All indications are that Malcolm Turnbull means what he says when he insists the election will be next year, but at the end of this week you could be forgiven for thinking the poll was next month.

It was no surprise that the budget, the last in this parliamentary term, contained a major income tax package, even if staging it over seven years...

Vital Signs is a regular economic wrap from UNSW economics professor and Harvard PhD Richard Holden (@profholden). Vital Signs aims to contextualise weekly economic events and cut through the noise of the data affecting global economies.

This week: How the economies of China and the United States will affect what happens in our own.

Business...

In Labor’s budget reply speech, Bill Shorten reaffirmed the plan to remove refundability of dividend imputation credits. His pitch was to Australian voters on lower and middle incomes, in which he pledged to look after the country’s ageing population:

We know that giving older Australians the security and dignity they deserve matters...