Aussienomics

A day after the RBA’s latest 25 basis point cash rate hike, Australia’s Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said: “The government thinks that inflation has peaked. We think what’s already in the system should do the job to ensure that we can dampen down demand.

You might think that anthropogenic climate change is a major issue and that decarbonisation should be front and centre of policy. But that’s no excuse for this shoddy bit of tweeting from Senator Pocock:

Opposition leader Peter Dutton isn’t happy about the RBA’s decision to replace the late Queen on the $5 bill with “a new design that honours the culture and history of the First Australians”:

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Australia’s Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, “will more purposefully direct investment flows to priority areas such as clean energy, through market design and co-investment”. Also known as industrial policy, Chalmers looks set to revive a relic of 1970s economic thinking:

It has been a few weeks since the Australian government rushed through its energy market intervention bill. How’s it working out? As one might expect: “Major energy retailers across the country have been forced to stop taking on new gas customers while others ramp up their prices, as they struggle under the government-imposed 12-month price cap.