Some regulations are good. Some are not. But cutting mystery ‘red tape’ is not panacea for improving productivity growth.
Thu 21 Aug 2025 16.00 AEST
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Matt and Elinor discuss the big fine handed to Qantas, how a training levy on businesses could improve productivity, the misunderstandings around the causes of Australia’s housing crisis, and the latest from the government’s economic reform roundtable.
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Dead Centre: How political pragmatism is killing us by Richard Denniss is available to pre-order now via the Australia Institute website.
This discussion was recorded on Thursday 21 August 2025.
Host: Matt Grudnoff, Senior Economist, the Australia Institute // @mattgrudnoff
Host: Elinor Johnston-Leek, Senior Content Producer, the Australia Institute // @elinorjohnstonleek
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Hanson, who Albanese barely names let alone fights, is enough to attract those who are tired of Labor not having the fights that matter. In the absence of anything to believe in, people turn to anger and being told they’re right. Again, the fight doesn’t go away just because someone doesn’t want to have it, it just goes elsewhere.
The good news is that headline inflation went down to 3.8%, (from 4% last month) with the trimmed mean (the inflation rate with the most volatile bits removed) unchanged at 3.6%. Both of these were below what the market and the RBA were predicting.
