For a week the country talked about melons. Jeremy Cordeaux says “melon-gate” was a media smokescreen that buried the questions that actually matter.
A hundred service stations closed for illicit tobacco, but Jeremy Cordeaux says the excise that makes a legal packet cost $60 is what created the black market.
The opposition wants to cut the building code from 2,000 pages to 80. Jeremy Cordeaux asks how it grew so big, and dreams of the same for 17,000 pages of tax law.
With approvals that take a decade and an industry whose capital is portable, Jeremy Cordeaux warns red tape could drive AI — and its wealth — offshore.
Half a new home’s cost is government charges, public builds cost more than private, and remote housing runs 150% higher. Jeremy Cordeaux asks who’s accountable.