Past Programs
Business, Economics and Finance - 2007
Carbon futures
08/12/2007
The new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has already committed the government to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 60% by 2050.
A key mechanism to achieve this target will be a carbon trading system.
A carbon futures market could be worth billions of dollars and it is likely to be up and running by 2010.
Household debt Read Transcript
13/10/2007
The Australian economy is booming, but so too our personal debt.
In this age of easy credit and high employment it's perhaps not surprising that we just keep borrowing.
Household debt continues to grow faster than our GDP, and credit card debt alone now exceeds $40 billion.
So is this sustainable?
Offshore camps...a price too high?
25/08/2007
August 26 marks the sixth anniversary of the so-called Tampa Affair. It was on that day in 2001 that a Norwegian container ship, the MV Tampa, rescued 433 asylum seekers from a sinking fishing boat just outside Australian waters.
Asylum seekers were then transported to hastily built offshore processing camps on Nauru and Manus Island.
Six years later the camp on Nauru remains operational and currently holds around 90 people.
But what's the cost of keeping offshore camps open?
Gunya business Read Transcript
18/08/2007
A senior Australian businessman and one of Australia's richest men has put a proposal to the Federal Government which aims to transform the lives of Aborigines in remote communities.
Bill Moss, the former head of Macquarie Bank's property division, has based his plan on a successful project he helped set up on the fringes of the Simpson Desert.
The Gunya Tourism venture at Titjikala, about 100 kilometres south east of Alice Springs, was established three years ago.
Managing director Paul Conlon says the venture is more a community developer than a tourism operator, its aim being to improve the lives of local people.
And he says it's done just that. Since the project began he says there is a measurable difference in the community's self esteem, and he says more children are attending school because they know they will one day be contributing to the business.
The project was funded by private money with the initial capital investment from Bill Moss.
Despite initially losing about $100,000 a year, the venture is expected this year to break even.
Mr Moss's idea is that the government needs to provide tax incentives for business to invest in Aboriginal communities.
His plan has been presented to the Prime Minister, John Howard, the Aboriginal Affairs minister Mal Brough, the Federal Opposition leader Kevin Rudd and Labor's Aboriginal Affairs spokeswoman Jenny Macklin.
Stokes blow Read Transcript
28/07/2007
One of Australia's richest men has been dealt a massive blow in the Federal Court.
Channel Seven chairman Kerry Stokes took on a number of rivals including Foxtel, PBL and News Limited, alleging the group conspired to keep his company out of contention for the AFL broadcast rights.
The long-running case cost tens of millions of dollars and is inevitably a slap in the face for the man who as a boy lived on the streets of Melbourne.
The G9 proposal Read Transcript
19/05/2007
To paraphrase Phil Burgess the G9 plan for a high speed broadband network is - quote - "A pretend proposal, it doesn't have financial backing, it doesn't have a deployment plan.... I don't know what the G9 proposal is".
That's what the straight talking Texan had to say on this program last week in his capacity as Telstra's head of public policy and communication.
G9 is of course the consortium of telecommunications companies that for the past 12 months or so has been engaged in a game of brinkmanship with Telstra over who will ultimately build the network on which our broadband future will hinge.
So exactly what is it that the G9 is planning?
The future of China
14/04/2007
China is the most rapidly growing economy in the world.
It is well on its way to becoming the world's third biggest economic power by 2008.
But the question is, just how long can this economic miracle continue?
