technology Parliament house is not cyber secure. What could go wrong? Seven of eight mandatory cyber controls failing at Parliament House — and a 2019 state-based breach that apparently changed nothing.
Labour Market Government moves to loosen long service leave for coal miners as industry lobbies for relief Australia's coal miners have an entitlement that follows them from employer to employer — but that design may be creating the very problem it was meant to solve.
Taxation Here’s how trusts work. And here’s why the tax man wants a bigger slice Two families, identical incomes — but one pays half the tax. The government wants to close the gap. Here's what changes.
technology Australian businesses race to adopt Ai so they can… One in eight Australian businesses now uses AI, and the adoption rate has tripled in three years — but the productivity data tells a very different story.
Energy Hydrogen's Hidden Cost: Why Government Backing Creates Losers, Not Markets The Grattan Institute has a careful, well-funded case for backing green hydrogen. The logic has one serious flaw.
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.
Taxation 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.
Energy 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.
Taxation 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.
Government Spending 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.
Government Spending 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.
Housing 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.
