Via Domain: Attorney-General Christian Porter appears close to winning crossbench support for the government’s industrial relations bill and determined to secure its passage when Parliament resumes next week. Mr Porter has agreed to additional amendments proposed by One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson and the government has listed the union-busting Ensuring Integrity bill on the Senate’s
Via COMSEC: There were 5.42 million passengers carried on Australian domestic commercial aviation (including charter operations) in September 2019, an increase of 2.7 per cent on September 2018. There were 5.19 million passengers carried on regular passenger transport (RPT) flights in September 2019, an increase of 2.1 per cent on September 2018.
Via The Australian comes a choking Scummo: Scott Morrison has hit back at claims his climate change policies have contributed to the fire season, declaring it “doesn’t bear up to credible scientific evidence”. With fires burning in Queensland, South Australia and NSW, the Prime Minister said Australia’s emissions had no impact on the dry and
The news is grovelling for the billionaires, via The Australian: Two of Australia’s richest men will invest in an ambitious $20bn solar project supplying electricity from the Northern Territory to Singapore by a subsea cable. Iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest – ranked 8th on The List – Australia’s Richest 250 with an estimated $7.34bn fortune,
Via Banking Day: At the heart of Austrac’s case against Westpac is a series of arrangements with foreign banks (correspondent banks) designed to make the processing of cross-border payments cheap and easy. Austrac says these arrangements gave rise to a number of risks, including cross-border movement of funds (including from higher risk jurisdictions), limited information
The rally runs on: Perhaps boosted by the PBOC nothing burger money market rate cut yesterday. No change for me. Firm pricing over the next few months, barring a shock, then down into Q2, 2020.
DXY lifted last night as CNY and EUR fell: The Autralian dollar was universally belted: Gold firmed: Oil too: Metals are sick: Miners too: EM stocks fell: Junk fell: All bonds boomed: As stocks rolled: Westpac has the wrap: Event Wrap Reuters reported that a Phase One deal with China may not happen this year, citing unnamed sources
Pity the quiet Australians, via Crikey: The Morrison government is on the cusp of passing a controversial bill that it promises will crackdown on union militancy. In reality, it could spell the end of workplace strikes. Under the Ensuring Integrity Bill, unions and their officials could receive demerit points for breaking existing laws. Enough points, and
You’ve got to love the powers that be. Their arrgoant disregard for standards of living, for the wishes of the people, for simple economic sense, via Domain: A new blueprint for the NSW economy predicts the state’s annual output will hit $1 trillion by the end of next decade and reach $2 trillion by around
Via CNBC: China is heavily exposed to the U.S. dollar, but now, with the risk of “decoupling,” Beijing is silently diversifying its reserves to reduce its dependence on the world’s largest reserve currency, analysts say. Ongoing trade tensions with the U.S. has “increased the risk of a financial decoupling” between the two largest economies, ANZ
First it was the US Congress, via Reuters: The U.S. Senate, in a unanimous vote, passed legislation on Tuesday aimed at protecting human rights in Hong Kong amid China’s crackdown on a pro-democracy protest movement that has gripped the vital financial center for months. Following the voice vote by senators, the “Hong Kong Human Rights
Via FTAlphaville: Over the years bitcoin has frequently been touted as a “safe haven”. It’s an idea that seemingly doesn’t to want to die, despite the fact that its pretty much the most volatile things you can get your hands on and there’s been a stream of thefts and hacks worth hundreds of millions of dollars from exchanges and
Via LMIP: Unemployment to keep on rising and wages to keep on falling. Go Recessionberg.
Via The Australian: As much as $1.35bn in wages are underpaid each year according to new estimates that underline the risk to business from moves to criminalise so-called wage theft and amplify calls for an overhaul of the awards system to reduce complexity. Estimates from accounting firm PwC suggest underpayment affects as much as 21
Via Bill Evans at Westpac: • The six month annualised growth rate in the Westpac– Melbourne Institute Leading Index, which indicates the likely pace of economic activity relative to trend three to nine months into the future, lifted from –1.01% in September to –0.91% in October. Despite a slight improvement in the month, the Leading
From the RBA sockpuppet, Terry McCrann, today: The Reserve Bank did not “seriously ponder” a “shock” Cup Day rate cut — as some have interpreted, or rather misinterpreted, the minutes of that meeting. This is not just about getting ‘yesterday right’; it is even more important about not building in a misunderstanding of what the
Good stuff here from HSBC: The only other game changer I can see would be a major European fiscal stimulus that, so far, is not coming.
