Income inequality, the new handbrake on growth
Growing economic inequality should be formally monitored by the nation's prime economic modelling and review body.
Mark Kenny is the national affairs editor for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based at Parliament House
Growing economic inequality should be formally monitored by the nation's prime economic modelling and review body.
Tony Abbott has already come from nowhere to replace Malcolm Turnbull as leader once as the Liberal Party convulsed over Labor's progressive climate policy in 2009.
New generation coal-fired power stations and even old ones retro-fitted with carbon capture and storage, would reap financial incentives.
The commonalities between a series of recent elections, including last year's poll in Australia, are striking.
For Malcolm Turnbull, attempting to be "green-again" is a dangerous but necessary risk.
Squalid political price-taking has already crept into the public space, and it began right at the top.
Gone was talk of the "most harmonious multicultural nation in the world". Gone too, the front-footed defence of Islam.
Within hours of the latest terrorist attack in London, the reliably tasteless Donald Trump was taking political potshots, revealing a procedurally adolescent mind. For most of us, our earliest political statements - the usual blend of fact, idealism, ignorance, and too much passion - were not recorded. Thanks to our juniority, we were in no position to influence anything anyway. But in the digital age? Forget about it. Or rather, don't.
Australia will cement its reputation as the world's most blessed economy next week, but our run isn't as good as it seems.
Australia's former treasurers reflect on their time at the top.
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