Tom Emerson interviews Craig Emerson

Some early down payments on reform would be helpful, perhaps starting with industrial relations where the parties had made good progress in 2020.

Business people shouldn’t fall for claims that the Liberals are the party of reform and low taxes. History and the government’s own economic forecasts confirm this is wrong.

Coalition governments have been big taxers and big spenders. And now the present government’s post-pandemic sugar hit on the economy is running out.

A national reform summit will be needed after the election to kick off this conversation. It should be followed by an agreed program of work to inform a new reform agenda.

Reform of the Child Care Subsidy would ease cost-of-living pressures for working families

The principles that The Australian Financial Review has argued for over the decades are once again under threat.

Labor’s release of a limited number of signature policies makes not only good political sense. It is economically responsible at a time of great uncertainty.

A strong macro-economy cannot be built on weak micro-economic foundations – and whichever party wins the federal election will need to take on the challenge as the remaining fiscal stimulus wears off.

Only those still living in the 1970s would want the central bank to prematurely choke off wages growth when there is no cause to.

How we can fix our fertility crisis

A skewed tax and transfer system actively penalises women for choosing to have children. Here are some essential changes.

Contradicting the Morrison government’s election rhetoric, the facts suggest Labor has a better recent track record on handling the books and reforming the economy.

Yes, the economy has rebounded – but only to its pre-pandemic levels of unreformed mediocrity.

Scott Morrison’s transactional government seems merely to want to return to the rut of slow economic growth with no ideas for the future.

The government’s threats of a $400 a tonne climate price are hollow. Their only purpose is a new election scare campaign.

If the federal government can’t do anything constructive on climate change, it should at least get out of the way of those who can.

Hypocritical Nationals holdouts are exposing regional Australia to risk and robbing it of opportunity in the green industries that are coming.

If critics of the anti-corruption watchdog’s powers had their way, confidence in the political process would be the true victim.

As the Australian National University (ANU) celebrates its 75th anniversary, Dr Craig Emerson reminisces about the social cricket series played between economics departments in the 1980s. It was a time of big hair, big dreams and broken bones