Our plan going into this budget was to rank the top three positive outcomes and three negative outcomes but sadly, due to reasons beyond our control, the budget sucked.
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Increased unemployment and even more small business closures are in store if governments stick to plans to delay reopening until states hit an 80% full vaccination rate.
Read MoreGood health means different things to different people and achieving it involves a more sophisticated approach than simply avoiding all risk, at all costs.
Read MoreAppearing to grasp the interplay between demand, supply and price, the IMF has suggested legislation to effectively remove a large chunk of the market - and it isn’t wealthy investors. It’s an iconic genie move - a deliberate misinterpretation of the issue at hand with a solution that misses the point.
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Soaring Aussie house prices have caused the average stamp duty bill to skyrocket. The huge “admin fee” lands on the buyer - but has generated nearly $60 billion in additional revenue for state governments.
Read MoreSmall businesses will suffer if governments mandate a ‘vaccinated only’ policy, in which customers are prevented from visiting venues without first proving they have been double-jabbed against Covid-19. It’s a cost cashed-up chains may absorb but—when forced on ma and pa joints with ever-shrinking margins—will be yet another nail in the coffin for struggling small businesses.
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Are the increasingly-desperate attempts by major banks to hobble cryptocurrencies symptomatic of the death throes of the banking behemoths?
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Getting kids to play outside is a tough ask for any parent in the digital age, where screen time is king. Now, the Victorian Government has emerged as the latest obstacle in their fight (literally).
A twenty-five year career in anything is an achievement. In Federal Politics a very rare one. The Labor Party’s Joel Fitzgibbon, member for the seat of Hunter since 1996 deserves congratulations for more than just his resilience and perseverance.
Read MoreThe OECD has long railed against what they consider to be the “problem” of international tax competition. The Brussels-based bureaucracy has argued that tax competition puts downward pressure on tax rates, as countries compete to attract mobile labour and capital investment. Their latest response is to argue for a global tax minimum of 15% for all developed countries, which would force some countries (such as Ireland & Hungary) to increase their company tax rates, and would prevent other countries from cutting taxes “too much”. This is a bad idea.
Read MoreLast week the Business Council of Australia (BCA) released a report about the need for higher productivity in Australia, which included a series of suggestions. They are certainly right that Australia needs to refocus our economic discussion on the crucial issue of productivity (instead of the fool’s gold of “stimulus”), but unfortunately they fail to address the key drivers of productivity.
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Another week of lockdowns blithely announced by public servants who have no comprehension of how business works. One imagines McDonalds and Starbucks are rubbing their hands together knowing that another tranche of small hole-in-the-wall coffee shops will be wiped out
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