In the years since pandemic-driven stimulus and ‘revenge spending’ began to feed out of the economy in the September quarter of 2022, Australia’s economy has, in headline terms, continued to grow decently enough. It’s hardly been stellar, with the economy achieving cumulative growth of just 4.63% since the June quarter of 2022, but the ‘Lucky
It is important to view Australia’s immigration policy in a historical context. In the first 60 years after World War 2, Australia’s net overseas migration (NOM) averaged 90,000 per annum, with only two years over that 60-year period recording a NOM of more than 150,000. In the 15 years of ‘Big Australia’ immigration leading up
I reported last week how New Zealand is facing an employment crisis. The official Q2 labour force survey from Stats NZ showed that New Zealand’s unemployment rate increased to 5.2% in the second quarter of 2025, up from 4.7% in Q2 2024. The underutilisation rate also rose by 3.5% over the year to 12.8%. As
Robert Gottiebsen at The Australian argues that the Coalition risks inciting deep animosity among a core part of its traditional supporter base, including farmers and shareholders. This cohort is being targeted by Labor’s proposed 30% tax on the unrealised capital gains of superannuation balances of more than $3 million. Gottliebsen believes that Labor would most
The latest benchmark revision from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, covering data up to March of this year, revealed that the U.S. economy created 911,000 fewer jobs than initially measured. While a downward revision was widely tipped by analysts, with the consensus estimate of 600,000 fewer jobs being created, the actual figure surprised significantly
Shortly before Britain went to the polls for the 2010 General Election, then Opposition Leader David Cameron released the Conservative Party’s manifesto, pledging to cut net migration into the U.K. from 200,000 people per year to “tens of thousands of people per year”. At the time, polling showed that immigration was the second most important
Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) last week showed that the combined recurrent spending of the federal and state governments rose by 7.7% in 2024-25, to $1.02 trillion. In contrast, government revenue increased by just 4% during the financial year. The increase in recurrent spending was driven by a number of factors.
The latest polling shows that support for the Susan Ley-led Coalition has collapsed. Newspoll shows that the Coalition’s primary vote has bombed to just 27%, well below Labor’s 36%. This marked the worst primary vote in Newspoll history. The Coalition’s two-party preferred vote has also plummeted to just 42%, down significantly from the 44.8% two-party
Australia already had the highest concentration of international students in the world before the pandemic hit. As illustrated below by Salvator Babones, an Associate Professor at Sydney University, Australia had more than twice as many international students as the United Kingdom as a share of its population and roughly three times as many as Canada
I have remarked many times how strange liquidity-fed markets have become. Iron ore is no exception. The anti-involution rally appears to have topped out with the opposite outcome of that intended. Steel prices have fallen while input prices have risen, killing profitability. That will only produce more deflation over the stretch as squashed margins meet