Comment

Latest commentary

Fast action on tax havens needed now

Inflation is expected to remain well below the Reserve Bank of Australia's 2 per cent to 3 per cent target range until ...

Paying tax is a fact of life for most of us. It's how we afford new roads, better schools, and good health care. But the existence of tax havens undermines that social compact in two ways.

What’s a 20-year economic promise worth: three months

? ?
?

graph.jpg

Imagine that our national goal was to double GDP again. After allowing for inflation, Australia's GDP is twice as big today as it was in 1993, and according to Treasury we are currently on track to achieve our next doubling by December 2038.

Brexit: The apocalyse

Boris Johnson MP talks to supporters during a Vote Leave rally in London, England.

How's this for apocalyptic? "As a historian I fear Brexit [a British vote to leave the European Union in the referendum on June 23] could be the beginning of the destruction of not only the EU but also Western political civilisation in its entirety," said Donald Tusk, the president of the European Union, in an interview published on Monday in the German newspaper Bild.

Malcolm in the dock

Malcolm Turnbull's Monday return to the Q&A set for the first time since last February just might be his most daring ...

Turnbull's return to Q&A; might be his most daring move in this risk-averse campaign to retain government.

Gay rights could defeat Islamic State

Jacqueline Maley

It's only a hunch. But I am pretty sure that if you did up a Venn diagram of those who hate gay people and those who hate Muslims, there would be such significant cross-over it would resemble a near-eclipse.

The great tragedy of Malcolm Turnbull

Elizabeth Farrelly dinkus

Another day, another solemn prime ministerial hypocrisy: climate change and the Reef, Centennial Parklands and trees, Orlando and homophobia, Indigenous recognition. In a trajectory of doom that is positively Shakespearean, Malcolm Turnbull seems emptier and drier with each appearance. The man who had everything (but wanted more) is already a husk of his former self. Where will it end?

I'm a Scorsese nut, geddit?

Robert de Niro in The King of Comedy.

Scorsese is such a sweet, gentle man, dedicated to treasuring and preserving world cinema, and yet he's made so many disturbingly violent films...

Trump, disaffected Americans and the lessons for Australia

Donald Trump is appealing to the disaffected with his slogan, "Make America great again".

US political scientist Francis Fukuyama argues that the people who support Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are disaffected with mainstream politics and he can see why Trump's "Make America great again" slogan so resonates. Fukuyama's warning is pertinent in Australia.

It's not all about Gladys

Sean Nicholls dinkus

All eyes – in NSW politics at least – will be on Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian next Tuesday as she delivers her second state budget. But it's Luke Foley who will be under real pressure.