Category: Economy

For most people, the simple answer to Peter Dutton’s repeated question — are you better off today than you were three years ago? — is “no, I’m not”. (more…)

We find ourselves in an election campaign framed by immediate cost-of-living issues, with the principal contenders pandering to an electorate they believe to be interested in nothing else. (more…)

Trevor Cobbold is well known in education circles for selectively presenting funding data to lead readers to a pre-conceived conclusion. (more…)

Peter Dutton’s budget reply Speech is full of distortions and many of the key polices are flawed or we cannot be sure they will work as intended. The Labor Party might be criticised as too cautious, but the Coalition is clearly not ready for government. (more…)

I recently joined a small delegation of Pakistani Australian businessmen on a trade and investment investigation mission. During this visit, I witnessed a Pakistan eager to move out of its stagnant economy and the political deadlock. The tenacity and the determination of the people of Pakistan to rise out of their socio economic and political conditions were palpable. (more…)

Labor’s pre-election budget provides well-targeted cost of living relief within the bounds of responsibility, but the restoration of living standards is some way off.
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Treasurer Jim Chalmers pulled one unexpected rabbit out of his hat in Tuesday’s 2025-26 federal budget. (more…)

In part 1 of this two-part series I gave a brief overview of the contemporary mainstream attitude to central government budgets, and argued that the constant fear of inflation in the post-1970s era has a lot to do with the dominant theory. But this mainstream view is strongly contested within the economics profession. (more…)

The Rockliff Government’s financial mess in Tasmania has been well explained by economist Saul Eslake, independent MLC Ruth Forrest, and others paying attention. (more…)

The critical issue in the May 2025 election is likely to be about the rising costs of living, with competing views about whether the Labor Party is responsible for them and which of the major parties is most likely to address them. (more…)

Why does a government release a highly critical report on the conduct of Woolworths and Coles on the Friday before a budget that will lead straight into an election campaign? Short answer: not for any worthy reason. (more…)

A giant eight-hour battery project in New South Wales has changed hands in a deal that also confirms that battery storage costs — a critical part of the green energy transition — are still falling significantly. (more…)

The Commonwealth Grants Commission’s annual updates of its recommendations as to how the revenue from the GST should be carved up among the states and territories almost always contain a few surprises – pleasant for some, and unpleasant for others, since carving up a pie is, by definition, a “zero sum game”. (more…)

Home ownership has almost become an impossible dream in Australia and other Western capitalist countries. Governing authorities struggle in vain to stem the unrelenting increase in prices of land for domestic dwellings. It is probable that the struggle is unable to succeed as long as capitalism is uncontained; as long as the rules of the so-called “free market system” are accepted as inviolable. (more…)

According to the business press, Anthony Albanese was desperately hoping for an early election so he could avoid next week’s budget and the drubbing he’ll get when Treasurer Jim Chalmers is forced to reveal projections of a decade of budget deficits. (more…)

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. (more…)

Over the past two years, there has been some progress in improving the JobSeeker payment. But payment levels remain below the poverty line. (more…)