This Month
- Analysis
- Federal budget
Chalmers and Dutton put their economic credibility on the line
Chalmers has made a big, bold gamble on inflation, while Dutton’s rhetoric is bigger than the reality on immigration.
- John Kehoe
- Analysis
- Critical minerals
China-US clean energy trade war could get dirty
History suggests Beijing will reply in kind and lift tariffs on a range of American exports, which will raise the stakes once again in their long-running tit-for-tat tussle.
- Jessica Sier
Albanese and Dutton fight on the home front for voters
With the countdown now on to the election, both sides used budget week to stake out their territory on the hot-button housing issue. But it’s already a crowded policy space, and there are no quick fixes.
- Andrew Tillett
How the west’s miners won over Canberra
The production tax credits on critical minerals processing unveiled in the federal budget were the result of months of careful negotiations that started with a meeting in Perth.
- Brad Thompson
The number that sums up Biden’s biggest economic problem
While price rises have cooled from more than 9 per cent to 3.4 per cent, household budgets have not recovered since Biden took office.
- Updated
- Matthew Cranston
The red line on Gaza: PM draws it, students ignore it
Tensions have come to a head after Australia voted “yes” in a United Nations vote to support a Palestinian bid to become a full member.
- Patrick Durkin
- Opinion
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict
What a ‘free Palestine’ means in practice
The campus protesters are not the first generation of Western activists who have championed movements that promised liberation in theory and misery and murder in practice.
- Bret Stephens
The history of the two-state solution (in six maps)
The world is still searching for a path to peaceful co-existence by Israelis and Palestinians.
- Updated
- Emma Connors and Hans van Leeuwen
- Analysis
- Federal budget
The budget that could be make or break for Labor
Jim Chalmers is gearing up for his third and most important budget. If he spends too much and stokes inflation, he knows he’ll own the next rate increase.
- Updated
- Phillip Coorey
Michele Bullock’s run of good news may be about to end
RBA governor Michele Bullock has proven a better communicator than her predecessor Philip Lowe. But her real test may still be yet to come.
- Ronald Mizen
Military tensions flare on the road to stability with China
A near miss between a Chinese fighter jet and Australian helicopter show that friction remains despite improvement in ties between Beijing and Canberra.
- Andrew Tillett
This tree symbolises how Victoria became a financial basket case
After 300 years of withstanding the elements, the River Red Gum in Bulleen forced the North East Link to be redesigned as the cost of the project blows out by billions of dollars.
- Patrick Durkin
- Analysis
- US election
Trump’s long week in court as election looms
Stormy Daniels’ allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump set the courtroom alight this week. How they play into his election chances is unclear.
- Matthew Cranston
- Exclusive
- Antisemitism
Lowy’s lament: ‘I know how insidious antisemitism can be’
Sir Frank Lowy experienced hatred against Jews first hand in Hitler’s Europe, and is shaken by what he now sees “leaking out of decent people” in Australia.
- Jill Margo
- Analysis
- Australian economy
‘Made in Australia’ risks higher interest rates and a poorer future
The old rules of economics still apply and the consequences of Albanese’s big gamble could be widely felt.
- John Kehoe
Cash splash as Boomers hit the jackpot
After decades of saving, older Australians are spending up. But the wave of cash is causing headaches for the inflation-fighting treasurer and RBA. Can the good times last?
- Jacob Greber
Why Australia’s domestic violence problem is complicated
The hope is that targeted action, and policies to boost women’s economic security more broadly, can continue to deliver results.
- Tom McIlroy
Has Julie Bishop taken on an impossible task?
The military is losing ground in Myanmar. What follows could be a failed state – and Australia’s former foreign minister will be right in the thick of it.
- Emma Connors
- Analysis
- Governance
Japan turns up the focus on profit growth
The Japanese aren’t known for risk-taking, but fledgling signs in the corporate world show a huge shift could be under way as non-core businesses get spun off.
- Jessica Sier
- Analysis
- US politics
A bystander to ’60s protests, Biden now becomes a target
The protests pose two political risks to Joe Biden. They could worsen his estrangement with the left and feed into a narrative that he has presided over disarray.
- Peter Baker