Yesterday
Policy ping-pong won’t deliver housing affordability
A future government will inherit a dog’s breakfast of housing and tax policies and be left to clean up the mess.
This Month
Trump’s pause no relief from great power showdown on trade
Australia confronts a worrying dilemma as the economic conflict between our major alliance partner and our major trade partner ramps up.
Trump’s economic cold war forces trade pragmatism from Australia
Deepening South-East Asian trade ties would prevent an assertive China exploiting the vacuum left by Trump’s unpredictability.
No room for super complacency about cyber risk
Big super’s governance failures are now piling up coordinated cyberattacks targeting some of the nation’s largest industry funds.
ASX’s James Hardie waiver is not in the market’s best interests
The bourse has set a terrible precedent by being complicit in undermining shareholder democracy.
Trump dump a stiff examination of investment strategies
The complacent who have clipped the ticket during the good times will be exposed during the bad times at great cost to their customers and members.
Trump’s trade war makes Dutton’s task harder on May 3
With the ASX set to slump a further 4 per cent at today’s opening, attitudes towards Trump’s revanchist protectionism are the wild card thrust into the federal election.
Election campaign sidesteps economic reform
Without a credible plan to steer Australia through mounting risks and uncertainty, the prospect of a majority government now hangs in the balance.
Trump’s tariffs call for regional foreign policy response
The political class must resist the temptation to be swept up in the parochialism of current events.
No election road out of Australia’s energy perdition
The election contest between Labor’s faltering subsided renewables policy and the Coalition’s nationalised nuclear pipedream does not inspire confidence.
A Trump-proof Australia needs productive industrial relations
The lack of a real election contest over greater workplace flexibility will condemn Australia to lower productivity and leave the nation less protected.
March
Boost business investment to restore lost prosperity
A 20 per cent investment allowance would be a start. But the focus should be on sharpening the overall international competitiveness of the economy
Govern as fiscal conservatives to revive economic growth
Policy competition over budget repair to help sharpen the economy’s growth prospects and make everyone better off appears to be beyond Australia’s political duopoly.
Labor and Coalition must seek a mandate for reform
After a lost two and a half decades in Canberra, both major parties are bogged down in the “politics of incrementalism”.
Dutton losing the political race for lower taxes
Rather than replicate the Howard government’s innovative tax reform thinking, Dutton has instead lazily copied from the less creditable playbook of his political hero.
Three budget problems bigger than the puny tax cuts
The pre-election row over the tax cuts is a political distraction from the substantive problems Jim Chalmers’ fourth budget fails to address.
Pre-election budget keeps us on a dangerous fiscal trajectory
When Australians head to the polls in a few weeks, this budget will have left them none the wiser about how Labor will restore the nation’s lost prosperity.
For Trump, the strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must
The US president’s hastiness to secure peace overlooks the often laborious work usually required for a long-term, stable and durable solution to a conflict.
Why the budget response could be Dutton’s last shot at redemption
The major parties’ unwillingness to differentiate their policy positions explains the decline in the primary vote of both and why a hung parliament is likely.
Wish list for a budget week that was never meant to be
Instead of talking about big reforms so near to a tight election, both major parties will probably spend the week trading political blows over cost-of-living concerns.