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 »
Economy
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 »
While Australia and China have very different approaches in PNG, both are in working primarily with political elites, while alienating the New Guinean public. Two recent financial deals that seemingly benefit Papua New Guinea indicate the problems at the heart of the country’s political and economic outlook. The separate agreements between PNG and two rival Continue reading »
Let’s not goad the Reserve Bank to fight higher underlying inflation that can be corrected by disciplined fiscal policy and a more open and competitive economy. Polls show cost of living is the overriding issue on voters’ minds. One reason is that lowering the annual inflation rate has stalled at around 4% since last December. Continue reading »
If a future Prime Minister Dutton was able to get the fuel for a HALEU power station, would you be absolutely confident that he might not want to also dabble in some nuclear weapons procurement as well? A recent Science paper (7/6) highlights one of the potentially disastrous risks the Dutton nuclear plan raises. Recently Continue reading »
With what passes for Australia’s population debate in the spotlight again, some history might prove illuminating, especially environmental history. The United Tasmania Group (UTG) formed on 23 March 1972 at Hobart Town Hall, under the leadership of botanist Richard Jones, as the threat to flood Lake Pedder reached a climax. The lake came under threat Continue reading »
Global rates of resource consumption and ecological impact are now far beyond levels that are sustainable, or that all people in the world could rise to, or that technical advance could make sustainable. This is steadfastly ignored by all governments and the economics profession and the consuming masses. Few realise how great the degrowth would Continue reading »
“The United States of America is in competition with China, but not ideologically. Who initiated the first agreements with China to outsource factories if not the United States of America themselves? They cannot tell us that it is a fight for freedom… It’s [ ] because China is becoming the world’s leading power, and from Continue reading »