@alankohler.bsky.social
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Deb Forster - @Oliveforster - has posted another short story on her website, called Butter Menthols. It's a story about a mother who takes her kids to a refuge to escape a violent drunk, for a better life. It's great.
deborahforster.com.au
8 days ago
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In this week's ABC column I preview the Government's 2035 emissions reduction target: if it's worthwhile, we'll need a carbon tax, and probably nuclear generation as well.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...
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Australia's emissions target is a laugh-or-cry-o-metre or maybe a tax-o-metre
Australia's emissions reduction number is, in short, a laugh-or-cry-o-metre, or perhaps more accurately, a tax-o-metre.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-15/albanese-government-2035-climate-emissions-target/105771566
20 days ago
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Deborah Forster (@Oliveforster) has published a new work of fiction on her website. It's called "Ozone", a story about a girl growing up.
deborahforster.com.au/stories/cate...
21 days ago
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My wife Deb has decided to post some of her fiction for you to read. The first is a short story called Ada Sharon Adams, and like most of her work is about the lives of girls and women.
deborahforster.com.au
28 days ago
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Last night's piece for ABC TV news previewing tomorrow's RBA interest rate decision.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...
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Will the Reserve Bank cut rates in August?
News from the world of finance and business. Top stories in text, video and audio. Business video news bulletin. Features and analysis.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-11/will-the-reserve-bank-cut-rates-in-august/105635434
about 2 months ago
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This week's column for ABC News - In the early 1980s, Australia had as big a trade deficit as the United States has now — around 3 to 4 per cent of GDP. But the two solutions to the same problem could not be more different. Read on...
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...
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Amid Trump's tariffs, Chalmers must repeat what Keating did in the 80s
Treasurer Jim Chalmers must find a way to repeat what Paul Keating did in the 1980s and 90s, and lift productivity. Good luck with that.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-11/us-tariffs-keating-chalmers-productivity/105581020
about 2 months ago
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This morning's column for the ABC: Australia's illegal tobacco problem has made the proverbial transition from tragedy to farce.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...
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Australia's illegal tobacco problem has jumped from tragedy to farce
We can now conclude that the strategy of taxing and banning nicotine addiction out of existence is a complete failure. The result is organised crime making about $10 billion a year in revenue.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-04/illegal-tobacco-is-a-deadly-10-billion-industry/105607186
2 months ago
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My video piece for last night's @abcnews: we're not going reach net zero by 2050 and we won't prevent global warming in time. It's China's fault.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...
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Carbon emissions aren't falling, but who is to blame?
Follow the latest news headlines from Australia's most trusted source. Read in-depth expert analysis and watch live coverage on ABC News.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-03/carbon-emissions-arent-falling,-but-who-is-to-blame/105607948
2 months ago
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Last night's @abcnews finance report, in case you missed it
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...
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Wednesday finance with Alan Kohler
News from the world of finance and business. Top stories in text, video and audio. Business video news bulletin. Features and analysis.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-30/wednesday-finance-with-alan-kohler/105593280
2 months ago
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Last night's @abcnews finance bit, icymi
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...
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Monday finance with Alan Kohler
News from the world of finance and business. Top stories in text, video and audio. Business video news bulletin. Features and analysis.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-28/monday-finance-with-alan-kohler/105583398
2 months ago
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This morning's @abcnews column, in which I discuss how AI has become part of the geopolitical contest between China and America, not just a race to AGI among a few billionaires.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...
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US, China in battle to own first artificial general intelligence
The AI battle between China and the US is less about profits and return on investment, and more about geopolitics — national machismo, security and defence.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-28/us-china-race-for-agi/105578724
2 months ago
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This week's column for ABC , on Anthony Albanese's green iron sales pitch in China last week and why it's a big deal.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...
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Why Albanese tried to do a Hawke during last week's China trip
Four Ts dominated the conversation about Anthony Albanese's China trip: Trump, tariffs, Taiwan and trade. But look a little deeper and it's clear green iron was a key talking point, too.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-21/green-iron-steel-albanese-xi-china-trump-trade-taiwan-tariffs/105552102
3 months ago
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Last night's ABC news finance bit, ICYMI
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...
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Wednesday finance with Alan Kohler
News from the world of finance and business. Top stories in text, video and audio. Business video news bulletin. Features and analysis.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-16/wednesday-finance-with-alan-kohler/105539938
3 months ago
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"Real men burn stuff": America's acts of self-harm while China - a ruthless autocracy - builds the future. This week's column for the ABC
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...
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'Real men burn stuff': America's embrace of coal just one in a series of colossal acts of self-harm
It's entirely appropriate that Albanese is meeting Xi again before he meets Trump for the first time. Xi is more important than Trump now.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-14/trump-us-xi-china-trade-renewables-tariffs/105526196
3 months ago
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Last night's @abcnews finance bit in case you missed it
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...
