politics

Created
Thu, 26/09/2024 - 04:54
Negative gearing costs Australian taxpayers billions each year. Its defenders say abolishing it will cause a rental crisis. That’s not true. One of the great urban myths of Australian political history is that “rents went through the roof” after then-Treasurer Paul Keating abolished negative gearing for property investors in July 1985, and as a result Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 25/09/2024 - 04:54
South Australia has joined an elite global club, after being listed alongside Denmark as the only other energy system in the world to be successfully managing significant volumes of surplus variable renewable energy across the year – albeit with a lot of hard work ahead. In its latest global stocktake of variable renewable energy integration Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 25/09/2024 - 04:51
Considerable heat has been generated lately about whether the treasurer should have the power to override Reserve Bank policy where it is deemed necessary. Howls of protest can be heard from the defenders — most economists among them — of Reserve Bank independence, that such a possibility could even be considered. The notion that the Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 25/09/2024 - 04:53
Peter Dutton’s campaign to make Palestinian refugees into figures of fear mirrors the provocations to the recent UK Islamophobic riots. These were inspired by politicians such as Nigel Farage as much as by far-right influencers. Both examples are connected to Donald Trump’s debate amplification of the far-right American lie that Haitian immigrants are eating the Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 25/09/2024 - 04:56
Much of the expert commentary on Australia’s monetary policy settings is guided by what is happening in other countries. However, monetary tightening can have a markedly different impact in different countries, and while Australia appears to have been more cautious, so far it seems to have managed well. A brief history of recent monetary policy Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 25/09/2024 - 04:55
This is an emotional story for me. It is personal. It is a story about my experience. It is not about mandates or compulsion. It is about choices. It is about giving individuals the right to choose how they want to end their lives, should they later be afflicted by life-ending, dignity and quality of Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 25/09/2024 - 05:00
Could the Alexander Downer who accuses me and Paul Keating of appeasement possibly be the same Alexander Downer who recently wrote in The Australian that if he had a vote in the US Presidential election it would be for Donald Trump? The same Donald Trump whose willingness to accommodate Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine makes Continue reading »