With inflation back in the target band and economic growth faltering, the Reserve Bank must continue cutting rates. But while monetary easing can add to demand, it won’t fix Australia’s long-run challenge: an inability to adequately increase new supply. For this, we need bold, productivity-enhancing reforms that unleash ideas and capital, not just cheaper credit.

It’s the only way to improve the dire economic statistics that have become the reality of this unique post-pandemic, fiscally-constrained, ageing, warming, warring world. Australia’s GDP per capita has fallen in eight out of the past nine quarters. Real household disposable income per capita has fallen over the past five years, and the OECD has pointed out that our standard of living is more than 6 per cent below 2022 levels.