Economy

The political class is on a collision course with the punters they are elected to represent over the issue of population growth, because they are failing to engage the public in a meaningful, mature debate.

While the major political parties have signed up to the official long-term projections of 36 million by 2050, the public overwhelmingly thinks that’s way too many. In response, the politicians bat on with the reflexive response “There is No Alternative”.

This dissonance highlights much that is wrong with our political system. It also opens up big opportunities for both the extreme Right and the environmental Left over the coming years.

Continue reading "Tell us again why we need population growth" »

Can you believe today’s jobs figures? I don’t like the odds of the Government being able to resist another day of Barnaby bashing with that economic indicator under its belt.

Ahhh, now we get it. Lindsay Tanner is smarter than that “freak show” Barnaby Joyce.

In case we didn’t get the message in parliament last week (we can be a bit slow sometimes) Mr Tanner spelled it out again on Meet the Press on the weekend. Not only is Senator Joyce “off the planet”, his team mate Joe Hockey is a “lightweight”.

Yesterday in parliament he repeated the lesson again for those who’d wagged the last one or drifted off while doodling on our pencil cases. Mr Hockey is “out to lunch”, and again he filled us in on Barnaby. According to Mr Tanner, Senator Joyce is evidence of “a very big question mark over the leader of the opposition’s judgment for appointing him in the first place.”

For someone who’s so much smarter than his counterpart, Mr Tanner seems to have skipped the chapter in Politics for Dummies called “Australians don’t like smug politicians who reckon they’re smarter than everyone else.”

Continue reading "Political snobs risk turning Barnaby into a martyr" »

There’s quite a menagerie in the stock market petting zoo. You’ve got your bulls, your bears and the occasional stag. Until now, though, you’ve never had PIGS.

In the past week, the PIGS have run rampant, trampling markets and joining CDO and CDS as acronyms guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of investors. Like collateralised debt obligations and credit default swaps – those complex financial instruments that fuelled the GFC – anyone with shares needs to keep an eye on the PIGS.

Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain – collectively, and unkindly, derided as the PIGS – are in a fair degree of financial pain. All of them have budget deficits of more than 10 per cent of GDP, which experts reckon they will struggle to finance on wary international bond markets.

Continue reading "PIGS - the acronym that might fry your portfolio" »

The Rudd Government claims to be superior in economic management. How so?

The real reason Australia did better than most developed countries in the recent financial crisis was that the Coalition had by 2006 repaid the $96 billion debt run up by Labor, left a $5 billion Education fund, a $60 billion Future Fund and a $22 billion surplus!

Add to this a virtually strike free environment, whereby employment grew, wages grew and exports grew.

Continue reading "Who’s the real economic freak show?" »

Well what can I say about the first parliamentary week as shadow finance minister?

Tony wanted a speech and I delivered it at the Press Club. It would not have mattered if the speech had categorically disproved the theory of relativity, the issue would be the slip and when the question came where I had to, on my feet and in my head, quickly add up Labor party expenditure via MYEFO for the next four years, I said billion when I should have said trillion.

In that split second my head said trillion my heart said you have got to be joking that is enormous. My head was right but the result is for all to see on YouTube.

Continue reading "Freak show? At least Barnaby didn’t blow the budget" »

This week’s release of the 2010 Intergenerational Report by Treasurer Wayne Swan brought the issue of mature-age workers rightly into the spotlight.

Few issues are as important to our nation’s future as responding to the long-term trend of an ageing population. 

It was therefore disappointing to see the inflammatory response of Coalition Seniors spokesperson Bronwyn Bishop claiming that the Government was demonising older people and forcing them to work until they drop.

Continue reading "Work while you can, but not ‘til you drop" »

Taxation reform as a political issue may not float many people’s boat but in an election year it promises to be as entertaining as a day in the life of Jack Bauer. We have two political leaders - Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott - who are equally unconvincing on the economy and who must grapple with a political hot potato.

The Rudd Government will soon respond to the final report of Australia’s Tax System Review Panel. The Panel, headed by Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, will recommend the most comprehensive reform of the tax system in a generation.

