In the wake of a falling iron ore price that has cut his personal fortune by more than A$2 billion, Andrew Forrest has remained unperturbed, saying: “I didn’t count on the way up, and I’m not counting…
Victorian voters go to the polls this weekend having been bombarded with myriad spending promises from the Coalition and Labor. Major promises from the Coalition government include: $3.9 billion for 75…
Fact: over 585 regional trade agreements have been signed. Almost 400 are already operating. Australia is a signatory to at least 12 of them. An intricate web of cross-cutting free trade agreements (FTAs…
Indonesia’s move to cut fuel subsidies, raising the prices of petrol and diesel by more than 30%, could be a game-changer for Indonesia’s economy. The subsidies, which have kept fuel prices in Indonesia…
By 2017, some 16,500 public servants will have lost their jobs, or have been shuffled into other positions within the public service, in the government’s ongoing drive for budget savings. The long-standing…
The Abbott government will soon ask the Productivity Commission to review the Fair Work system. In parallel with that review, we need a more sophisticated debate about our workplace relations framework…
Infrastructure projects are ripe for political point scoring. None more so than Private Public Partnerships (PPPs), which allow private companies to profit from key infrastructure. Yet political debate…
Is the ABC trying to make itself redundant? Because that appears to be its strategy. Here’s why. The ABC is expensive. In 2013 it was allocated more than A$1 billion of taxpayer funds. The ABC claims…
Following a fortnight of intense Australian international engagement in APEC and the G20, last week saw the culmination of nearly a decade’s worth of negotiations with China over a much-anticipated free…
Tolstoy’s opening line in Anna Karenina was: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The same can be said of most businesses – the recipe for success is simple…
The announcement yesterday by the Northern Territory government that it is selling the Territory Insurance Office’s insurance assets to Allianz Australia for A$236 million has many worried their premiums…
Many large organisations are now on their second or third wave of diversity and inclusion programs. A good number of them are still struggling to identify obvious improvements in the metrics they hoped…
Victorians will soon go to the polls to decide who will be responsible for the management of the state for the next four years. Voters are confronted with many issues on which they must pass judgement…
Proposed laws to reform the insolvency industry are long overdue. Under the changes, liquidators will require a licence and creditors will be able to remove poorly performing practitioners. The reforms…
Staff recruitment and retention are an ongoing challenge for employers. Proponents of big data in the workplace are now claiming they can change that. We’re entering a new age of predictive selection that…
Last week brought the latest instalment in the continuing Australian financial planning industry saga. Senators Jacqui Lambie and Ricky Muir blocked the Abbott government’s rollback of some of Labor’s…
Despite the adoption of a third two-year G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan, corruption received only a few lines in the latest G20 leaders’ communique. The credibility of the G20 as a whole now rests on…
Next week, Australian bank Westpac will become the last of the big four banks to stop serving money transfer operators, amid concerns about breaching laws on money laundering and terrorist financing. There…
G20 leaders have put growth and employment at the centre of the global agenda. To spur collective growth by more than 2% over five years, member countries have agreed to implement a package of structural…
Netflix will launch in Australia and New Zealand in March next year. Expectations are this is just the start of an influx of new streaming options in Australia. The internet and television are increasingly…
Alongside this week’s announcement of a free trade deal between China and Australia came reports of Gina Rinehart’s investment in a Queensland dairy operation to supply infant formula to China. Australia’s…
I took two separate rides with two different UberX drivers yesterday. At no time did I feel as though my life was in danger. But in danger I was, at least according to several factions debating the safety…
Of the many media organisations making the transition towards digital, the ABC is one of the most advanced. So in the face of a $254 million budget, or “back offices” cut, as Communications Minister Malcolm…
During the APEC meeting in Beijing, President Xi Jinping announced China will spend US$10 trillion on imports over the next five years and US$1.25 trillion in foreign investment over the next ten years…
The privatisation of Medibank Private will be complete next Tuesday when the company lists on the Australian Securities Exchange. That’s exactly one month before Christmas Day and all indications suggest…