Australian Economy

By Leith van Onselen Economist Tim Colebatch has joined the chorus debunking the Australian Treasury’s propaganda report supporting mass immigration.

By Leith van Onselen First it was MB.

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

By Leith van Onselen As summarised earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released its labour force report for March, which registered a 4,900 increase in total employment and a steady headline unemployment rate (still 5.5%).

Just in from The ABS: A soft report on the surface, with jobs growth and hours worked remaining weak.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday released its overseas short-term arrivals and departures figures for February, which continued to show a trend rise in the number of inbound visitors, with Chinese arrivals continuing to boom.

Via the AFR: State Labor governments are expected to support the Turnbull government’s National Energy Guarantee at Friday’s Council of Australian Governments energy council meeting, but are keen to ensure a future Labor government can increase carbon emission reduction targets.

Via Martin North: The latest Digital Finance Analytics Household Finance Confidence Index for March 2018 shows a further slide in confidence compared with the previous month.

Queen Lucy’s plan for a Sydney dystopia cops more flack from urban planner Chris Brown today: Nauseatingly, the plan boasts of “new thinking” that simply rehashes ideas borrowed from elsewhere.

From Westpac: The growth rate in the Leading Index remains in positive territory signalling above trend growth over much of the remainder of 2018.

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

By Leith van Onselen The luke warm recovery in skilled vacancies continues to plod along, according to the Department of Jobs and Small Business: Improving, but still nowhere near 2008 and 2011 levels.

This morning I was interviewed by Sydney Radio 2GB’s Michael McLaren where we discussed Treasury’s dodgy pro-immigration propaganda.

Via The Australian: Chinese students have defied unspecified ‘‘safety’’ warnings from their government amid fears of undue Chinese influence, flocking to Australia in larger numbers this year than ever before.

Via The Australian: “We’ve already seen what happens when states pursue different strategies, and it’s obvious we need a single, united approach,” ­Cement Concrete and Aggregates Australia chief executive Kim Slattery said.

By Leith van Onselen Michael Pascoe has ended his tenure at Fairfax with one final immigration spruik.

By Leith van Onselen One of the common arguments against ‘urban sprawl’ is that it endangers Australia’s food bowl – the food producing farms that sit beyond the urban fringe of our major cities.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Treasury has reportedly provided briefing to the Turnbull Government spruiking the economic benefits of mass immigration and warning against any cut to the migrant intake.