Just as well, with the stimulus ending. GDP at 11.30

In the three months to June:

. Record $74 billion export income
. Largest trade surplus since 1970s
. Decade-low current account deficit

In July:

. Spending at cafés & restaurants up 8.5%
. Talk of "MasterChef effect"
. Building approvals up 2.3%
. House prices up 0.4% Read more »

Author: Parag Khanna, New America Foundation

The fate of the massive deposits of lithium recently discovered in Afghanistan is destined to be no different from that of landlocked Central Asia’s other natural resources: tapped by the West, and eventually controlled by the East.

Siberian timber, Mongolian iron ore, Kazakh oil, Turkmen natural gas and Afghan copper are already channeled directly to China through a newly built East-bound network that is fueling the rapid development of the world’s largest population. Read more »

(The miners have shut down Keep Mining Strong, but apparently it was touch and go - no bonanza to be shared)

A surge in mining income has driven Australia's trade surplus to an all-time high, beating the previous record by more $1 billion. Read more »

Price Pressure?

In the three months to June

Food and liquor + 1.2%
Household goods - 1.0%
Clothes and shoes - 1.6%
Department stores - 0.8%

Total retail prices + 0.1%

ABS 8501.0

The Reserve Bank has delivered the Gillard government a lower interest rate than it gave the Coalition in almost all of its eleven years in office. Read more »

Just as you praise a political party…

Christine Milne thinks we need a food security plan.

While people discuss the threat of obesity in the suburbs and in the seat of power, nobody talks about the threat of global food scarcity. No one in Government seems worried about where the world will source its food or the consequences of shortages. Few are concerned about land being bought by overseas interests, about farmers being driven from the land by low farm gate prices and trade rules which discriminate against Australian growers. In fact, the Labor government in its 2010-11 budget cut programmes for natural resource management and land stewardship in the face of climate change and peak oil.

Farmers are “being driven from the land by low farm gate prices”, and we should be worried about global food scarcity?

There’s a real discussion to be had about the sustainability of farming practices in Australia. But, please, Christine, leave the voodoo economics, catastrophism, and veiled xenophobia out of it.