17 October 2021

A good time to end negative gearing and taxpayer subsidised speculation in housing

There are many things wrong with both housing policy and tax policy, and the interaction of them predictably creates distortions in our housing market. It makes it impossible for many young people to own their own home.

29 September 2021

Australias banks got $188 billion in cheap loans from the RBA. Now theyre funding sharebuybacks

Much has been written about the taxpayer-funded windfalls to some companies provided by the $90 billion JobKeeper scheme. Their gains have come from grants given to them to offset projected COVID-19 losses with no obligation to pay that money back when the losses didnt eventuate.

13 September 2021

Go hard, go early. But the PM prefers a go slow on key issues

The Treasury advice to government at the time of the Global Financial Crisis was to go hard, go early with counter-measures, and that has since become an accepted model when confronted with an unexpected, major, crisis.

21 January 2021

Ideology triumphs over evidence: Morrison government drops the ball on banking reform

Weakening responsible lending laws is a bad look for the federal government. It has the hallmarks of political opportunism, with Morrison and Frydenberg using the Covid crisis to be a friend of business at the expense of consumers.

8 December 2020

Protecting borrowers when interest costs are hidden

The Coalition Government is determined to weaken the protections for borrowers. Not only does it plan to remove responsible lending obligations from most loans, the Senate Economics Committee also rejected changes to Small Amount Credit Contracts (SACCS - commonly referred to as payday loans) legislation. The three non-Coalition members argued to approve the changes.