Australian Economy

More horrendous revelations about Crown today.

CommSec has released its latest State of the States report, which again ranks Victoria on top due largely to a combination of strong population growth, construction, and debt-fuelled consumption: How are Australia’s states and territories performing?

Let’s hold the moralising because all Crown has done is pursue the contemporary Australian business model.

Take this one straight to the pool room.

CoreLogic has released its latest Cordell Housing Index Price (CHIP), which measures the rate of change of construction costs within the residential market and covers freestanding and semi-detached single and two storey dwelling homes.

Adair Turner – a senior fellow at the Institute for New Economic Thinking, the chair of the Energy Transitions Commission, and former chairman of the U.K.

Via the ABC: Professor Sandra van der Laan casts her eyes over the complex corporate structure for Adani’s Australian operations.

The Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet’s outgoing secretary Martin Parkinson says Australia’s productivity growth has fallen below global standards.

Via Banking Day: Gone!

The incentive to abuse migrant labour for profit remains firmly in place after the pithy $200,000 fine issued to George Calombaris’ MAdE hospitality group after underpaying staff $7.8 million in wages.

It wondrous, at Domain: Sydney has never seen a public school like it.

DEEWR skilled vacancies down again: ⦁ In trend terms, the IVI decreased by 6.7% over the year to June 2019. ⦁ Job advertisements fell in six of the eight occupational groups, with the strongest falls recorded for Machinery Operators and Drivers (down by 17.3%), Labourers (14.9%) and Sales Workers (12.2%).

Via The Guardian: NBN Co is racing closer to the finish line of the network being built, announcing there are now 10m homes and businesses that can connect to the network, just 1.6m short of the 2020 target.

According to the Restaurant & Catering Industry Association, the average profit margins for Australian restaurants have fallen from 10% to between 2% and 4% since the arrival of food delivery services such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo.

That was quick, via CBA comes the Flash PMI: The July Flash PMI data pointed to slower rises in both business activity and new orders in Australia at the start of the third quarter of the year.

Hammer meet nail, via Morgan Stanley: A recovery in housing construction activity is still yet to start in Australia, and building materials providers have more pain to come, acording to Morgan Stanley.

A recent survey of Australian retailers by Macquarie found that 72% of respondents expect profits to be stable or fall in 2019-20.

Facing intense pressure to lift Newstart, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has told unemployed job seekers to get off welfare and go bush for jobs: “There are jobs out there in regional Australia, and there are good paying jobs.

Rent-seeking NIB Holdings MD, Mark Fitzgibbon, has called for private health insurance to be made compulsory and for Medicare to be abolished.

Stuart Moseley – chief executive of the Victorian Planning Authority – has penned a propaganda piece in Fairfax spruiking a ‘Big Melbourne’ and high density living: I think it’s time as a community to sort out the first world problems from the things that will really matter.

Via Reneweconomy: You don’t get to see this very often – when the spot price of electricity on all the state-based grids in Australia’s main wholesale market hit zero at the very same time.