Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Former treasury boss Ken Henry has fessed up to helping dumb down debates about tax and budgets to lists of winners and losers. He says what matters is what wins rather than who.
Up until December 9 1983, officials used to announce each morning how much the dollar was worth. Even bankers were shocked about letting the market set the price – but it’s served Australia well.
Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Former Reserve Bank and Treasury chiefs have gone on to run Westpac, the National Australia Bank, the ANZ, and Macquarie Bank. It makes regulating those banks hard.
Australia’s past reports have been largely ignored big issues like housing and climate change. Ahead of the latest report’s release, here’s what we’re still missing – including giving you a say.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers wants to make the national wellbeing framework part of how governments make decisions, as others like Wales have done. But international experience suggests it won’t be easy.
When COVID-19 struck, Australia’s Treasury didn’t have the luxury of years of work, refinement and debate to develop JobKeeper. It had to perform battlefield surgery.