Australian Economy

The Australian’s James Kirby believes that changing attitudes makes now an ideal time to implement an inheritance tax: New academic work suggests Australians now have “a surprisingly high level of support for wealth transfer taxation”.

God bless COVID and closed borders.

The AFR has taken another shot at RBA governor Phil Lowe for daring to admit that Australia’s mass immigration program pushed down wage growth.

By Gareth Aird, head of Australian economics at CBA Key Points The lockdown of Greater Sydney has significantly increased the level of uncertainty over economic outcomes in the near term.

A snap lockdown of at least days was heavily rumoured last night after the number of cases linked to two separate COVID-19 clusters rose to 11.

Greg Jericho, doyen of the fake left, has today joined the immigration debate with gusto: It is regrettably far too easy in Australia to blame migrants.

The ABS has released its final Household Impacts of COVID-19 survey, which contains the following chart showing that Australians are increasingly happy to get vaccinated: Specifically: 73.4% of Australian adults agreed to get vaccinated in June 21, the highest recorded level.

Amid the conga-line of evidence showing that temporary migrants have been ruthlessly exploited on Australia’s farms, which has frequently been labelled “modern slavery”, the Australian Workers Union (AWU) has lodged an application with the Fair Work Commission to amend the Horticulture Award to guarantee a minimum casual rate of pay for all farm workers.

That’s the message from today’s Westpac consumer sentiment release: • The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment rose by 1.5% to 108.8 in July from 107.2 in June.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released Overseas Arrivals and Departures data for May 2021, which confirmed that net migration into Australia has moved back into positive.

The ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence index rose 2.0% to 110.0 points in the weekend of 11-12 July despite the worsening virus outbreak in Sydney and the extension of the city’s hard lockdown.

The federal and NSW governments have responded to the growing outbreak in Greater Sydney by agreeing to provide a combined $5.1 billion in COVID-19 disaster payments for businesses and individuals who have been affected by the lockdown.

Somehow I missed the NAB business survey for June released yesterday.

An Australian Council of Superannuation Investors survey has revealed that the CEOs of ASX 100 companies received no annual bonus in 2020, double that of the previous year.

Dr Judith Sloan was the Commissioner in charge of the Productivity Commission’s 2006 review into the Economic Impacts of Migration and Population Growth. Therefore, she speaks with authority on the subject. Today Dr Sloan has torn apart the false claim in Treasury’s Intergenerational Report (IGR) that increasing immigration is good for the nation’s finances.

Amazingly, Labor will not make changes to the stage three income tax cuts if it wins the upcoming federal election.

Roy Morgan’s inflation expectations survey for June has been released which reports that Australians expected inflation of 4% over the next two years, up 0.3% and the highest Inflation Expectations since the pandemic began.

For years we have been told that Australia’s visa system is world-leading because it provides the economy with vital skills and plugs so-called critical labour shortages.