In three weeks or so, a little after the second Labor budget, the Albanese government will mark its first year in office. It is not just journalistic laziness which marks it as a convenient moment for some report cards, and reviews of how the government is travelling. In straight political terms, of course, it is Continue reading »
Economy
The biggest choice facing this country is between poor public services and inadequate government income support or more taxes. Unfortunately, I fear that next week’s Budget will seek to avoid this choice. The purpose of government is to choose, and the best record of those choices and consequently a government’s priorities is its Budget. Service Continue reading »
Recently, the former senior Singaporean diplomat and respected geopolitical consultant Kishore Mahbubani offered Australia some acute advice: Stop betting on the past. Mahbubani’s article was figuratively bookended with visits to Beijing by President Emmanuel Macron of France (shortly before publication) and President Lula da Silva of Brazil (soon after publication). It looks clear that these Continue reading »
This week the Federal ALP Government announced a significant cutback in the number of tanks to be stationed in the north to repel whatever is expected to land there to take our beautiful country away from us. Why – because tanks just won’t do the job in future. We are going to arm ourselves instead Continue reading »
Penny Wong has inherited huge challenges in her role as Foreign Minister. She is surrounded by alpha males controlling the defence and security debate, convinced that only deadly military weapons can secure a safe future for Australia. She heads a department historically seen as weak and irrelevant by too many men in power. They dismiss Continue reading »
The reforms recommended by the Review of the Reserve Bank have been well received, but it is questionable whether they will ensure that the Bank’s performance improves and that it can avoid the mistakes of the recent past. The independent review of the Reserve Bank was commissioned by the Treasurer last July, and its report Continue reading »
Australia has been paying insiders of the US war machine for consultation on how to run the nation’s military, a massive conflict of interest given that Washington has been grooming Australia for a role in its war agendas against China. In an article titled “Retired US admirals charging Australian taxpayers thousands of dollars per day Continue reading »
In recent years, commencing in the pre-COVID period, Australia’s balance of payments has consistently recorded a surplus on the current account. This has confounded some commentators, especially those who followed the compelling ‘debt and deficit’ (and especially the ‘twin deficits’) narrative that emerged in the mid-1980s. Does it mean that that narrative should no longer Continue reading »
The Financial Review’s political editor, Phillip Coorey, wrote last week that when it comes to superannuation policy, the Grattan Institute “increasingly resembles the financial policy arm of the Greens”. I am not exactly sure what that means – and I am Grattan’s lead on super policy – but I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean it as Continue reading »
Anthony Yates looks at Rishi Sunak's promises over inflation which might help him cynically suppress public pay demands but do nothing to address the roots of our economic malaise