opinionFirstlinks
The bull case for Melbourne
Melbourne’s industries, infrastructure, and culture give it the foundation to reclaim national pre-eminence.
Manning
Clifford
I am a consultant at BCG in Melbourne, working with financial institutions and the public sector, and founding editor-at-large of Inflection Points.
I completed a Master in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School in 2026, where I worked with Housing Australia on the efficiency of Australia's social housing sector and was a teaching assistant in finance. Before that, I worked at the Reserve Bank of Australia and Victoria's Department of Premier & Cabinet, and completed an Honours year in Economics at the University of Melbourne in 2020. I'm interested in housing economics, financial markets and public finance.
In my spare time, I run, read and solve crosswords. I also occasionally write on Substack.
Everything on this site, including every project, is personal: made in my own time, and not on behalf of or endorsed by any employer.
Currently
BCG, Melbourne · Inflection Points
Previously
Harvard Kennedy School, MPP · RBA · DPC Victoria
Interests
Housing economics · Financial markets · Public finance
Public Sites
Personal projects, made in my own time.
📝
Inflection Points
Long-form policy writing and analysis
📍Pointers
A daily Australian place-guessing game
💰Budget Explorer
Explore, balance and redesign Australia's federal budget
🏈Sherrin Spreadsheets
AFL stats, analysis and visualisations
📊Location Quotients
Interactive economic geography dashboard for Australian cities
💹Sovereign Spreads
Tracking Australian sovereign bond spreads and yield curves
🗳️One Nation Analysis
Analysing One Nation's electoral performance and support base
🌍Migrant Diversity
Benchmarking migrant diversity across OECD countries
🗺️Redraw America
Reimagining US state boundaries and political geography
🇦🇺Sack the Jack
Cheekily reimagining an Australian identity
Writing
Feb 2026→
opinionFirstlinks
It's okay if house prices drop
Mass upzoning can lower prices and increase wealth — governments should embrace supply reform.
opinionCourier Mail
Who are we? Moments that define Brisbane better than any slogan
A discussion of Brisbane's identity ahead of the Olympics — what defines a city beyond its slogans.
essayInflection Points
The Spirit of Progress
Co-authored with Jonathan O'Brien on Australian reform and the path forward.
analysisHKS Student Policy Review
Moving Towards Minority Government: A Global View of Australia's Upcoming Election
Co-authored with Alex Goth, analyzing global electoral trends and what they mean for Australia's next election.
opinionAustralian Financial Review
4 policy ideas to fix housing affordability
Fixing Australia's decade-long housing crisis won't happen overnight. Four policy ideas to make a real difference.
analysisFuture Forward Australia
Still more to be done: Longer term priorities for fixing Australia's housing crisis
Supply-focused housing reform recommendations for Future Forward Australia.
analysisBCG
Global Workers, Local Impact: The Power of Talent Funds
BCG Henderson Institute report on talent investment mechanisms for workforce development.
researcheBioMedicine (The Lancet)
Machine learning augmentation reduces prediction error in collective forecasting
Hybrid human-machine prediction systems outperform human-only forecasting. Co-authored with Alexander Gruen, Karl Mattingly, et al.
researchMelbourne Institute
Stamp duty and equity in Australia
Co-authored with Prof. John Freebairn. Analysis of how stamp duty functions as a regressive tax affecting housing markets.
researchUniversity of Melbourne
Stamp duty's mobility effects: Evidence from Australian homeowners
Honours research essay. A 10% stamp duty increase correlates with a 2.3% reduction in housing mobility.
analysisYoung Progressive Australians
Young Progressive Australians - Submission to the ALP Policy Forum
A joint submission proposing seven flagship policies across the ALP platform — easy to communicate, financially achievable and electorally palatable — to help Labor build a compelling reform agenda from opposition.
analysisPer Capita
Getting on Board: Community board members in Australia's largest companies
Per Capita report proposing corporate governance reform to increase community board representation.
researchVictorian Parliament
Beyond the Latrobe Valley: Improving government assistance for regions in transition
Parliamentary research report on improving economic transition support strategies for regional communities.
Projects
Pointers
A daily Australian place-guessing game. Ten goes to find the suburb, with clues from the census, the footy and the local pub.
GameAustraliaCensus
Federal Budget Explorer
An interactive guide to Australia's federal budget: where the money comes from and goes, 28 costed policies to balance it with, and what a bigger GST could pay for
BudgetAustraliaData
Sherrin Spreadsheets
AFL stats site with live data refreshed through the season, plus analysis and visualisations
AFLSportData
Australian Location Quotients
Interactive economic geography dashboard showing what each Australian city specialises in
EconomicsAustraliaGeography
Sovereign Spreads
Tracking Australian sovereign bond spreads and yield curves
FinanceAustraliaData
One Nation Analysis
Analysing One Nation's electoral performance and support base
PoliticsAustraliaData
Redraw America
Reimagining US state boundaries and political geography
PoliticsUSAGeography
Migrant Diversity
Benchmarking migrant diversity across OECD countries
MigrationAustraliaData
NAPLAN Tutor
LLM-powered practice tool helping Year 9 students prepare for NAPLAN through personalised questions and feedback.
AILLMEducation
Sack the Jack
A cheeky web-app to consider a bold new format for Australia's flag, without the Union Jack or any colonial symbols.
designidentity
Community Crosswords
Learned crossword creation and established the COVID-19 Crossword Crew to share community-created puzzles.
CommunityPuzzles
Push-up Tracker
Web app for tracking daily push-up progress as a new year's resolution with three peers. Vibecoded with Claude.
VercelClaudeWeb App
Strava Dashboard
Enhanced visualization and data access for running activities using Strava's API. Built with R and Shiny.
RShinyData Viz
Inflection Points
Building a home for long-form policy writing. Led development including author commissioning, pipeline building, and standards development.
PolicyWritingEditorial