Australian Economy

By Leith van Onselen While undoubtedly much better than the Coalition, the Labor Party also continues to fail Australian workers, promising a ridiculously low wage floor for temporary skilled workers of only $65,000 a year.

The AFR led with an embarrassing story across Easter that shows how low it has sunk in the intellectual stakes: By forgoing the possibility of creating a dynamic economy of the South Pacific, Shorten has rejected his own political heritage and embraced a higher-tax platform that delights the left of his party.

By Leith van Onselen Dr Cameron Murray and I were commissioned by Sustainable Australia’s Victorian party branch to examine the causes and implications of population ageing in Australia, and whether maintaining a high immigration program is a worthwhile policy response.

Via BI: As seen in the table below from employment website SEEK, job advertisements for property workers are now also falling fast.

Via Westpac: • Westpac’s forecast for the March quarter CPI is 0.1%qtr with the annual pace easing back to 1.4%yr from 1.8%yr.

Via the NAB quarterly business survey: Both business conditions and confidence declined in the quarter.

By Leith van Onselen As summarised earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released its labour force report for March, which registered a solid 25,700 increase in total employment but a 0.1% increase in the headline unemployment rate (to 5.0%) because of a 0.1% rise in labour force participation.

ABS Labor Force is out for March and the news is still pretty good: MARCH KEY POINTS TREND ESTIMATES Employment increased 20,700 to 12,790,000 persons.

Via the CBA Flash PMI: The Commonwealth Bank Flash Services Business Activity Index is designed to provide a timely indication of changes in business activity in the Australian service sector economy as a whole.

Via Bill Evans at Westpac: The minutes of the April monetary policy meeting of the Reserve Bank Board have provided the clearest signal yet that the Bank would be prepared to cut the cash rate.

Not that it is gospel or anything but not completely useless either: The Department of Jobs and Small Business’ Monthly Leading Indicator of Employment (the Indicator) has fallen for the twelfth consecutive month in April 2019, following a rise of eight consecutive months.

By Leith van Onselen Shadow industry minister Kim Carr has flagged the possibility of imposing temporary import quotas on certain products if it wins the federal election, in order to prevent low-cost imports from flooding the domestic market.

By Leith van Onselen Over the past year or so, I have ridiculed the new found push by Coalition politicians towards decentralisation, noting that this is a pipe dream based on the settlement pattern of new migrants, which have overwhelmingly chosen to flood the major cities.

Via Westpac: • The six month annualised growth rate in the Westpac– Melbourne Institute Leading Index, which indicates the likely pace of economic activity relative to trend three to nine months into the future, rose from –0.54% in February to –0.09% in March.

By Leith van Onselen Infrastructure Victoria has released a incredibly superficial propaganda report, entitled Growing Victoria’s Potential, spruiking the benefits that could arise from the state’s manic population growth, which is expected to see Melbourne’s population balloon to 8 million people by 2051.

By Leith van Onselen Australia’s migrant slave economy continues to be exposed.

From Roy Morgan Research: In the December quarter 2018, the gross personal wealth (assets) of Australians including owner occupied homes, stood at $9,784 billion.

By Leith van Onselen I’ve read some fanciful immigration propaganda in my time, but today’s effort by Simon Kuestenmacher in The Australian is right up there in the fake news stakes.

This is nicely timed for Labor.