Writer
Ian McAuley
Ian McAuley is a retired lecturer in public finance at the University of Canberra. He can be contacted at “ian" at the domain “ianmcauley.com” .
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SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media Continue reading »
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SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. A budget to entrench economic vulnerability
Even from a “what’s in it for me” viewpoint, the budget is a failure, because tax cuts would soon be wiped out by higher charges for education, health care and transport. More importantly it does not address structural weaknesses in the Australian economy. Continue reading »
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SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Banks and the housing bubble
Providing housing finance has always been a major part of banks’ business. But how did we allow them to make housing into speculators’ playthings? Continue reading »
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SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. The rot set in when they privatized the Commonwealth Bank
The banking and finance commission’s focus was on specific poor behaviours. It avoided broad policy issues, including the general failure of competition to improve consumer outcomes. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Labor’s policy on imputation credits is flawed, but it’s in the right direction
Labor’s proposal to disallow imputation credits unless offset by other taxes is flawed on grounds of economic efficiency and equity. But it does try to deal with the terrible injustice that sees well-off retirees exempt from tax. That’s in contrast to the petulant complaints from lobby groups who offer no constructive alternatives to make the Continue reading »
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SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Medicare under threat – from Labor!
Last year Labor announced that if elected it would refer health funding, particularly private health insurance, to the Productivity Commission, it being 50 years since the value of PHI was last examined by government. It appears, however, that Labor is squibbing on its promise to subject PHI to economic scrutiny, abandoning its historical commitment to Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. The housing bubble, inflated by Howard and Costello, is now deflating.
Housing prices in our most overheated markets, Sydney and Melbourne, are falling. The housing bubble is a consequence of reckless economic policies pursued by the Howard-Costello Government, who, in the name of “financial dynamism”, privileged financial transactions over real economic activity. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Reminder to Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison: Australia is a parliamentary democracy
On the last sitting day of Parliament, the Government took extraordinary measures to block a vote on a bill to ease the medical evacuation of asylum-seekers on Manus Island and Nauru. The Government’s terror of losing a vote on the floor of the House reveals a dangerous misunderstanding of the workings of our parliamentary democracy. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. The National Electricity Market is a mess. Morrison wants to make it messier.
The National Electricity Market needs re-design involving re-nationalisation of networks and “retailers” because privatisation and structural separation have failed. Continue reading »
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GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Victoria’s election: the trend behind the noise
The Victorian election is the latest instalment of a five-year trend that has seen the Liberal Party lose ground in every state and federal election. What’s going on? Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. How Peter Dutton and Kelly O’Dwyer set themselves up to look ridiculous.
A year ago, when the Turnbull Government had been dragged into setting up a commission on the finance sector, Peter Dutton and Kelly O’Dwyer relished the thought of exposing bad behaviour in the union-dominated industry superannuation funds, even though it had been clear for many years that the industry funds were serving their investors far Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Watch for Morrison’s next round of economic impression management.
Before Christmas the Government will produce the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook. It’s a fair bet that it will reveal a small cash surplus for this year, giving Morrison an opportunity to brag about the Coalition’s economic expertise. But this will be a distraction from serious deficiencies in Australia’s economic structure. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. The finance sector – value creation or value extraction?
The Government and the finance sector would have us believe that the finance sector makes a valuable contribution to our economy. But is it simply a bloated overhead? Economist Mariana Mazzucato, who will deliver the second John Menadue Oration in December, reminds us that its claimed role in “value creation” could be eclipsed by its Continue reading »
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GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Outdoor advertising – enclosing the commons
The furore over the projection of horse racing on the Sydney Opera House raises not only the issue of the treatment of Louise Herron at the hand of a radio shock jock and her lack of support from the NSW Government, but also the broader issue of appropriation of public space for commercial purposes. Continue reading »
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GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media. Continue reading »
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GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE & IAN McAULEY: A new “leader”, but no sight of leadership.
The Liberal Party has a new “leader”, but there is still a dearth of the leadership in the Liberal Party, which seems to be unable to deal with hard issues, such as meeting our emissions target and coping with the effects of climate change. And there are much harder problems of economic structure calling for Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. We sympathise with you Malcolm, but you should have read your mail
Re-visiting an open letter sent to Turnbull just after his narrow victory in 2016. And a suggestion how he may go on contributing to the public purpose. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Turnbull’s dead albatross: the National Party –Repost from 21 February 2018
Barnaby Joyce’s downfall has exposed the National Party as an outfit more concerned with dealing with corporate rent-seekers than with attending to the interests of its traditional rural base. It has also exposed Turnbull’s lack of resolve in dealing with deep fissures in the political alliance between the Liberals and the Nationals. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. If we can’t kill the NEG can we at least shape it into something useful?
The National Energy Guarantee can possibly be made to work – to improve the reliability of power supplies, to reduce emissions, and to reduce people’s power bills – but not in its present form. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Don’t rush to endorse the National Energy Guarantee: There’s an election in a few months.
The best outcome for electricity consumers would be for state governments to kill the National Energy Guarantee when the COAG energy council meets on Friday. Having gone nine years without a well-grounded energy policy we can wait a few months until the next election. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. How political opportunism and poor journalism brought us a dumbed-down tax debate.
Neither the politicians nor the media are helping the electorate to understand the issues around corporate taxation. Lowering the corporate tax rate for large companies would do hardly anything for Australian investors, but corporate executives, board members and foreign investors would certainly stand to benefit. Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. What’s so sacred about small business?
Flowing from the Financial Services Royal Commission is a stream of stories about the bad behaviour of big business, but is that distracting our attention from the shortcomings of small business? Continue reading »