Taxation reform is a policy challenge more complex than quantum mechanics.  Australia’s existing tax system has outdated Commonwealth-State financial arrangements and effective marginal tax rates that discourage people on welfare from participating in the workforce. Australia also faces significant economic challenges that are intimately related to the taxation system, such as an over-reliance on mining for national wealth; an aging population; and the need to reduce the carbon output of the economy.

Continue reading "Tax reform: It’s a lot like 24, only in years" »

My first offering to The Punch for 2010 – and it’s a puff piece!  Gena Karpf makes great, sweet puffy marshmallows. Fruity flavoured marshmallows, chocolate flavoured marshmallows, pretty much any sort of marshmallow you could imagine really.

Anyone who sees the swooning effect that Meryl Streep’s goodies have on Steve Martin in this summer’s hit movie It’s Complicated will get my drift.

Gena’s shop SWEETNESS: The Patisserie is two doors down from my new Electorate Office in Epping.

Continue reading "A sweet deal for small business" »

In the wake of the Copenhagen anti-climax there’s been a political vacuum in climate change politics.

The expectations were enormous at the UN summit and the talks collapsed into rhetorical justifications by Kevin Rudd, Barack Obama and other world leaders as China and India flexed their muscles.

At home last week, the Greens tried to step in and fill that vacuum and reassert themselves in what is a bedrock issue for them.

Continue reading "Why Rudd would rather talk economics than environment" »

There is nothing new in the mid summer sermons of Prime Minister Rudd as he meanders across the Australian continent.

The fact that health expenses are rising faster than inflation is not a revelation it is simply a well known fact. Neither is it new that the population is ageing. This simply means that people are living longer and healthier lives and is a cause for celebration, not morbid prognostications.

What is new is that Mr Rudd is blaming older Australians for the cost blowout.

Continue reading "Blaming the elderly is a tired old argument, Kevin" »

Tomorrow might be the official national holiday but today will be a mass celebration of a great Australian institution as hundreds of thousands of workers call in sick.

Up to half a million workers are expected to chuck a sickie, voting themselves an extra day off. Even if you’re the conscientious type and decide to rock up to work today, it’s only a four-day week. Wouldn’t it be great if every week was like that?

Well for many workers it could be, with no loss of productivity plus the benefits of reduced energy consumption, lower carbon emissions, less congestion on the roads and more time for family and leisure. The key is extending the four working days to 10 hours, so all the work still gets done. And one US state has proved it can work.

Continue reading "Enjoy a sickie? There could be four-day weeks for life" »

Many of us are aware that there’s a desperate shortage of organ donation in Australia.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that thousands have died on waiting lists.

And yet we still have one of the lowest donation rates in the developed world.

Continue reading "How much would you sell your organs for?" »

Global economics rarely moves as fast as it has over the last twelve months. Inflation genie, global financial crisis and now, just eight months later, the interest rate rises are back. So was Australia’s providential passage through the economic storm the product of great economic management, a fortuitous escape or just an expensive hoax?

Up until now mainstream media have almost exclusively subscribed to the first theory.  Slowly some commentators are arriving at the second. Ultimately it is likely to be proven to be the third.

The “never waste a crisis” mentality of politicians means that overreaction is always rewarded.

Continue reading "Doomsayers are doomed to be proven wrong" »

Ok so you’d never call them fashionable. And they’re really time-consuming.

You feel guilty when you get them from people you never see and they’re definitely not good for the environment.

But can we please not get rid of giving Christmas cards? Especially the ones that come with a yearly update and family photo stapled to the inside.

Continue reading "Keeping Christmas real" »

At first blush today’s employment figures are an early Christmas present for the federal government. Some 30,000 jobs were created in November and the unemployment rate, against expectations, crept downwards by the tiniest of notches.

But there won’t be any champagne popping in the Cabinet room. There’s a worrying trend beneath the figures: the mining states, which you’d assume are leading Australia’s unexpected economic performance, are actually shedding jobs. It’s the states in the southeast - previously the laggards - where the jobs are being created.

