Economy
-
IAN MCAULEY. Australia’s finance sector: a bloated overhead?
Rather than capricious and populist measures such as the government’s levy on the big five banks, we need a thorough and far-ranging consideration of the role of the finance sector in our economy. This sector, which should have benefited from productivity improvements to reduce its costs, has become an increasingly bloated overhead, whose growth has Continue reading »
-
BERNARD KEANE. Low emissions target: a win for both Turnbull and climate denialists, a loss for everyone.
The beauty of a Low Emissions Target as a climate action policy is that, as a kind of lowest common denominator, it means everyone wins — and for that matter loses. Continue reading »
-
JOHN AUSTEN: The Commonwealth is ‘meddling’ in NSW rail – at last!
There are indications the Prime Minister wishes to modernise infrastructure policy. Reports regarding rail to Badgerys Creek highlight the discomfort this causes to the NSW Government- and enormous benefits if the Prime Minister gets Commonwealth involvement right. Continue reading »
-
IAN BERSTEN. Tax policy and reducing financial barriers for small business in Australia.
There is much discussion about the benefits of reducing tax so that Australia can be competitive with other countries in the world. This is only of consequence to multinational companies considering where to establish their headquarters. All small companies and medium-sized companies in Australia want more sales. From larger sales they get more profits and often Continue reading »
-
CHRISTIAN DOWNIE. If the US can’t make coal clean, what hope is there for Australia?
The Prime Minister’s recent decision to back coal rests on the assumption that it can somehow be made “clean”, or more precisely, that carbon, capture and storage (CCS) technologies can be made to work for coal plants. The problem is that they can’t and the US experience shows why. Continue reading »
-
JOHN AUSTEN. Where to for Commonwealth infrastructure policy?
Legend has it that Charlton Heston flashed a Rolex wristwatch during a chariot race in the 1959 Ben Hur movie. Some recent Prime Ministerial comments could be considered flashes of a policy Rolex in an infrastructure discussion fitted to the setting of Ben Hur – in ancient Rome. Continue reading »
-
JOHN MENADUE. Miners, taxation and donations. (Repost 17/10/2013)
In my blog of June 3 “the Miners Lament”, I pointed out that the large foreign owned mining companies in Australia may yet regret that they rejected out of hand the Resources Super Profits Tax that the Rudd Government proposed. Politically of course the miners will never admit it but I suspect that at some Continue reading »
-
MARK GREGORY. A new broadband levy in another NBN bungle
The Turnbull government is set to introduce a new levy on telecommunications companies that offer 25 Mbps or faster internet connections to contribute towards regional and remote broadband. Continue reading »
-
JIM COOMBS. Public Goods
Before the advent of the “free enterprise market economy” model’s dominance of economic thinking, there was a distinction made between private and public goods. The idea was that some things had to be provided for a healthy, well-ordered society: such basics to our notion of civilization as universal water reticulation and sewerage (the most significant Continue reading »
-
IAN DUNLOP. The Leaders We Deserve?
Rarely have politicians demonstrated their ignorance of the real risks and opportunities confronting Australia than with the recent utterances of Barnaby Joyce, Matt Canavan and other ministers promoting development of Adani and Galilee Basin coal generally, along with their petulant foot-stamping over Westpac’s decision to restrict funding to new coal projects. Likewise, Bill Shorten sees Continue reading »
-
BRIAN TOOHEY. How to repair neo-liberalism
The policy debate needs fresh ideas to fill the gap left by the lack of popular and political support for the neo-liberal economic agenda. Paul Keating, who championed that agenda, recently said neo-liberal economics “has run into a dead end and had no answer to the contemporary malaise”. Continue reading »
-
JOHN DWYER. Policy mayhem is stifling efforts to have more Australian doctors “in the bush” – part two
In this two part article, I am reviewing the basis for the serious problem we have in providing adequate health care for Australians who live in rural, and particularly, remote areas. Good intentions are, as ever, intertwined with political machinations which make policies for solutions harder to implement. Currently, yet another government review is soon Continue reading »
-
IAN MCAULEY. There’s more to Morrison’s conversion on debt than appears at first sight
There is nothing novel about Treasurer Morrison’s discovery that government debt is all OK provided it’s applied to funding useful assets. But it may be an indication that the government is disillusioned with monetary policy as a means of stabilising the economy, and is moving back to fiscal policy. Continue reading »
-
IAN MCAULEY. The budget – still tough on the young
The Commonwealth’s budget has a Keynesian boost for a sluggish economy, and is based on an optimistic, or even heroic, assumption that economic growth will deliver a fiscal surplus within a few years. We have heard similar claims from treasurers, Labor and Coalition, ever since 2009. The Government’s other claim is that it is “fair” Continue reading »
-
MICHAEL KEATING. The 2017 Budget – A welcome change in direction. Part 1 of 2
This Budget represents a welcome change in direction. Forget the politics, it deserves to be supported. This latest Coalition Budget finally reflects a realistic appraisal of Australia’s fiscal needs. Continue reading »
-
MICHAEL KEATING. The 2017 Budget – A welcome change in direction. Part 2 of 2
Budget repair was never going to be easy. That is one reason why it has taken so long with quite a few false starts. While some of the individual decisions in this Budget are debateable, overall the quality of the policy changes is good. Probably a greater concern is that some very significant policy issues Continue reading »
-
JOHN MENADUE. A rigged gas market and market failure.
