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 Master in Public Policy student at Harvard Kennedy School and editor-at-large of Inflection Points. At Harvard, I am focussing on opportunities to improve Australia's community housing sector.
Previously, I worked at BCG, the Reserve Bank of Australia and Victoria's Department of Premier & Cabinet. I 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.
Currently
Harvard Kennedy School, MPP
Previously
BCG · RBA · DPC Victoria
Interests
Housing economics · Financial markets · Public finance
Public Sites
📝
Inflection Points
Long-form policy writing and analysis
📊Location Quotients
Interactive economic geography dashboard for Australian cities
🏈Sherrin Spreadsheets
AFL stats, analysis and visualisations
🇦🇺Sack the Jack
Cheekily reimagining an Australian identity
💹Sovereign Spreads
Tracking Australian sovereign bond spreads and yield curves
🗳️One Nation Analysis
Analysing One Nation's electoral performance and support base
🗺️Redraw America
Reimagining US state boundaries and political geography
🌍Migrant Diversity
Benchmarking migrant diversity across OECD countries
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
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
Sherrin Spreadsheets
A home for obscure AFL statistics and analysis, like the most similar worm or the most competitive seasons
datasport
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
Australian Location Quotients
Calculated location quotients for Australian cities using ABS census data. Interactive Shiny dashboard.
RShinyEconomics
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