British Prime Minister David Cameron has said that “a new and pressing challenge” in the fight against terrorism is getting extremist material taken down from the internet. Addressing a special sitting…
Tony Abbott’s round of summiteering has given him a good opportunity to have discussions with a range of other leaders, but it complicated preparations for the G20.
EPA/Barbara Walton
Tony Abbott finds himself the party host caught somewhat off-balance as his guests set off crackers all over the place. The government is – and has been all year – shouting that it wants this weekend’s…
OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria, right, is welcomed by Queensland’s Governor Paul de Jersey at Brisbane International Airport.
Patrick Hamilton/AAP
The G20 summit must “go structural, go social and go green”, says OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria. Speaking at Griffith University’s pre-summit conference in Brisbane, Mr Gurria said trade, investment…
China recently launched its US$50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in Beijing.
AAP
The G20 infrastructure agenda cites an OECD prediction the global infrastructure gap will be worth US$70 trillion by 2030. It is predicting this gap will grow. Yet it’s difficult to assess the credibility…
By prioritizing economic growth and the fossil fuel industry over environmental protection, Australian PM Tony Abbott and Canadian PM Stephen Harper are a formidable barrier to a global climate deal.
Office of Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper
Having reached a landmark agreement with China this week to limit greenhouse gas emissions, US president Barack Obama heads to Australia for the G20 summit of economic superpowers. The China deal will…
Russian naval soldiers line up in front of the Russian warship Varyag.
EPA/Yun Suk-Bong
The Defence Department is watching Russian naval vessels that are currently transiting international waters to the north of Australia ahead of the weekend G20 attended by president Vladimir Putin. In the…
President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands during a press conference in Beijing, at which they announced the deal.
EPA/How Hwee Young
After Tony Abbott did everything he could to keep discussion of climate change out of the G20, he has been ambushed almost on the eve of the weekend meeting. The Prime Minister did not have forewarning…
The G20 represents 84% of the world economy.
Jason Reed/AAP
Charis Palmer, The Conversation and Emil Jeyaratnam, The Conversation
At the G20 meeting in Brisbane on the weekend we are going to hear a lot of talk about current accounts, GDP, CPI as well as a whole blizzard of more obscure acronyms and economic measures. To help you…
Many governments are realising high-growth tech companies have the keys to their country’s economic future.
Peter Dasilva/EPA/AAP
The world was a very different place in December 1999 when the first G20 met in Berlin. Steve Jobs had just taken back the reins at Apple, but Facebook, Google, Twitter and the dot-com bust were figments…
Pressure is building ahead of the Brisbane G20 Leaders’ Summit for action on tax avoidance by multinationals.
Andrew Sutherland/Flickr
Tax avoidance by multinational enterprises is not new. But the current level of political will and public outcry on the issue is uncommon in the history of taxation. The upcoming G20 meeting in Brisbane…
The Toronto G20 summit showed what starts out as a peaceful protest can turn into a violent clash.
EPA/Sergei Ilinitsky
The Brisbane G20 summit is shaping up to to be Australia’s largest security operation. In recent decades, most large-scale protests in Australia have been relatively peaceful events, but the policing of…
The G20 might seem like a tasty target for hackers, but any real threats will come from elsewhere.
Imaginary Museum Projects: News Tableaus/Flickr
You might have seen reports that the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) has issued cyber security advice ahead of the G20 Leaders Summit in Brisbane this weekend. So under the watchful eye of the media…
The G20 of today faces a different type of crisis to the one it was founded on.
Jason Hargrove/Flickr
To understand this week’s G20 Summit being held in Brisbane, Australia, and measure its success, requires a sense of the history of economic crisis and change. Recurring crises have shaped global institutions…
Leaked documents reveal how multinational companies use PwC in Luxembourg to shift profits and avoid tax.
Nicolas Bouvy/AAP
Hundreds of advance tax agreements between Luxembourg and more than 300 taxpayers were leaked and published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists last week. The taxpayers involved…
Australia’s standard of living is under threat.
Scott Woodman/Flickr
When the G20 finance ministers agreed in February to significantly raise global growth, they locked in a goal of lifting collective GDP by more than 2%. This was a cumulative goal - that is a total of…
China’s embrace of technologies like solar roofs has seen it become the world’s biggest renewable energy investor.
Climate Council
Climate change, now belatedly added to the agenda for this month’s G20 meeting in Brisbane, is a perennial topic whenever leaders gather for international summits. That’s understandable, given that countries…
Luxembourg: a fairyland for tax avoidance?
Claude Wians
The revelations that global and multinational businesses have been brokering “secret” tax deals with Luxembourg to avoid paying taxes in their home countries, may be the first time an entire country has…
Future Fund Chairman and former Australian treasurer Peter Costello is likely to face more questions on why the fund has been involved in secret tax deals in Europe.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
The hollowing out of tax collected for public purposes by rich and poor nations is not confined to technology and mining companies, according to a major leak of secret tax agreements covering more than…
University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Stephen Parker and Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics, including Russia and the G20 Leaders’ Summit, Australia and China’s impending…
Not everyone is good at diplomacy.
David Allan Barker/Flickr