Robert Gottliebsen

Robert Gottliebsen has spent more than 50 years writing and commentating about business and investment in Australia. He has won the Walkley award and Australian Journalist of the Year award. He has a place in the Australian Media Hall of Fame and in 2018 was awarded a Lifetime achievement award by the Melbourne Press Club. He received an Order of Australia Medal in 2018 for services to journalism and educational governance. He is a regular commentator for The Australian.

@BGottliebsen

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COMMENTARYBusiness

MELBOURNE, VICTORIA - January 29, 2025: Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers to hold press conference in central Melbourne as the December quarter and monthly inflation figures are released by the ABS. Picture: NewsWire / Nadir Kinani

Utterly false: Beware ALP’s ruthless tax tactics

Treasury and Jim Chalmers are using ‘sleight of hand’ concealment tactics to establish one of the most vicious taxes ever conceived by an Australian government – taxing unrealised gains.

Robert Gottliebsen

COMMENTARYBusiness

Dollar australian banknotes and coins with calculator for money concept, generic cash

Why a rate cut won’t stop hip pocket pain

Any cut to interest rates will greatly assist banks, those under mortgage stress and the chances of an ALP election win. But it will make things worse elsewhere.

Robert Gottliebsen

CommentaryCommentary

LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 29: In this photo illustration, the Deepseek search page is displayed on a mobile phone in front of a laptop screen displaying the Deepseek homepage, on January 29, 2025 in London, England. This week's news that the DeepSeek Chatbot app, developed by China, was downloaded from the Apple app store significantly more times than the US-developed ChatGPT from Open AI, wiped billions off the global tech market. The advent of DeepSeek has shown there is a more viable, efficient, and cost-effective future for AI development in a shift away from the current high cost, high tech model. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

How China beat the US in AI

Clearly, America did not do anywhere near enough work in looking at the AI and defence developments taking place in China. Let’s not make the same mistake.

Robert Gottliebsen

CommentaryCommentary

Senator Jacinta Price was a major player in taking down Labor’s Voice proposal, and she should be a major part of Peter Dutton’s plan to take down the Labor government. Picture: Patrick Hamilton / AFP

If Australia gets a DOGE, it should focus here, here, here and there

Jacinta Price’s appointment to create a DOGE-like platform could be brilliant. But, political history is littered with shadow ministers who fail in such a role when in office.

Robert Gottliebsen

COMMENTARYBusiness

Australia has one of the most unfair tax systems in the world

All major political parties in opposition have recognised the issues in our tax rules, but fear embracing fairness will hit revenues. The reverse is more likely.

Robert Gottliebsen

CommentaryCommentary

Store Owner Turning Closed Sign In Shop Doorway

ATO’s small business executions intensifying deep hostility

Australia is joining other parts of the Western world where ordinary people are rising up against unaccountable government bodies.

Robert Gottliebsen

CommentaryCommentary

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA : NewsWire Photos - JANUARY 22 2025; The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in Sydney today and addresses the media in a press conference in Parramatta with Andrew Charlton. Picture: NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

The PM must be looking south and shivering

Victoria is failing. If Anthony Albanese plays it smart, he’ll call an election in April, before a potentially disastrous Victorian budget.

Robert Gottliebsen

COMMENTARYBusiness

US President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on January 21, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)

Here’s what we can learn from Trump and his agenda

Strip away the bluster and Donald Trump’s US economic agenda is based on three key pillars. The utopia may crash down, but until then here’s what it means for Australians.

Robert Gottliebsen

CommentaryCommentary

(FILES) A US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II, a short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) version of the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, flies past during a preview of the Singapore Airshow in Singapore on February 13, 2022. A stealth-capable US fighter jet vanished on September 17, 2023 -- not from prying eyes but rather from the American military, prompting an unusual call to the public to help locate the missing multimillion-dollar plane. After what authorities labeled a "mishap," a pilot flying an F-35 in the southern state of South Carolina on Sunday afternoon ejected from the craft. The pilot survived, but the military was left with an expensive problem: it couldn't find the jet, leading Joint Base Charleston to ask for help from local residents. (Photo by Roslan RAHMAN / AFP)

We need to wake up to the realities of our defence

Elon Musk and Peter Thiel will no doubt be in President Trump’s ear about the failures of US defence. Hopefully our government can listen in.

Robert Gottliebsen

COMMENTARYBusiness

(FILES) US President-elect Donald Trump (L) and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk watch a fight during UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden in New York, on November 16, 2024. Donald Trump will be the one taking the presidential oath next week, but in some respects, billionaire Elon Musk might as well place his hand on the Bible too. In an unprecedented relationship for modern US history, Trump will be heading into the White House shadowed by an advisor who is not only the world's richest person but matches the incoming president in terms of wild ambition, hard-right politics, and media influence. (Photo by Kena Betancur / AFP)

If Musk gets DOGE right it will be a game-changer

Nobody knows if the Musk-Trump relationship will work, but if it does the Western world will become a very different place.

Robert Gottliebsen

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/robert-gottliebsen