Economy

Australia has reached a pivotal point. There is very strong and increasing demand for government to provide a wide range of services, support and policy frameworks, coming to a head at a time when the federal budget already has a $37 billion hole and we are approaching $1 trillion in debt. This calls for a mature debate about priorities.

This week Anthony Albanese trod where many thought he would never dare: he raised taxes on excessive savings held in superannuation. While he did it in a way that can wedge his political opponents in the run-up to the next election, he also handed them a big stick with which to beat him in the meantime.

The issues of sustainability and the environmental and social impacts of their activities are certainly now on the agendas of most businesses, and corporate boards are having to lift their game to recognise these longer-term responsibilities.

We should accept that a recession, even a mild one, is the route the RBA may be heading down, given the risk that it mirrors its delayed action on raising interest rates, by moving too slowly to cut.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has written an excellent, thought-provoking essay in the latest edition of The Monthly. It attempts to set his budgetary process, which he began last October and will advance in May, against the background of recent crises and in the context of the broader economic, social and environmental circumstances of our time.

The unemployment rate published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics is an incredibly stable, accurate and reliable indicator of something almost entirely irrelevant. 

Risks to the economy are mounting at such a rate that the challenge they present to our economic managers in 2023 may well overshadow even the shocks of the pandemic-related shutdowns and the global financial crisis.

This is not an issue of loyalty. Morrison showed none and has no right to expect any.

Just when Anthony Albanese was set to finish the most successful year of his political life with another win, he was struck down by Covid-19. The acting opposition leader, Sussan Ley, sent her best wishes but little sympathy. She called for the national cabinet meeting scheduled for Wednesday to go ahead virtually, reminding the prime minister that ‘hundreds of thousands of Australians’ with Covid-19 have continued to work while isolating.

As the fourth-richest country in the world – on average – we should all be more concerned about a recent study showing that more than one in eight people live below the poverty line in Australia. The ACOSS/UNSW Sydney data counted as many as 3.3 million, including 760,000 children, living in poverty in 2019-20, as the pandemic began.