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    The AFR View

    Today

    David Rowe

    Solar panels debunking makes case for critical minerals leg-up

    Even in a world of geopolitical and supply chain risk, the old economic orthodoxies of international specialisation and comparative advantage still apply.

    • 33 mins ago
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    Yesterday

    In contrast to those times, there is no credible fiscal framework to rebuild the economy’s fiscal buffers.

    Chalmers’ budget boast overlooks Australia’s debt mountain

    The substantial fiscal challenge from the budget is a forecast decade of deficits and highest plateau of federal government net debt for more than half a century.

    • The AFR View

    This Month

    May 14, 2024

    Budget spending spree that locks in a decade of deficits

    Given all the good luck since coming to office, there are no excuses for Labor not running successive substantial surpluses to repair the budget buffers and start repaying the pandemic debt at this point in the cycle.

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    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with CFMEU workers at last week’s North East Link announcement.

    Has Labor no shame about the CFMEU’s behaviour?

    Who else would get away with the construction union’s intimidation? Where is the attorney-general, the treasurer, or the new National Anti-Corruption Commission?

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    Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

    Lure global capital with internationally competitive tax reform

    Rather than Jim Chalmers’ “new growth model”, the fair dinkum way to increase foreign investment would be to progress a genuine growth agenda.

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    We would not be debating whether Jim Chalmers’ third budget will be contractionary or expansionary and hinder the central bank’s monetary policy target of bringing inflation down in its 2 per cent to 3 per cent band by mid-2026.

    Substantial surpluses, not bigger deficits, should be running at this point

    Instead, Jim Chalmers has confirmed that forecast deficits will widen as Labor’s Future Made In Australia budget centrepiece rolls out subsidies for the green energy and advanced manufacturing subsides.

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    Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

    Australia wants more than the Lucky Country can deliver

    Successive terms of trade booms – the envy of other nations – have allowed Australian governments to splurge. But now it seems that even that is not enough.

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    Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media has demanded a 100 per cent price increase to continue printing The Australian Financial Review in Perth.

    Sad halting of the press in WA

    The Australian Financial Review has built a publishing model based on premium digital subscriptions. But it is still sad that from May 22, no one in Western Australia will be able to read a hard copy version.

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    Gas for power generation is far from cooked.

    Labor locks gas firmly into energy transition

    The Future Gas Strategy reaffirms a strong role for gas, but despite the title it is light on ideas to get there.

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    Called My Health Record, the system aims to centralise health records, allowing patient information to be readily available to various medical professionals across the country.

    The digital health black hole must be fixed

    The Productivity Commission’s report on the failure of My Health Record should concern all Australians not only as taxpayers, but as consumers in an ageing society.

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    Sydney University students are camping out at the institution in support of pro-Palestinian protests at US colleges.

    No place for antisemitic incitement on campus

    The protests that reduce the complex history of the Middle East to simplistic anti-Zionist slogans hardly align with universities’ founding institutional mission.

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    Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas delivers the state budget yesterday.

    Victoria must get a grip

    The heavily indebted state has at least stopped whacking its private sector. But there is little sign of resolve on its debts.

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    An RBA tightening bias is called for

    It’s hard not to interpret the governor’s press conference and the board’s statement as at least a mild tightening bias that will keep the cash rate where it is at least until near the end of 2024.

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    An opaque and sprawling multidisciplinary partnership structure is common to the Big Four consulting firms.

    Big four’s reformation moment

    Engaging with the Treasury process is an opportunity for the consulting giants to help modernise the partnership-based model founded in the 19th century and unfit for today.

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    Chairwoman Gina Cass-Gottlieb initially said the consumer watchdog would seek a record penalty of over $250 million.

    Why didn’t ACCC litigate Qantas?

    Is what might be seen as regulatory brand ransom to force companies to admit to lesser charges and avoid the need to litigate, the way the watchdog should seek to uphold Australia’s consumer protection and competition law?

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    RBA governor Michele Bullock needs to reinforce the central bank’s resolve in tackling stubbornly high inflation.

    Moment of truth on inflation for Reserve Bank’s credibility

    At stake here is whether the supposedly politically independent central bank can re-establish the low inflation foundations that supported three decades of unbroken economic growth until the interruption of the pandemic.

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    Anthony Albanese extended a Morrison government scheme to help women.

    Make this the tipping point on domestic violence

    A tighter judicial system, support for families forced to leave violent homes, long-term culture change, and more sophisticated use of data and prediction. Nothing can be left off the table in tackling terror at home.

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    One of Bonza’s 737 Max 8s blocked off at the end of Melbourne Airport.

    Bonza’s grounding strands airline competition too

    Had the government dealt with some of the highly public problems of aviation with more alacrity than it has, the failure of one small player would not have seemed such a blow.

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    Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

    Chalmers’ ‘new growth model’ lacking on the supply side

    Jim Chalmers is right to say that Australia cannot draw an “artificial distinction between our prosperity and our security”. It has been a theme of The Australian Financial Review’s since our 2022 Business Summit.

    • The AFR View

    April

    PsiQuantum has received a grant of almost $1 billion.

    Quantum a better bet than burning a billion on solar panels

    But even if this is the right place to deploy such a huge sum, we know too little about whether this was the best way to spend it.

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    The Australian Financial Review Magazine

    BOSS Financial Review

    Katerina Lamb, owner and director of The World Of, a luxury events company, at bills in Darlinghurst, Sydney.

    Life & Leisure

    Short, steep and with a wall at one end and a perilous drop at the other, the runway at Lukla’s airport isn’t for the faint-hearted.

    Rich List

    Claire Morris founded Prezzee with Matt Hoggett.