The Me Too movement that burgeoned in 2017 was supposed to herald systemic change to the way women are treated in this country. Yet 2020 has been a uniquely difficult year for Australian women, with a pandemic-driven recession resulting in high job losses, increased unpaid caring responsibilities and, in some …
A leading economist has slammed the federal government’s decision to support the ailing fossil fuel industry over a burgeoning renewable energy market as “gesture politics”. The 2020 federal budget offers only “trivial” support for the renewable energy sector, according to Australian Laureate Fellow in Economics at the University of Queensland, …
One trillion dollars in debt, big tax cuts, a surprise new wage subsidy, and a big mental health package headline the federal budget. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has handed down what the Prime Minister called “the most important budget since World War II”, and we’re in record deficit. He said on …
A massive new wage subsidy to get young people off welfare, huge tax cuts doling out $2100 to most workers, and a doubling of Medicare-subsidised mental health sessions are at the heart of Australia’s COVID recovery plan, with Josh Frydenberg unveiling an eye-watering deficit and a trillion-dollar debt figure. “There …
Josh Frydenberg wasted no time in his delayed budget speech, spelling out how deep a black hole he and the nation is in. Five months ago he delayed the exercise of crunching numbers and best estimating where COVID-19 was taking Australia in the forlorn hope that things would get better …