Episode 18

Australia’s economy is growing, but the gains aren’t keeping pace with the past. Domenique and Paul open with a sharp focus on stalled productivity growth and why it matters. Along with how it shapes living standards, and why it feels like today’s prosperity is being borrowed from tomorrow. From there, what’s in the news takes over. We discuss housing prices climbing for the sixth straight month with Darwin leading the charge, commodities bouncing around on tariff headlines, solar panels and home batteries taking off as energy bills keep rising, and Trump’s tariffs ruled illegal by a federal appeals court but still hanging in limbo until the Supreme Court decides.

With the headlines as backdrop, they turn to the hand that’s steering the bigger story: Australia’s productivity puzzle. Despite decades of growth, productivity has flatlined, and in some years even gone backwards. Domenique and Paul dig into why including slow adoption of new technology, a heavy reliance on mining, and government spending propping things up instead of real efficiency gains. The result is a gap with other economies that are moving faster, and GDP per capita that’s slipping instead of rising. They call it a kind of “intergenerational theft,” where today’s Australians are coasting on the work of earlier generations rather than building new strength for the future.

The conversation closes with the invisible connections between energy and housing. Homeowners are cashing in on rooftop solar and rebates, trimming bills and even selling power back to the grid. Renters are largely left out with less than 10% of rental properties having solar. They’re stuck shouldering higher energy costs with none of the upside. Domenique and Paul go back and forth on whether governments should give landlords stronger incentives to install panels, or whether the real fix is helping more renters become owners in the first place. Either way, it’s a clear example of how ownership, incentives, and policy end up deciding who gets ahead and who falls behind.