Australian Economy

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) has released an interesting new report entitled Housing prices, household debt and household consumption, which examines the relationship between increasing housing prices (or housing wealth) and the increased consumption expenditure of households from before the GFC and afterwards.

By Leith van Onselen Fairfax’s Michael Pascoe penned a timely article yesterday explaining why ‘skilled’ temporary work visas will continue to be rorted by employers irregardless of the Turnbull Government’s recent reforms to the 457 visa system: …here’s how to rort the 457 temporary worker visa system and whatever the government renames it.

Congratulations to all: Households across the eastern states are about to be hit directly by the closure of the giant Hazelwood power station in Victoria and soaring gas prices, with sharp hikes in retail electricity prices from July 1 coming on top of the hefty increases in recent years.

Courtesy of your friend and mine Gerard Minack: Japan went 153 quarters without back-to-back GDP declines.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian’s Adam Creighton has penned a great post today questioning Australia’s fake growth record, which has seen it supposedly overtake Netherlands for the longest period without experiencing a ‘technical recession’: The reality is much less impressive: rapid population growth is responsible for Australia’s stellar economic growth run.

Let’s recall what the Budget said was going to happen to wages: The entire Budget repair agenda hangs on this recovery.

By Leith van Onselen Ever since the 7-Eleven migrant worker scandal broke in 2015, there has been a regular flow of stories emerging about the systemic abuse of Australia’s various migrant worker programs.

Via Domainfax: Felicity Emmett, ANZ: Some of the weakness in Q1 is likely to prove temporary, although a bounce in Q2 looks unlikely at this stage.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released the national accounts for the March quarter, which registered 0.3% growth in real GDP over the quarter and a 1.7% rise over the year.

By Leith van Onselen The notion that ‘skilled’ migration is required to overcome skills shortages is turning into another horrible rort, this time for accountants.

Running this blog and its forbears since 2009 has led to some deep insights into the Australian political economy.

From The Business last night: One small correction.

Changing the goal posts is what the housing obsessed Australia does best.

By Leith van Onselen Following today’s Fair Work Commission (FWC) decision to lift the minimum wage by 3.3%, employer groups are having a good old-fashioned sook.

Via AFR: A doubling in short-term gas prices on the east coast is taking a huge toll on demand from industrial users as they get priced out of the market and switch to other fuels or cut back use, according to an industry expert.

By Leith van Onselen The Guardian’s Greg Jericho has penned a well-argued piece today debunking Australia’s pending growth record, which will supposedly see Australia overtake the Netherlands’ record run without experiencing a technical recession: On Wednesday, the March GDP figures will mark 103 quarters without Australia’s GDP falling in two consecutive quarters.