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.
End the age of entitlement to taxpayer-funded political ads
Australia needs to get on top of the entitlement mentality to get the budget back in shape. A good place to start would be to stop paying for political ads out of the budget.
December 2024
Telstra snaps up Boost Mobile, delivering Paul Keating a $40m payday
The telecommunications giant has acquired the specialist pre-paid mobile phone business for $140 million. The former prime minister owns 29 per cent.
November 2024
Stage three tax cuts to be eliminated by bracket creep: PBO
The budget watchdog estimates the benefits of the tax cuts will be gone by the end of the decade as bracket creep drives personal income tax rates to a record.
Why the Libs can’t do a Trump
The lesson for Peter Dutton is not to copy the Donald – which in an Australian context would be impossible anyway. What he must be, though, is authentic.
Trump’s foreign policy agenda a high-stakes guessing game
Donald Trump’s presidency is about to show up the contradictions in Australia’s defence spending and its domestic economy.
October 2024
Super system potshot a chance to double down on Keating’s vision
While we should not let the International Monetary Fund dictate how ordinary Australians’ savings are invested, it does have a point worth talking about.
How can it be right to pay tax on something you never had?
The plan to tax paper gains in superannuation funds will harm savers and damage the economy.
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.
Welcome Charles, King of Great Britain alone
There is a way to achieve a republic by stealth. And one that Charles III might well understand.
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.
Anthony Albanese has yet to grow into the prime minister’s job
The prime minister is a political operator rather than a visionary. His inability to persuade and sustain arguments is beginning to show.
Young people, Telstra sceptics: How Boost CEO plans to grow telco
The pre-paid telco backed by Peter Adderton and Paul Keating claims to be gaining market share in an industry that CEO Jason Haynes says is riddled with too many choices.
September 2024
Chalmers isn’t a fair dinkum fiscal repairer like Keating and Walsh
It’s not unfair to look through Dr Chalmers’ two vanishing surpluses to the bigger budget picture: not enough has been done to tackle Australia’s long-term spending.
‘Utterly untrue’: Keating berates Marles over AUKUS defence
Paul Keating launched fresh criticism of the $368 billion agreement, part of internal Labor squabbling over the pact, which has not gone unnoticed in the UK and US.
Raising property taxes would reduce home prices but increase rents
Curtailing negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount would slightly reduce home prices, but put upward pressure on rents, housing economists say.
Corporate Australia can’t let Albanese brush reform under the carpet
Business needs to get more on the front foot in calling out the policy and political class failure that most media coverage has normalised.
ScoMo’s new private office may need new private toilet
The former prime minister is lining up his office in Sydney’s CBD.
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.
Why business is prepared to headbutt Albanese
The Albanese government is under siege from a business community alienated from Canberra and dismayed by the lack of an economic agenda to drive growth.