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Shane Wright

Shane Wright

Shane Wright is a senior economics correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

The OECD believes Australia will be one of the world’s fastest growing economies this year and next, but with high inflation, lifting pressure on Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

Australia flagged as a global leader in a war-battered, inflationary world

The OECD believes Australia will be among the fastest growing economies this year. But it will come with high inflation, a worry for the Reserve Bank.

  • Shane Wright

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Cutting excise on fuel would barely reduce prices, lift demand and make it even more difficult to get supply to those who need it.

Let’s not adopt drongo economics to deal with high-priced fuel

High oil prices are painful. But ideas to make life easier - from ending excise to free public transport - would just make the situation worse.

  • Shane Wright
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the war in Iran meant inflation would be higher for longer.

Inflation on track to rise past 5 per cent by June with businesses to go bust in record numbers

Inflation was starting to stabilise before the outbreak of the war in Iran, and Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the end of the conflict cannot come soon enough for the economy.

  • Shane Wright
Scott Morrison, with former finance minister Mathias Cormann. The PM’s GST is fracturing the budget and the federation

The GST is broken, and hurting NSW and Victoria badly

A deal to quell anger from West Australians is now a $60 billion drain on the budget and generating anger across the federation.

  • Shane Wright
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with Housing Minister Clare O’Neil and SA Premier Peter Malinauskas during the 2025 federal election spruiking his plan to build 1.2 million homes by mid-2029.

The big slow build: Labor’s 1.2 million-home plan already a year behind schedule

The Albanese government wanted 1.2 million new homes built by mid-2029. All states and territories are behind schedule, with NSW especially dragging the chain.

  • Shane Wright
A collapse in consumer confidence could mean a drop in shopper activity across the nation’s retail outlets.

Rate rises and war push consumer confidence into death spiral

Happy consumers normally mean a strong economy. But consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level on record.

  • Shane Wright
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Higher interest rates, higher inflation and higher petrol prices: Jim Chalmers’ nightmare scenario is here

Australians started Googling the word “recession” after Michele Bullock used the term this week. People may have to find another word if the economy sours.

  • Shane Wright
US President Donald Trump – this war is now about more than Iran.

Donald Trump’s war is not just against Iran. It’s against oil, and it’s creating one giant carbon tax

The global energy watchdog’s recommendations for lowering oil use will give anyone who remembers the loo paper rolls war of the pandemic a nasty dose of PTSD.

  • Shane Wright
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey says the GST system is broken.

NSW warns GST system is ‘broken’, wants WA’s sweetheart deal watered down

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey says the GST system is irreparably broken – and it has to be fixed or the entire federation is at stake.

  • Shane Wright
Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

‘We will make hard decisions’: Chalmers says expect a tough budget

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned the pace at which the economy can grow without inflation pressures has dropped, with the coming budget to reveal a substantial slowdown.

  • Shane Wright and Natassia Chrysanthos