Australian Economy

By Leith van Onselen Latrobe Financial has shamelessly plagiarised MB (see here and here) and twisted our arguments to spruik mass immigration and a ‘Big Australia’.

By Leith van Onselen The ABS has released its half-yearly Internet Activity report, which reported ongoing strong growth in data usage despite only a 3.6% six monthly increase in internet subscribers: There were 14.7 million internet subscribers in Australia at the end of June 2018.

By Leith van Onselen The Victorian Liberals population decentralisation gimmick has taken another step forward, with the announcement of a $19 billion regional fast rail project.

By Leith van Onselen Ian Harper is the latest mainstream economist to spruik the riches that supposedly come from Australia’s mass immigration ‘Big Australia’ policy: The Productivity Commission’s five-yearly review noted that 80 per cent of Australia’s output is produced in cities, and half of that comes from Sydney and Melbourne.

Via Domainfax: Upmarket chocolate and cafe chain Max Brenner’s Australian business has gone into voluntary administration, citing rising costs and sluggish retail trade.

Via AIG: The Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Services Index (Australian PSI® ) rose 0.3 points to 52.5 points (seasonally adjusted), indicating mild growth in September 2018.

Via The Australian: Australia’s housing downturn could spill into the broader economy and spark a negative wealth effect as the price weakness spreads to cheaper properties, Morgan Stanley analysts warned.

By Leith van Onselen In 2014, the Grattan Institute published a report entitled Mapping Australia’s economy: cities as engines of prosperity, which mapped the Australian economy by the location of economic activity, defined as the dollar value of goods and services produced by workers within a particular area.

Peter Hartcher wrote an excellent piece on the weekend: “The practitioners of the politics of resentment recognise one another,” writes [Francis] Fukuyama in his new book on identity politics, helpfully titled Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, to be published in Australia by Profile Books.

By Leith van Onselen Just days after Shane Geha urged policy makers to double immigration to magically “save our choking cities”, we’ve received more empirical evidence that 15 years of hyper immigration has been an abject failure with New GPS data showing congestion in Melbourne has continued to worsen.

By Leith van Onselen The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has released its debt ratios for the June quarter, which revealed that Australian households’ debt loads have hit another all-time high.

More good news here, via AIG: ▪ The Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index (Australian PMI® ) climbed 2.3 points to 59.0 points in September (seasonally adjusted), indicating faster growth across the manufacturing sector.

By Leith van Onselen Please find below MB’s monthly chart pack on the Australian economy for paid subscribers.

By Leith van Onselen Australia’s new Immigration Minister, David Coleman, continues to deploy the Coalition’s ‘migrants to the bush’ smokescreen, flagging a revamp of regional visas because Australia’s regions are apparently “begging for migrants”.

By Leith van Onselen Anybody with half a brain knows that you don’t treat diabetes by doubling your sugar intake, and you don’t treat alcoholism by doubling alcohol consumption.

Via the AFR today: Leading retailers like Premier Investments are threatening an avalanche of store closures unless landlords reduce rents as $2 billion a year in sales – equivalent to the annual turnover at Chadstone, Australia’s largest shopping mall – shift from bricks and mortar to online.