So [the run-up] to Christmas Eve will be a nervous one for Kevin Rudd. Santa could be preparing a big sack of trouble to chuck down his chimney in the form of the national accounts which come out on December 24 16 and should give a clearer indication of any weak spots in the economy.

Continue reading "The one Christmas present Kevin Rudd doesn’t need" »

As a child, my parents read to me the classic childhood tale of the boy who cried wolf, a tale that cautions against repeatedly claiming danger when there is none.

Last year, businesses throughout the world experienced danger associated with the global financial crisis.  The risk of a catastrophic collapse of confidence was very real and to the credit of the Australian Government, and other governments around the world, there was quick action to restore investor confidence.  The stimulus package might not have been perfect, nor was it always directed in the best way possible, but it did its job.

But if you have been listening to the banks of late, you might get the sense the crisis has not passed, that profitability is under grave threat and that interest rate margins are too low. I dispute this.

Continue reading "OK banks, you’ve had your fun with interest rates" »

It’s time for a hard conversation about money. Some Australians, it seems, have literally bet their houses on interest rates staying at the current record lows.

There’s a stock-standard way of reporting the outcome of a Reserve Bank meeting in which the board decides to leave the target cash rate unchanged. You’ll have heard it on radio: “Homeowners can breathe a sigh of relief after the RBA left interest rates on hold”.

But with interest rates as low as they are, any homeowner who is really holding their breath waiting for the RBA decision these days is, quite simply, living beyond their means.

Continue reading "If rate rises are hurting now, you need a smaller house" »

Research indicates that many lottery winners revert to their previous levels of happiness within a year of winning. Sometimes it’s a case of water finding its level and individuals returning to their normal state of contentment.

Other times, the money is blown on failed business ventures, opportunist gold digging relatives or the vulgar excesses that often accompany easy cash.  In such circumstances, it’s not uncommon for winners to end up worse off than before they won.

Two years ago the Federal government had money in the bank. Howard and Costello had built up a massive buffer of savings to pay for an ageing population, retired the entire Commonwealth debt and budgeted for - if not already delivered - eight years of income tax cuts.

Continue reading "What will we do when the fastcash euphoria is over?" »

What a huge news week it was last week. Sabi the dog came home. Tiger Woods fever gripped the country, and like Ol’ Man River our Australian economy keeps just keep rolling along.

With apologies to Tiger I know we’re not out of the woods yet and nobody’s taking the hands off the wheel, but it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on our achievement as a nation.

Last week’s jobs figures came in at 5.8%. 670,000 unemployed Australians is too many and we expect that unemployment will continue to rise in the coming months. But the community resilience in the face of this threat has been fantastic.

Continue reading "Bennelong, where jobs prove the stimulus is working" »

In identifying the most revolutionary discovery or invention in human history we are confronted with a bewildering choice: from fire and the wheel, through to electricity, nuclear fission and the silicon chip. But one stands out. Simple in conception and design, but revolutionary in its impact – the printing press.

The Gutenberg bible, the first book printed with moveable type only 570 years ago, opened up the written word to all of humanity. It forced open the closed books of religion; it empowered discovery and research.

Just imagine a world without books and literacy. We would have no internet. Our knowledge would be limited to that which had been passed on by friends or acquaintances, or by those in power – be they religious or secular. For this was the world before the printing press.

Continue reading "More expensive books are a tragedy for us all" »

In a choice between the life of a cute, fuzzy orang-utan and tighter food labelling regulations, who’d be surprised if the orang-utan won?

It’s what Melbourne Zoo is betting on in their campaign to have Food Standards Australia New Zealand regulate palm oil to be labelled as a separate ingredient on groceries.

Melbourne Zoo’s campaign is predicated on concerns that the developing country farmers aren’t doing enough to stop deforestation and the loss of habitat for orang-utans in their quest to keep themselves above the poverty line. And the solution is a misguided campaign to stop Aussies and Kiwis buying palm oil.

