New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Luxon has announced that the general election will be held on 7 November 2026, with Parliament dissolving on 1 October. The announcement comes amid tight and volatile polling, with NZ First rising sharply, Labour gaining ground, but the National‑led coalition still ahead. Recent polls from RNZ–Reid Research and Roy Morgan show
The AUD has de-anchored. How high is it going to go? First, it is way overbought, so expect a pullback. More broadly, I put the surge down to five factors: Policy risk undermining the DXY. CNY and JPY on the rise. Local monetary tightening. Global growth experiencing an early-cycle rebound. The gold bull market. The
Aaaand it’s gone… The sinking hulk of Chinese property is now completely submerged and headed to the bottom with the worst start to the year that anybody can remember. There is a run for the exits. Senitiment is in the gutter. Completions have started poorly. This indicates a negative outlook for commodity demand. Inventories remain
Despite being the world’s largest coal exporter and the second-largest natural gas exporter, Australia is facing an energy-scarce future. Under the Albanese government’s 82% renewable energy target (RET), most of Australia’s existing coal fleet is required to close, to be replaced by roughly 6–7 GW of new large‑scale renewable generation per year (plus several gigawatts
Wednesday’s quarterly Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation print from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) printed hotter than expected, raising the likelihood that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will hike the official cash rate by 25 bps at next month’s monetary policy meeting. The headline CPI rose by 3.8% in the 12 months to
Kevin27 is here. Former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s potential pathway to achieve his longtime goal of becoming the United Nations’ top official is complicated by the fact that the organisation has stressed it would like a woman to take up the role and that a Latin American is favoured to claim the position. Prime Minister
Melbourne’s water storages have recorded their steepest annual decline since the Millennium Drought, driven by extreme dryness, record‑low inflows, and rising household demand. Melbourne’s storages dropped from 86% to 75.1% in a single year—a fall of 239 billion litres. Inflows from July 2024 to June 2025 were 36% below the 30‑year average, with January–June inflows being
Home of the fake left, The Guardian, should read this and weep. One Nation’s polling surge has continued with a record-high primary vote of 22% in the latest Guardian Essential poll off the back of ongoing Coalition chaos and rising social tensions. Meanwhile, there is widespread public support for the Labor government’s response to the Bondi
In the week before Christmas, the Albanese government unveiled their wet lettuce East Coast gas reservation policy, which will do little to enhance gas supply and lower prices. My biggest issue with the policy is that it would apply only to new gas projects beginning in 2027, and exporters would be required to set aside
The ferrous jaws must close! Scuttelbutt is bearish. More steel mills have started equipment maintenance in the run-up to the Lunar New Year holiday in February, dampening appetite for feedstocks including iron ore, analysts at broker Zhengxin Futures said in a note. Steelmakers in China typically conduct furnace maintenance during winter when demand weakens in