Blogotariat

by Chris Becker The bounce continues across Asia with green across the board for stock markets as the USD rallies on the back of renewed vigor for interest rate rises. The Korean situation has eased in terms of tension, giving markets respite as they follow the great start to the week from transatlantic markets overnight.

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Meander Valley Council in Tasmania will sell a family’s home at public auction in three weeks unless they pay their overdue rates. This reluctant display of the authority of government illustrates the limits and strengths of land title in Australia. The Examiner explains: “The owners of Chudleigh’s Melita Honey Farm have less than three weeks […]

And Barnaby Joyce makes it five - the Section 44(i) imbroglio grows

After a low-wind month in June, July's high wind output means very little reliance on Victorian imports and lower exposure to high-priced gas in SA.

Listed New Zealand company Contact Energy Ltd (CEN) has gained Climate Bonds Certification of geothermal assets as part of its new Green Loan Borrowing Programme for NZD1.8bn.

Will Australia's large-scale renewable energy target be met on time? And what will happen if we move to a CET? Plus AGL's uncontroversial result; and crunching numbers on SolarReserve's Port August project.

Whom should electors be permitted to elect? And do our electoral laws discriminate against newer and smaller parties? When two minor party senators from the class of mid 2016 – Bob Day and Rod Culleton – were recently ruled by the High Court to be ineligible to be elected, those should have been the central questions. Instead, attention focused on the legal minutiae of the cases, and on their consequences for the parties.

Answering the “who” question, as I will argue, is simple. Electors should be able to elect any one of their own whom they choose. But first, to the minutiae of the cases.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released new motor vehicle sales for the month of July, which registered a 2.0% seasonally adjusted fall in the number of sales over the month but a 1.8% rise over the year: Six jurisdictions reported decreases in new car sales in July whereas two

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SolarReserve says its winning solar tower and molten salt storage project can deliver dispatchable, renewable power at just $78/MWh. Why so low?

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released visitor arrivals and departures data for the month of June, which registered another lift in annual net permanent and long-term arrivals, which remains at turbo-charged levels. In the year to June 2017, there were 742,810 permanent and long-term arrivals into Australia – up

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Via the Fed: The July jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics brought welcome news on wage growth: Median weekly earnings rose 4.2% on an annual basis, the fastest pace seen since 2007. The underlying story about wage growth may be even better than the headline number suggests, according to updated work by

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By Leith van Onselen Australia’s real estate treasurer, Scott Morrison, gave a poor interview on The Chris Smith Show yesterday, whereby he contorted arguments in favour of negative gearing and maintaining Australia’s mass immigration ‘Big Australia’ policy. First, here’s Morrison’s remarks around negative gearing (from 2.36): “One in five police officers negatively gear. About 62%

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Once difficult and expensive even for the most technologically advanced labs, genetic testing is fast becoming a cheap and easy consumer product. With a little spit and 200 dollars, you can find out your risk for everything from cystic fibrosis to lactose intolerance.