Continue reading "Poor palmed off by a load of old monkeys" »

Whatever the reason, Kevin Rudd can take no comfort from today’s Newspoll showing a seven-point turnaround in the standing of Labor and the Coalition in the past fortnight. The poll comes as political strategist and Punch regular Peter Lewis writes today that a majority of Australians thinks Rudd is weak on border protection, according to the latest Essential Media findings.

The PM’s nightmare scenario is that there are three factors at play - disapproval at his “tough but fair” line on asylum seekers, disquiet over his economic management ahead of today’s dead-cert interest rate hike, and a sign that some voters are growing tired of the hitherto unassailable Teflon Kevin.

Unless the Newspoll is a blip, Labor is facing the almost unbelievable prospect of a nail-biter election with a two-party preferred lead of 52 to 48 over the Coalition. We’ll throw the commentary to you - what’s your take on it?

There may be discussions that the financial crisis is over. This, I believe, is premature, because the fundamental aspects that create economic instability are still present.

Right from the outset it should be stated that a domestic stimulus package for the Australian economy, an economy which earns its money from the export of agriculture and minerals and which spins around the money by the provision of services, will not be assisted by personal expenditure in imported plasma screens and sound systems and the construction of school halls. The outcome of the stimulus expenditure does not proportionally increase the aggregate size of the economy. Any benefit is far outweighed by the extensive leverage to which our nation is exposed.

If we imagine the Australian economy as an Australian family household, the debt has brought new plasma screens, ceiling insulation and a new coloured phone but the house remains the same size, the same value and no one in the house is earning more money because of the expenditure.

Continue reading "How many plasma TVs does one country really need?" »

Everyone in Australia knows that books cost a whole lot more than they should.

The absurdity in the debate about whether to make books cheaper is that politicians who will make the final decision – some of whom are beating their chests about our cultural heritage – are voting with their mice and buying books online from cheaper online retailers overseas.

Our website The Punch is surveying the nation’s MPs about their media consumption, including the use of new media, the type of technology they use, and how they buy movies, music and books.

Continue reading "Book debate is absurd when we’re buying them overseas" »

What a lovely recession we’re having. Or not having.

This morning’s GDP numbers were supposed to reveal the recession was a close run thing, with only a handful of flat-screen TVs and school gyms keeping the economy going in the right direction.

But 0.6 per cent growth in one quarter would be pretty tidy in a normal year, let alone the year after the greatest global financial meltdown in generations.

Continue reading "What Recession?" »

While the Government is keen to demonstrate it must carry out its planned path of stimulus spending, there’s a lot of grumbling about an apparent spending freeze the Prime Minister has put on the public service.

In an effort to cut down on spending post-stimulus the Rudd Government has practically put a complete stop to any new funding for programs not already budgeted for.

The Punch has learnt that any Minister or their department wishing to get extra funding now needs to go through the Prime Minister’s Office - and the answer there is going to be no.

Continue reading "Rudd’s secret spending freeze: no soup for you" »

Australia’s momentary brush with recession is over. After less than twelve months we are now leading the world out of what was meant to be the crash of the century.

For a year, we have scratched our heads at the demise of others, cowered from the collapse that never came and frolicked with hand-outs. Just as we all had our glasses out for another free drink, suddenly it’s time to clean up after the party, count the debt and pay it off.

The world’s economies move like a cycling pack; uneventful until someone takes a fall.

Continue reading "The Rudd-free account of how we dodged the downturn" »

Of all the silly moments in his career, Sylvester Stallone’s turn in Demolition Man as a good-cop-turned-bad who is incarcerated, cryogenically frozen and then thawed out to fight his nemesis, serial killer Wesley Snipes, must rank as the high point of Sly’s cinematic stupidity.

There is however one accidentally prescient moment in the movie - in the futuristic dystopia of Los Angeles, a war within capitalism has left Taco Bell as the last corporation standing.

Substitute the word Woolworths for Taco Bell and you could film Demolition Man II in Australia. On current projections, by 2015 Woolies will have bought the NRL and AFL, the excellent Lebanese food chain Brothers Kebabs and the popular rock bands Powderfinger and The Veronicas.

