Mike Seccombe

Australia

National Correspondent at The Saturday Paper

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Articles

Andrew Leigh’s productivity plan

2 weeks ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Mike Seccombe

News EXCLUSIVE: In an interview with The Saturday Paper, Andrew Leigh lays out his economy-wide plan to boost productivity. By Mike Seccombe. SHARE Copy Link Bluesky Facebook X LinkedIn As far as he knows, Andrew Leigh is Australia’s first minister of the Crown whose title includes the word productivity, which is pretty remarkable given its centrality to national economic growth and individual material wellbeing.
‘Done and dusted’: Inside Labor’s North West Shelf gas approval

3 weeks ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Mike Seccombe

On May 24, four days before Murray Watt announced a 40-year extension to Woodside Energy’s North West Shelf gas plant, he was made aware that his approval of the project would imperil the region’s bid for World Heritage protection. The timing of the advice was revealed in the Western Australian parliament last week, in response to questions from the Greens. Watt’s office told The Saturday Paper they had a “heads-up” it was coming.
Super stoush reveals teals’ leanings

4 weeks ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Mike Seccombe

News The attacks on Labor’s proposed superannuation tax reform have exposed inconsistencies in the progressive agendas of the independents. By Mike Seccombe. SHARE Copy Link Bluesky Facebook X LinkedIn It was a message hammered relentlessly by conservatives before the election: the teals are just Greens in disguise. For the community independents to portray themselves otherwise, Peter Dutton told one media conference during the campaign, was “dishonest”.
Murray Watt’s first task as environment minister

1 month ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Mike Seccombe

News Murray Watt, known for his effectiveness, is confident he can deliver long-delayed environmental reform. His first and most consequential task is the ‘carbon bomb’ project awaiting approval. By Mike Seccombe. SHARE Copy Link Bluesky Facebook X LinkedIn Murray Watt’s appointment as environment minister gives Kelly O’Shanassy a measure of hope.
How will Larissa Waters reshape the Greens?

1 month ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Mike Seccombe

News Larissa Waters won the Greens leadership without a formal vote, with party sources emphasising she will represent a reset from the party’s obstructionist image. By Mike Seccombe. SHARE Copy Link Bluesky Facebook X LinkedIn The new leader of the Greens, Larissa Waters, seems nice. She’s certainly well-credentialled, holding degrees in both science and law, the latter with honours.
And the Bandt played out: Inside the Greens result

1 month ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Mike Seccombe

Greens leader Adam Bandt has lost his seat. At 2.15 on Thursday afternoon he held a media conference to announce he had just called Sarah Witty, his Labor opponent for the seat of Melbourne, to concede defeat. Almost 24 hours earlier, ABC election analyst Antony Green had called the result, but Bandt held back, in the hope that absent and declaration votes, which broke solidly to him in 2022, would do so again.
Where the election will be won and lost

1 month ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Mike Seccombe

The Albanese government will be returned with an increased majority, there will be an expanded cross bench in the parliament, and the Liberal Party will win the lowest proportion of seats in the house since its foundation in 1944. This is the prediction of Paul Smith, director of public affairs and public data for YouGov, on the basis of the company’s final poll before today’s election, released late on Wednesday night.
‘Devastating’: Inside the Liberals’ One Nation deal

2 months ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Mike Seccombe

News After decades of principled condemnation, the Liberal Party has done sweeping preference deals with One Nation and Family First. By Mike Seccombe. SHARE Copy Link Bluesky Facebook X LinkedIn Just days out from the 1996 election, Jim Barron, then Queensland state director of the Liberal Party, decided he had to disendorse one of the party’s candidates.
Examining the foundations of Labor, Coalition housing policy

2 months ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Mike Seccombe

Peter Dutton failed to anticipate the obvious question on Monday, when he trotted his son out to speak to the media about the high cost of housing. Harry, 20, a second-year apprentice, told the reporters gathered at a real estate development in Brisbane that despite “saving like mad”, he saw no prospect of getting into the housing market “in the near future”. It’s a common story, to which millions of other would-be home owners might relate, except in one regard.
The Coalition’s bright idea on gas

2 months ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Mike Seccombe

This week, before the release of the economic analysis underlying the opposition’s election promise to reserve more gas for domestic consumers, Danny Price predicted how the gas industry would respond. “What’s going to happen,” said Price, the principal of Frontier Economics, who did the opposition’s modelling, “is the gas producers are all going to catastrophise. “They’ll say there will be an investment freeze.