This Month
- Opinion
- The AFR View
The treasurer must ask what he can do for business
Jim Chalmers is asking business to dig Australia’s economy out of the hole. But he also needs to say what he is going to do to help businesses invest and lift the nation’s embarrassingly poor productivity.
- The AFR View
November
- Opinion
- Anthony Albanese
Labor struggles down the last stretch
The Albanese government’s numbers don’t add up for voters as the election looms.
- Jennifer Hewett
- Exclusive
- Tax reform
US Treasury boss Yellen pressed Chalmers on tax stand-off
Australia is refusing to sign up to a key part of global efforts to make multinational companies pay their fair share of tax.
- John Kehoe
- Opinion
- Supermarkets
Supermarket grilling just a political distraction
The primary driver of the Coles and Woolworths business model is volume, not margin as the politicians or regulators would have us all believe.
- Robert Hadler
Coles chairman says cost of living has been ‘politicised’
James Graham told the comapny’s AGM that supermarkets are being targeted unfairly by politicians.
- Updated
- Carrie LaFrenz
- Opinion
- Company tax
An OECD global tax deal is close. Australia should jump on board
It wasn’t a good look for Australia to be on the world stage at last month’s IMF meetings as a noted holdout on a crucial international agreement.
- Richard Holden
Trump win puts global corporate tax deal ‘in peril’
Experts believe that countries will now be unlikely to apply rules over fears of retaliation from Trump-led administration.
- Emma Agyemang and Paola Tamma
September
Woolworths and Coles could be ‘innocent’: Samuel
Graeme Samuel says the higher prices charged by the two major supermarkets could have been caused by suppliers, as the ACCC found the retailers have increased their earnings and operating margins over the past five years.
- Carrie LaFrenz and Tom McIlroy
Infection super agency to lead future pandemic response
A new Australian Centre for Disease Control will get powers to manage any future pandemic, under the national COVID-19 review due to be handed to government.
- Tom Burton
- Opinion
- Australian economy
Unlike the original Dr Jim C, Chalmers has no excuse
Failing to learn from past policy mistakes is far, far worse than making them in the first place.
- Dimitri Burshtein
- Analysis
- Global economy
Ireland’s problem: what to do with its $14b budget surplus
More than a decade on from a crash that required the EU and IMF to step in with loans, deciding what to do with the country’s tremendous fortune is proving tricky.
- Jude Webber
August
Australia’s fall in disposable income is the worst in the world
Australia experienced the largest fall across the OECD over the past two years. Economists say it will take another two years to recover.
- Michael Read
- Opinion
- Australian economy
Future Made in Australia is already running off the rails
The Albanese government has fallen into the trap of trying to achieve political wins at high economic cost. And nobody is stopping them.
- John Kehoe
July
Only one country has a higher company tax rate than Australia
Economists say the effective average tax rate of 28.5 per cent on company income makes the country uncompetitive against global rivals and workers poorer.
- Michael Read
Scyne hires from public service, new KPMG role for former OECD exec
Public sector consulting firm Scyne has appointed its first new managing director, while KPMG has brought on former Labor minister David Bradbury as a partner.
- Edmund Tadros and Tom McIlroy
June
Global tax war fears as landmark deal set to fail
Champions of digital taxes have started taking unilateral steps after losing faith in the OECD-backed treaty to overhaul taxation of multinationals.
- Emma Agyemang, Paola Tamma and Claire Jones
- Opinion
- Nuclear energy
My nuclear talk was cancelled. Here is what I would have said.
My presentation to Engineers Australia would have outlined why a nuclear-based energy system would cost consumers half as much with four times fewer emissions.
- Robert Parker
World faces ‘staggering’ oil glut by end of decade, energy watchdog warns
The International Energy Agency says electrical vehicle and renewable energy take-up and slowing growth in China means demand will peak in a few years.
- Malcolm Moore
Why Australia’s view of the Gaza war matters to Israel
Leading Israelis are aware of mistakes their country has made, and warn of a “volcanic eruption” against the Netanyahu government, but they have been blindsided by the rise in antisemitism in Australia.
- Jill Margo
- Opinion
- East Asia Forum
History will judge the new era of US protectionism harshly
The unseemly contest by Joe Biden and Donald Trump to outdo each other in trade protectionism will make the world become less prosperous and more unpredictable.
- Gary Hufbauer