It is an honour to have been asked to deliver the Stan Kelly lecture. Not because I knew Stan Kelly, but because I support his worldly philosophy – his advocacy of tariff reductions and open trade.

If the Greens are really opposed to housing demand drivers like immigration, then they should say so.

If the RBA is planning to lift rates until it is happy with productivity, then we are all in big trouble.

Inflation is falling. There in no wage-price spiral. The central bank does not need to trigger a recession to contain them.

The Rip Van Winkles who expect the prime minister to break the election promise on the stage three tax cuts need to wake up to his plan to make Labor the natural party of government.

Closing out unduly generous concessions in the design of the tax will also offer stability in the taxing regime for the Australian offshore gas industry.

A nine-person Monetary Policy Board of trained economists is welcome. But there is a risk the RBA will slavishly persist with the monetarist thinking that results in higher unemployment.

The Liberal leader’s aim seems to be to keep his parliamentary party together – even at the risk of the wider party’s appeal.

The Liberals are dealing themselves out as a party of reform. More important is the relationship between the BCA and the ACTU.

Media outlets are increasingly fishing only in pools of their own prejudices – and this is not good for democracy.

The revelation of 1.9 million temporary unskilled and insecure workers does not look like the makings of a wage explosion.

With its continuing rate increases, the RBA is not being cruel to be kind. They are the result of an unquestioned dogma.

Migration and changing attitudes of the young will ensure fewer conservatives with the power to cling to Australia’s colonial past.

If Peter Dutton takes the Coalition back to the Abbott era, then more of their seats will tumble to the teals next time.

The ACTU must realise that many of the proposals in a major new Productivity Commission report will align with its own goals.

A Coalition campaign against a broken election promise might be enough to plunge Labor into minority government and destroy any chance of getting unpopular economic reform through parliament.

While arguments will persist about Gough Whitlam’s economic performance, it is his social and environmental reforms that have created an enduring legacy for Australia.

The central bank should pause and look at the lagging data. But it is unlikely to find evidence of an inflation problem from another era.