The Coalition’s Dave Sharma – chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties and the member for Wentworth – has penned a spurious article spruiking the latest batch of so-called Free Trade Agreements (FTAs): In these times of growing global economic uncertainty and mounting trade tensions, countries such as Australia need to stand up for
Labor’s open borders spokesperson, Kristina Keneally, has warned that multiculturalism is under threat by Australia’s “cruel” immigration policies: Labor’s spokesperson for immigration, Kristina Keneally, will use a keynote speech to warn that multiculturalism is under threat. Blown out wait times to become an Australian citizen have led to the largest-ever drop in people pledging their
New research released by Industry Super Australia (ISA) has admitted that lifting the superannuation guarantee (compulsory superannuation) from the current 9.5% to 12% will lower workers’ take-home pay compared to what they would receive without the superannuation guarantee increase: ISA found that… an average worker would see a reduction in prospective weekly wage rises of
With Victoria’s population growing out of control on the back of turbo-charged immigration: And Melbourne’s population projected to more than double over the next half century: You would think that the Victorian State Government would be seeking to boost the stock of social housing in order to prevent vulnerable residents from becoming homeless. Not so,
Spring is usually a time of surging property listings. But not this year, according to CoreLogic’s Head of Research, Tim Lawless: The number of new listings being added to the combined capitals housing market has seen a hefty 44% rise from the depths of the winter slowdown in early July through to the first week
In the week ended 10 October 2019, the CoreLogic 5-city daily dwelling price index, which covers the five major capital city markets, rose another 0.32%: 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
With this week’s release of dwelling commencements and completions data for the June quarter, it’s once again time to examine how Australia’s dwelling supply is tracking against population growth. The below charts track the following, which are based on the latest available quarterly data: Dwelling approvals to June 2019; Dwelling commencements to June 2019; Dwelling
Labor has one again attacked the high number of asylum seekers entering Australia by plane, which is being spearheaded by Malaysians arriving on electronic tourism visas: Labor argues the number of [asylum seeker] arrivals in July and August suggests 2019-20 is likely to bring the largest number of arrivals on record… The Government links the
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: US futures drop after Chinese media reports that US and China have made no progress in trade talks – CNBC IMF warns of economic slowdown in 90 per cent of world – Yuv News Bankers Start Turning on Fiat, Making Bitcoin a More Attractive Alternative – Be In Crypto
NSW Treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, is leading renewed calls for the federal government to reinstate the Abbott Government’s “asset recycling” program to provide states with financial incentives to reinvest the proceeds of asset sales into new infrastructure projects: On Thursday, the state Treasurers will meet among themselves and Mr Perrottet said he would seek support for
Today’s housing finance data for August from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recorded another strong rebound in mortgage commitments: As shown above, total finance commitments (excluding refinancings) rose by 2.9% in August, with owner-occupied commitments rising 1.9% and investor commitments rising 5.7%. However over the year, total finance commitments (excluding refinancings) fell by 5.0%,
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 3.7% decline in the final national auction clearance rate to 67.6% – well above the same weekend last year (49.5%) but below last week’s 71.0%: As you can see, Sydney’s
The Joint Standing Committee on Trade (JSCOT) has released its report rubber stamping the Hong Kong and Indonesia Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). The Indonesian FTA, in particular, will permit several thousand more Indonesians working rights, thus leading to more temporary migrant rorting, more low cost labour for business, and further undermining Australian wages and working
As we already know, Australia massively increased its migrant intake in the early-2000s, and this has driven a three-fold increase in Australia’s net overseas migration (NOM) compared to the historical average: Accordingly, the Australian population has ballooned by around 6.4 million people (34%) so far this century. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) median projections
The ABS yesterday released dwelling construction data for the June quarter, which recorded a dead cat bounce in both commencements and completions. According to the ABS, the number of dwelling commencements rebounded by a seasonally-adjusted 1.1% over the June quarter, but crashed by 20.3% over the year. While detached house commencements fell by 10.6% over