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Tuesday finance with Alan Kohler
News from the world of finance and business. Top stories in text, video and audio. Business video news bulletin. Features and analysis.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-08/tuesday-finance-with-alan-kohler/105509326
3 months ago
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My column for @abcnews - where are we going to find 34 sq kms of land per year in the suburbs to build houses? Golf courses? Parks? Race tracks? Boosting supply alone is not the answer to affordability.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...
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Where is Australia going to build thousands of new homes?
To meet the government's housing target every year there will need to be infill land created about 26 times the size of Melbourne's CBD across Australia.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-07/housing-supply-infill-construction-tax-reform-immigration/105499648
3 months ago
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I did
add a skeleton here at some point
3 months ago
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did a "My 2 Cents" for Life Matters on Radio national.
www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
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My Two Cents: Alan Kohler - ABC listen
In "My 2 Cents", we're asking those questions you'd rather not answer about money. What can we learn from how ABC finance guru Alan Kohler manages his money?
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/lifematters/my-2-cents-alan-kohler/105454604
3 months ago
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Deb's
@debfor.bsky.social
‬ winter solstice column: Our new garden is a bog, the dullness of puddles has taken it and sunken it into wet grass, but there are three foxgloves shooting up and two pink dogwoods and a crab-apple all doing well. So come on spring!
deborahforster.com.au
4 months ago
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This week Deb @Oliveforster has written about dullness, and it's not dull!
deborahforster.com.au
4 months ago
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Deb @Oliveforster has written about a beloved friend who died recently. It moved me to tears.
deborahforster.com.au
4 months ago
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It looks like only the courts will hold Trump to account... if his regime chooses to obey them, which it probably won't. My column for
@abcnewsbot.bsky.social
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06...
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There's a 'nasty' new nickname for Trump, but it gets something wrong
Donald Trump's team is fighting one of the most consequential legal cases in the US history, but there are plenty more where that came from: 250 lawsuits are currently featuring his administration.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-02/donald-trump-unitary-executive-theory/105362150
4 months ago
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Last night's @abcnews piece on the transmission cost blowout, and the need to shift the energy transition to more rooftop solar, with batteries.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCjb...
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How household batteries overcome energy transition obstacles | Alan Kohler | ABC NEWS
YouTube video by ABC News (Australia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCjb1Rh_ktw
4 months ago
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Last night's TV piece for @abcnews, in which I wonder who pays tax ion an automated world, and suggest that the extra tax on $3m+ super balances is a toe in the wealth tax water.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05...
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Who pays tax in an automated workforce?
Follow the latest news headlines from Australia's most trusted source. Read in-depth expert analysis and watch live coverage on ABC News.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-25/who-pays-tax-in-an-automated-workforce/105334852
4 months ago
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My column for @abcnews : history is repeating on housing. Interest rates are coming down, affordability is improving and prices are rising. Accessibility is getting worse.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05...
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History is repeating and house prices are set to rise — again
With housing affordability now improving as interest rates come down, housing accessibility is likely to worsen further as prices again rise.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-26/rate-cuts-house-prices-inflation-economy/105333726
4 months ago
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Some reflections on life, death and getting old, from Deborah Forster @Oliveforster
deborahforster.com.au
4 months ago
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Last night's finance report icymi, with a bit about Moody's downgrade of America's credit rating, a graph of house price gains two years after the start of a rate cut cycle, and some graphs of percentage of homes worth $1m or more.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05...
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Finance with Alan Kohler
News from the world of finance and business. Top stories in text, video and audio. Business video news bulletin. Features and analysis.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-19/finance-with-alan-kohler/105311852
5 months ago
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This week's ABC column, in which I pinpoint the day the Liberal party began to die - July 17 2014, when they repealed the Clean Energy Act of 2011 - and suggest they can't now have an electable climate policy and stay in coalition with the Nationals.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05...
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The Liberals will have to choose between the Nationals and the climate
It does not look feasible for a political party to succeed in Australia without a credible commitment to reducing carbon emissions.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-19/liberals-nationals-net-zero-climate-change-policy/105301242
5 months ago
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Deb's latest: All My Changes Were There. It's about how things happen to us, when we think we are in control. She hopes you like it.
deborahforster.com.au
5 months ago
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This morning's @abcnews column, in which I wonder whether Jim Chalmers is up for the reform agenda that Paul Keating had, and whether Albanese would support him as Hawke did Keating, because the country needs it again.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05...
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Is Chalmers prepared to follow Keating into the 'slaying' business?
Is Albanese up for it? Does Chalmers have a "passion for bold policy" to indulge? Does the country need it?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-12/australia-economy-basket-case-paul-keating-chalmers-take-on/105273104
5 months ago
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Deb on her love for Stevie Ray Vaughan, and the importance of music in her life.
deborahforster.com.au
5 months ago
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Last night's piece for @abcnews TV on the two post-election priorities for the Government, housing and productivity. They will require hard, thankless, grinding policy work, for the full three years.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEw3...
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Housing: the government's first priority post-election | Alan Kohler | ABC NEWS
YouTube video by ABC News (Australia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEw37_E2vKI
5 months ago
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This week's column for ABC: Why Trump has become toxic for conservatives everywhere.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05...
