Opinion Pieces

Intergenerational Report: Our Standard Of Living Will Drop Without Action

29 June 2021

First published by The Australian

This Intergenerational Report paints a disturbing picture of an economy smaller than expected, growing slower than before and saddled with at least four more decades of debt and deficits.

Intergenerational Report Must Think Big On Reform

21 June 2021

First published by The Australian Financial Review.

The strong and welcome jobs numbers released last week were a tribute to Australians who have overwhelmingly done the right thing by each other to limit the spread of COVID-19.

First-Rate Economic Recovery Depends On Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout Quality

19 April 2021

First published by The Australian

The credit for last week’s jobs figures and Australia’s performance during the pandemic and its aftermath belongs to our people, who have done an outstanding job limiting the spread of the virus. But by bungling the vaccine rollout their federal government risks squandering the momentum and opportunities that flow from that achievement.

COVID-19 Mission Isn't Over Until The Economy Delivers For All

29 January 2021

First published by The Australian

On the first day of May 2003, barely six weeks after the Americans entered Iraq, George W Bush stood on the decks of an aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, dwarfed by an enormous banner that read “Mission Accomplished”.

Bounce Back No Excuse to Rack Fiscal Cue

24 November 2020

First published by the Australian Financial Review.

On paper, the economy is expected to return to growth in the September and December quarters, but off an incredibly low base. While a return to growth is obviously necessary and welcome, this won’t be enough to undo the lasting damage that’s been done to the economy and the labour market so far this year.

Early Turnout Suggests Choice is Clear For Many

22 October 2020

Originally published by InQueensland.

This week, many thousands of Queenslanders eschewed the time-honoured Australian tradition of queueing in the hot election-day sun – a flurry of political paraphernalia in one hand, democracy sausage in the other – to cast their vote for the next Queensland government in pre-poll stations across the state.

Level-Headed Leadership or Politics before People

15 October 2020

Originally published by InQueensland.

A week before the Federal Budget I was in a Cairns coffee shop listening to Troy, a local business owner and employer, despair about Scott Morrison and the Federal LNP’s decision to start unwinding their support in the local economy.

The Choice is Between a Vote for Stability or a Coalition of Chaos

08 October 2020

Originally published by InQueensland.

There is rarely a single thing that turns an election; infrequently one defining insight into our leaders.  Campaigns are won on the accumulation of effort and perceptions building towards the decision voters make in a cramped cardboard booth holding a little stubby pencil.

 

Regions Will Help Us Recover

21 August 2020

Originally published by InQueensland.

When the Allman family laid the cornerstone for Warwick’s Criterion Hotel in 1917, Australia was on the cusp of what could be described as our first nationwide domestic disaster. Not long after, the Spanish flu pandemic would strike a nation still processing the trauma and loss of the First World War.

Labor Wants to Help Build An Energy Consensus

25 June 2020

Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

In boardrooms right around Australia, well before most people had heard of the novel coronavirus, and now in Zoom rooms throughout the crisis itself, one issue has come up almost every time: our country’s longstanding energy policy paralysis and its consequences for business costs and investor certainty.