Blogotariat

6:00 – Polls have just closed in the Kiama by-election. This state seat is on the south coast of New South Wales, and was vacated by Gareth Ward shortly before he was expected to be expelled from the Legislative Assembly after his conviction and expected sentencing.

Results should start to come in before 7pm tonight. I’ll be live-blogging here. In the meantime, you can read my guide to the by-election here.

State lying is not an accident of politics: it is its mother tongue.

Brutal dictatorship attacks the body, but insidious tyranny targets the mind and the means of survival. One can escape the blows; one does not always recover from a lifetime spent pretending to believe in them. 

The Empire of Lies: A Success Story

by Azzedine Kaamil Aït-Ameur

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius requested 10 billion euros ($11.7 billion) more over the next two years for military support to Ukraine than was approved by the German government, German newspaper Bild reported on Friday.

Due to this disagreement, planned contracts with the Ukrainian defense industry must now be suspended, and support measures for the Ukrainian armed forces will have to be partially canceled or reduced, the report said.

The Albanese Government’s proposed changes to Freedom of Information laws will deny access to any document of the government that involves controversy. FOI guru Rex Patrick explains.

Just how fearless is advice that the author fears the public will see?

No controversy, please. We are the Aussie Government!

by Rex Patrick

In reshaping the world for prosperity, humanity has undermined the very foundations of progress.

So warns the latest study from the World Bank Group, entitled Reboot development: the economics of a liveable planet.

There is a lot of opinions about “Russia invading Poland with drones”…

Uncertainty surrounds the future of an $8 billion wind project in Victoria, with staff let go and operators unlikely to bid for government funding.

One of the world's leading climate experts puts the case for strong targets: "Unless we change tack ....

CSIRO Chief Research Scientist Pep Canadell on why Australia and the world need to aim high, not low, on its 2035 climate targets. Plus: It's getting weird in Queensland.

CBA released its monthly Household Spending Insights (HSI), which rose by 0.3% in August and follows a 0.7% lift in July and a 0.5% increase in May and June. The following chart from Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro plots the uptrend in the HSI over recent months and confirms the stronger household consumption reported in

The post Energy price shock lands on households appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Statistics New Zealand this week released migration data, which showed that only 13,066 net overseas migrants landed in New Zealand in the year to July. This was well below the decade average of 49,000 and more than 120,000 lower than the late 2023 peak. The decline in net overseas migration has been driven by the

The post Fed up Kiwis flee to Australia appeared first on MacroBusiness.

I have consistently cautioned that the state and federal governments’ plans to blanket our cities with high-rise apartments will not improve housing affordability. The reason is simple: it is too expensive to construct apartments. As a result, they cannot be delivered at a reasonable cost to buyers. Urbis highlighted the excessive cost of apartment development,

The post Building housing in Australia is too expensive appeared first on MacroBusiness.