After promising to enact the Royal Commission's recommendations to the letter before the report was even released, and then saying it accepted all the recommendations "in principle" after the report was published (whatever that means), Labor have now rejected outright one of the Royal Commission's most important findings: that mortgage... Show More
Just before Christmas, the Productivity Commission presented its final 700-page report to the Government titled “Superannuation: Assessing Efficiency and Competitiveness”. The Government released it to the public in early January. Show More
In my first column for the year, I reflect on the debate I kicked off regarding the absence of any publicly managed super solution and the role the Future Fund could play in this context. After dealing with criticisms from vested interests, I query whether Chris Bowen has unwittingly wedged... Show More
The Kilauea volcano has been erupting almost constantly for the past 35 years. The current investment landscape reminds me a lot of Kilauea, with numerous ongoing geopolitical eruptions and their financial ‘lava’ threatening to recast the map of long-standing investment strategies. Show More
A week after the fanfare of the 2018/19 Budget, we can soberly review some of the information and data that supports its projections. In the body of the Budget papers are a wealth of tables and charts that contain important observations and insights into the Australian economy. We scan through... Show More
The Economist published a short blog on Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, pointing out that the fund has just passed the $1 trillion mark. Show More
In The AFR I consider the question of whether the Future Fund should lower its currently lofty CPI plus 4.5% to 5.5% return target after a decade of outperformance and argue that if it is in the alpha-generating business returns are only constrained by the inefficiency of the asset-classes available... Show More
The latest portfolio update from the Future Fund confirmed that the average annual return on its investments has been 7.7 percent since it was established in May 2006. Former Treasurer Peter Costello, who chairs the Future Fund Board of Guardians, judged this return to be good to the point where... Show More