July
- Opinion
- Canberra Observed
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.
- Phillip Coorey
June
- Opinion
- Wage growth
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.
- Phillip Coorey
February
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.
- Hans van Leeuwen
- Exclusive
- PwC tax scandal
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.
- Patrick Durkin and Edmund Tadros
Luke Sayers who? PwC and the network that wasn’t there
Implausible? Possibly. But on the record? Absolutely.
- Myriam Robin and Mark Di Stefano
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.
- Updated
- Mark Di Stefano
January
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.
- Hans van Leeuwen
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.
- The AFR View
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.
- Hannah Wootton
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.
- Updated
- Myriam Robin
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.
- Edmund Tadros
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.
- Tom McIlroy
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.
- Tom McIlroy
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.
- Emma Agyemang and Nic Fildes
June 2023
- Opinion
- Canberra Observed
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.
- Phillip Coorey
March 2023
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
- The AFR View
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
- The AFR View
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.
- Jacob Greber
‘Beat us’: Kennedy challenges Australia on green incentives
US ambassador Caroline Kennedy says Australia and other allies are welcome to “beat” the US in its race to spur the green industrial transformation.
- Jacob Greber and Peter Ker
February 2023
- Opinion
- Wage growth
Drop in real wages is no neoliberal conspiracy
Blame Moore’s law instead – the gradual decline in the share of labour in the national income of advanced economies is because of technology, not ideology.
- Richard Holden