A major economics conference wound up talking about the topic on everyone else’s lips, writes Tim Colebatch.

Dig a little deeper, and the Census figures tell us unexpected things about more than one Australia, writes Tim Colebatch.

IN OCTOBER 1970, a young Laurie Oakes interviewed an old Sir John McEwen, the legendary leader of the Country Party (now the Nationals), long-time deputy and strong right arm of Sir Robert Menzies. One of the things the old warrior had to tell him was why he admired so much his former adversary, the Labor...

NOTHING is more central to Labor’s view of what makes Australia such a great place to live in than our long tradition of having an independent umpire to stop employers exploiting workers. Former Liberal prime minister Sir Robert Menzies shared that view; like others in the centre-left and centre-right, he argued that it was a...

The government still won’t acknowledge why the deficit isn’t going away, but it’s not too late to take some simple steps THERE was a bit of pride and a bit of resignation in the way treasurer Scott Morrison and finance minister Mathias Cormann reported yet another $10.4 billion blowout in the budget deficit forecast for...