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    Opinion

    The AFR View

    May

    Donald Trump remains without contrition after his conviction.

    A felon in the White House should raise alarm

    Donald Trump’s criminal conviction may not be fatal in America’s upside-down politics. But to the rest of the world it will matter a lot.

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    Gerry Harvey, Jack Cowin and John Van Lieshout have been on the Rich List for decades.

    Ageing Rich Listers approach wealth dispersal watershed

    Forty-five of the 200 Rich List entries, holding about $140 billion in wealth, are aged over 80.

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    Lendlease chief executive Tony Lombardo’s plan to offload the developer’s empire has been well received by investors.

    Global expansion vision survives Lendlease exit

    It’s a myth that Australian companies don’t do well overseas. Yet, it is hard not to be disappointed at this ebbing of an Australian company with vision in its blood from the start.

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    Husic’s corporate tax call revives Hawke-Keating Labor spirit

    Rather than have his office rebuke his cabinet colleague for comments made at the Summit, the treasurer should start making the pro-business and pro-worker case for reform.

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    Australian universities have vigorously competed in the global war for academic research talent to boost their standing in global rankings.

    Populism aside, questions hang over universities’ foreign student trade

    The political risk confronting universities’ lucrative international students trade raises questions about their business model and the benefits for higher education.

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    Qld’s 50¢ bus fares are a desperate political gimmick

    Cutting public transport fares to 50¢ is another ratcheting up of a fiscally irresponsible political culture that expects governments to endlessly buy votes.

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    The ICC has applied for an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    ICC loses its moral bearings over Israel and Gaza

    An each-way bet on the ICC’s war crimes charges against Israel adds to the incoherence of Labor’s position amid a fraying of the social fabric of multicultural Australia.

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    Fewer migrants won’t get more houses built.

    Cutting migrant intake is a soft target and dead-end strategy

    Reducing migration will just exacerbate the housing shortages it is trying to fix. Higher education will be the collateral damage.

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    Britain’s July 4 election could trigger a Labour landslide.

    What will fill the Tory-shaped hole in British politics?

    Just as in Anthony Albanese’s blue-collar rhetoric, Brexit has pushed Keir Starmer’s Labour away from Tony Blair’s post-class modernisation and globalism.

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    Madeleine King.

    The cold war for Australia’s critical minerals future

    Despite signalling Labor’s support for aligning with the US on economic security, Madeleine King is likely to want to keep the Chinese investment spigot open.

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    From euphoria to subsidies to kick-start the next great mining hopes

    An Australian mining industry more used to being threatened by super-profit tax raids is being offered handouts to kick-start its way into the low carbon era.

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    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan for defeating Hamas and for post-war Gaza is now a source of internal political division within Israel.

    Hamas’ defeat, helping Ukraine win, best for West

    The sooner Israel defeats Hamas, the better. And also the sooner the US focuses attention on helping Ukraine win the war, the better.

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    Chalmers has made a big, bold gamble on inflation, risking the living standards of millions, while Dutton’s rhetoric is bigger than the reality on immigration.

    Budget and reply add up to a bad week for Australian prosperity

    Both major parties are failing to meaningfully engage with the centrist growth agenda of incentive-sharpening policy reform and mostly disciplined macro policy that provided the foundation for Australia’s three decades of prosperity.

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    Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton are both throwing out easy answers to complex problems.

    Budget kicks off a populist election season

    The housing crisis demonstrates how both major parties insist there are easy answers where none exist.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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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    The Australian Financial Review Magazine

    BOSS Financial Review

    Three-time Olympic gold medallist Grant Hackett.

    Life & Leisure

    A hat to spark joy as well as protect you from the sun? The Gisela sunhat, $195, is just the ticket.

    Rich List

    Simon and Tah-nee Beard, the founders of Culture Kings.