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Michael Stutchbury

Michael Stutchbury

Financial Review

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Victorian disaster could bring Albanese undone

Victorian disaster could bring Albanese undone

The attempted sharp break from absolute Labor-Left rule in the state confirms that “something is wrong with the place”, as former ACTU secretary...

latest 2

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Max Walsh would recognise this poor, little rich country

Rather than shoring up Australian prosperity, politicians have squabbled over how to redistribute it.

17.07.2026 8

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

World Cup made Europeans fall for America

Hosting soccer’s global party is boosting American patriotism just as Trump’s narcissism is souring the 250th anniversary of America’s...

03.07.2026 10

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Chalmers’ latest bout of regulatory harassment will help no one

There is no evidence Coles and Woolworths have ripped off shoppers. But that – and a warning from the Productivity Commission chairwoman – will...

19.06.2026 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Labor’s ‘pro-worker’ agenda is making workers poorer

Surely, it’s time to recognise that Labor’s union-dominated party structure and its policy model will not lift living standards, even for employees.

05.06.2026 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

The budget punishes people for trying to get ahead

The backlash has come from the very Australians whom the budget’s “intergenerational equity” tax slug is supposed to help.

22.05.2026 20

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Keating once warned of a 'banana republic'. Chalmers is slowly taking us there

Forty years ago this week, ambitious 42-year-old Labor treasurer Paul Keating warned that Australia risked becoming a "banana republic"....

16.05.2026 30

The Examiner

Michael Stutchbury

Keating once warned of a 'banana republic'. Chalmers is slowly taking us there

Forty years ago this week, ambitious 42-year-old Labor treasurer Paul Keating warned that Australia risked becoming a "banana republic"....

16.05.2026 40

Canberra Times

Michael Stutchbury

The NDIS became a grifters’ paradise – and you’re paying

The flaw in the NDIS lies in the same haloed human rights principles on which the entitlement monument has been built.

09.05.2026 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Rinehart’s riches show why we shouldn’t slap windfall tax on gas

Nations can become wealthier and more secure by profitably supplying more of what the world wants most from them.

23.04.2026 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Subsidies, safety nets and stagnation: Australia’s new economic model

Protecting one industry imposes a burden on the competitive sectors that actually prop up our prosperity, such as mining, energy and agriculture.

11.04.2026 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Economic exceptionalism is dead – and rate cuts died with it

Jim Chalmers doesn’t have a central bank governor to blame for his forward misguidance or for his complaint that monetary policy may be “smashing...

30.01.2026 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

The real reason Australia’s economy is underperforming

Michael Stutchbury started reporting on industrial relations 50 years ago. He says Australia’s high-wage economy is unsustainable unless business is...

21.11.2025 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Productivity Commission piles in to Labor’s populist war on big business

The cash-flow tax proposal suggests we’re a utopia for oligopoly capitalists, presumably led by the big miners, the big banks and the big...

07.11.2025 20

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Why the renewables romance is headed for divorce

07.10.2025 20

The Australian

Michael Stutchbury

Summit must end national complacency about Australia’s prosperity

The Economic Reform Roundtable should commit to making Australia an aspirational and enterprise-driven high-growth nation bursting with investment...

18.08.2025 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

This is the most striking generational change in 40 years

The property boom has made older Australians rich and turned housing into the standout generational issue that Jim Chalmers must tackle with his...

06.07.2025 20

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Chainsaw rent controls to escape from New York’s housing crisis

The less politically polarised Australian debate has recognised that easing restrictions on supply is the key to fixing the housing stress on young...

01.07.2025 20

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

First TACO, now TWIT: Trump will inevitably tank the economy

The president’s bold strikes on Iran disproved the TACO theory, but it remains hard to figure how higher tariffs and inflation and a wider budget...

27.06.2025 40

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Slash the red tape smothering growth

The Abundance agenda is being taken on to fix Australia’s housing shortage. It needs to extend to a vigorous supply-side deregulation agenda.

24.06.2025 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Chalmers says hard decisions have to be made. Funny about that

With Ken Henry back in the fold, Jim Chalmers has put tax at the centre of Labor’s post-election productivity push. It won’t be easy.

20.06.2025 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

By attacking Iran’s nukes, Israel changes the question

After being lambasted by the West for the suffering of Palestinians, Israel has a chance to rebuild its battered standing by focusing on its ultimate...

17.06.2025 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Opportunistic tax hikes will just finance lazy spending

Jim Chalmers should take up the offer of Coalition shadow treasurer James Patterson to consider genuine and substantial tax reform.

10.06.2025 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Albanese’s triumph could also mark Labor’s use-by date

Labor’s thumping election victory rests on just 35 per cent of the primary vote and a big government agenda. But are any of Australia’s parties...

23.05.2025 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

RBA, PC reveal why Chalmers needs to cut company tax

Chalmers needs to do something fair dinkum or break his promises to reverse the fall in living standards during Labor’s first three years. Ice-cream...

20.05.2025 40

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

How business needs to push Labor on growth

After being bashed up by Labor and the Coalition, the key to reviving living standards lies in business being prepared to invest in growth.

13.05.2025 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Husic hit job exposes Labor’s failure on growth

The dumped industry minister reveals that Australians have endorsed a second-term Labor government with no plan for reviving living standards.

12.05.2025 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Australian prosperity will keep drifting lower

The source of the nation’s exceptionalism has fallen through the centre ground as neither triumphant Labor nor the devastated Liberals represent...

06.05.2025 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury

Chalmers must drive the growth policy reset

Labor’s inflation agenda was based on getting re-elected, not on the next three years of governing. Now business needs to push the treasurer to...

04.05.2025 30

Financial Review

Michael Stutchbury