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…
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.
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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…
Not everyone is good at diplomacy.
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To navigate the timeline below, hover your mouse on the right (and on the left to move back).
Prime Minister of The Netherlands Mark Rutte reacts as he listens to Australian Prime Minster Tony Abbott, in Canberra.
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The Russians have started coming. On Thursday, an aircraft with about 80-90 Russians arrived in preparation for the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Brisbane. There will be four more official planes, including President…
From St Petersburg to Brisbane. The G20 leaders are expected to cover a lot of territory.
Sergei Karpukhin/EPA/AAP
Suppose that on the evening of November 16, the G20 leaders release a 25-page communique with hundreds of recommendations on global health, security, climate change, human rights etc. Would this be regarded…
For those of us who believe that international institutions are a good idea in principle, these ought to be quite exciting times. After all, we’re about to host the G20 and there will be an even bigger…
Lost amid the immediate G20 hoopla is a much bigger wave of incoming disruption.
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As world leaders gather in Brisbane this month to tackle an increasingly fractious global economy, let’s cast our mind back exactly one hundred years. In 1914, the world was about to plunge into a period…
Too big to fail, or too big to jail?
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The global financial crisis had many causes. But it was generally acknowledged at the time and since, that failures of ethics, integrity and trust were an important part of the problem. US Republican Senator…
Where are the women? Though light on female representation, the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors can’t ignore the role women could play towards boosting economic growth.
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Many Australian women will know the G20 summit is coming up in Brisbane, but they may not think it has much relevance to their daily lives. But that is not the case. Joe Hockey needs us, and he may not…
Outreach is a crucial element of the G20 leaders summit.
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The G20 is full of traps for the unwary punter, new to its byzantine ways. There are not 20 member countries in the G20, for example. There are 19 countries, plus the European Union. In November, you will…
In the lead-up to the London G20 summit in 2009, many businesses were boarded up, and some removed company logos from their premises.
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When the G20/G8 summits moved on from Toronto in 2010, they left an US$11 million bill in business compensation claims. To minimise the effect of preparations on businesses preparing for next month’s G20…
News Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch has been given plenty of opportunities to air his agenda ahead of the G20 summit.
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Rupert Murdoch’s special address to an exclusive meeting of the world’s most powerful finance ministers got a second airing this week. In a breathless front-page “exclusive” in The Australian, Paul Kelly…
When banks run out of capital, the result can be devastating.
Katia Christodoulou/EPA/AAP
Following its stepped up year-long review of European banks, the European Central Bank this weekend failed 25 of the 130 banks it tested on the strength of their capital buffers to protect against a downturn…
New Indonesian president Joko Widodo’s still unsure about attending the G20 Summit in Brisbane.
AAP Image/Eka Nickmatulhuda
Australian prime minister Tony Abbott met with newly sworn Indonesian president Joko Widodo after his inauguration in Jakarta, inviting him to attend the G20 Summit in Brisbane. But Jokowi, as the new…
The G20’s impressive declaratory record on energy cooperation hides serious practical shortcomings.
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With the Brisbane G20 Leaders Summit only a matter of weeks away, Australia is increasingly succumbing to G20 fever. Rarely does a self-declared middle power such as Australia get to play host to such…
Opening a mine in Queensland this week, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said coal was “good for humanity”.
Dan Peled/AAP
News emerging from Washington last week suggests climate change may amount to more than an FAQ in the appendices of this November’s G20 leaders’ summit agenda. President Obama’s deputy national security…
IMF managing director Christine Lagarde says the economic recovery underway in many markets is “brittle, uneven and beset by risks”.
Dave Hunt/AAP
Last week the IMF revised its 2014 global economic growth forecast down to 3.3% from the 3.7% expected six months ago, confirming that most economies around the world, Australia included, continue to underperform…
Treasurer Joe Hockey joins a long line of leaders unable to close the gap between promise and reality.
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Governments are notorious for missing targets. Look no further than France or Spain’s recent fiscal calumny, despite the European Union’s excessive deficit procedure. Closer to home, the Association of…
Are the right people at the table to ensure global tax reform benefits everyone?
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Tax reform is squarely on the agenda for the G20 Brisbane summit in November. The current international tax regime is broken and it’s going to take significant effort on a global scale to fix it. In a…
The International Energy Agency was set up to avoid a repeat of the 1973 oil crisis - but four decades later the rules need updating.
David Falconer/US Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons
Next week, Brisbane hosts the final meeting of the G20 Energy Sustainability Working Group before the main G20 summit in November. Government officials and energy experts from 20 of the most powerful countries…