Economy
-
Turning the federation clock back to 1901.
The Commission of Audit has made many unhelpful suggestions about budgetary and economic issues. It seems to have been driven more by ideology than fact. See my blog of May 1 2014 “The Commission of Audit and facing the wrong way”. One of its most unhelpful suggestions is that Australia returns to the 1901 intentions Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Free Trade Agreement with Japan – ‘turbo charging’ our trade or mainly hype?
Next Tuesday Prime Minister Abe will visit Australia. I expect the Free Trade Agreement with Japan or its new name the Economic Partnership Agreement with Japan will feature prominently. I repost below what I said on March 29 about the limited value of these bilateral agreements. Only last week, the Productivity Commission expressed similar reservations. Continue reading »
-
Financial Planning explained by an Irishman.
Paddy bought a donkey from a farmer for £100. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. In the morning he drove up and said, ‘Sorry son, but I have some bad news. The donkey’s died.’ Paddy replied, ‘Well just give me my money back then.’ The farmer said, ‘Can’t do that. Continue reading »
-
Bruce Duncan. The Coalition: how to lose friends and alienate people
Mr Abbott in his 2013 book, Battlelines, wrote that in government he would balance social values with pragmatic policy for the common good of the country. Yet one could be forgiven for thinking government policy is being driven by neoliberal ideologues, with a very heavy stress on policies of privatisation of public assets, further deregulation Continue reading »
-
The rich are inheriting the earth … our earth
The last budget kept our Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) unchanged at a nominal amount of $5.03 billion. In real terms that was a cut of 2.25% or over $100 million. Julie Bishop told us that it was a contribution that ODA would have to make to repair our budget deficit. At the same time the Continue reading »
-
Tony Abbott’s negotiating skills.
With the unpredictable and confusing state of the new Senate, Tony Abbott will have his negotiating skills tested. So far negotiating skills have not been part of his political success. Thanks to the Palmer United Party and five other cross-benchers in the Senate from July 1, the situation could become even more chaotic than the Continue reading »
-
The widening wealth gap
Oxfam Australia has just released a report ‘Still the Lucky Country?’ which highlights the widening gap in wealth and incomes in Australia. It found that the nine richest people in Australia have wealth that equates to the poorest 20% of the community. That 20% represents about 4.5 million people. The nine richest people have a Continue reading »
-
Joe Hockey on welfare dependence
Surely Joe Hockey must soon become more careful about preaching to us about ending the age of entitlement and the need for Australians to be less reliant on welfare. Facts are getting in his way. The latest reality check has been the release of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research’s Household, Income Continue reading »
-
Joe Hockey’s lifters
At a speech on June 11, a few days ago, Joe Hockey said that Australia should be rewarding ‘lifters and not leaners’. Presumably Glencore/Xstrata, Australia’s largest coal company, would be an ideal example of a heavy lifter, not like those welfare leaners, and particularly the young unemployed. But not so. Michael West in the SMH Continue reading »
-
Debt and negative gearing
Many have grown tired of the exaggerations by the Coalition about debt and deficits. The fact is that, as least as far as public debt is concerned, we don’t have a problem. The public debt emergency is confected. Our public debt is about $300 billion which in world terms is a very low figure. But Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Joe Hockey and class warfare.
In his speech to the Sydney Institute last night, Joe Hockey said that the criticism of the budget was unfair and reminiscent of ‘class warfare’ of the 1970’s. Joe Hockey was right on one thing. There is class warfare and he is waging it particularly against the young and the aged in Australia. Warren Buffet Continue reading »
-
Mary Chiarella. Nurses – debt and job satisfaction.
In the AFR Laura Tingle rightly points out that nurses do not tend to fit the mould as one of those groups of fortunate students who may reap significant income returns for the cost of their university education. She goes on to point out that “modelling released by Universities Australia this week suggest nurses’ uni Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Taxes and the free riders.
Our tax system is in a mess. It is easily exploited by the wealthy who can afford expert financial and taxation advice. We hear from Alan Jones and the Daily Telegraph about dole-bludgers. The Minister for Social Services Kevin Andrews says that disabled pensioners should get off the couch. Tax avoidance and tax bludging however Continue reading »
-
What to do about growing inequality in Australia.
On Wednesday 11 June at Parliament House Canberra, former Liberal Leader, Dr John Hewson will launch a report on ‘What do do about growing inequality in Australia’. The report has been prepared by Australia21, ANU and the Australia Institute. The report can be found by clicking on below. It is embargoed until Wednesday at 11am. Continue reading »
-
NY Times – Capitalism Eating its Children.
Yesterday I posted a blog ‘Are our Bankers Listening or Caring’. It referred to speeches by the IMF Chief, Christine Lagarde, and the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney. They were speaking at a ‘Inclusive Capitalism’ conference in London. Today the New York Times has carried an op ed piece by Roger Cohen Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Are our bankers listening or caring?
