It’s Thursday the 22nd of May, and the fallout from the Coalition split continues, CBA's share price hits another record, and the public sector gender pay gap narrows. Plus Fortescue boss Andrew Forrest warns on iron ore, and Qantas reclaims its mantle in domestic travel.

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News in brief

The fallout from the split by the Coalition parties continues with former PM Tony Abbott calling on the two sides to rejoin. Senior Liberal Senator James Paterson says the Coalition needs to reform as a matter of urgency because the Libs can’t afford to be fighting both Labor and the Nationals.

The local sharemarket continues to rise, up another half a per cent yesterday and is now only two per cent off its all-time high. Commonwealth Bank's share price hit a new record of $176.46 a share. It is a behemoth worth $292 billion and is now nearly 50 per cent bigger than the number two company, BHP. 

The pay gap between men and women in the public sector is much smaller than the gap in the private sector, but it is still evident, with women earning 94c for every dollar a man earns.

Fortescue Metals boss Andrew Forrest has warned that Australian miners risk being left behind as Chinese manufacturers upgrade plants and shift to iron ore better suited to lower emissions steelmaking from places like Africa and Brazil.

For three months, Virgin Australia held the title of the most popular domestic airline. Not anymore: Qantas has won it back again.

Fear-o-meter

Democracies work best when there is a strong government challenged by a strong opposition. They work worst when no-one is willing to stand up to the party in power. Look at the United States if you want proof of that.

The breakdown in the Coalition federally is bad news for Australia. Labor is up against a rabble of an opposition. In fact, it’s quite possible the crossbench, including the Nationals, will have 29 MPs compared to the Liberals 28.

Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s insistence that her party has time to review its policies, particularly given the shellacking at the federal election and the fact that she is a new leader, seems reasonable.

David Littleproud’s insistence on reaching an agreement quickly doesn’t make much sense, even if his demands – notable a $20 billion regional future fund – hold plenty of merit. Littleproud has form in rushing decisions. It happened in The Voice referendum and it has happened again.

The loser in a split Coalition is good policy.

Who's talking today?

On the history of friction between the Liberals and Nationals, and how new leader Sussan Ley can use this 'time-out' from the Coalition to define what the Liberal Party stands for:

 
"I think they need to focus more on trying to win over younger people who have left the Liberal Party in droves. Women, especially professional women, are turning off the Liberal Party. And I think one of the best ways of doing that is championing a smaller government agenda, one that supports market economics and housing affordability. I think this is one of the big issues for younger people. They're being priced out of the housing market. 

 

I think it's a great opportunity for the Liberals to support more supply, more construction, more development... Now, there are some young people in the Liberal Party who believe in that agenda. I think that has to be really their future. They want to win back a lot of those metropolitan electorates."

Greed-o-meter

1 in 10 hospitality businesses in Australia shut down over the past 12 months, according to the CreditorWatch Business Risk Index for April. The level of insolvencies has plateaued in recent months, including for the two hardest hit industry sectors: Construction, and Food and Beverage Services, which combined have accounted for around 40% of all insolvencies over the past year. This is the rolling annual business closure rate by industry, in the year to April:

Source: CreditorWatch - April Business Risk Index

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