CBA’s head of Australian economics, Gareth Aird, has warned policy makers against restoring the mass immigration program, arguing that it would lower workers’ wages and lower livability by congesting economic and social infrastructure: “With international borders closed, there is a greater chance wages growth may accelerate,” said Gareth Aird… “When you have skills shortages pop
CoreLogic released its final auction report for last weekend, with the final clearance rate falling slightly to 77.2% from 77.7% the prior weekend. This was off another rise in the number of auctions, from 2,902 to 3,016. As usual, Sydney led the market recording a final clearance rate of 81.4% (up from 80.2%), whereas Melbourne’s
In last night’s Budget reply speech, opposition leader Anthony Albanese stated that a Labor Government would establish a National Integrity Commission (NIC) to investigate corruption across the federal bureaucracy: Over these 8 long years the Government has focussed on itself, too often treating taxpayers money as if it were the Liberal and National Parties money.
The Morrison Government is under attack after the federal Budget forecast zero real wage growth for the next three financial years: Today, Employment Minister Stuart Robert has sought to assure Australians that wage growth will come once unemployment drops: “Wages growth will always come hand-in-hand with inflation and low unemployment,” Mr Robert told the ABC.
Housing policy was a key focus of the Budget reply speech of Labor leader Anthony Albanese. Albanese committed to establishing a Housing Australia Future Fund to build 30,000 affordable homes, as part of a $10 billion social housing package. The proposal would effectively give the Future Fund $10 billion, which would then use the earnings
One of the most striking omissions from Tuesday night’s federal budget was that it made zero mention of Australia’s per capita GDP outlook. As we know, per capita GDP is a far superior measure of welfare (albeit still highly flawed) than headline real GDP, since it adjusts for the impact of population growth. After all,
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released Overseas Arrivals and Departures data for March 2021, which confirmed that net migration into Australia remains firmly negative. There were 23,560 net permanent & long-term departures in the 12 months since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, representing the first time that net arrivals have
The Australia Institute’s Richard Denniss and Matt Grudnoff have demolished the notion that Australia is experiencing chronic skills shortages, given there are nearly two million Australians unemployed or underemployed (video below). They argue that if businesses want to attract workers there is a simple solution: 1) pay workers enough to make their unattractive jobs more
In the week ended 13 May, the CoreLogic daily dwelling values index surged another 0.69% – the strongest growth since the week ended 18 March: Sydney’s dwelling values rocketed by 0.93%, whereas the other major capitals recorded slower (albeit still very strong) price growth: So far in May, dwelling values have risen by 0.97%, led
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The CCP trade war on Australia is a sight to behold. It has already delivered Australia a reinvigorated ANZUS, and iron ore led income boom, and the very accelerated export decoupling that we desperately needed but couldn’t do owing to CCP’s corruption of local politicians and businesses. In February, Beijing identified the collapse of Australian
The May 2021 Budget papers show that the ranks of the federal public service will swell to 174,300 in 2021-22, with almost 5,400 new staff to be recruited during the coming financial year. Government agencies that are taking on additional staff include the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, which will grow from 64 to
The federal government now expects the Budget to remain in deficit for at least a decade, while the nation’s net debt is slated to reach almost $1 trillion in coming years. However, Chris Richardson of Deloitte Access Economics says the government will have to begin the process of Budget repair much sooner. He contends that
Another community case of COVID-19 has leaked into Melbourne after a Victorian man caught the virus in a South Australian quarantine hotel. Health authorities have identified 81 close contacts of the man, with 41 having returned a negative test to date. The man in his 30s had travelled extensively around Melbourne while he was most
OVERVIEW OF APRIL 2021: STATE OF THE NATION: April is the second consecutive record-breaking month of job ads posted in SEEK’s 23+ year history. Applications per ad are at the lowest level since 2012. SEEK job ads were up by 11.9% month-on-month (m/m). SEEK job ads were up 263.7% year-on-year (y/y) and up 30.9% compared
