Rob Burgess
Only decent pay rises can dispel consumer fear
On many indicators, Australia’s tightrope-walk transition from the mining investment boom to a more balanced economy looks to be over – until,...
The PM has just brought forward your next rate rise
The announcement of a royal commission into the much-reviled banking industry will please a lot of voters, but it will also cost...
Beware of politicians peddling superannuation myths
One of the scary things about the current Turnbull government in-fighting is the way it transfers power to populist, right-leaning groups and...
Now’s the time to push back on real estate agents
Economists have long argued that ‘perfect information’ is a prerequisite for an efficient market, but there seems to be precious little of...
Australia is losing the electric car race for no good reason
The fact that the British government has just announced £340 million ($594 million) in new funding to accelerate the rollout of electric...
Taxes up, taxes down. This government can’t decide
It’s been a confusing week for tax policy, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull rashly promising he can cut income taxes for middle...
The future of ‘Generation Spent’ is a national problem
One of the common questions asked by 30- to 40-year-olds is ‘should I borrow a huge sum of money to buy a house?’....
The numbers don’t lie – the jobs surge is real
This week’s jobs data is a tiny ray of sunshine for the embattled Turnbull government, with the headline unemployment rate falling from...
Why above-inflation wage growth just isn’t enough
There was no great surprise in the latest wages data released on Wednesday – which is a shame, because we sorely need...
Surviving the interest-rate dive is all in the timing
Deputy Reserve Bank governor Guy Debelle’s latest speech on the state of the economy can be summarised in just one word – ‘phew’....