Have we finally started to make a difference? Earlier this week we learned that several Australian universities have blocked access to Indian international students from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. These changes to university admissions follows the Department of Home Affairs’ reclassification of student visa applications from India, Nepal and Pakistan as “high-risk”. This means
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: “Close To A Standstill”: IMF Warns Global Growth Will Be Cut To Lowest Since Lehman – Zero Hedge Powell says the Fed will start expanding its balance sheet soon – CNBC Wall Street Falls on Persistent Trade War Concerns – Stock Market News The best ways to invest an
Much like Australia, New Zealand purports to run a ‘skills-based’ visa system that plugs critical skills shortages across the nation. However, new data from Statistics New Zealand actually shows that fewer of those migrating to New Zealand are of working-age. From Interest.co.nz: The Government’s decision to open the door to the parents of migrants to
Stephen Duckett – the director of the health program at Grattan Institute – has lashed calls from the private health insurance industry for the government to lift funding by another $1.2 billion: Last week’s call by Private Healthcare Australia, the private health insurance industry lobby group, for another $1.2bn handout shows the message has not
According to the SCMP, there has been a notable lift in Hong Kongers applying for Australian business visas. And this is supposedly helping to lift Sydney and Melbourne property values: A recovery in the Melbourne and Sydney property markets is being boosted by Hong Kong investors fleeing anti-government protests, experts said. The number of Hong
The ABC has published an interesting profile on the outer-Western Melbourne suburb of Tarneit, which is fast morphing into a modern migrant slum nightmare: When the Bahadur family moved into their new home in Melbourne’s booming outer west four months ago, they dreamed of suburban bliss. But it turned out to be a nightmare. “We
Amid ever growing pressure to lift Australia’s Newstart rate, which is among the lowest in the OECD, the Morrison Government has hit back, claiming that its focus is on “reducing debt” and Budget repair. From The Guardian: In a submission to a Senate inquiry into Newstart, the government said it intended to “focus on strengthening
Several Australian employer groups have backed the views of the Australian Treasury, the Henry Tax Review, the Grattan Institute, and the Parliamentary Budget Office, who claim that raising Australia’s superannuation guarantee (‘compulsory superannuation’) from 9.5% to 12% would lower wage growth. From The AFR: Motor Trades Association of Australia chief executive Richard Dudley, whose industry
Yesterday we reported how the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for International Development has ranked the Australian economy amongst the least sophisticated, with Harvard labelling Australia “rich, dumb and getting dumber”. Today, a variety of mainstream Australian economists have addressed Harvard’s rankings, with some dismissing the findings and others showing concern. From The AFR: “Complexity of
In 2017, MB coined the phrase “shrinkflation” to describe the unusual phenomenon where housing transaction volumes fall at the same time as dwelling values rise strongly. It appears that the Australian housing market is experiencing another episode of housing shrinkflation, with prices escalating at the same time as listings and transaction volumes have shrunk. The
Department of Home Affairs officials have confirmed that around 95,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Australia by plane over the past five years, which Labor claims is fuelling “exploitation and slavery”: The figures were disclosed in answers to Questions on Notice from Labor’s spokesperson for Home Affairs and Immigration Kristina Keneally. “There’s nothing wrong with
Last week, a group of academics released a report, entitled Temporary Graduatification, which sounded the alarm over the exposure of international student graduates to unscrupulous migration agents: … many international students who want to stay on and apply for the 485 [Graduate] visa are vulnerable to being exploited by a growing number of ‘dodgy’ agents
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: GE freezing pensions for 20,000 employees – MarketWatch The world’s 10 most and least liveable cities for 2019 – CRE Herald Apple Stock Is at ‘Unreasonable’ Levels, Analyst Says – Barrons N.Y. Fed awards $47.05 billion in Monday morning repos – Reuters Americas: U.S. Economy: The Economic Slowdown Will
Peter Koulizos, chairman of lobby group Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA), claims that investors are set to storm Australia’s housing market: Peter Koulizos… said there had been a surge in buyer sentiment in recent months, with corresponding price increases in Sydney and Melbourne. The organisation has just released the results of a survey of
The Australian’s James Kirby has penned another article bemoaning that Australians on the Aged Pension are being penalised by the RBA’s interest rate cuts and is arguing for the deeming rate to be cut even further: With the official cash rate suddenly at historic lows of just 0.75 per cent… pensioners are already up in
