Australian Economy

By Leith van Onselen Business Council of Australia president and chief engineer of Australia’s LNG calamity, Grant King, has been quick to douse RBA Governor Phil Lowe’s call for workers to demand pay rises.

Maybe it will have to be revolution: The Turnbull government has put its bill to prevent worker exploitation on the backburner, delaying a vote until at least August – a full two years after the 7-Eleven wage scandal was exposed.

From The Herald Sun: A BOLD vision to transform Melbourne’s west with a $30 billion “super city” is nearing reality with the State Government to decide on the project within months.

The Naked CEO’s tentacles may spread far but so far as the AFR: Remember our Tuesday revelation that Professions Australia, which “welcomed” CPA’s “fiercely independent” review led by quondam Malley admirers, also has Malley’s direct report Adam Awty on its board?

Via The Australian: The Turnbull government is ­preparing to back the construction of new coal power stations to prevent a dangerous shortfall in electricity supplies, using “reverse auctions” to replace ageing coal-fired generators with new technology already embraced in Japan and China.

By Leith van Onselen It never ceases to amaze how the Coalition’s token changes to the ‘skilled’ temporary worker visa system can elicit so much outrage from company heads.

Morgan Stanley gets it: Merging three key Australian macro slowdown themes with our quantitative regional MOST stock selection model, we highlight our best stock ideas.

Via Macquarie: Media reports suggest Japanese steel mills have concluded 2Q contract met coal prices at $135 per tonne for PCI materials and $126 per tonne for semisoft coal, down from $180/t and $171/t respectively in 1Q.

The MacroBusiness moniker, Reynard the Fox, represents why the blog exists.

The AFR has one dodgy compass some days: Alex Malley had a choice: money or fame.

By Leith van Onselen The Victorian Liberal Party has continued its new found crusade against Melbourne’s break-neck population growth, releasing a blue print to divert population growth to the regions.

By Leith van Onselen Back in December 2015, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull launched his National Innovation and Science Agenda under much fanfare.

Fair dinkum, Phil, what is this?

From Phil Lowe today 2017 Crawford Australian Leadership Forum: Global Realities, Domestic Choices: Responding to a Digitalising, Deglobalising, Post-truth world: The central issue is: where does the future growth in the global and Australian economy come from?

By Leith van Onselen The Australian’s Adam Creighton has penned another thought-provoking piece questioning whether inflation is really as low as suggested by the official statistics: Australia’s ­official inflation rate, which has hovered between 1 and 2 per cent a year for the past few years, is trotted out as evidence of low inflation.

Australia now has the most expensive energy bills in the cosmos: Yet in terms of our resource endowment, we are probably closest to Norway on that chart.

By Leith van Onselen Anyone that lives in Melbourne will have experienced the crippling rise in congestion on our transport networks first hand.

So predictable: Rebel member Brett Stevenson said CPA’s response was a “complete whitewash” and repeated a call for Mr Malley and the remaining board members to step down, while UTS accounting professor Stephen Taylor said the board looked to be effectively overseeing a review into itself.

With seven directors gone, the remaining five have made a big decision: Alex Malley will retain his leadership of CPA Australia after the board appointed a three-person panel to conduct a “fiercely independent” review.

Cross-posted from The Conversation: Last year, Australia’s new cars were just 1.1% less polluting than the year before, according to a report released this week by the National Transport Commission.