Australian Politics

  Today we meet Ted.

In this MacroBusiness podcast, Gunnamatta and Leith van Onselen unpack the budget outlook, the deindustrialisation of Australia, housing policy failures, energy policy failures, and the nation’s falling productivity growth.

A 2024 report by the Penington Institute claimed that cannabis has become an integral part of the criminal economy, representing a $5 billion black market in Australia that generates massive profits for transnational gangs.

Wind generated power now comprises a substantial proportion of Australia’s electricity supply. As of September 2024, Australia had an installed wind capacity of approximately 13.3 GW. Wind power accounted for 13.4% (or 31.9 TWh) of Australia’s total electricity generation in 2024.

Victoria’s financial situation is dire, as projections indicate that the state’s debt will increase from $155.5 billion to $194 billion by FY29.

Credit ratings agency S&P notes that the combined budget deficits of Australia’s state and federal governments total $52 billion, while the net debt now exceeds 60% of the country’s GDP.

News.com.au reports that Victoria has relaxed its gas phase-out plan, allowing owner-occupiers to continue using gas heaters and reaffirming that businesses can keep gas running in existing commercial buildings: The state will still push ahead with reforms that will make all new homes and most new commercial buildings electric only from 2027.

The NSW government’s budget papers show that the state is expected to post a deficit of $5.7 billion for the 2024-25 financial year.

Recently, it was revealed that the membership ranks of the Liberal Party were plummeting, with one party source claiming that the biggest party expense at the local level was “funeral wreaths”.

Once upon a time, the immigration intake into Australia was a mostly benign issue, with the intake as a proportion of the population largely ebbing and flowing in a relatively limited range, consistent with the underlying conditions present in the economy.

The gas cartel shills are in gear for the Santos takeover, according to the AFR.

In the 2022 state budget, the former Queensland Labor government blindsided the coal industry by unexpectedly introducing two new tiers of coal royalties.

During the Albanese government’s first term, one of the main policy focuses was on public housing.

Major LNG exporters Qatar and the United Arab Emirates rely on passage through the Strait of Hormuz to supply Asian markets.

The federal government has been advised by eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant to scrap YouTube’s exemption from laws banning people under the age of 16 from using social media, which are scheduled to take effect in December.

In a recent speech to the Queensland Parliament, Mermaid Beach Liberal Party MP Ray Stevens called for the return of vagrancy laws in order to prosecute the “presumably homeless people” increasingly cropping up in his electorate in “some of the most sought after locations anyone could wish for—absolute beachfront”.

Pru Goward tries to make sense of the world.

Victoria’s net debt was only $22.3 billion when the Labor government delivered its inaugural state budget in 2015.

The Australian has a consistent viewpoint on the use of gas that is clearly destructive to the Australian economy (and, therefore, itself).

Let’s do some more worrying, shall we.

The Rudd/Gillard Labor government made the disastrous decision in the early 2010s to authorise LNG exports from Gladstone, Queensland, without forcing gas producers to first serve the domestic market.

Liberal MP Garth Hamilton has called for sweeping changes to the tax system, arguing that it needs to be inclusive and support modern families.