Continue reading "Our dirty secret: we actually love massive supermarkets" »

When entrepreneurs or the bosses of industrial giants are deciding where to spend their money, it’s a fair bet they’re not asking which country has the cleverest marketing slogan.

Trade Minister Simon Crean is looking for ideas for a new “brand” for Australia. He’s arguing that we need to be more like New Zealand.

With respect to the Kiwis and their “100% Pure” branding exercise, slogans and slick logos are not the key drivers of success in the global economy.

Continue reading "Here’s a marketing idea: just run the country really well" »

In Adelaide we worry a lot. A mall, trams, grandstands, hospitals even roundabouts cause hours of debate. However, nothing winds us up more than someone criticising our city. We’re so defensive.

Sometimes I think we get so outraged because secretly we worry that Adelaide may actually be a backwater.

Often the “solution” that is put forward is to build an iconic building such as a tower or a fantastic or unusual museum. These are all great ideas – we should build more unusual and more controversial buildings. Interesting buildings give a city character. I like buildings that have gardens down the side and on the roof. It would be great to see some of them.

Continue reading "Is Adelaide the most insecure city in Australia?" »

There’s a quiet revolution going on in the suburban backyards of Australia. 

Rather than sitting back and admiring our perfectly manicured “outside rooms”, gazing lovingly at our mondo grass, perfectly coiffed hedges of murraya, buxus or newly acquired rows of trendy agaves, we are choosing to head outside armed with buckets of kitchen scraps, water collected from baths and showers while we attempt to figure out where we should build a chicken coop, locate the veggie patch, compost heap and herb garden. 

Suffering a slow death (and not for lack of water) is the passive, over-structured garden.  Instead we are rediscovering how much fun it is to actually interact with Mother Nature and the vital lessons she has to impart to us and our children about nourishing ourselves and our environment.

Continue reading "Chooks and chokos are more fun than mondo grass" »

WHILE the Federal Government was quick to rule out speculation earlier this week that it was considering a capital gains tax on the family home, those reports would have sent a chill to the heart of many home-owners, particulary at a time when the International Monetary Fund is specifically advocating just such a tax.

And those who tend to scepticism - probably most of us - when it comes to such government “reassurances” may have derived little comfort from the denials. Especially as Treasurer Wayne Swan refuses to rule out the prospect of a tax on the rising value of family homes.

But what about the issue itself? Should we be outraged at the suggestion of a tax on this particular form of capital appreciation – particularly if it were to be levied, as has been suggested, only on the owners of the most expensive homes.

Continue reading "Should we pay capital gains tax on the family home?" »

Gosh it’s hard to keep up. Kevin Rudd is responsible for us surviving the worst of the Global Financial Crisis, but not responsible for the massive government debt we’ve racked up in the battle.

The Rudd government is close enough to China to get the $50 billion Gorgon Gas deal through, but not close enough to get Stern Hu an appointment with a lawyer.

What’s next - John Howard was responsible for interest rates going up, but Kevin Rudd was only responsible for interest rates coming down? What about when they go back up again?

(The Punch team will be discussing this and other issues with Federal Minister Anthony Albanese on Punch TV at 12.30pm today on Sky News).

Continue reading "After taking credit for good news, who’s to blame for bad" »

Oh the horror. If I could have slapped myself across the chops without it hurting, I would. Lord knows I deserved to.

Instead, I slammed the wardrobe doors in disgust, sat down on the bed littered with shoes, dresses, bags, belts and other crap I don’t need, and had a long, hard think about where it all went wrong – how I had found myself in a global economic crisis with what could have been a year off my mortgage in bits of fabric and leather tat.

I had not always been a label queen, nor had I ever aspired to be. As a young cadet journalist on newspapers, designer clothes were never a consideration or a possibility – not if I wanted to actually eat regularly.

Continue reading "More money than sense: go broke on fashion in the GFC" »

THERE are some stories that are so sad that they are almost impossible to read, some photographs that you cannot look at without choking up. The death of Dean Shillingsworth is such a story – the gorgeous two-year-old boy from one of the most impoverished suburbs in Sydney’s west, whose mother yesterday pleaded guilty to killing him and stuffing him into a suitcase which she threw into a duck pond.

