Yearly Archives: 2025
The importance of agriculture to Tasmania’s economy
Commodities, Tasmania | 21st August 2025Agriculture accounts for a significantly larger proportion of economic activity and employment in Tasmania than in any other state or territory. And it’s something that Tasmania is good at: agriculture is one of only five industries where labour productivity in Tasmania is higher than the corresponding national industry average. That’s also reflected in the relatively […]
Another hung parliament solves nothing about Tasmania’s dire fiscal position
Australian Society and Politics, Publications, Tasmania | 21st July 2025Op-ed published in the Australian Financial Review 0n 20th July 2025, about the outcome of the Tasmanian state election held the previous day.
The Economies of Asia, Australia and New Zealand
Asian Economies, The Global Economy | 10th July 2025Saul’s presentation on the Economies of Asia to the annual International Conference of Commercial Bank Economists (ICCBE) meeting this year in Dublin, Ireland. (ICCBE is a group of – these days, current and former – chief economists of commercial banks which has been meeting regularly to exchange views about economic developments and policies since 1937).
A podcast about “The Worst Public Policy Decision of the 21st Century Thus Far” – the corruption of the arrangements for distributing revenue from the GST among Australia’s states and territories
Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, Recent Media Interview | 27th June 2025Saul’s interview with ‘The Wire‘ about what I’ve called ‘The Worst Public Policy Decision of the 21st Century Thus Far” – the corruption, at the behest of Australia’s richest state (Western Australia) of the principles which have governed the distribution of financial assistance from the Australian Federal Government to the states and territories since the […]
Tasmania’s public finances – a comparison with other states and territories in eight charts
Economic Policies, Tasmania | 25th June 2025With all eight Australian states and territories having presented their 2025-26 Budgets, it’s clear that, by most metrics, Tasmania’s public finances are in a worse condition than those of any other jurisdiction – a judgement underscored by the Tasmanian Treasury in its Pre-Election Financial Outlook Report released on 25th June 2025, which vindicates all of […]
An agenda for tax reform
Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, Publications, Taxation | 22nd June 2025On 22nd and 23rd June, John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations blog published (in two parts) Saul’s article about options that ideally should be on Australian Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers’ table as he considers how tax reform could contribute to two of the challenges he highlighted in his address to the National Press Club on 10th […]
The Economic Consequences of Mr Trump – for the US, and for Australia
Economic Policies, The Australian Economy, The Global Economy | 18th June 2025Presentation to an ‘Island of Ideas’ forum hosted by the University of Tasmania in Hobart on 18th June 2025. There is a podcast of the forum here : Australia and the Trump Effect – YouTube (Saul’s presentation starts at about 20:00 minutes in).
Tasmania’s next government needs to have credible plans to return the budget to a cash surplus and reduce debt
Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, Publications, Tasmania | 17th June 2025Unfunded pork-barrelling accounts for more than three-quarters of the increase in Tasmania’s ‘general government’ net debt between 2017-18 and the forecast for 2027-28. During the campaign for the election to be held on 19th July (the third in four years, the fourth in seven) someone needs to say, echoing Kevin Rudd during the 2007 Federal […]