The Pulse’s Ross Elliott has written an excellent article on the administrative bloat that has engulfed Australia’s planning industry. Elliott notes that lawyers he has spoken with told him “they didn’t really know how many [planning-related] pages of rules and regulations were now in force—just that it would be so many as to be impossible
The ferrous jaws may have partially closed, but a new problem is fast emerging: the price of steel amid weak demand. More profitable steel, or less loss-making steel, means more of it and lower prices, which leads to lower iron ore prices in a rinse-and-repeat cycle. ANZ has a new report that is worth considering
A new era has dawned in Japan with the reelection of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government. A Japan that is tough on China and strict on immigration has emerged, one that is unafraid of defending its interests both foreign and domestic. Prime Minister Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party won in an absolute landslide, securing a 10.77
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) February Statement of Monetary Policy (SoMP) forecast that trimmed mean inflation would rise in the near term to 3.7% and would remain above the midpoint of the RBA’s 2% to 3% target band until the end of 2028. The RBA also assumed that the official cash rate would rise
Silver surfed a massive wave, then wiped out. But it remains a long way above long-term prices. Is there a new paradigm for silver, or are we heading back to its long term real price of sub-$20? Background on metals pricing For most industrial metals, like iron or copper, the long-term commodity price is the
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) latest forecasts, contained in the February Statement of Monetary Policy (SoMP), show that real gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by just 1.6% in the year to June 2028. This is the central bank’s lowest medium-term growth outlook since it began releasing forecasts in 1990. Stephen Smith
Australia is currently receiving a large inflow of New Zealanders. New Zealand citizens are permitted to migrate to Australia using the Special Category visa (subclass 444), which allows them to live, work, and study there without needing to apply for a visa before arrival. New Zealand citizens with a valid New Zealand passport are automatically
The world’s most unpleasant nation, and the Albanese government’s best friend, has once again bared its fangs, not to mention its glass jaw. China’s largest steel maker has accused Australian rival InfraBuild of making baseless and self-serving claims to convince the Albanese government that substantial tariffs are needed on imported construction products. In attacking InfraBuild,
In late December, Melburnians were warned that they could soon face severe water restrictions following the steepest annual decline in water storage levels since the Millennium Drought. Melbourne’s water storages dropped from 86% to 75.1% in a single year—a fall of 239 billion litres—and authorities urged conservation measures and planning for new water sources, such
The ostensible problem with East Coast gas supply is that it has no competition. The real problem is that energy policymaking has no competition, so there is nobody to hold Albo’s energy butchers to account. Albo’s half-baked idea for gas reservation is so nebulous that states and regulators are now in crisis, trying to figure