Posts in Nick Cater
The price of big government

Since 2019, the rate of government spending a day has increased four times faster than inflation, driven by public sector wage and headcount increases. This is painful news for families struggling in a cost of living crisis. By Nick Cater.

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Nuclear or bust

Australia has slipped to 10th place in the OECD rankings of end-user power prices. Of the nine countries where electricity is cheaper, six have nuclear power stations. By Nick Cater.

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Trillion dollar transformation

The most comprehensive modelling ever done for any policy by any opposition in Australia’s history failed to predict that the wholesale price of electricity would more than double to between $121 MWh in Victoria and $162 in Queensland – somewhat higher than the $50 we had been told to expect. By Nick Cater.

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Mind the gap

A report this week by the Grattan Institute offers clues as to how a Labor government might reduce the structural deficit which it estimates will rise to $100 billion if left unchecked by the end of the decade. The report’s title, “Back in black?” would be heartening were it not for the question mark which suggests that Grattan thinks that budget deficits from here to eternity are an actual option. By Nick Cater.

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Victoria's energy policy is all at sea

The Victorian government has conceded the state doesn’t have enough land to build wind turbines at the scale required to meet its carbon neutral goals using only renewables. Rather than exploring other low-carbon power sources, the government is doubling down on its renewables obsession by considering offshore wind turbines.  By Nick Cater.

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