menu_open Columnists
Jennifer Hewett

Jennifer Hewett

Financial Review

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

How ‘Victorianisation’ became a new term of abuse

The state is suffering from a dramatic increase in episodes of violent crime and horrific machete attacks that have forced Jacinta Allan to finally...

yesterday 10

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Liberals double down on net zero fiasco

The party’s debate over climate policy can’t obscure the political numbers. Sussan Ley lost control of her party and is scrambling to catch up.

wednesday 8

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Liberals double down on net zero fiasco

The party’s debate over climate policy can’t obscure the political numbers. Sussan Ley lost control of her party and is scrambling to catch up.

wednesday 3

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Trump sets out to seduce US households

With the United States government shutdown looking to be over, Democrats are now arguing over what is the best form of resistance to the president.

11.11.2025 6

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

A spectacular act of political self-harm finds good company

No-shows at COP30 in Brazil reflect a shift in the international political climate as the costs and difficulties of reducing emissions become more...

10.11.2025 5

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

There’s going to be a showdown over environmental laws

Murray Watt is challenging the Coalition and the Greens to make a deal with Labor over changes to environmental laws. But who’s willing to compromise?

07.11.2025 8

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

There’s going to be a showdown over environmental laws

Murray Watt is challenging the Coalition and the Greens to make a deal with Labor over changes to environmental laws. But who’s willing to...

07.11.2025 3

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Albo cashes in on Trump’s 12-out-of-10 deal that plays for time

The results of the Trump-Xi meeting are likely to be dismissed as another parody of TACO – Trump Always Chickens Out – even if Australia’s prime...

31.10.2025 10

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Tomago alarm exposes our energy realities

The ticking clock on the aluminium smelter’s energy contract makes it impossible to keep the looming commercial showdown quiet.

29.10.2025 5

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Netwealth letter delivers devil’s choice on First Guardian losses

Financial Services Minister Daniel Mulino is under pressure to bail out thousands of investors who lost their superannuation savings. Will he or...

27.10.2025 7

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Trump buoyed by rare earths deal with PM, but Xi’s a harder nut to crack

The president meets the Chinese leader next week armed with a multibillion-dollar Australian deal, but the critical minerals supply issue is far from...

24.10.2025 10

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Energy industry searches for signals

Australian households are enthusiastic about rooftop solar and batteries, but large-scale investment in the transition to renewables is more mixed.

22.10.2025 4

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

No wonder Albanese and rare earths CEOs are beaming

The timing of the much-delayed meeting between the prime minister and US President Donald Trump has worked to Australia’s advantage.

21.10.2025 6

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

More Coalition confusion over climate policy

Sussan Ley is determined to make herself heard above the disruption created by Coalition squabbles and her own Liberal colleagues. It’s hard work.

20.10.2025 5

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Albo brings minerals to a trade war knife fight

The prime minister’s visit to Washington has come at a crucial time in the global trade wars following China’s weaponisation of the global rare...

17.10.2025 5

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Place your bets as share prices for rare earths players soar

Australian Strategic Materials was among ASX-listed miners enjoying a surging valuation this week. Chief executive Rowena Smith explains what should...

15.10.2025 5

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Why Jim Chalmers is unfazed by super tax defeat

The treasurer got knocked off his policy high horse, but he’s already back in the saddle claiming victory.

14.10.2025 7

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

MAGA muscle exposes weak point in rare earths opportunity

Anthony Albanese will talk co-operation on critical minerals with Donald Trump. But Australia is in a tough and competitive race to deliver.

13.10.2025 10

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

BHP, Rio hope their bets on ‘anarcho-capitalist’ pay off

The resources giants have a lot riding on Argentinian President Javier Milei in this month’s congressional elections.

07.10.2025 3

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Liberals fall down their own rabbit hole

Sussan Ley’s job just got harder as some of her colleagues decide that fighting culture wars is the path to electoral redemption rather than a dead...

06.10.2025 6

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

EVs and me – I’m not the only one who’s confused

To the frustration of the states, the federal government is hitting the brakes on setting up road-user charges for EV drivers.

01.10.2025 3

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Consumer spending going up means rates less likely to go down

RBA governor Michele Bullock’s commentary will confirm the market’s view that prospects for another interest rate cut this year have receded.

30.09.2025 3

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Little pity for banks in fight over payments revolution

Expect a growing outcry from the banks over the RBA’s proposal to cut “interchange” fees paid by businesses on every credit card transaction.

29.09.2025 7

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Albanese bets on fantasy climate targets as Trump bets on coal

The prime minister ignored Donald Trump’s rant against renewables as he promoted Australia’s green credentials in New York this week. How real is...

26.09.2025 10

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

UN mesmerised by Trump as he takes America into uncharted waters

It’s the Donald Trump show. The president uses his address at the United Nations to blast the failure of others as he boasts of America’s success.