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First Canada, then Australia: Trump is now toxic for conservatives everywhere
Australians saw through the Coalition's attempt to have it both ways and dealt with Peter Dutton as if he was Donald Trump.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-05/trump-dutton-federal-election-albanese-toxic-liberal-politics/105249448
5 months ago
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Deb's reflections on voting yesterday: Come Gather Round People. The times definitely are changing.
deborahforster.com.au
5 months ago
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Today's ABC column, about the healthcare revolution taking place in the Melbourne suburb of Kew.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04...
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A healthcare revolution is happening in the quiet streets of a Melbourne suburb
I've seen the future of an important part of Australia's healthcare system — a private hospital owned by a health insurance company.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-28/health-insurance-private-hospital-expenses/105220958
5 months ago
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This morning's @abcnews column: it's a housing election, but both parties' housing policies are inadequate and, in the case of the Coalition, also terrible.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04...
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The tradie problem fuelling the housing crisis needs more than a quick fix
The policies of both parties designed to increase housing supply are fine — they're just nowhere near enough.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-21/its-a-housing-election-but-the-housing-policies-are-woeful/105188022
6 months ago
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Last night's video piece for @abcnews on productivity, and robots.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04...
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How can we fix Australia's decline in productivity?
Follow the latest news headlines from Australia's most trusted source. Read in-depth expert analysis and watch live coverage on ABC News.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-20/how-can-we-fix-australias-decline-productivity/105195668
6 months ago
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Deb @Oliveforster has an Easter murmuration.
deborahforster.com.au
6 months ago
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Deb on marvellous Melbourne - let's gather round it! And, of course, grandchildren.
deborahforster.com.au
6 months ago
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My drop in the ocean of commentary about Trump's tariffs, for ABC this morning: America's having a holiday from reality and reason. We should move on.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04...
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As America has a break with reality, the world will move on to a new order
The Australian government after May 3 will no doubt want to try to negotiate with the Trump administration about our 10 per cent tariff, but they might be better off to just work around it and move on...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-07/tariffs-trump-world-will-move-on/105143574
6 months ago
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This week Deb has written about rejections from publishers (she's had a few), and of course a bit about family.
deborahforster.com.au
6 months ago
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Last night's piece for @abcnews in which I do the sums on housing approvals and migration and conclude that in January, housing demand was more than twice supply.
iview.abc.net.au/video/KOHL20...
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Alan Kohler Explains: Is Australia effectively measuring the gap between housing supply and demand?
Housing affordability is a key issue for voters in the upcoming election with both major parties pitching policies geared at increasing supply. But how should the gap between housing supply and demand...
https://iview.abc.net.au/video/KOHL2022105114736
6 months ago
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This week's @abcnews column: the election is a contest of band-aids. No-one is seriously tackling Australia's two big shortages, housing and productivity.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03...
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No party is providing real answers to Australia's two biggest issues
Both major parties know how to improve Australia’s abysmal productivity performance but they have deemed it too hard.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/federal-election-housing-productivity-bandaid-solutions-budget/105098402
6 months ago
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Deb @Oliveforster has written about the loneliness for her of our time in Sydney, and how she discovered the refuge of David Jones.
deborahforster.com.au
6 months ago
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reposted by
Rob Smith
7 months ago
This is a time when clear political vision and decisive leadership is called for, when the stakes for the coming election couldn't be higher. Not that you would know it from the grubby squabbles that pass for national debate these days.
@AlanKohler.bsky.social
#auspol
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03...
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We're at a turning point in world history but our leaders are distracted
While Australian politicians argue about power bill relief and non-existent nuclear power stations, pressing issues like the great US retreat, global warming and AI are being ignored.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-24/democracy-climate-change-ai-robotics-war/105085846
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reposted by
7 months ago
Alan Kohler book club is back! Uprising by Stephen Gapps, People Power by George Williams and David Hume (great read) and What Trump’s Second Term Means For Australia by Bruce Wolfe. And a pilea.
@alankohler.bsky.social
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Deb's latest - Two Anniversaries: our 47th (year of marriage), and Footscray's 100th, including a pic of her as a (brief) footy reporter, in the Shinboners' dressing room.
deborahforster.com.au
7 months ago
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This week Deb has written about our grandchilden ... and children - This Us: A Kind of Wonder
deborahforster.com.au
7 months ago
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Last night's ABC News finance report, ICYMI
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03...
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Monday finance with Alan Kohler
News from the world of finance and business. Top stories in text, video and audio. Business video news bulletin. Features and analysis.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-10/monday-finance-with-alan-kohler/105034238
7 months ago
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Today's ABC column, about Donald Trump.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03...
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To make America great, Trump is undoing its greatness
What's most important for Australia — and the entire Western world — is that America has fallen to anti-globalists, and they are carrying out a deep regime change in the style of an autocratic takeove...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-10/donald-trump-and-maga-are-undoing-america-s-greatness/105027736
7 months ago
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