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Cheer up: there’s an 83 per cent chance we won’t be extinct in 100 years
June 3, 2026 — 5:00am
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How are you going? Enjoying the winter sun? Feeling optimistic about the future? Well, for one day only, let me try to ruin your day. Or rather, let me let Dr Andrew Leigh ruin it. They say the devil makes work for idle hands, and that sums up Leigh in one go.
Leigh is a former economics professor, who for ages has been the federal government’s assistant minister for productivity, competition, charities, treasury and the kitchen sink.
If that tells you anything, it’s that he hasn’t got a real job. He’s the only minister I know of who keeps busy by writing books and thinking deep economic thoughts.
Although he’s always among the smartest in the room, Leigh hasn’t been smart enough – or maybe dumb enough – to join one of Labor’s factions. So by the time the factions have finished dividing them, all the big jobs are taken. Someone as smart as Leigh can’t be excluded, so he gets what’s left on the floor.
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Malcolm KnoxJournalist, author and columnist
Journalist, author and columnist
Unfortunately, Leigh’s deep thinking overflowed last month when gave the annual Giblin Lecture (Giblin was probably Australia’s most illustrious economist). Economists are meant to be happy, optimistic souls who advise us on how to get richer and consume more. They can deal with........