Former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr plans to sue New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters over controversial remarks made on radio during a recent debate over the Advanced Nuclear Weapons Enhanced Cooperation (AUKUS) pact. Peters was interviewed about New Zealand’s position on AUKUS and accused Carr of closeness with China. The comments were not
Say what you will about Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. However, Pauline Hanson’s Please Explain is the best political satire in the country. In the latest instalment, Please Explain argues that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is addicted to immigration. Immigration Junkies | Pauline Hanson’s Please Explain Admitting you have a problem is the first step to
I have argued repeatedly that the official Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) unemployment rate of 3.8% flies in the face of broader labour market data and the per capita recession afflicting the economy. Most notable among these is the surge in the number of applicants per job ad recorded by Seek, which historically would correspond
The Albanese government has set a five-year goal of building 1.2 million homes, commencing on July 1 of this year. To reach this goal, Australia needs to build 60,000 homes per quarter, or 240,000 dwellings every year for five years in a row. The following chart compares Labor’s housing target with Australia’s historical dwelling completions:
By Stephen Saunders Albanese’s population and environment policies riff on UN policy. His Made in Australia launch seems to propose a similar template for industry. For an arid continent in the far south seas, it’s a staggering policy distortion. There were probably one million migrants, net, in two years of government. This is about 350,000
DXY is fading again: AUD firmed gain: JPY shorts are getting squeezed: The oil headfake is over: Taking down metals: Miners eked out gins with stocks: EM is poised for breakout: Junk is stabilising: Yields rolled”: Giving life to stocks: A sequence of events has taken the wind out of the “no landing” panic sails
US markets rebounded on late tech earnings and an expected lift in factory orders, with European shares returning from their mid week holiday under the fear that a June ECB rate cut may not be on the cards. The USD remains somewhat muted with Euro and Pound Sterling lifting overnight while the recent interventions in
The PBOC first quarter survey is a doozy. Below is a summary of the main conclusions I drew from the surveys. According to PBOC bankers’ poll, loan demand increased in the first quarter, and banks anticipate more supportive monetary policy in the following one. The Q1 2024 business conditions worsened, according to a study of
Rental inflation remained hot across the major capital city markets, according to SQM Research’s latest asking rents series: This surge in rents comes amid the sharp decline in rental vacancy rates following record net overseas migration: Research from CBA shows that rental inflation correlates directly with the ratio of population increase to apartment construction: So
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) may have increased official interest rates by less than other advanced nations: However, this hasn’t stopped Australian households from experiencing one of the sharpest increases in mortgage repayments in the world: Australian households have seen their principal and interest debt repayments soar over the past two years: Only Norwegian