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Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Are you better off now? That's Dutton's trick question

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For most people, the simple answer to Peter Dutton’s repeated question – are you better off today than you were three years ago? – is “no, I...
Monday, March 31, 2025

Budget deficit perfection would be nice, but among the best is fine

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The independent economist and former Treasury officer Chris Richardson, the leader of Treasury-in-Exile and thus chief apostle of fiscal rec...
Friday, March 28, 2025

Budget to give the economy a push next financial year

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By MILLIE MUROI, Economics Writer If there’s only one thing you gleaned from the budget – and it is the new tax cuts – that’s exactly what t...
Wednesday, March 26, 2025

The government is timid and uninspired. This budget is a perfect fit

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If you’re having trouble working up much interest in the budget, don’t feel bad. It’s not you, it’s the government. So much fuss is made abo...
Monday, March 24, 2025

It's official: supermarkets are overcharging. So change the subject

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Why does a government release a highly critical report on the conduct of Woolworths and Coles on the Friday before a budget that will lead s...
Friday, March 21, 2025

Trump is making a huge blunder. Here's how we seize the moment

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By MILLIE MUROI, Economics Writer  Eventually, Donald Trump will backpedal. Economists get plenty wrong, but one thing most believe – and ge...

The outlook for house insurance is much worse than we're being told

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The big news on house insurance this week was the response of the insurance industry’s peak body to a parliamentary committee’s extensive cr...
Monday, March 17, 2025

Argy-bargy on the way to next week's off-again, on-again budget

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According to the business press, Anthony Albanese was desperately hoping for an early election so he could avoid next week’s budget and the ...
Friday, March 14, 2025

Fixing the economy is like training for a marathon: not much fun

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By MILLIE MUROI, Economics Writer It used to completely baffle me how addicted runners seem to be to their sport. My dad, who has run nearly...
Wednesday, March 12, 2025

How many more cyclones before our leaders finally do something?

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Forgive me for being hard-headed while everyone’s feeling concerned and sympathetic towards those poor flooded Queenslanders and people on N...
Monday, March 10, 2025

Maybe the inflation surge didn't happen the way we've been told

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According to Reserve Bank deputy governor Andrew Hauser last week, we’ve entered a world characterised not just by volatility, complexity an...
Friday, March 7, 2025

Our jobs market is booming, but the RBA needn't be so worried

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Despite the economy only just popping its head up after 21 months of “per-person recession”, our jobs market has been going gangbusters. How...
Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Our home-building industry is going nowhere fast

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You may think that a newly built home or unit looks pretty swish. But what no one’s noticed until now is that our home building industry is ...
Monday, March 3, 2025

The real truth on productivity: the bosses aren't trying hard enough

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At last, some sense on the causes of our poor productivity performance. For ages, we’ve been told it’s the government’s fault – maybe even t...
Friday, February 28, 2025

Women still being kept in the home, but not by what you think

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By MILLIE MUROI, Economics Writer It’s a topic that, despite its horrific consequences, makes us avert our eyes, close the tab, and turn the...
Wednesday, February 26, 2025

To make Medicare healthy again, the pollies must fix its symptoms

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I don’t know if you noticed, but the federal election campaign began on Sunday. The date of the election has yet to be announced – it may be...