This Month
The economic giant the political class tried to ignore
Despite being maligned by Australia’s political and economic establishment, John Stone had the necessary fortitude and the intellect to shift debate.
John Stone, former Treasury secretary, dies aged 96
Former prime minister John Howard has remembered John Stone as a public servant with “superb intellect”.
Roundtable screams of Chalmers’ style, but where’s the substance?
The treasurer is pushing big ideas and expectations for his economic talkfest in August. The practical results are much less certain.
Why a visit to the panda enclosure is never just about pandas
China used to give pandas to strategic allies. Now it loans them out, but it also isn’t afraid to use them as punishment.
The PM will not cross Taiwan red line with China
If Anthony Albanese can be faulted, it is over the erosion of Australian sovereignty by the blind extension of the American military footprint on our continent.
Tesla chief is a world away from Musk’s meltdowns
The company’s investors are asking: Where is Robyn Denholm? At the footy!
Rugby union’s politics and finances hit the limelight
With the code hanging by a thread, the British and Irish Lions tour appears make or break for the future of rugby in Australia.
June
12pc super is 25 years late but worth the wait: Keating
Paul Keating says Coalition delays to increasing the super guarantee could have cost a retiree as much as $300,000.
Why welcome to country is a brake on economic reform
Some will deride discussion of these matters as culture wars. But economic leadership can only begin from a shared sense of national identity.
Fix Howard’s problematic GST deal, Hewson urges Chalmers
The architect of the Liberal Party’s first GST policy says a rethink of federal-state responsibilities needs to be part of a tax reform agenda.
Howard and Costello: This is how you do tax reform, Jim
John Howard and Peter Costello have weighed in on Jim Chalmers’ productivity and tax agenda, 25 years after implementing the GST.
‘No one liked it’: Lessons for tax reform after 25 years of GST
The bitter brawl over the goods and services tax is worth remembering as Jim Chalmers opens the door to real reform for the first time in years.
What Sussan Ley can learn from John Howard’s ‘lazarus’ moment
When the opposition is looking hapless, and you’re pondering why she even bothers, the new leader can look to John Howard, Tony Abbott – and even herself
May
‘I don’t think John Howard has met these Nats’
This week’s stunning split in the Coalition has been building for a decade and insiders blame the Nationals, who have become a party of protest.
‘We risk achieving nothing’, warns Nats MP after Coalition split
Nationals MP Darren Chester says his party risks spending years in the wilderness achieving nothing if it fails to rejoin the Coalition.
Howard sounds warning over historic Coalition split
The Liberal Party will sit alone in opposition after the Nationals decided to walk away following the breakdown of negotiations over policy.
Nats must reunite with Libs sooner rather than later
The prospect of prosecuting their agenda is made more likely if the Nationals end their self-imposed exile and recombine with the Liberal Party.
The longer the split, the harder it will be to reconcile
Sussan Ley, who used to hold her own in shearing sheds, is playing hard ball.
After three wobbly years, Albanese’s second term is taking off
The stack of new Labor MPs is reminiscent of the “class of 96”, which acted as John Howard’s praetorian guard for many years.
Ley can’t win in 2028 but maybe she can carve a competitive Coalition
Sussan Ley’s challenge is so onerous that just making it to the next election will be achievement enough.