Tomago a sweet deal for Norway and China. But taxpayers?

Does the Albanian government really have any backbone when it comes to spending discipline? He pointed to spending cuts in this week’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook to offset increases in what he sees as “necessary spending”, such as much-needed additional spending on Australian veterans, following years of penny cuts the Coalition has made to our former ADF members.

But in other areas, the government appears addicted to handouts to multinational corporations – and last week’s deal with Rio Tinto over the future of the expensive and hugely energy-hungry Tomago aluminum smelter in NSW’s Hunter Valley will reward a strange collection of bedfellows.