Federal Treasury conducted a business liaison program in February and March, the findings of which were used to inform the Budget. A number of submissions to the program claimed that bans on plastic bags were hurting the $320 billion retail sector, as shoppers were less able to carry large amounts of groceries to their car
By Leith van Onselen When it comes to cruelty against the unemployed, it’s hard to top the Morrison Government. As the Budget heads back towards surplus, and with the Government pledging tens-of-billions of dollars for tax cuts, it refuses to lift Australia’s Newstart Allowance, which is about to fall to 30% below the poverty line:
There is no other way to put it than a complete sellout. The AFR is piling on the pressure: Senior Labor figures are leaning towards waving through the Morrison government’s full $158 billion income tax cut package but only after trying to split the legislation so the party can symbolically vote against relief for high
The AFR’s war on rate cuts took a new an ever more stupid turn on the weekend: Baby Boomers and Millennials are trading blows about who is responsible for deteriorating economic conditions that weaken their chances of home ownership or retirement security. Millennials allege profligate Boomers got a free kick from no university fees and
Via ANZ: The RBA seems to be in a hurry to get the cash rate lower. Following this week’s RBA Minutes and a speech by Governor Lowe, we have brought forward the expected rate cuts to July and August. It is our expectation that the combination of lower interest rates, a much flatter yield curve
By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) yesterday released its quarterly labour force report, which breaks-down employment at the industry level to May 2019. Below are some key charts, which present the changes in employment aggregates on a trend basis. First, the quarterly change in employment by industry: Next, the annual employment
By Leith van Onselen In the week ended 20 June 2019, the CoreLogic 5-city daily dwelling price index, which covers the five major capital city markets, rose by 0.09% – the first weekly rise since August 2018: Values fell across all major markets: So far in June, dwelling values have fallen by 0.16%, with all
Via the AFR: Westpac has unleashed a fresh wave of property lending by relaxing serviceability conditions on low risk home loans, immediately increasing the borrowing capacity of aspiring home owners by as much as 8 per cent. A spokesman for Westpac confirmed the policy change saying credit officers would now have the discretion to approve principal
Honestly, our regulators are the biggest pack of no-hopers, via the AFR: The psychologist inserted by the corporate regulator into boardroom discussions of more than 20 blue-chip companies including Qantas, Woolworths and AMP warns that Australia’s financial sector culture is broken. Elizabeth Arzadon, the regulator’s psychologist of choice, also warns that resistance by boards to
By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released its Australian Demographic Statistics for the December quarter of 2018, which revealed that Australia’s population continues to grow manically led by surging net overseas migration (NOM), mostly into Sydney and Melbourne. According to the ABS, Australia’s population rose by 1.6% in the 2018
By Leith van Onselen Robert Gottliebsen has hailed the gig economy as enabling many Australians from coping with the rising cost of living and avoiding going into mortgage arrears. Gotti has also cautioned against greater regulation of the gig economy: Australians have embraced the so-called gig economy with great enthusiasm and an incredible survey commissioned
By Leith van Onselen Australia’s apartment market is in crisis. On Christmas Eve, all residents at the 392-apartment Opal Tower high-rise were evacuated after serious cracking sent soundwaves across the complex. And then over the weekend, residents of a 12 year-old, 10-storey high-rise apartment complex in Mascot were evacuated after cracks were discovered in the foundation
Via Chris Uhlmann comes a rare voice of sanity: What is it that terrifies the people of Hong Kong about the Chinese Communist Party that eludes so many pliant Australian academics, business leaders and ex-politicians? In the same breath, some local cognoscenti lament the Australian government’s weakness in barely mentioning the troubles in the Chinese
Via the ABC comes Philip Gall, chair of the Owners Corporation Network. I write this piece as one of the lucky apartment owners. Lucky not because I managed to break into the apartment market, but because I survived it financially intact. In 2008 I purchased a two-bedroom apartment in a six-level complex near a good rail
Earlier this month, Auditor-Generals from Australia’s three largest states warned that Australia’s universities have become dangerously reliant on fees from international students, which have ballooned on the back of the massive rise in international student numbers, as shown below: As you can see, the number of international students studying in Australia has nearly doubled to
“Tiny homes are an Orwellian rebranding of the systematic exclusion of younger generations from home ownership”. What a great quote that is. What smart cookie came up with that? Some bloke named David Llewellyn-Smith on ABC radio yesterday. Full interview here: They should get him on more often.
