Big business wants to double Syrian refugees

Tony Shepherd (right) with the Australian Ambassador to Turkey James Larsen at a camp in Turkey.

Patrick Durkin

Business has urged the Turnbull government to more than double the government's commitment to permanently resettle 12,000 Syrian refugees.

Treasurer Scott Morrison and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull must win a popular mandate for reform this year.

How Turnbull can lift the GST and cut the deficit

Malcolm Turnbull needs to balance both economic and fiscal reform. Following Sweden could help win a mandate for tough changes.

TPP trade deal battle enters a new final straight

Greg Earl

The winding road to the biggest world trade deal in 20 years will start all over again on Thursday with a meeting of trade ministers in New Zealand.

"Capital markets are tired of the unrelenting stimulation, which is causing investor focus to be shorter and shorter", Clime's John Abernethy says.

Have we reached 'quantitative exhaustion'?

Vanessa Desloires

Investors are becoming increasingly sceptical about monetary policy stimulus, questioning its effectiveness in the wake of Japan's extraordinary move to place a negative interest rates on bank reserves.

Glenn Stevens,Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, announced rates are on hold. Photo by Peter Braig

Chance of a rate cut has increased

The sharemarket may feel short changed that the Reserve Bank of Australia has hedged its bets but Glenn Stevens is very aware of global risks

Negative interest rates could lead to further yield compression for prime assets in Tokyo.

Negative rates in Japan are a positive for property

Robert Harley

The Bank of Japan's move to a negative interest rates is a positive for Japanese real estate.

In each of the four quarters since the December quarter of 2014 tobacco consumption contracted by more than 10 per cent, the longest such decline on record.

Tobacco crackdown may have reached revenue tipping point

Jacob Greber

Government efforts to stamp out smoking have become so successful Treasury has been forced to downgrade its estimates for future tobacco excise revenue, raising doubts about whether planned Labor hikes will deliver all of a hoped-for tax boost.