Latest
Labor urged to restrict rather than ban non-compete clauses
Leading economists have urged the Albanese government to significantly restrict the use of non-compete clauses to revive Australia’s ailing productivity growth.
- Euan Black
Call to put fixing structural deficit at heart of budget policy
UNSW professor Richard Holden said Treasurer Jim Dr Chalmers had failed to adopt clear strategy in his first two budgets, which lacked accountability.
- Ronald Mizen
The apartment supply conundrum behind Perth’s housing price surge
There’s plenty of demand and many projects approved, but sky-high construction costs have left developers asking for more government money.
- Updated
- Tom Rabe
Failure to reopen Australia embassy in Kyiv ‘an embarrassment’
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles visited Ukraine to unveil the package, including drones and air-defence systems, but there was one glaring omission from his trip.
- Hans van Leeuwen and Ronald Mizen
Government spending surge to fuel sticky inflation
Monthly spending figures show the federal budget bottom-line in the nine months to March was running $4.1 billion ahead of projections from December,
- Michael Read
Imploding Star Entertainment, Woodside’s energy battle & inflation runs hot, again
This week on the Chanticleer podcast, James & Anthony look at casino operator Star Entertainment’s second brush with disaster, go inside the battle over energy giant Woodside’s climate plan, and ask where rates go next after hot inflation numbers.
Opinion & Analysis
Post-coal power choice is renationalisation or redesigning the market
An integrated net-zero electricity system depends on governments restoring faith in the market delivering enough power to the right places at the right time.
Energy expert
Woodside Energy’s part in BHP’s low-carbon transition
The irony is that “The Big Australian” has the financial resources to bid for Anglo American partly because its legacy fossil fuel assets are now on Woodside Energy’s books.
Editorial
RBA should maintain its ‘wait and see’ approach to rates
Readers’ letters on what is playing into the Reserve Bank’s thinking on interest rates; what must change to make negative gearing fair; Woodside’s climate conundrum; and Peter Dutton’s nuclear problem.
Contributor
Fight to the last Ukrainian
More aid is clearly a relief for Kyiv, but will it be enough to reverse the tide of the war?
International editor
More From Today
- Opinion
- Energy transition
Post-coal power choice is renationalisation or redesigning the market
An integrated net-zero electricity system depends on governments restoring faith in the market delivering enough power to the right places at the right time.
- Tony Wood
Yesterday
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Woodside Energy’s part in BHP’s low-carbon transition
The irony is that “The Big Australian” has the financial resources to bid for Anglo American partly because its legacy fossil fuel assets are now on Woodside Energy’s books.
- The AFR View
RBA should maintain its ‘wait and see’ approach to rates
Readers’ letters on what is playing into the Reserve Bank’s thinking on interest rates; what must change to make negative gearing fair; Woodside’s climate conundrum; and Peter Dutton’s nuclear problem.
- Opinion
- Russia-Ukraine war
Fight to the last Ukrainian
More aid is clearly a relief for Kyiv, but will it be enough to reverse the tide of the war?
- James Curran
- Opinion
- Australian economy
If Musk wins high stakes global battle, X could still lose the war
A court victory in the legal stoush over Australia’s eSafety commissioner’s take-down order might invite government intervention that bolsters regulation of the social media giants.
- Patrick Considine
- Analysis
- Gas
Woodside caught between twin objectives on a collision course
Woodside is hoping that technology, hard work and deployment will reconcile fidelity to net-zero with growth by pumping oil and gas.
- Ben Potter
- Opinion
- Interest rates
How Boomers are busting hopes for rate cuts
Macro commentator James Aitken says interest rates may have to head higher after we underestimated the increasingly powerful wealth effect.
- Jonathan Shapiro
This Month
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Chalmers’ narrow budget path is now in peril
The sudden change in the interest rate outlook this week could be political dynamite for the Albanese government and the budget.
- The AFR View
- Opinion
- Foreign relations
Australia’s embassy should move back to Kyiv
Most other big democracies have moved their diplomats back to the Ukrainian capital. Australia is a notable laggard.
- Michael Fullilove
Chalmers confronts a diabolical budget conundrum
Just a few months ago, the Australian economy was shaping up perfectly for the Labor government and its treasurer. Then came this week’s inflation data.
- Updated
- Ronald Mizen
Big super splits on performance test reforms
Labor announced it was reviewing the test after several funds said the current rules stopped them investing in the “nation building” initiatives the government wanted them to bankroll.
- Hannah Wootton
Start-ups, dentists drain retirement savings in ‘super scam’
The value of super withdrawn for dental treatments nationally jumped 373 per cent to $313 million from 2019 to 2023, and Labor has warned of a potential crackdown.
- Hannah Wootton
- Exclusive
- Interest rates
RBA to lift cash rate to 5.1pc, says top forecaster
Judo Bank’s Warren Hogan, who was ranked 2023’s most accurate forecaster, predicts a resurgent economy will force the RBA to lift rates to 5.1 per cent.
- Michael Read
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Tactical Woodside vote a metaphor for Australia’s low-carbon transition
Can chairman Richard Goyder and CEO Meg O’Neill crack the problem of shifting from a carbon-intensive resources company to a green one without destroying shareholder value?
- The AFR View
Thousands join Anzac services as nation seeks to heal
Anzac Day was labelled a chance for Sydney to come together and heal after a series of terrifying knife attacks.
- Gus McCubbing
- Opinion
- Canberra Observed
Dutton’s atomic bet threatens Coalition chain reaction over climate
Rather than keep the heat on Labor’s handling of the cost-of-living pain as inflation stays high, the opposition leader’s nuclear venture risks becoming the story.
- Jacob Greber
- Opinion
- Monetary policy
Why inflation is proving sticky on both sides of the Atlantic
What matters is not what is happening right now, but what will happen in the months or even years ahead, as past policy works through the system.
- Updated
- Martin Wolf
- Opinion
- Climate policy
Voting down Woodside’s climate plan a shareholder activism milestone
This is a pivotal moment for other climate-science-denying board directors, a signal to act on their fiduciary duties, or suffer the consequences personally.
- Tim Buckley and Annemarie Jonson
Why China’s slowing economy is Australia’s problem
This week on The Fin podcast, North Asia correspondent Michael Smith talks about the changes in China over the past six years and what its slowing economy means for Australian prosperity.
Woodside climate plan sunk but Goyder survives
The proxy battle pitched Australia’s largest gas producer against activists that argue its path could tip the balance towards more dangerous climate change.
- Updated
- Ben Potter and Tom Rabe