Chalmers

Grattan on Friday: When Labor states don't dance to the Albanese government's tune

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, November 9, 2023

It’s helpful for the Albanese government to have all mainland states in Labor hands – but only up to a point.

Key Points: 
  • It’s helpful for the Albanese government to have all mainland states in Labor hands – but only up to a point.
  • In May, the government announced a 90-day review of the $120 billion infrastructure pipeline it inherited from the Coalition.
  • The government’s aim was to reduce the number of projects (many of them small) and rearrange priorities.
  • The political difficulties of abolishing or changing projects, often involving negotiation with states and territories, are obvious enough.
  • The government has received its stocktake, and Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the overall cost of the program has blown out by some $33 billion.
  • Being pushed into minority is something Albanese – a senior figure in the minority Gillard government – would want to avoid at all costs.
  • The challenge of keeping out of minority increases the importance of the “ground game” in Labor’s marginal electorates.


Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Swinerton Announces New Leadership Team to Drive Growth in Seattle

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 31, 2023

SEATTLE, Oct. 31, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Swinerton, a leading construction company with a national presence, is proud to unveil its newly appointed leadership team within the Seattle Division. This dynamic team, comprised of seasoned industry professionals, is poised to reinforce Swinerton's position as a premier contractor in the Seattle area. These individuals bring extensive experience and expertise to their respective roles, further enhancing the firm's commitment to delivering excellence in construction services.

Key Points: 
  • SEATTLE, Oct. 31, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Swinerton, a leading construction company with a national presence, is proud to unveil its newly appointed leadership team within the Seattle Division.
  • "The new leadership team brings a wealth of experience and a shared commitment to excellence, positioning Swinerton for continued success in the Seattle area," states Nick Vovakas, Vice President and Division Manager of Swinerton's Seattle Division.
  • As announced in June, Nick Vovakes will lead the new leadership team as Vice President and Division Manager.
  • "The new leadership team brings a wealth of experience and a shared commitment to excellence, positioning Swinerton for continued success in the Seattle area," states Vovakes.

Grattan on Friday: Cost-of-living crisis is the dragon the government can't slay

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, October 26, 2023

No, she said, highlighting the importance of alliances and reassuring that the president could handle more than one thing at a time.

Key Points: 
  • No, she said, highlighting the importance of alliances and reassuring that the president could handle more than one thing at a time.
  • Of course, when an Australian prime minister is invited to Washington, he or she has to go.
  • The bank is usually Delphic about its intentions, and new governor Michele Bullock is showing herself a master at that game.
  • The board would receive more information before its meeting that would be important for this assessment, she said.
  • The point is, however, that whatever the government has done is for the average household only at the margin.
  • As the final treasurer in the Whitlam government, Hayden pursued budgetary rigour (in his case in the most difficult circumstances).
  • If it starts to consume the government’s support, it could eat a lot of political capital very quickly.


Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Lender Compliance Technologies Partners With Blue Elk Advisors to Bring Next-Level Aftermarket Product Compliance Solution to Lenders

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Lender Compliance Technologies (LCT), a leader in automotive lending compliance platforms for aftermarket product cancellations, is excited to announce its partnership with aftermarket product refund experts Blue Elk Advisors.

Key Points: 
  • Lender Compliance Technologies (LCT), a leader in automotive lending compliance platforms for aftermarket product cancellations, is excited to announce its partnership with aftermarket product refund experts Blue Elk Advisors.
  • “With regulators putting lenders under the microscope on their VPP cancellation and refund practices, lenders must create better processes and controls to meet expectations.
  • According to Blue Elk Advisors Co-Founder and Managing Partner Mike Chalmers, the newly founded consulting firm brings real-world lender experience to aftermarket compliance.
  • Blue Elk Advisors is that resource and has the knowledge to assist lenders of any size reduce compliance risk and improve consumer treatment,” Chalmers said.

Australia's emissions must decline more steeply to reach climate commitment: OECD

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 3, 2023

The OECD also suggests broadening the scope of Australia’s so-called Safeguard Mechanism, which at present regulates the emissions of Australia’s 215 biggest polluting facilities.

Key Points: 
  • The OECD also suggests broadening the scope of Australia’s so-called Safeguard Mechanism, which at present regulates the emissions of Australia’s 215 biggest polluting facilities.
  • It awards Australia a score on carbon pricing well below the OECD average and even further below that of the top OECD performers.
  • The OECD is a forum of 38 mainly high-income countries, including Australia, that describe themselves as committed to democracy and market economies.
  • Declining productivity, declining competitiveness
    The OECD finds signs of “reduced competitive intensity” in product markets, as well as falling labour mobility.

Too hard basket: why climate change is defeating our political system

Retrieved on: 
Sunday, October 1, 2023

When I was first asked to write an opening piece in The Conversation’s series on climate change and the energy transition, I wanted to say no.

Key Points: 
  • When I was first asked to write an opening piece in The Conversation’s series on climate change and the energy transition, I wanted to say no.
  • It may already be too late to save the world as we know it.
  • Or should I write “be under threat” instead of “likely be gone”, to soften the story?
  • The focus on rising temperatures itself makes the future seem more benign than it’s likely to be.

