This Month
Bipartisan illusion on pay rises
It’s the magic pudding pitch. Even Peter Dutton is joining Labor in pretending that real wages can increase while productivity is shrinking.
January
Trump threatens to double taxes for foreign nationals, companies
The US president has ordered officials to draw up retaliatory measures against “extraterritorial” levies, setting the stage for a global tax fight.
July 2024
It’s not just Labor that let the CFMEU off the leash
Jacqui Lambie, Pauline Hanson and some independents have played a role in enabling the militant union.
June 2024
Fair Work decision gives Labor another chance to run its wages fib
The former government never embarked on a deliberate strategy to suppress wages. But you wouldn’t know it.
February 2024
Indonesia bids to join club of rich liberal countries
Fresh from its election, Indonesia has formally applied to join the 38-country OECD. It’s a boost for the liberal West, but might mean tough domestic reforms.
VC fund pulls $2.5m from firm of former PwC boss Luke Sayers
US-based venture capital fund McLaren Strategic Ventures will reduce its investment in the consultancy set up by the former PwC chief Luke Sayers by $2.5 million.
Luke Sayers who? PwC and the network that wasn’t there
Implausible? Possibly. But on the record? Absolutely.
PwC opens ethics investigation into Luke Sayers
A complaint has raised allegations against the former PwC CEO. The firm’s ethics department has started an investigation.
January 2024
Australia’s business elite turns its back on Davos
No government minister and barely any big-ticket CEOs: either Australians don’t want to interrupt their summer, or the World Economic Forum is losing its cachet.
Labor and the great wage rise illusion
Labor did not cause inflation. But by celebrating higher wages with no rising productivity to back them, it is increasing the risks of inflation sticking.
Mathias Cormann did ‘some work’ for ex-PwC boss Luke Sayers
The new revelations follow Luke Sayers admitting that his new firm Sayers Group granted Cormann some shares before he took the OECD job.
November 2023
Luke Sayers had millions of reasons to hire Mathias Cormann
Under Mathias Cormann’s oversight, government spending on consultancies swelled nearly four-fold.
Mathias Cormann planned to join ex-PwC CEO Luke Sayers’ firm
In responses to questions about the PwC tax leaks scandal, former CEO Luke Sayers revealed how much he had been fined for violating the firm’s independence policies.
July 2023
Chalmers to push G20 to break global tax deal impasse
Delayed by political gridlock and the COVID-19 pandemic, the OECD two-pillar tax reform plan is inching towards implementation.
Labor tax plan risked global transparency efforts: OECD
Former finance minister and OECD secretary-general Mathias Cormann rejected suggestions he had lobbied the Albanese government.
OECD pressed Labor to drop plan to reveal where multinationals pay tax
The OECD helped persuade Australia to water down a law that would have required thousands of multinationals to publicly say where they pay tax.
June 2023
RBA governor is an inconvenient truth teller for Labor
With his tenure up in September, Philip Lowe left little doubt this week he would go down swinging.
March 2023
Henry blows whistle on Australia’s tax reform slumber
The former Treasury secretary has just done the useful job of putting a better tax system, which might be the driving force for other reforms, back on the table.
A new world means hard choices
The first day of the Australian Financial Review Business Summit presented the challenges facing Australia on inflation, security and the economy.
Cormann slams political hostility to ‘holistic’ tax reform
Former Coalition finance minister, now OECD boss, Mathias Cormann laments Australia’s lame tax ‘debates’, which he says are fundamentally about tinkering around the edges to fix bracket creep.