Alan Kohler is one of Australia’s most experienced commentators and journalists. Alan is the founder of Eureka Report, Australia’s most successful investment newsletter, and Business Spectator, a 24-hour free business news and commentary website. He also hosts Inside Business, a half-hour Sunday programme on the ABC, is the finance presenter on the ABC News - and producer of the nightly graph (or two).
In this week's essential reading guide Bartholomeusz predicts a Ford domino effect, Koukoulas runs the ruler over Australia's economy, Burgess foresees a carbon flip and Irvine surveys a Bernanke brainwave.
There is room for reform at the nation's tax office but Joe Hockey's proposal to knock tax administration and policing into place could be counterproductive.
In this week's essential reading guide Bartholomeusz predicts a Ford domino effect, Koukoulas runs the ruler over Australia's economy, Burgess foresees a carbon flip and Irvine surveys a Bernanke brainwave.
There is room for reform at the nation's tax office but Joe Hockey's proposal to knock tax administration and policing into place could be counterproductive.
In the ultra-fluid technology sector, many an acquisition shock has paid off – and vice versa. Yahoo's big cheque for Tumblr isn’t the only deal that may be judged differently in hindsight.
The cloud ERP vendor is starting to move up the software as a service food chain but it will have to surmount a few hurdles before its ready for big time.
The Solar 2013 conference in Melbourne carries the theme of an industry trying to prevent a possible race to the bottom, where weaker firms damage the industry in compromising quality for price.
The reverberations from the Newman government’s bulldozing of Queensland’s vegetation protection laws will be felt in Canberra, with the Coalition's Direct Action plan now at risk of a $1 billion budget blow-out.
CEOs outline changing views on corporate spending and profits, their economic expectations and political dissatisfaction, including advice for Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott.
UK-based Zeebox wants to be the intermediary for all social media-television interactions. It will not only have to lure viewers, but the networks themselves.
As Canberra lauds a hero who breached political expediency to save thousands of refugees, it’s still unwilling to put morals and people first in its own policy.
Having told the world Labor couldn't do without them at the helm, the best way for Kevin Rudd and his supporters to ensure history treats them kindly would be the party's electoral annihilation.
In the end Simon Crean’s folly overwhelmed his bravery, a diminished Kevin Rudd left his backers out to dry, journalists were shown up and Julia Gillard’s government almost certainly doomed.
Images of death and dying hang over parliament and anonymous sources say media laws could be the final nail in Julia Gillard’s coffin. But debate over the laws, on both sides, has completely ignored the media's own crisis.
Julia Gillard has been campaigning as though she wants to be NSW premier. In her desperate position, the local circus is the only hope for 'cut through' against an opponent who's been on his own election trail since 2010.
Kevin Rudd's burning determination to punish those who ended his prime ministership looks set to reach its climax, with devastating consequences for his party.
Between a sheltered electorate, journalists grasping to amplify their own voices and little substantial difference between Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard, the next eight months will feel as dreamlike as the past week.
Not long ago, Tony Abbott held the upper hand in media coverage and it felt like Australia had no prime minister at all. Ironically, as we enter an election year, the tables have turned.
Increasingly, the journalism delivered to Australians is a product of stunts and the fantasies of media managers – and that’s as true of political coverage as it is of the comings and goings of celebrities.
The weight of Kevin Rudd's deposition lives on in futile attacks over Julia Gillard's Slater & Gordon role. It should be focused on the prime minister's asylum policy failures.
Like Barack Obama, Julia Gillard has been subjected to vicious personal attacks simply because she does not fit the mould of a traditional white, middle-aged, male leader. Come election time, this may work in her favour.
It seems Julia Gillard was right that the carbon tax would never fell Labor as a competitive force at the next election. Maxine McKew’s book will do little to change this.
In Canberra at the moment, we seem to be living in an age of affairs, each with an undercurrent of failing male-female relations. These turgid political battles may be ugly, but they are substantive.
Outrage over Alan Jones' comments shows how the line between journalistic impartiality and social media opinion has been blurred. This is the world politicians also play to.
The rules of engagement between journalists and politicians have been broken for some time. If they worked, those in the know would tell us what's really going on with Kevin Rudd.
The debate we need to have is not about how Gillard’s education crusade will be funded but how to reverse the growing gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children.
One way or another Kevin Rudd will get his revenge on those who robbed his manifest destiny. Either way, the Rudd cheer squad remains alive and continues to play a vital role in the destruction of the Gillard government.
With Bob Brown gone, Labor’s relationship with the Greens was bound to come to grief. But given Labor's lack of moral and political capital, distancing itself from the Greens won't be enough against a relentless Tony Abbott.
Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott are in the business of moving as quickly as humanly – not humanely – possible from being in opposition to being in government. Asylum seekers won't be the only victims.