The manner of Dean’s death goes beyond comprehension. You look at this kid in his Thomas the Tank Engine pyjamas and just shake your head in disbelief, and shed a tear that, maybe, he could have been one of the children who through the support of his extended family, or the attention of a dedicated public school teacher, could have found his way out of the dysfunctional mess he’d been born into.

That is obviously something that nobody will ever know.

Continue reading "Dean Shillingsworth and the people Australia forgot" »

In a world of escalating costs of living, ever-rising unemployment and fluctuating economies, one group stands to be hit harder than any other.

Unlike other groups, this one will not be publicised by media, found protesting or walking off the job, or be seen throwing in the towel any time soon. Instead, far from it, university students around Australia and indeed the world will continue to front classrooms every day, opening their minds to the knowledge and pathways available to secure a sustainable future free from debt and money woes.

But, just how hard is it to attend university and what financial impact can students expect to be facing both through their studies and at the completion of the educational yellow brick road as they begin their dream career?

Continue reading "It’s a myth that everyone has access to tertiary study" »

The Rudd Government’s latest health blueprint is a well-intentioned but ultimately futile attempt to manage a system that has become the unwitting tool of our quest for immortality.

No matter how well the system is managed, it will remain unsustainable so long as we expect it to keep us alive way after we have passed our personal use-by date.

As we await the barrage of Baby Boomers to enter old age and demand access to the life-sustaining machines that go ‘beep’, we should draw inspiration from the 1970s classic Logan’s Run and accept death is part of the deal.

Continue reading "The real health crisis - we’re all scared of death" »

Here’s a quiz for your readers. How many green jobs did Kevin Rudd announce at the Labor Party Conference and how many of them were new?

Many readers of the Punch could be forgiven for thinking they heard the Prime Minister promise to deliver 50 000 new green jobs.

Unfortunately like so many of the Government’s announcements about a large array of job creation and training programmes it pays to read the fine print.

Continue reading "Labor’s green jobs promise is a huge lie" »

In a speech to Young Labor seven months ago I said that generations were often unfairly criticised by the ones which preceded them.

The young adults of Generation Y are often generalised as being plagued by apathy and indifference.

They’re sometimes called lazy and ungrateful for the many perceived advantages they have over earlier generations.

Continue reading "My speech on Gen Y was about tough love" »

The world is entering a new dynamic which is merely a repetition of the recasting of the political, social and economic order that has happened for as long as man can write about it.

History is punctuated with the ebbs and flows of kingdoms, empires and political movements and the conflicts that are always apparent at the peripheries of influence that abuts competing interests. In the past, the cycle of influence was over, sometimes thousands and generally hundreds of years.

From the initial cultivation of land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and the Sumerian civilisation, to the Greeks, to the Romans, to the Qin Dynasty, the first imperial dynasty of the Chinese, to the British Empire, we notice that the rise and fall of empires accelerates as technology, personified by communications, military hardware, economic processes and other associated influences advances.

Continue reading "The real price of economic prosperity might be freedom" »

The Israeli political system is far from stable.  Robustly democratic sure. 

But since the advent of proportional voting for the Israeli Parliament - the Knesset - it has seen a revolving door of governments between Labor, the Likud and now Kadima, all having to govern in coalition with minor parties. 

Some would say that Israeli politicians and the Israeli public would wish for the stability that our voting system has delivered for a hundred years – but would they?
This may well be a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’. 
Because of the instability of the votes in the Knesset the government of Ehud Olmert failed to have their Budget passed by the Parliament for 2008-09. 

Continue reading "We’d be better off in Israel - they don’t need stimulus" »

More data today suggest the national economy is in a holding pattern. More than 21,000 people found themselves out of work in June, a rise of just 0.1 of a percentage point in the national unemployment figure.

