Crispin Hull

Lowe’s weak weaponry

Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe is like a passenger in a racing car with both hands on the handbrake. Meanwhile, the real driver (the Government) has feet on the accelerator and foot brake and hands on the gears and steering wheel.

Yet it is Lowe who is expected to ensure the car circumnavigates the track, does not crash or break down, and glides to the chequered flag to the applause of one and all. But if he applies the handbrake (as he has done) and the car sways erratically, he is pilloried.

A big race: fossil profits v transition

The race is on. And the stakes could not be higher.

The race is between competing interests. On one hand we have the broad mass of the world’s people who do not want to experience the catastrophes associated with global heating: floods, fires, food and water scarcity and so on. On the other hand, we have big fossil energy corporations and the policy-makers in nations that have large reserves of fossil energy.

That essay: Stalin not at the gates

Australians should be hoping that the members of the Reserve Bank board have read the 6000-word essay written by Treasurer Jim Chalmers for the latest edition of The Monthly before today’s board meeting.

But they probably haven’t or, if they have, won’t alter their static thinking and rates will rise – recklessly and riskily.

It’s broke we need to fix it

What an unseemly, messy “debate” we had in the Australia Day week over the Voice.

To put it crudely, it seems that the whitefellas opposing the Voice are concerned that it might give the blackfellas too much, and that the blackfellas opposing the Voice are concerned that it will not give them enough.

Why millionaires want to pay more tax

The demonstrators at last week’s virtual meeting of the elite rich and powerful at the Davos World Economic Forum were instructively and decisively different from previous demonstrations.

This was not the usual anarchists in the street demanding the end of capitalism. Rather it was 200 b/millionaires pleading mostly in writing for higher taxes to be imposed upon themselves.

Good and bad confused in ugly reporting

The simmering, underlying bias in media reports continued this month on three major subject matters. Events which were described as Bad Things were really Good Things. And events described as Good Things were really Bad Things.

I refer to population growth; property prices; and private-school fees.

Cashless pokies should just be the start

The money launderers and gaming profiteers are askance at the NSW Government’s proposal to ban cash gaming transactions. This ding-dong should have profound national implications about the role of cash in Australian society.

Don’t get caught up with detail

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney set the broad timeline for the referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament at the weekend.

There are two overwhelming reasons to vote Yes. The first is that after years of detailed consultation and deliberation this is what the vast majority of Indigenous Australians say they want. They want to be recognised and heard by having a Voice to the Parliament.

2022 – predictably unpredictable

Before asking what will 2023 bring, it is worth looking at what 2022 brought. Virtually no-one predicted the two most significant events of 2022. First, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Ukrainian response. And second, the rise of inflation and the interest-increasing response of central banks.

They have a common theme – the failure of intelligence agencies and economists to take account of some fairly constant human behaviour.

It’s a gas. Bluff called on gaming

The bluffs of two of the most powerful industries in Australia have been called – one each by each side of politics. Federal Labor has taken on the fossils of the fossil-fuel industry and the NSW Liberals have taken on the gaming industry.

It is a significant power shift.

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