Comment

In talking about wellbeing as part of the budget, Chalmers and his colleagues are trying to appeal to a community transformed by the impacts of a pandemic as much as by current economic turbulence. But they are also trying to speak to a range of groups they have relied upon for electoral success.

As the world reassesses its reliance on so-called neoliberal economics, and particularly its faith in market forces, it is important to recognise that the effectiveness of those forces depends on their surrounding regulatory frameworks.

The ghosts of broken promises past are spooking the Albanese government as it prepares to unveil its first budget on October 25. More specifically, the prime minister is determined not to give his political opponents the chance to criticise him on the issue of trust just after an election where integrity in government featured heavily.

It is difficult to conceive of a set of government decisions purportedly aimed at protecting Australia’s national interests that have been more comprehensively destructive of them than those made by successive Coalition governments in the Timor-Leste case.

In 160 years of record keeping, it has never rained more in Sydney. With three months left before Christmas, readings have already exceeded the peak set 72 years ago. Parts of the city are inundated and buildings are set in the mould and decay of a third La Niña summer. Climate change is no longer a warning: it is washing away roads and growing in black patches on the walls.

As the nation battled the pandemic, one of the most conscientious commitments of the Morrison government was its extensive support, including provision of a RAAF plane, for Mathias Cormann’s campaign to become secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Morrison initially proposed the job to Cormann. A team was set up for his campaign and more than eight people were appointed to it, at taxpayers’ expense. Morrison made 55 phone calls to world leaders pushing Cormann for the role.

Deep in the bunker that is federal Parliament House’s cabinet room, the Albanese government’s economic brains trust spent much of Tuesday strategising about Australia’s response to what the treasurer calls the ‘gathering storm clouds in the global economy’. The expenditure review committee is chaired by the prime minister himself.

Anthony Albanese understands the power of symbolism. He has carefully cultivated signals that women will be front and centre of his government’s agenda, particularly its economic one. From the gender balance of participants and speakers at its jobs and skills summit, to the formation of a Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, and the embrace of gender-responsive budgeting, there can be no criticism that women have gone unnoticed by the new government. The challenge for the prime minister is to marry the power of symbolism with real policy action.

The appalling allegations of racist behaviour towards Indigenous players at the Hawthorn AFL club are a stark and disturbing reminder of the latent racism that unfortunately seems to underlie the attitudes of some Australians and many institutions right across our society.

Shorten had flown to Brisbane for the first day of hearings at the royal commission into the robo-debt scandal. He had been relentless in his determination to expose the full extent of what he calls the ‘greatest failure of public administration and social security’.