Latest
New gas supplies ‘needed’ says Bowen as Gippsland wind takes off
Energy Minister Chris Bowen believes Australia has no option but to seek new supplies of gas even as he green-lights six potential offshore Gippsland wind projects.
- 12 mins ago
- Jacob Greber
Loosen rules so banks can write more home loans: Liberal MP
Liberal Andrew Bragg has endorsed a call by bankers to relax home loan regulations to make it easier for first home buyers to enter the housing market.
- John Kehoe
Kean questions need for Eraring bailout
It will be the “NSW government”, not the renewables sector, that faces the music if sluggish wind, solar and transmission rollout leads to blackouts.
- Updated
- Jacob Greber
Blaming students for housing crisis ‘simplistic’, universities say
A new report finds that conflating international students with the housing shortage is opportunistic and could have profound ramifications on the economy.
- Julie Hare
Investors trim rate rise bets as retail sales growth hits 2½-year low
Annual growth in retail sales has fallen to its lowest level since the pandemic as cash-strapped households tighten their belts.
- Michael Read
Rein in states’ spending to help RBA, Chalmers told
Governments are on track to loosen their budgets by $50 billion in the middle of an inflation crisis and rising interest rates.
- John Kehoe
Opinion & Analysis
Magic debt thinking collides with inflation and higher rates
Since the GFC, economists have suggested that using debt to finance government spending is a free lunch. But the tide has turned in the past two years.
Columnist
With these two steps, government could change culture of violence
Readers’ letters on ending platitudes about violence against women; why we need negative gearing; Peter Dutton’s nuclear dilemma; Elon Musk’s defence of free speech; and the value of taxing big super balances.
Contributor
Australia’s last-mile inflation looks like the last 10 miles
The Albanese government took power promising to increase wages. It was a risky gamble that is not paying off.
Economics professor
RBA must ignore the band of economists pushing a rate rise
The Reserve Bank should not be firing up its interest rate models on the strength of inflation that is now steadily dropping into target range.
Former Labor minister and economist
More From Today
- Opinion
- Australian economy
Magic debt thinking collides with inflation and higher rates
Since the GFC, economists have suggested that using debt to finance government spending is a free lunch. But the tide has turned in the past two years.
- Kenneth Rogoff
- Exclusive
- Electricity
Former Labor leader to chair Victoria’s SEC
Simon Corbell, a former ACT deputy chief minister, will chair Victoria’s revised State Electricity Commission, after its advisory board was disbanded.
- Ben Potter and Patrick Durkin
Coal mine methane twice official disclosures: Sims
Australia’s open cut coal mines could be emitting twice as much methane as official disclosures suggest, casting doubt on national carbon emissions data.
- Ben Potter
Yesterday
With these two steps, government could change culture of violence
Readers’ letters on ending platitudes about violence against women; why we need negative gearing; Peter Dutton’s nuclear dilemma; Elon Musk’s defence of free speech; and the value of taxing big super balances.
Budget spending cuts must ‘take heat off’ interest rates
To limit the RBA’s interest rate rises, tens of billions of dollars in federal and state government expenditure must be unwound, economists say.
- John Kehoe
- Opinion
- Australian economy
Australia’s last-mile inflation looks like the last 10 miles
The Albanese government took power promising to increase wages. It was a risky gamble that is not paying off.
- Richard Holden
- Opinion
- Monetary policy
RBA must ignore the band of economists pushing a rate rise
The Reserve Bank should not be firing up its interest rate models on the strength of inflation that is now steadily dropping into target range.
- Craig Emerson
Call to put fixing structural deficit at heart of budget policy
UNSW professor Richard Holden said Treasurer Jim Dr Chalmers had failed to adopt clear strategy in his first two budgets, which lacked accountability.
- Ronald Mizen
Labor urged to restrict rather than ban non-compete clauses
Leading economists have urged the Albanese government to significantly restrict the use of non-compete clauses to revive Australia’s ailing productivity growth.
- Euan Black
- Opinion
- Energy transition
Post-coal power choice is renationalisation or redesigning the market
An integrated net-zero electricity system depends on governments restoring faith in the market delivering enough power to the right places at the right time.
- Tony Wood
This Month
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Woodside Energy’s part in BHP’s low-carbon transition
The irony is that “The Big Australian” has the financial resources to bid for Anglo American partly because its legacy fossil fuel assets are now on Woodside Energy’s books.
- The AFR View
RBA should maintain its ‘wait and see’ approach to rates
Readers’ letters on what is playing into the Reserve Bank’s thinking on interest rates; what must change to make negative gearing fair; Woodside’s climate conundrum; and Peter Dutton’s nuclear problem.
The apartment supply conundrum behind Perth’s housing price surge
There’s plenty of demand and many projects approved, but sky-high construction costs have left developers asking for more government money.
- Updated
- Tom Rabe
- Opinion
- Russia-Ukraine war
Fight to the last Ukrainian
More aid is clearly a relief for Kyiv, but will it be enough to reverse the tide of the war?
- James Curran
- Opinion
- Australian economy
If Musk wins high stakes global battle, X could still lose the war
A court victory in the legal stoush over Australia’s eSafety commissioner’s take-down order might invite government intervention that bolsters regulation of the social media giants.
- Patrick Considine
- Analysis
- Gas
Woodside caught between twin objectives on a collision course
Woodside is hoping that technology, hard work and deployment will reconcile fidelity to net-zero with growth by pumping oil and gas.
- Ben Potter
- Opinion
- Interest rates
How Boomers are busting hopes for rate cuts
Macro commentator James Aitken says interest rates may have to head higher after we underestimated the increasingly powerful wealth effect.
- Jonathan Shapiro
Failure to reopen Australia embassy in Kyiv ‘an embarrassment’
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles visited Ukraine to unveil the package, including drones and air-defence systems, but there was one glaring omission from his trip.
- Hans van Leeuwen and Ronald Mizen
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Chalmers’ narrow budget path is now in peril
The sudden change in the interest rate outlook this week could be political dynamite for the Albanese government and the budget.
- The AFR View
Government spending surge to fuel sticky inflation
Monthly spending figures show the federal budget bottom-line in the nine months to March was running $4.1 billion ahead of projections from December,
- Michael Read
