It appears a leadership spill is not far away: Tony Abbott has credited the Labor Opposition as being stronger on regional security that the Turnbull government in another speech which will further fuel the destabilisation of the federal Liberal Party. In an address to the Centre for Independent Studies, Mr Abbott has slammed the French submarines chosen
By Leith van Onselen You would be hard pressed to find a bigger racket than Australian pharmacies. How many any other industries in Australia have had laws implemented that ban new entrants from opening within 1.5 kilometers of an existing business? How many other industries allow only registered professionals in the field to own and
The bed pan economy is booming: The federal government’s largest department is to buck the trend of declining public service numbers and create up to 2000 new permanent jobs, the main public service union said on Wednesday The roles will mostly be in Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support Agency call centres around Australia, run by the
What’s so cheered central bankers worldwide in recent days? NAB asks: “Why have central banks become hawkish all of a sudden?” The link between monetary policy and the real economy is working The link between a growing real economy and inflation is more subdued than in the past, but the factors holding this back are
From a guy who knows nothing about politics: Former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman is calling on Malcolm Turnbull to resign as prime minister for the good of the Liberal Party. Mr Newman, who is now a political commentator for Sky News and sits on the boards of various companies, said the base of the party
It’s getting pathetic now: Mr Dutton, considered a future leader of the Liberal Party, said he believed Mr Pyne had realised he had “made a mistake” and been “chastised” as a consequence after delivering the address to colleagues. “Tony’s right to point out that he feels that way (about Mr Pyne) and he would express that and
By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released job vacancies data for the May quarter, which recorded a 1.5% seasonally adjusted rise over the quarter and a 1.7% rise in trend terms: Over the year, job vacancies rose by 11.4% in seasonally adjusted terms and by 9.2% in trend terms. NSW
I thought he’d been whipped but how wrong I was. Banana Man is back and he’s buying Dalian: He doesn’t need a reason when he has himself. Big Iron is booming: How far it can get I have no idea. It is has no underpinning to guide us. Big Gas is flying too on the
What a mess the Naked CEO made: CPA Australia was warned two years ago that its new financial advice business would create a legal conflict of interest, leading the government’s regulator of professional standards to complain it still lacks “any clarity” over the basic governance of the nation’s biggest accounting body. CPA Australia Advice, which was
By Leith van Onselen Employer groups and the Coalition have slammed Labor’s pledge to restore penalty rates for retail and hospitality workers, claiming it will deter small businesses from hiring additional staff, thereby costing jobs. From The Australian: Bill Shorten’s pledge to overturn penalty rate cuts for retail and hospitality workers will generate uncertainty, harm job
From Morgan Stanley: Impact of monetarytightening on growth to be manageable: Although the CBRC’s move will not affect domestic liquidity conditions directly, ithas affirmed policymakers’ continued monetary and regulatory tightening stance, which could lead to a continued decline in credit impulse in China. We expect growth will soften in 2H amid credit tightening and a
From Citi: We highlight 9 data points that support our view that the residential cycle is turning less favorable and dwelling price growth is likely to moderate. We continue to prefer SGP over MGR and view MGR at greater risk of a de-rating. 1. Dwelling price growth has stalled and all major apartment markets have
By Leith van Onselen The IMF has just come out and backed the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s macroprudential policies. From Interest.co.nz: The Reserve Bank’s Loan to Valuation (LVR) mortgage lending limits appear to have put a cap on house price growth but haven’t reduced the risks borrowers face from rising mortgage interest rates, according
By Leith van Onselen Eliza Owen, commercial research analyst at CoreLogic, has penned an interesting article in The Australian on the significant rise in group housing reported in the latest Census: The 2016 census data reveals how people are dealing with unaffordable housing in the capital cities: a rapid increase in group households. A group
By Chris Becker BTFD remains the strategy of choice in a ZIRP/NIRP world, even as PIRP emerges as a possibility around the corner. With everyone now on board with the “growth is coming” meme, stocks turned around last night with a rally on Wall Street after a tepid session in Europe. Yesterday in Asia
By Leith van Onselen In the wake of the latest Census results, which reported a 1.9 million (+8.8%) surge in Australia’s population in the five years to 2016, driven by 1.3 million new migrants, Sustainable Australia’s president, William Bourke, hit the airwaves yesterday appearing on multiple radio shows to lobby for a cut to Australia’s
Then prepare to gird your loins: Property classifieds business Domain is pushing into the home loan market with the launch of a mortgage broking service. The business, Domain Loan Finder, is a joint venture with online mortgage broker Lendi. Domain retains 60 per cent ownership of the joint venture and the amount invested has not been
By Leith van Onselen The Australian’s David Uren has penned an article in support of mass immigration and a ‘Big Australia’, claiming that it is central to Australia’s economic success and that “fertile, educated Asians are saving our economy”: Rising house prices and congestion on the roads could be blamed as readily on bureaucratic council planning
Last night the Aussie battler ripped higher against the USD, breaking out, and firmed against EUR: It was strong as well against EMs: Given the weak USD, it was strange to see gold soft: Brent shorts are now puking: Base metals too: Big miners to the moon: EM stocks still stuck: And high yield: The
From The Australian: A clash over Liberal Party reform is about to give Tony Abbott a new platform from which to attack Malcolm Turnbull, amid growing concern over the former prime minister’s “frontal assault” on the government as it slumps in the opinion polls. Mr Abbott will join fellow conservatives this Saturday to debate giving
Via The Guardian: Avoiding dangerous levels of climate change is still just about possible, but will require unprecedented effort and coordination from governments, businesses, citizens and scientists in the next three years, a group of prominent experts has warned. Warnings over global warming have picked up pace in recent months, even as the political environment
There was no great fanfare and it went almost completely unreported but Moody’s did secretly do it (full release here): AAA banks seem like a distant memory: Next up, the sovereign rating.
A speech from Wayne Byers yesterday certainly sets such up (cut to the end for the money quote): WAYNE BYRES Chairman The American Chamber of Commerce in Australia Business Briefing, Sydney 28 June 2017 Thank you for the invitation to speak this afternoon. I intend to talk today about international standards and national interests.1 The intersection
By Leith van Onselen In the wake of the updated population estimates from the ABS (to reflect the 2016 Census), I have updated the ABS’ aggregate wages & salaries data which was released as part of the March quarter Business Indicators report earlier this month. According to the ABS, wages & salaries measures “gross earnings
Recall recently from property magnate Tim Gurner: “It’s an incredibly challenging time in the market, no question. We’ve got foreign buyer restrictions, lending restrictions and we’ve got a planning minister here [in Victoria] who is being difficult. And we’ve had 18 months of the press being negative about property.” “But I am pretty confident about the market.
