News

Australia is at risk of under-building long-duration energy storage as governments back batteries that last hours, not days.

Victoria’s public service wages bill continues to spiral despite the government slashing hundreds of jobs, prompting warnings from international rating agencies that employee costs are undermining the state’s finances.

Australia is undertaking a 100 per cent renewables transition without its best players: those reliable old steam turbines that once gave cheap, steady power. Ignoring physics won’t make electricity affordable.

Australia’s biggest employers are pushing Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers to impose strict limits on spending, debt levels and the tax-to-GDP ratio, as the Treasurer promises to save more than he spends in next week’s budget.

“I know an economic slam dunk when I see one,” Industry Minister Tim Ayres told a Hunter business audience last week, defending the Tomago aluminium smelter rescue package.

The true cost of Snowy Hydro 2.0 has spiralled to $42bn and should be the subject of a Royal Commission into “one of the biggest disasters” in Australian infrastructure, economist Bruce Mountain and energy executive Ted Woodley said.

WA’s peak resources body has emphasised the importance of not shackling the sector with new taxes ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Perth this week.

We will remember them.

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

21 April 2026

Parliamentary Budget Office analysis reveals Australia’s debt trajectory will defy Treasury predictions and continue rising into the next decade, contradicting the government’s fiscal strategy.

The $15bn National Reconstruction Fund can be unleashed to ­invest in Australia’s petrol and ­diesel capacity after the Albanese government amended its investment mandate, as Jim Chalmers prepares to unveil fuel security measures in next month’s budget.