ShutterstockLabor has inherited an economy with a pretty full “head of steam”. Domestic demand is growing strongly, fuelled by households flush with cash (and enriched by big inc...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to parliament via video link from COVID isolation during budget day.Getty ImagesAll budgets are about economics and politics, and 2022’s was no dif...
ShutterstockWhatever the result of the 2022 election, one thing is clear: many Australians are losing faith that their social institutions serve their interests. Our annual survey of 4,000 A...
ShutterstockEarly in the election campaign, on April 14, we learned that Australia’s unemployment rate had slipped below 4% in March, to 3.95% – the lowest rate in 48 years.But t...
Getty ImagesOne way to make sense of Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s fifth budget speech was to see it as a political performance working on different levels. First, Labour needs th...
ShutterstockIn 2020 the Morrison government allowed Australians to raid their superannuation to get through during the pandemic. This week Scott Morrison proposed letting people raid their s...
Shutterstock/The ConversationEvery three months the Bureau of Statistics releases the lesser-known cousin of the consumer price index. It’s called the Wage Price Index (WPI) and it rec...
ShutterstockYou would be forgiven for being unsure about whether the buying power of wages was rising or falling. On one hand, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese says wages are going backwar...
Getty ImagesUntil now, the government’s approach to climate action has largely been about getting the policy architecture right. This work is vital, but it’s more about rearrangi...
The last week of campaigns used to be frantic, behind the scenes. In public, right up until the final week, the leaders would make all sorts of promises, many of them expensive, with nary a ...
ShutterstockIt would be hard to find someone who’s visited Copenhagen or Amsterdam and complained about too many bikes. And you don’t tend to hear a lot of moaning about too much...
Getty ImagesUncertainty in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has wreaked havoc wit…
ShutterstockAt their first televised debate four weeks ago, Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese were…
ShutterstockIf the COVID years have taught us anything about migration, it is that Australia depends…
Getty ImagesUrgent and bold – transformative even – budget decisions are needed if we ar…
ShutterstockYou want to help Ukrainians in need. Should you donate to UNICEF, UNHCR, Red Cross, Worl…
Shutterstock/DatawrapperAmid the talk about tax changes set to cut the middle-income rate to 30%, a …
ShutterstockMost Australian voters are either Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964), Generation Xers (196…
ShutterstockElectricity prices in the short-term (“spot”) wholesale markets in Australia…
Getty ImagesAfter more than two years of disruptions, lockdowns and uncertainty, employers are facin…
Getty ImagesTax is back in the news. Often this means a looming budget or election, as is indeed the…
ShutterstockThe Reserve Bank is pushing up interest rates to take money out of our hands.The first i…
ShutterstockRental housing in Australia is less affordable than ever before. It is no exaggeration …
ShutterstockWe often hear a job is the best way to get someone out of poverty. In many cases this is…
ShutterstockWe are used to thinking of money as notes and coins, the kind most of us hold in our wal…