On Wednesday in London at a conference on ‘inclusive capitalism’ the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, and IMF Chief, Christine Lagarde, gave the international banking community the most severe pasting that I can ever recall of a particular industry, or at least one that operates “legally”. They said that bankers regarded themselves Continue reading »
-
John Falzon. Time to stand and fight
There are measures in this Budget that rip the guts out of what remains of a fair and egalitarian Australia. These measures will not help people into jobs but they will force people into poverty. You don’t help young people or older people or people with a disability or single mums into jobs by making them Continue reading »
-
Michael Keating. Part 5. Federalism
The Government’s Commission of Audit, which preceded this Budget, recommended that policy and service delivery should as far as practicable be the responsibility of the level of government closest to the people receiving those services, and that each level of government should be sovereign in its own sphere, with minimal duplication between the Commonwealth and Continue reading »
-
Richard Butler. American Greed trumps the American Dream: With help from the referee.
During the last two weeks a Professor from the Paris School of Economics, Thomas Piketty, has been touring the US speaking about his book; Capital in the Twenty-First Century. His audiences have been overflowing. Public television described the reception he has received as reminiscent of that given the Beatles, in their first visit to the Continue reading »
-
Michael Keating. Part 4. Long-term Fiscal and Social Sustainability and Taxation
Fundamentally there is a problem with the rhetoric from the government and its cohorts such as the Commission of Audit. They insist on describing taxation as a ‘burden’ that should be lightened at every opportunity; thus implying that taxation is somehow illegitimate. On the contrary, however, taxation represents our mutual obligation to one another as Continue reading »
-
Michael Keating. Part 3. An Alternative and Better Budget Structure
In two previous blogs I have argued that the Government’s Budget broadly got the economics right, but it failed the test of fairness and it attacks our traditional values. In that case, however, what would the alternative Budget structure look like? Fundamentally the Budget should have relied much more on taxation and less on expenditure Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Think tanks, cash for comment and the corruption of public debate.
In recent months we have been partly appalled and partly amused by the urgers and spivs from both sides of politics that have been paraded in Sydney before the Independent Commission against Corruption. Most recently we have seen developers and others using fronts to launder money to hand on to political parties. Even the Young Continue reading »
-
Michael Keating. Part 2. The Budget and our Values
The Budget is always the clearest guide to a government’s priorities and values. In the present instance, the Coalition Government wants to define this budget as being all about “contribution”. Their rhetoric is that we should all make a contribution towards restoring the nation’s finances. Spreading the burden would be fair and therefore consistent with Continue reading »
-
Michael Keating. Part 1 The Budget and what it means for Australia’s Future
Each day this week I will be running a series of blogs by Michael Keating on the Budget and its repercussions. The posts will be Australia’s Fiscal Challenge The Budget and our Values A Better Alternate Budget Structure Taxation Federalism I am sure that these five posts will make a substantial contribution to our understanding Continue reading »
-
Fran Baum and Sara Javanparast. Demise of Medicare Locals.
Demise of Medicare Locals: impact on community health, partnership and PHC research Fran Baum and Sara Javanparast Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity, Flinders University, Adelaide Tuesday’s budget announced the abolition of the 61 Medicare Locals and that they will be replaced with an unknown but smaller number of Primary Health Networks. Regional Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. For some the age of entitlement continues.
Joe Hockey talks endlessly that the days of entitlement are over. They may be over for the unemployed, students, the sick and pensioners – in fact the majority never had days of entitlement. But they are certainly not over for the miners and the financial sector. These two sectors survived unscathed from the budget. This Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Seven dollar GP co-payment – and an unintended consequence
If the co-payment takes effect, it is likely to result in an increase in doctor’s fees. As Ian McAuley has pointed out, the attraction of bulk-billing for the doctor is that it removes the cost of handling and accounting for transactions. The invoice is sent directly to Medicare. Once the doctor is obliged to handle Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. The Budget: Robin Hood in reverse.
There was a real risk that Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey believed their windy rhetoric of the last two years about debt and deficits. Having won the election they have had to face the reality that they have been grossly exaggerating our economic problems. The real risk was that Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey would Continue reading »
-
Ian McAuley. Ignored Budget issues.
Lobby groups and community organizations have provided their take on the Budget – some with a “what’s in it for me” approach, others with a more analytical line. My contribution from the stands is to draw attention to a few aspects which aren’t getting a great deal of attention. 1. Pension indexation. I’m surprised that Continue reading »
-
Ian McAuley. Pay for a GP visit.
The Commission of Audit’s proposal to charge a $5 or $6 fee for “bulk-billed” GP services has little to commend it. But that doesn’t justify knee-jerk outrage from medical and consumer groups, or from the Labor Opposition, for there is no reason why Medicare should not incorporate fixed and limited co-payments. As it stands the Continue reading »
