Category: Michael West

Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan has warned against creating a racially charged debate over the Indigenous voice to parliament.  The call for civility came as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese received a standing ovation after he delivered the Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration in Adelaide on Monday night. Mr Albanese took aim

Asian shares and US stock futures rose on Monday, thanks to a weekend deal by US President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to suspend the government’s debt ceiling, ending a protracted stalemate and providing some relief for investors. After weeks of negotiations, congressional Republican McCarthy and Biden forged

The local share market has rallied this morning after Democrats and Republicans in Washington reached a deal over the weekend to avoid a cataclysmic debt default. While the US debt-ceiling deal still needs to pass Congress – which is not assured, with some conservatives and progressives both finding fault with

Insurers have been urged to slash premiums on homes that have been adapted to better withstand fire, floods and other climate change-fuelled disasters.  Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones says the failure to reward households and communities for adapting their homes by lowering insurance premiums sends “all the wrong signals”. “If they are

Woohoo! Two of the biggest tax cheats, ExxonMobil and Chevron (auditors PwC) have begun to pay a mite of income tax in Australia but they also ripped out more than $13bn in dividends and returns of capital last year. Michael West reports their latest financials.

Renters are handing over nearly one-third of their income to service a new lease as prices continue to skyrocket. The portion of income going towards rent has reached its highest level since 2014, according to new analysis by ANZ and property data firm CoreLogic. The report found the median income

Australians are being underestimated by “doomsayers” promoting scare campaigns about the Indigenous voice to parliament, Anthony Albanese says. The prime minister will on Monday deliver the Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration in Adelaide, where he is expected to take aim at opponents of the voice and reiterate his confidence that the referendum

US President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy have reached a tentative deal to raise the federal government’s $US31.4 trillion debt ceiling, ending a months-long stalemate. However, the deal was described in terms that indicated it may not be absolute, and without any celebration – an indication of

Independent senator Lidia Thorpe has accused the Greens of racism, and will lodge a case with the Australian Human Rights Commission. Senator Thorpe, who quit the Greens earlier this year, revealed she would take up her dispute with the party to the commission after receiving legal advice there was “enough

Indonesia is Australia’s biggest and closest neighbour and needs our aid, and much can be done with goodwill and not a lot of money.

Standing on the roof of the old Torrens Island power station, workers can witness Australia’s energy transition being mapped out as far as the eye can see. The old gas plant – one half shuttered and the other partly mothballed – stands tall alongside a more compact 21st-century version a

A recently signed pact with the United States is expected to deliver benefits beyond clean energy or new mines by also boosting national security. Company bosses and policymakers are still coming to grips with what the deal signed last weekend will mean. But it’s clear the Australia-US Climate, Critical Minerals,