Slides accompanying Saul’s presentation to a public forum hosted by the University of Tasmania, as part of its “Island of Ideas” series, in Hobart on 12th March 2025 – at which he discusses the Tasmanian Government’s response to his Independent Review of Tasmania’s Public Finances, published in August last year (and available here).  A podcast […]

My op-ed in The Australian Financial Review of 9th February 2025 about the meaning of the by-elections held in the Victorian state seats of Werribee and Prahran the precdeding day – in particular, about the Victorian economy and the parlous state of Victoria’s public finances. Federal election 2025: Liberal Party is yet to heed the message […]

In his annual ‘State of the State’ address to the Tasmanian Parliament on 4th March, Tasmania’s Premier the Hon. Jeremy Rockliff MP announced that he had asked me to provide the Government with advice as to whether it should consider selling any of its state-owned enterprises (other than Hydro Tasmania, the state-owned electricity generation company, […]

A presentation to my colleagues in Independent Economics (Home – Independent Economics) about the likely economic consequences (including for inflation and economic growth) of Donald Trump’s policies on tariffs and trade, immigration and deportations, taxes and the US budget, and the independence of the US’ central bank, the Federal Reserve.

Wealth is inevitably more unequally distributed than income. And inequality in the distribution of wealth has increased more than inequality in the distribution of income in Australia (as in many other countries) over the past two decades or so. But what’s particularly striking, at least in Australia, is how inequality in the distribution of wealth […]

Over the past two-and-a-half decades Victoria has gone from being one of Australia’s most prosperous states to being one of its three poorest, on most indicators, and its most heavily indebted. This article, published by the Australian Financial Review on 25th November 2024, explains how and why.

Donald Trump’s clear (although not overhelming) victory in November’s  US Presidential election, combined with the Republicans’ capture of both Houses of the US Congress, puts him in a strong position to implement his agenda. The combination of swingeing increases in tariffs, the deportation of between 1.3 and 8 million migrant workers, a futher increase in […]

I was asked to give evidence to the Senate Select Committee inquiry into the Tasmanian Freight Equalization Scheme which held a public hearing in Hobart on 13th November. Here’s my ‘opening statement’ to the hearing.   In answers to questions about what needs to be done, I suggested that the ‘parameters’ used to determine rates […]