Confessions of an Economics Editor: the five decade rise and stall of Australian prosperity

Confessions of an Economics Editor: the five decade rise and stall of Australian prosperity

Michael Stutchbury has spent most of his professional life charting the political economy of Australian prosperity for Australia's two national daily newspapers. The narrative begins with the surprising excitement of the 1960s mining boom and proceeds through the stagflation of the 1970s, the neo-liberal Labor reform revolution of the 1980s, the productivity dividend of the 1990s and then the unexpected China boom of the 2000s.  But it peaked with the $US180 a tonne iron ore price in 2011 and 2012. Since then it has been slowly declining. 

About the Speaker

Michael Stutchbury is the Executive Director of the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS). He 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.

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