Australian Economy

Brisbane has recorded one local COVID-19 case, the state government has taken the sensible precautionary measure to lockdown Greater Brisbane for 3 days to assess the situation, and yet several Australian states and territories have already shut their borders to Queensland or imposed draconian isolation requirements.

Australia recorded only 4 new local COVID-19 infections overnight – all in NSW: This took Australia’s total local active case count to 226: Internationally acquired cases in hotel quarantine have also surged to 216, reflecting the surging rate of infections overseas.

Federal Government stimulus – most notably the HomeBuilder and First Home Loan Deposit Scheme – has done a terrific job juicing new home construction.

Genomic sequencing has revealed that the part-time cleaner in her 20s at one of Brisbane’s quarantine hotels that tested positive for the highly infections mutant UK strain of COVID-19.

Two and a half years ago, NBN Co chief Bill Morrow blamed online gaming for creating massive congestion on the National Broadband Network (NBN) network.

The virus outbreaks across NSW and Victoria have failed to dampen spending according to new data from ANZ.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industies (FCAI) has released new car sales for December, which revealed that sales continued to rebound: According to FCAI: December 2020 recorded 95,652 sales, a 13.5 per cent increase over the same period in December 2019 when 84,239 were sold.

It’s that time of month, even though the boffins and gearlever holders are on holidays for January they still managed to put out a glorious make benefit for MacroBusiness readers Chart Pack.

A faster than expected economic recovery from the 2020 recession means that the rise in insolvencies in 2021 will not be as bad as previously forecast.

Melbourne’s harsh 16 week lockdown has driven interstate applications for places at Victorian universities in 2021 down 13% compared to 2020.

Australia recorded only 5 new locally acquired COVID-19 infections overnight – 4 in NSW and 1 in Victoria: Australia now has 224 active locally acquired infections: The bulk of these are in NSW, the source of this new outbreak.

Britain toughened its coronavirus restrictions yesterday, with England and Scotland joining the rest of the country in Stage 4 lockdown.

ANZ’s survey of job ads shows its strongest rise for 18 months: ANZ Job Ads continued its impressive recovery in Dec, rising 9.2% to an 18-month high, surpassing its pre-pandemic level.

For years Australian policy makers have grappled with ways to eliminate poverty.

The first auction of 5G spectrum will be undertaken in March, with each bidder to be given the opportunity to buy up to one gigahertz of spectrum.

Australia recorded 5 new locally acquired COVID-19 infections overnight, 2 in NSW and 3 in Victoria: Australia now has 217 active local cases: 190 of these infections are in NSW: Whereas Victoria has 27 active local cases: Virus suppression is working for now.

Australian universities earned over $7 billion in student fees from China in 2019, with outgoing Australian Catholic University vice-chancellor Greg Craven describing the sector’s reliance on Chinese markets as being like a “drug addiction”.

Two million unemployed Australians have suffered a $100 a fortnight cut to their incomes as the Coronavirus Supplement was reduced from $250 a fortnight to only $150 a fortnight from 1 January.