Via WSJ: Over the weekend, China’s Harbin Bank said it was now under government control. That comes months after Chinese authorities seized control of another small lender, Baoshang Bank, and state institutions took stakes in a third, Bank of Jinzhou. Bank runs have erupted elsewhere. Several other lenders have yet to file 2018 annual reports,
Via the AFR: Scott Morrison has all but slammed the door on fast-tracked tax cuts or other ”panicked reactions” in next month’s mid-year budget update, saying the government has already injected $9.5 billion of near-term stimulus into the economy since the May election. Under external pressure to do more to stimulate the economy than he
Oh dear, via ABC: AUSTRAC has applied to the Federal Court for civil penalty orders against Westpac for deficient oversight of its anti-money laundering and terrorism financing obligations. AUSTRAC boss Nicole Rose described Westpac’s behaviour as “serious and systemic non-compliance”. And the AFR: It alleges that between November 2013 and September 2018 the bank was
Texture from Reuters: Richard Lu, a senior analyst at metals consultancy CRU’s Beijing office, said the rally in steel prices remained supported by fundamentals in the physical market, with inventories falling and demand picking up. He also said a new round of operating restrictions on Chinese steel mills was possible. Rubbish. And the outlook is
DXY was soft last night as EUR and CNY lifted: The Australian dollar added a bit versus DMs: And EMs: Gold held on: Oil let go: Metals did better: And miners: Plus EM stocks: Junk was soft: Bonds all rallied: Despite stocks charging on: Wrap from Westpac: Event Wrap US Oct. housing starts (1314k, est. 1320k) and permits
Given the old bullyboy’s unhealthy hold over the national imagination regarding the future of Chinese ties, let’s explore where his vision would take us. Paul Keating would like to see Australia’s commitment to ANZUS modulated versus Chinese interests. That will mean a much more insecure commitment by the US to Australia so the first implication
Via Zero Hedge: Confirming that there is something fundamentally broken with China’s debt transmission mechanism and that, by implication, Chinese bad loans are soaring, two weeks after we reported that there was a bank run at Henan Yichuan Rural Commercial Bank which brought the bank to the verge of collapse, the WSJ reported that Harbin Bank, a
As they should, at News: NSW hasn’t even entered what’s traditionally the most devastating period of bushfire damage. “We’ve got the worst to come,” former NSW fire commissioner Greg Mullins told news.com.au. …“So we need to brace ourselves. If we don’t get summer storms to wet everything down, we are in dire straits.” Mr Mullins,
Via Bill Evans at Westpac: The minutes of the November monetary policy meeting of the Reserve Bank Board give us no significant reason to change our view that the next rate cut will occur in February. While some forecasters have been promoting the idea of a move in December, these minutes provide the flavour of
Via John Fitzgerald at Crikey: The education tours arranged by Australian interest group China Matters were bound to end in tears. All it was ever going to take to scuttle the efforts of the organisers to improve bilateral understanding through parliamentary visits was for Australian politicians to speak their minds and shine a light on issues that
Today we have a nice demonstration of what happens to long term fixed assets when they are surrounded by ideological mismanagement for long enough. The damage takes decades to manifest but when it comes it is disastrous and there is nobody left to fix it. To wit, the National Electricity Market which is now being
Via the suddenly sane RBA: Minutes of the Monetary Policy Meeting of the Reserve Bank Board Members Present Philip Lowe (Governor and Chair), Guy Debelle (Deputy Governor), Mark Barnaba AM, Wendy Craik AM, Ian Harper, Steven Kennedy PSM, Allan Moss AO, Carol Schwartz AO, Catherine Tanna Others Present Luci Ellis (Assistant Governor, Economic), Christopher Kent (Assistant Governor, Financial Markets), Carl Schwartz (Deputy Head, Economic Analysis Department) Anthony Dickman (Secretary), Ellis Connolly (Deputy Secretary), Alexandra Heath
There’s no stopping it: Confidence was down again last week, falling 1.1%. The weakness was predominantly due to the economic conditions component of the index. Current economic conditions fell by 2.6%, while future economic conditions were more downbeat, falling 4.9%. Both these subindices are near their multiyear lows. In contrast, financial conditions were upbeat, with
