In fact, there's plenty we can do to make future fires less likely
Articles from Peter Martin
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GDP update: spending dips and saving soars as we stash rather than spend our tax cuts
Australians saved rather than spent most of the budget tax cuts, almost doubling the proportion of household income saved, leaving spending languishing.
We asked 13 economists how to fix things. All back the RBA governor over the treasurer
Thirteen leading economists have declared their hands in the stand off between the government and the Governor of the Reserve Bank over the best way to boost the economy.
All 13 back Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe.
If you want to boost the economy, big infrastructure projects won't cut it: new Treasury boss
Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy – in the job for for just weeks after moving across from the department of infrastructure last month – has dismissed talk of spending big on infrastructure in order to escape an economic downturn.
Such calls “sound straightforward, but in practice are difficult to achieve”, he told a Senate hearing on Wednesday.
The dirty secret at the heart of the projected budget surplus: much higher tax bills
The budget is bouncing out of deficit and is set to stay in surplus for the decade to come.
It's Newstart pay rise day. You're in line for 24 cents, which is peanuts
Newstart recipients and other Australians on benefits get their half-yearly pay rise today (and also on March 20). This one is vanishingly small.
GDP. Why we've the weakest economy since the global financial crisis, with few clear ways out
The Australian economy is tepid, with consumer spending the weakest in ten years, business investment shrinking, and economic growth too weak to cover population growth.
Were it not for very strong growth in export income and the biggest surge in government spending in 15 years, the economy would have shrunk.