Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
30 years ago, Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating adopted an ambitious official target for Australian unemployment. The Albanese government just passed up a historic opportunity to go even further.
Monday’s white paper will define fuill employment more broadly than in the past as when “everyone who wants a job should be able to find one without searching for too long”.
Renee McKibbin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Complaints that our recommendations would weaken the Reserve Bank governor ignore the fact that outsiders already control the board. We just want them do it better.
Six charts explain the Australian economy. Three of the most disturbing show living standards going backwards, productivity collapsing and household saving falling to a 15-year low.
Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Former Reserve Bank and Treasury chiefs have gone on to run Westpac, the National Australia Bank, the ANZ, and Macquarie Bank. It makes regulating those banks hard.
Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
The Treasury and RBA believe Australia’s sustainable rate of unemployment is above 4%, but Australia’s leading economists think 3.75% is possible long-term, and have ideas about how to achieve it.
Inflation has slipped faster than the Reserve Bank thought it would, and the underlying rate is down to 5.4%. The bank is likely to tread cautiously from here on.
Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Even a week ago we couldn’t have predicted this. But after good news from the US, our Reserve Bank now has a chance to cement low unemployment while controlling inflation – without more rate rises.
Although she has been with the bank four decades, the past two have been in areas remote from the setting of interest rates, meaning she won’t feel compelled to defend the mistakes of the past.
The government has appointed Michele Bullock the new governor of the Reserve Bank – the first woman to occupy the post. Bullock, currently deputy governor, replaces Philip Lowe, who has weathered strong…
Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Australian home borrowers are experiencing much, much more interest rate pain than borrowers in New Zealand, Canada, the UK or US – for one simple reason.
Unless we boost productivity, wages growth could sink back to 2-3%. The Productivity Commission has some good solutions – and we’d argue redesigning the Stage 3 tax cuts should be on the list too.
Chalmers is in the driver’s seat as another Labor government copes with an economic crisis – very different from the GFC, but similar in being driven by circumstances not of the government’s making.
In this podcast, @michellegrattan and @amandadunn10 discuss the PwC scandal, Mark McGowans resignation, the PMs Singapore trip, and the inflation figures from the ABS
Treasurer Jim Chalmers with the report of the independent review of the Reserve Bank.
Jono Searle/AAP
In this podcast, @michellegrattan and @amandadunn10 discuss another interest rate rise form the RBA, Labor's war on vaping and an increase to the tobacco tax, and the likely boost to JobSeeker for people aged 55 and over.