24.09.2025 2

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Downing Russian drones took a little Australian firm to ASX success

Small Australian company DroneShield has grown its way into being a global player thwarting Russian drone attacks and supplying the US and European...

23.09.2025 2

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Optus guilty of fundamental communications failure

Technology failures may be inevitable in today’s world, but that makes the telco’s failure to communicate Triple Zero service problems even more...

22.09.2025 3

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Albanese banks on mateship as he lands in Trump’s America

Keir Starmer has cheerfully exploited Donald Trump’s love of British royalty and pageantry. Anthony Albanese can’t offer the same distractions if...

19.09.2025 4

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Sussan Ley stuck in no-man’s land, an eye out for knives

The opposition leader faces plenty of trouble behind her leadership, as well as ahead, as she tries to refocus the Liberal’s message on economics.

17.09.2025 4

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Cybersecurity an illusion as ‘Q day’ looms

Protecting our data is already under attack from AI, but now cyber “thugs and thieves” are relishing what advances in quantum computing might give...

16.09.2025 10

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Climate ambitions ring hollow for firms facing the costs

Despite all the money and rhetoric, Australia’s emissions cuts have flatlined for the past four years, suggesting a tough ask to reach Labor’s...

15.09.2025 6

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Big business swaps fights for favours with Labor

CEOs are giving Canberra the benefit of the doubt as they wait to see whether suddenly fashionable words such as productivity will translate into...

12.09.2025 5

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Telstra’s biggest policy fight isn’t over AI but is just as critical

Telcos are happy with the idea of having their spectrum licences simply renewed rather than being forced to bid for them again. Consumer groups...

11.09.2025 10

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Asia Pacific shrugs off Trump’s tariffs

It turns out the US president’s ‘liberation day’ blitz hasn’t been as damaging as feared. So far.

09.09.2025 10

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Why Worley is banking on AI

Worley’s US-based CEO, Chris Ashton, is determined not to be one of those left pondering what to do with the promise of artificial intelligence.

08.09.2025 6

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Navigating the risks of big power politics

Daniel Andrews is the least of the Albanese government’s problems in managing the new perils of the world.

05.09.2025 4

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Business takes gloss off Chalmers cheer

The treasurer is pleased that better than expected quarterly GDP figures showed consumers were more willing to spend. But business investment remains...

03.09.2025 4

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

The big threat to Australia’s iron ore empire

In a warning to the hugely profitable Pilbara industry, Brazil’s Vale believes its mines are better suited to Chinese ambitions for lower emissions.

02.09.2025 6

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Hook, line and sinker: How I got caught in a phishing trap

I became one more consumer fooled by a scam – and am now dealing with the financial cost as well as the personal humiliation of being so easily...

01.09.2025 5

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Government pays up to keep projects alive

The Albanese government is hoping that subsidising key mining and smelting projects to help them weather price collapses will pay off. It’s a big...

08.08.2025 4

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

As Trump fights big pharma, the PBS risks getting caught in the crossfire

The US president is angry Americans pay more for their medicines. Will he want the PBS – and Australian citizens – to help change that equation?

06.08.2025 6

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Energy report long on woolly words, short on specifics

The Productivity Commission’s second of five interim reports offers a confusing new acronym but little that is concrete.

04.08.2025 10

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Labor has some hard choices on climate policy

The party claims the election win as endorsement of its energy strategy, but faces difficult decisions about reducing emissions and controlling costs.

01.08.2025 10

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Brutal but effective: Trump rules the world on tariffs

The US president is declaring victory amid grudging capitulation from friends and foe alike, writes Jennifer Hewett.

30.07.2025 10

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

In an EV-first world, can e-fuels drive the decarbonisation of transport?

HIF Global is just one of the big businesses betting on green tech to provide a viable alternative to electric vehicles.

28.07.2025 9

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Why Australia can’t dodge US tariffs

Despite the Coalition’s attempts to suggest otherwise, Labor cannot offer enough – not even an audience with a king – to appeal to Trump’s...

25.07.2025 10

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Labor delight as Coalition reopens climate wars

Sussan Ley’s problems with managing the opposition’s energy policy just got much worse. Labor’s problems with managing its own energy policy...

23.07.2025 10

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Little Aussie miner pushes back on Chinese control of critical minerals

The announcement by ASX-listed Tivan of Japanese support for its fluorite projects is a small example of the effort to build supply chains independent...

21.07.2025 5

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Roundtable screams of Chalmers’ style, but where’s the substance?

The treasurer is pushing big ideas and expectations for his economic talkfest in August. The practical results are much less certain.

18.07.2025 5

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett

Henry’s plan for what comes next

The former Treasury secretary failed to have a previous Labor government implement a resources super profits tax, but he has plenty of big ideas for...

17.07.2025 20

Financial Review

Jennifer Hewett