Australia’s swarm of former PMs are pests but they are usually harmless. Not so Kevin Rudd, who is turning ANZUS into a circus. As we know, Dr Rudd has been admirably forthright about the flaws of Donald Trump over the years. This came with a certain amount of career risk, which is why it was
3.2% is the six-month annualised wage growth rate. The way markets and the press have responded to this, it might as well be 32%. But 3.2% is low, not high. It is plenty low enough to keep deflating service inflation, even without productivity gains. The secret to this was discovered in the last business cycle
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), published in The Australian, shows that 26,100 permanent positions have been added to the federal public service since Labor took office in May 2022. The annual public sector wages bill has risen from $32.5 billion in June 2022 to more than $37 billion, and the federal public
The Victorian government’s budget update shows that the state’s net debt is projected to exceed $188 billion by 2027–28. The update also reveals that the government’s Covid debt levies are expected to raise $529 million more over four years than had been forecast in the 2023 budget. The bloating of Victoria’s public service is a
Those hoping that Donald J. Trump was joking about tariffs are about to get a rude shock. President-elect Donald Trump’s former trade chief and those close to him are preparing to aggressively sell their plans for massive new tariffs on imports that will go far beyond anything seen in Trump’s first term. Robert Lighthizer, a
Last year, Treasurer Jim Chalmers was caught “misleading” about the growth in Australian full-time earnings by ABC Fact Check. In August 2024, Treasurer Chalmers was caught again lying about Australian wages. Following Wednesday’s soft Q3 wage data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Chalmers was at it again, spinning fairy tales about the recovery
As a capital city of worth, Canberra is a write-off. All it does is look after itself at everybody else’s expense. The budget is nothing more than an electoral box-ticking exercise. It grovels to corporations at the expense of the national interest. There is no reform of substance and no plan to improve living standards.
Tuesday’s monthly arrivals and departures figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that a record 393,874 people arrived in Australia on a net permanent or long-term basis in the first nine months of 2024. While net arrivals have slowed since March, the figures suggest that net overseas migration into Australia remains hot. Immigration
DXY is a SpaceX rocket. AUD broke its uptrend. With markets long the battler, there is nothing to stop it falling. As North Asia begins the competitive devaluation to defy Trump tariffs. Gold could/should crash in this environment. We’re gonna need more stimmies, Capt’! Miners flushed. EM lol. Junk is melancholy rather than scared. As
Wednesday’s wage price index data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) was weaker than expected, growing by 0.8% in Q3 and 3.5% year-on-year. The result was slightly lower than economists’ expectations of 0.9% growth in Q3 and 3.6% growth year-on-year. The following chart plots the growth in Australian wages in real inflation-adjusted terms against