The Australia Institute has recently argued for the introduction of a system for measuring the extent of poverty in Australia, pointing out that the government’s recently established wellbeing measurement framework, Measuring What Matters, does not measure the number of Australians living in poverty. Greg Jericho and the other researchers at the Institute have argued that Continue reading »
Economy
As legacy media dies we seek its phoenix. With the new financial year comes a welcome slump in begging e-mails for newsletter subs. Not just from the spare room laptoppers but also the towering universities that pay their vice chancellors millions yet want the public to fund an editor. Appeals stress reading is free but Continue reading »
On 1 July, an important change in the industrial relations landscape came into force. Industrial awards (‘modern awards’, as they’re now called), that set minimum standards in workplaces, will include guarantees of rights for workplace union delegates. All new enterprise agreements must also include such provisions. This is a result of the first part of Continue reading »
The Australian All-Ords index rose 8.3% during the financial year ending last Sunday. But Australia’s economy has had a dismal time with real GDP per capita contracting in each of the five quarters to March 2024. With annual CPI inflation rebounding after earlier falls, the market now expects the RBA to further dampen consumer spending Continue reading »
The Dutton-Littleproud nuclear plan will make us poorer than we need to be and leave us more heavily in debt. Imagine Australia run by a benevolent despot with some technical knowledge or at least the willingness to listen to experts. He or she would be transforming the energy sector as fast as possible, expanding the Continue reading »
We take nature and biodiversity for granted. Nonhuman life is like a backdrop — we don’t pay much attention to it. This is a mistake. Nature provides all our needs and wants. It provides resources, services, and economic, mental, and physical benefits vital for human survival. Protecting the natural world is an investment in our Continue reading »
Mike Pezzullo once bestrode the federal public service like a colossus, or so some fancied. He may have thought so too. Sundry journos we’re in the habit of describing him as the most powerful public servant in the land; he never was. Whatever he was, Mike fell to earth last year when he was sacked Continue reading »
The Australian government needs to stand up against growing global protectionism and make some hard budgetary choices between guns and butter, defence and welfare, and the need to reform taxes if it is to avoid taking on too much at once in a world economy characterised by uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, and in an Australian Continue reading »
There’s something curious about the proposed merger between Chemist Warehouse and Sigma Healthcare. Chemist Warehouse has about 550 retail pharmacies. Sigma has another 400. Yet the law limits owners to just a handful of pharmacies per state. Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria allow just five, Western Australia and Tasmania allow four, and South Australia allows six. The two Continue reading »
David Daokui Li says China’s decision makers have finally come around to stimulating domestic consumption rather than investment, and for that Beijing will provide more welfare. The Communist Party of China has said the upcoming Third Plenary Session of its current 20th Central Committee will focus on “deepening comprehensive reform to advance Chinese modernisation.” Based Continue reading »