Opinions
July 2024
Australian workers’ living standards have been destroyed – and there is little good news ahead
Over the next few weeks, the Reserve Bank will ponder just how strong the economy is.
Two-thirds of Democrats want Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race. It’s time he listened
The cracks beneath US President Joe Biden’s feet continue to widen. While the shock of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump seemed like it might relieve some of the pressure on Biden, the story of his viability as both president and candidate continues to feed on itself. Ever since his disastrous debate performance against Trump
Renewable hydrogen: Superpower, or green mask for fossil super villains?
My children are aged three and four. They love anything with super powers – Spiderman, vampires, Paw Patrol, everything.
Should Australia ban fossil fuel advertising?
A tobacco-style ban on fossil fuel advertising would be a decisive win for Australia – and the climate.
A bloodied, defiant Trump could become the defining image of the US election
The shots fired at Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday are being investigated as an assassination attempt of the former president and current Republican presidential nominee. Assassination attempts on presidents and presidential nominees are littered throughout American history. What happened in Pennsylvania is horrifying, but sadly not surprising. I’ve been really struck by how
Understanding the Future Made in Australia
The Albanese Government’s industrial policy framework – the Future Made in Australia Act (FMAA) – has finally been unveiled.
Why Queensland is Miles ahead of the game
Canberra doesn’t really have a fossil fuel industry, which perhaps explains why we lead the country in decarbonising our economy.
Value for money? The princely salaries of private school principals
While public school funding lags, principals of private schools are paid up to four times their state system counterparts.
History shows American political violence is nothing new: Thomas Jefferson said ‘the blood of patriots’ is liberty’s ‘natural manure’
If you select “virtually any date in US history, it would be possible to find the same poisonous ingredients [… that] percolated violently to the surface on January 6th, 2021,” writes journalist and historian Nick Bryant in his new book, The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict with Itself. Over two centuries ago, in 1787, Thomas Jefferson,
June 2024
Muddled answers and outright lies: what the Biden-Trump debate says about the dire state of US politics
There are no parallels for the first debate of the 2024 US presidential election cycle.
As the Coalition goes nuclear, Labor is free to ensure fossil fuels are burned with abandon and little scrutiny
The sham of Australia’s climate change policy has been made clear in the past two weeks.
Why the US government’s pursuit of Julian Assange was becoming both damaging and untenable
Today, in a surprise development likely weeks in the planning, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was able to leave the United Kingdom for the first time in more than a decade after reaching a plea deal with the US government.
Bring out yer dead! Amid nuke hype Tanya Plibersek approves Gina Rinehart’s gas pipeline
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has just approved a new coal seam gas pipeline in Queensland.
Households are hurting. Savings are weak. The future’s uncertain. Is a rate cut near?
The Reserve Bank’s decision to keep rates steady reinforced that the economy at this moment remains one with both good and bad signs, and the RBA governor, Michele Bullock, is refreshingly upfront about the difficulties.
Obsessing over the inflation rate misses one key point: the economy is more than just how fast prices are rising
Over the past few weeks some economists and commentators have become rather obsessed and unhinged about Australia’s inflation rate.
Machiavelli would have known what to do about PwC
Today, the name of Niccolò Machiavelli is a byword for cynicism and hunger for power, but there was one profession so parasitic and selfish even he could not stomach it.
Australia is on the brink of recession. So why does the RBA think we are spending too much?
The latest GDP figures reveal that the RBA has got its wish of an economy growing so slowly that it teeters on the edge of a recession.
For a robust democracy, we need a working anti-corruption system and truth in political advertising
Transparency, integrity and accountability were buzzwords of the 2024 state election, yet Tasmanians went to the polls without knowing where their politicians get their money, without laws requiring truth in political advertising, and without an anti-corruption body that is fit for purpose.
What Donald Trump’s fiery reaction to his conviction says about this moment in US politics
In the week leading up to the conviction delivered in a Manhattan courtroom on Friday, right-wing media was focused on Donald Trump’s innocence.
May 2024
The Assange litmus test and the fight to shape a future Trump administration
Who would have thought that the legal and personal travails of Julian Assange, the Australian citizen whom US authorities are invested in prosecuting and jailing for the rest of his life without deep consideration of his fundamental rights, would become a lightning rod for former President Trump’s re-election hopes?
‘Sticky’ inflation is not falling – but it’s not rising, either. Why should that mean another RBA rate hike?
The latest inflation figures released on Wednesday showed that inflation is “sticky” and is no longer falling at the pace it was earlier this year.
Does leave for menstruation and menopause advance women’s rights and gender equality at work?
As pressure grows for action to establish new work rights, including additional leave, for those who experience menstruation and menopause, the Centre for Future Work’s Senior Researcher, Lisa Heap, canvases the debate about whether these rights will advance gender equality at work.
NDS needs reality, not imagination
The 2024 National Defence Strategy (NDS) looks more like the impactless pronouncements of consultants’ “decks” than a persuasive guide to the government’s security plans for the next decade or two.
Can Jim Chalmers ‘buy’ a reduction to inflation?
While money can’t buy everything, the Australian Government can ‘buy’ a lower Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Raising jobseeker is not ‘fiscally sustainable’? Sorry, but that is flat out wrong
On Monday the Productivity Commission released its snapshot of inequality report.
The great greenwashing myth being sold to Australians
Nobody likes to be hoodwinked, but that’s what big companies are essentially doing when they engage in greenwashing – giving consumers the false impression they have business practices that help the environment instead of harming it.
Australians have lost 14 years of progress on living standards. A wages breakout? Please. If only
Remember all that talk about wage-price spirals? About wages driving inflation? All that worry about a wages breakout causing interest rates to rise? Ahh yes, good times.
Australia budget 2024: the six graphs you need to see
A bigger surplus this year and a bit bigger deficit next year! Does it matter?
Fossil fuel subsidies make government priorities clear
If Australia is to use and produce more fossil fuels than we are now, the rest of our climate policy amounts to tinkering at the edges, writes Rod Campbell.
Video: Future Gas Strategy with Richard Denniss
It’s hard to believe in 2024 we still have Governments pretending we need to expand fossil fuel production to “help tackle climate change”.
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