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.

While money can’t buy everything, the Australian Government can ‘buy’ a lower Consumer Price Index (CPI).

On Monday the Productivity Commission released its snapshot of inequality report.

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.

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.

A bigger surplus this year and a bit bigger deficit next year! Does it matter?

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.

It’s hard to believe in 2024 we still have Governments pretending we need to expand fossil fuel production to “help tackle climate change”.

“Mandatory and coordinated accreditation would allow workers to have their skills recognised, boost job satisfaction and make the industry more attractive as a long-term career.

“The Aged Care Royal Commission has been crystal clear about the need for these reforms. It’s beyond time to deliver them.”

With the Future Gas Strategy, government policy has entered a backward land where logic is reversed, writes Stephen Long.

It seems that some people really want a recession.

It is often said that the only way to reduce inflation is by higher interest rates. That’s not true – the government can also reduce inflation and cost of living pressures

Spreading fear about inflation not falling fast enough distorts the true picture

If the government decided to make raising Jobseeker a priority in the Budget it would not talk about not being able to afford it, writes Greg Jericho.

Details released by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Official Information Act reveal New Zealand officials have been considering involvement in AUKUS from the outset.

Can you imagine Qatar or Saudi Arabia panicking about a gas or oil shortage?

In April 2022, conservative American think tank the Heritage Foundation, working with a broad coalition of 50 conservative organisations, launched Project 2025: a plan for the next conservative president of the United States.

Despite what the fearmongers would have you believe, the latest inflation figures showed that inflation remains well under control.

When big questions about American foreign policy collide with an election, it’s rarely good news for a sitting president.

Last week Anthony Albanese finally announced the government’s major plan for the transition to a renewable energy economy.

Private schools are competing to see who can boast the most luxurious accoutrements, and the tax-deductions they can claim on constructing buildings are helping them do it. The Scots College is awaiting construction of its new library, which will resemble a Scottish Baronial castle. At one point, they had a hypoxic chamber for altitude simulation sports training. Newington College

You can’t prevent people from having bad ideas and you can’t prevent people from talking about their bad ideas.

As President Joe Biden walked along the West Colonnade of the White House with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kushida this week, a reporter shouted a question: Did he have a response to Australia’s request that he end Julian Assange’s prosecution?

Watch Dr Emma Shortis’ address to ‘Night Falls In The Evening Lands: The Assange Epic’ at RMIT University, Melbourne, on 9th March 2024.

Australians are hurting from rate rises more than anyone. But that doesn’t mean the Reserve Bank is about to start cutting.

The NSW Labor Government took office promising to create a vast koala sanctuary on the state’s mid-north coast – the Great Koala National Park. Despite the threat of koala extinction in the state, more than a year later the Great Koala National Park is yet to be established. 

The Right to Disconnect legislation being passed recently has attracted criticism from Opposition leader Peter Dutton and business groups, who say it’s bad for productivity. They may need to learn some basic maths, because they couldn’t be more wrong. Centre for Future Work Director Dr Jim Stanford explains. Research indicates the average Australian worker performs

We are now a month away from the 2024-25 budget. And as with all budgets, the choices made matter much more than any big numbers that get the media attention.

While last year’s robodebt royal commission exposed a shocking lack of ethics among senior ranks of the Australian public service, the systemic condition still largely seems to be regarded as an aberration.

Budget, Julia Gillard rightly said, are about choices. And those choices are a lot more important than whether or not the budget is in surplus or deficit