The global policy-making community is now having the right kind of debate about the costs and consequences of rising inequality and what it means for wealth creation and opportunity in advanced industrial economies. The Economist magazine, a traditionally dry publication, has called for the elimination of inefficient business tax concessions to fund a massive increase in human capital spending. The similarly oriented Financial Times has run intelligent pieces about the economic costs of digital exclusion.

- By Jim Chalmers

I arrived in Australia from Iran as a five-year-old migrant in January 1988. On 11 December 2013, I delivered my inaugural speech in the Australian Senate as a proud representative of the Australian Labor Party. My experience of the many opportunities of Australian citizenship motivates me to make a difference on population policy.

- By Senator Sam Dastyari

A federal budget is the government’s explanation for why it has to take our money. The reason offered, of course, is always the same: it will improve our lives. The whole arcane process of taxing and spending is ultimately justified by arguing it will make us all happier in the long run. This is what makes budgets fascinating.

- By Sam Crosby

At the edge of Randwick Junction lies a little park. It is shaped like a triangle, bound by three busy roads that link Randwick, Maroubra, and Coogee.

- By Pat Garcia

Imagine a country that rarely notices the world beyond its own borders. It’s a country that has double-digit inflation, high unemployment and a poor record of industrial disputation. Industry shelters behind prohibitive tariff walls, the exchange rate is fixed and ‘overseas’ trade is an afterthought. There are few tourists, not many foreign students on university campuses and few ‘foreign’ restaurants. The country, despite its bountiful wealth is at the bottom of the global premiership table in terms of economic performance.

- By Tim Harcourt

In the late 1970s I interviewed CLR James for a London magazine. CLR was living in Brixton and was close to 80. When I met him he was resting in bed, a shock of white hair, listening to the cricket on BBC radio.

- By Ric Sissons