Wednesday’s National Cabinet meeting set itself a huge task: to fix Australia’s rental crisis. Thankfully, given rents are rising at their fastest rate in decades, the plan it produced just might do the trick. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it’s the most significant housing reform in a generation. If the states and territories deliver on their commitments, Continue reading »
Government
Long departed architects of media laws have left a lasting stain on the media landscape and the intellectual and cultural milieu of Australia. In Battlestar Galactica there is a memorable line that should be etched on the political tombstone of every Australian politician who has been responsible for the media portfolio. ‘All of this has Continue reading »
Despite their occupation of our continent for over 60,000 years, our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are not recognised in the Constitution, the document on which our nation is founded. It is high time to repair our national record and complete our national story by providing that recognition. Enshrinement in the Constitution of an Continue reading »
Leaders of the AUKUS nations, all once pronouncing ambition on addressing the climate crisis and lording the mantle of global leadership, are now each in turn forgoing their international commitments, carving out excuses and worse. AUKUS, the recent defence agreement between Australia, the UK and the USA, is demonstrating a surprising quirk: joint-failure to lead Continue reading »
All of us here can probably agree that we are currently living in a time of greater strategic uncertainty and challenge than at any time since the end of World War II, and certainly since the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s. China is seen as being at the epicentre of this. Continue reading »
The future is already upon us. The forty-year Intergenerational Report (IGR) is a divertissement. The population, participation, and productivity template of Treasury economists (3Ps framework) is inadequate and unsuited to the already changed world. As is the obsession with growth. How far out does it seem reasonable to project? In terms of climate, Australia is Continue reading »
The Albanese ALP government now has an opportunity to reinvigorate and rebuild the ABC. With two current ABC Board director vacancies about to be filled through advertised merit selection and the March departure of chair Ita Buttrose creating a vacancy for new leadership, Michelle Rowland, the Minister for Communications and, ultimately, Anthony Albanese, the Prime Continue reading »
Led on by crusading Reserve Bank governors, the nation’s economists are determined to protect us from the scourge of inflation, no matter the cost in jobs lost. But there’s a black hole in their thinking about the causes of inflation, only some of which must be stamped on. Others can be ignored. Meanwhile, here’s another Continue reading »
Australia’s leading financial media platform, the Australian Financial Review, raised the red flag about the future of Timor-Leste this month, with International Editor Professor James Curran’s article, Timor-Leste on brink of failure. Curran sensibly said that Chinese influence in Timor-Leste may be a concern in Canberra, but the big problem is that the small nation Continue reading »