Labor has attracted scorn from union leaders after the party’s caucus voted to support the federal government’s proposed free-trade agreements (FTAs) with Indonesia, Hong Kong and Peru. Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining & Energy Union national secretary Michael O’Connor says the decision will cause ongoing tensions between sections of the union movement and Labor. From The
According to the latest official figures, around 709,000 people are currently unemployed in Australia. However, Jim Stanford from the Centre for Future Work suggests that the unemployment rate could be as high as 19.7 per cent if both the underemployed and the ‘marginally attached’ are taken into account. The underemployed are those people who are
The ABC has published a detailed report on how rabid population growth is wrecking liveability across the Gold Coast: The Gold Coast may just be the urban equivalent of human growth serum. Over the next two decades, development there will be fuelled by an expected population boom of 350,000 people — more than half of
Over the June quarter, Australia’s household debt hit a record high 191% of household disposable income, after roughly tripling since the late-1980s: The latest Bank for International Settlements (BIS) global household debt data also confirmed that Australia has the second highest debt load in the world behind Switzerland, as well as the second highest average
With Perth dwelling values having crashed by more than 21%: Property lobbies have met with the Western Australian Government to demand a housing stimulus package. From The West Australian: Major property industry players met senior McGowan Government ministers yesterday to plead their case for a sweeping stimulus package aimed at breathing life into the WA’s
From CoreLogic’s head of research, Tim Lawless: Rising home values, low mortgage rates and comparatively attractive rental yields are bringing investors back into the housing market. Despite the bounce in investment activity since June, investors still comprise a relatively small proportion of housing activity. The value of home loans committed to by investors has recorded
Yesterday’s ABS labour force release for August revealed a mixed Australian youth labour market – i.e. those aged 15 to 24 years old – with falling unemployment offset by a record rise in underemployment. The trend headline unemployment rate fell slightly to 11.70% in September: Total employment growth for those aged 15-24 years was dead
In the week ended 17 October 2019, the CoreLogic 5-city daily dwelling price index, which covers the five major capital city markets, surged another 0.39%: The rise in values was again driven by Sydney and Melbourne: Quarterly dwelling values continue to rise strongly, again driven by Sydney and Melbourne, where prices are rocketing: The rebound
Australia is commonly regarded as running one of the world’s best ‘skilled-based’ immigration programs. This view is based on the fact that the ‘skilled stream’ comprises around two-thirds of Australia’s non-humanitarian permanent migrant intake, as illustrated in the next chart: MB has consistently challenged this view on a number of grounds. First, while around two-thirds
A new study from the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) has found that a large share of international students on subclass 485 (graduate) visas are struggling to find meaningful employment, with 22% not working and many more performing low-paid, unskilled work. The study also found that the income profiles of these temporary graduate visa
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: Bank of England boss says global finance is funding 4C temperature rise – The Guardian Recession Terror! World Economy Heading for Worst Year Since Financial Crisis! – WSJ Recession View: IMF sounds alarm over $19 trillion corporate debt mountain! – The Telegraph Global economy! Awfully high chance of economic
Last weekend, CoreLogic released its preliminary auction clearance rates, which revealed the following results: Today, CoreLogic has released its final auction results, which reported a 3.8% decline in the final national auction clearance rate to 73.5% – well above the same weekend last year (47.0%) and above last week’s 67.6%: As you can see, Sydney’s
As summarised earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released its labour force report for September, which registered a 14,700 increase in total employment and a decrease in the headline unemployment rate (from 5.3% to 5.2%) due to a 0.07% decrease in labour force participation. In trend terms, the unemployment rate was steady at
Instead, it will lower living standards. With dwelling construction crashing, and population growth remaining turbo-charged on the back of never-ending mass immigration, pundits are now tipping that Australia’s housing market will soon shift back into chronic shortage: “CBA estimates suggest an undersupply of apartments from 2020,” CBA economist Kristina Clifton said… Ms Clifton said an
Labor’s caucus will shortly decide whether to support the federal government’s proposed free trade agreements (FTA) with Indonesia, Hong Kong and Peru. Sources have indicated that Labor is unlikely to oppose the legislation. Meanwhile, the ACTU is lobbying Labor MPs to oppose the bill, due to concerns about issues such as allowing thousands of Indonesians
