Australian Politics

The 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy, considered the gold standard in keeping track of what powers the world, was released last month and revealed that: Oil consumption hit a record high.

The AFR recently produced the following chart showing the massive backlog of parent visas awaiting permanent residency: In the 2024-25 financial year, there were 157,000 parent visas in the backlog, up 52,000 from 2018-19.

Here it is, in all its glory.

The 60 day ceasefire enabling negotiation of a final deal on the Straits of Hormuz ends tomorrow week.

By Stephen Saunders Since 2006, Big Australia has sailed on through seven prime ministers.

LVO is back at the coalface with a blunt pick today.

Former senior Australian Treasury official David Pearl gave a fantastic interview on the John Anderson podcast where, among other things, he highlighted how economic policy in Australia has lost focus on growing the economy via productivity improvements and has become increasingly reliant on government spending and interference to drive growth.

When you exploit and ruin a country for seventy years, should you really be surprised that when it wins the war against you, it is payback time?

When Tanya Plibersek was Australia’s housing minister under the Rudd government, Labor relaxed FIRB rules for foreign buyers, including: Allowing temporary residents to buy established dwellings without prior FIRB approval Raising monetary thresholds for screening Plibersek argued at the time that these changes were justified to support housing demand during the GFC.

Most of Australia’s previous privatisations were anti-competitive and led to private monopolies that harmed consumers and taxpayers. Our politicians embraced this agenda because it permitted them to achieve both lower taxes and lower public debt (in the short term) by simply shifting monopoly ownership from public to private hands.

When former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull first announced Snowy Hydro 2.0 pumped hydro project in 2017, it was billed as a $2 billion project capable of producing 2 megawatts of power on demand and 350,000 megawatt-hours of storage by 2021.

The Iranians and Omanis appear close to a deal to open Hormuz.

As the debate on the issue of net zero emissions and climate change continues in the halls of power and around backyard BBQ’s across the nation, new data from Compass Polling has shed light on what voters believe when the time comes to pay for action on climate change directly with their wallets.

Victoria’s 90-kilometre Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) is arguably the nation’s worst infrastructure project.

The rise of One Nation has finally caused the Albanese Labor government to pivot on immigration. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has already implemented several unannounced measures aimed at reducing net overseas migration (NOM), including: A 24% increase in visa application fees (effective July 1), raising $1.2 billion more than expected.

Bloomberg.

In the lead-up to Victoria’s leadership spill, Ben Carroll stated repeatedly that he supported Premier Jacinta Allan.

Economist Chris Richardson is one of the nation’s best analysts on budget finances.

The Dropsite wrap.

Andrew Kemp posted a terrific set of 26 charts illustrating the decline of Australia’s economy, standard of living, and social cohesion.

If you have ever wondered why some media outlets are overly supportive of the Albanese government’s agenda, it may have something to do with the government’s $74 million Journalism Assistance Fund (JAF), which subsidises the wages of more than 2,000 journalists at 185 media organisations.

Just go away, Honest John.