“Cabinet ministers from Right and Left seem to have no capacity to challenge the premier and that is leading to every position being decided by what 2GB shock jocks would say about it.” NSW politics has regressed by about 30 years. www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw...

‘If you make it unattractive to hold a property the consequences are a reduction in rental properties and rents would go up’ says Ralph, chair of the biz tax review that proposed the CGT discount. Note that the Ralph Report was *silent* on the impact of a CGT discount on housing. Huge policy fail.

Lest we forget the horrible and enduring impacts on people of economic recessions. The RBA Governor is right to point out that if we followed Canada and NZ on monetary policy, hundreds of thousands of people would be cast into unemployment. www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

Right diagnosis, wrong solution. Why shouldn’t people expect govt to provide or fund essential social services? We can pay for them in the usual way via taxes. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...

‘That requires a shift from a redistributive mindset to a pro-growth mindset’ So we can’t do both? We need a shift from the mindset that they are always opposed. www.afr.com/politics/fed...

The Reserve Bank of Australia has flagged concerns that Australians now expect prices to rise notably faster than the bank’s target 2.5 per cent’ Well, the media pile on doesn’t help! www.afr.com/policy/econo...

“Men get a larger overall share of the benefits of Australia’s current tax expenditures and deductions . . . and in news that will not shock many, men receive a greater share of the benefits of our tax settings than women.” - Gemma Killen Read the full piece on The Point: https://theaus.in/3ZGFCIv

In response to the predicable complaints of certain industries about labour shortages post lockdowns, Morrison govt opened the taps on temporary migration (eg removed hours limits for students, allowed backpackers to stay longer). How the tide turns!

Our online short course on Understanding Poverty, Inequality and Social Disadvantage in Australia is running again in May. More information at www.unsw.edu.au/study/profes...

“In times of crisis Australians are great at doing the right thing morally and socially, which is also the smart thing economically. What would it take to do so all the time?” - Lukas Ringland Read the full piece on The Point: https://theaus.in/3OeQxqx

Vought, not the other guy! www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

The Grima Wormtongue of our age.

Great episode. Along with Voight, Miller is one of the dark knights of Trump's kingdom. Dangerously obsessed and Macheavellian. How much of his life's work is reaction to the liberality of his parents? www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Come join us in Meeanjin (Brisbane) for the next Australian Social Policy Conference!

'Simply put: Companies make it easy for us to do things that they want, but conspicuously difficult to do things that we want, but are not in their interest.' Oh yes! Commitment to service and support for loyal customers are things of the past for large corporates. Not only in the US.

Here's a Substack post to go with this thread. bsky.app/profile/clau...

Oh dear

Housing finance for first home buyers rose 6.8%qoq in the Dec qtr helped by the expanded 5% low deposit scheme which drove a small rise in their share of total housing loans (chart corrected from previous tweet) and a sharp increase in the average FHB loan sizes.

Another. Yet Another…

Australia's PBO does that (tho they dont always ask)

As western nations become wealthier & older spending inevitably shifts towards social services. The real issue here is whether this shd be left to the market, with all its inequities & inefficiencies in their delivery, or funded collectively through taxation and whether our tax base can sustain it

What’s the problem here? The argument that larger public sectors are economically inefficient is as old a the hills, but never proven. Australia has very low public spending by oecd standards (conveniently ignored here) www.afr.com/policy/econo...

Oh dear

Great analysis

The real question for the US and Australia is: Why do we need to import low skilled workers in the first place?

So Herzog ‘declined to express the least reservation about Netanyahu’s war.’ Over 70000 dead, kids shot in the head by snipers. Mass starvation. That’s enough IMO to strongly oppose this visit, which is clearly not only about consoling the victims of the horrible killings in Bondi.

So Herzog wants to ‘restore Aus-Israel relations which have been ‘undermined by radical forces’ So a well oiled propaganda tour. Bad decision Albo. Here’s the man standing in the way of good relations of Israel between the world.

Reminder: Palantir sells AI tools that help law enforcement agencies like ICE analyze massive amounts of personal data. It's a big reason why it is quickly becoming the most dangerous corporation in America. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_VwyhErd88

The RBA’s forecasts for slowing then falling dwelling investment to 2028 imply it does not see the Housing Accord target for 240k homes a year being met - as it would require a rise in dwelling investment growth (unless there are a lot of tiny homes in the mix!) (RBA SOMP p56)

Yet more brutality

'It was always unlikely that our economy could accommodate sustained unemployment rates of 3.4 per cent (as it was in October 2022) or anywhere near it.' How do you know? Wages did not accelerate. Clever people said the same thing in the 1940s. They were wrong. www.afr.com/policy/econo...

The university of social media is the real problem here.. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

‘While private sector activity overtook public demand late last year, the RBA expects public demand to drive around half of all economic growth in 2026.’ RBA estimate for growth in 2026? An insipid 1.8% Subtract the public contribution and it’s a catastrophic 0.9%. www.afr.com/policy/econo...

Great to see politicians show conviction www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Thousands of people filled the streets of downtown Minneapolis in protest of federal immigration enforcement for the second consecutive Friday. 📷️: Aaron Lavinsky

Had a wide ranging conversation with Nobel-prize-winning economist Professor Joseph Stiglitz about intergenerational fairness and our Labor government’s economic plan in a time of global uncertainty.

So he uses Trumps methods and adopts some of his policies. Doesn't sound like regime change to me.

An armoured personal carrier maybe?

Grima Wormtongue is at it again

“Australia’s health system is under strain. The reason is simple. Ours isn’t a health system. It’s an illness system: too reliant on hospitals and specialists, neglecting prevention and primary care,” writes Luke Slawomirski. Read Luke Slawomirski’s article on The Point: https://theaus.in/4rh9wil

The coordinated, nonviolent resistance in Minneapolis, George Packer argues, “offers a compelling answer to the question that democracy-loving Americans have asked for the past year: ‘What can I do?’”:

I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don’t let bullies win. Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me. Minnesota strong.

Aust Dec inflation +3.8%y, with Dec qtr trimmed mean +0.9%q/3.4%y (up from 3%y). This was above mkt & RBA forecasts for trimmed mean at 3.2%y. Services infl edged up & the breadth of price rises > 3%y rose. On the back of hawkish RBA commentary its now likely to hike next week..

I'm generally not a deficit hawk, but (maybe because I just watched Pachinko) this seems like early 1990s Japan to me. Real estate bubble burst, slow-motion fiscal crisis, economic slowdown ahead.

After decades of generation game pieces about the travails of Gen X, they are now in the peak asset stage of the life cycle, and therefore wealthiest. All claims about generations are actually stable facts about the age range they currently occupy