Yesterday, the government announced that it would impose an Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism on gas exports from July this year. This will give the government authority to limit companies’ gas exports if they are emptying Australian gas reserves to meet overseas export contracts. Two years ago – I drew attention to the market failure Continue reading »
-
IAN McAULEY. The Liberal Party’s French Connection
The political future of Kelly O’Dwyer, Minister for Revenue and Financial Services (presently on maternity leave) is uncertain, as Liberal Party members in her electorate move to disendorse her. On one level this conflict can be seen as the shenanigans of Liberal Party faction wars, but at another level it reveals a deep malaise in Continue reading »
-
PAUL BUDDE. The role of the NBN in the development of 5G
From a network efficiency point of view fibre-based infrastructure will always win over wireless. … Don’t expect a rapid development of 5G services for the mass market. 5G will most likely be installed in pockets where there is a clear business case (for a premium service) and where there is plenty of fibre available to Continue reading »
-
TIM COLEBATCH. Yes, there is such a thing as too much immigration
Adjusting the intake in response to shifts in employment makes long-term sense. Between 2008 and 2016, in net terms, the Australian labour market expanded by 474,000 full-time jobs. But only 74,000 of them went to people born in Australia. That’s fewer than one in six. Continue reading »
-
It’s time for Labor to think big about policy – a people’s bank!
Tony Abbott is not the only one anticipating a change of government at the next election. Voters across the board are increasingly fed up with the Coalition and there are even signs that some of its most devoted cheer leaders in the media are beginning to give up on it. Dear old Alan Jones has Continue reading »
-
DAVID JAMES. Deconstructing the privatisation scam
It is increasingly evident how pernicious the privatisation myth is. Two recent examples have underlined it: the failings in Australia’s privatised energy grid and the usurious pricing in airport car parks. Both examples demonstrated that it is folly to expect a public benefit to inevitably emerge from private profit seeking. Continue reading »
-
TED TRAINER. Oil wake-up call.
Almost no one has the slightest grasp of the oil crunch that will probably hit them within a decade. When it does it will literally mean the end of the world as we know it. Here is an outline of what some recent analysts are saying. We had better think carefully about their claims. Nobody Continue reading »
-
How has education come to this?
For a country that prides itself on the egalitarian ethos of a ‘fair go’ for all, the latest results from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) are a distressing reminder that many are not getting a fair go in education. The egalitarian label is a self-indulgent delusion as far as education is concerned. Continue reading »
-
IAN McAULEY. Capital gains taxes: Keating got it right in 1985
Most commentators on the crisis in housing affordability correctly attribute the problem, in part, to the Howard Government’s decision in 1999 to “halve the taxation of capital gains”. But that was only one aspect of the 1999 change: the other was an end of indexation. The combined effect was to shift investors’ incentives to favour Continue reading »
-
JOHN MENADUE. 457 visas and our temporary residence system.
In light of government announcement on 457 visas, I have reposted below an article originally posted on 18 November 2016. See also at end, a link to an article by Joanna Howe in The Canberra Times yesterday. John Menadue. Oversight of the management of work rights of temporary entrants into Australia is broken and needs Continue reading »
-
Sydney house prices – an increase of 18.9% in one year!
With only a month to go to the federal budget, the news that Sydney’s median dwelling prices rose by 18.9% in the 12 months to March is sobering. It is surely enough to jolt the Turnbull government into finally adopting bold measures to curb speculative demand in the housing market. Calls to reform negative gearing and/or Continue reading »
-
ANDREW HAMILTON. Labor Party reform through Catholic Social Teaching
It can be disconcerting to hear our family history told by a sympathetic but unaligned outsider. We may recognise the partisanship that coloured some of our past judgments and be led to reconsider them. Continue reading »
-
GILES PARKINSON. Tide turns as solar, storage costs trump ideologues and incumbents
Looking at the machinations over the proposed Adani coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin this week, or seeing certain Coalition Senators howling at the moon over wind turbine “emissions”, or the Treasurer brandishing a lump of coal in parliament, it is hard to imagine that any sort of progress has been made in Australia in what Continue reading »
-
ALLAN PATIENCE. Is it time to resurrect the Albury-Wodonga city plan?
The housing crisis, hitting young Australians in particular, is one of the cruelest consequences of economic rationalist policy making to which both our major political parties remain super-glued. Neither party has a clearly articulated, long-term solution to this ideologically generated and completely unnecessary crisis. Continue reading »