Dan Hadley

Opinion: The world has been fixated on the ever-growing conflict between Ukraine and Russia these last eight months. Coupled with rising tensions between the US and China, defence capabilities and the defence industry as a whole have become the conversation topic at every event, social BBQ, and work conference across Australia, Dan Hadley writes. With the centrestage world view placed squarely on the Indo-Pacific region, Australia’s military modernisation is in the spotlight. This rapid rise in strategic capability is providing major project opportunities within the private defence supply chain sector. In an effort to maintain its capability edge and ensure Australia’s security and prosperity, Australia has entered a trilateral security partnership known as AUKUS with the United States and United Kingdom. AUKUS is driving an immense need for modern, high-quality defence applications in order to ensure sovereignty and threat deterrence. As recent as 2018, Australia rose rapidly to b...

  Almost everyone would agree that paying tax is not an enjoyable exercise. Companies and individuals alike tend to go to great efforts to minimise their tax liability without crossing the line into tax evasion. Paying  tax  is an important part of society as it is our contribution to keeping a country and all of its services up and running. Without it, no-one would pick up the garbage, no-one would police the streets and no-one would keep the lights on at night. But where do we draw the line? Many individuals and  businesses  conduct business, own  assets  or work in more than one country during any given year during our lives. Should we be paying tax to one country if the work or  profit  comes from our efforts in another country? When this happens it is known as “double taxation”. There are arguments for and against and ultimately we must abide by the law. Everyone in this scenario tends to stop at one time or another and ask themselves; “...

  By   Dan Hadley AUSTRALIA’s population is ageing.  Older Australians are a growing proportion of the total population, year-on-year. For business leaders, it is important to understand the ramifications. According to the Federal Government’s  Australia’s Ageing Population   Report , released in 2019, the growth in the proportion of older Australians is partly due to an increase in life expectancy. In the 1960s a man might have expected to live an average life span of 78 years and a woman 78 years. Today the average life expectancy is around 85 for men and 87 for women in Australia. Some experts believe that the average life expectancy will continue to rise over time. Australians enjoy one of the highest average life expectancy rates in the world. The  CIA World Index  lists Monaco as having the greatest average life expectancy of its citizens at over 89 years and the lowest being Chad at just over 50 years.  The Parliamentary Budget Office recen...

AUSTRALIAN sugar cane growers currently face one of the most difficult economic periods in the history of Australian sugar production. India’s recent glut of sugar into the world market by primary producers has driven down the cost of sugar significantly. India’s increased production of raw and refined sugar in the last few years, off the back of subsidies, has led to more than 30 million tonnes over the 2018/2019 year. Just three years ago this number stood at just over 20 million tonnes. As a result, the global sugar price has plunged to a 10-year low of US$0.0983 per pound in the September period on the back of India’s announcement of an additional US$1 billion in sugar subsidies. Market fluctuation in October have left the price back in the US$0.12 per pound which translates to just over A$390 per tonne.    Further volatility with significant downward spikes is expected though, and this temporary relief may be the calm before a storm of medium term reduced pricing. The com...

By Dan Hadley SOME EVENTS cannot be quantified completely in just economic terms or numbers. The Australian bushfire crisis that has impacted the country since September 2019 is a prime example. Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning Economist, advocated the idea that almost anything can indeed have an assigned cost – even pollution or devastation  en masse . That seems a tough pill to swallow in the face of thousands of razed homes, lost human lives, millions of perished beautiful animals and over 10 million hectares of land, including national protected parklands, lost.  As an economist with close friends in the Adelaide Hills who lost everything but the clothes on their back, it becomes a difficult task to even broadly quantify the ‘economic’ impacts of this crisis, let alone the emotional fallout. With smoke from these fires reaching as far as South America and help from other countries pouring in by way of donations and firefighting volunteers, it could easily be argue...

  By Dan Hadley AS AUSTRALIANS celebrate Australia Day this week and commemorate the arrival of the British First Fleet in 1788, the fallout of a vote in the United Kingdom sees offices in Brussels being packed, flags being taken down and Brits walking out of the European Union for good. This is a week to watch and remember and the ‘British exit’ could mark a significant turning point for Australia. Australia forms a very important part of the Commonwealth of Britain. The relationship we continue to share is an important one, historically, culturally and economically.  Nonetheless, Australia’s relationship with the European Union (EU) is not strictly predicated on the actions of Great Britain. The Brexit does represent a significant shift in geopolitical as well as economic forces throughout the European region and throughout the world. Many Australians are left wondering if this shift will have a ripple affect all the way down into the southern hemisphere. Pack...