Richard Denniss
Richard Denniss is a prominent Australian economist, author and public policy commentator, and has spent the last twenty years moving between policy-focused roles in academia, federal politics and think-tanks. He is a regular contributor to The Monthly and co-chief executive of the Australia Institute.
The fake gas and housing shortage is Australia’s real crisis
Australia doesn’t have a shortage of houses, a shortage of gas, or a shortage of bullshit about housing and gas supply. Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of gas, but we’re often told we don’t have enough gas. Likewise, Australia has more houses and apartments -- in absolutes terms and per person -- than we did in the 1960s.
Australia actually has more than enough houses, they’re just owned by investors
Over the past 10 years, the number of new homes has been growing faster than the population. Read that sentence again if you need to, but doing so won’t change the facts.
CGT reform isn’t left or right, it's good policy and good politics
The last time Labor proposed to wind back the expensive and inequitable capital gains tax discounts their vote soared in the highest income electorates.
Left-right labels make political commentary easy, and democracy hard
Is protecting freedom of speech a left wing issue or a right wing issue? And if you aren’t sure, how on earth can the press gallery or anyone else talk about what a ‘centre right’ political party's stance on such a point of principle should be.
