January
CPI pushes the rate cut door wide open
RBA is overachieving on inflation and should “break on through to the other side” to reduce the policy rate in February.
December 2024
Right’s cancel culture distorts diplomacy
The government is under fierce attack for its UN voting patterns on Gaza, but it is voting in keeping with global norms.
Albanese must lead like Labor heroes Evatt and Hawke on antisemitism
When Australia’s Jewish community has been under threat, strong prime ministers have stepped up to offer support and reassurance. Today, that sense of security is evaporating.
October 2024
A future republic has to be for every Australian
A republic cannot just be about severing ties with Britain. It has to be about unifying Australia too.
Charles III will find republicans who missed their best chance
The vibrant republican sentiment of the 1980s has been replaced by a dour, downbeat guilt-ridden version in the 2020s.
September 2024
How business and economists can become relevant again
A central problem is that good economic policies have not been well communicated and have often been debated in an echo chamber of elites.
July 2024
How to burst the CFMEU’s balloon for good
Press the construction union, and it simply bulges up somewhere else. More tools are needed if the union’s long-term culture is to change.
The cheeky Bob Hawke quip that could deliver our first gold medal
They delivered an 18-0 drubbing to the Americans in their sevens quarter-final after drawing inspiration from some blunt speaking by Bob Hawke.
On CFMEU, Albo must emulate Hawke
The union must be deregistered, and government construction contracts must once again be used to ensure that unacceptable union behaviour is not tolerated.
Australia’s blue blood miner, management moderniser and business nationalist
During his heyday in the 1970s and ’80s, Sir Roderick Carnegie was a believer in the power of big corporations competing in open markets to drive human progress.
Rod Carnegie: corporate giant felled at the final hurdle
Sir Rod Carnegie soared across the corporate sky in the ’70s and ’80s but was thwarted in his attempt to secure full Australian local control of mining giant CRA.
Tributes for Rod Carnegie, driving force for corporate nationalism
Sir Rod Carnegie, who had a major influence over Australian mining, business and national economic policy in the 1980s, has died at the age of 91.
June 2024
Split over ‘unbalanced’ ACTU policy on Israel-Gaza
A Left-aligned union leader has claimed officials quashed debate over Gaza at last week’s ACTU Congress by allowing criticism of Israel without mentioning Hamas.
April 2024
‘Destined for greatness’: Lehrmann judge tested his arm with former PM
All eyes will be on Justice Michael Lee – arguably the best-known judge in the land – when he hands down his judgment in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case on Monday.
March 2024
Four-year terms to end short-termism
New Business Council of Australia president Geoff Culbert pushed the idea at The Australian Financial Review Business Summit to “break out of the jail of short-term thinking” in Australian politics.
February 2024
Keating’s strategic illusion dies hard
The former prime minister’s timid isolationism, leaving others to do the heavy lifting, has its roots deep in Labor’s history.
December 2023
Forty years after $A float, no brave new world of prosperity in view
The anniversary of the bold decision is a reminder that the float set off a domino-effect of policy liberalisation that reversed Australia’s economic decline.
‘No point being a mouse’: Keating 40 years after floating the dollar
The float of the Australian dollar in1983 should be an example for political leaders to realise there are “long-term gains for some short-term pain” from tough economic reforms, says one of the players involved.
November 2023
Who killed neoliberalism?
Neoliberalist theory and practice went so horribly wrong because governments that put their faith in markets forgot one word – competition.
How Rio Tinto changed Australia
The group’s pioneering role in the Pilbara helped transform the nation through engagement with Asia. A new book reveals the full story for the first time.