When Tony Abbott promised to shed more than 13,000 full time jobs from the public service there was a deafening silence from the Australian business community about the impact of job loss on Canberra communities and families. Likewise, you could hear crickets when Campbell Newman sacked 10,000 teachers, nurses and other Queensland public servants.

Now that the tram war has finally been won, it is probably time to get back to arguing about renewable energy again. Regardless of whether the Canberra Liberals stick with their new-found support for the ACT’s 100 per cent renewables target or not, the hard right in the Federal Coalition has already made it clear

The ACT election result is further proof that Australian conservatives have a tin ear. Either that, or because they spend so much time telling voters scary stories about taxes and public debt that there is simply no time to listen to what the voters are really want. First published by the Australian Financial Review –

Does the Prime Minister think ACT energy policy is visionary or vapid?  First published in the Australian Financial Review – here Australian policy debate is like a drunken mob looking for a spilt pint to fight over. Even before South Australia’s lights came back on the culture warriors were out blaming wind turbines for causing

Successful investors let their winning bets run while quickly cutting their losses. But while the strategy of “spreading your bets” and “failing fast” might work for venture capitalists, it doesn’t work well for prime ministers. A chief executive that shuts down an underperforming factory is decisive; a PM who abandons Tasmania or regional Western Australia is divisive.

First published in the Australian Financial Review – here. For the past decade the 10 per cent of the business community that profits from causing climate change has made 90 per cent of the noise about the dangers of introducing effective climate policy. But now, as the market cap of the mining sector has withered

The ultimate irony of neoliberalism is that the buck no longer stops. It just keeps going and going. The company at the heart of #censusfail, IBM, was once paid more than $1 billion to deliver what started out as a $6 million contract to upgrade the Queensland Health Department’s payroll system. For decades we have

First published in the Australian Financial Review – Here The first order of business for the Turnbull government when Parliament returns next week is to cut the dole for new recipients from $263.80 to $259.40 per week. That is less than the tax free allowance politicians receive for each night they spend in Canberra. It

If Arrium Steel closes in Whyalla around 8000 people in a town of 22,000 will be looking for work. On average, of every 100 Australians who lose their jobs 30 will still be looking for a new one 12 months later. Unfortunately, the average is much higher when job losses are concentrated in a particular

The folk who predicted the carbon price would give us $100 legs of lamb, that China’s demand for coal would keep rising, and that NSW would run out gas are at it again. Wind energy, we are now told, is ruining the economy. Run for the hills! (First published in the Australian Financial Review – Here)

The Business Council of Australia and the Liberal party just lost a debate with Bill Shorten about the economy. Badly. The days where expensive suits and even more expensive modelling were enough to win a public debate about “what the economy needs” are over. The days where newspaper editors could shift votes are over. The days where governments can deliver unpopular

Britain will now decide which Germans can invest in, or travel to, the UK and the circumstances in which they can do so.  The Brexit decision provides clear evidence of the tension within conservative politics between strident nationalism and economic rationalism. And as the business community is discovering, there are enormous economic risks when conservatives

It is hard for the benefits of a company tax cut to “trickle down” to workers when employer groups insist on building dams to capture the gains for themselves, writes Richard Denniss. First published on The Drum – here. The Turnbull Government’s claim that a company tax cut will trickle down to benefit workers rests

It is hard to claim a mandate for something you barely mention, but just as the Turnbull government has stopped talking about the Australian Building and Construction Commission, the business community has now made a TV advertisement for the company tax cuts that, wait for it, doesn’t mention the company tax cuts. It wasn’t meant to be

After three long weeks of election campaigning neither the Prime Minister nor the Treasurer has explained how the $48 billion centrepiece of their “economic plan” will be funded. Sure, they love being asked about it, as such questions allow them to say “jobs and growth” a lot. But the actual answer is yet to pass their

The centrepiece of the Turnbull government’s ‘plan’ for the economy, and its plan to win the upcoming election, is based on some heroic assumptions. There is no strong evidence to support the government’s claim that cutting the company tax rate will boost “jobs and growth”. And there is no strong evidence that the public will

As Transfield Services found out last year, governments don’t just outsource service delivery, they outsource political risk. And while Scott Morrison was promoted from immigration minister to Treasurer because of his “success” in “stopping the boats”, he left the Belgiorno-Nettis family, Diane Smith-Gander and Transfield Services shareholders to take the heat and pay the price. Well played, Scott. Politicians

When other people get pay rises, do you feel discouraged from working? If the Australian Taxation Office stopped BHP or Google from using tax havens, would your firm be less likely to invest in its own expansion? In a bizarre twist on behavioural economics, Treasurer Scott Morrison seems to think individuals and companies are motivated

Sunlight, it is said, is the best disinfectant. But despite the fact that markets can only work well when they are well informed, some in the Australian investment community remain convinced that disclosing their exposure to risky investments is a chore they would rather avoid. Take ANZ for example. In 2014 and 2015 motions were

The ruling mantra once was user pays, but now laws requiring mining companies to clean up their mess are derided. Where have all the economic rationalists gone? Back in the 1980s and ’90s most conservative politicians and businesspeople were obsessed with expanding the “user pays principle” to all areas of government service, but these days you

First published by the Australian Financial Review – here Economic modelling is like a meth lab, it can make you rich or blow up in your face. And like cooking meth, economic modelling gets more dangerous when it is done fast by those new to the industry. But despite the dangers, and the fact he

First published in the Australian Financial Review – here.  The only thing that Paul Keating likes about conservative economic policy is implementing it. Last week, with trade mark cut-through, he was back to his favourite trick of visibly attacking the right while strategically undermining the left. For decades Keating has stood tall in the crowd by taking the

First published by the Australian Financial Review – here.  Economic models are like skin care products: the magic is all in the marketing. Just as honest dermatologists regularly remind consumers that expensive face creams are just “hope in a jar”, honest economists regularly remind politicians and journalists that the “results” of macroeconomic modelling are no more reliable than