Business

Comment & Analysis

Why penalty rates should be sharply higher

A key reason given for the decision is to encourage employment in the hospitality industry, which is already our star ...

This is interesting: the Fair Work Commission has pretty much agreed with the Productivity Commission's recommendations on penalty rates, so penalty rates should be sharply higher for everyone on shift work.

The four great myths of Gonski

Illustration: Glen Le Lievre

It turns out Christopher Pyne was right: Julia Gillard's version of the Gonski school funding reform was indeed "Conski".

Unskilled and unable: Trump's great jobs lie

Trump has made it clear he intends to use public browbeating and threats to get companies to keep jobs in the US.

For all the turmoil marking the first weeks of President Trump, the big boot is yet to drop. That's when the angry heartland realises the factory jobs aren't coming back, whatever Trump promised.

Big W's ugly result spoils Woolies' big day

Big W  is now barely profitable with earnings falling around 89 per cent in the first half of the 2017 financial year.

As Woolworths celebrated the early signs of improvement in supermarket sales attention turned to the real elephant in the aisle - the ugly loss notched up by Big W and the continued bleeding of its sales.

Brace yourself for a year of con jobs and flying bulldust

Workers in retail and hospitality are being paid too much on weekends, according to this millionaire public servant on a ...

There's a long history of politicians professing to be terribly concerned about "the cost of living" and nothing good ever comes of it. It's always about saying things to keep or win your vote and rarely about doing anything real – let alone sensible – about prices.

Australia positioned to be renewable energy superpower

Ross Garnaut says that nowhere in the developed world are solar and wind resources together so abundant as in the ...

The old joke says the questions in economics exams don't change from year to year, but the answers do. Welcome to the economics of energy and climate change, which has changed a lot without many people noticing - including Malcolm Turnbull and his climate-change denying mates.

Can Bligh win where bank bosses failed?

Relations between the government and the banking sector plummeted on Friday when former Queensland Labor premier Anna ...

First Super has written to four fund managers that it invests members' money in questioning the Domino's business model after the recent Fairfax investigation into the pizza giant.

How Australia can avoid becoming the 'white trash' of Asia

Australia

I know how Jules Verne must have felt. My recent trip to New York plus three days in Israel and two more in London was a fascinating circumnavigation but thanks to Qantas and the LLJets I did it quicker than 80 days in a balloon.

Look! ScoMo unleashes a Liberal revolution

Treasurer Scott Morrison

The federal Treasurer and the Finance Minister threw several years of Coalition dogma out the window and it's been reported as if it's just another day at the office.

Meet the new Wesfarmers Stepford CEO

New Wesfarmers chief executive Rob Scott perfectly fits the company mould.

He's a former Olympic silver medallist in rowing, an accomplished, successful and understated man who has tasted most parts of the Wesfarmers empire.

Executive Style

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