menu_open Columnists
The Afr View

The Afr View

Financial Review

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Richo’s gospel was every man for himself

Graham Richardson embodied everything most normal people detest about politics. His legacy is one of self-enrichment, self-aggrandisement and...

yesterday 5

Financial Review

The Afr View

No place for complacency about populism in Australia

Delivering the return to prosperity that most voters want would be the best way for either major party to secure a broad-based constituency and keep...

friday 10

Financial Review

The Afr View

Is Labor’s big tech crackdown now a backdown?

Making big tech companies pay for news stories posted on social media is a bit like bringing a knife to a gun fight as the AI revolution gathers...

06.11.2025 9

Financial Review

The Afr View

Clickbait Optus inquiry won’t keep Triple Zero online

It is reasonable to question whether Stephen Rue is the right man to fix the mess he inherited. But there is a right way for politicians to approach...

05.11.2025 3

Financial Review

The Afr View

RBA in firing line as inflation miss blows out target

Managing dashed hopes of rate relief, preserving jobs and containing price pressures is now the uncomfortable task for both Labor and the RBA.

04.11.2025 4

Financial Review

The Afr View

Close BYD carbon credit loophole for EVs uptake sake

Clever companies exploit the seams of new regulations. The onus is on governments to remedy attempts to subvert the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard...

03.11.2025 30

Financial Review

The Afr View

Net zero vibe has shifted on Labor’s COP31 bid

Amid the “greenlash” in Western countries there is a sense that winning the hosting rights is now a lesser priority for the Albanese government...

02.11.2025 5

Financial Review

The Afr View

Trump and Xi’s truce papers over permanent rivalry

Despite Trump’s “12 out of 10” boast, the meeting was a temporary Band-Aid, ignoring Beijing’s long-term plan for self-sufficient supply...

31.10.2025 7

Financial Review

The Afr View

Super wars strike back at AFR Summit

Super was designed to give Australians dignity and independence in retirement – a purpose too important to be subordinated to short-term fiscal or...

30.10.2025 2

Financial Review

The Afr View

We are in a materially more inflationary Australia

Managing borrowers’ dashed hopes of rate relief and limiting future job losses and price rises is now the awkward challenge facing Labor and the RBA.

29.10.2025 5

Financial Review

The Afr View

Ley’s Joy Division rant panders to Sky News After Dark

Contriving a culture war stunt over Albanese’s t-shirt choice raises more questions about Ley’s suitability for high office than it does about...

29.10.2025 4

Financial Review

The Afr View

Tomago’s slow death exposes folly of ‘Made in Australia’ dream

If Rio makes a sound commercial decision about Tomago’s future, business would again provide some welcome pushback against the corporate bailout...

28.10.2025 2

Financial Review

The Afr View

Albanese’s free-trade gospel unlikely to convert America First Trump

The PM’s defence of a rules-based order in Asia is welcome, but is also likely to show the limits of Australia’s middle-power diplomacy.

27.10.2025 2

Financial Review

The Afr View

Manufacturing fetish is making us poorer

Australia’s economic future depends not on romanticising industries the world has long since left behind, but embracing innovation, competition and...

26.10.2025 8

Financial Review

The Afr View

Ley should work with Labor to strike environmental laws balance

The Liberal Party is at a low point in its history after the election drubbing in May. But it has a rare opportunity to help govern in the national...

24.10.2025 2

Financial Review

The Afr View

Westpac ruling shows workplace flexibility pendulum has swung too far

Common sense return-to-office policies have been thrown out the window and a terrible precedent set, ignoring the realities of running a business.

23.10.2025 2

Financial Review

The Afr View

Labor should seize the decarbonisation policy certainty challenge

Albanese’s government should focus on nailing down the policy settings needed to accelerate emission cuts and connect more clean generation and...

22.10.2025 3

Financial Review

The Afr View

Plaudits for Albanese. But critical minerals heavy lifting lies ahead

The prime minister has turned a minefield into a goldmine in Washington, but he must ensure his relationship with China doesn’t harden into...

21.10.2025 6

Financial Review

The Afr View

Barnaby Joyce sideshow is not Ley’s only net zero test

The opposition leader has her work cut out keeping the Liberal Party together on an issue that internal enemies are using to challenge her leadership.

20.10.2025 3

Financial Review

The Afr View

AUKUS and ANZUS are critical when Albanese meets Trump

There is uncertainty about the US administration’s commitment to its defence obligations under AUKUS and ANZUS but a critical minerals deal would...

19.10.2025 6

Financial Review

The Afr View

Has Chalmers become a reformist without reform?

Michele Bullock’s frankness about the budget deficit should hopefully drive home the point to the treasurer to make Australia’s finances more...

17.10.2025 2

Financial Review

The Afr View

‘Victorianisation’ of Australian economy threatens future prosperity

If treasurers continue to mortgage tomorrow for today’s projects, they risk being priced out of the future altogether.

16.10.2025 10

Financial Review

The Afr View

The social media ban could cure Gen Z’s brain rot

It’s a serious acknowledgement that society can no longer allow young people to use these platforms unchecked.

15.10.2025 3

Financial Review

The Afr View

Only Trump could strongarm his way to peace in the Middle East

Trump has upended conventional foreign policy wisdom and the expectations of his critics who painted him as a bete noire in international relations.

14.10.2025 3

Financial Review

The Afr View

Backflip on super tax is a welcome victory for common sense

It’s Labor’s opportunity to face the music on their own fiscal mismanagement and stop relying on tax-by-stealth cash grabs to plug holes in the...

