Australian Economy

By Leith van Onselen Melbourne’s manic immigration-fuelled population growth has become the everything issue in the lead-up to next month’s Victorian Election, threatening to throw another government out of office.

By Leith van Onselen The propaganda used to support a ‘Big Australia’ never ceases to amaze.

By Leith van Onselen Over the past several days I lambasted the ABC 7.30 Report’s three-part population special because it failed to mention the policy option of reducing immigration, instead presenting a ‘Big Australia’ as inevitable and maybe even desirable.

By Leith van Onselen Yesterday’s ABS labour force release for August revealed a softening Australian youth labour market – i.e.

Via Damien Boey at Credit Suisse today: Mixed September labour market report The September labour market report was mixed.

By Leith van Onselen As summarised earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released its labour force report for September, which registered a soft 5,600 increase in total employment but a sharp 0.3% drop in the headline unemployment rate to 5.0% driven by a sharp 2.4% fall in labour force participation.

The ABS has released September Labor Force and the news is whacko. Jobs stalled while the unemployment rate crashed: TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)  Employment increased 26,400 to 12,640,800.

Via Domainfax: Menswear chain Roger David has announced that it has been placed into voluntary administration after being unable to cope with an influx of international competitors and the “rapid evolution” of online shopping.

By Leith van Onselen The chair of the Migration Council of Australia (MCA) and big business lobbyist for the Australian Industry Group (AIG), Innes Willox, repeatedly claims that Australian businesses are experiencing widespread skills shortages, and uses this claim to justify current mass immigration policy settings.

By Leith van Onselen In March last year, Transparency International ranked Australia as having the weakest anti-money laundering (AML) laws in the Anglosphere, failing all 10 priority areas. This followed the Paris-based Financial Action Taskforce’s (FATF) mutual evaluation report, which found Australian homes are a haven for laundered funds, particularly from China.

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.