Australia has a relatively small population. We share no land borders and are protected by vast oceans. We have abundant agricultural land, enormous natural resources, and some of the world’s most valuable exports. We’ve enjoyed more than 80 years without war on our own soil and never experienced a civil war. There is no reason poverty should be increasing in this country. There is no reason the middle class should be shrinking. There is no reason each generation shouldn’t have the opportunity to live better than the last. Australia’s challenges aren’t the result of a lack of land, resources, wealth, or stability. They are the result of political decisions. And for too long, we’ve kept electing politicians who fail us.

Despite increasing spending in every budget since 2022, Treasurer Chalmers is now promising a savings package because inflation is still high in 2026. This is the same Treasurer who spent the last 4.5 years blaming everything and everyone else but his own government's spending. So which is it? If government spending isn't the problem, why cut it now? And if there’s money to save, why didn’t he find it earlier?

There’s actually a very good reason you shouldn’t swim in the Yarra - E. Coli levels average 3x the safe swimming limit and regularly spike up to 25x after rainfall. Paris spent $2.3bn cleaning the Seine and it still regularly spikes up to 10x the E. Coli safe swimming limit - so $70m is highly unlikely to make the Yarra safe to swim in. I admire the aspiration to clean it up, but let’s get real - cutting wasteful spending, getting productivity moving and repairing budgets should be our priority right now. Wealthy nations with rising living standards can afford to invest in their local environment - let’s get the first part right first.

I learned about logarithms in Year 9 maths. Did the Greens staffer who made Shoebridge's graph spend that lesson getting acquainted with a bong?

'Affordable' housing programs are the enemy of genuinely affordable housing. There are two broad types: The first is built by not-for-profit providers - they're often handed government land, exempt from taxes like land tax and stamp duty, and funded directly by taxpayers. The second is built by private developers - who get loaded up with costly requirements and must sell a portion of the units at a discounted rate (or pay a massive fee instead) for them be subsidised by taxpayers. Neither is efficient. Both come with insane levels of bureaucracy. And both end up delivering fewer homes at higher cost. Look at the federal government's flagship $10 billion housing fund: billions committed, and just 1,432 of 40,000 promised homes built by April this year. There's a much simpler fix: reduce red tape and taxes so the private sector can build cheaper homes, and have government build social housing directly. Stop dressing up red tape as housing policy.

Underlying inflation came in higher than forecast and moved further away from target – that's with fuel stripped out. So no, you can't blame it all on global shocks. This is a homegrown problem. The shocks are just adding to it. Now we're almost certainly getting another hike next week – which will put the cash rate at its highest in 18 years. This is after 10 of the last 16 quarters of falling living standards with no end to the pain in sight. What a mess.

Victoria has long been Australia's second biggest economy. But it's recently been ranked the worst to do business for three years in a row. And Victorians pay the highest tax per person in the country. Yet the state is carrying the most debt of all states and territories. It's no understatement to call what's happened here economic vandalism.

In other words, he was caught out in yet another lie. It’s just a gift to his local club near one of his properties. If only he knew how to setup the country as well as his own retirement.

Jim Chalmers loves to describe his government's performance as 'responsible economic management'. But there's nothing responsible about pumping migration to record highs while inflation is running hot and productivity growth is at a multi-decade low. More people chasing the same houses, the same services, the same infrastructure. Of course prices won't come down.

The RBA is talking tough and finally seems ready to do what must be done. Whilst I’ve continuously reminded others that governments are primarily to blame, I’ve found it harder and harder to defend the RBA for not performing its duty as the last line of defence against inflation. I’m highly leveraged and it’ll hurt me more than many, but it’s critical the RBA raises rates in the absence of responsible governments so we can stabilise pricing, get productivity moving and rebuild the economy. And, of course, we need to cast out the federal and state governments who failed in their jobs and outsourced inflation management to the RBA that’s caused so much unnecessary collateral damage.

If these polls translate to a loss for Labor after how hard Ben Carroll pivoted from his predecessors, it's likely they take the wrong lessons away from it. Debt, crime, corruption and taxes did the damage - but many will probably decide he wasn’t progressive enough because he couldn’t turn it around. The pivot wasn’t wrong - it just came way too late after trust was completely broken and voters stopped listening to them.

This is a terrific and terrifying read from @insteconomics Australia truly is the anti-Abundance nation It's self-inflicted damage We keep shooting ourselves in the foot and then wondering why we can't sprint anymore

The problem is the complete absence of any clear collective objective. No assessment of whether filling those roles via migration actually lifts productivity, real wages or living standards. No serious consideration of training more Australians, changing incentives, or reforming systems so we simply need fewer of them. Just an endless conveyor belt of more people to pay more tax to fund a bigger and less effective government that delivers diminishing value. When shortages keep worsening while living standards keep falling, you’re insane to think more of the same will produce a different result.

David is spot on. Unless we make it cheaper and more convenient to dump rubbish legally, it’s only going to get worse. I’ve been seeing this in the construction industry for years as costs have risen and waste management has become more bureaucratised. Crank up taxes to fund more crackdowns? Good luck with that. It’s absolutely moronic to think you can simply enforce your way towards a better society.

Inflation is bad. It's worse for those who already spend everything they earn. And worse still when the inflation *rate* on essentials is greater than on discretionary spending. *Those* are the people getting hurt most, and why we *must* bring inflation down.

I almost feel bad for saying this because it’s inflammatory, but I actually don’t because I believe it to be true. I doubt Albo’s initial reaction to hearing of Helen Haines’ attack was sorrow and remorse. I doubt it wasn’t calculating how he could use her tragedy for political gain. Of course his dirt sheet on her had nothing to do with why she was physically attacked, but he clearly had no issue coming at her a different way for daring to question his integrity.

This government has racked up $145bn in unexpected spending forecast revisions since taking office. This is apparently “budget restraint”. While the RBA is raising rates to cool demand, government is running expansionary fiscal policy. This is apparently “responsible economic management”. The truth is they’re just redefining words because higher inflation and higher interest rates is what Australians are actually getting.