Master Builders Australia (MBA) claims that Australia’s immigration system is “severely broken” and needs to preference migrants in the construction trades if Australia is to meet its housing targets. MBA released its migration blueprint for the construction sector on Thursday and urged the government to adopt a simpler visa system with lower costs and faster
Data from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) revealed a record 11,049 corporate collapses in 2023–24: Persistent inflation, high interest rates, and the Australian Taxation Office pursuing tax debts were blamed for the 40% increase in corporate insolvencies in 2023–24. “The usual suspects of inflation, interest rates and sentiment are influencing insolvencies”, Ashurst restructuring
Property Council of Australia (PCA) CEO Mike Zorbas told a parliamentary inquiry that “build-to-rent is the missing piece of the Australian housing puzzle”, noting that Australia’s build-to-rent share of 0.2% was well below levels of 12% in the United States and 5% in the UK. Zorbas’ claim follows last year’s Ernest & Young report, commissioned by
Australia’s international education “industry” is a farce. Before the global pandemic hit in early 2020, Australia had the most extreme concentration of international students in the world, dwarfing other English-speaking nations: Source: Salvatore Babones (2019) Following the pandemic, international student enrolments ballooned to absurd levels, with 780,100 enrolments recorded as of April 2024, up from
Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that the average mortgage size had hit a record high of $636,600, matching the surge in home prices: Not surprisingly, new data compiled by Justin Fabo at Antipodean Macro shows that “Australian households devoted a record-high share of aggregate disposable income to scheduled housing loan repayments
Qingdao iron ore fell 1.4% to $96.15 yesterday. Shanghai rebar futures remain in free fall, SGX is far behind, only guaranteeing it must catch up to restore steel mill profitability: Dalian is breaking lower: Coking coal is wearing concrete boots: Scuttlebutt is instructive: Market talks that China’s top steelmaking hub Tangshan will impose stringent restrictions
Wall Street bounced back overnight on the latest initial jobless claims numbers were better than expected with the good news helping alleviate stress on risk markets. European shares were less sanguine however and failed to advance. USD was largely unchanged on the print as other macro concerns individually pushed the major currency pairs around with
Albert Edwards of Societe General on the tech shakeout. What just happened? Don’t look Ethel The FT’s ever-excellent Rob Armstrong sums up the current turmoil nicely in hisUnhedged column, arguing that the recent rout has been driven by a combination of: “The perception of increasing recession risk in the US The unwinding of the
DXY and EUR have been in a state of confused paralysis for 20 months. The market simply has no idea what is happening: AUD roared back with risk: North Asia went into hard reverse: Oil survives again: Copper lol: Miners are trending lower towards an iron ore cliff: EM is very confused: Junk spreads look
Earlier this week, MB revealed how Japan has declared war against the Greens’ plan to reserve East Coast gas for domestic use: Japan would be weakened economically and strategically, and Australia’s reputation as a reliable energy supplier would be shattered, if export gas was redirected to the domestic market as the Greens are demanding, Tokyo’s