Australian Economy

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.

Via Credit Suisse: Fantastic headlines Employment came in well above expectations, rising by 42K in May, with upward revisions to prior months’ data.

By Leith van Onselen Yesterday’s labour force release from the ABS revealed that Western Australia’s unemployment rate fell sharply, falling from 5.9% in April to 5.5% in May – the second lowest unemployment rate in the nation:   This has left some pundits questioning the veracity of the data.

By Leith van Onselen Business groups really are hypocrites.

Exclusively from Gerard Minack.

By Leith van Onselen Yesterday’s ABS labour force release for May revealed marginally better news for those aged 15 to 24 years old that are looking for a job.

Brace yourself, the following is not happy reading.

Via the AFR: Three more directors resigned from the board of CPA Australia on Thursday meaning the board no longer has enough members to make decisions.

From the AFR: Two more directors resigned from the board of CPA Australia Thursday, upset over the refusal of the board to stand down chief executive Alex Malley.

By Leith van Onselen As summarised earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released its labour force report for May, which registered a 42,200 increase in total employment and a 0.2% decline in the headline unemployment rate to 5.5%.

The ABS has released May Labour Force and the news is boom, baby, boom (vs 10k expected): SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE) Employment increased 42,000 to 12,152,600.

Yep. Via Morgan Stanley: We had argued that the gap between upbeat business confidence and poor consumer spirits might close to the downside, and this week we saw both fall. The AUD has been resilient, but we position for further downside by adding Janus Henderson (JHG) to our Model Portfolio.

By Leith van Onselen Last week’s national accounts release for the March quarter confirmed that Australia’s FIRE economy – Finance, Insurance and Rental, Hiring & Real Estate Services – continues to eat its host, surging to a new record high (12.0%) share of the Australian economy (see next chart).

Via Domainfax: The Australian government has agreed to compensate 1900 asylum seekers currently or formerly held at the Manus Island detention centre, in what may be Australia’s largest ever human rights-related settlement.

From Westpac: Consumer sentiment fell again in June The Westpac–Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index decreased for the third consecutive month, by 1.8 per cent in June following decreases of 1.1 per cent in May and of 0.7 per cent in April, indicating that consumers in Australia are becoming less optimistic.

By Leith van Onselen The Coalition and Labor continue to war over the Turnbull Government’s announced changes to Australia’s citizenship test.

From Treasurer Morrison: Treasurer Scott Morrison has warned the federal government can’t continue with existing energy policy because it’s hurting families and the economy.

By Leith van Onselen This site has often questioned the merits of Australia’s demand-driven university system, which is producing far too many graduates for the economy to digest, costing both students and the Budget a fortune.

By Leith van Onselen The March quarter national accounts was a sobering experience for Australian workers.

The AFR socked it CPA yesterday: Imagine an ASX listed company replacing direct board elections with an “owners’ council” where shareholders elect representatives who then in turn elect half the members of this council, while the board appoints the other half.

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