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” .

Ian's recent articles

Tuvalu, climate change and Westminster

The conventional wisdom is that Morrisons intransigence on climate change, which has badly damaged our relations in the Pacific, is due to the arithmetic of his slim parliamentary majority. But why do we have to assume that our two-party Westminster system with its rigid party loyalties is immutable?

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

Saturday's Good Reading and Listening for the weekend

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

IAN McAULEY. Why do we trust our economy to this mob?

The Australian economy is in recession. Rather than heeding sound advice from the Reserve Bank the Coalitions response is to sacrifice responsible economic management for an opportunity to embarrass Labor and to bully the Senate.

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

IAN McAULEY. Dont call economic reform class war

Those who accuse Labor of having engaged in class warfare in its election campaign are trying to stymie economically responsible taxation reform and to deflect attention from the corrupting influence of big money on our democracy.

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

IAN McAULEY. Its not about left-right: its the economy

Some see Australias election from a traditional left-right perspective, but that frame is meaningless. Labor should be guided by principles of good economic policy, in contrast to the Coalitions policy of thwarting necessary economic adjustment.

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

IAN McAULEY. No wonder the real-estate agents went against Labor

A glance at movements in share prices since the election shows who expects to do well out of the Coalitions win. (Spoiler it's the finance sector.)

IAN MCAULEY. Dutton knew what he was doing when he booted out Turnbull

Australias Trump/Brexit moment came on Saturday night, when Antony Green called the election for Morrison.

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

JOHN MENADUE. Bob Hawke's open letter to Australians

On Wednesday Bob Hawke sent an open letter to Australians -- a short message reminding us that Bill Shorten is ready to lead a united Labor team to contribute to aprosperous, fair and environmentally sustainable Australia. Here is the full text.

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

IAN McAULEY. Dont be distracted by the Coalitions promise of a budget surplus

A governments budget surplus or deficit is meaningless unless its carefully interpreted and is seen as only one of many indicators of a governments economic competence. Theres nothing intrinsically good about a budget surplus.

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

IAN McAULEY. Surely Morrison isnt seriously asking us to trust him

Morrisons words are a plea to trust his government, but his tactics seem to be aimed at spreading mistrust, not only of Labor but also of democratic institutions more generally.

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

IAN McAULEY. A budget to entrench economic vulnerability

Even from a whats 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.

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

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?

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

IAN McAULEY. The rot set in when they privatized the Commonwealth Bank

The banking and finance commissions focus was on specific poor behaviours. It avoided broad policy issues, including the general failure of competition to improve consumer outcomes.

Wait for it! Dutton's Army!

Dutton's Army

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

IAN McAULEY. Labors policy on imputation credits is flawed, but its in the right direction

Labors 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. Thats in contrast to the petulant complaints from lobby groups who offer no constructive alternatives to make the system fairer, and in contrast to the Coalitions failure even to acknowledge the problem.

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

SATURDAYs GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

BREXIT AND PHILLIP

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

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 defend Medicare from being undermined by PHI.

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media

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.

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