Politics Archives

After winning the US Presidential election Joe Biden now has to fight the one thing Americans agree on: the nation’s deep division

Jared Mondschein - November 8, 2020 4 MIN READ

A timeless tradition in political journalism is trying to find a narrative that explains an electoral outcome. A widely accepted narrative to explain Barack Obama’s win over John McCain in 2008 was that Americans wanted to embrace the “change” candidate who appeared the most dissimilar to then-President George W Bush. The narrative four years later… Read more »

Politics

It’s still incredibly close, but Biden is more likely to win the US election

Adrian Beaumont - November 5, 2020 2 MIN READ

Owing to the large numbers of mail ballots, counting in some states has been very slow. What we know is that Donald Trump won Florida, Texas, Ohio and Iowa. With the exception of Florida, these states were regarded as only winnable for Biden if he won by a landslide. Trump is narrowly ahead with almost… Read more »

Politics

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has compared the ALP’s original NBN plan to Soviet-era tractor production

Simon Thomsen - October 28, 2020 3 MIN READ

Paul Fletcher, the federal communications minister in charge of the $55.5 billion national broadband rollout, has evoked tractor production under the Soviets to defend the Coalition government’s seven-year handling of the NBN roll-out. In a speech to the CommsDay Summit yesterday, Fletcher evoked the spectre of “those apocryphal Japanese soldiers found in remote jungles in… Read more »

Politics

SCOTT MORRISON: ‘Our challenge is to keep the foot on the digital accelerator’

Scott Morrison, Prime Minister - October 24, 2020 10 MIN READ

This year has been a thunderclap to so much of what we assumed to be normal. While some parts of the economy, by virtue of the pandemic restrictions, were frozen in place, others had to accelerate at warp speed. But all of us have had to adapt and to find a place of resilience and… Read more »

Politics

7 charts that explain the 2020 Australian budget

Wes Mountain - October 7, 2020 < 1 MIN READ

The budget deficit is projected to hit $213.6 billion, a record 11% of GDP, before winding back: Instead of falling, as predicted in the last budget, debt will climb: There’s spending and tax cuts a plenty: It’s expected to bring about a bounce-back in economic growth: But much depends on the assumptions, including a return… Read more »

Politics

Startup founders and the tech sector react to Budget 2020

Simon Thomsen - October 6, 2020 15 MIN READ

The delayed 2020 federal budget, delivered by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in the wake of the damage wrought by Covid-19 contained a major unexpected win for the startup sector over the R&D Tax Incentive. Amid a massive $213.7 billion deficit for this year – and $480.5 billion over the next four years, there were accelerated income… Read more »

Politics

Budget 2020 has a $37 billion boost for business

Peter Martin - October 6, 2020 4 MIN READ

Tax cuts aren’t the half of it. The personal income tax cuts promised in the budget will cost A$17.8 billion over four years. The measures aimed at supporting businesses – the temporary instant tax write off of capital investments, the temporary ability to use losses to reduce previous tax payments, the JobMaker hiring credit and… Read more »

Politics

Budget 2020: Treasurer says ‘we have your back’ as income tax cuts kick in early

Michelle Grattan - October 6, 2020 4 MIN READ

Accelerated tax cuts, cash splashes for pensioners, massive incentives for business to invest and a subsidy to hire unemployed people are the centrepieces of the Morrison government’s COVID-19 budget. More than 11 million taxpayers will get a tax cut backdated to July 1, giving lower and middle-income earners tax relief this financial year of up… Read more »

Politics

Here comes an Australian budget unlike any seen before in our lifetime

Michelle Grattan - October 6, 2020 4 MIN READ

Not many stories can compete with the run up to a federal budget, especially one with a deficit like none of us has ever seen, income tax cuts, and much else besides. But Donald Trump’s COVID infection certainly has done so in the last few days, especially given the official lying surrounding it and the… Read more »

Politics

The 2020 federal budget is a great chance to go digital first on the road to recovery

Angus Capel - October 2, 2020 3 MIN READ

As we head into the budget, many of the nation’s more than 2.3 million small businesses will be watching for measures to aid the recovery of this key sector of the economy. A recent Xero survey found 17% of small business owners believed the sector should be the central focus of the budget, and nearly… Read more »

Politics

Scott Morrison: My roadmap for modern Australian manufacturing

Scott Morrison, Prime Minister - October 1, 2020 11 MIN READ

The 2020-2021 Budget, to be delivered by the Treasurer next Tuesday, will be arguably one of the most important, if not the most important since the end of the Second World War. This year, the global economy is forecast to contract by around 4.5%. The world economy during the GFC declined by 0.1%. So in… Read more »

Politics

Space and resources tech are among six focus areas for the Australian government’s $1.5 billion manufacturing reboot

Michelle Grattan - October 1, 2020 4 MIN READ

The federal government is selecting six priority areas for support in a $1.5 billion manufacturing plan Scott Morrison will outline in a pre-budget address. They are resources technology and critical minerals processing, food and beverage, medical products, recycling and clean energy, defence, and space. The plan will also focus on building “supply chain resilience” after… Read more »

Politics

The budget will spend $800 million ramping up how business works digitally, especially when dealing with government

Simon Thomsen - September 29, 2020 3 MIN READ

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced an $800 million digital technology plan for business as part of the ongoing stimulus response to the Covid-19 pandemic The PM said next Tuesday’s Budget would support businesses to recover and create more jobs. The major areas of focus for the plan include digitisation of the government’s business register,… Read more »

Politics

Australia is going to introduce US-style insolvency laws for when small companies get into financial trouble

Michelle Grattan - September 24, 2020 2 MIN READ

The Morrison government will make sweeping changes to the insolvency system to improve the chances of saving small businesses hit by the pandemic. The reforms – which are described as the most significant for three decades – will cover three quarters of businesses currently subject to insolvency, almost all of which have less than 20… Read more »

Politics

‘A dose of reality’: the Morrison government’s $1.9bn techno-fix for climate change is a small step

Simon Thomsen - September 17, 2020 4 MIN READ

The Morrison government today announced A$1.9 billion over ten years to develop clean technology in industry, agriculture and transport. In some ways it’s a step in the right direction, but a far cry from what’s needed to drive Australia’s shift to a low emissions economy. The big change involves what the money is for. The… Read more »

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