This Month
- Exclusive
- Legal profession
Treasury head Steven Kennedy backs ASIC, ACCC on barrister pay
The department’s secretary has personally lobbied to end a 13-year freeze on what barristers can earn for doing government work.
- Ronald Mizen
October
- Exclusive
- Legal profession
Let us pay barristers more, ASIC–ACCC chiefs urge Labor
Junior silks can command up to $9500 a day from commercial clients, but only about $2730 from the government, a situation two watchdogs want to change.
- Ronald Mizen
September
- Exclusive
- Aviation
Coalition wants powers to force Qantas to divest Jetstar
Though the Opposition is not calling for the low-budget airline to be sold, it thinks the threat will push the country’s largest carrier to lower prices.
- Ayesha de Kretser
August
- Exclusive
- Legal profession
ASIC, ACCC ‘materially weakened’ in court by $5k cap on top silk pay
Former chairmen of ASIC and the ACCC have spoken out against the 13-year freeze on federal government pay rates for barristers, saying it cost them in the courtroom.
- Ronald Mizen
May
Ex CSIRO boss would pick different ‘winners’ in $1b quantum push
Larry Marshall, former CEO of CSIRO, says taxpayer money should be targeted at points in the quantum computing supply chain, not the finished product.
- Liam Walsh
Sims, Harris soften stance on Made in Australia Act
Two critics of the government’s Future Made In Australia Act have softened their views after Treasurer Jim Chalmers outlined five criteria for support.
- Phillip Coorey
April
Coal mine methane twice official disclosures: Sims
Australia’s open cut coal mines could be emitting twice as much methane as official disclosures suggest, casting doubt on national carbon emissions data.
- Ben Potter
Sims says ‘high cost’ Australia-made fixation threatens green steel
The federal government’s “Made in Australia” policy threatens to destroy the country’s chance at making “green” steel, economist Rod Sims says.
- Elouise Fowler
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Solar fantasy gives industry policy a bad name
Australia does not have a great record at industry policy. Creating a bucket of government money for solar panels in the midst of a global subsidy war looks even less likely to work.
- The AFR View
March
- Opinion
- Media bargaining code
Subsidise journalism, don’t shake down big tech
Meta and Google may be where the money is, but that doesn’t mean we should steal it from them. Even if it’s used for a good cause.
- Richard Holden
‘We’ve gone soft’: Labor old guard backs Keating
Chairman Tony Shepherd has backed Paul Keating’s sentiment that “we have gone soft” but billionaire Gerry Harvey says Keating is living in the past.
- Patrick Durkin
February
Stephen Conroy becomes death, destroyer of CEOs
The former Labor powerbroker keeps showing up ringside to sudden resignations in the corporate world.
- Mark Di Stefano
Brad Banducci is retired, by the way
After dismissing the assessments of Rod Sims as coming from one “retired, by the way”, Woolworths’ CEO has announced his own retreat from executive office.
- Myriam Robin
- Opinion
- Carbon challenge
The Garnaut-Sims power plan is Argentina on steroids
The $100 billion carbon tax proposal would be an act of amazing self-harm and would destroy Australia’s big export industries to force-feed unproven ones.
- Ed Shann
Teals, Greens taunt Labor on carbon tax proposal
Teal independent Allegra Spender said carbon pricing should be on the table along with scrapping the $8 billion of annual fossil fuel subsidies for off road vehicles users and other special interests.
- Ben Potter
Resurrect carbon price to fund superpower: Garnaut, Sims
Professor Garnaut will say reviving the carbon price is “not as impossible as passing on to our children and grandchildren lower standards of living than our own parents and grandparents left to us”.
- Ben Potter
November 2023
‘Stab in the dark’: Why other nations can’t trust our emissions data
Superpower Institute chairman Rod Sims says state-of-the-art measurement is vital for Australia to be able to sell green commodities to Europe when it levies a carbon border tax.
- Ben Potter
October 2023
Gonski and Schott: Chalmers adds firepower to competition review
Highly regarded C-suite alumni Kerry Schott and David Gonski have been appointed to the expert panel advising Treasurer Jim Chalmers on competition.
- Ronald Mizen
September 2023
‘Completely independent’: flight slots decider denies hoarding claims
Former ACCC chief Rod Sims says it is “outrageous” that Qantas and Virgin have substantial shareholdings in the company that polices which airlines take off and land at Sydney.
- Updated
- Lucas Baird and Jenny Wiggins
- Opinion
- Energy transition
Australia’s green energy future can maximise global decarbonisation
If we do not focus on reducing the world’s emissions by 6 per cent to 9 per cent, we will be letting down the world’s climate and our future prosperity.
- Rod Sims