The big news on house insurance this week was the response of the insurance industry’s peak body to a parliamentary committee’s extensive criticisms of its treatment of people claiming on their policies after the massive floods of 2022. The Insurance Council of Australia accepted some of the committee’s recommendations, announced an “industry action plan” and Continue reading »
Economy
March hasn’t been one of the better months for Kim Beazley, the former Hawke and Keating Government minister, leader of the federal ALP and governor of Western Australia and now chairman of the Council of the Australian War Memorial. In the ABC’s recent 4 Corners program, he was cornered on the AWM’s acceptance of funding Continue reading »
Why does Australia continue to have a rampant cost of living crisis? That’s the $300 billion question. The hard men of Australia’s economic press claim it’s because of inflated wages and low productivity. Yet evidence suggests it’s mainly because of our big four banks. We have a stubborn “cost of living crisis” as mainstream media Continue reading »
Amazing? PM Albanese is the first Australian prime minister since John Curtin to push back publicly on our security against a global leader since John Curtin recognised the danger of an exploitative Britain eight decades ago. Curtin acted. Could it be that Albanese just might act too? Last week Anthony Albanese responded to a view Continue reading »
How should Australia respond when the US, our closest ally, is engaged in a very public and petulant global meltdown? Labor and the Coalition are desperately trying not to mention it while fearfully offering tribute to Donald Trump in the hope we will somehow be spared. This will not work. Bullies can smell weakness and Continue reading »
There’s a simple solution to the problem of Chinese warships sailing around Australia: a reciprocal agreement – you don’t sail off our coast and we won’t sail off yours. I have no doubt China would accept and adhere to such a reciprocal agreement. The obstacle is not them. It’s us, Australia, or more precisely the Continue reading »
The results of the Western Australian election on Saturday give credence to the latest opinion polling showing a trend back towards Labor in the past few weeks. Until mid-February the polls were suggesting the Coalition would have sufficient support to form (at least) a minority government. Making generalisations about national trends based on the WA Continue reading »
According to Reserve Bank deputy governor Andrew Hauser last week, we’ve entered a world characterised not just by volatility, complexity and uncertainty, but also by “ambiguity” – a world where “you don’t know the model”, meaning that “judgment and instinct are as important as formal analysis”. At last, someone is talking sense. Academic economists may Continue reading »
Government funding increases for Catholic and Independent schools have outstripped those for public schools since 2009 and entrenched a major resource advantage for them. New figures published by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority show Catholic and Independent schools have a much higher income per student than public schools across Australia and in nearly Continue reading »
With the nation’s worst state debt and the looming budget, we hear almost weekly of the Victorian Government’s desperate funding cuts to essential services. While, for example, our nurses, childcare and aged care workers and our police are very much valued and needed, they appear to come a poor second in financial support to the Continue reading »