic recovery and post-war reconstruction in a speech to the National Press Club on Friday.

  • Andrew Tillett

August 2020

Sydney celebrates victory in the Pacific on August 15, 1945.

A hard history lesson in real time

As Australia marks the anniversary of the Allies' victory in the Pacific War, Canberra is grappling with another great power shift in the region.

  • Andrew Clark

April 2020

Look towards a nation-building economy once the virus passes.

Rebuilding post-virus Australia is not a cue for socialism

Labor must not overreach itself with a great shift to the left. But we can still build a much better nation than the one we have now.

  • Nick Dyrenfurth

February 2020

There was a time when car making here might have made sense.

Learn the right lessons from Holden's exit

Subsidised manufacturing jobs offer false security rather than serious prosperity.

  • The AFR View

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/person/ben-chifley-24y