The Reserve Bank cut interest rates to 3 per cent in April and hasn’t budged them since. And this week the Fair Pay Commission,  in defiance of the government and unions, effectively gave low-income earners a pay cut when it froze the minimum wage. The commission argued that it would cost jobs and, as Clive Mathieson pointed out this week, jobless people can’t help the economy as they have zero money to spend.

These consumer sentiment figures show that significantly more Australians are feeling upbeat rather than gloomy about the economy. This is despite a range of forecasts - from banks and the federal government - predicting significant job losses over the coming year.

The unemployment figure today was 5.8 per cent. The crystal ball-gazers say it’s heading for around 8 per cent. Clive also pointed out recently that economists’ predictions are often useless and change tack with the economic winds.

There may yet be some nasty surprises as cuts in business budgets for the new financial year, which started just eight days ago, start to bite. Today, though, I’d like to ask where you think the economy is heading over the next six months. Are we out of the woods yet?

CHINA is a huge country. Its landmass is 25 per cent bigger than Australia, its economy is 10 times larger, it has 60 times as many people and, I am led to be believe, significantly more BBQ duck restaurants.

Thankfully, Australia is still ahead in a few areas. We have more stars on our flag, we have won more cricket World Cups and, as developments in the past few weeks prove, we trounce the Chinese in corporate haggling.

Increasingly, Australian business is going to rub up against China. The People’s Republic is our No2 trading partner but is likely to regain the No1 slot from Japan this year or next. And Beijing’s “go global’’ directive, or zou chu qu, means China’s state-owned firms will continue to eye opportunities to join with, or buy outright, Australian companies.

Continue reading "China will have learned from failed mega-deal" »

It took me a while to realise it because usually, people who enter politics have some smarts and go in wanting to do what they believe is the right thing. They pursue policies they believe will make our country an even better place.

That is why I have been at a loss to understand how a group of people who promised us in the lead up to the last election that they were “economic conservatives” who “believed in surpluses” could turn a low unemployment surplus economy into one with rising job losses, record spending and historic debt levels.

Then it hit me – it is not that Labor can’t manage money – it is that they actually don’t want us to get ahead and have our own money.

Continue reading "Kevin Rudd doesn’t want you to have your own money" »

So we know the GFC is here. Many of us have lost our jobs, we’re all watching our superannuation shrink faster than we can top it up, and all of a sudden bling is out and understated is the new black.

But what does a nearly recession actually look like? The Team at the Punch has come up with our list of the 50 ways the Global Financial Crisis (it’s officially capped, you know), has changed Australia.

Some of them have hard numbers to back them up – others are a sniff of the wind, observations about changes in language and society. We welcome your suggestions.

1. We’re cooking at home. Woolworths has noticed a bump in sales of cooking staples such as eggs and butter, as well as increased demand for value cuts of meat (we’re making casseroles), and for cheaper Home Brand products.

Continue reading "Fifty ways the GFC has changed Australia" »

In early 2008 it seemed that the Australian economy could do no wrong.

Unemployment hit a low of 3.9% in February, GDP growth was strong and the prices of our exports were growing at unprecedented rates. Profits were up and consumers were spending.

The only dark cloud on the horizon was the increasingly poor performance of the US economy, which had gone into recession in November 2007, and some faraway problems in overseas banks and credit markets.

Our share market had hit a few minor hurdles after peaking in November 2007, but was still close to record highs after four years of double digit growth.

Continue reading "The GFC: How we got into this terrible mess" »

YOU’D expect the World Bank to employ some pretty top-notch economists. The body and its 10,000 staff - including a fair smattering of economists - are charged with spending tens of billions of dollars donated by member countries to lift the developing world out of poverty.

And to do that effectively, I suspect, you would need to have a pretty good grasp on what the world economy is actually doing.

In reality, however, the bank doesn’t seem to have a clue. Earlier this week the World Bank ``revised’’ its forecast for global GDP this year from a fall of 1.7 per cent to a fall of 2.9 per cent. With global economy worth roughly $85 trillion, that’s a $1 trillion ``revision’‘. It’s the equivalent of forgetting to include Australia - the world’s 14th biggest economy.

