December 2024
Six surprising things I learnt from a Gen X gap year in London
We expected this to be a memorable time, but it was the workarounds and unknown unknowns that made it even better than we hoped.
The new world order looks like mercantilism
The chaotic politics of the past 16 years masked the steady development of a new economic order, but trade and the economy aren’t zero-sum games.
November 2024
Victoria needs a Milei or Musk to clean up Labor’s economic mess
The question Victorians must face is whether they would tolerate an Argentinian-type solution to the problems facing Australia’s domestic version of Argentina.
October 2024
A giant of Australian journalism, George Negus dies at 82
The father, partner and renowned journalist interviewed Thatcher, Gaddafi, Gorbachev and many more in a career spanning 50 years.
July 2024
Keir Starmer can drive Britain to reform-led growth
Britain’s new PM must lock in growth quickly if he is to secure Labour’s huge win. With a planning system from hell and a 17,000-page tax code, there is plenty of scope for reform.
The productivity hack that really does boost careers
Physical stamina is an oddly overlooked superpower in working life. But although it will take you a long way, it won’t always be enough to achieve enduring success.
August 2023
Why taking holidays can be a political minefield
Vacations are rarely straightforward for political and business leaders, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t take them.
July 2023
The climate crisis requires a wartime footing
Only by invoking the spirit of joint endeavour against a common enemy can we make the radical changes we need to get to net zero.
Facts of life are conservative, but younger voters are lurching left
The problem for the Liberal Party is that, since the end of the Howard-Costello era, it has done very little to address the structural causes for the discontent of young Australians.
April 2023
Nigel Lawson, architect of Thatcher’s economic reforms, dies at 91
Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1983 and 1989, he championed lower personal taxes, wider share ownership and free market economics.
February 2023
What can Australia carve out of a three-way AUKUS tussle?
Government language on the submarine project is as much about an industrial tie-up as a strategic one. But what is that going to be worth?
October 2022
From Westminster to Canberra, zombie ideas are out
The Truss horror show happened because conservatives stick with ideas that are not working for voters, even when ideology says they should be.
Is nostalgia killing conservatism?
The libertarian policies of Liz Truss look weirdly out of step. Until you consider the failings of both centrists and right-wing populists in Europe.
August 2022
30 years on, Gorbachev leaves a complicated global legacy
The world divided between democracy and authoritarianism that we thought, or hoped, Mikhail Gorbachev helped to end three decades ago is now back with a vengeance.
Truss, Sunak shy away from Britain’s economic woes
With runaway inflation, worker shortages and a wide range of other problems, the British economy is in trouble. The candidates to take over from Boris Johnson, however, seem oblivious to this.
July 2022
Tories must decide between Thatcher and Reagan
Race leader Rishi Sunak must persuade Conservatives that Margaret Thatcher would not have pursued Ronald Reagan’s free-spending ways at a time like this.
Sugar high of tax cuts will not fix UK economic woes
Loosening fiscal policy could stoke inflation and force the Bank of England to push interest rates higher.
Boris Johnson’s rise and fall are like no other
Australia’s politics operates in very different ways from Britain’s. But the UK still has a quiet prominence in Australia’s political, civil and cultural life.
Boris exit must be a reset for the right
The global right has been seduced by the fool’s gold of populist leaders. The British PM’s resignation is a chance to focus on long-term economic revival with a clear ideological purpose.
Fatally wounded, Boris Johnson refuses to accept political death sentence
The political assassination has been as slow and incompetent as that of Rasputin: somehow the UK’s mercurial prime minister manages to hold on.