The Albanese government’s softly-softly response

    • In his 2023 Intergenerational Report Treasurer Jim Chalmers included climate change as one of the five major forces affecting future wellbeing.
    • It’s one among many, and the emphasis is on the economic opportunities and jobs offered by the energy transformation.
    • Chief Climate Councillor Tim Flannery said:
      Climate dwarfs everything else in this report.
    • In The New Daily, Michael Pascoe asked, “What is Albanese hiding?
    • The Labor government’s response to the greatest emergency we face seems set on slow, as if we have time for an incremental response with little disruption to daily life and it’s OK to keep subsidising fossil fuels and approving new gas and coal projects.

Government can and must act

    • All this after four decades of neoliberalism in which both the federal and state governments have surrendered capacity to the private sector.
    • But as the COVID crisis showed us, when faced with an emergency our governments can act decisively and put the lives of people ahead of the interests of business.
    • A report from the Centre for Independent Studies claimed voters born after 1996 were the most progressive since the Second World War.
    • As the electoral weight shifts away from the old baby boomers Labor’s federal future is likely to be as a minority government with support from Greens and independents who will demand bolder action.

Why we struggle to face facts

    • Elliot from “Burnt Norton”, the first of his “Four Quartets”:
      Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind

      Cannot bear very much reality.

    • Time past and time future

      What might have been and what has been

      Point to one end, which is always present.

    • Time past and time future What might have been and what has been Point to one end, which is always present.

Politics with Michelle Grattan: Treasurer Jim Chalmers on jobs and work

Retrieved on: 
Friday, September 29, 2023

Treasurer Jim Chalmers released his White Paper on employment this week.

Key Points: 
  • Treasurer Jim Chalmers released his White Paper on employment this week.
  • Its aim is for everyone who wants a job to be able to get one without having to search for too long.
  • There are other indications around under utilisation and other data that we talk about in the white paper [on jobs and opportunities].
  • In this podcast, Chalmers also canvasses inflation, migration, the cost of living pressures on households and concerns about China’s economy.

Grattan on Friday: In the second half of this term Albanese will need to concentrate on delivery

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, September 28, 2023

Daniel Andrews’ abrupt exit from the Victorian premiership this week is the latest development in a wider picture.

Key Points: 
  • Daniel Andrews’ abrupt exit from the Victorian premiership this week is the latest development in a wider picture.
  • Looking a year ahead, Labor will be struggling against the electoral tide in Queensland, where (on present polling) the Palaszczuk government could lose office.
  • Palaszczuk has said she is determined to stay at the helm for the election, but her leadership has been under pressure from her colleagues.
  • Of the COVID premiers, only Palaszczuk remains (ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr is also still there).
  • More generally, the (nearly completed) first half of the government’s first term has seen many policy announcements – the second half will need to emphasise delivery.
  • Later in the month, Albanese will be in Washington on a state visit, feted at the White House.
  • The Australian prime minister might privately muse that whatever problems he faces, they are way, way easier than those confronting his host.

The Albanese government blew its shot at setting a historic new unemployment target

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, September 26, 2023

A clearly ambitious statement would have specified a target for unemployment, ideally one that was a bit of a stretch.

Key Points: 
  • A clearly ambitious statement would have specified a target for unemployment, ideally one that was a bit of a stretch.
  • Released at a time when unemployment was almost 10%, it specified a target unemployment rate of 5% – an ambition that served as a beacon for decades.
  • Yet the Albanese government has passed up a historic opportunity to say how much less, which it could have done by setting its own target.

Setting our sights below 5%

    • That means our unemployment target ought to be somewhere between zero and 5%.
    • There will always be people out of work while they are moving between jobs, what the white paper calls “frictional” unemployment.
    • I get that we need, in the words of the white paper, “a higher level of ambition than is implied by statistical measures”.

What gets measured gets done

    • If a target isn’t specific, it isn’t a target at all (or at best it’s a fuzzy target).
    • That means it’s less likely to be aimed at and less likely to be hit.
    • But neither could make any boast about hitting the employment target – because there wasn’t one.

How failing to set a target costs jobs

    • Read more:
      The RBA's failure to cut rates faster may have cost 270,000 jobs

      Lowe wasn’t held to account for the extra unemployed in the same way as he is being held to account for his performance on inflation.

    • Because he was never actually given an unemployment target.
    • I am quite prepared to acknowledge that other measures of employment matter, underemployment among them.
    • As employers find it hard to hire new workers, they get existing workers to put in more hours.

Our unemployment rate is a proxy for what matters

    • This makes the unemployment rate just about the perfect proxy for everything else about the labour market that matters, and just about the perfect number to target.
    • Even that would have been less “ambitious” than Keating choosing 5%, when the rate was twice as high.
    • Treasurer Chalmers says the government didn’t set a target because apparently the unemployment rate doesn’t capture “the full extent of spare capacity in our economy or the full potential of our workforce”.
    • Chalmers is about to update the Reserve Bank’s statement of expectations, the one that until now hasn’t included a target for unemployment.

Employment white paper to deliver more highly qualified workers in net zero, care and digitisation

Retrieved on: 
Monday, September 25, 2023

The government will commit $41 million for technical and further education and “higher apprenticeships” when it releases its white paper on employment on Monday.

Key Points: 
  • The government will commit $41 million for technical and further education and “higher apprenticeships” when it releases its white paper on employment on Monday.
  • Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Sunday the white paper will sketch out 31 future reform directions and contain nine new policies.
  • “The government is aiming to double higher apprenticeship commencements in the priority areas identified in the white paper over five years.
  • The targets in the white paper should be seen as complementary to, but “not in conflict with” the Reserve Bank’s targets.