Continue reading "Economists are full of it and the IMF doesn’t have a clue" »

LEWIE Ranieri was one of the stars of Liar’s Poker, Michael Lewis’s fantastic expose of excess on Wall Street and in London in the 1980s.

At his best, the Salomon Bros trader, who pioneered the kind of mortgage-backed bonds that brought the financial system to its knees last year, was taking home somewhere between $US2m and $US5m a year. He famously owned more powerboats (five) than suits (four). He was, in the vernacular of the times, a big swinging dick. A master of the universe. A Gordon Gekko before Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas brought the fabulous rogue to life.

You didn’t get much more colourful or successful than Ranieri (who, incidentally, is still mooching around Wall Street as a fund manager). But, for anyone with more than a passing interest in matters financial, his salary, so celebrated at the time, now looks absurdly small. Telstra’s David Thodey, who’s running a regulated utility at the bottom of the planet and drives a Toyota Corolla, will earn more most years.

Continue reading "How did we end up with all these zeroes?" »

Anthony Albanese has become one frustrated little bunny.

The Coalition opposed Rudd Labor’s wild cash splash which will leave Australians in debt for a generation or more.

So Lord Albo has been angrily lashing out at any Nationals or Liberal MP who has the temerity not to oppose any Federal Government spending in their local areas.

Continue reading "The secret ingredient in Labor’s pork-barrelling" »

There aren’t many things that are more important than making sure someone has a job. If you want to fix inequality and social disadvantage in a community, if you want to give someone a leg-up in life, you find them a decent job.

For the Labor Party, jobs are in our DNA and that’s why it is such an honour to be sworn in today as the Federal Minister for Employment Participation.

Sadly we are confronted with the reality that this week a new set of unemployment figures will come out and they will probably show more Australians are out of work.

Continue reading "How the new jobs minister will help keep you employed" »

IT was stirring stuff from ACTU president Sharan Burrow this week: ``How can the CEO of Pacific Brands take home her salary while she sends 1850 workers and their families to the poverty of unemployment? Shame.’‘

You’d need a heart of stone not to feel something for the hundreds of workers likely to lose their jobs. And you wouldn’t be alone if you reserved a special kind of anger for the actions of Pacific Brands.

But, really, does Sue Morphet, the reviled chief executive of the company behind Bonds and Berlei, deserve all the blame?

Continue reading "Sue Morphet, Australian businesswoman of the year" »

Last week, one of my colleagues on the federal government backbench was asked at 7.30am at the doors of Parliament to cite the federal deficit forecast for 2009/2010. I know her to be one of the smarter new MPs in the Parliament with a very sharp eye for technical detail.

She was, however, unable to nominate that figure first thing in the morning. And for that sin, she appeared as a headline in that day’s political newsreels and the next day’s papers. The “Gotcha!” moment for politicians and economic data now has a rich history. Less clear is its contribution to the Australian political tapestry.

Continue reading "The rise and rise of gotcha journalism in politics" »

WELL, that’s a blow. The worst global financial crisis for two generations and Australia can’t even muster a decent recession.

This morning’s numbers, showing the economy grew - grew! - in the March quarter, provide disappointment for households that have traded down from Leconfield to Lindemans and for companies that have appeared a little too eager to wave the pink slips.

Were their budgetry sacrifices in vain?

Continue reading "What recession? It’s a pity we went and sacked everyone" »

IF you are an Australian in your early fifties and starting to think, however fleetingly, about retirement, the future you thought you had just changed dramatically.

In an aside in Wayne Swan’s Budget speech he announced the retirement age would be lifted by two years, to 67. There can’t be much that the Treasurer has enjoyed about putting this frightful Budget together, but he might take some quiet consolation in remembering John Howard was that age when he was involuntarily retired as Prime Minister in November 2007.

Lifting the retirement age should come as a relief to younger workers. I love old people – I know some, and sometimes even talk to them. But having a general understanding that you stop paying taxes and start taking them instead at 65 years of age is both ageist and something the country cannot afford to continue.

Continue reading "In one breath, Swan changed your retirement plans" »