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“If the government exempted work income from the income test for those with limited savings it would boost their income and savings in retirement, and boost the productivity of the nation,” Mr Henschke said. “We will nudge millions of Australians into, not out of, work.” The idea has support from business groups and figures. Mining magnate Gina Rinehart said the change would help ease the nation’s skills crisis. “We are a supporter of the government changing its policy where pension arrangements are concerned, so that pensioners can work should they so choose, without onerous tax resulting from their decision to work,” Ms Rinehart said.

A TECHNOLOGY that uses renewable energy-powered electrolysis at low temperature to convert carbon dioxide into reusable carbon and oxygen has been backed by Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting. Called Carbelec, the technology is being developed by researchers at the University of Melbourne. Those researchers claim the technology could be a game changer for steel makers.

The federal government has ­relocated four F-35A Joint Strike Fighters to RAAF Base Tindal, southeast of Darwin, putting the nation’s most advanced combat jets on the frontline of Australia’s northern approaches. The fifth-generation multi-role fighters will take over from now-retired F/A-18A/B Classic Hornets, with 16 of the aircraft due to be based at Tindal by ­December 2023. Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the RAAF’s 75 Squadron would operate the jets from the strategically important location, which has become a defence and US engagement hub. “The Tindal-based F-35As will assure the ADF’s ability to deter or defeat threats to Australia’s interests and strengthen our ability to project potent air power into Australia’s immediate region,” Mr Dutton said.

29 July, 2021. Courtesy of Sky News.

Over the past financial year, WA mining and oil and gas companies contributed $83 billion directly to Australia’s economy, roughly one sixth of the entire federal government’s revenue over the period. This is more than the federal government’s budget for Medicare ($29.7 billion) and defence ($44.6 billion) combined. There are more than $140 billion worth of projects in the mining and oil and gas sector across WA, many of which are greenfield developments. The CMEWA said similar contributions from the resources sector would continue over the next decade.

WA mining and resources companies injected almost $122 billion into Australia’s economy in the 2019-20 financial year through direct and flow-on spending, helping create 309,000 full-time jobs during COVID-19. The figures, from WA’s peak resources industry body, revealed the extent to which the local sector powered economies and communities around the nation as they reeled from the impacts of the pandemic. “That’s why it’s so important that both industry and government continue to tackle key challenges like current and future skills shortages, in order to fully capitalise on the significant opportunities we have in front of us.”

Rather, what one should be looking for are explanatory factors which are themselves economy-wide. In reality, one doesn’t need to look far, for the past decade has seen a tsunami of regulation – from climate change to directors’ liability – that has increased the risk involved in investing and pushed up required profit margins and rates of return. And by the way, those regulations also make it harder for new firms to enter and expand, giving some substance to Treasury’s story.
We are, in other words, in the midst of a battle between an innovation process that is yielding enormous consumer benefits and a regulatory explosion that threatens those benefits. Once upon a time, Treasury would have been more alert to that clash and its dangers than anyone. Its analysis might have been technically less sophisticated than this paper is, but it would have focused on the real problems – and provided ­better guidance to policymakers.

Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia Keith Pitt said as the world recovers from the global COVID-19 pandemic, record iron ore prices have driven a surge in export earnings, while metallurgical coal exports are also benefiting from a surge in world steel production. “These incredible results underline the importance of Australia’s resources sector to the national economy and international markets throughout the COVID-19 downturn.”