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19 June 2026
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In Australia, fund manager performance is most often assessed on pre-tax returns. But a low portfolio turnover can potentially provide better after-tax returns relative to a high turnover actively managed fund.
The empirical evidence in the active v passive investing debate favours index in most asset classes, but there's a role for mixing the techniques if good managers can be identified - although that's not easy.
ETFs now offer a wide range of choices including equities, bonds, sector specific, smart beta, geared, commodities and currencies. This opens alternatives for both investing and trading.
Australia's economy has long had to cope with structural change, which hasn't stopped quality companies from generating wealth for investors. But with increasing complexity, picking winners and losers will become harder.
Beneath the dominance of the ASX's largest stocks, much of the market has been left behind. High-quality companies are now trading at levels rarely seen, offering opportunities for investors willing to look deeper.
Something unusual is happening in markets. The winners are pulling further ahead at an extraordinary pace. As return dispersion hits extreme levels, volatility is rising and the investing landscape is becoming harder to navigate.
Extreme wealth concentration is no longer just a side effect of growth. As inequality deepens, its consequences are shifting from a social concern to a broader threat to economic stability and democratic resilience.
AI exuberance is colliding with economic reality. Cracks are emerging as spending surges, ROI remains uncertain and enterprise behaviour shifts. The next phase may look less like an expansion and more like a reckoning.
The 2026 budget has reignited Australia’s tax reform debate, but more work remains. Beneath the surface lies a harder question: what structural reforms are needed to make the country's tax system fit for the future?
The Budget's negative gearing changes defer deductions rather than deny them, yet a worked example shows quarantining can halve the tax benefit's present value for buyers of established dwellings.
In just four years, Australia's private capital landscape has transformed. We are seeing changes across who deploys capital, how deals are structured and why new platforms and investor pathways are rapidly emerging.