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The AFR View

Yesterday

ANZ chairman Paul O’Sullivan (left) with incoming CEO Nuno Matos.

The pluses and minuses of Elliott’s ANZ legacy

How the outgoing CEO’s tenure is regarded will hinge on the long-term outcomes of his two signature projects.

  • The AFR View

This Month

The reopening of Notre Dame on Saturday captured the global political zeitgeist after lame-duck French President Emmanuel Macron invited resurgent US President-elect Donald Trump to attend.

Australia must be vigilant about stirring up populism

The challenge of cutting the size of government is made harder by public sector elites receiving outsized remuneration.

  • The AFR View
The arson and explosives squad is investigating the firebombing.

Posturing on Israel pandering to ugly racism

Labor continues to walk both sides of the street on the Gaza war, Palestinian statehood, and Israel’s right to self-defence. The net result of the juggling act has been to undermine attempts to condemn antisemitism unequivocally.

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Wesfarmers chief executive Rob Scott says it’s time for action on productivity.

The treasurer must ask what he can do for business

Jim Chalmers is asking business to dig Australia’s economy out of the hole. But he also needs to say what he is going to do to help businesses invest and lift the nation’s embarrassingly poor productivity.

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Back row, from left: Ryan Stokes, Robin Khuda, Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht, Matt Comyn. Front row from left: Leah Weckert, Greg Goodman, Jack Gance, Sam Gance and Mario Verrocchi.

Business Person awards celebrate founder success

AirTrunk and Chemist Warehouse’s founder stories underline the importance of innovative and risk-taking entrepreneurship, perceptiveness, and persistence to build wealth- and job-creating enterprises.

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The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission has given preliminary approval for Virgin’s plan to “wet lease” Qatar planes staffed by overseas crews.

Qantas’ misdeeds shouldn’t scuttle Virgin-Qatar deal

The TWU stoush with Bain Capital over the next Virgin boss highlights corporate Australia’s wider reputational issues that have fuelled the populist backlash against business.

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Treasurer Stephen Jones is giving the ACCC the authority to designate and fine tech platforms for anti-competitive behaviour that harm consumers and businesses.

Upholding sovereignty against big tech is not so easy

We credit the Albanese government for continuing to seek to make big tech play by the same rules as other companies. However, the devil is always in the detail.

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The new era in Australian central banking, due to officially begin on March 1 2025, should encourage better monetary policy decision-making.

RBA shake-up must maintain spirit of central bank independence

The new era in Australian central banking should encourage better monetary policy decision-making. But that hinges on whom the treasurer picks to sit on the new interest rate board.

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November

Simon Birmingham and Peter Dutton hug after the former announced his retirement from politics.

Report card on 47th parliament: Could do better

Two retiring politicians offered some pointed advice for their colleagues in parliament’s last session for the year.

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There is a scary lack of self-awareness given the role both Allan and Pallas have played in the financial mismanagement.

Allan and Pallas in denial about Victoria’s state of decline

Victoria’s bigger spending and bigger debt trajectory is not sustainable, and no amount of spin from the leaders to blame for making such a mess of public finances can cover that up.

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Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen: Two achievements make him stand out in the government for getting things done.

Target on track. But the truth about transition costs is not out there

Both sides of politics promising cheaper power prices is just setting up another broken election pledge.

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It is no small achievement. Just ask Wayne Swan, whose repeated forecast surpluses when Treasurer in the Rudd and Gillard governments never materialised.

Budget slide shows Chalmers’ fiscal luck has run out

If the government calls an early election before the budget is scheduled for March 25 next year, it would underscore how big a political problem – of its own making – economic management now is for Labor.

  • The AFR View
Monday’s dramatic capitulation by the Greens on the housing bill is a big win for the prime minister.

Pivotal election for higher education calls for bigger discussion

Beyond the next election horizon that is driving the student caps issue, the challenges universities now face deserve a serious policy conversation.

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Charging the leaders of a democratic nation with war crimes while exercising Israeli’s legitimate right of self-defence during the war against Hamas in Gaza is an unprecedented intervention.

Politicised overreach on Israel undermines ICC’s standing

There may be legitimate legal case to be heard. But moral questions around the portrayal of Israel as a pariah state also risks undermining the two-state solution required for a lasting peace.

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The missiles are flying as both sides escalate ahead of possible negotiations.

West must not flinch in helping Ukraine now

There is something else at stake as Ukraine fights on: the self-respect of the democratic nations that have backed them this far.

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Critics say that the Albanese government has succumbed to the temptation of channelling the FutureFund’s billions into “boondoggle projects”.

Chalmers taints the Future Fund with political intentions

By making the high-profile and unprecedented decision to direct the sovereign wealth fund the treasurer has changed the climate of expectations of what he would like the fund’s board to do.

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Jakob Stausholm says Rio’s Everyday Respect program is also about driving better performance.

Did gender diversity and merit collide at Rio Tinto?

The challenge for companies is to find a way to promote pluralism while treating all employees equally and avoiding inflaming a politicised culture war.

  • The AFR View
China could be hit with tariffs on its goods of up to 60 per cent, which will damage its economy and indirectly Australia’s too.

China should practise what it preaches on free trade

The best way Beijing can persuade the US it is playing fair is to open up its domestic market so America can share in its success.

  • The AFR View
The Bank of New South Wales opened branches everywhere, including the goldfields. Here is the tent branch at Wyalong, in the Northern Riverina, opened in 1894.

Branchless banks should not have to prop up bricks-and-mortar rivals

Before the government imposes a new levy to keep regional branches open and head off a Coalition attack, the competition and innovation effects must be weighed.

  • The AFR View
Anthony Albanese is heading for stormy waters.

Time running out as incumbents’ curse strikes Labor

According to today’s poll, 42 per cent of voters think our economy will be weaker with Trump restored to the White House. It’s a grim portent for Labor.

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The Australian Financial Review Magazine

BOSS Financial Review

Macquarie’s Shemara Wikramanayake has topped the AFR’s CEO pay ranks for the fourth year running.

Life & Leisure

Rich List

Jevan Bouzo, CEO of Convenience & Mobility at Viva and Yasser Shahin.