Shorten needs to follow the lead of Hawke, not Whitlam
![Bob Hawke at a Canberra press conference in 1983.](http://web.archive.org./web/20190518035449/https://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/h/1/e/i/1/h/image.related.afrIndexLead.320x210.p51oje.png/1558102080881.jpg)
The Hawke-Keating policies were orthodox economics that worked. Yet they are now denounced by Labor’s revisionists as 'trickle-down' neo-liberalism.
The Hawke-Keating policies were orthodox economics that worked. Yet they are now denounced by Labor’s revisionists as 'trickle-down' neo-liberalism.
The pace of world trade slowed a lot when the economy crashed a decade ago. In addition to physical globalisation, financial globalisation also has slowed.
Neither party's plans will deliver the productivity overhaul that Australia needs. That must encompass tax, energy, education, industrial relations, and Australia's place in the wider world.
The party might have unity, but Bill Shorten’s agenda threatens a high-taxing, high-spending caricature of a Labor government.
Some warn that the world of high debt and low interest rates will end in the fire of inflation. Others prophesy that it will end in the ice of deflation.
The problem for Labor is that the Fair Work Commission resists big wage hikes because they can cause unemployment, and poverty.
Letters on budget forecasts, energy policy, TPG/Vodafone merger and franking credits. Wednesday May 15, 2019.
During the Rudd-Gillard era it was clear a rift had opened up between Labor's blue collar working class support and its inner city left-prog...
Letters on federal ICAC, aged care, Israel Folau and climate change. Tuesday May 14, 2019.
A pro-cyclical currency like the Australian dollar can cause havoc when markets tank.
If you are in any doubt how the Coalition has misread the politics of climate change and how concerned the Liberals are about Victoria, look at the recent change in language and behaviour.
It is time for both sides of politics to step up and fix a sector that has been crying out for reform for decades.
The Coalition believes hammering Labor over higher taxes on "hard working Australians" is its best hope for what will be a torrid, if not terrifying campaign
Investors in Kraft Heinz have learnt a valuable lesson - Warren Buffett doesn't get everything right. The Kraft Heinz crash is also a blow, albeit a manageable one, for Hamish Douglass' Magellan.
Alan Joyce's lowest point was when a Jack Russell terrier started biting his ankles during a live television cross while he was being abused by the dog's owner.
Andrew Forrest's gas import project for NSW has lost its CEO, but Stuart Johnston says that does not mean he is working on a disappearing project.
There has been a lot of bad public policy and bad politics in Australia in the past 15 years. And occasional moments of the alternative.
The Reserve Bank and voters face a challenge over rates and who will define their economic destiny, writes Christopher Joye.
A year after its first attempt to float fell over, Prospa has the support of big investors and a plan to take even more of the banks' turf.
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