Writer
Ross Gittins
Ross Gittins is the Economics Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.
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ROSS GITTINS. Morrison’s surplus secret: bracket creep kills the tax cuts. (SMH 15-16.9.2018)
The mystery revealed. Consider this: how does the Morrison government cut income and company taxes and avoid big cuts in government spending, but still project ever-rising budget surpluses and ever-falling net public debt over the next decade? With publication of the Parliamentary Budget Office’s report on the May budget’s medium-term projections, we now know. Short answer: by Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. How we could revive faith in democracy (SMH 6 June 2018)
How much is our disillusionment with politicians, governments and even democracy the result of our pollies’ 30-year love affair with that newly recognised mega-evil “neoliberalism”? To a considerable extent, according to Dr Richard Denniss, of the Australia Institute, in the latest Quarterly Essay, Dead Right. Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. Inequality: Nothing to see here is not the true picture (SMH 3.9.2018)
This week the Productivity Commission issued a “stocktake of the evidence” on inequality in Australia. Its findings will surprise you. But it wasn’t as even-handed as it should have been. Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. Clever tax strategies may be legal, but they aren’t productive (SMH 9/7/2018)
The developed world’s economists have been racking their brains for explanations of the rich countries’ protracted period of weak improvement in the productivity of labour. I’ve thought of one that hasn’t had much attention. Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. Cash and kind: How governments shift income from rich to poor. (SMH 7/7/2018)
Everyone knows the gap between high and low incomes has grown. But much of what we think we know about why it’s happened, and what the government has been doing about it, is probably wrong. Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. Memo Canberra: it’s not taxes, it’s wages, stupid. (SMH 2/7/2018)
With the season of peak political bulldust already upon us, and the media holding a microphone to all the self-serving and often stupid arguments the politicians are having with each other, here’s a tip: if you want sense about our economic problems and their solutions, turn down the pollies’ blathering and turn up the considered Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. The threat of terrorism in Australia is a scam that costs us dearly (SMH 25/7/2017)
This article by Ross Gittins was published on 25 July 2017 in the SMH. Since then, the government has continued to ratchet up fear of terrorism. This is a particular stock in trade of conservatives – promoting fear- fear of Communists, fear of Asians, fear of Muslims, fear of terrorists and now, unfortunately fear of Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. Parties offer clear choice at next election
The federal election campaign could be as soon as August and no later than May. So which side is shaping as better at managing the economy? Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. Budget 2018: This budget is too good to be true
This budget is too good to be true. If you believe Malcolm Turnbull’s luck can turn on a sixpence, this is the budget for you. From now on, everything’s coming good. Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. The boot is on the other foot and big business is on the nose
The misbehaviour by banks and other big financial players revealed by the royal commission is so extensive and so shocking it’s likely to do lasting damage to the public credibility and political influence of the whole of big business and its lobby groups. Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. We have a bad case of misdirected compassion
Why do so many of us – and the media, which so often merely reflect back the opinions of their audience – feel sorrier for those who profess to be poor than for those who really are? Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. Who is to blame for the housing crisis and how to fix it
There aren’t many material aspirations Australians hold dearer than owning their own home – but dear is the word. There are few greater areas of policy failure. Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. If governments don’t get this message they will be tossed out.
A highlight of our trip to New York after Christmas was a visit to the Tenement Museum down on the lower east side, where the movie Gangs of New York was set. It was the area where successive waves of Irish, German and Russian immigrants first settled, crowded into tenements. We were taken around the corner to Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. Self-interest standing in the way of a fix for the Murray-Darling
Genelle Haldane, my desk calendar tells me, has said that “only until all of mankind lives in harmony with nature can we truly decree ourselves to be an intelligent species”. I’ve no idea who Haldane is or was, but she’s right. Continue reading »
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Private health insurance is a con job
You won’t believe it, but my birthday was on Tuesday and I got a present from the federal government. I also got a card from my state member, sending his “very best wishes” for reaching such an “important milestone” in my life. Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. A bigger, better public sector will secure our future
There are important lessons to be learnt from the latest news about where our strong growth in employment is coming from. But if we listen to the nostrums of the Smaller Government brigade, we’ll get them exactly wrong. Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. Economists are giving up on smaller government.
You may not have noticed, but the Productivity Commission’s search for “a new policy model” for reform, in reaction to the breakdown of the politicians’ “neoliberal consensus”, offers better prospects for finally getting the budget under control. That’s because, although the commission doesn’t say so, its reformed approach to reform represents a retreat from a central Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. Government losing its resistance to rent-seeking businesses
I’m starting to suspect the federal government – of whatever colour – has lost its ability to control its own spending. Continue reading »
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How we can do better on education. (Jean Blackburn Oration)
When you do so little to require the winners from economic change to compensate the losers, and then, whether by accident or design, you have an influx of immigrants, you end up with Trump, Brexit and the resurrection of One Nation. Continue reading »
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ROSS GITTINS. Outlook for Australian politics and government in 2017.
The area of economic reform where the government’s performance has been most egregious is on policy to ease our transition to a low-carbon economy and honour our commitments at the Paris conference. Leaving aside Abbott’s role in our policy regression, Turnbull’s disservice to the nation was to swear off introducing a carbon intensity scheme. Continue reading »
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Ross Gittins. Launch of book by Menadue and Keating.
Sydney, Thursday, November 5, 2015 Paul Samuelson, the famous American economist, is said to have remarked that the stockmarket has predicted nine of the past five recessions. I thought of that this week and decided the Canberra press gallery could top it: the gallery has predicted nine of the past two early elections. They Continue reading »
