• Don’t bet the farm on agricultural robots

    Daniel Casagrande     |      July 8, 2022

    Robots can help farmers improve crop yields and ease labour shortages but their adoption has been much slower than in other realms such as manufacturing.

  • Local food makes better eating

    Anitra Nelson     |      July 6, 2022

    The 50 year old philosophy of degrowth involves producing quality products in local economies to cover basic needs and promises a more ecologically sustainable future.

  • Agriculture 4.0 helps farmers do more with less

    Rabiya Abbasi     |      June 29, 2022

    If integrated correctly, new technologies can enhance crop yields, reduce production costs, improve the traceability of food, eliminate unnecessary waste and detect diseases in advance, but harnessing Agriculture 4.0’s full value won’t be easy.

  • The return of industrial action?

    Kate Bettes     |      June 3, 2022

    Rising inflation and stagnant wages are increasing the number of strikes across the country as workers begin to agitate for more rights and better renumeration at the workplace.

  • Tackling the surge in inflation

    John Hawkins     |      May 31, 2022

    Australia’s current surge in inflation, like that in much of the world, reflects a mix of temporary and more sustained factors and demand and supply issues, and navigating this new challenge will require agile economic management on the part of new Labor administration.

  • Decoupling the minimum wage and inflation

    Mark Humphery-Jenner     |      May 20, 2022

    A 5% increase in the minimum wage has emerged as a point of difference in the election campaign, but there may be no need to link the minimum wage to inflation.

  • Sanctions on Russia could prove a windfall for Australia

    David Uren     |      April 25, 2022

    Australia is Russia’s closest competitor in global markets and is the obvious winner as Putin’s pariah state loses exports due to international sanctions.

  • China’s coming industrial transformation and the threat to Australia’s economy

    Peter Farley     |      April 12, 2022

    A fall in demand from China for Australia’s coal and iron ore, and competition from Russia on global wheat markets, could see exports of primary materials fall sharply in the future, forcing Australia to develop more profitable alternatives.

  • The moral market

    Richard Holden     |      March 19, 2022

    The age-old political debate between market forces and central planning is as pertinent as ever, but the ability of markets to aggregate information and satisfy consumer needs can be harnessed in the cause of fairness and equality.

  • People make the world go round

    Jim Stanford     |      January 13, 2022

    Australians are getting a stark reminder about how value is actually created in an economy, and how supply chains truly work.

  • Global economic prospects for 2022

    Muhammad Ali Nasir     |      January 7, 2022

    Will 2022 be the year where the world economy recovers from the pandemic? That’s the big question on everyone’s lips as the festive break comes to an end.

  • The new normal – How Covid changed the way we shop

    Adrian Camilleri     |      January 5, 2022

    With COVID cases in the tens of thousands around the country, the nation’s shops are less busy than usual for the January sales, but the pandemic may have also changed the way we shop forever.