New home sales are falling back to earth after the expiry of the HomeBuilder subsidies, according to the HIA: “New Home Sales fell in April 2021 to be 54.4 per cent lower than March as HomeBuilder came to an end,” stated HIA’s Economist, Angela Lillicrap… “This sales result for April 2021 is an encouragingly strong
In March we witnessed two key reforms come into effect designed to take the steam out of New Zealand’s inflating property market. First, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) reintroduced loan-to-value ratio (LVR) mortgage restrictions, which from 1 March 2021 required both investors and owner-occupiers to hold bigger deposits: Second, and more importantly, the New Zealand
ME’s latest Quarterly Property Sentiment Report shows that “investors are set to jump back into the market in a big way as their positive sentiment jumped to 52 per cent – the highest for any buyer group this quarter”: “They’re trying to capitalise on the predicted property prices. People are determined to get in now
If I had to pick the safest major capital city market to purchase an investment property, I would choose to buy a detached house in Brisbane. My reasoning is straightforward. First, Brisbane’s relative cost against Sydney and Melbourne is running near the lowest level in almost 50 years. As shown in the next chart, a
The travelling circus of industry shills begging for a return of ‘Big Australia’ immigration rolls on, with Michael Stutley – partner at Kingston Reid – penning an advertorial in The AFR claiming that Australia’s “social and economic success” is at risk unless we bring back so-called skilled migrants: It [skilled migration] needs to grow. Sharply.
Sydney property prices continue to soar into the stratosphere. According to CoreLogic’s daily dwelling values index, Sydney dwelling values have already surged an extraordinary 10.6% this calendar year with prices already up 1.2% in May: Price momentum also appears to be growing. Quarterly dwelling value growth is running at 9.3%, which is the strongest growth
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CoreLogic’s head of research, Eliza Owen, has released a note explaining the federal budget’s housing policy changes: Housing affordability is becoming an increasing concern for first home buyers and policy makers amid recent, rapid price increases. But the double-edged sword of reducing housing values to make them more affordable, is that housing also makes up
Stephen Clibborn and Chris F. Wright from the University of Sydney have attacked Josh Frydenberg’s decision to uncap international students’ work hours across hospitality and tourism, claiming that it will create a “guest worker state” that will push wages and working conditions lower: Our research shows it [the decision] is consistent with a troubling 25-year
Roy Morgan has released its inflation expectations survey for April, with Australians expecting inflation of only 3.7% over the next two years – well below the RBA’s inflation target of 2% to 3% inflation annually: However, it is the first time since June 2018 that Inflation Expectations are now higher than they were a year
Australia’s bloated superannuation sector was a major beneficiary of last night’s federal budget. Not only did the budget keep the scheduled rise in the superannuation guarantee (SG) to 12% in place, but it also: removed the current $450 per month minimum income threshold for the superannuation guarantee; removed the work test for older Australians to
According to Robert Gottliebsen, the collapse in immigration is about to send wages into the stratosphere and force employers to invest in labour saving technology. Therefore, Australia quickly needs to reboot immigration to ward off wage rises: Australia should prepare for much higher wage and salary pressures… I was talking to professional services firms including
It is clear from last night’s federal budget that the Australian Treasury has no idea on wages. For years we watched the Treasury make bullish predictions on wage growth, always forecasting a marked pick-up in wages over the forward estimates period: This bullishness came despite the federal government running one of the biggest immigration programs
SQM Research has released its rental vacancy data for April, which reports a national rental vacancy rate of only 1.9% – the lowest level of vacancies since March 2013. Rental vacancies are zipped tight everywhere except Melbourne and Sydney, which have been hit hardest by the loss of international students, as illustrated clearly in the
The Australian’s Judith Sloan, a former commissioner at the Productivity Commission, has demolished the vested interests pushing for a quick return to mass immigration. In summary: Supporters of a ‘Big Australia’ include the property sector, universities and other educational institutions, and federal Treasury. These organisations never consider the downsides of high immigration levels, including lower
