Australian Economy

What a mess the east coast energy market is.

By Leith van Onselen The Governance Institute of Australia has published its inaugural Ethics Index, which attempts to quantify the perception of the Australian adult population as to what they believe to be the actual level of ethical behaviour within Australian society.

I’m sure we all recall the heyday of John Howard when a fly could not pass by without the good PM making comment.

By Leith van Onselen The 2016 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey has been released, which provides a sombre read if you are a younger Australian.

By Leith van Onselen Deloitte Access Economics’ David Richardson believes the worst may be over for the WA economy.

By Leith van Onselen The Western Australian is reporting that high double-digit unemployment has hit parts of Perth: Pockets of metropolitan Perth have unprecedented, Depression-era levels of unemployment, with the jobless rate 25 per cent in some areas.

By Leith van Onselen Yesterday’s ABS labour force release for June revealed an ongoing deterioration in trend unemployment for those aged 15 to 24 years old, with unemployment rising for the fifth consecutive month to 12.7%, versus 4.3% unemployment for the rest of the labour market (see next chart).

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released new motor vehicle sales for the month of June, which registered a 3.1% seasonally adjusted jump in the number of sales and a 2.1% increase over the year, with ongoing strong trend growth in NSW reported.

By Leith van Onselen As summarised earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has today released its labour force report for June, which registered a 7,900 rise in total employment but a 0.1% rise in the headline unemployment rate to 5.8%.

Fresh from the ABS comes a mild miss for Labour Force: TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE) Employment increased 8,300 to 11,933,400.

By Leith van Onselen Just one month after the Turnbull Government abandoned a high-speed East Coast rail link, the project is back on the agenda, with Consolidated Land and Rail Australia (CLARA) Pty Ltd – an Australian private group – launching a long-term plan to deliver high speed rail between Sydney and Melbourne.

By Leith van Onselen Trade Minister Steve Ciobo has redoubled the Coalition’s pledge to “free” trade and investment, vowing to push ahead with more “free trade agreements” (FTAs) in this term of government.

By Leith van Onselen Ahead of the ABS’ labour force release later today, the latest Roy Morgan Research (RMR) unemployment estimate for June registered a 1.1% fall in unemployment to 9.6%, although the unemployment rate is still 0.3% higher than a year ago.

By Leith van Onselen Today’s Lending Finance data for May, released by the ABS, registered the 8th consecutive monthly decline in trend terms, taking total lending back to December 2014 levels.

By Martin North, cross-posted from the Digital Finance Analytics Blog: The Australian Financial Security Authority today released the personal insolvency activity statistics for the June quarter 2016.

From Westpac: • The Westpac Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment fell by 3% in July from 102.2 in June to 99.1 in July With the major events of ‘Brexit’ and prolonged election uncertainty it is not surprising to see a fall in the Index.

I typically do not like to question reliable data sources but when they depart from the obvious reality it is time to do so.

By Leith van Onselen It’s going to be a sad Christmas for automotive assembly workers, with Holden confirming that it will cease production on its Cruze small car on 7 October – the same day that Ford will shutter its Broadmeadows plant.

By Leith van Onselen Trade Minister Steve Ciobo has appealed to the business community to publicly support the Coalition’s policy of pursuing more “free trade agreements” (FTAs) as it seeks deals with Indonesia, India, and potentially the European Union.

The Australian’s Paul Kelly is on the the territory that matters for the new parliament: Moving our rating from stable to negative means the AAA credit rating may be lost this term.

By Leith van Onselen With Australia facing a downgrading of the sovereign AAA credit rating, Senator Nick Xenophon has called for the top marginal tax rate to be lifted to 50% to bolster the revenue side of the Budget.

By Leith van Onselen The Coalition has found a new scapegoat to blame for its poor election showing, blaming a so-called Labor “scare campaign” about foreign workers competing against local jobs.