In July, the Victorian Government launched a $600 million funding package to remove dangerous flammable cladding, the cost of which is to be split 50/50 by taxpayers and a new developer building levy. Now, the Victorian Government has announced new laws to chase ‘dodgy’ builders for the costs of rectification. From The AFR: On Tuesday
As stalled developments mushroom across Australia’s east coast following a surge in completions: The AFR reports that desperate developers are offering up to $20,000 in cash to clear the backlog of high-rise apartments and house-and-land packages: Cash payments of $20,000 are being offered to buyers of high-rise apartments around Melbourne’s central business district amid concerns
SQM Research has released its rental vacancy data for September, which revealed that vacancies nationally declined by 0.1% over the month and was flat over the year: Across the capital cities, vacancy rates fell across almost every market in September, whereas the situation over the year was mixed. According to SQM: It was a better
In recent years, India has been the marginal driver of Australia’s international student enrolments, taking over the growth mantle from China. Over the past two financial years, Indian international student enrolments surged by 39,600 (62%), easily eclipsing the 34,100 (20%) growth in Chinese international students over the same period: It is a similar situation with
The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday released its overseas short-term arrivals and departures figures for August. The number of short-term visitor arrivals rose by 6.4% in the year to August, whereas short-term resident departures only rose by 0.7%. The ratio of annual arrivals to departures also rose to 81.5%: That said, net short-term arrivals
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: Bank of England boss says global finance is funding 4C temperature rise – The Guardian Goldman Profit Drops 26% as Deals Slow, Tech-Stocks Struggle – WSJ The IMF Is Utterly Indifferent to the Pain It’s Causing – Truth Dig IMF-global growth slowing to rate not seen since financial crisis
The Australia Institute’s Maryanne Slattery has hit out at the new found push to build dams across regional Australia to alleviate drought, arguing that it would be both costly and pointless given there will not be enough rain to fill them due to climate change: …if new dams can solve Australia’s water problems, why didn’t
Anglicare has released a report which shows that there are 5.5 people competing for every entry-level job position. From The Guardian: Australia’s most disadvantaged jobseekers are forced to compete against growing numbers of underemployed people for a dwindling number of suitable jobs, a report has found… Anglicare’s Annual Jobs Availability Snapshot, released on Wednesday, found
In September last year, ACCC chairman Rod Sims warned state governments against accepting unsolicited bids for infrastructure projects: “The ACCC considers that state governments should only award new toll road concessions through a competitive bid process, and not following an unsolicited proposal unless there is a truly compelling reason,” Mr Sims said. “Accepted unsolicited proposals
Australia’s chief statistician, David Kalisch, claims that a decade of funding cuts has hampered the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) capability, and warns that funding cuts would result in less accurate statistical reporting: The cumulative cuts, at a time when demand for information and data was growing sharply, were a “conundrum” for the ABS which
The Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure, Alan Tudge, appeared on Peta Credlin’s Sky News program, whereby he played down angst over Australia’s ballooning population by claiming that Australia’s population growth rate is currently 1.6%, “the average since federation”. Technically, Tudge is correct in his claim, as illustrated in the next chart: However, by
Last month, the ACT Legislative Assembly passed laws legalising the recreational use of marijuana, which will allow residents aged over 18 to possess up to 50 grams and grow two plants from next year. This has garnered a strong backlash from the federal government, which labelled the legislation “dangerous” and has threatened to block the
CoreLogic has released its quarterly rental review, which reveals that rents fell for the third consecutive month, driven by sharp falls across Sydney: In fact, the only capital city to record strong rental growth in the year to September was Hobart, where rents rose by 6.2%. Hobart is also the rental growth leader over the
Peta Credlin, who served as chief-of-staff to former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, penned an insightful article in the Daily Telegraph exposing the Morrison Government’s purported 30,000 cut in Australia’s migrant intake as a lie: …buried amid commitments of a 30,000 a year cut in our permanent migrant intake is a change that all but guarantees
Over the past several months we have witnessed several pertinent examples of Australia’s universities selling their souls for Chinese international students. Back in July, the University of Queensland (UQ) was embroiled in a major scandal when Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters were violently attacked by a group of Chinese nationalist students. Instead of denouncing the actions
