Sat, July 25th, 2026: Weekly Wrap Up with Macca and Misha Ketchell, Editor-in-Chief of the Conversation.
Macca is joined in the hosting seat, for the first half of this week’s show by Misha Ketchell, Editor-in-Chief of the Conversation.
Misha is the Editor of The Conversation Australia and New Zealand. He has been a journalist for more than 25 years. He was the founding editor of The Big Issue Australia and editor of Crikey, The Reader and The Melbourne Weekly. He was a reporter at The Age and worked at the ABC where he was a TV producer on Media Watch and The 7:30 Report and an editor on The Drum.
Macca and Misha discuss New UK PM Andy Burham; job losses at Nine; what’s come out from the ALP conf in Adelaide
Oasis Index and Big Mac Index
Melbourne recently took top spot on the “Oasis index”, an annual metric published by Deutsche Bank that tracks the price of beer and cigarettes in cities around the world.
The index tracks the cost of five beers and two packets of cigarettes, in US dollars, city by city. Inspired by the lyrics of the song Cigarettes and Alcohol, from Oasis’s 1994 debut album Definitely Maybe.
Melbourne’s Oasis basket comes to US$111.20 (about A$160). That’s slightly ahead of Sydney at US$109.50 (A$157), but roughly double the equivalent basket in New York – US$54.10 (about A$78).
Sydney came a very close second, reflecting what the report called “Australia’s relentless application of sin taxes”.
If you’re in Melbourne the Oasis index shows the same round of beer and cigarettes cost US$59 (A$84) in 2016. The cost has risen by 89%.
The Oasis index is just one of many unusual metrics that aim to reveal economic insights by looking at spending habits on everything from lipstick to underwear.
Big Mac Index
Princeton University economics professor Orley Ashenfelter has travelled the world visiting McDonald’s stores.
Big Macs earned per hour index to show real wages.
India: four hours to buy one big mac.
Korea: two big macs per hour.
Most developed countries sit at two big macs per hour.
Maccas workers in Australia get 3.3 big macs per hour, putting us at or near the top.
For years, economists have been using “novelty” metrics because these are often more relatable and easier for the public to understand.
There are several famous examples.
The hemline index, first introduced by economist George Taylor in the 1920s, is based on an assumption that the length of skirts rises and fall in line with the stock market.
The hemline index suggests skirt lengths rise and fall based on the strength of the economy.
The theory – which despite some supporting evidence, remains controversial – is that when the economy is flourishing, hemlines get shorter. By contrast, in an economic downturn, hemlines get longer.
The men’s underwear index was coined by the late former Chair of the US Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan.
Greenspan noticed that during tighter economic conditions, men cut back on a basic but hidden necessity – boxers and briefs.
People can’t see what you are wearing under your clothes, so its easier to delay replacing threadbare briefs to save money.
Then we have the lipstick index. This was coined after Estée Lauder chairman Leonard Lauder noticed, in 2001, that lipstick sales were increasing even while discretionary spending fell.
The assumption here is that in times of economic uncertainty, consumers resort to affordable luxuries rather than big-ticket items such as holidays or cars. Psychologically, we still want to reward ourselves, but at a smaller scale.
And no roundup of unusual indices should exclude the Big Mac index, introduced in 1986 by The Economist magazine to demonstrate purchasing power parity across the world.
It prices an identical burger everywhere it’s sold, so any gap in the US-dollar price is a rough signal of whether a currency is over- or undervalued.
Universities
Julie Hare, OZ most experienced higher education reporter: ‘We’ve got vice-chancellors here in third-tier universities who are paid more than the vice-chancellors of Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard. It’s insane.’
NSW’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) earlier this month John Dewar clumsily attempted to explain away accusations put to him that he advantaged his employer, the advisory firm KordaMentha, to successfully win contracts at the University of Wollongong, where he had been seconded as an interim vice-chancellor.
Dewar was employed by KordaMentha in February 2024 as a partner to run its higher education practice. A couple of months later, he was approached by the University of Wollongong’s chancellor, Michael Still, to fill in as vice-chancellor.
KordaMentha didn’t seem to have a problem with their new high-profile hire jumping ship just four months after signing on.
Why? Well, it seems the firm expected, quite confidently, that there would be a quid pro quo. That is, Dewar’s appointment would lead to a lucrative pipeline of work for the consultancy. KordaMentha secured work at UoW that grew to contracts worth $3.8 million.
International student numbers dropping, Chinese Students down around 30%
But Job Ready Graduates continue.
In 2027, one third of Australian university students will be paying $17,399. A standard three-year arts degree more than $52,000, compared with a nursing degree, which will be less than $15,000.
The discrepancy is a result of the Morrison government’s Job-ready Graduates scheme.
The Albanese government agrees the scheme has failed but it has no plan to replace it.
Job-ready Graduates cut student contributions in teaching, nursing, engineering and IT courses to encourage them to do degrees the Coalition government saw as “job-ready”.
At the same time, student contributions jumped for arts, business and law.
In 2024, a major government report on higher education – the found the policy had “failed” and needed to be replaced.
The new Australian Tertiary Education Commission says it is exploring what could replace Job-ready Graduates. The commission is not due to provide advice to the government on the matter until the second half of 2027.
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