The Communist Party of China has turned deeply irrational. We’ve seen it paint itself into a corner on a trade deal, massively overreach in Hong Kong and now it is readying to push the trade war into commodities. Via Zero Hedge: During a Monday press conference, the Chinese NDRC said it was developing new state
Trade war? No problem. Housing bubble is the answer. Monthly house price data for May had new house prices up an accelerating 0.7% and 10.7% year on year: The breadth is now nearly complete with 68 of 70 markets rising: Including some formerly constrained first tier markets: The raw data: Expect this to continue because,
Via the Lunatic just now: International Economic Conditions Members commenced their discussion by noting that the data on the global economy released since the previous meeting had been mixed. GDP growth outcomes for the March quarter in some economies had been slightly stronger than the second half of 2018, while labour markets had remained tight.
I don’t mind a bit of hope. But that’s different to the complete rot that the CSIRO pumped out today: The Australian National Outlook is a new initiative by CSIRO, which is intended to contribute to the evidence base and understanding required for Australia to navigate the complex and often intertwined challenges involved in achieving
In all the years following the CoreLogic daily dwelling values index, I can’t remember ever seeing wall-to-wall falls across all major markets on a daily, quarterly and annual basis: Certainly one to frame and put on display in the economic pool room.
Nothing makes my blood boil more than “tiny homes”. Whether it is the buyers or sellers of the sardine cans, acceptance of their existence represents a gigantic failure of the Australian political economy. Those Millennials that Domain so loves to quote as they gasp out a few words from diaphragms crushed between kitchen cabinet and bed,
Bitcoin is back: I won’t even pretend that this is sustainable. Nothing has changed for crypto in my book. It is as worthless and useless as ever. With the same inbuilt contradiction: that if it succeeds it can only fail, given it’s only purpose is subvert a fiat currency system that it does not control.
Via Domain: Gambling is the latest target of banks in the new world of mortgage lending, with many lenders now questioning betting habits great and small. Mortgage brokers are warning prospective home buyers who gamble to rethink their habits or risk being unable to borrow from most lenders. The increased scrutiny even extends to large
Via The Telegraph: The Chinese tech giant Huawei was compared to the company that produced the lethal gas for Nazi extermination camps, as one of its executives was probed by MPs. John Suffolk, the company’s Global Cyber Security and Privacy Officer, left MP’s frustrated as he was accused of refusing to answer “simple questions” when
So say some agent, at the AFR: The post-election housing euphoria has fizzled out into a state of “calm and caution”, with agents likening the market to a shaken can of Coke. “When you take a can a Coke, and shake it, it explodes and then starts to flatten out – that analogy is quite
On one side is the security agencies and Australian Defence Force on the other is other departments and the Parliament and they are in a fight to do the death. Last week we saw an unprecedented raid on Newscorp after it released secret papers relating to a push by the Australian Signals Directorate (the ADF
DXY was whacked Friday night and has broken its uptrend line (though not necessarily its up trend). EUR leaped. CNY was flat: The Australian dollar jumped to new highs above 0.7 cents but fell against the roaring EUR: It was flat against EMs: Gold firmed again: Oil too: But not metals: And miners were only
Australian employer groups frequently claim that a strong ‘skilled’ migration program is required to overcome perceived labour shortages – a view that is shared by Australia’s state and federal governments. However, the available data does not support their assertions. First, while Australia’s is said to run a ‘skilled’ migration program, the Productivity Commission’s (PC) 2016
By Leith van Onselen In September 2016, Developers Raman Shaqiri and Stefce Kutlesovski illegally demolished the two-story 1859 Corkman Irish Hotel in inner-city Carlton. The building was under heritage protection, and yet these cowboy developers bulldozed the hotel under the cover of darkness without planning permission. Last year, the same developers pleaded guilty to dumping asbestos