13.10.2025 4

Financial Review

The Afr View

Is it now or never for Albanese’s US critical minerals deal?

Compared to copper and aluminium smelter bailouts, there is a strong strategic case to overturn Australia’s traditional reliance on comparative...

12.10.2025 8

Financial Review

The Afr View

Sitting week showed Australia’s going nowhere fast under Labor

The underwhelming proceedings in Canberra point to the Albanese government’s ongoing failure to formulate a substantial second-term agenda to fix...

10.10.2025 10

Financial Review

The Afr View

Four problems with Labor’s budget profligacy

In a geopolitically volatile world, we are only one crisis away from learning the hard way what the real cost of budget complacency might be.

09.10.2025 4

Financial Review

The Afr View

Labor pours fuel on smelter bonfire with Glencore’s Mount Isa bailout

If Labor insists on underwriting fading relics, the smelter bonfire risks burning not just more taxpayer cash but consuming Australia’s future...

08.10.2025 4

Financial Review

The Afr View

France en route to Greek-style reckoning of economy

France now risks becoming Europe’s biggest liability, as it increasingly mirrors the fiscal and political disarray reminiscent of its southern...

07.10.2025 4

Financial Review

The Afr View

The cautionary lessons of Deloitte’s AI sloppiness

The incident plays into the ideological jihad waged by the Greens, who have stereotyped consultants as highly paid fat cats ripping off taxpayers.

06.10.2025 10

Financial Review

The Afr View

Libs have no future in economic and cultural populism

A mishmash of nostalgia for Aussie-made cars and resentment towards migrants is not a prescription for Liberal Party renewal.

05.10.2025 6

Financial Review

The Afr View

How the Gaza war is turning into the West’s powder keg

Even a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas may not roll back the tide of intolerance, radicalisation and imported ideologies now taking root in the...

03.10.2025 4

Financial Review

The Afr View

Why the ASX is failing the shareholder democracy test

Closing loopholes that corrode shareholder rights would be the simplest way to restore some of the authority it has lost.

02.10.2025 3

Financial Review

The Afr View

The paradox of Labor’s first home buyer help

Despite politicians spruiking more incentives than ever to help buyers get on to the property ladder, the distance between the rungs could not be...

01.10.2025 9

Financial Review

The Afr View

Reverse Robin Hood policies are not the way to drive EV uptake

Australia must accomplish many challenging tasks to reach net-zero. Paying the rich to buy EVs, and then letting them drive on the roads for free, is...

30.09.2025 3

Financial Review

The Afr View

A dose of economic reality for Labor

What Treasurer Jim Chalmers is talking up as good economic management is really just good fortune in the form of high commodity prices and tax...

29.09.2025 4

Financial Review

The Afr View

Britain’s toxic brew is a warning on migration and the economy

The golden rule of migration policy is that it is fundamentally about the economy, the immigration program must work in the best interests of existing...

28.09.2025 9

Financial Review

The Afr View

Labor bets on industrial losers and misses the AI prize

The well-intentioned road to prosperity could end up littered with the wreckage of poor industrial policies if the government refuses to discard...

26.09.2025 10

Financial Review

The Afr View

Albanese tops the list but with a fragile grip on power

The competitive tension between Albanese and Chalmers is likely driven by the latter’s desire to carve his own legacy and vie for the top job at...

26.09.2025 8

Financial Review

The Afr View

Europe shouldn’t shoot the Trump messenger on immigration

If mainstream parties do not control borders and respond to legitimate concerns, people will be encouraged to vote for populist anti-migrant...

24.09.2025 3

Financial Review

The Afr View

Smelter bailout will only suffocate our prosperity

The central lesson from the old protectionist era is that subsidies granted to inefficient industries are paid for by the efficient ones.

23.09.2025 3

Financial Review

The Afr View

ASIC has a strong case for private credit regulation

Rather than regulatory creep and overreach, the direction the commission is flagging appears to be pro-investor.

22.09.2025 4

Financial Review

The Afr View

Stephen Rue’s talk of Optus’s crisis management ring hollow

The Triple Zero outage has – again – undermined public confidence in the accident-prone company’s ability to operate an essential...

21.09.2025 2

Financial Review

The Afr View

Albanese’s New York trip is his trial by fire in diplomacy

The prime minister must be assertive enough to protect Australia’s interests while avoiding any action that could poke the bear.

19.09.2025 3

Financial Review

The Afr View

New emission targets mean climate wars may be turning a corner

Albanese and Bowen hope to translate their new climate target into significant international support as they head to the United Nations in New York...

18.09.2025 3

Financial Review

The Afr View

Pacific headwinds frame Albanese-Trump sit down

The task for Anthony Albanese is to use his meeting with Donald Trump to advance that traditional Australian foreign policy goal – engaging the US...

17.09.2025 2

Financial Review

The Afr View

Why fighting cyber threats is still a human problem in an AI world

Even in the era of automation, the price of cybersecurity will be eternal vigilance. For business, that starts in the C-suite.

16.09.2025 7

Financial Review

The Afr View

ANZ can’t spin away its blackest day

The saga is a stain on the nine and a half year reign of former chief executive Shayne Elliott and the half-decade tenure of chairman Paul O’Sullivan.

15.09.2025 5

Financial Review

The Afr View

Australia can’t adapt its way out of missed targets

Bowen’s insistence that the government remains on course to reach its emission targets does little to resolve the fact that they are increasingly...

15.09.2025 3

Financial Review

The Afr View