Today
‘This is a real problem’: Australia’s $1trn debt office in chaos
Treasury’s Australian Office of Financial Management has been rocked by a series of senior staff departures, the loss of 22 of 48 staff and shocking employee-survey results.
This Month
Treasury’s $1trn debt office faces ‘independent review’
Former RBA deputy governor Guy Debelle will review the Australian Office of Financial Management’s governance and capabilities following a staff exodus over the past year.
Bullock’s interest rate story needs tougher talk
With the private sector rebounding, the government should be pulling back to make room for more productive enterprise activity.
How NSW’s investment vehicle returned 11.3pc a year
OneFund will return $2.2 billion more than would have been earned under a previous investment approach, NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey says.
Australia will pay for its Darwin Port mistake
Readers’ letters on the Darwin Port sale, Chalmers’ efforts on inflation, Adelaide Writers’ Week, the RBA’s interest rate decision, and AI and climate action.
January
Budget repair starts with confronting middle-class welfare
A properly designed, economy-wide carbon tax could serve as a crucial productivity measure to bolster the budget bottom line.
Chalmers’ budget blowouts echo Britney’s ‘Oops, I did it again’
Our silly budget reporting rules allow a completely cooked policymaking disaster to show up as large budgetary savings made by our very responsible treasurer.
Record $47.8b budget ‘error’ puts public service forecasts on notice
Hidden in Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ budget papers, a $48 billion correction to spending forecasts has put a spotlight on the accuracy of advice to cabinet.
COVID-19 is long gone, but state debt is still soaring
States and territories are paying more than Queensland’s education budget to service their combined debt each year. The fix is political, not financial.
RBA spared ‘gangland-style pressures’ facing Fed, but risks lurk
Former central bank insiders warn that partisan board appointments and rising government debt could pose grave dangers to the Reserve Bank’s independence.
States are ‘spending like they’re in lockdown’, S&P warns
Lack of fiscal discipline has pushed the states’ average credit rating to just below AA+, with NSW and Queensland on watch for further downgrades in 2026.
How Labor became the party of handouts for the rich
It is an upside-down world when Labor, traditionally the working-class party, is using tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to help the well-heeled.
Jamie Dimon delivers a cold shower to the rate-cut bulls
Wall Street is waiting for the debt monster to finally bite. There are no signs of it yet, but government balance sheets have to matter at some point.
The top 10 tax expenditures costing the budget $200b
Imagine what the government could do if it chose to cut back on some of the 300 taxation expenditures, or even just stopped adding to the number of them.
December 2025
Former Victorian auditor warns on federal bailout
The auditor who examined Victoria’s debt-laden finances during the 1990s warns the state appears on track for another bailout.
$20b in savings and $32b tax windfalls fail to dent budget deficit
MYEFO reveals budget will stay in red until at least 2035-36 with spending blowouts, rising costs and a plunge in tobacco excise eating up income tax windfalls.
Fact-checking Jim Chalmers’ bold budget claims
The Treasurer is trying to defend Labor’s record. Here are five misleading claims he made in an article for the Financial Review.
‘Stop sugar-hit spending’: Top CEOs on how to get the economy moving
Australia’s foremost chief executives have told the annual Chanticleer poll that governments need to step up and drive productivity. And time is running out.
Update shows Labor has done nothing to improve Victoria’s finances
Little in the budget update will reassure rating agencies the Allan government is prepared to do what needs to be done to alleviate Victoria’s financial woes.
Politicians must cut spending to avoid interest rate increases
The challenge for the monetary policy mandarins is that politicians are pumping the economy full of more and more unproductive cash, driving inflation higher.
