This Month
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Budget kicks off a populist election season
The housing crisis demonstrates how both major parties insist there are easy answers where none exist.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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?
- Opinion
- Investing
Perpetual’s shrunken shadow casts a pall over public sharemarket
The shrinking of the active fund manager raises more questions about the future of public markets in a world of private alternatives.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
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.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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?
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.
- Opinion
- The AFR View
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.