Greg Jericho is a Walkley Award winning columnist, known for his regular columns for Guardian Australia and social media presence as Grogs Gamut. He is the Chief Economist at The Australia Institute.
The latest greenhouse gas emissions data has been released, showing that in 2025, total emissions fell 2.1% compared to 2024. And while this represents good news, unfortunately the pace remains well below what is needed to reach the government’s 2023 and 2035 targets, let alone achieve the cut in emissions required for Australia to do its share to limit global warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels.
Today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that annual inflation in April was 4.2%, down from 4.6% in March. While it is likely to have little impact on the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) rate decision next month, the figures at least show that the large jump in inflation in March was a once-off.
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This morning, at Senate estimates, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) were asked about the drop in emissions since 2005. Almost all of the drop cited was due to the inclusion of land clearing.
It is kind of amazing how, after Jim Chalmers announced his reforms to the capital gains tax (CGT) discount and negative gearing, there was a conga line of wannabe influencer economists suddenly keen to demonstrate their Nobel Prize aspirations — telling everyone that the CGT discount introduced by John Howard in 1999, and negative gearing, really had nothing to do with the rise in house prices or the collapse in housing affordability over the past two decades.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has decided that 'ramping up' is his go-to phrase to use about the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT). The problem is that only one fossil fuel item is actually going up, and it’s not the PRRT. It’s the Fuel Tax Credit, a subsidy to the fossil fuel industry.
Can you be as bad as Joe Hockey, who said poor people don’t drive, and suggested that the solution to the housing crisis was for young people to get a good job that pays money? Well, alas, the NSW Premier Chris Minns has now reached the Joe Hockey level of economic ignorance.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) have long complained that too few people are unemployed. They will no doubt be happy then that unemployment in April rose to 4.5% - the highest level since 2021 – and before the full impact of the rates rises this year take effect.
Former Prime Minister Paul Keating has stepped into the debate on changes to the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) announced in last week’s budget with a full-throated defence of the Government’s proposals.
One of the more hilarious aspects of the budget is that conservative newspapers have discovered that young people exist. Not all young people, mind. Not young people trying to cope on Jobseeker, or young people coping with a more precarious labour force than in the past, or young people with disabilities about to be kicked off the NDIS, not even young people wanting to buy a home. Nope, we are talking about young people who invest.
The Albanese Government’s move to tackle the CGT discount is aimed at addressing one of the very settings many economists and housing advocates argue helped push the dream of home ownership further out of reach.
