Australian Economy

By Leith van Onselen ABC 7.30 Report last night aired part two of its three-part population special (click to read my previous comments on part one and part two).

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday released its overseas short-term arrivals and departures figures for August, which continued to show a trend rise in the number of inbound visitors, with both Chinese arrivals and student arrivals hitting an all-time high.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released visitor arrivals and departures data for the month of August, which again posted turbo-charged net annual permanent and long-term arrivals.

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, lifted from –0.02% in August to +0.21% in September.

By Leith van Onselen Australia’s mining lobby has attacked Labor’s opposition to ‘free trade agreement’ (FTA) with Indonesia, claiming it must include an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clause, given the Indonesian government’s recent policy of requiring resources projects to have majority ownership.

By Leith van Onselen The former Victorian executive director of the Property Council of Australia turned Melbourne Lord Mayor, Sally Capp, continues to flip-flop on the immigration-driven population crush afflicting Melbourne.

By Leith van Onselen ABC 7.30 Report last night aired part two of its three-part population special (see my comments on part one here).

By Leith van Onselen Today’s Lending Finance data for August, released by the ABS, revealed that personal and renovation finance continue to collapse.

By Leith van Onselen The Government-funded Financial Helpline on track to receive record number of cases this year, with older Australians who can’t meet mortgage or rent payments over-represented, and counsellors starting to field calls from people struggling to switch to principal and interest mortgage payments.

By Leith van Onselen NBN Co CEO, Bill Morrow, last year warned that Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) faces damaging competition from the upcoming 5G network, and called for a levy on mobile broadband services, which was thankfully rejected.

By Leith van Onselen In the wake of the union movement threatening to pull support from Labor at the next election after it agreed to support legislation to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), as well as growing opposition within its own ranks, Labor’s Jason Clare introduced a private member’s bill aimed at placating their concerns.

By Leith van Onselen ABC 7.30 Report last night aired part one of its three-part population special, which included me as the economist.

I never thought I’d say this, but The ABC might actually do justice to the population debate after Four Corners’ recent heavily biased special (which featured a swathe of pro-‘Big Australia’ spruikers like Bernard Salt, Innes Willox, Liz Allen and Peter McDonald).

By Leith van Onselen Another German discount supermarket giant, Kaufland, is readying for an aggressive expansion into Australia with 32 stores to open in Australia by 2023.

Last weekend I gave a short presentation at a Sustainable Australia community meeting in Melbourne.

By Leith van Onselen It’s been another weekend of spin and obfuscation from Australia’s ‘Big Australia’ mass immigration spruikers.

By Leith van Onselen While the Tasmanian Government rejoices at the recent acceleration in the state’s population growth, planning expert Irene Duckett has labelled the population boom a “runaway train” with health services and roads struggling to cope with the increasing demand.

By Leith van Onselen The ACTU has released research arguing that the cost of living for essential items is rising far higher than the consumer price index (CPI).