The Stutchbury Sessions
Feed your intelligence with policy research and commentary designed to enhance our liberal democracy. Join Michael Stutchbury and guests every Thursday for your 10 minute briefing.
Michael Stutchbury is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Australian Financial Review, a role he held from 2011 until 2024, when he became the masthead's Editor-at-Large. With a career in journalism spanning several decades, and including a stint as a Washington correspondent, he is widely respected for his expertise in economic and public policy issues and his engagement with business issues. Before leading the Financial Review, he served as Economics Editor and later as Editor of The Australian, where he played a key role in shaping national discourse on fiscal policy, industrial relations, and economic reform. His career has consistently demonstrated a strong grasp of the interplay between government policy and market dynamics, making him a prominent voice in debates over taxation, regulation, and productivity.
Listen on:
Episodes
Wednesday Sep 03, 2025
Wednesday Sep 03, 2025
In this inaugural edition, CIS Executive Director and former Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Financial Review, Michael Stutchbury, outlines how Australia once enjoyed extraordinary prosperity, built on bipartisan reforms of the 1980s and 1990s that liberalized markets, cut tariffs, and opened the economy to global competition.
Yet, since prosperity peaked in 2011–12, signs of decline have mounted: stagnant productivity, shrinking real incomes, persistent deficits, mounting debt, weak business investment, soaring energy costs, and a lower growth potential as estimated by the RBA.
The problem is not simply cyclical, Stutchbury says. As politics shifted from creating wealth to redistributing it, spending grew while reform stalled. New entitlements and universal programs have expanded government outlays, crowding out private investment.
To restore prosperity, Australia must pursue the four reforms outlined in this episode.
Australia has reinvented itself before; it must find the courage to do so again.
Tuesday Sep 02, 2025
Tuesday Sep 02, 2025
Join Michael Stutchbury, former Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Financial Review, in his brand-new show The Stutchbury Sessions. Don’t navigate Australia’s economic turbulence alone. Get ready for razor-sharp analysis backed by data and logic.
Don’t miss an episode. Policies evolve, and opportunities vanish, so here’s your chance to stay ahead of the pack. Subscribe to The Stutchbury Sessions on your favourite platform today.