Young people will decide who's the next PM

By MILLIE MUROI, Economics WriterBy now, it’s no secret that young people are the biggest voting group. While no demographic fits neatly into either the Labor or Coalition camp – or completely agrees on any given issue – it will be a relief for many young Australians to know they are more than an afterthought this election.Neither party has been exceedingly visionary, but as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader...

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Be warned: Ever-higher defence spending means ever-higher taxes

By tacit agreement of both sides, election campaigns exist in a highly contrived fantasy world where the future holds nothing unpleasant. Government spending only ever goes up to meet our growing needs, while those nasty taxes only ever go down. Debt and deficit have been banished to the never-never land of Don’t You Worry About That.But last week Peter Dutton ripped a great big hole in the circus tent, through which you could...

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Question for voters: Which party do I want deciding wages policy?

The craziest thing about this election is that we’re into the last week of the campaign without anyone much bothering to mention the word “wages”. Really? We’re too obsessed by the cost-of-living crisis to have any interest is what has happened, and will happen, to our wages?Is it possible our voters could be so detached from reality that they don’t see the link between prices and wages? It reminds me of the person who voted...

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Dutton almost promised to fix bracket creep. Here's why he didn't

By MILLIE MUROI, Economics WriterTaxes are a necessary evil – which is why neither side of politics is willing to sign themselves up to the best way to keep them in check.While most of us acknowledge the merits, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone jumping for joy when they find out their tax bill is growing.The one you’re probably most familiar with is personal income tax – a chunk of your income scooped out from your salary...

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Our democracy's not working well. Here are some ideas to fix it

This limp, uninspiring election campaign is a sign our democracy isn’t working as well as it should. The voters’ preoccupation with the cost of living has been a gift to both major parties, allowing them to wave around a few small tax cuts and other sweeties while avoiding controversial measures to tackle harder problems.The big two are claiming to want to get us “back on track” and “building Australia’s future” while saying...

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My Easter sermon: How we can Trump-proof our society

Since it’s Easter, and we’ve got the day off – and politicians have gone to ground – it’s a good time for, if not religious observance, then at least a little moral reflection.According to The Economist magazine, Christianity is struggling across the developed world. The Americans seem more devout than other English-speaking countries, but since the turn of the century, church attendance there has fallen from 70 per cent of people...

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Whether you eat alone is a good predictor of happiness

By MILLIE MUROI, Economics WriterIf you’re sharing a meal with someone this Easter, chances are you’re happier.In fact, it’s as strong an indicator of how happy you are as the amount of money you’re raking in and whether you’re holding down a job.That’s according to this year’s World Happiness Report, which examined data from a survey across 142 countries and 150,000 people, finding the link between meal-sharing and happiness...

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Home truths: housing policies are mainly for show

If you think this sounds twisted, it is. The best thing about the two sides’ various promises to help young people afford to buy their first home is the way it has provoked the nation’s economists to rise in condemnation of those schemes’ wrongheadedness. They look like they’ll help, but most of them are more likely to end up making homes less affordable rather than more.And the parties know it. They know it because their economic...

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This election is one of the worst I've seen

How are you going with the election? Are you getting a lot out of the debate, seeing the big issues canvassed and making up your mind who’ll win your vote?It’s not as if the choice isn’t clear: do you want to wait 15 months for a permanent tax cut of $5 a week, rising to $10 a week a year later, or would you be eligible for a $1200 once-only tax cut in July 2026, plus an immediate one-year cut of 25c a litre in the price of petrol?If...

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Hey Dutton: Good economic managers don't try to panic the punters

A problem in economics is that you can’t use the economy to do experiments. But as economists realised some years ago, sometimes the economy presents you with circumstances that constitute a “natural experiment”. This happened last week, and Peter Dutton flunked the test.In the days immediately after Mad King Donald’s big tariffs announcement on “Ruination Day”, sharemarkets around the world were crashing, people were feeling...

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Supermarkets: Be polite, say "excessive pricing" not "price gouging"

 By MILLIE MUROI, Economics WriterThey’re the villains that return in every episode of the cost-of-living fight. And despite the competition watchdog swallowing any mention of “price gouging” in its recent inquiry, supermarkets are still copping heat.They’re an easy target because there’s little competition for places where people have been noticing price spikes more than in the aisles – and checkouts – of their local Coles...

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Energy's a big part of living costs, but fixing it won't be cheap

The voters’ insistence that the election campaign must be about the cost of living has been a godsend to both major parties. They can look as if they’re lowering electricity and gas prices and avoid talking about their failure to tackle climate change.Unfortunately, however, climate change and energy prices are closely connected – which does much to explain why their promises to cut power prices never mean much.Voters seem permanently...

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Trump's trade war is bad, but how bad is up to the rest of us

At last, we know enough about President Donald Trump’s opening move on tariffs to start thinking about what it all means. By imposing tariffs on America’s imports, he’s shot his economy in the foot, but the rest of the world decides how bad it’s likely to be by what we do in response.But first, don’t be too impressed by the big fall in share prices. The sharemarket isn’t the economy. You could regard its movements as a predictor...

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The fine print costing Australians a pay rise

By MILLIE MUROI, Economics WriterHidden in the job contracts of about one in five Australians are little clauses weighing down their chances of landing a pay rise or a better-fitting role.They might, for instance, ban you from working for any of your employer’s competitors for a set amount of time – even after leaving your job. Or, they can prevent you from setting up your own business in the same industry. These are called “non-compete”...

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