Author Archives: Gene Tunny

AI, Productivity, and “Infinite Intelligence” – Conversation with Chris Berg and John Humphreys

Posted on August 23, 2025 by Gene Tunny

On Thursday evening, I joined John Humphreys of the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance and Professor Chris Berg of RMIT University for an ATA livestream discussion on productivity (see Productivity ideas with Chris Berg). One of the most interesting parts of the … Continue reading →

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Borrowing to Pay Wages

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Gene Tunny

I caught up with Steve Austin on 612 ABC Brisbane this morning to discuss Sir Leo Hielscher’s sterling record as Queensland Under Treasurer in the seventies and eighties and to compare our state’s previous stellar financial performance with the mess … Continue reading →

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Interest Rates, Australia’s 3 Biggest Challenges, Global Fertility Crash, & the Tobin Tax Debate w/ John Humphreys, Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance

Posted on July 12, 2025 by Gene Tunny

The RBA will occasionally make mistakes, but abolishing RBA independence, as some commentators have suggested after this week’s surprising cash rate decision, would be a bad idea. I defended central bank independence in my latest Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance live stream … Continue reading →

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Australia’s Productivity Problem: Can It Be Fixed? w/ John Humphreys, Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance

Posted on June 14, 2025 by Gene Tunny

In our latest Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance (ATA) livestream, ATA Chief Economist John Humphreys and I dissect the causes behind Australia’s productivity slump (Figure 1), analysing recent GDP data and the impacts of labour market policies, regulatory constraints, the high cost … Continue reading →

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Big Budget Challenge for New Qld Treasurer

Posted on April 1, 2025 by Gene Tunny

Today’s Courier-Mail article reporting that Townsville University Hospital can’t afford to fix its elevators reminded me of something a former state Under-Treasurer told me when I researched my 2018 book Beautiful One Day, Broke the Next. He told me governments … Continue reading →

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Federal Budget, the Olympics, & Trump’s Tariffs Chat with Damian Coory & Dan Petrie

Posted on March 29, 2025 by Gene Tunny

Is there a brilliant ‘Art of the Deal’ strategy behind Trump’s tariff policy? It has been a big failure for the US so far, as attested to by the 7% fall in the US share market since inauguration day (see … Continue reading →

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$1k each power bill subsidy is an irresponsible & desperate vote-buying exercise

Posted on May 2, 2024 by Gene Tunny

It’s not uncommon to find energy subsidies being criticized in IMF reviews of emerging economies. They’re often a policy favoured by irresponsible autocrats, as we’ve witnessed in various economic basket cases like Venezuela under Hugo Chavez. It seems the Queensland … Continue reading →

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Huge upward revision in state debt – what’s going on?

Posted on April 17, 2024 by Gene Tunny

We’re getting close to the point where we must respect the adage “no one ever kicks a dead dog” about the current Queensland state government. But it’s left itself open to criticism about its latest huge upward revision to state … Continue reading →

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Fossil fuels to figure in Qld’s future for decades to come

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Gene Tunny

Despite the Queensland Government promoting the so-called Clean Economy, our state Treasury is still highly dependent on coal royalties, and the prosperity of our regional economies is highly correlated with coal mining. Coal prices remain at high levels and may … Continue reading →

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How the Qld economy has changed in recent decades

Posted on February 26, 2024 by Gene Tunny

The state and national economies have experienced similar trends by industry since 2000. The big changes have been the 2-3x increase in the mining sector’s importance since China’s economic growth started significantly influencing the global economy in the early-2000s (Figure … Continue reading →

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