Fiscal Policy

The RBA's housing blind spot is about to cost Australia

Australia's inflation gauge is built to see new home construction costs — but blind to established property values, and a coming tax change will exploit that gap.

Raising the GST from 10% to 15% is better for…

The PBO has put dollar figures on three ways to raise the GST to 15% — and they reveal a trade-off politicians rarely admit exists.

Energy

Nobody owns the EV charger problem—and Australia's paying for it

Australia's EV charging network is growing fast and nobody is in charge of it — but the fix might not be what the experts are recommending.

technology

Senate launches inquiry into AI data centres as power demands collide with climate goals

Australia's Senate is investigating AI data centres — but the real question is whether clean energy targets will bend to accommodate them.

Taxation

Senate inquiry finds capital gains tax discount working as designed—but questions remain on who benefits most

Australia's CGT discount does exactly what it was built to do. A Senate inquiry has now formally asked whether what it was built to do is still the right answer.

Fiscal Policy

Productivity Commission opens data dashboard on Australia's stalling output growth

Australia's productivity dashboard is live — and the five-year trend it reveals is the number Canberra's current policy agenda is least equipped to answer.

Defence

NATO unity fractures over defence spending and strategic priorities

Trump wants Europe to spend more on defence — but the investment horizon is a decade, and his term ends in three years. The incentive problem is structural.

Foreign Policy

China's Pacific missile test raises stakes for Australia's island partners

A Chinese ICBM landed near two Pacific island nations without warning. The smallest countries in the region had no say — and now they're deciding who to call.

Energy

Markets shrug off Iran war as oil retreat signals geopolitical risk priced out

A war in Iran ended. Oil fell back to where it started. Wall Street hit a record. But one leading economist says the peace deal is the variable, not the resolution.

Housing

Why Australia's housing cooling is only half the story

Australia's housing market is cooling — but is that actually fixing anything, or just resetting the clock on the next price surge?

Government Spending

Data centre boom masks weakness in broader capital investment

Australia's capex figures jumped 14.6% in a year — but almost all of it came from one sector, and what that conceals is the real story.

Nuclear Gamble: Coalition Bets $Billions on 2050 Deadline

Australia has never built a nuclear plant, has no trained workforce, and currently bans the technology — so what does $118 billion actually buy?

Health Policy

Three-quarters of Australian children exceed screen time limits, ABS data shows

Nearly three in four Australian children exceed the government's screen time limit — but the harder question is whether the limit itself still makes sense.

How capital gains discounts quietly reshape wealth distribution

The PBO has finally put numbers on Australia's capital gains tax discount — and who it actually benefits may surprise you.

Parliament's Hidden Price Tag: How 38 Extra Seats Will Cost Taxpayers and Dilute Accountability

The Parliamentary Budget Office has costed 38 new seats in federal parliament — but who bears the cost, and does a bigger legislature actually deliver more accountability?

Housing

With property prices falling stagnation could be baked in

Australia's household wealth just grew 1.2% — but strip out property and every other asset was a net drag. What happens when the one engine stalls?

Regulation

Treasury moves to regulate cash distribution as digital payments advance

Australia is turning its cash distribution network into a regulated utility — but the government's stated reason for doing so isn't the only one worth examining.

Budget's Innovation Bet: Who Bears the Cost When Incentives Misfire?

Australia is spending $39.1 billion on innovation — but how much of it is actually changing what businesses would have done regardless?

Taxation Featured

Comply with the new tax system or else!

Australia is doubling penalties for tax misconduct — but the same bill also rewrites rules complex enough to hand sophisticated advisers new edges to exploit.

What happens when you scrap mandatory car parks at new housing developments?

Scrapping mandatory parking minimums could unlock 140,000 new homes — but the reform only works if governments are willing to do the politically painful part too.