Politics with Michelle Grattan
News:Politics
With three months before JobSeeker is due to end and calls for billions of dollars in extra spending, there is a growing debate about how Australia’s post-coronavirus economy will actually look.
While Scott Morrison has said Australia will need to lift economic growth by “more than one percentage point above trend” through to 2025, a 22-economist panel hosted by The Conversation forecast a bleaker result.
Growth one percentage point above trend would average almost 4% per year.
The Conversation’s economic panel forecast an annual growth averaging 2.4% over the next four years, much less than the long-term trend.
In this podcast, Michelle Grattan discusses the economic pathway ahead with two economists featured on the panel: Professor of Economics at the UNSW Business School Richard Holden, and Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Australian National University Warwick McKibbin.
McKibbin argues for a major change to the national cabinet. “I think it would be very useful if the leader of the opposition was on that cabinet, and perhaps even a couple of the key ministerial portfolios from the opposition side, so that you truly have… both sides of the political spectrum represented.”
Making the body more inclusive, McKibbin says, would assist a bipartisan approach. “If you are going to go for the big bipartisan approach, which I think is fundamental to most of the problems we face, you have to do something like the national cabinet,” he said.
“It worked very effectively during the worst parts of the virus, it is breaking down now it appears, because Australians seem to think things are okay now. But I think you’ll see it re-emerge very shortly.”
Richard Holden warns an increase in taxation should not be contemplated to pay for some of the large spend the COVID crisis is requiring.
“I don’t think there will be an increase in taxation under this government, and I definitely don’t think there should be under any government,” he says.
“The coalition has made the debt and deficits mantra part of their political brand, and I understand that from a political perspective. And there’s nothing wrong with aspiring to balancing the budget over the economic cycle.”
“But when you’re in one of the largest economic crises in a hundred years, it is not the time to be penny-pinching and focusing on economic management credentials as measured by the budget bottom line in the short term.”
Anthony Albanese says Afghans in Australia should be given permanent residency
Josh Frydenberg on uncertain economic times
Word from the Hill: A reprimand for Christensen and Morrison on climate
Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers on promoting vaccine uptake and a 'modest spending program'
a four-stage plan and a $300 payment to get vaccinated
Bob Brown on his latest environmental battle, and a critique of Labor
Word from The Hill: three states in lockdown
Barnaby Joyce on net zero 2050, a coal-fired power station – and how resources is (sort of) in cabinet
Word from the Hill: Julia Banks and international travel caps
Jacinta Price's parliamentary agenda
Word from The Hill: the return to lockdown
Sussan Ley and Terri Butler on the Great Barrier Reef being 'in danger'
Word from The Hill: Australia's new Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, climate policy and UNESCO
Acting PM Michael McCormack on net zero 2050 and prospects for a new coal-fired power station
Word from The Hill: the Biloela Tamil family, G7 and the upcoming parliamentary fortnight
Rex Patrick on Freedom of Information and Australia's submarines
Word from The Hill
Mark Butler on the vaccine rollout and democracy in the Labor Party
Katy Gallagher on the battle to hold the government to account
Richard Colbeck on aged care and the Olympics
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