Affordable house pricing has been an issue for as long as most of us can remember. Our grandparents bought their first homes when their annual salaries were just a shade less than the purchase price. By the time the 80s rolled around, the difference was much more stark, it was likely a home could be Continue reading »
Economy
On May 12, the former president of the UN Security Council, Kishore Mahbubani, warned Hong Kong that it faced ongoing turbulence amidst global tensions. It should expect to be “kicked around like a football” over the next decade, although this has already started. Since 2020, the US has sought to harm Hong Kong in various Continue reading »
This year’s budget will not set school education alight. It contains too many harsh lights, some bright lights and certain very soft lights. Funding arrangements have endured in the budget that will mean the diminishment of government schools and the expansion of non-government schools. Harsh lights For 2023/4, $28.3 billion will be provided for all Continue reading »
It would be a fatal mistake for Labor to think that it represents the values and aspirations of its primary constituencies. It doesn’t. It is just that it misrepresents them slightly less than the coalition. The federal budget was a success, the more so for ticking off some Labor boxes and reaching a surplus. The Continue reading »
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) just published a study about: The Human Consequences of Economic Sanctions. The results are as any observer of such acts would expect. Sanctions are used too broadly. They hardly ever serve their supposed original purpose and do not reach their aims. They hurt the poor more than Continue reading »
The way mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his private army have been waging a significant part of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has been well covered in the American media, not least of all because his firm, the Wagner Group, draws most of its men from Russia’s prison system. Wagner offers “freedom” from Putin’s labor camps only to send Continue reading »
It is a big week for ‘but’ and ‘however’, delivered with some vehemence in responses to the Federal Budget. It is also a timely reminder that simple things matter, like our tone of voice in private and public conversations. We may all be happier and more grateful if we were carefully attentive to how we Continue reading »
The Government has announced the 2023-24 migration program will be set at 190,000 places – in headline terms a 5,000 place reduction on the 2022-23 migration program. Note the permanent migration program counts visas granted irrespective of whether the person is already in Australia or not. It is very different to net migration which counts Continue reading »
Labor has produced a responsible Budget that balances the need to advance traditional Labor priorities while also bringing inflation down. But there remains more to do. As was telegraphed weeks in advance, this Budget had two primary objectives. First, to help bring down inflation. Second, the Government wanted to provide support for living standards, targeted Continue reading »
In January, the Finance Secretary Paul Chan went to Davos as part of an effort to encourage the world to join the government in its “embrace of a new start” for Hong Kong and to sell its numerous inherent strengths. Combined with efforts that coincided with the full opening-up of Hong Kong and recent visits Continue reading »